ible, that he
might make his retreat with the more expedition." To which Themistocles
answered: "If this be requisite, we must immediately use all diligence,
art, and industry, to rid ourselves of him as soon as may be;" and to
this purpose he found out among the captives one named Arnaces, whom he
sent to the king, to inform him that the Greeks, being now victorious
by sea, had decreed to sail to the Hellespont, where the boasts were
fastened together, and destroy the bridge; but that Themistocles, being
concerned for the king, revealed this to him, that he might hasten
toward the Asiatic seas, and pass over into his own dominions; and
in the meantime would cause delays, and hinder the confederates
from pursuing him. Xerxes no sooner heard this than, being very much
terrified, he proceeded to retreat out of Greece with all speed. The
prudence of Themistocles and Aristides in this was afterward more fully
understood at the battle of Plataea, where Mardonius, with a very small
fraction of the forces of Xerxes, put the Greeks in danger of losing
all.

Herodotus writes that, of all the cities of Greece, Aegina was held to
have performed the best service in the war; while all single men
yielded to Themistocles, though, out of envy, unwillingly; and when they
returned to the entrance of Peloponnesus, where the several commanders
delivered their suffrages at the altar, to determine who was most
worthy, every one gave the first vote for himself and the second for
Themistocles. The Lacedaemonians carried him with them to Sparta, where,
giving the rewards of valor to Eurybiades, and of wisdom and conduct to
Themistocles, they crowned him with olive, presented him with the best
chariot in the city, and sent three hundred young men to accompany him
to the confines of their country. And at the next Olympic games, when
Themistocles entered the course, the spectators took no further notice
of those who were competing for the prizes, but spent the whole day
in looking upon him, showing him to the strangers, admiring him, and
applauding him by clapping their hands, and other expressions of joy, so
that he himself, much gratified, confessed to his friends that he then
reaped the fruit of all his labors for the Greeks.

He was, indeed, by nature, a great lover of honor, as is evident from
the anecdotes recorded of him. When chosen admiral by the Athenians, he
would not quite conclude any single matter of business, either public or
priv