fore long their numberless
vessels, packed closely together in a restricted space, begin to hamper
each other's movements, and their rams of brass collide; whole rows of
oars are broken." The Greek vessels, lighter and easier to manoeuvre
than those of the Phoenicians, surround the latter and disable them in
detail. "The surface of the sea is hidden with floating wreckage and
corpses; the shore and the rocks are covered with the dead." At length,
towards evening, the energy of the barbarians beginning to flag, they
slowly fell back upon the Piraeus, closely followed by their adversaries,
while Aristides bore down upon Psyttalia with a handful of Athenians.
"Like tunnies, like fish just caught in a net, with blows from broken
oars, with fragments of spars, they fall upon the Persians, they tear
them to pieces. The sea resounds from afar with groans and cries of
lamentation. Night at length unveils her sombre face" and separates the
combatants.*

* AEschylus gives the only contemporaneous account of the
battle, and the one which Herodotus and all the historians
after him have paraphrased, while they also added to it oral
traditions.

[Illustration: 233.jpg PART OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF SALAMIS]

The advantage lay that day with the Greeks, but hostilities might
be resumed on the morrow, and the resources of the Persians were so
considerable that their chances of victory were not yet exhausted.
Xerxes at first showed signs of wishing to continue the struggle; he
repaired the injured vessels and ordered a dyke to be constructed,
which, by uniting Salamis to the mainland, would enable him to oust the
Athenians from their last retreat. But he had never exhibited much zest
for the war; the inevitable fatigues and dangers of a campaign were
irksome to his indolent nature, and winter was approaching, which he
would be obliged to spend far from Susa, in the midst of a country
wasted and trampled underfoot by two great armies. Mardonius, guessing
what was passing in his sovereign's mind, advised him to take advantage
of the fine autumn weather to return to Sardes; he proposed to take over
from Xerxes the command of the army in Greece, and to set to work to
complete the conquest of the Peloponnesus. He was probably glad to
be rid of a sovereign whose luxurious habits were a hindrance to his
movements. Xerxes accepted his proposal with evident satisfaction,
and summarily despatching his vessels to the Hellespont t