“This is the stone statue” Cambridge Ancient History 4, p. 263. National Museum of Iran.
“What is right, that is my desire” DNb 8b (11–5).
The small boy crawled The account here of the mines at Laurium is drawn from Green, Greco, pp. 53–55, and French, p. 78. Tunnels have been excavated by archaeologists. Child labor is deduced from their size.
“since time immemorial” Xen Vect 4 2.
“The fox knows many things” Zenobius 5 68.
the seat of government should be moved Thuc 1 93 7.
“deprived the Athenians of the spear” Plato Laws 4 706. Also Plut Them 4 3.
“fountain of silver” Aesch Pers 238.
two hundred triremes Her 7 144. Plut Them 4 2 and Arist Ath Pol 22 7 say “one hundred,” but the higher figure was reached by the time of the Persian invasion.
The trireme (“triple-rower”) For more on this warship, see Morrison, Coates, and Rankov.
glorified racing eight W. W. Tarn, Hellenistic Military and Naval Developments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930), p. 124.
a daily rate of one drachma This seems to have been the going wage at the end of the fifth century.
He made a point of refusing The two anecdotes in this paragraph can be found in Plut Arist 4 1–2.
Stesilaus of the island of Ceos Ibid., 2 2–3.
the weapon of ostracism Arist Ath Pol 22.
treasure trove of more than eleven thousand ostraca Burn, p. 605.
“ ‘Athens, the mighty city!’ ” Pindar Pyth 7 1–5 and 15.
an illiterate farm worker Plut Arist 7 5–6.
10. INVASION
Herodotus is the primary source, with support from Plutarch’s lives of Themistocles and Aristides; also from Diodorus Siculus.
a magnificent plane tree Her 7 31 and Ael 2 14.
gardening before dinner Xen Oec 4 20–25.
“Europe is a very beautiful place” Her 7 5 3.
generous donor to the Achaemenid cause Ibid., 7 38–39.
The procession of men Ibid., 40–41 and 83.
the Immortals This is the term Herodotus gives. He may have confused the Persian for “companion” with that for “immortal.” There is no reason to disbelieve the recruitment policy given.
absurdly inflated numbers I rely on the discussion at Green, Greco, pp. 58–61, which itself is indebted to Burn, pp. 326–32.
Xerxes assembled 1,700,000 For Herodotus’s calculations, see Her, 7 184–87.
eunuchs, female cooks, concubines Her 7 187 1.
“What body of water” Ibid., 7 21.
So far as the fleet was concerned Ibid., 7 89–99.
unhinged rage Ibid., 7 35.
legendary young Leander He still lives in Christopher Marlowe’s poem Hero and Leander.
review of his land and sea forces Her 7 44–49.
Xerxes congratulated himself Ibid., 7 45–53 for the conversation between the Great King and his uncle.
“You are doomed. Why sit around?” Ibid., 7 140 1–3.
“Zeus the all-seeing” and “O divine Salamis” Ibid., 7 141 3. It is unclear whether there were two separate trips to Delphi to consult the oracle and if there were whether they took place in 481 or 480. I opt for one trip and 481, and believe that the debate in the ecclesia about evacuating Attica was held in 480. But these are best guesses.
heavier and less maneuverable Ibid., 8 10 and 60a.
“The greatest of all his achievements” Plut Them 6 3.
“They considered the survival of Hellas” Her 8 3 1.
Eurybiades was in charge Ibid., 8 2, Diod 11 12 4.
The sacred snake Her 8 41 2–3.
“The god [Apollo] had spoken” Bury, p. 246.
“After their deliberations about the oracle” Her, 7 144 3.
“guarding the possessions of the gods’ ” and “starting tomorrow” Meiggs and Lewis, p. 23. In 1959 an inscription purporting to be the Decree of Themistocles was discovered at Troezen. It was inscribed in the third or possibly late fourth centuries B.C. and some scholars think it is an untrustworthy fake. More probably it is a pulling together of authentic decisions taken in 480 and announced by the ecclesia.
Dogs howled Ael Ar 46 p. 257 DK.
his hound plunged Plut Them 10 6.
“what the city now needed” Plut Cim 5 2–3.
a few obstinate old men Paus 1 18 2.
“So tell me,” Xerxes asked him For this conversation, see Her 7 103–4. If it is fictional, we may suppose that it broadly expresses Persian attitudes.
11. “THE ACTS OF IDIOTS”
Again, the classic stories of the battles of Artemisium and Thermopylae are mainly as told by Herodotus 7 175-8 1–21 and 7 200–233. Diodorus Siculus supports.
strange smell See Green, Greco, p. 114.
hot, sulfurous springs Her 7 176.
“The bluest water” Paus 4 35 9.
“man much concerned with his courage” Diod 11 4 2.
a force of four thousand men I follow Burn, pp. 378–79, in his interpretation of Herodotus’s numbers.
sunken ship The shipwreck may have been Roman—perhaps carrying loot from the sack of Corinth in 146 B.C. The statue dates from about 460 B.C.
lost “at the lowest estimate” Her 7 190.
stripped naked for exercise Ibid., 7 208 2.
“The truth, namely” Ibid., 7 209 1.
“Hand over your weapons!” Plut Sayings Spartans Leonidas 11.
“Have a quick breakfast” Ibid., 8 2, Diod 11 9 4.
“Many of the barbarians fell” Her 7 223 3–224 1.
Eurybiades lost his nerve Ibid., 8 4.
fight on purpose like cowards Her 8 222.
“They learned from their own achievements” Plut Them 8 1–2.
12. “O DIVINE SALAMIS”
Herodotus is the main source; also Plutarch’s lives of Aristides and Themistocles. For the battles of Salamis and Plataea, I rely on Burn and Green, Greco.
oracle at Delphi Her 8 27–39, Diod 11 14.
The news was received Her 8 99 1.
Xerxes paid it a personal visit Ibid., 8 67–69.
“The Greeks will not be able to hold out” Ibid., 8 68 2.
A very similar debate, in reverse For the discussions that follow, ibid., 8 49–50, 56–63.
“If you do not remain here” Ibid., 8 62 1.
A day passed The passage of time is unclear in the sources and some modern scholars argue that as many as three weeks of inactivity followed the Persians’ arrival before the Battle of Salamis was fought.
“I have been sent” Her 8 75 2–3.
The narrows of Salamis describe a semicircle There is scholarly disagreement on where various place-names should be located. The ancient sources are confused about the course of the battle. My reconstruction is indebted to Burn and Green, Greco, but its basic narrative follows N. G. L. Hammond in Cambridge Ancient History, 5 pp. 569–88, although I do not agree with him that Psyttaleia is Saint George island but, rather, today’s Lipsokoutali.