Herodotus - The Histories.pdf

The Histories–Book Eight V 49
Assuredly ye will not do wisely to draw the
Persians upon that region. For if things turn out
as I anticipate, and we beat them by sea, then we
shall have kept your Isthmus free from the barbarians,
and they will have advanced no further
than Attica, but from thence have fled back in disorder;
and we shall, moreover, have saved
Megara, Egina, and Salamis itself, where an oracle
has said that we are to overcome our enemies.
When men counsel reasonably, reasonable success
ensues; but when in their counsels they reject reason,
God does not choose to follow the wanderings
of human fancies.”
When Themistocles had thus spoken, Adeimantus
the Corinthian again attacked him, and bade him
be silent, since he was a man without a city; at the
same time he called on Eurybiades not to put the
question at the instance of one who had no country,
and urged that Themistocles should show of
what state he was envoy, before he gave his voice
with the rest. This reproach he made, because the
city of Athens had been taken, and was in the
hands of the barbarians. Hereupon Themistocles