The histories of Herodotus;

74-76] BATTLE OF SALAMIS 465
last their discontent broke out openly, and a council was
called, and much was said on the same subject. Some said
that they ought to sail for the Peloponnesus, and hazard a
battle for that, and not stay and fight for a place already taken
by the enemy ; but the Athenians, ^ginetse, and Megareans,
that they should stay there and defend themselves. Thereupon
Themistocles, when he saw his opinion was overruled
by the Peloponnesians, went secretly out of the council; and
having gone out, he despatched a man in a boat to the en-
campment of the Medes, having instructed him what to say
his name was Sicinnus ; and he was a domestic, and preceptor
to the children of Themistocles ; him, after these events, Themistocles
got made a Thespian, when the Thespians augmented
the number of their citizens, and gave him a compe-
tent fortune. He, then, arriving in the boat, spoke as follows
" The general of the Athe-
to the generals of the barbarians :
nians has sent me unknown to the rest of the Greeks (for he is
in the interest of the king, and wishes that your affairs may
prosper, rather than those of the Greeks) to inform you that
the Greeks in great consternation are deliberating on flight;
and you have now an opportunity of achieving the most glorious
of all enterprises if you do not suffer them to escape. For
they do not agree among themselves, nor will they oppose
you; but you will see those who are in your interest, and
those who are not, fighting with one another." He having
delivered this message to them, immediately departed. As
these tidings appeared to them worthy of credit, in the first
place, they landed a considerable number of Persians on the
little island of Psyttalea, lying between Salamis and the continent;
and, in the next place, when it was midnight, they
got their western wing under way, drawing it in a
toward Salamis, and those who were stationed about
circle
Ceos
and Cynosura got under way and occupied the whole passage
as far as Munychia, with their ships. And for this reason
they got their ships under way, that the Greeks might have
no way to escape, but being shut up in Salamis, might suffer
punishment for the conflicts at Artemisium ; and they landed
the Persians at the little island of Psyttalea for this reason,
that, when an engagement should take place, as they expected
most part of the men and wrecks would be driven thither
(for that island lay in the strait where the engagement was
likely to take place), they might save the one party, and destroy
the other. But these things they did in silence, that
the enemy might not know what was going on. They therefore
made these preparations by night, without taking any rest.
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