HERODOTUS

BOOK VIII. 49-51were masters ;of Attica they had no more hope ;itwas among other places that he bade them judge.Then the opinion of most of the speakers tended tothe same conclusion, that they should sail to theIsthmus and do battle by sea for the safety of thePeloponnese, the reason which they alleged beingthis, that if they were defeated in the fight atSalamis they would be beleaguered in an island,where no help could come to them ;but off theIsthmus they could win to their own coasts.50. While the Peloponnesian captains held thisargument, there came a man of Athens, bringingnews that the foreigner was arrived in Attica, andwas wastingit all with fire. For the army whichfollowed Xerxes through Boeotia had burnt thetown of the Thespians (who had themselves leftit and gone to the Peloponnese) and Plataea likewise,and was arrived at Athens, laying waste all thecountry round. They burnt Thespia and Plataeabecause they learnt from the Thebans that thosetowns had not taken the Persian part.51. Now after the crossing of the Hellespontwhence they began their march, the foreigners hadspent one month in their passage into Europe,and in three more months they arrived in Attica,Calliades being then archon at Athens. There theytook the city, then left desolate ;but they found inthe temple some few Athenians, temple-stewardsand needy men, who defended themselves againstthe assault by fencing the acropolis with doors andlogs these had not withdrawn to; Salamis, partlyby reason of poverty, and also because they supposedthemselves to have found out the meaning of theDelphic oracle that the wooden wall should be47