BATTLES OF THERMOPYL^ AND ARTEMISIUJI. 79 the vast host of Xerxes was at length understood to be approach- ing, that a panic terror seized them ; and the Peloponnesian troops especially, anxious only for their own separate line of defence at the isthmus of Corinth, wished to retreat thither forthwith. The indignant remonstrances of the Phocians and Lo- krians, who would thus have been left to the mercy of the invader, induced Leonidas to forbid this retrograde movement: but he thought it necessary to send envoys to the various cities, insisting on the insufficiency of his numbers, and requesting immediate reinforcements.! So painfully were the consequences now felt, of having kept back the main force until after the religious festi- vals in Peloponnesus. Nor was the feeling of confidence stronger at this moment in their naval armament, though it had mustered in far superior numbers at Artemisium on the nortliern coast of Euboea, under the Spartan Eurybiades. It was composed as follows : one hun- dred Athenian triremes, manned in part by the citizens of Plataea, in spite of their total want of practice on shipboard ; forty Corin- thian, twenty Megarian, twenty Athenian, manned by the inhab- itants of Chalkis, and lent to them by Athens ; eighteen Mg[- netan, twelve Sikyonian, ten Lacedsemonian, eight Epidaurian, seven Eretrian, five Troezenian, two from Styrus in Euboea, and two from the island of Keos. There were thus in all two hun- dred and seventy-one triremes ; together with nine pentekonters, furnished partly by Keos and partly by the Lokrians of Opus. Themistokles was at the head of the Athenian contingent, and Adeimantus of the Corinthian ; of other officers we hear nothino-.2 Three cruising vessels, an Athenian, an -^ginetan, and a Troeze- nian, were pushed forward along the coast of Thessaly, beyond the island of Skiathos, to watch the advancing movements of the Persian fleet from Therma. It was here that the first blood was shed in this memorable contest. Ten of the best ships in the Persian fleet, sent forward in the direction of Skiathos, fell in with these three Grecian tri- remes, who probably supposing them to be the precursors of the ' Herodot. vii, 207.
- Herodot. viii, 1, 2, 3. Diodorus (xi, 12^ makes the Athenian numbei
stronger by twenty ti-iremes.
