BATTLE OF SALAMIS.- RETREAT OP XERXES. HI the rest to some place of refuge, — together with as much prop- erty as the case admitted. So complete was the desertion of the country, that the host of Xerxes, when it became master, could not seize and carry oflf more than five hundred prisoners.' More- over, the fleet itself, which had been brought home from Artemi- sium partially disabled, was quickly repaired, so that, by the time the Persian fleet arrived, it was again in something like fighting condition. The combined fleet which had now got together at Salamis consisted of three hundred and sixty -six ships, — a force far greater than at Artemisium. Of these, no less than two hundred were Athenian ; twenty among which, however, were lent to the Chalkidians, and manned by them. Forty Corinthian ships, thirty -i3Eginetan, twenty Megarian, sixteen Lacedasmonian, fif- teen Sikyonian, ten Epidaurian, seven from Ambrakia, and as many from Eretria, five from Troezen, three from Hermione, and the same number from Leukas ; two from Keos, two from Styra, and one from Kythnos ; four from Naxos, despatched as a contingent to the Persian fleet, but brought by the choice of their captains and seamen to Salamis ; — all these triremes, together with a small squadron of the inferior vessels called pentekonters, made up the total. From the great Grecian cities in Italy there appeared only one trireme, a volunteer, equipped and commanded by an eminent citizen named Phayllus, thrice victor at the Pythian games.^ The entire fleet was thus a trifle larger than the combined force, three hundred and fifty-eight ships, collected by the Asiatic Greeks at Lade, fifteen years ear- lier, during the Ionic revolt. We may doubt, however, whether this total, borrowed from Herodotus, be not larger than that which actually fought a little afterwards at the battle of Salamis, and which j3^schylus gives decidedly as consisting of three hun- dred sail, in addition to ten prime and chosen ships. That great poet, himself one of the combatants, and speaking in a drama represented only seven years after the battle, is better authority on the point even than Herodotus.^ ' Herodot. ix, 99. ^ Herodot. viii, 43-48.
- -Sschylus, Persse, 347 ; Herodot. viii, 48 ; vi, 9 ; Pausanias, i, 14, 4.
The total which Herodotus announces is three hundred and seventy-eight ;
