by its inhabitants to the Athenians. It was in vain that he offered a sum of one hundred talents as compensation to the treasury of Protesilaus, and a farther sum of two hundred tal- ents to the Athenians as personal ransom for himself and his son. So deep was the wrath inspired by his insults to the sacred ground, that both the Athenian commander Xanthippus and the citizens of Ela^us disdained everything less than a severe and even cruel personal atonement for the outraged Protesilaus. Artayktes, after having first seen his son stoned to death before his eyes, was hung up to a lofty board fixed for the purpose, and left to perish, on the spot where the Xerxeian bi-idge had been fixed.[1] There is something in this proceeding more Oriental than Grecian : it is not in the Grecian character to aggravate death by artificial and lingering preliminaries.
After the capture of Sestus, the Athenian fleet returned home with their plunder, towards the commencement of winter, not omitting to carry with them the vast cables of the Xerxeian bridge, which had been taken in the town, as a trophy to adorn the acropolis of Athens.[2]
- ↑ Herodot. ix, 118, 119, 120. (
Greek characters)
- ↑ Herodot. ix, 121. It must be either to the joint Grecian armament of this year, or to that of the former year, that Plutarch mitst intend his celebrated story respecting the proposition of Themistokles, condemned by Aristeides, to apply (Plutarch, Themistokles, c. 20; Ai-isteides, c. 22). He tells us that the Greek fleet was all assembled to pass the winter in the Thessalian harbor of Pagasse, when Themistokles formed the project of burning all the other Grecian ships except the Athenian, in order that no city except Athens might have a naval force. Themistokles, he tells us, intimated to the people, that he had a proposition, very advantageous to the state, to communicate ; but that it could not be publicly proclaimed and discussed : upon which they desired him to mention it privately to Aris- teides. Themistokles did so : and Aristeides told the people, that the project was at once eminently advantageous and not less eminently unjust. Upon which the people renounced it forth'ith, without asking what it was. Considering the gi-eat celebrity which this story has obtained, some allu- sion to it was necessary, though it has long ceased to be received as matter of history. It is quite inconsistent with the nan-ative of Herodotus, as well as with all the conditions of the time : Pagasse was Tliessalu.n, and as such hostile to the Greek fleet rather than otherwise : the fleet seems to have never been there : moreover, we may add, that taking matters as they then
