CHAPTER VII.
The Advice of Demaratus to Xerxes .-- Themistocles .-- Actions off Artemisium .-- The Greeks retreat .-- The Persians invade Delphi, and are repulsed with great Loss .-- The Athenians, unaided by their Allies, abandon Athens, and embark for Salamis .-- The irresolute and selfish Policy of the Peloponnesians .-- Dexterity and Firmness of Themistocles .-- Battle of Salamis .-- Andros and Carystus besieged by the Greeks .-- Anecdotes of Themistocles .-- Honours awarded to him in Sparta .-- Xerxes returns to Asia .-- Olynthus and Potidaea besieged by Artabazus .-- The Athenians return Home .-- The Ostracism of Aristides is repealed.
I.

After the victory of Thermopylae, Demaratus advised the Persian monarch to despatch a detachment of three hundred vessels to the Laconian coast, and seize the Island of Cythera, of which a Spartan once (foreseeing how easily hereafter that post might be made to command and overawe the Laconian capital) had said, "It were better for Sparta if it were sunk into the sea." The profound experience of Demaratus in the selfish and exclusive policy of his countrymen made him argue that, if this were done, the fears of Sparta for herself would prevent her joining the forces of the rest of Greece, and leave the latter a more easy prey to the invader.
The advice, fortunately for the Greeks, was overruled by Achaemenes.
Meanwhile the Grecian navy, assembled off Artemisium, was agitated by divers councils.

Beholding the vast number of barbarian ships now collected at Aphetae, and the whole shores around swarming with hostile troops, the Greeks debated the necessity of retreat.
The fleet was under the command of Eurybiades, the Spartan.

For although Athens furnished a force equal to all the rest of the allies together, and might justly, therefore, have pretended to the command, yet the jealousy of the confederates, long accustomed to yield to the claims of Sparta, and unwilling to acknowledge a new superiority in another state, had induced the Athenians readily to forego their claim.

And this especially at the instance of Themistocles.