Had the Athenians been panic-struck by the threatened peril and left their own country, or had they not indeed left it but remained and surrendered themselves to Xerxes, none would have attempted to withstand the king by sea. What would have happened on land if no one had resisted the king by sea is easy enough to determine.

Although the Peloponnesians had built not one but many walls across the Isthmus for their defense,Cp. Hdt. 1.181, where the wall of Babylon [44.4,32.55] (deserted settlement), Babil, Iraq, AsiaBabylon is called a qw/rhc. they would nevertheless have been deserted by their allies (these having no choice or free will in the matter, but seeing their cities taken one by one by the foreign fleet), until at last they would have stood alone. They would then have put up quite a fight and perished nobly.

Such would have been their fate. Perhaps, however, when they saw the rest of Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas siding with the enemy, they would have made terms with Xerxes. In either case Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas would have been subdued by the Persians, for I cannot see what advantage could accrue from the walls built across the isthmus, while the king was master of the seas.