Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

When the command to put out to sea was given, they set sail for Salamis (island), Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, EuropeSalamis and were calmly marshalled in line. There was not enough daylight left for them to fight, since night came on, so they made preparations for the next day.

Fear and dread possessed the Hellenes, especially those from the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese. They were afraid because they were stationed in Salamis (island), Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, EuropeSalamis and were about to fight at sea on behalf of the land of the Athenians, and if they were defeated they would be trapped on an island and besieged, leaving their own land unguarded.

That very night the land army of the barbarians began marching to the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese. Yet every possible device had been used to prevent the barbarians from invading by the mainland. As soon as the Peloponnesians learned that Leonidas and his men at +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae were dead, they ran together from their cities and took up their position at the Isthmus. Their general was Cleombrotus son of Anaxandrides, the brother of Leonidas.

When they were in position at the Isthmus, they demolished the Scironian road and then, after resolving in council, built a wall across the Isthmus. Since there were many tens of thousands and everyone worked, the task was completed, as they brought in stones and bricks and logs and baskets full of sand. At no moment of the day or night did those who had marched out there rest from their work.

These were the Hellenes who marched out in a body to the Isthmus: the Lacedaemonians and all the Arcadians, the Eleans and Corinthians and Sicyonians and Epidaurians and Phliasians and Troezenians and Hermioneans. These were the ones who marched out and feared for Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas in her peril. The rest of the Peloponnesians cared nothing, though the Olympian and Carnean festivals were now past.

Seven nations inhabit the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese. Two of these are aboriginal and are now settled in the land where they lived in the old days, the Arcadians and Cynurians. One nation, the Achaean, has never left the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese, but it has left its own country and inhabits another nation's land.