Story of the Greek and the Roman People

(AN IDEALIZED PICTURE IN THE LOUVRE)

There was as terrible fighting as the world has ever seen. From morning till night it lasted, and from morning till night of the second day. Then came treachery. A Malian told Xerxes of a footpath leading over the mountains and around the Pass; and just as it was growing dark this traitor led the Persians out of the camp, across the little river, and up the mountain. The Greek guard at the summit could not see them, as the mountain-side was so thickly covered with oak trees; and they knew nothing of the coming of the enemy until in the silence of the early morning they heard the tramping of thousands of feet. The little force could only prepare to die; but the enemy rushed by them eager to surround the Greeks at the Pass.

When Leonidas learned that the path had been discovered, he knew that there was no hope of holding Thermopylæ. "Do you return to the Isthmus if you will," he said to his allies, but for me and my Spartans, the laws of our country forbid that we should leave the place that we have been sent to guard." The Thespians, too, refused to retreat. The fighting went on, more furiously if possible than before. The Spartans and the Thespians rushed forward into the very midst of the Persian forces. Men were thrust into the sea, were trampled to death by scores and by hundreds. The spears broke, they fought with swords; the swords gave out, they fought with their teeth, with their fists, with stones, with anything that would strike a blow, until they lay dead, buried under heaps of Persian missiles. At this battle, too, the slain were buried where they fell. In memory of the bravery of Leonidas, a marble lion was reared at the entrance of the Pass. Pillars were set up in honor of the soldiers. Upon one was written:—

"Here did four thousand men from Pelop's land

Against three hundred myriads bravely stand."

Another was in honor of the Spartans alone. Its inscription was,—

"Go, stranger, and to Lacedæmon tell

That here, obeying her behests, we fell."

This was written by Simonides, a poet of Ceos, one of the Cyclades. He could write such strong lines as these, in which every word counts, and he could also write so gracefully and tenderly that his friends used to call him the sweet poet. One of his sayings seemed to people so true that it has been famous through all the centuries since he died. It is: "Poetry is vocal painting, as painting is silent poetry."

While the famous little band of Greeks were doing their best to hold back the Persian forces at Thermopylæ, the Greek ships were also at work. They were keeping the Persian fleet from entering the Euripus, the strait that lies between Eubœa and the mainland. The Persians thought it would be a good move to send two hundred of their ships around Eubœa and up the Euripus from the south. "Then we shall have the Greek ships shut into the strait," they said, "and with our great fleet it will be easy to destroy them all." They sent the two hundred ships, but soon a storm wrecked every one of them. For one day, two days, three days, the naval battle went on, the Persians trying to press through the strait at Artemisium, and the Greeks holding them back. Just at evening of the third day there came a swiftly sailing vessel that had been watching affairs at Thermopylæ; and now the men on board the Greek ships learned that the Pass was lost, and that the Persians were marching on toward Athens. There was no reason then for guarding the strait; it was far better to sail through the Euripus toward the south. The Greek admiral was a Spartan, but Themistocles commanded the ships of Athens. The winds had fought for the Greeks, and now he meant to make the earth speak for them. Wherever there was a good chance, he sent men to cut on the rocks inscriptions which would be read by the Ionians in Xerxes' army. "Men of Ionia," they said, "come over to our side if possible; if you cannot do this, we pray you stand aloof from the contest, or at least fight backwardly." Themistocles thought that, even if the Ionians did not see these inscriptions, they would surely be read by some of the Persians, and that Xerxes would not venture to use the Ionian aid in the sea-fights. The Greek fleet then sailed around Sunium, the southern point of Attica, and anchored between Athens and the island of Salamis.

GREEK WRITING ON STONE.

The Persians were aiming at Athens, but a little west of their line of march lay Delphi, and there was the temple of Apollo, fairly crowded with treasures. They could not pass that by; so part of the army left the coast and turned to the westward. The Delphians were in despair. "O Apollo," they prayed, "tell us, we beseech thee, what shall we do with thy holy treasures! Shall we bury them in the ground, or carry them away to some other country?" "Fear not," was the reply, "Apollo needs no help to protect his own." Then most of the Delphians departed from the city with the women and children. It was reported by those who remained that the sacred armor of Apollo was moved, but by no man's hands, from the inner shrine and laid in front of the temple. However that may be, there was certainly a terrific thunderstorm. From Mount Parnassus two immense crags split off and rolled down upon the Persian hosts, and by their weight many were crushed. It is no wonder that the barbarians fled in terror from this and the resistance of even the few Delphians, or that in their alarm they told marvelous tales of what had happened to them. "They with whom we fought were not mortal," they declared; "they were armed warriors with stature more than human, who burst upon us and slew some of us."