and are told by Herodotus and Mitford, that the Greek ships escaped all damage, by having retreated thither; when we are told that the Persians lost above 600 ships of war, and consequently above 100,000 men*, and yet that at Salamis they were able, through their reinforcements, to muster romantic enough, but his language is too strong to go for nothing. It is thus translated in the new edition of Lempriere's Dictionary, where also the notice of Aristotle is to be found. "A more dangerous station for a fleet can hardly be found; besides that, the winds rush down suddenly and with great fury from the high mountains on each side. The strait itself of the Euripus does not flow seven times a day at stated hours, as report says, but the current changing irregularly, like the wind from one point to another, is hurried along like a torrent tumbling from a steep mountain, so that night or day ships can never lie in quiet." Livy, L. xxiii. C. 6. The Greeks took the bull by the horns. a cc According to the lowest report 400 galleys of war were sunk or destroyed." "Means were totally wanting to estimate the destruction of store-ships and attending vessels.' "Fifteen galleys- -fell in with the Grecian fleetall were taken." Two hundred galleys were sent round Euboea." All perished." (Mitford's description of the battles, &c. of Artemisium.) To these losses we must add the losses in the two battles. Whenever Mitford's translation would answer my purpose I have used it, not only to save myself from trouble and responsibility, but because he favours Herodotus. 1200 triremes, and that these 1200 triremes advanced from the Athenian coast and surrounded Salamis, without being seen or heard by the confederates, or by the anxious refugees, who were crowded into that small island; when we look in the map and read what Herodotus and Mitford relate of the battle of Salamis, we must indeed be more fond of fiction than truth, if we prefer Herodotus to Thucydides. As for the canal of Athos, Herodotus ascribes it to the vanity of Xerxes, Mitford chuses to see further; yet Mitford 8 Ἐποίευν δὲ σιγῇ ταῦτα, ὡς μὴ πυνθανοίατο οἱ ἐναντίοι. Herod. Lib. viii. c. 76. It were a delicate stratagem to shoe a troop of horse with felt; but how 1200 ships, carrying 230 men a-piece, and having three banks of oars, could move in silence is most extraordinary. Mitford does not expressly mention the silence, but it is implied in his narrative. b See the description which Lysias gives in his funeral oration. c"I have somewhere seen an anecdote of a sailor's mother, who believed all the strange lies which he told her for his amusement, but never could be persuaded to believe there could be in existence such a thing as a flying fish." Notes to Madoc. We believe all the wonders of Grecian history, but cannot believe what Scripture tells us of Nebuchadnez zar. himself tells us, that "at the very time of the expedition of Xerxes there were no fewer than five Grecian towns on the peninsula itself of Athos, one even on the isthmus, situate, as Thucydides particularly mentions, close to the canal, and many on the adjacent coasts. It is probable, therefore, that this canal, like most other canals, was made for commercial purposes. The map will shew that it could have been of little use to the fleet of Xerxes, and if he had condescended to take such a precaution against bad weather, he would not so soon afterwards have fancied himself the lord of the Hellespont, and treated it as a rebellious vassal. According to Mitford, to cross the Ægean, even now, with all the modern improvements in navigation, is singularly dangerous. In the good old times, however, it was different. Jason and his brother Argonauts, Paris and his Trojans crossed and returned in a If I am not mistaken, Gibbon has some observations to this purport. safety. The Grecian ships, encumbered as they must have been with horses and chariots, and military furniture, and manned, as some of them were, by mere landsmen", met with no accident on their way to Troy. Achilles would scarcely have left any part a There are many passages in the Iliad, which imply that the horses of the chiefs came from Greece; and as they did not fight on horseback, it is to be presumed that the chiefs did not leave their chariots behind them. b In sixty sail th' Arcadian bands unite Their ships supplied by Agamemnon's care Through roaring seas the wond'ring warriors bear." Homer says that Agamemnon gave them the ships, and if Achilles is correct, Agamemnon was not much in the giving vein, but at any rate the Arcadian shepherds would have been a little perplexed when they made their first appearance in the character of rowers, especially as there were many of them in each ship. ---πολέες δ ̓ ἐν νηὶ ἑκάστη ̓Αρκάδες ἄνδρες ἔβαινον ἐπιστάμενοι πολέμοιο. Might not some of the ships have met with the fate of the English waggon and horses, which Sir Phelimy French brought over to Ireland? He forgot to bring a driver, and when he ordered it out, it came round with eight drivers, one to every horse, and the horses, not knowing what was meant by hup and hough, and the drivers as little understanding what they called the humours of the waggon, it was overturned into the ha-ha, pronounced a folly, and left to rot. of his booty or other property behind him; yet neither the politic Ulysses, nor the friendly Phoenix endeavoured to detain him by mentioning the danger of the passage. The vessels of the Greeks were in very bad condition, when Agamemnon proposed that they should abandon Troy, and yet, without any hesitation, they took him at his word, and began to prepare for their homeward voyage. If these instances are thought to savour of poetry, let us try prose. What does the reader think of the Æolic, Ionic, and Doric emigrations? Can he not find in Herodotus alone, sufficient proofs of a frequent and easy communication between the Asiatic and European coasts? Does he remember the sequel of the battle of Salamis?"The Persian fleet says Mitford, “had remained three days in the road of Artemisium, to refresh the crews after their sufferings by storms and engagements. Three days then brought them through the Euripus to Phalerum." , "The fleet and army being again met, |