the possibility of a great naval empire, and led them to turn to account the advantages to be derived from their harbours at the Piræus, by not only equipping them with docks but also fortifying them and connecting them with Athens by means of the long walls, completed in the next generation by Pericles. Most of the Athenians had taken refuge in the adjoining island of Salamis (the ancient home of Ajax), partly owing to an allusion to it in the second Delphian oracle. “Divine Salamis,” it was said, “would destroy many sons of women”; and this, Themistocles held, could only refer to a slaughter of the enemy. Although almost all the powers in southern Greece were acting in concert with Athens in resisting Xerxes, the Peloponnesians were disposed to fall back on their line of defence at the isthmus of Corinth; and it was with the greatest difficulty that Themistocles prevailed on them to take part in the engagement at Salamis. When it seemed that nothing else would serve his purpose he sent a secret message to Xerxes, as if he were turning traitor to his country, urging him to prevent the escape of the Greeks when he had them at his mercy. The ruse succeeded. During the night the Persians stationed ships at the two ends of the straits to prevent the egress of the Greeks, and also landed a body of men on the small island of Psyttaleia, at the south-eastern outlet, in case the enemy should [Illustration: THE SEAWARD END OF THE PLAIN OF ATTICA LOOKING TOWARDS SALAMIS The view is bounded to the left by the foot of the Acropolis, with part of Beulé’s gate; below, to the right of this, we overlook the whole of the ancient Assembly Place of the Athenian people (the Pnyx), with its retaining wall of colossal masonry below, and its scarped-rock boundary and _bēma_ above. Farther away the famous olive groves, following the course of the Kephissus, stretch along the plain.]