Beyond Salamis, about twenty miles south from Piræus, lies the island of Ægina, one of the many interesting features in the view from the Acropolis. It was revered as the ancient seat of Æacus, the grandfather of Achilles and Ajax, who was accounted in his day to be the most pious of mankind. In historical times it was inhabited chiefly by a Dorian colony from Epidaurus. Up to the time of the Persian invasion Corinth was its only rival in Greece as a naval and commercial centre; but it played an ignoble part in complying with Darius’ demands for earth and water when Athens and Sparta received the insulting message with such indignation as to put the Persian envoys to death. On the approach of Xerxes the Æginetans had endeavoured to redeem their character by joining in the preparations for resistance; and in the battle of Salamis they had taken such a distinguished part as to be awarded the first prize for valour, the second prize going to the Athenians. On that occasion two prizes were also given for the greatest skill and wisdom; and it illustrates the self-esteem and love of honour of which the Greeks seem to have had more than an ordinary share, that when the votes were examined it was found that each of the leaders had put down his own name for the first prize, and that of Themistocles for the second! Pericles described Ægina as the “eyesore of the Piræus,” and the history of the relations between the two powers for many years after the battle of Salamis, as well as for a few years before it, amply justifies the observation. After many fierce struggles Ægina was reduced to subjection, its fleets confiscated, and its fortifications destroyed. On the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war the Athenians, in order to guard against the possibility of the island being used by the enemy, expelled its inhabitants, who found a refuge in Thyrea, which was placed at their disposal by the Spartans. Even there, however, they were not left in peace. For in the eighth year of the war the place was attacked and captured by the Athenians, and the inhabitants were taken to Athens, where they were put to death as prisoners of war. According to Herodotus the sad reverses which thus befell the Æginetans were due to an impiety of which they had been guilty many years before. The solitary survivor of a band of conspirators had fled for refuge to the temple of Demeter and succeeded in laying hold of the handle of the door before he was overtaken. His pursuers did not dare to slay him while he was thus in contact with the sanctuary, but in order to sever his connection with it and deprive him of the protection of the goddess, they cut off his arm at the wrist and then killed him, leaving the hand still grasping the handle, where it long remained. With this we may compare the conduct of the Spartans when Pausanias, the commander at Platæa, was called to account for the treasonable designs into which, in his overweening pride, he had entered with Persia.