Having caused his land-force to be drawn up along the shore opposite
to Salamis, Xerxes had erected for himself a lofty seat, or throne,
upon one of the projecting declivities of mount Ægaleos, near the
Herakleion and immediately overhanging the sea,[256]—from whence he
could plainly review all the phases of the combat and the conduct
of his subject troops. He was persuaded himself that they had not
done their best at Artemisium, in consequence of his absence, and
that his presence would inspire them with fresh valor: moreover, his
royal scribes stood ready by his side to take the names both of the
brave and of the backward combatants. On the right wing of his fleet,
which approached Salamis on the side of Eleusis, and was opposed to
the Athenians on the Grecian left,—were placed the Phenicians and
Egyptians; on his left wing the Ionians,[257]—approaching from the
side of Peiræus, and opposed to the Lacedæmonians, Æginetans, and
Megarians. The seamen of the Persian fleet, however, had been on
shipboard all night, in making that movement which had brought them
into their actual position: while the Greek seamen now began without
previous fatigue, fresh from the animated harangues of Themistoklês
and the other leaders: moreover, just as they were getting on board,
they were joined by the triremes which had been sent to Ægina to
bring to their aid Æakus, with the other Æakid heroes. Honored with
this precious heroic aid, which tended so much to raise the spirits
of the Greeks, the Æginetan trireme now arrived just in time to take
her post in the line, having eluded pursuit from the intervening
enemy.[258]
[256] Æschylus, Pers. 473; Herodot. viii, 90. The throne with
silver feet, upon which Xerxes had sat, was long preserved
in the acropolis of Athens,—having been left at his retreat.
Harpokration, Ἀργυρόπους δίφρος.
A writer, to whom Plutarch refers,—Akestodôrus,—affirmed that
the seat of Xerxes was erected, not under mount Ægaleos, but
much further to the northwest, on the borders of Attica and
the Megarid, under the mountains called Kerata (Plutarch,
Themistoklês, 13). If this writer was acquainted with the
topography of Attica, we must suppose him to have ascribed an
astonishingly long sight to Xerxes: but we may probably take the
assertion as a sample of that carelessness in geography which
marks so many ancient writers. Ktesias recognizes the Ἡρακλεῖον
(Persica, c. 26)
[257] Herodot. viii, 85; Diodor. xi, 16.
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