PROCEEDINGS IN GREECE FROM THE BATTLE OF MARATHON TO THE TIME OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLÆ. Violent proceedings and death of Kleomenês king of Sparta. — Complaint of the Æginetans at Sparta against Kleomenês and Leotychidês, on the subject of the hostages which those two kings had taken from Ægina. — The Spartans deliver Leotychidês to the Æginetans, who require him to go with them to Athens, to get back the hostages. — Refusal of the Athenians to give up the hostages — reprisals of the Æginetans. — The Æginetan Nikodromus lays a scheme for a democratical revolution in Ægina, in concert with Athens — the movement fails. — Treatment of the defeated conspirators — sacrilege. — The Athenians land a force in Ægina — war which ensues. — Effect of this war in inducing the Athenians to enlarge their military force. — Themistoklês and Aristeidês, the chief men at Athens — intense rivalry between them. — Banishment of the latter by ostracism. — Conversion of Athens from a land power into a naval power proposed and urged by Themistoklês. — Views and long-sighted calculations of Themistoklês — he was at this time more essential to his country than Aristeidês. — Fleet of Athens — the salvation of Greece as well as of herself. — Valuable fund new first available to Athens from the silver mines of Laurium in Attica. — Themistoklês prevails upon the Athenian people to forego the distribution of this fund, and employ it in building an increased number of ships. — Preparations of Xerxes — known beforehand in Greece. — Heralds from Persia to demand earth and water from the Grecian cities — many of them comply and submit. — Pan-Hellenic congress convened jointly by Athens and Sparta at the Isthmus of Corinth. — Important effect on Grecian mind. — Effects of the congress in healing feuds among the different Greeks — especially between Athens and Ægina. — Alarm and mistrust prevalent throughout Greece. — Terror conveyed in the reply of the Delphian oracle to the Athenian envoys. — Sentence of the oracle frightful, yet obscure: efforts of the Athenians to interpret it: ingenuity and success of Themistoklês. — Great and genuine Pan-Hellenic patriotism of the Athenians — strongly attested by Herodotus, as his own judgment. — Unwillingness, or inability, on the part of a large proportion of Greeks, to resist the Persians. — Ambiguous neutrality of Argos. — Different stories current in Greece about Argos — opinion of Herodotus. — Refusal or equivocation of the Kretans and Korkyræans. — Mission to Gelon at Syracuse — his reply. — Grecian army sent into Thessaly, to defend the defile of Tempê against Xerxes. — On arriving, they find that it cannot be successfully held against him, and retire. — Consequences of this retreat — the Thessalians, and nearly all Hellas north of Kithæron, either submit to Xerxes or waver.