VII. On his appointment as General, he at once endeavoured to prevail upon his countrymen to man their fleet, leave their city, and go to meet the enemy by sea as far from Greece as possible. As this met with great opposition, he, together with the Lacedaemonians, led a large force as far as the Vale of Tempe, which they intended to make their first line of defence, as Thessaly had not at that time declared for the Persians. When, however, the armies were forced to retire from thence, and all Greece, up to Boeotia, declared for the Persians, the Athenians became more willing to listen to Themistokles about fighting by sea, and he was sent with a fleet to guard the straits at Artemisium. Here the Greeks chose the Lacedaemonians, and their general, Eurybiades, to take the command; but the Athenians refused to submit to any other state, because they alone furnished more ships than all the rest. Themistokles, at this crisis perceiving the danger, gave up his claims to Eurybiades, and soothed the wounded pride of the Athenians, telling them that if they proved themselves brave men in the war, they would find that all the other states in Greece would cheerfully recognise their supremacy. On this account he seems more than any one else to deserve the credit of having saved Greece, and to have covered the Athenians with glory by teaching them to surpass their enemies in bravery, and their allies in good sense. When the Persian fleet reached Aphetai, Eurybiades was terrified at the number of ships at the mouth of the Straits, and, learning that two hundred sail more were gone round the outside of Euboea to take him in the rear, he at once wished to retire further into Greece, and support the fleet by the land army in Peloponnesus, for he regarded the Persian king's fleet as utterly irresistible at sea. Upon this the Euboeans, who feared to be deserted by the Greeks, sent one Pelagon with a large sum of money, to make secret proposals to Themistokles. He took the money, Herodotus tells us, and gave it to Eurybiades and his party. One of those who most vehemently opposed him was Architeles, the captain of the Sacred Trireme, who had not sufficient money to pay his crew, and therefore wished to sail back to Athens. Themistokles stirred up the anger of his men to such a pitch that they rushed upon him and took away his supper. At this, Architeles was much vexed, but Themistokles sent him a basket containing bread and meat, with a talent of silver hidden underneath it, with a message bidding him eat his supper and pay his men the next day, but that, if he did not, Themistokles would denounce him to his countrymen as having received bribes from the enemy. This we are told by Phanias of Lesbos.