1. The Greeks had made up their minds to face the Persians at Artemisium. Is it credible that so small a disaster should have led to the adoption of a resolution, the effect of which, under the circumstances, must have deranged the whole plan of campaign? 2. If such a panic had taken place for a reason so insignificant, is it probable that any human power could have induced the Greeks to return a few days later to their former station? 3. Is it credible that they should have retreated without warning the garrison at Thermopylæ which would in that case have been sacrificed? 4. If that garrison had been warned, would it not have retreated from that advanced post in the same way that the army had withdrawn from Tempe? 5. It is extremely unlikely that the withdrawal was made at night. It is almost certain that it must have been made on the morning after the news had been received, by which time the storm which burst upon the Persian fleet at the Sepiad strand had already begun. 6. The motive alleged is in the highest degree suspicious, because all through the narrative the services of the Athenians in keeping the fleet at Artemisium are emphasized in the most marked manner. It is probable that the motive given is a pure fabrication invented at Athens and current at Athens in after-time. It is also probable that the real reason for the withdrawal of the Greek fleet was the impossibility of remaining in the North Euripus during the storm. Such storms spring up with astonishing suddenness in these seas, and give little or no warning of their approach; and it is probable that the Greek fleet, caught unprepared, had to run for it to the inner strait, where, once round the corner of Eubœa, it would be sheltered by the mountains which form the great precipices on the Euripus north of Chalkis. Whether it went to Chalkis or not, it is, of course, impossible to say. It is probable it did not do so, for Mount Kandili[131] ceases before Chalkis is reached, and the narrow part of the Strait is exposed to the east and north-east. There is no difficulty in identifying the nature of the storm. It blew on shore on the Sepiad strand, and therefore must have been one of those E.N.E. gales from the Black Sea, which are the most violent and most dangerous of the storm winds of the Ægean. They may occur at any time of year. Such a storm would blow right down the north bend of the Euripus. The army at Thermopylæ must have known of the retirement of the fleet; but it must have known also that there was every intention of returning to the former station so soon as the weather allowed. For that reason it held its ground. The adventures of the ten Persian ships did not end with their capture of the Athenian vessels. Three of them came to grief on the rock called Murmex, which is in the fairway just at the entrance of the channel. #THE STORM AT THE SEPIAD STRAND.#