And old sires' graves! this day are all at stake!" Yea, and from us low thunder of Persian cheers Answered--no time it was for dallying! Then straightway galley dashed her beak of bronze On galley. 'Twas a Hellene ship began The onset, and shore all the figure-head From a Phoenician: captain charged on captain. At first the Persian navy's torrent-flood Withstood them; but when our vast fleet was cramped In strait-space--friend could lend no aid to friend,-- Then ours by fangs of allies' beaks of bronze Were struck, and shattered all their oar-array; While with shrewd strategy the Hellene ships Swept round, and rammed us, and upturned were hulls Of ships;--no more could one discern the sea, Clogged all with wrecks and limbs of slaughtered men: The shores, the rock-reefs, were with corpses strewn. Then rowed each bark in fleeing disarray, Yea, every keel of our barbarian host, They with oar-fragments and with shards of wrecks Smote, hacked, as men smite tunnies or a draught Of fishes; and a moaning, all confused With shrieking, hovered wide o'er that sea-brine Till night's dark presence blotted out the horror. That swarm of woes, yea, though for ten days' space I should rehearse could I not tell in full. Yet know this well, that never in one day Died such a host, such tale untold, of men.[10] Xerxes, the Great King, was defeated, and his one desire now was to return home to Asia. He left his {166} general, Mardonius, in Thessaly with a picked body of men, who should carry on the war in the spring, but he himself, with what was left of his army, marched back through Macedonia and Thrace, to the Hellespont and so back to his own land. It was a very different march from the triumphant one he had made earlier in the year. The inhabitants of the lands through which they had passed had no fear of a defeated King, and it was difficult to obtain provisions. The Persians seized what crops there were, and if they found no crops, then they took the grass which was growing up from the earth, and stripped off the bark from the trees and plucked down the leaves, and devoured them. Then plague seized upon the army and some of them who were sick the King left behind. In such manner did Xerxes return home. In the meanwhile, Mardonius and his army spent the winter in Thessaly. When the spring came, (this was the spring of 479 B.C.), he sent a messenger to the Athenians who spoke these words to them: Athenians, there has come a message from the King which speaks in this manner: I remit to you all the offences which were committed against me, and this I say: I will give you back your own land and any other in addition, and you shall remain independent; and I will rebuild all your temples, provided you will make a treaty with me.