captains were told to him, was not pleased with any so much as with the words of Artemisia. Nevertheless it seemed good to him to follow the counsel of the greater number, and to give battle; for he thought that the ships had not done their best at Eubœa because he himself had been absent, and was minded to see the battle that should now be fought with his own eyes.
So the ships of the barbarians sailed to Salamis and took their places, as they had been commanded, no man hindering them; for the Greeks, especially the men of the Peloponnese, were greatly troubled, fearing lest they should be shut up in Salamis while their own country was left without defense.
The same night the army of the barbarians went forwards to the Peloponnese. There indeed all things had been done that the Persians might not be able to come into the country. For so soon as there came the tidings how that Leonidas and his companions had fallen at the Pass, straightway the inhabitants assembled from their cities and pitched their camp at the Isthmus, their commander being Cleombrotus, who was brother to Leonidas. First they blocked up the way of Susa, that leads from Magara to Corinth; and afterwards they built a wall across the Isthmus. This work they wrought in a few days only, for there were many thousands of men, and they worked without ceasing either by night or by day. Now the nations that were gathered at the Isthmus were these: the Lacedæmonians, all the Arcadians, the Corinthians, the men of Elis, the men of Sicyon, and of Epidaurus, and of Phlius, and of Trœzen, and of Hermione. But the other nations, as the Achæans and the Argives, came not to the Isthmus, nor gave help to the Greeks, but rather, if the truth is to be told, gave help to the Persians.