And here must be said a thing which because it is true ought to be said, though most men will mislike it. If the Athenians, for fear of the danger that was coming upon them, had left their country, or, not leaving it, had submitted themselves to Xerxes, then certainly none would have sought to withstand the Persians by sea; and if none had withstood the Persians by sea, then there would have come to pass on the land what shall now be set forth. Though many breastworks had been built across the Isthmus, yet would the Lacedæmonians have been betrayed by their allies; not of their free will, indeed, but because their cities would have been taken, one after the other, by the fleet of the barbarians. So would they in the end have been left alone, and being so left alone, after many deeds of valor, would have perished with great glory. Or if not, then seeing beforehand that all the other Greeks were submitting themselves to the Persians, they also would have made an agreement with Xerxes. So, in either case, would Greece have been made subject to the barbarians. For what would have been the profit of walls built across the Isthmus while the King had the mastery by sea? If a man then should say that in truth the Athenians were the saviours of Greece, he would speak truly; for to whichever side they had inclined that would have been the weightier. And they, having a fixed purpose that Greece should be free, stirred up all the nations that had not submitted themselves to the Persians, and so, next to the Gods, drave back the enemy.
And this they did though they were sorely terrified by the oracle. For when they sent messengers to inquire of the god at Delphi, and these had offered sacrifices after the custom, and were now come into the shrine, the priestess gave to them this answer. (The name of the priestess was Aristonice.)
When the messengers from Athens heard these words they were greatly troubled. But Timon the son of Androbulus, a chief man among the citizens of Delphi, seeing how utterly cast down they were by the evil that was prophesied concerning their country, counseled them that they