William Stearns Davis

A Victor of Salamis

A Tale of the Days of Xerxes, Leonidas, and Themistocles

Warsaw 2022

Contents

AUTHOR’S NOTE

PROLOGUE. THE ISTHMIAN GAMES NEAR CORINTH

I. GLAUCON THE BEAUTIFUL

II. THE ATHLETE

III. THE HAND OF PERSIA

IV. THE PENTATHLON

BOOK I. THE SHADOW OF THE PERSIAN

V. HERMIONE OF ELEUSIS

VI. ATHENS

VII. DEMOCRATES AND THE TEMPTER

VIII. ON THE ACROPOLIS

IX. THE CYPRIAN TRIUMPHS

X. DEMOCRATES RESOLVES

XI. THE PANATHENÆA

XII. A TRAITOR TO HELLAS

XIII. THE DISLOYALTY OF PHORMIO

XIV. MARDONIUS THE PERSIAN

BOOK II. THE COMING OF THE PERSIAN

XV. THE LOTUS-EATING AT SARDIS

XVI. THE COMING OF XERXES THE GOD-KING

XVII. THE CHARMING BY ROXANA

XVIII. DEMOCRATES’S TROUBLES RETURN

XIX. THE COMMANDMENT OF XERXES

XX. THERMOPYLÆ

XXI. THE THREE HUNDRED—AND ONE

XXII. MARDONIUS GIVES A PROMISE

XXIII. THE DARKEST HOUR

XXIV. THE EVACUATION OF ATHENS

XXV. THE ACROPOLIS FLAMES

XXVI. THEMISTOCLES IS THINKING

XXVII. THE CRAFT OF ODYSSEUS

XXVIII. BEFORE THE DEATH GRAPPLE

XXIX. SALAMIS

XXX. THEMISTOCLES GIVES A PROMISE

BOOK III. THE PASSING OF THE PERSIAN

XXXI. DEMOCRATES SURRENDERS

XXXII. THE STRANGER IN TRŒZENE

XXXIII. WHAT BEFELL ON THE HILLSIDE

XXXIV. THE LOYALTY OF LAMPAXO

XXXV. MOLOCH BETRAYS THE PHŒNICIAN

XXXVI. THE READING OF THE RIDDLE

XXXVII. THE RACE TO SAVE HELLAS

XXXVIII. THE COUNCIL OF MARDONIUS

XXXIX. THE AVENGING OF LEONIDAS

XL. THE SONG OF THE FURIES

XLI. THE BRIGHTNESS OF HELIOS

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The invasion of Greece by Xerxes, with its battles of Thermopylæ, Salamis, and Platæa, forms one of the most dramatic events in history. Had Athens and Sparta succumbed to this attack of Oriental superstition and despotism, the Parthenon, the Attic Theatre, the Dialogues of Plato, would have been almost as impossible as if Phidias, Sophocles, and the philosophers had never lived. Because this contest and its heroes–Leonidas and Themistocles–cast their abiding shadows across our world of to-day, I have attempted this piece of historical fiction.

Many of the scenes were conceived on the fields of action themselves during a recent visit to Greece, and I have tried to give some glimpse of the natural beauty of “The Land of the Hellene,”–a beauty that will remain when Themistocles and his peers fade away still further into the backgrounds of history.

W. S. D.

PROLOGUE. THE ISTHMIAN GAMES NEAR CORINTH

I. GLAUCON THE BEAUTIFUL

The crier paused for the fifth time. The crowd–knotty Spartans, keen Athenians, perfumed Sicilians–pressed his pulpit closer, elbowing for the place of vantage. Amid a lull in their clamour the crier recommenced.

“And now, men of Hellas, another time hearken. The sixth contestant in the pentathlon, most honourable of the games held at the Isthmus, is Glaucon, son of Conon the Athenian; his grandfather–” a jangling shout drowned him.

“The most beautiful man in Hellas!” “But an effeminate puppy!” “Of the noble house of Alcmæon!” “The family’s accursed!” “A great god helps him–even Eros.” “Ay–the fool married for mere love. He needs help. His father disinherited him.”

“Peace, peace,” urged the crier; “I’ll tell all about him, as I have of the others. Know then, my masters, that he loved, and won in marriage, Hermione, daughter of Hermippus of Eleusis. Now Hermippus is Conon’s mortal enemy; therefore in great wrath Conon disinherited his son,–but now, consenting to forgive him if he wins the parsley crown in the pentathlon–”

“A safe promise,” interrupted a Spartan in broadest Doric; “the pretty boy has no chance against Lycon, our Laconian giant.”

“Boaster!” retorted an Athenian. “Did not Glaucon bend open a horseshoe yesterday?”

“Our Mœrocles did that,” called a Mantinean; whereupon the crier, foregoing his long speech on Glaucon’s noble ancestry, began to urge the Athenians to show their confidence by their wagers.

“How much is staked that Glaucon can beat Ctesias of Epidaurus?”

“We don’t match our lion against mice!” roared the noisiest Athenian.

“Or Amyntas of Thebes?”

“Not Amyntas! Give us Lycon of Sparta.”

“Lycon let it be,–how much is staked and by whom, that Glaucon of Athens, contending for the first time in the great games, defeats Lycon of Sparta, twice victor at Nemea, once at Delphi, and once at Olympia?”

The second rush and outcry put the crier nearly at his wits’ end to record the wagers that pelted him, and which testified how much confidence the numerous Athenians had in their unproved champion. The brawl of voices drew newcomers from far and near. The chariot race had just ended in the adjoining hippodrome; and the idle crowd, intent on a new excitement, came surging up like waves. In such a whirlpool of tossing arms and shoving elbows, he who was small of stature and short of breath stood a scanty chance of getting close enough to the crier’s stand to have his wager recorded. Such, at least, was the fate of a gray but dignified little man, who struggled vainly–even with risk to his long linen chiton–to reach the front.

“Ugh! ugh! Make way, good people,–Zeus confound you, brute of a Spartan, your big sandals crush my toes again! Can I never get near enough to place my two minæ on that Glaucon?”

“Keep back, graybeard,” snapped the Spartan; “thank the god if you can hold your money and not lose it, when Glaucon’s neck is wrung to-morrow.” Whereupon he lifted his own voice with, “Thirty drachmæ to place on Lycon, Master Crier! So you have it–”

“And two minæ on Glaucon,” piped the little man, peering up with bright, beady eyes; but the crier would never have heard him, save for a sudden ally.

“Who wants to stake on Glaucon?” burst in a hearty young Athenian who had wagered already. “You, worthy sir? Then by Athena’s owls they shall hear you! Lend us your elbow, Democrates.”

The latter request was to a second young Athenian close by. With his stalwart helpers thrusting at either side, the little man was soon close to the crier.

“Two minæ?” quoth the latter, leaning, “two that Glaucon beats Lycon, and at even odds? But your name, sir–”

The little man straightened proudly.

“Simonides of Ceos.”

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