suffer in subjection to the victorious barbarians. 37. Doubtless through
their trials they frequently pledged one another, and probably
commiserated their own fortunes, knowing how few were their own ships and
seeing many of the enemy's, and realizing that the city was being
devastated and filled with barbarians, and the temples burned, and ruin
close at hand. 38. They heard together the paean of Greek and barbarian,
the exhortations of both and the cries of the vanquished, the sea full of
the dead, wrecks coming together, both friend and foe, and because the
battle was long undecided, thinking now they have conquered and are
saved, now they are worsted and lost. 39. Surely through their fear they
thought to see much they did not see, and to hear much they did not hear.
What prayers did not rise to the gods, or reminders of sacrifices,
compassion for children, longing for wives, pity for parents and
meditations on what would result in case of defeat? 40. What god would
not pity them for the magnitude of the danger? What man would not weep?
Who would not wonder at their daring? Truly these surpassed all men by
far in point of courage, both in their plans and in the face of the
danger, leaving the city, embarking upon the ships, opposing their own
lives, few as they were, to the Persian host. 41. And they showed all men
by their naval victory that it is better to struggle for freedom with a
few than for their own slavery with many subjects of the king. 42. These
made the greatest and most honorable contribution in behalf of the
freedom of the Greeks, the general Themistocles, best able to speak, to
understand and to act; more ships than the allies, and men of the most
experience. And who of the other Greeks would have claimed to be equal in
intelligence, numbers and courage? 43. So that justly they took without
dispute the rewards of the naval battle from Greece, and gained success
in proportion to their dangers and proved to the Asiatic barbarians that
their courage was genuine and native.