A Victor of Salamis

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. [pg vii] CONTENTS PROLOGUE THE ISTHMIAN GAMES NEAR CORINTH PAGE I. Glaucon the Beautiful 3 II. The Athlete 10 III. The Hand of Persia 21 IV. The Pentathlon 31 THE SHADOW OF THE PERSIAN V. Hermione of Eleusis 51 VI. Athens 62 VII. Democrates and the Tempter 74 VIII. On the Acropolis 84 IX. The Cyprian Triumphs 95 X. Democrates Resolves 106 XI. The Panathenæa 116 XII. A Traitor to Hellas 128 XIII. The Disloyalty of Phormio 141 XIV. Mardonius the Persian 152 THE COMING OF THE PERSIAN XV. The Lotus-eating at Sardis 165 XVI. The Coming of Xerxes the God-king 174 XVII. The Charming by Roxana 186 XVIII. Democrates’s Troubles Return 197 XIX. The Commandment of Xerxes 209 XX. Thermopylæ 219 XXI. The Three Hundred—and One 230 XXII. Mardonius gives a Promise 243 XXIII. The Darkest Hour 253 XXIV. The Evacuation of Athens 264 XXV. The Acropolis Flames 268 XXVI. Themistocles is Thinking 279 XXVII. The Craft of Odysseus 287 XXVIII. Before the Death Grapple 300 XXIX. Salamis 311 XXX. Themistocles gives a Promise 329 THE PASSING OF THE PERSIAN XXXI. Democrates Surrenders 333 XXXII. The Stranger in Trœzene 343 XXXIII. What befell on the Hillside 350 XXXIV. The Loyalty of Lampaxo 360 XXXV. Moloch betrays the Phœnician 372 XXXVI. The Reading of the Riddle 388 XXXVII. The Race To Save Hellas 399 XXXVIII. The Council of Mardonius 418 XXXIX. The Avenging of Leonidas 426 XL. The Song of the Furies 438 XLI. The Brightness of Helios 445 [pg 1] PROLOGUE THE ISTHMIAN GAMES NEAR CORINTH…