Leonidas died a nobler death than that. It was with the grander courage of reason that he faced the terrible odds against him on that last day of his life.

The fighting of the previous days had shown him the strength of the position which he held at the middle gate. It was a desperate risk; but there was just the possibility that by detaching half his force to stop the encircling body of the foe in the difficult path which they were travelling, he might still be able to maintain the pass, and if he did maintain it he would do his country an inestimable service. It was thus with half his little army that he deliberately chose to face an enemy one hundred times his own numerical strength. He took a risk of whose magnitude he must have been well aware, to win, in case of success, a prize of incalculable greatness. He cannot have deluded himself, he may be pardoned if he deluded his allies—as to the overwhelming nature of the chances against them. He might have retreated. There is an exaggerated tendency to assume that Spartan discipline at this time forbade a commander, under any circumstances, to withdraw from a position once taken up. Artemisium and, above all, Platæa, prove this not to have been the case. He was under no such compulsion. What he did dare to do was to face odds such as men had never faced before and never have faced since, because by so doing he had a possible prospect of conferring a service of enormous value on his country. He did this, too, in spite of that bitter feeling of his countrymen’s desertion which must have been present in his mind. Nor was the nobility of his death marred by a useless sacrifice of the lives of devoted men. ORIGIN OF HERODOTUS’ VERSION. Great as was the risk, the greatness of the end to be attained in case of success justified his associating others with himself in the desperate venture.

I have laid aside this account of Thermopylæ for some months, in order to consider whether any other more reasonable explanation of the circumstances might be drawn from Herodotus’ narrative of facts. I do not, however, see any possibility of arriving at any other conclusion from them, when taken in combination with the topographical evidence, which happens in this case to be very clear. There was certainly a possibility of defending the pass, even after Hydarnes had forced the path. It may have been remote; but it existed all the same.

There were, however, too many people interested in concealing the truth of what happened. The Spartan authorities had good reason for so doing, and the very fact of two wholly different traditions being in existence in Herodotus’ day with regard to the conduct of those who did not remain with Leonidas until the end, shows that the latter were able to exercise a concealment which was in all probability much to their interest to exercise. A not very unreasonable excuse for their conduct might well be that the circumstances on that last day were absolutely desperate, owing to the omission of Sparta to send reinforcements. It would be an ugly tale for the Lacedæmonian Government, and all the more so as the only person who might have denied it with authority had died in the battle.

CHAPTER VIII.
ARTEMISIUM.

While the events just described were taking place on land, a somewhat desultory naval warfare was being waged in the channel north of Eubœa, which, though in itself indecisive, was not without influence on the ultimate issue of the war. The defence of the channel had been rightly regarded as an absolutely necessary adjunct to that of the pass; and the resolution to send troops to Thermopylæ had been accompanied by the resolution to send to the North Euripus all the ships available. Even Herodotus recognizes the intimacy of the connection between the two positions. When visiting Thermopylæ he can hardly have failed to notice the relation between them.

Cf. also H. viii. 21.

Speaking of it he says: “These places are near one another, so that the forces stationed at them could communicate with one another.”

H. vii. 175.

Even from a point at Thermopylæ only a hundred and fifty feet above the Malian plain it is possible to see right down this northern channel, and to distinguish in the distance part of the outline of the island of Skiathos.