forth to thee: not that he knew of thy armament beforehand, but that
he feared equally every armament of men. Let thy forces then set forth
from this island and keep the Lacedemonians in fear; and while they
have a war of their own close at their doors, there will be no fear
for thee from them that when the remainder of Hellas is being
conquered by the land-army, they will come to the rescue there. Then
after the remainder of Hellas has been reduced to subjection, from
that moment the Lacedemonian power will be left alone and therefore
feeble. If however thou shalt not do this, I will tell thee what thou
must look for. There is a narrow isthmus leading to the Peloponnese,
and in this place thou must look that other battles will be fought
more severe than those which have taken place, seeing that all the
Peloponnesians have sworn to a league against thee: but if thou shalt
do the other thing of which I spoke, this isthmus and the cities
within it will come over to thy side without a battle." 236. After him
spoke Achaimenes, brother of Xerxes and also commander of the fleet,
who chanced to have been present at this discourse and was afraid lest
Xerxes should be persuaded to do this: "O king," he said, "I see that
thou art admitting the speech of a man who envies thy good fortune, or
is even a traitor to thy cause: for in truth the Hellenes delight in
such a temper as this; they envy a man for his good luck, and they
hate that which is stronger than themselves. And if, besides other
misfortunes which we have upon us, seeing that four hundred of our
ships[237] have suffered wreck, thou shalt send away another three
hundred from the station of the fleet to sail round Peloponnese, then
thy antagonists become a match for thee in fight; whereas while it is
all assembled together our fleet is hard for them to deal with, and
they will not be at all a match for thee: and moreover the whole sea-
force will support the land-force and be supported by it, if they
proceed onwards together; but if thou shalt divide them, neither wilt