HERODOTUS ON THE SITUATION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—In these days of old-age pensions and large navies, the enclosed extract will be of interest to your readers. Herodotus
here refers to the preparations to meet Xerxes and to the ships which afterwards fought at Salamis.—I am, Sir, &c., B.
" Themistocles had before this given a counsel which prevailed very seasonably. The Athenians, having a large sum of money in their treasury, the produce of the mines at Laureium, were about to share it among the full-grown citizens, who would have received ten drachmas apiece, when Themistocles persuaded them to forbear the distribution, and build with the money two hundred ships, to help them in their war against the .ginetans. It was the breaking out of the lEginetan War which was at this time the saving of Greece; for hereby were the Athenians forced to become a maritime Power. The new ships were not used for the purpose for which they had been built, but became a help to Greece in her hour of need [Salamis]."—Herodotus, Book VII., chap. 144.
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