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When at last a decision was reached by all to fight the sea-battle at Salamis, the Greeks set about making the preparations necessary to meet the Persians and the peril of battle. Accordingly Eurybiades, accompanied by Themistocles, undertook to encourage the crews and incite them to face the impending struggle. However, the crews would not heed them, but since they were one and all dismayed at the magnitude of the Persian forces, not a man of them paid any attention to his commander, every one being intent upon sailing from Salamis to the Peloponnesus. [2] And the army of the Greeks on land was no whit less terrified by the armament of the enemy, and not only the loss at Thermopylae of their most illustrious warriors caused them dismay, but also the disasters which were taking place in Attica before their very eyes were filling the Greeks with utter despair. [3] Meanwhile the members of the congress of the Greeks, observing the unrest of the masses and the dismay prevailing everywhere, voted to build a wall across the Isthmus. The works were completed speedily because of the enthusiasm and the multitude of those engaged in the task; but while the Peloponnesians were strengthening the wall, which extended a distance of forty stades, from Lechaeum to Cenchreae, the forces which were inactive at Salamis, together with the entire fleet, were so terror-stricken that they no longer obeyed the orders of their commanders.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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