Here he sat upon the golden throne, with many scribes
standing near, whose duty it was to write down the events of the battle.
While Themistokles was sacrificing on the beach, beside the admiral's
ship, three most beautiful captive boys were brought to him, splendidly
adorned with gold and fine clothes. They were said to be the children of
Sandauke, the sister of Xerxes, and Artaeuktes. When Euphrantides the
prophet saw them, there shone at once from the victims on the altar a
great and brilliant flame, and at the same time some one was heard to
sneeze on the right hand, which is a good omen. Euphrantides now
besought Themistokles to sacrifice these young men as victims to
Dionysus, to whom human beings are sacrificed; so should the Greeks
obtain safety and victory. Themistokles was struck with horror at this
terrible proposal; but the multitude, who, as is natural with people in
great danger, hoped to be saved by miraculous rather than by ordinary
means, called upon the God with one voice, and leading the captives up
to the altar, compelled him to offer them up as the prophet bade him.
This story rests on the authority of Phanias of Lesbos, who was a man of
education, and well read in history.
XIV. As for the numbers of the Persian fleet, the poet Aeschylus, as
though he knew it clearly, writes as follows in his tragedy of the
Persae:
"And well I know a thousand sail
That day did Xerxes meet,
And seven and two hundred more,
The fastest of his fleet.
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