The eagle set him down upon this securely, and
he felt free from all terror and anxiety. After this he was sent away by
Nikogenes, who made use of the following device. Most barbarian nations,
and the Persians especially, are violently jealous in their treatment of
women. They guard not only their wives, but their purchased slaves and
concubines, with the greatest care, not permitting them to be seen by
any one out of doors, but when they are at home they lock them up, and
when they are on a journey they place them in waggons with curtains all
round them. Such a waggon was prepared for Themistokles, and he
travelled in it, his escort telling all whom they met that they were
conveying a Greek lady from Ionia to one of the king's courtiers.
XXVII. Thucydides and Charon of Lampsakus relate that Xerxes was now
dead, and that Themistokles gave himself up to his son; but Ephorus,
Deinon, Kleitarchus, Herakleides, and many others, say that it was to
Xerxes himself that he came. But the narrative of Thucydides agrees
better with the dates, although they are not thoroughly settled.
At this perilous crisis Themistokles first applied to Artabanus, a
chiliarch, or officer in command of a regiment of a thousand men, whom
he told that he was a Greek, and that he wished to have an interview
with the king about matters of the utmost importance, and in which the
king was especially interested.
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