The Twitter Herodotus

8.1 The Athenians contributed 127 ships to the allied Greek fleet. (The Plataeans joined their crews.) Corinth contributed 40, Sparta 10.

8.2 The Greeks had 271 triremes at Artemisium. Their leader was the Spartan Eurybiades: the allies refused to follow anyone but a Spartan.

8.3 Early on there'd been talk of the Athenians commanding by sea, but they withdrew any claim to leadership when the allies balked.

8.4 When the Greeks saw the no. of Persian ships at Aphetae they wanted to withdraw. The locals bribed Themistocles to make the Greeks stay.

8.5 Themistocles in turn used 8 of the 30 talents he'd been given to bribe Eurybiades and the Corinthian Adeimantus. He kept the rest.

8.6 So the Greeks stayed at Artemisium. The Persians wanted to fight, but they didn't want to give the Greeks a chance to flee to safety.

8.7 They sent 200 ships to sail clockwise around Euboea & block the Greeks from escaping to the south. The rest would attack from the front.

8.8 A diver named Scyllias deserted from the Persians. He made his way to Artemisium and told the Greeks about the ships sent around Euboea.

8.9 That afternoon the Greeks at Artemisium put to sea against the Persians, wanting to see how they fought and handled tactical maneuvers.

8.10 The Persians, seeing how few ships the Greeks had, were contemptuous. They sailed out and encircled the Greeks.