‘We can’t go on like this,’ he said. ‘Can we agree that much? They’ll burn the city again and I don’t know if these people can find the will to rebuild a second time. We’ve already cut down every tree for a day’s march!’

‘So we send them out for two days, or three …’ Aristides said, half out of habit.

Themistocles shook his head.

‘To what end? Our one advantage is the fleet, but you know, the Persians have ships still, with their king. Will he be idle? Who knows? If they rebuild and return, we won’t be able to take our people to safety. We dealt them a terrible blow in the strait by Salamis, but what if they come back with a fleet in the spring? We’ll be exactly where we were when all this started! No, gentlemen, we need to break up this hunting pack. We need to be ruthless.’

‘I don’t think …’ Cimon began. He broke off immediately when Xanthippus held up a hand.

Themistocles felt his eyebrows rise. The brash young man had learned respect. Of course he had. If it hadn’t been his own idea to send Xanthippus to Sparta, Themistocles might have been annoyed at alliances formed away from his approval. Instead, he congratulated himself privately on making the right choice.

‘Let me hear Themistocles,’ Xanthippus said.

Cimon nodded and Themistocles shook his head at their serious expressions.

‘We are playing for the highest stakes,’ he went on. ‘Not just our lives and liberty, but everything we are – all we might be. If we can’t stop them, we lose Athens, Greece, our people. Gone. So when I say this, know that I do not take it lightly.’

‘Why are you smiling in that strange way, then?’ Aristides said.

‘Nerves and weariness,’ Themistocles replied, a little sharply. ‘To say these words to you three is a little much, even for me.’

He paused then, until at least one of them was ready to take him by the throat and force him to speak.

‘Gentlemen, we need to negotiate peace with Persia,’ Themistocles said at last, almost in a sigh.

‘I swear, I ought to have your tongue pulled out,’ Aristides snapped. ‘For my own peace of mind. If we didn’t need you … Do you think I have time for this foolishness? By the gods, I …’

‘Hear him out,’ Cimon said firmly.

Aristides blinked, astonished at an order from such a young man. Themistocles too was surprised to get support from such a source. He wondered how much of Cimon’s morning had been spent sucking on a wine-teat.

Cimon shrugged when he saw every eye was on him.

‘Well? Themistocles was the one who persuaded Xerxes to split his fleet and then run, wasn’t he? If this is another idea like those ones , it might be worth hearing. If not, we have lost only a little time.’