Within a few days after the battle of Salamis Attica was delivered from the presence of the barbarians, and the Athenians returned to cultivate their fields and to repair their dwellings. The necessity of attending to their domestic concerns had been one of the main arguments by which Themistocles prevailed on them to desist from the pursuit of the Persian fleet. They now applied themselves to their useful labours with the greater alacrity, as they entertained a reasonable hope that their land would not again be visited by the ravages of the same invader. Sparta had been too late for Marathon, too late to save Athens; but now there was ample time for preparation, and full warning of the need. Though the enemy was yet formidable by land, still after the brilliant success that had hitherto attended the Greeks, after the example that had been given at Marathon, of what might be effected by a small number of brave and disciplined troops, it was not too much to expect that the allies would not again look on at a distance, while the barbarians overran the territory of a people which had done and suffered so much for the common cause. During the winter the Greeks remained tranquil, as if they had no enemy at their doors: but in the spring they awoke, like men who have slept upon an uneasy thought, and remembered that Mardonius was in Thessaly, and a Persian fleet still upon the sea.