Getting higher... The Athenians also consulted the Oracle when attacked by the Persians in 480. They got a response to 'hide behind your wooden walls'. Some thought this to be the wooden walls of the Acropolis. The statesman Themistocles saw an alternate meaning though - the Athenian navy. Those who followed him found victory at Salamis, those who stayed were defeated when the Persians razed the city.