 Chapter 4 of Xerxes by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Dion Jain's Celtic City, Utah. Preparations for the invasion of Greece, BC 481. As soon as the invasion of Greece was finally decided upon, the orders were transmitted to all the provinces of the Empire, requiring the various authorities and powers to make the necessary preparations. There were men to be levied, arms to be manufactured, ships to be built, and stores of food to be provided. The expenditures of so vast an armament as Xerxes was intending to organize would require a large supply of money. For all these things, Xerxes relied on the revenues and the contributions of the provinces and orders. Very full and very imperative were transmitted accordingly to all the governors and set traps of Asia, and especially to those who ruled over the countries which lay near the western confines of the Empire and consequently near the Greek frontiers. In modern times, it is the practice of powerful nations to accumulate arms and munitions of war on storage in arsenals and naval depots so that the necessary supplies for very extended operations, whether of attack or defense, can be procured in a very short period of time. In respect to funds too, modern nations have a great advantage over those of former days in case of any sudden emergency arising to call for great and unusual expenditures, in consequence of the vast accumulation of capital in the hands of private individuals, and the confidence which is felt in the mercantile honor and good faith of most established governments at the present day, these governments can procure indefinite supplies of gold and silver at any time by promising to pay an annual interest in lieu of the principal borrowed. It is true that in these cases, a stipulation is made by which the government may, at a certain specified period, pay back the principal and so extinguish the annuity, but in respect to a vast portion of the amount so borrowed, it is not expected that this repayment will ever be made. The creditors in fact do not desire that it should be, as owners of property always prefer a safe annual income from it to the custody of the principal, and thus governments in good credit have sometimes induced their creditors to abate the rate of interest which they were receiving by threatening otherwise to pay the debt in full. These inventions, however, by which a government in one generation may enjoy the pleasure and reap the glory of waging war and throw the burden of the expense on another, were not known in ancient times. The Xerxes did not understand the art of funding a national debt, and there would besides have probably been very little confidence in Persian stocks, if any, had been issued. He had to raise all his funds by actual taxation and to have his arms and his ships and chariots of war manufactured express. The food to sustain the immense army, which he was to raise, was all to be produced and storehouses were to be built for the accumulation and custody of it. All this as might naturally be expected would require time, and the vastness of the scale on which these immense preparations were made is evidenced by the fact that four years were the time allotted for completing them. This period includes, however, a considerable time before the great debate on the subject described in the last chapter. The chief scene of activity during all this time was the tract of country in the western part of Asia Minor and along the shores of the Aegean Sea. Taxes and contributions were raised from all parts of the empire, but the actual material of war was furnished mainly from those provinces which were nearest to the future scene of it. Each district provided such things as it naturally and most easily produced. One contributed horses, another arms and ammunition, another ships, and another provisions. The ships which were built were of various forms and modes of construction according to the purposes which they were respectively intended to serve. Some were strictly ships of war intended for actual combat. Others were transports, their destination being simply the conveyance of troops or of military stores. There were also a large number of vessels which were built on a peculiar model prescribed by the engineers being very long and straight-sided and smooth and flat upon their decks. These were intended for the bridge across the Hell's Pond. They were made long so that when placed side by side across the stream, a greater breadth might be given to the platform of the bridge. All these things were very deliberately and carefully planned, although it was generally on the Asiatic side of the Aegean Sea that these vast works of preparation were going on. And the crossing of the Hell's Pond was to be the first great movement of the Persian army. The reader must not suppose that even at this time the European shores were wholly in the hands of the Greeks. The Persians had long before conquered Thrace and a part of Macedon, and thus the northern shores of the Aegean Sea and many of the islands were already in Xerxes' hands. The Greek dominions lay further south and Xerxes did not anticipate any opposition from the enemy until his army, after crossing the Strait, should have advanced to the neighborhood of Athens. In fact, all the northern country through which his route would lie was already in his hands, and in passing through it he anticipated no difficulties, except as should arise from the elements themselves and the physical obstacles of the way. The Hell's Pond itself was, of course, one principal point of danger. The difficulty here was to be surmounted by the bridge of boats. There was, however, another point which was, in some respects, still more formidable. It was the promontory of Mount Athos. By looking at the map of Greece placed at the commencement of the next chapter, the reader will see that there are two or three singular promontories jutting out from the mainland in the northwestern part of the Aegean Sea. The most northerly and the largest of these was formed by an immense mountainous mass rising out of the water and connected by a narrow isthmus with the mainland. The highest summit of this rocky pile was called Mount Athos in ancient times and is so marked upon the map. In modern days it is called Mount Santo, or Holy Mountain, being covered with monasteries and convents and other ecclesiastical establishments built in the Middle Ages. Mount Athos is very celebrated in ancient history. It extended along the promontory for many miles and terminated abruptly in lofty cliffs and precipices toward the sea, where it was so high that its shadow, as was said, was thrown at sunset across the water to the island of Lemnos, a distance of twenty leagues. It was a frightful specter in the eyes of the ancient navigators when, as they came coasting along from the north in their frail galleys on their voyages to Greece and Italy, they saw it frowning defiance to them as they came, with threatening clouds hanging upon its summit and the surges and surf of the Aegean perpetually thundering upon its base below. To make this stormy promontory the more terrible, it was believed to be the haunt of innumerable uncouth and misshapen monsters of the sea that lived by devouring the helpless semen who were thrown upon the rocks from their wrecked vessels by the merciless tumult of the waves. The plan which Xerxes had formed for the advance of his expedition was that the army which was to cross the hell's pond by the bridge should advance, fence through Macedonia and Thessaly by land, attended by a squadron of ships, transports and galleys, which was to accompany the expedition along the coast by sea. The men could be marched more conveniently to their place of destination by land. The stores on the other hand, the arms, the supplies and the baggage of every description could be transported more easily by sea. Mardonius was somewhat solicitous in respect to the safety of the great squadron which would be required for this latter service in doubling the promontory of Mount Athos. In fact, he had special and personal reason for his solicitude for he had himself some years before, met with a terrible disaster at this very spot. It was during the reign of Darius that this disaster occurred. On one of the expeditions which Darius had entrusted to his charge, he was conducting a very large fleet along the coast when a sudden storm arose just as he was approaching this terrible promontory. He was on the northern side of the promontory when the storm came on and as the wind was from the north, it blew directly upon the shore. For the fleet to make its escape from the impending danger, it seemed necessary therefore to turn the course of the ships back against the wind. But this on account of the sudden and terrific violence of the gale, it was impossible to do. The sails when they attempted to use them were blown away by the howling gusts and the oars were broken to pieces by the tremendous dashing of the sea. It soon appeared that the only hope of escape for the squadron was to press on in the desperate attempt to double the promontory and thus gain if possible the sheltered water under its lee. The galleys accordingly went on, the pilots and the seamen exerting their utmost to keep them away from the shore. All their efforts, however, to do this were vain. The merciless gales drove the vessels one after another upon the rocks and dashed them to pieces while the raging sea wrenched the wretched mariners from the wrecks to which they attempted to cling and tossed them out into the boiling whirlpools around to the monsters that were ready there to devour them, as if she were herself some ferocious monster feeding her offspring with their proper prey. A few it is true of the hapless riches succeeded in extricating themselves from the surf by crawling up upon the rocks through the tangled seaweed until they were above the reach of the surges. But when they had done so, they found themselves hopelessly imprisoned between the impending precipices which frowned above them and the frantic billows which were raging and roaring below. They gained, of course, by their apparent escape only a brief prolongation of suffering for they all soon miserably perished from exhaustion, exposure and cold. Mardonius had no desire to encounter this danger again. Now the promontory of Mount Athos, though high and rocky itself, was connected with the mainland by an itsmus level and low and not very broad. Xerxes determined on cutting a canal through this itsmus so as to take his fleet of galleys across the neck and thus avoid the stormy navigation of the outward passage. Such a canal would be of service not merely for the passage of the Great Fleet, but for the constant communication which it would be necessary for Xerxes to maintain with his own dominions during the whole period of the invasion. It might have been expected that the Greeks would have interfered to prevent the execution of such a work as this, but it seems that they did not, and yet there was a considerable Greek population in that vicinity. The promontory of Athos itself was quite extensive, being about 30 miles long and four or five wide, and it had several towns upon it. The canal which Xerxes was to cut across the neck of this peninsula was to be wide enough for two triremes to pass each other. Triremes were galleys propelled by three banks of oars and were vessels of the largest class ordinarily employed, and as the oars by which they were impelled required almost as great a breath of water as the vessels themselves, the canal was consequently to be very wide. The engineers accordingly laid out the ground and marking the boundaries by stakes and lines as guides to the workmen. The excavation was commenced. Immense numbers of men were set at work, arranged regularly in gangs according to the various nations which furnished them. As the excavation gradually proceeded and the trench began to grow deep, they placed ladders against the sides and stationed a series of men upon them. Then the earth dug from the bottom was hauled up from one to another in a sort of basket or hod until it reached the top where it was taken by other men and conveyed away. The work was very much interrupted and impeded in many parts of the line by the continual caving in of the banks on account of the workmen attempting to dig perpendicularly down. In one section, the one which had been assigned to the Phoenicians, this difficulty did not occur. For the Phoenicians, more considerate than the rest, had taken the precaution to make the breadth of their part of the trench twice as great at the top as it was below. By this means the banks on each side were formed to a gradual slope and consequently stood firm. The canal was at length completed and the water was let in. North of the promontory of Mount Athos, the reader will find upon the map the river Strymon flowing south, not far from the boundary between Macedon and Thrace into the Aegean Sea. The army of Xerxes in its march from the Hell's Pond would, of course, have to cross this river and Xerxes having, by cutting the canal across the ithsmus of Mount Athos, removed an obstacle in the way of his fleet, resolved next to facilitate the progress of his army by bridging the Strymon. The king also ordered a great number of granaries and storehouses to be built at various points along the route which it was intended that his army should pursue. Some of these were on the coasts of Macedonia and Thrace and some on the banks of the Strymon. To these magazines the corn raised in Asia for the use of the expedition was conveyed from time to time in transport ships as fast as it was ready and being safely deposited was protected by a guard. No very extraordinary means of defense seems to have been thought necessary at these points, for although the scene of all these preliminary arrangements was on the European side of the line and in what was called Greek territory, still this part of the country had been long under Persian dominion. The independent states and cities of Greece were all further south and the people who inhabited them did not seem disposed to interrupt these preparations. Perhaps they were not aware to what object and end all these formidable movements on their northern frontier were tending. The worksies during all this time had remained in Persia. The period at length arrived when his preparations on the frontiers being far advanced toward completion he concluded to move forward at the head of his forces to Sardis. Sardis was the great capital of the western part of his dominions and was situated not far from the frontier. He accordingly assembled his forces and taking leave of his capital of Sousa with much parade and many ceremonies he advanced toward Asia Minor. Entering and traversing Asia Minor he crossed the Halus which had been in former times the western boundary of the empire though its limits had now been extended very far beyond. Having crossed the Halus the immense procession advanced into Phrygia. A very romantic tale is told of an interview between Xerxes and a certain nobleman named Pytheas who resided in one of the Phrygian towns. The circumstances were these. After crossing the Halus which river flows north into the Euxene Sea the army went on to the westward through nearly the whole extent of Phrygia until at length. They came to the sources of the streams which flowed west into the Euxene Sea. One of the most remarkable of these rivers was the meander. There was a town built exactly at the source of the meander so exactly in fact that the fountain from which the stream took its rise was situated in the public square of the town walled in and ornamented like an artificial fountain in a modern city. The name of this town was Selene. When the army reached Selene and encamped there Pytheas made a great entertainment for the officers which as the number was very large was of course attended with an enormous expense. Not satisfied with this Pytheas sent word to the king that if he was in any respect in want of funds for his approaching campaign he Pytheas would take great pleasure in supplying him. Xerxes was surprised at such proofs of wealth and munificence from a man in comparatively a private station. He inquired of his attendants who Pytheas was. They replied that next to Xerxes himself he was the richest man in the world. They said moreover that he was as generous as he was rich. He had made Darius a present of a beautiful model of a fruit tree and of a vine of solid gold. He was by birth they added a Lydian. Lydia was west of Phrygia and was famous for its wealth. The river Pectilus which was so celebrated for its golden sands flowed through the country and as the princes and nobles contrived to monopolize the treasures which were found both in the river itself and in the mountains from which it flowed some of them became immensely wealthy. Xerxes was astonished at the accounts which he heard of Pytheas's fortune. He sent for him and asked him what was the amount of his treasures. This was rather an ominous question for under such despotic governments as those of the Persian kings. The only real safeguard of wealth was often the concealment of it. Inquiry on the part of a government in respect to treasures accumulated by a subject was often only a preliminary to the seizure and confiscation of them. Pytheas, however, in reply to the king's question, said that he had no hesitation in giving his majesty full information in respect to his fortune. He had been making, he said, a careful calculation of the amount of it with a view of determining how much he could offer to contribute in aid of the Persian campaign. He found, he said, that he had two thousand talents of silver and four millions wanting seven thousand of stators of gold. The stator was a Persian coin. Even if we knew at the present day its exact value, we could not determine the precise amount denoted by the sum which Pytheas named. The value of money being subject to such vast fluctuations in different ages of the world. Scholars who have taken an interest in inquiring into such points as these have come to the conclusion that the amount of gold and silver coin which Pytheas thus reported to Xerxes was equal to about 30 millions of dollars. Pytheas added, after stating the amount of the gold and silver which he had at command, that it was all at the service of the king for the purpose of carrying on the war. He had, he said, besides his money, slaves and farms enough for his own maintenance. Xerxes was extremely gratified at this generosity and at the proof which it afforded of the interest which Pytheas felt in the cause of the king. You are the only man, said he, who has offered hospitality to me or to my army since I set out upon this march. And in addition to your hospitality, you tender me your whole fortune. I will not, however, deprive you of your treasure. I will, on the contrary, order my treasurer to pay to you the 7000 starters necessary to make your four millions complete. I offer you also my friendship and will do anything in my power now and hereafter to serve you. Continue to live in the enjoyment of your fortune. If you always act under the influence of the noble and generous impulses which govern you now, you will never cease to be prosperous and happy. If we could end the account of Pytheas and Xerxes here, what generous and noble-minded men we might suppose them to be. But alas, how large a portion of the apparent generosity and nobleness which shows itself among potentates and kings turns into selfishness and hypocrisy when closely examined. Pytheas was one of the most merciless tyrants that ever lived. He held all the people that lived upon his vast estates in a condition of abject slavery, compelling them to toil continually in his minds in destitution and wretchedness in order to add more and more to his treasures. The people came to his wife with their bitter complaints. She pitied them but could not relieve them. One day it is said that in order to show her husband the vanity and folly of living only to amass silver and gold and to convince him how little real power such treasures have to satisfy the wants of the human soul, she made him a great entertainment in which there was a boundless profusion of wealth in the way of vessels and furniture of silver and gold, but scarcely any food. There was everything to satisfy the eye with the sight of magnificence but nothing to satisfy hunger. The noble guest sat starving in the midst of a scene of unexampled riches and splendor because it was not possible to eat silver and gold. And as for Xerxes's professions of gratitude and friendship for Pytheas, they were put to the test a short time after the transactions which we have above described in a remarkable manner. Pytheas had five sons. They were all in Xerxes's army. By their departure on the distant and dangerous expedition on which Xerxes was to lead them, their father would be left alone. Pytheas, under these circumstances, resolved to venture so far on the sincerity of his sovereign's professions of regard as to request permission to retain one of his sons at home with his father on condition of freely giving up the rest. Xerxes, on hearing this proposal, was greatly enraged. How dare you, said he, come to me with such a demand. You and all that pertain to you are my slaves and are bound to do my bidding without a murmur. You deserve the severest punishment for such an insolent request. In consideration, however, of your past good behavior, I will not inflict upon you what you deserve. I will only kill one of your sons, the one that you seem to cling to so fondly. I will spare the rest. So, saying the enraged king ordered the son whom Pytheas had endeavored to retain to be slain before his eyes and then directed that the dead body should be split in two and the two halves thrown, the one on the right side of the road and the other on the left, that his army, as he said, might march between them. Unleaving Phrygia, the army moved on toward the west. Their immediate destination, as has already been said, was Sardis, where they were to remain until the ensuing spring. The historian mentions a number of objects of interest which attracted the attention of Xerxes and his officers on this march, which mark the geographical peculiarities of the country or illustrate in some degree the ideas and manners of the times. There was one town, for example, situated not like Selene, where a river had its origin, but where one disappeared. The stream was a branch of the meander. It came down from the mountains, like any other mountain torrent, and then, at the town in question, it plunged suddenly down into a gulf or chasm and disappeared. It rose again at a considerable distance below and thence flowed on without any further evasions to the meander. On the confines between Phrygia and Lydia, the army came to a place where the road divided. One branch turned toward the north and led to Lydia, the other inclined to the south and conducted to Caria. Here, too, on the frontier was a monument which had been erected by Xerxes, the great king of Lydia, who lived in Cyrus's day, to mark the eastern boundaries of his kingdom. The Persians were, of course, much interested in looking upon this ancient landmark, which designated not only the eastern limit of Croesus's empire, but also what was, in ancient times, the western limit of their own. There was a certain species of tree which grew in these countries called the plain tree. Xerxes found one of these trees so large and beautiful that it attracted his special admiration. He took possession of it in his own name and adorned it with golden chains and set a guard over it. This idolization of a tree was a striking instance of the childish caprice and folly by which the actions of the ancient despots were so often governed. As the army advanced, they came to other places of interest and objects of curiosity and wonder. There was a district where the people made a sort of artificial honey from grain and a lake from which the inhabitants procured salt by evaporation and mines, too, of silver and of gold. These objects interested and amused the minds of the Persians as they moved along, without, however, at all retarding or interrupting their progress. In due time they reached the great city of Sardis in safety and here Xerxes established his headquarters and awaited the coming of spring. In the meantime, however, he sent heralds into Greece to summon the country to surrender to him. This is a common formality when an army is about to attack either a town, a castle, or a kingdom. Xerxes's heralds crossed the Aegean Sea and made their demands in Xerxes's name upon the Greek authorities. As might have been expected, the embassage was fruitless and the heralds returned bringing with them from the Greeks, not acts or proffers of submission, but stern expressions of hostility and defiance. Nothing, of course, now remained, but that both parties should prepare for the impending crisis. End of chapter 4. Chapter 5 of Xerxes by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Dion Jain's Salt Lake City, Utah. Crossing the Hell's Pond, B.C. 480. Although the ancient Asia Minor was in the same latitude as New York, there was yet very little winter there. Snows fell, indeed, upon the summits of the mountains, and ice formed occasionally upon quiet streams, and yet, in general, the imaginations of the inhabitants informing mental images of frost and snow sought them not in their own winters, but in the cold and icy regions of the north, of which, however, scarcely anything was known to them except what was disclosed by wild and exaggerated rumors and legends. There was, however, a period of blustering winds and chilly rains, which was called winter, and Xerxes was compelled to wait before commencing his invasion until the inclement season had passed. As it was, he did not wholly escape the disastrous effects of the wintery gales. A violent storm arose while he was at Sardis and broke up the bridge, which he had built across the Hell's Pond. When the tidings of this disaster were brought to Xerxes at his winter quarters, he was very much enraged. He was angry both with the sea for having destroyed the structure and with the architects who had built it for not having made it strong enough to stand against its fury. He determined to punish both the waves and the workmen. He ordered the sea to be scorched with a monstrous whip and directed that heavy chains should be thrown into it as symbols of his defiance of its power and of his determination to subject it to his control. The men who administered this senseless discipline cried out to the sea as they did it in the following words which Xerxes had dictated to them. Miserable monster, this is the punishment which Xerxes, your master, inflicts upon you on account of the unprovoked and wanton injury you have done him. Be assured that he will pass over you whether you will or know. He hates and defies you, object as you are, through your insatiable cruelty and the nauseous bitterness of your waters of the common abomination of mankind. As for the men who had built the bridge which had been found thus inadequate to withstand the force of a wintery tempest, he ordered every one of them to be beheaded. The vengeance of the king being thus satisfied, a new set of engineers and workmen were designated and ordered to build another bridge. Knowing as, of course, they now did that their lives depended upon the stability of their structure, they omitted no possible precaution which could tend to secure it. They selected the strongest ships and arranged them in positions which would best enable them to withstand the pressure of the current. Each vessel was secured in its place by strong anchors placed scientifically in such a manner as to resist, to the best advantage, the force of the strain to which they would be exposed. There were two ranges of these vessels extending from shore to shore containing over 300 in each. In each range, one or two vessels were omitted on the Asiatic side to allow boats and galleys to pass through in order to keep the communication open. These omissions did not interfere with the use of the bridge as the superstructure and the roadway above was continued over them. The vessels which were to serve for the foundation of the bridge being thus arranged and secured in their places, two immense cables were made and stretched from shore to shore, each being fastened at the ends securely to the banks and resting in the middle on the decks of the vessels. For the fastenings of these cables on the shore, there were immense piles driven into the ground and huge rings attached to the piles. The cables as they passed along the decks of the vessels over the water were secured to them all by strong cordage so that each vessel was firmly and indissolubly bound to all the rest. Over these cables, a platform was made of trunks of trees with branches placed upon them to fill the interstices and level the surface. The hole was then covered with a thick stratum of earth which made a firm and substantial road like that of a public highway. A high and close fence was also erected on each side so as to shut off the view of the water which might otherwise alarm the horses and the beasts of burden that were to cross with the army. When the news was brought to Xerxes at Sardis that the bridge was completed and that all things were ready for the passage, he made arrangements for commencing his march. A circumstance, however, here occurred that at first alarmed him. It was no less a phenomenon than an eclipse of the sun. Eclipses were considered in those days as extraordinary and supernatural omens and Xerxes was naturally anxious to know what this sudden darkness was meant to portend. He directed the Magi to consider the subject and to give him their opinion. Their answer was that as the sun was the guardian divinity of the Greeks and the moon that of the Persians, the meaning of the sudden withdrawal of the light of day, doubtless was that heaven was about to withhold its protection from the Greeks in the approaching struggle. Xerxes was satisfied with this explanation and the preparations for the march went on. The movement of the grand procession from the city of Sardis was inconceivably splendid. First came the long trains of baggage on mules and camels and horses and other beasts of burden attended by the drivers and the men who had the baggage in charge. Next came an immense body of troops of all nations marching irregularly but under the command of the proper officers. And after a considerable interval came a body of a thousand horse splendidly comparisoned and followed by a thousand spearmen who marched trailing their spears upon the ground in token of respect and submission to the king who was coming behind them. Next to these troops and immediately in advance of the king were certain religious and sacred objects and personages on which the people who gazed upon this gorgeous spectacle looked with the utmost awe and veneration. There were first ten sacred horses splendidly comparisoned each led by his groom who was clothed in appropriate robes as a sort of priest officiating in the service of a god. Behind these came the sacred car of Jupiter. This car was very large and elaborately worked and was profusely ornamented with gold. It was drawn by eight white horses. No human being was allowed to set his foot upon any part of it and consequently the reins of the horses were carried back under the car to the charioteer who walked behind. Xerxes own chariot came next drawn by very splendid horses selected especially for their size and beauty. His charioteer, a young Persian noble, sat by his side. Then came great bodies of troops. There was one corps of two thousand men, the lifeguards of the king who were armed in a very splendid and costly manner to designate their high rank in the army and the exalted nature of their duty as personal attendants on the sovereign. One thousand of these lifeguards were foot soldiers and the other thousand horsemen. After the lifeguards came a body of ten thousand infantry and after them ten thousand cavalry. This completed what was strictly the Persian part of the army. There was an interval of about a quarter of a mile in the rear of these bodies of troops and then came a vast and countless multitude of servants, attendants, adventurers and camp followers of every description. A confused, promiscuous, disorderly and noisy throng. The immediate destination of this vast horde was Abidos for it was between Cestos on the European shore and Abidos on the Asiatic that the bridge had been built. To reach Abidos the route was north through the province of Misia. In their progress the guides of the army kept well inland so as to avoid the indentations of the coast and the various small rivers which here flow westward toward the sea. As advancing the army passed to the right of Mount Ida and arrived at last on the bank of this scamander here they encamped. They were upon the plain of Troy. The world was filled in those days with the glory of the military exploits which had been performed some ages before in the siege and capture of Troy. And it was the custom for every military hero who passed the site of the city to pause in his march and spend some time amid the scenes of those ancient conflicts that he might in spirit and invigorate his own ambition by the association of the spot and also render suitable honors to the memories of those that fell there. Xerxes did this. Alexander subsequently did it. Xerxes examined the various localities, ascended the ruins of the citadel of Priam, walked over the ancient battlefields and at length when his curiosity had thus been satisfied he ordered a grand sacrifice of a thousand oxen to be made and a libation of corresponding magnitude to be offered in honor of the shades of the dead heroes whose deeds had consecrated the spot. Whatever excitement and exhilaration however Xerxes himself may have felt in approaching under these circumstances the transit of the stream where the real labors and dangers of his expedition were to commence his miserable and helpless soldiers did not share them. Their condition and prospects were wretched in the extreme. In the first place none of them went willingly. In modern times at least in England and America armies are recruited by enticing the depraved and the miserable to enlist by tendering them a bounty as it is called that is a sum of ready money which as a means of temporary and often vicious pleasure presents a temptation they cannot resist. The act of enlistment is however in a sense voluntary so that those who have homes and friends and useful pursuits in which they are peacefully engaged are not disturbed. It was not so with the soldiers of Xerxes. They were slaves and had been torn from their rural homes all over the empire by a merciless conscription from which there was no possible escape. Their life in camp too was comfortless and rigid. At the present day when it is so much more difficult than it then was to obtain soldiers and when so much more time and attention are required to train them to their work in the modern art of war soldiers must be taken care of when obtained. But in Xerxes day it was much easier to get new supplies of recruits than to incur any great expense in providing for the health and comfort of those already in the service. The arms and trappings it is true of such troops as were in immediate attendance on the king were very splendid and gay. Though this was only decoration after all and the king's decoration too not theirs in respect however to everything like personal comfort whether of food and of clothing or the means of shelter and repose the common soldiers were utterly destitute and wretched. They felt no interest in the campaign. They had nothing to hope for from its success but a continuance if their lives were spared of the same miserable bondage which they had always endured. There was however little probability even of this for whether in the case of such an invasion the aggressor was to succeed or to fail the destiny of the soldiers personally was almost inevitable destruction. The mass of Xerxes army was thus a mere herd of slaves driven along by the whips of their officers reluctant wretched and despairing. This helpless mass was overtaken one night among the gloomy and rugged defiles and passes of Mount Ida by a dreadful storm of wind and rain accompanied by thunder and lightning. Unprovided as they were with the means of protection against such tempests they were thrown into confusion and spent the night in terror. Great numbers perished struck by the lightning or exhausted by the cold and exposure. And afterward when they encamped on the plains of Troy near the Scamander the whole of the water of the stream was not enough to supply the wants of the soldiers and the immense herds of beasts of burden so that many thousands suffered severely from thirst. All these things conspired greatly to depress the spirits of the men so that at last when they arrived in the vicinity of Apodos the whole army was in a state of extreme dejection and despair. This however was of little consequence. The repose of a master so despotic and lofty as Xerxes is very little disturbed by the mental sorrows of his slaves. Xerxes reached Apodos and prepared to make the passage of the Strait in a manner worthy of the grandeur of the occasion. The first thing was to make arrangements for a great parade of his forces not apparently for the purpose of accomplishing any useful and of military organization in the arrangement of the troops but to gratify the pride and pleasure of the sovereign with an opportunity of surveying them. A great white throne of marble was accordingly erected on an eminence not far from the shore of the health pond from which Xerxes looked down with great complacency and pleasure. On the one hand upon the long lines of troops the countless squadrons of horsemen the ranges of tents and the vast herds of beasts of burden which were assembled on the land and on the other hand upon the fleets of ships. And boats and galleys at anchor upon the sea while the shores of Europe were smiling in the distance and the long and magnificent roadway which he had made lay floating upon the water all ready to take his enormous armament across whenever he should issue the command. Any deep emotion of the human soul in persons of a sensitive physical organization tends to tears and Xerxes heart being filled with exultation and pride and with a sense of inexpressible grandeur and sublimity as he looked upon this scene was softened by the pleasurable excitements of the hour. And though at first his countenance was beaming with satisfaction and pleasure his uncle Artibonus who stood by his side soon perceived that tears were standing in his eyes. Artibonus asked him what this meant. It made him sad Xerxes replied to reflect that immensely vast as the countless multitude before him was in 100 years from that time not one of them all would be alive. The tender heartedness which Xerxes manifested on this occasion taken in connection with the stern and unrelenting tyranny which he was exercising over the mighty mass of humanity whose mortality he mourned has drawn forth a great variety of comments from writers of every age who have repeated the story. Artibonus replied to it on the spot by saying that he did not think that the king ought to give himself too much uneasiness on the subject of human liability to death. For it happened in a vast number of cases that the privations and sufferings of men were so great that often in the course of their lives they rather wished to die than to live. And that death was consequently in some respects to be regarded not as in itself a woe but rather as the relief and remedy for woe. There is no doubt that this theory of Artibonus so far as it applied to the unhappy soldiers of Xerxes all marshaled before him when he uttered it was eminently true. Xerxes admitted that what his uncle said was just but it was he said a melancholy subject and so he changed the conversation. He asked his uncle whether he still entertained the same doubts and fears in respect to the expedition that he had expressed at Sousa when the plan was first proposed in the council. Artibonus replied that he most sincerely hoped that the prognostications of the vision would prove true but that he still had great apprehensions of the result. I have been reflecting continued he with great care on the whole subject and it seems to me that there are two dangers of very serious character to which your expedition will be imminently exposed. Xerxes wished to know what they were. They both arise said Artibonus from the immense magnitude of your operations. In the first place you have so large a number of ships galleys and transports in your fleet that I do not see how when you have gone down upon the Greek coast if a storm should arise you are going to find shelter for them. There are no harbors there large enough to afford anchorage ground for such an immense number of vessels and what is the other danger asked Xerxes the other is the difficulty of finding food for such a vast multitude of men as you have brought together in your armies. The quantity of food necessary to supply such countless numbers is almost incalculable your granaries and magazines will soon be exhausted and then as no country whatever that you can pass through will have resources of food adequate for such a multitude of mouths. It seems to me that your march must inevitably end in a famine the less resistance you meet with and the further you consequently advance the worse it will be for you. I do not see how this fatal result can possibly be avoided and so uneasy and anxious am I on the subject that I have no rest or peace. I admit said Xerxes in reply that what you say is not wholly unreasonable but in great undertakings it will never do to take counsel wholly of our fears. I am willing to submit to a very large portion of the evils to which I expose myself on this expedition rather than not accomplished the end which I have in view. Besides the most prudent and cautious councils are not always the best he who hazards nothing gains nothing. I have always observed that in all the affairs of human life those who exhibit some enterprise and courage in what they undertake are far more likely to be successful than those who weigh everything and consider everything and will not advance where they can see any remote prospect of danger. If my predecessors had acted on the principles which you recommend the Persian Empire would never have acquired the greatness to which it has now attained in continuing to act on the same principles which govern them. I confidently expect the same success. We shall conquer Europe and then return in peace I feel assured without encountering the famine which you dread so much or any other great calamity. On hearing these words and observing how fixed and settled the determinations of Xerxes were Artabanus said no more on the general subject but on one point he ventured to offer his counsel to his nephew and that was on the subject of employing the Ionians in the war. The Ionians were Greeks by descent. Their ancestors had crossed the Aegean Sea and settled at various places along the coast of Asia Minor in the western part of the provinces of Karya, Lydia, and Misia. Artabanus thought it was dangerous to take these men to fight against their countrymen. However faithfully disposed they might be in commencing the enterprise a thousand circumstances might occur to shake their fidelity and lead them to revolt. When they found themselves in the land of their forefathers and heard the enemies against whom they had been brought to contend speaking their own mother tongue. Xerxes however was not convinced by Artabanus' arguments. He thought that the employment of the Ionians was perfectly safe. They had been eminently faithful and firm. He said under Histiaeus in the time of Darius's invasion of Scythia when Darius had left them to guard his bridge over the Danube they had proved themselves trustworthy then and he would he said accordingly trust them now. Besides he added they have left their property their wives and their children and all else that they hold dear in our hands in Asia and they will not dare while we retain such hostages to do anything against us. Xerxes said however that since Artabanus was so much concerned in respect to the result of the expedition he should not be compelled to accompany it any further but that he might return to Sousa instead and take charge of the government there until Xerxes should return. A part of the celebration on the great day of Parade on which this conversation between the king and his uncle was held consisted of a naval sea fight waged on the hell's pond between two of the nations of his army for the king's amusement. The Phoenicians were the victors in this combat. Xerxes was greatly delighted with the combat and in fact with the whole of the magnificent spectacle which the day had displayed. Soon after this Xerxes dismissed Artabanus ordering him to return to Sousa and to assume the regency of the empire. He convened also another general council of the nobles of his court and the officers of the army to announce to them that the time had arrived for crossing the bridge and to make his farewell address to them before they should take their final departure from Asia. He exhorted them to enter upon the great work before them with a determined and resolute spirit saying that if the Greeks were once subdued no other enemies able at all to cope with the Persians would be left on the habitable globe. On the dismissal of the council orders were given to commence the crossing of the bridge the next day at sunrise. The preparations were made accordingly in the morning as soon as it was light and while waiting for the rising of the sun they burned upon the bridge all manner of perfumes and strewed the way with branches of myrtle the emblem of triumph and joy. As the time for the rising of the sun drew nigh Xerxes stood with a golden vessel full of wine which he was to pour out as a libation as soon as the first dazzling beams should appear above the horizon. When at length the moment arrived he poured out the wine into the sea throwing the vessel in which it had been contained after it as an offering. He also threw in at the same time a golden goblet of great value and a Persian cimeter. The ancient historian who records these facts was uncertain whether these offerings were intended as acts of adoration addressed to the sun or as ablations presented to the sea a sort of peace offering perhaps to soothe the feelings of the mighty monster irritated and chafed by the chest which it had previously received. One circumstance indicated that the offering was intended for the sun for at the time of making it Xerxes addressed to the great luminary a sort of petition which might be considered either an apostrophe or a prayer employing its protection. Then he called upon the sun to accompany and defend the expedition and to preserve it from every calamity until it should have accomplished its mission of subjecting all Europe to the Persian sway. The army then commenced its march. The order of March was very much the same as that which had been observed in the departure from Sardis. The beasts of burden and the baggage were preceded and followed by immense bodies of troops of all nations. The whole of the first day was occupied by the passing of this part of the army. Xerxes himself and the sacred portion of the train were to follow them on the second day. Accordingly there came on the second day first and immense squadron of horse with garlands on the heads of the horsemen. Next the sacred horses and the sacred car of Jupiter. Then came Xerxes himself in his war chariot with trumpet sounding and banners waving in the air. At the moment when Xerxes' chariot entered upon the bridge the fleet of galleys which had been drawn up in preparation near the Asiatic shore were set in motion and moved in a long and majestic line across the strait to the European side accompanying and keeping pace with their mighty master in his progress. Thus was spent the second day. Five more days were consumed in getting over the remainder of the army and the immense trains of beasts and of baggage which followed. The officers urged the work forward as rapidly as possible and toward the end as is always the case in the movement of such enormous masses. It became a scene of inconceivable noise, terror, and confusion. The officers drove forward men and beasts alike by the lashes of their whips. Everyone struggling under the influence of such stimulants to get forward while fallen animals, broken wagons, and the bodies of those exhausted and dying with excitement and fatigue choked the way. The mighty mass was, however, at last transferred to the European continent, full of anxious fears in respect to what awaited them, but yet having very faint and feeble conceptions of the awful scenes in which the Enterprise of their reckless leader was to end. Recording by Dion Giants, Salt Lake City, Utah. The review of the troops at Doriscus, B.C. 480. As soon as the expedition of Xerxes had crossed the Hell's Pond and arrived safely on the European side as narrated in the last chapter, it became necessary for the fleet and the army to separate and to move for a time in opposite directions from each other. The reader will observe, by examining the map, that the army on reaching the European shore, at the point to which they would be conducted by a bridge at Apidos, would find themselves in the middle of a long and narrow peninsula called the Chersonesis. And that, before commencing its regular march along the northern coast of the Aegean Sea, it would be necessary first to proceed for 15 or 20 miles to the eastward in order to get round the bay by which the peninsula is bounded on the north and west. While, therefore, the fleet went directly westward along the coast, the army turned to the eastward, a place of rendezvous having been appointed on the northern coast of the sea, where they were all soon to meet again. The army moved on by a slow and toilsome progress until it reached the neck of the peninsula, and then turning at the head of the bay, it moved westward again, following the direction of the coast. The line of march was, however, laid at some distance from the shore, partly for the sake of avoiding the indentations made in the land by gulfs and bays, and partly for the sake of crossing the streams from the interior at points so far inland that the water found in them should be fresh and pure. Notwithstanding these precautions, however, the water often failed, so immense were the multitudes of men and of beasts, and so craving was the thirst which the heat and the fatigues of the march engendered that in several instances they drank the little river's dry. The first great and important river which the army had to pass after entering Europe was the Hebrus, not far from the mouth of the Hebrus, where it emptied into the Aegean Sea, was a great plain which was called the plain of Doriscus. There was an extensive fortress here which had been erected by the orders of Darius when he had subjugated this part of the country. The position of this fortress was an important one because it commanded the whole region watered by the Hebrus, which was a very fruitful and populist district. Xerxes had been intending to have a grand review and enumeration of his forces on entering the European territories, and he judged Doriscus to be a very suitable place for his purpose. He could establish his own headquarters in the fortress while his armies could be marshaled and reviewed on the plain. The fleet too had been ordered to draw up to the shore at the same spot, and when the army reached the ground they found the vessels already in the offing. The army accordingly halted, and the necessary arrangements were made for the review. The first thing was to ascertain the numbers of the troops, and as the soldiers were too numerous to be counted Xerxes determined to measure the mighty mass as so much bulk, and then ascertain the numbers by a computation. They made the measure itself in the following manner. They counted off first ten thousand men, and brought them together in a compact circular mass in the middle of the plain, and then marked a line upon the ground enclosing them. Upon this line, thus determined, they built a stone wall about four feet high with openings on opposite sides of it by which men might enter and go out. When the wall was built, soldiers were sent into the enclosure just as corn would be poured by a husband man into a wooden pack until it was full. The mass thus required to fill the enclosure was deemed and taken to be ten thousand men. This was the first filling of the measure. These men were then ordered to retire, and a fresh mass was introduced, and so on, until the whole army was measured. The enclosure was filled one hundred and seventy times with the foot soldiers before the process was completed, indicating as the total amount of the infantry of the army, a force of one million seven hundred thousand men. This enumeration, it must be remembered, included the land forces alone. This method of measuring the army in bulk was applied only to the foot soldiers. They constituted the great mass of the forces convened. There were, however, various other bodies of troops in the army, which, from their nature, were more systematically organized than the common foot soldiers. And so their numbers were known by the regular enrollment. There was, for example, a cavalry force of eighty thousand men. There was also a corps of Arabs on camels and another of Egyptians in war chariots, which together amounted to twenty thousand. Then, besides these land forces, there were half a million of men in the fleet. Immense as these numbers are, they were still further increased as the army moved on by Xerxes's system of compelling the forces of every kingdom and province through which he passed to join the expedition. So that at length, when the Persian king fairly entered the heart of the Greek territory, Herodotus, the great narrator of his history in summing up the whole number of men regularly connected with the army, makes a total of about five millions of men. One hundred thousand men, which is about one fiftieth part of five millions, is considered in modern times an immense army. And in fact, half even of that number was thought in the time of the American Revolution, a sufficient force to threaten the colonies with overwhelming destruction. If ten thousand men will not do to put down the rebellion, said an order in the House of Commons, fifty thousand shall. Herodotus adds that besides the five millions regularly connected with the army, there was an immense and promiscuous mass of women, slaves, cooks, bakers, and camp followers of every description. That no human powers could estimate or number. But to return to the review, the numbers of the army having been ascertained, the next thing was to marshal and arrange the men by nations under their respective leaders to be reviewed by the king. A very full enumeration of these divisions of the army is given by the historians of the day with minute descriptions of the kind of armor which the troops of the several nations wore. There were more than fifty of these nations in all. Some of them were highly civilized, others were semi-barbarous tribes, and of course they presented, as marshaled in long array upon the plain, every possible variety of dress and equipment. Some were armed with brazen helmets and coats of mail formed of plates of iron. Others wore linen tunics or rude garments made of the skins of beasts. The troops of one nation had their heads covered with helmets, those of another with miters, and of a third with tiaras. There was one strange looking horde that had caps made of the skin of the upper part of a horse's head in its natural form, with the ears standing up erect at the top and the mane flowing down behind. These men held the skins of cranes before them instead of shields so that they looked like horned monsters, half-beast and half-bird, endeavoring to assume the guise and attitude of men. There was another corps whose men were really horned since they wore caps made from the skins of the heads of oxen with the horns standing. Wild beasts were personated too as well as tame, for some nations were clothed in lion skins and others in panther's skins. The clothing being considered apparently the more honorable in proportion to the ferocity of the brute to which it had originally belonged. The weapons too were of every possible form and guise. Spears, some pointed with iron, some with stone, and others shaped simply by being burned to a point in the fire. Bows and arrows of every variety of material and form. Swords, daggers, slings, clubs, darts, javelins, and every other imaginable species of weapon which human ingenuity, savage, or civilized had then conceived. Even the lasso, the weapon of the American Aborigines of modern times, was there. It is described by the ancient historian as a long thong of leather wound into a coil and finished in a noose at the end, which noose the rude warrior who used the implement launched through the air at the enemy, and entangling rider and horse together by means of it brought them both to the ground. There was every variety of taste too in the fashion and the colors of the dresses which were worn. Some were of artificial fabrics and dyed in various and splendid hues. Some were very plain, the wearers of them affecting a simple and savage ferocity in the fashion of their vesture. Some tribes had painted skins, beauty in their view consisting apparently in hideousness. There was one barbarian horde who wore very little clothing of any kind. They had naughty clubs for weapons and in lieu of a dress they had painted their naked bodies half white and half a bright vermilion. In all this vast array the corps which stood at the head in respect to their rank and the costliness and elegance of their equipment was a Persian squadron of ten thousand men called the immortals. They had received this designation from the fact that the body was kept always exactly full as whenever any one of the number died another soldier was instantly put into his place whose life was considered in some respects a continuation of the existence of the man who had fallen. This by a fiction somewhat analogous to that by which the king in England never dies. These ten thousand Persians were an immortal band. They were all carefully selected soldiers and they enjoyed very unusual privileges and honors. They were mounted troops and their dress and their armor were richly decorated with gold. They were accompanied in their campaigns by their wives and families for whose use carriages were provided which followed the camp and there was a long train of camels besides attached to the service of the corps to carry their provisions and their baggage while all these countless varieties of land troops were marshaling and arranging themselves upon the plane each under its own officers and around its own standards. The naval commanders were employed in bringing up the fleet of galleys to the shore where they were anchored in a long line not far from the beach and with their prowess toward the land. Thus there was a space of open water left between the line of vessels and the beach along which Xerxes Barge was to pass when the time for the naval part of the review should arrive. When all things were ready Xerxes mounted his war chariot and rode slowly around the plane surveying attentively and with great interest and pleasure the long lines of soldiers in all their variety of equipment and costume as they stood displayed before him. It required a progress of many miles to see them all when this review of the land forces was concluded the king went to the shore and embarked on aboard a royal galley which had been prepared for him and there seated upon the deck under a gilded canopy he was rode by the oarsmen along the line of ships between their prowess and the land. The ships were from many nations as well as the soldiers and exhibited the same variety of fashion and equipment. The land troops had come from the inland realms and provinces which occupied the heart of Asia while the ships and the seamen had been furnished by the maritime regions which extended along the coasts of the black and the Aegean and the Mediterranean seas. Thus the people of Egypt had furnished 200 ships the Phoenicians 300 Cyprus 50 the Solicians and the Ionians 100 each and so with a great many other nations and tribes. The various squadrons which were thus combined in forming this immense fleet were manned and officered of course from the nations that severally furnished them and one of them was actually commanded in person by a queen. The name of this lady Admiral was Artemisia. She was the queen of Karya a small province in the southwestern part of Asia Minor having holocarnassus for its capital. Artemisia though in history called a queen was in reality more properly a regent as she governed in the name of her son who was yet a child. The quota of ships which Karya was to furnish was five. Artemisia being a lady of ambitious and masculine turn of mind and fond of adventure determined to accompany the expedition not only her own vessels but also those from some neighboring islands were placed under her charge so that she commanded quite an important division of the fleet. She proved also in the course of the voyage to be abundantly qualified for the discharge of her duties. She became in fact one of the ableist and most efficient commanders in the fleet not only maneuvering and managing her own particular division in a very successful manner but also taking a very active and important part in the general consultations where what she said was listened to with great respect and always had great weight in determining the decisions. In the great battle of Salamas she acted a very conspicuous part as will hereafter appear. The whole number of galleys of the first class in Xerxes fleet was more than 1200 a number abundantly sufficient to justify the apprehensions of Artemis that no harbor would be found capacious enough to shelter them in the event of a sudden storm. The line which they formed on this occasion when drawn up side by side upon the shore for review must have extended many miles. Xerxes moved slowly along this line in his barge attended by the officers of his court and the great generals of his army who surveyed the various ships as they passed them and noted the diverse national costumes and equipments of the men with curiosity and pleasure. Among those who attended the king on this occasion was a certain Greek named Damaratus an exile from his native land who had fled to Persia and had been kindly received by Darius some years before. Having remained in the Persian court until Xerxes succeeded to the throne and undertook the invasion of Greece he concluded to accompany the expedition. The story of the political difficulties in which Damaratus became involved in his native land and which led to his flight from Greece was very extraordinary. It was this. The mother of Damaratus was the daughter of parents of high rank and great affluence in Sparta, but in her childhood her features were extremely plain and repulsive. Now there was a temple in the neighborhood of the place where her parents resided consecrated to Helen a princess who while she lived enjoyed the fame of being the most beautiful woman in the world. The nurse recommended that the child should be taken every day to this temple and that petitions should be offered there at the shrine of Helen that the repulsive deformity of her features might be removed. The mother consented to this plan only and joining upon the nurse not to let anyone see the face of her unfortunate offspring in going and returning. The nurse accordingly carried the child to the temple day after day and holding it in her arms before the shrine implored the mercy of heaven for her helpless charge and the bestowal upon it of the boon of beauty. These petitions were it seems at length heard for one day when the nurse was coming down from the temple after offering her customary prayer she was met and accosted by a mysterious looking woman who asked her what it was that she was carrying in her arms. The nurse replied that it was a child. The woman wanted to look at it. The nurse refused to show the face of the child saying that she had been forbidden to do so. The woman, however, insisted upon seeing its face and at last the nurse consented and removed the coverings. The stranger stroked down the face of the child saying at the same time that now that child should become the most beautiful woman of Sparta. Her words proved true. The features of the young girl rapidly changed and her countenance soon became as wonderful for its loveliness as it had been before for its hideous deformity. When she arrived at a proper age a certain Spartan nobleman named Agetus, a particular friend of the kings, made her his wife. The name of the king of Sparta at that time was Aristan. He had been twice married and his second wife was still living but he had no children. When he came to see and to know the beautiful wife of Agetus he wished to obtain her for himself and began to revolve the subject in his mind with a view to discover some method by which he might hope to accomplish his purpose. He decided at length upon the following plan. He proposed to Agetus to make an exchange of gifts offering to give him any one object which he might choose from all his, that is Aristan's effects provided that Agetus would in the same manner give to Aristan whatever Aristan might choose. Agetus consented to the proposal without however giving it any serious consideration. As Aristan was already married he did not for a moment imagine that his wife could be the object which the king would demand. The parties to this foolish agreement confirmed the obligation of it by a solemn oath and then each made known to the other what he had selected. Agetus gained some jewel or costly garment or perhaps a gilded and embellished weapon and lost forever his beautiful wife. Aristan repudiated his own second wife and put the prize which he had thus surreptitiously acquired in her place as a third. About seven or eight months after this time Demoratus was born the intelligence was brought to Aristan one day by a slave when he was sitting at a public tribunal. Aristan seemed surprised at the intelligence and exclaimed that the child was not his. He however afterward retracted this disavowal and owned Demoratus as his son. The child grew up and in process of time when his father died he succeeded to the throne. The magistrates however had heard the declaration of his father at the time of his birth remembered it and reported it to others and when Aristan died and Demoratus assumed the supreme power the next heir denied his right to the succession and in process of time formed a strong party against him. A long series of civil dissensions arose and at length the claims of Demoratus were defeated. His enemies triumphed and he fled from the country to save his life. He arrived at Suza near the close of Darius's reign and it was his council which led the king to decide the contest among his sons for the right of succession in favor of Xerxes as described at the close of the first chapter. Xerxes had remembered his obligations to Demoratus for this interposition. He had retained him in the royal court after his accession to the throne and had bestowed upon him many marks of distinction and honor. Demoratus had decided to accompany Xerxes on his expedition into Greece and now while the Persian officers were looking with so much pride and pleasure on the immense preparations which they were making for the subjugation of a foreign and hostile state, Demoratus too was in the midst of the scene regarding the spectacle with no less of interest probably and yet doubtless with very different feelings since the country upon which this dreadful cloud of gloom and destruction was about to burst was his own native land. After the review was ended Xerxes sent for Demoratus to come to the castle. When he arrived the king addressed him as follows you are a Greek Demoratus and you know your countrymen well and now as you have seen the fleet and the army that have been displayed here today tell me what is your opinion? Do you think that the Greeks will undertake to defend themselves against such a force or will they submit at once without attempting any resistance? Demoratus seemed at first perplexed and uncertain as if not knowing exactly what answer to make to the question. At length he asked the king whether it was his wish that he should respond by speaking the blunt and honest truth or by saying what would be polite and agreeable. Xerxes replied that he wished him of course to speak the truth. The truth itself would be what he would consider the most agreeable since you desire it then said Demoratus I will speak the exact truth. Greece is the child of poverty. The inhabitants of the land have learned wisdom and discipline in the severe school of adversity and their resolution and courage are absolutely indomitable. They all deserve this praise but I speak more particularly of my own countrymen the people of Sparta. I am sure that they will reject any proposal which you may make to them for submission to your power and that they will resist you to the last extremity. The disparity of numbers will have no influence whatever on their decision. If all the rest of Greece were to submit to you leaving the Spartans alone and if they should find themselves unable to muster more than a thousand men they would give you battle. Xerxes expressed great surprise at this assertion and thought that Demoratus could not possibly mean what he seemed to say. I appeal to yourself said he would you dare to encounter alone ten men. You have been the prince of the Spartans and a prince ought at least to be equal to two common men so that to show that the Spartans in general could be brought to fight a superiority of force of even ten to one it ought to appear that you would dare to engage twenty. This is manifestly absurd in fact for any person to pretend to be able or willing to fight under such a disparity of numbers even says only pride and insolent presumption and even this proportion of ten to one or even twenty to one is nothing compared to the real disparity for even if we grant to the Spartans as large a force as there is any possibility of their obtaining I shall then have a thousand to one against them besides continued the king there is a great difference in the character of the troops the Greeks are all freemen while my soldiers are all slaves bound absolutely to do my bidding without complaint or murmur such soldiers as mine who are habituated to submit entirely to the will of another and who live under the continual fear of the lash might perhaps be forced to go into battle against a great superiority of numbers or under other manifest disadvantages but freemen never I do not believe that a body of Greeks could be brought to engage a body of Persians man for man every consideration shows thus that the opinion which you have expressed is unfounded you could only have been led to entertain such an opinion through ignorance and unaccountable presumption I was afraid replied Demoratus from the first that by speaking the truth I should offend you I should not have given you my real opinion of the Spartans if you had not ordered me to speak without reserve you certainly cannot suppose me to have been influenced by a feeling of undue partiality for the men whom I commended since they have been my most implacable and bitter enemies and have driven me into hopeless exile from my native land your father on the other hand received and protected me and the sincere gratitude which I feel for the favors which I have received from him and from you inclined me to take the most favorable view possible of the Persian cause I certainly should not be willing as you justly suppose to engage alone twenty men or ten or even one unless there was an absolute necessity for it I do not say that any single Lassidemmonian could successfully encounter ten or twenty Persians although in personal conflicts they are certainly not inferior to other men it is when they are combined in a body even though that body be small that their great superiority is seen as to their being free and thus not easily led into battle in circumstances of imminent danger it must be considered that their freedom is not absolute like that of savages in fray where each acts according to his own individual will and pleasure but it is qualified and controlled by law the Spartan soldiers are not personal slaves governed by the lash of a master it is true but they have certain principles of obligation and duty which they all feel most solemnly bound to obey they stand in greater awe of the authority of this law than your subjects do of the lash it commands them never to fly from the field of battle whatever may be the number of their adversaries it commands them to preserve their ranks to stand firm at the post assign them and there to conquer or die this is the truth in respect to them if what I say seems to you absurd I will in future be silent I have spoken honestly what I think because your majesty commanded me to do so and not withstanding what I have said I sincerely wish that all your majesty's desires and expectations may be fulfilled the ideas which Demoratus thus appeared to entertain the danger to the countless and formidable hosts of Xerxes army from so small and insignificant a power as that of Sparta seemed to Xerxes too absurd to awaken any serious displeasure in his mind he only smiled therefore at Demoratus's fears and dismissed him leaving a garrison and a governor in possession of the castle of Doriscus Xerxes resumed his march along the northern shores of the Aegean sea the immense swarms of men filling all the roads devouring everything capable of being used as food either for beast or man and drinking all the brooks and smaller rivers dry even with this total consumption of the food and the water which they obtained on the march the supplies would have been found insufficient if the whole army had advanced through one tract of country they accordingly divided the host into three great columns one of which kept near the shore the other marched far in the interior and the third in the intermediate space they thus exhausted the resources of a very wide region all the men too that were capable of bearing arms in the nations that these several divisions passed on the way they compelled to join them so that the army left as it moved along a very broad extent of country trampled down impoverished desolate and full of lamentation and woe the whole march was perhaps the most gigantic crime against the rights and the happiness of man that human wickedness has ever been able to commit the army halted from time to time for various purposes sometimes for the performance of what they considered religious ceremonies which were intended to propitiate the supernatural powers of the earth and of the air when they reached the strimen where it will be recollected a bridge had been previously built so as to be ready for the army when it should arrive they offered a sacrifice of five white horses to the river in the same region too they halted at a place called the nine ways where Xerxes resolved to offer a human sacrifice to a certain god whom the persians believed to reside in the interior of the earth the mode of sacrificing to this god was to bury the wretched victims alive the persians seized accordingly by Xerxes orders nine young men and nine girls from among the people of the country and buried them alive marching slowly on in this manner the army at length reached the point upon the coast where the canal had been cut across the itthmus of Mount Athos the town which was nearest to this spot was Akanthus the situation of which together with that of the canal will be found upon the map the fleet arrived at this point by sea nearly at the same time with the army coming by land Xerxes examined the canal and was extremely well satisfied with its construction he commended the chief engineer whose name was Artechaus in the highest terms for the successful manner in which he had executed the work and rendered him very distinguished honors it unfortunately happened however that a few days after the arrival of the fleet and the army at the canal and before the fleet had commenced the passage of it that Artechaus died the king considered this event as a serious calamity to him as he expected that other occasions would arrive on which he would have occasion to avail himself of the engineer's talents and skill he ordered preparations to be made for a most magnificent burial and the body was in due time deposited in the grave with imposing funeral solemnities a very splendid monument too was raised upon the spot which employed for some time all the mechanical force of the army in its erection while Xerxes remained at a campus he required the people of the neighboring country to entertain his army at a grand feast the cost of which totally ruined them not only was all the food of the vicinity consumed but also the means and resources of the inhabitants of every kind were exhausted in the additional supplies which they had to procure from the surrounding regions at this feast the army in general ate seated in groups upon the ground in the open air but for Xerxes and the nobles of the court a great pavilion was built where tables were spread and vessels and gold suitable to the dignity of the occasion were provided almost all the property which the people of the region had accumulated by years of patient industry was consumed at once in furnishing the vast amount of food which was required for this feast and the gold and silver plate which was to be used in the pavilion during the entertainment of the country waited upon their exacting and insatiable guests until they were utterly exhausted by the fatigue of the service when at length the feast was ended and Xerxes and his company left the pavilion the vast assembly outside broke up in disorder pulled the pavilion to pieces plundered the tables of the gold and silver plate and departed to their several encampments leaving nothing behind them the inhabitants of the country were so completely impoverished and ruined by these exactings that those who were not impressed into Xerxes service and compelled to follow his army abandoned their homes and roamed away in the hope of finding elsewhere the means of subsistence which it was no longer possible to obtain on their own lands and thus when Xerxes at last gave orders to the fleet to pass through the canal and to his army to resume its march he left the whole region utterly depopulated and desolate he went on to Therma a port situated on the northwestern corner of the Aegean Sea which was the last of his places of Rendezvous before his actual advance into Greece in Xerxes