# Herodotus The Persian Wars (Godley)/Book VII

Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA
1. When the message concerning the fight at Marathon came to Darius son of Hystaspes, greatly wroth as he was already against the Athenians for their attack upon Sardis, he was now much more angered and the more desirous of sending an expedition against Hellas. Forthwith he sent messengers to all cities commanding the equipment of an army, charging each to provide much more than they had before provided of ships and horses and provision and vessels of transport. By these messages Asia was shaken for three years, the best men being enrolled for service against Hellas and making preparation therefor. In the fourth year the Egyptians, whom Cambyses had enslaved, revolted from the Persians; thereupon Darius was but the more desirous of sending expeditions even against both.
2. But while Darius was making preparation against Egypt and Athens, there arose a great quarrel among his sons concerning the chief power in the land, they holding that he must before his army marched declare an heir to the kingship according to Persian law. For Darius had three sons born to him before he became king by his first wife, the daughter of Gobryas, and four besides after he became king by Atossa daughter of Cyrus; of the earlier sons Artobazanes was the eldest, and Xerxes of the later; and being sons of different mothers they were rivals, Artobazanes pleading that he was the eldest of all Darius’ offspring and that it was everywhere customary that the eldest should rule; Xerxes, that he was son of Cyrus’ daughter Atossa and that it was Cyrus who had won the Persians their freedom.
3. Darius delaying his judgment in this matter, it chanced that at this time Demaratus son of Ariston had come up to Susa, banished of his own will from Lacedaemon after he had lost the kingship of Sparta. Learning of the contention between the sons of Darius, this man, as the story goes, came and counselled Xerxes to add to what he said another plea, to wit, that he had been born when Darius was already king and ruler of Persia, but Artobazanes when Darius was yet a subject; therefore (Xerxes should say) it was neither reasonable nor just that any rather than he should have the royal prerogative; for at Sparta too (said Demaratus in his counselling) it was ever customary, that if there be sons born before their father became king, and another son born later when the father was king, to the later-born should fall the succession to the kingship. Xerxes then following Demaratus’ advice, Darius judged his plea to be just and declared him king. But to my thinking Xerxes would have been made king even without this advice; for Atossa was all-powerful.
4. Having declared Xerxes king, Darius was intent on his expedition. But in the year after this, and the revolt of Egypt, death came upon him in the midst of his preparation, after a reign of six and thirty years in all; nor was it granted to him to punish either the revolted Egyptians, or the Athenians.
5. Darius being dead, the royal power descended to his son Xerxes. Now Xerxes was at first by no means eager to march against Hellas; it was against Egypt that he mustered his army. But Mardonius son of Gobryas, who was Xerxes’ cousin and son of Darius’ sister, and was ever with the king and had more influence with him than any Persian, reasoned thus in his discourse: “Sire, it is not seemly that the Athenians should go unpunished for their deeds, after all the evil they have done to the Persians. Nay, my counsel is that for the nonce you do what you have in hand; then, when you have tamed the insolence of Egypt, lead your armies against Athens, that you may have fair fame among men, and that all may in time to come beware how they invade your realm.” This argument of his was for vengeance’ sake; but he would ever slip a plea into it, that Europe was an exceeding fair land, one that bore all kinds of orchard trees, a land of high excellence, worthy of no mortal master but the king.
6. This he said, because he desired adventures, and would himself be viceroy of Hellas. And at the last he so wrought upon and over-persuaded Xerxes that the king was moved to do as he said; for there were other things too that allied themselves to aid in winning Xerxes’ consent. Firstly, there came messengers out of Thessaly from the Aleuadae (who were princes of Thessaly) with all earnestness inviting the king into Hellas; and secondly, those of the house of Pisistratus who had come up to Susa did likewise, using the same pleas as the Aleuadae, and offering Xerxes besides even more than they. With these came Onomacritus, an Athenian oracle-monger, one that had set in order the oracles of Musaeus; with him they had come, being now reconciled to him after their quarrel: for Onomacritus had been banished from Athens by Pisistratus’ son Hipparchus, having been caught by Lasus of Hermione in the act of interpolating in the writings of Musaeus an oracle showing that the islands off Lemnos should disappear into the sea. For this cause Hipparchus banished him, though before that they had been close friends. Now he came to Susa with Pisistratus’ kin; and whensoever he came into the king’s presence they would use high language concerning him and he would recite from his oracles; all that portended disaster to the Persian he left unspoken, but chose out and recited such prophecies as were most favourable, telling of the Hellespont, how it must be bridged by a man of Persia, and how the host should march. So Xerxes was beset by Onomacritus with his oracles, and by the Pisistratidae and Aleuadae with their counsels.
7. Having been over-persuaded to send an expedition against Hellas, Xerxes first marched against the rebels, in the year after Darius’ death. These he subdued, and laid Egypt under a much harder slavery than in the time of Darius; and he committed the governance of it to Achaemenes, his own brother, Darius’ son. This Achaemenes, being then viceroy of Egypt, was at a later day slain by a Libyan, Inaros son of Psammetichus.
8. After the conquest of Egypt, purposing now to take in hand the expedition against Athens, Xerxes held an assembly of the noblest among the Persians, convened with special intent, that he might learn their opinions and himself declare his will before them all. When they were assembled, Xerxes spoke to them as follows:—“Persians! this is no new law of my bringing in and ordaining, but one that I have received and will obey. As I learn from our eldest, we have never yet remained at peace ever since Cyrus deposed Astyages and we won this our lordship from the Medes. It is the will of heaven; and we ourselves win advantage by our many enterprises. Now of the nations that Cyrus and Cambyses and Darius my father subdued and added to our realm, none need tell you; for well you know them. But for myself, ever since I came to this throne, I have taken thought how best I shall not fall short in this honourable place of those that were before me, nor gain for the Persians a lesser power than they; and my thought persuades me, that we may win not only renown, but a land neither less nor worse, but more fertile, than that which we now possess; and not only so, but vengeance and requital withal. For this cause I have now summoned you together, that I may impart to you my purpose. It is my intent to bridge the Hellespont and lead my army through Europe to Hellas, that I may punish the Athenians for what they have done to the Persians and to my father. You saw that Darius my father was minded to make an expedition against these men. But he is dead, and it was not granted him to punish them; and I, on his and all the Persians’ behalf, will never rest till I have taken and burnt Athens, for the unprovoked wrong that its people did to my father and me; first they came to Sardis with our slave Aristagoras the Milesian, and burnt the groves and the temples; and next, how they dealt with us when we landed on their shores and Datis and Artaphrenes were our generals, all of you, I think, know. For these causes then I am resolved to send an army against them; and thus much advantage, as my reckoning shows me, we shall gain thereby: if we subdue those men, and their neighbours who dwell in the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we shall make the borders of Persian territory and of the firmament of heaven to be the same; for no land that the sun beholds will lie on our borders, but I will make all to be one country, when I have passed over the whole of Europe. For, as I learn, there will then be left neither inhabited city, nor nation of men, that is able to meet us in battle, if those of whom I speak are once taken out of our way. Thus they that have done us wrong and they that have done us none will alike bear the yoke of slavery. As for you, this is how you shall best please me: when I declare the time for your coming, every one of you must appear, and with a good will; and whosoever comes with his army best equipped shall receive from me such gifts as are reckoned most precious among us. All this, then, must so be done; but that none may think that I take counsel of myself alone, I lay the matter before you all, and bid him who will to declare his opinion.” So spoke Xerxes, and ceased.
9. After him spoke Mardonius, and said:—“Sire, you surpass not only all Persians that have been but also all that shall be; for besides that you have dealt excellently and truly with all other matters, you will not suffer the Ionians that dwell in Europe to make a mock of us, which thing they have no right to do. For it were strange indeed, that we, who have subdued and made slaves of Sacae and Indians and Ethiopians and Assyrians and many other great nations, for no wrong done to the Persians but of mere desire to add to our power,—that we, I say, shall not take vengeance on the Greeks for unprovoked wrong-doing. What have we to fear from them? Have they mighty hosts or abundance of wealth to affright us? Their manner of fighting we know, and their wealth we know, that it is but little; and we have conquered and hold their sons, even those who dwell in our land and are called Ionians and Aeolians and Dorians. I myself have tried conclusions with these men, when by your father’s command I marched against them; and I marched as far as Macedonia and wellnigh to Athens itself, yet none came out to meet me in battle. Yet wars the Greeks do wage, and, as I learn, most senselessly they do it, in their wrongheadedness and folly. When they have declared war against each other, they come down to the fairest and most level ground that they can find and there they fight, so that the victors come not off without great harm; and of the vanquished I say not so much as a word, for they are utterly destroyed. Yet speaking as they do the same language, they should end their disputes by the means of heralds and messengers, and by any way rather than fighting; or if needs must that they war against each other, they should discover each where his strongest defence lies, and there make his essay. The Greek custom, then, is no good one; and when I marched as far as the land of Macedonia, it came not into their thoughts to fight. But against you, O king! who shall make war? For you will have at your back the multitudes of Asia, and all your ships; for myself, I think there is not so much boldness in Hellas as that; but if time should show me wrong in my judgment, and those men were foolhardy enough to do battle with us, they would be taught that we are the greatest warriors no earth. But whatsoever betide, let us be ever venturesome; for nought comes of itself, and all men’s gains are the fruit of adventure.”
10. Thus smoothly Mardonius spoke of Xerxes’ opinion, and made an end. The rest of the Persians held their peace, not daring to utter any counsel contrary to that which had been given; then spoke Artabanus the son of Hystaspes, who was the king’s uncle, and emboldened thereby. “O king,” he said, “if opinions opposite the one to the other be not uttered, it is not possible that choice should find the better, but that one which has been spoken must be followed; but if they be spoken, the better can be found; even as the purity of gold cannot of itself be discerned, but when gold by rubbing is compared with gold, we then discern the better. Now I forbade Darius, your father and my brother, to lead his army against the Scythians, who have no cities anywhere to dwell in. But he, in his hope to subdue the nomad Scythians, would not be guided by me; he led his army, and returned from that expedition with the loss of many gallant men of his host. You, O king! are purposing to lead your armies against men far better than the Scythians—men who are said to be most doughty warriors by sea and land; and it is right that I should show to you what danger lies therein. You will bridge the Hellespont (so you say) and march your army through Europe to Hellas. Now I will suppose that matters have so fallen out that you are worsted either by land or by sea, or even both; for the men are said to be valiant, and well may we guess that it is so, seeing that so great a host, that followed Datis and Artaphrenes to Attica, was destroyed by the Athenians alone. Be it, then, granted that they win not success both by sea and by land; but if they attack with their ships and prevail in a sea-fight, and then sail to the Hellespont and thereafter break your bridge, that, O king, is the hour of peril. It is from no wisdom of my own that I thus conjecture; it is because I know what disaster was that which wellnigh once overtook us, whenyour father, making a highway over the Thracian Bosporus, and bridging the river Ister, crossed over to attack the Scythians. At that time the Scythians used every means of entreating the Ionians, who had been charged to guard the bridges of the Ister, to break the way of passage; and then, if Histiaeus the despot of Miletus had consented to the opinion of the other despots and not withstood it, the power of Persia had perished. Yet it were a thing of dread even in the telling, that one, and he but a man, should hold in his hand all the king’s fortunes. Do you then make no plan to run into any such danger, when there is no need therefor, but be ruled by me: for the nonce, dismiss this assembly; and presently, whenever you so please, having first considered the matter by yourself, declare what seems to you best. A well-laid plan is ever to my mind most profitable; for even though it be thwarted later, yet none the less has the plan been good, and it is but chance that has baffled the design; but he that has made a sorry plan has gotten, if fortune favour him, but a chance prize, and none the less has his plan been evil. You see how the god smites with his thunderbolt creatures of greatness more than common, nor suffers them to display their pride, but such as are little move him not to anger; and you see how it is ever on the tallest buildings and trees that his bolts fall; for it is heaven’s way to bring low all things of surpassing bigness. Thus a numerous host is destroyed by one that is lesser, the god of his jealousy sending panic fear or thunderbolt among them, whereby they do unworthily perish; for the god suffers pride in none but himself. Now haste is ever the parent of failure, whereof grievous hurts are apt to come; but in waiting there is good, which in due time shall appear, though in the present it seem not so. This, O king, is my counsel to you. But to you I say, Mardonius son of Gobryas! cease from foolish speaking about the Greeks, for they deserve not to be maligned. It is by speaking calumniously of the Greeks that you would hearten the king to send this expedition; and that, methinks, is the end to which you press with all eagerness. Nay, let it not be so. Calumny is a very gross business; there are two in it that do and one that suffers wrong. He that utters the calumny wrongs another, accusing an absent man, and the other does a wrong likewise in that he is overpersuaded before he has learnt the whole truth; and he that is absent and hears not what is said of him suffers wrong in the matter, being maligned by the one and condemned by the other. Nay, if an army must by all means be sent against these Greeks, hear me now: Let the king himself abide in the Persian land, and let us two stake our children’s lives upon it; then do you lead out the army, choosing what men you will and taking as great an armament as you desire; and if it fare with the king’s fortunes as you say it will, let my sons be slain, and myself too with them; but if the issue be as I foretell, let your sons be so treated, and you likewise, if you return. But if you will not submit yourself to this; and will at all hazards lead your army overseas to Hellas, then I think that they who are left behind in this place will hear that Mardonius has wrought great harm to Persia, and is torn asunder by dogs and birds in the land of Athens or of Lacedaemon, if not peradventure ere that on the way thither; and that thus you have learnt what manner of men are they whom you would persuade the king to attack.”
11. Thus spoke Artabanus. But Xerxes answered in wrath, “Artabanus, you are my father’s brother; that shall save you from receiving the fit reward of foolish words. Yet for your craven lack of spirit I lay upon you this disgrace, that you shall not go with me and my army against Hellas, but abide here with the women; and I myself will accomplish all that I have said, with no help from you. For may I not be the son of Darius, who was the son of Hystaspes, who was the son of Arsames, who was the son of Ariaramnes, who was the son of Teïspes, who was the son of Cyrus, who was the son of Cambyses, who was the son of Teïspes, who was the son of Achaemenes, if I do not avenge me on the Athenians; well knowing, that if we remain at peace, yet so will not they, but will assuredly invade our country, if we may infer from what they have done already, for they burnt Sardis and marched into Asia. Wherefore, it is not possible for either of us to turn back; to do or suffer is our task, that what is ours be under the Greeks, or what is theirs under the Persians; there is no middle way in our quarrel. Honour then demands that we avenge ourselves for what has been done to us; thus shall I learn what is this evil that will befal me when I march against these Greeks—men that even Pelops the Phrygian, the slave of my forefathers, did so utterly subdue that to this day they and their country are called by the name of their conqueror.”
12. So far discourse went; and presently came the night-time, and Xerxes was pricked by the counsel of Artabanus; and taking counsel of night, he saw clearly that to send an army against Hellas was none of his business. Having made this second resolve he fell asleep; then it would appear (for so the Persians say) that in the night he saw this vision: It seemed to Xerxes that a tall and goodly man stood over him and said, “Art thou then changing thy counsel, Persian, and wilt not lead thine army against Hellas, albeit thou hast proclaimed the mustering of thy host? thou dost not well to change thy counsel, nor will he that thou seest pardon thee for it; nay, let thy course be according to thy design of yesterday.”
13. Thus the vision spake, and seemed to Xerxes to vanish away; but when day dawned the king took no account of this dream, but assembling the Persians whom he had before gathered together, he thus addressed them: “Forgive me, Persians! for that I turn and twist in my purpose; for I am not yet come to the fulness of my wisdom, and they are ever with me who exhort me to do as I said. ‘Tis true that when I heard Artabanus’ opinion my youthful spirit did for the nonce take fire, whereby there brake from me an unseemly and wrongful answer to one older than myself; yet now I see my fault and will follow his judgment. Know therefore that my purpose of marching against Hellas is changed, and abide in peace.”
14. When the Persians heard that, they rejoiced, and did obeisance. But when night came on, the same vision stood again over Xerxes as he slept, and said, “Son of Darius, hast thou then plainly renounced thine army’s march before the Persians, and made my words of no account, as though thou hadst not heard them? Know then this for a surety: if thou leadest not thine army forthwith, this shall be the outcome of it, that as a little while made thee great and mighty, so in a moment shalt thou be brought low again.”
15. Greatly affrighted by the vision, Xerxes leapt up from his bed, and sent a messenger to Artabanus to call him; and when he came, “Artabanus,” said Xerxes, “for the moment my right judgment forsook me, and I answered your good counsel with foolish words; but after no long time I repented, and saw that it was right for me to follow your advice. Yet, though I desire, I cannot do it; for since I have turned me and repented, a vision comes haunting my sight, that will in no wise consent that I should do as you counsel; and even now it has gone with a threat. Now if it be a god that sends the vision, and it be his full pleasure that there be this expedition against Hellas, that same dream will hover about you and lay on you the same charge as on me; and I am persuaded that this is likeliest to be, if you take all my attire and sit so clothed upon my throne, and presently lie down to sleep in my bed.”
16. Thus said Xerxes; Artabanus would not obey the first command, thinking it was not for him to sit on the royal throne; at last he was compelled, and did as he was bidden, saying first: “O king, I judge it of equal worth whether a man be wise, or be willing to obey good counsel; to both of these you have attained, but evil communications are your bane; even as the sea, who is of all creatures the most serviceable to men, is hindered (they say) from following his natural bent by the blasts of winds that fall upon him. But for myself—it was not the hard words I had from you that stung me so much as this, that when two opinions were laid before the Persians, the one tending to the increase of pride, and the other to its abatement, showing how evil a thing it is to teach the heart continual desire of more than it has, of these two opinions you preferred that one which was most fraught with danger to yourself and the Persians. Now, therefore, since you are turned to the better opinion, you say that while you would renounce your expedition against the Greeks you are haunted by a dream sent by some god, which forbids you to leave off from the expedition. But you err again, my son; this is none of heaven’s working. The roving dreams that visit men are of such nature as you shall learn of me, that am many years older than you. Those visions that rove about us in dreams are for the most part the thoughts of the day; and in these latter days we have been very earnestly busied about this expedition. But if nevertheless this be not such as I determine, and have in it somewhat of heaven’s will, then you have spoken the conclusion of the matter; let it appear to me even as it has to you, and utter its command; but if it has ever a mind to appear, I must needs see it none the more by virtue of wearing your dress instead of mine, and sleeping in your bed rather than my own. Whatever be this that appears to you in your sleep, assuredly it has not come to such folly as to infer from your dress that I am you, when it sees me. We are now to learn if it will take no account of me and not deign to appear and haunt me, whether I wear your robes or my own; for if indeed it will continually be coming, I myself would say that it is of heaven’s sending. But if you are resolved that so this must be done, and there is no averting it, but it has come to this pass, that I must lie down to sleep in your bed, so let it be; this duty I will fulfil, and let the vision appear also to me. But till then I will keep my present opinion.”
17. So saying, Artabanus did as he was bidden, hoping to prove Xerxes’ words vain; he put on Xerxes’ robes and sat on the king’s throne. Presently while he slumbered there came to him in his sleep the same dream that had haunted Xerxes, and standing over him thus it spoke: “Art thou then he that would dissuade Xerxes from marching against Hellas, thinking so to protect him? But neither hereafter nor now shalt thou go scathless for striving to turn aside that which must be. To Xerxes himself hath it been declared what shall befal him, if he disobey.”
18. With this threat (so it seemed to Artabanus) the vision made as though it would burn his eyes with hot irons, and he leapt up with a loud cry; then sitting by Xerxes he told him all the tale of what he had seen in his dream, and next he said: “O king, having seen, as much as a man may, how the greater has often been brought low by the less, I was loath that you should always give the rein to your youthful spirit; for I knew how evil a thing it was to have many desires, remembering the end of Cyrus’ expedition against the Massagetae and Cambyses’ against the Ethiopians, and having myself marched with Darius against the Scythians. Knowing this, I judged that you had but to abide in peace for all men to deem you fortunate. But since heaven impels, and the gods, as it seems, mark Hellas for destruction, I myself do change and correct my judgment; and do you now declare the god’s message to the Persians, and bid them obey your first command for all due preparation: so act, that nought on your part be lacking to the fulfilment of heaven’s commission.” After this discourse, the vision giving them courage, Xerxes when daylight came imparted all this to the Persians, and Artabanus now openly persuaded to that course from which he alone had before openly dissuaded.
19. After this Xerxes, being now intent on the expedition, saw yet a third vision in his sleep, which the Magians interpreted to have regard to the whole earth and to signify that all men should be his slaves. This was the vision: Xerxes thought that he was crowned with an olive bough, the shoots of which spread over the whole earth, and presently the crown vanished from off his head where it was set. This the Magians interpreted; and of the Persians who had been assembled, every man forthwith rode away to his own governorship and there used all zeal to fulfil the king’s behest, each desiring to receive the promised gifts; and thus it was that Xerxes dealt with the mustering of his army, searching out every part of the continent.
20. For full four years from the conquest of Egypt he was equipping his host and preparing all that was needful therefor; and ere the fifth year was completed he set forth on his march with the might of a great multitude. Of all armaments whereof we have knowledge this was by much the greatest, insomuch that none were aught in comparison of it, neither the armament that Darius led against the Scythians, nor the host of the Scythians when in pursuit of the Cimmerians they brake into Media and subdued and ruled wellnigh all the upper lands of Asia, wherefor Darius afterwards essayed to punish them, nor—in so far as report tells—the armament led by the sons of Atreus against Troy, nor that Mysian and Teucrian host which before the Trojan war crossed the Bosporus into Europe, subduing there all the Thracians and coming down to the Ionian sea, and marching southward as far as the river Peneus.
21. All these armaments and whatsoever others have ever been could not together be compared with this single one. For what nation did not Xerxes lead from Asia against Hellas? What water did not fall short of the needs of his host, save only the great rivers? Some supplied him with ships, some were enrolled in his infantry, some were charged with the provision of horsemen, others of horse-bearing transports to follow the army, and others again of warships for the bridges, or of food and ships.
22. First of all he had now for about three years been making all his preparations in regard of Athos, inasmuch as they who first essayed to sail round it had suffered shipwreck. Triremes were anchored off Elaeus in the Chersonese; with these for their headquarters, all sorts and conditions of men in the army were made to dig a canal under the lash, coming by turns to the work; and they that dwelt about Athos dug likewise. Bubares son of Megabazus and Artachaees son of Artaeus, Persians both, were the overseers of the workmen. This Athos is a mountain great and famous, running out into the sea; it is inhabited by men. At the mountain’s landward end, it is in the form of a peninsula, and there is an isthmus of about twelve furlongs’ width; here is a place of level ground or little hills, from the sea by Acanthus to the sea which is over against Torone. On this isthmus, which is at the end of Athos, there stands a Greek town, Sane; there are others too seaward of Sane and landward of Athos, which it was now the Persians’ intent to make into island and not mainland towns; to wit, Dion, Olophyxus, Acrothoum, Thyssus, Cleonae.
23. These are the towns situate on Athos; and the foreigners dug as I shall show, dividing up the ground among their several nations. They drew a straight line near to the town of Sane; and when the channel had been digged to some depth, some stood at the bottom of it and dug, others took the stuff as it was digged out and delivered it to yet others that stood higher on stages, and they again to others as they received it, till they came to those that were highest; these carried it out and cast it away. With all save only the Phoenicians the steep sides of the canal brake and fell, doubling the labour thereby; for inasmuch as they made the span of the same breadth at its highest and its lowest, this could not but happen. But the Phoenicians showed therein the same skill as in all else that they do; having taken in hand the portion that fell to them, they so dug as to make the topmost span of the canal as wide again as the canal was to be, and narrowed it ever as they wrought lower, till at the bottom their work was of the same span as what the rest had wrought. There is a meadow hard by, where they made a place for buying and marketing; and ever and anon much ground grain was brought to them from Asia.
24. As far as I judge by conjecture, Xerxes gave command for this digging out of pride, because he would display his power and leave memorials of it; for they might very easily have drawn their ships across the isthmus; yet he bade them dig a canal from sea to sea, wide enough to float two triremes rowed abreast. The same men who were charged with the digging were also charged to join the banks of the river Strymon by a bridge.
25. Thus did Xerxes accomplish this work; and for the bridges he charged the Phoenicians and Egyptians with the making of ropes of papyrus and white flax, and storing of provision for his army, that neither it nor the beasts of burden in the march to Hellas should starve; in such places as enquiry showed to be the fittest he bade them store it, carrying it to the several places from all parts of Asia in vessels of merchandise and transports. For the corn, they brought that as they were severally charged to the White Headland (as it is called) in Thrace, or Tyrodiza in the Perinthian country, or Doriscus, or Eïon on the Strymon, or Macedonia.
26. While these wrought at their appointed task, all the land force had been mustered and was marching with Xerxes to Sardis, setting forth from Critalla in Cappadocia, which was the musteringplace appointed for all the host that was to march with Xerxes himself by land. Now which of his viceroys received the promised gifts from the king for bringing the best-equipped army, I cannot say; for I know not even if the matter was ever determined. But when they had crossed the river Halys and entered into Phrygia, they marched through that country to Celaenae, where is the source of the river Maeander and another as great as the Maeander, which is called Cataractes; it rises in the very market-place of Celaenae and issues into the Maeander. There also hangs the skin of Marsyas the Silenus, of which the Phrygian story tells that it was flayed off him and hung up by Apollo.
27. In this town sat awaiting them a Lydian, Pythius, son of Atys; he entertained Xerxes himself and all the king’s army with the best of good cheer, and declared himself willing to provide money for the war. Pythius thus offering money, Xerxes asked the Persians that were about him who this Pythius was that offered it and how much wealth he possessed: “O king,” said they, “this is he who gave your father Darius that gift of a golden plane-tree and vine; and now he is, next to yourself, the richest man of whom we have knowledge.”
28. Marvelling at this last saying, Xerxes next himself asked Pythius how much wealth he had. “O king,” said Pythius, “I will not conceal the quantity of my substance from you, nor pretend that I do not know it; I know and will tell you the exact truth. As soon as I learnt that you were coming down to the Greek sea, being desirous to give you money for the war, I enquired into the matter, and my reckoning showed me that I had two thousand talents of silver, and of gold four million Daric staters lacking seven thousand. All this I freely give to you; for myself, I have a sufficient livelihood from my slaves and my farms.”
29. Thus he spoke; Xerxes was pleased with what he said, and replied: “My Lydian friend, since I came out of Persia I have met with no man yet who was willing to give hospitality to my army, nor any who came of his own motion into my presence and offered to furnish money for the war, save you alone. But you have entertained my army nobly, and offer me great sums. Therefore in return for this I give you these privileges: I make you my friend, and of my own wealth I give you the seven thousand staters which will make up your full tale of four millions, that your four millions may not lack the seven thousand, but by my completing of it you may have the full and exact tale. Continue yourself in possession of that which you now possess, and have skill ever to be such as you are; for neither now nor hereafter shall you repent of what you now do.”
30. Having thus spoken and made his words good Xerxes journeyed ever further. Passing by the Phrygian town called Anaua, and the lake from which salt is gotten, he came to Colossae, a great city in Phrygia; wherein the river Lycus plunges into a cleft in the earth out of sight, till it appears again about five furlongs away and issues like the other river into the Maeander. From Colossae the army held its course for the borders of Phrygia and Lydia, and came to the town Cydrara, where stands a pillar set up by Croesus, with a writing thereon to mark the boundary.
31. Passing from Phrygia into Lydia, he came to the place where the roads part, the left hand road bearing towards Caria and the right hand to Sardis, by which latter way the traveller must needs cross the river Maeander and pass by the town of Callatebus, where craftsmen make honey out of wheat and tamarisks; by this road went Xerxes, and found a plane-tree, to which for its beauty he gave adornment of gold, and charged one of his immortals to guard it; and on the next day he came to the chief city of the Lydians.
32. Having arrived in Sardis, he first sent heralds to Hellas to demand earth and water and command the preparation of meals for the king; to all other places he sent to demand earth, only neither to Athens nor to Lacedaemon. The reason of his sending for earth and water the second time was this—he fully believed that as many as had formerly not given it to Darius’ messengers, would now be compelled to give by fear; and he sent because he desired to know this of a surety.
33. After this he prepared to march to Abydos; and meanwhile his men were bridging the Hellespont from Asia to Europe. On the Chersonese, which is by the Hellespont, there is between the town of Sestus and Madytus a broad headland running out into the sea over against Abydos; it was here that not long after this the Athenians with Xanthippus son of Ariphron for general took Artaÿctes a Persian, who was governor of Sestus, and crucified him alive; he had even been wont to bring women into the temple of Protesilaus at Elaeus and do impious deeds there.
34. Beginning then from Abydos they whose business it was made bridges across to that headland, the Phoenicians one of flaxen cables, and the Egyptians the second, which was of papyrus. From Abydos to the opposite shore it is a distance of seven furlongs. But no sooner had the strait been bridged than a great storm swept down and brake and scattered all that work.
35. When Xerxes heard of that, he was very angry, and gave command that the Hellespont be scourged with three hundred lashes, and a pair of fetters be thrown into the sea; nay, I have heard ere now that he sent branders with the rest to brand the Hellespont. This is certain, that he charged them while they scourged to utter words outlandish and presumptuous: “Thou bitter water,” they should say, “our master thus punishes thee, because thou didst him wrong albeit he had done thee none. Yea, Xerxes the king will pass over thee, whether thou wilt or no; it is but just that no man offers thee sacrifice, for thou art a turbid and a briny river.” Thus he commanded that the sea should be punished, and that they who had been overseers of the bridging of the Hellespont should be beheaded.
36. So this was done by those who were appointed to that thankless honour; and new masters of their craft set about making the bridges. The manner of their doing it was as I will show. That they might lighten the strain of the cables, they laid fifty-oared ships and triremes alongside of each other, three hundred and sixty to bear the bridge that was nearest to the Euxine sea, and three hundred and fourteen to bear the other; all lay obliquely to the line of the Pontus and parallel with the current of the Hellespont. Having so laid the ships alongside they let down very great anchors, both from the end of the ship nearest the Pontus to hold fast against the winds blowing from within that sea, and from the other end, towards the west and the Aegean, to hold against the west and south winds. Moreover they left for passage an opening in the line of fifty-oared ships and triremes, that so he that would might be able to voyage to the Pontus, or out of it. Having so done, they stretched the cables from the land, twisting them taut with wooden windlasses; and they did not as before keep the two kinds apart, but assigned for each bridge two cables of flax and four of papyrus. All these were of the same thickness and fair appearance, but the flaxen were heavier in their proportion, a cubit thereof weighing a talent. When the strait was thus bridged, they sawed balks of wood to a length equal to the breadth of the floating supports, and laid them in order on the taut cables, and having set them alongside they then made them fast. This done, they heaped brushwood on to the bridge, and when this was all laid in order they heaped earth on it and stamped it down; then they made a fence on either side, lest the beasts of burden and horses should be affrighted by the sight of the sea below them.
37. When the bridges and the work at Athos were ready, and the moles at the canal’s entrances, that were built to prevent the surf from silting up the entrances of the digged passage, and the canal itself was reported to be now perfectly made, the army then wintered, and at the beginning of spring was ready and set forth from Sardis to march to Abydos. When they had set forth, the sun left his place in the heaven and was unseen, albeit the sky was without clouds and very clear, and the day was turned into night. When Xerxes saw and took note of that, he was moved to think upon it, and asked the Magians what the vision might signify. They declared to him, that the god was showing to the Greeks the desolation of their cities; for the sun (they said) was the prophet of the Greeks, as the moon was theirs. Xerxes rejoiced exceedingly to hear that, and kept on his march.
38. As he led his army away, Pythius the Lydian, being affrighted by the heavenly vision and encouraged by the gifts that he had received, came to Xerxes and said, “Sire, I have a boon to ask that Ι desire of you, easy for you to grant and precious for me to receive.” Xerxes, supposing that Pythius would demand anything rather than what he did verily ask, answered that he would grant the boon, and bade him declare what he desired. Thereupon Pythius took courage and said: “Sire, I have five sons, and all of them are constrained to march with you against Hellas. I pray you, O king! take pity on me that am so old, and release one of my sons, even the eldest, from service, that he may take care of me and of my possessions; take the four others with you, and may you return back with all your design accomplished.”
39. Xerxes was very angry, and thus replied: “Villain, you see me myself marching against Hellas, and taking with me my sons and brothers and kinsfolk and friends; and do you, my slave—who should have followed me with all your household and your very wife—speak to me of your son? Then be well assured of this, that a man’s spirit dwells in his ears; when it hears good words it fills the whole body with delight, but when it hears the contrary thereto it swells with anger. At that time when you did me good service and promised more, you will never boast that you outdid your king in the matter of benefits; and now that you have turned aside to the way of shamelessness, you shall receive a lesser requital than you merit. You and four of your sons are saved by your hospitality; but you shall be mulcted in the life of that one whom you most desire to keep.” With that reply, he straightway bade those who were charged to do the like to find the eldest of Pythius’ sons and cut him asunder, then having so done to set the one half of his body on the right hand of the road and the other on the left, that the army might pass this way between them.
40. This they did, and the army passed between. First went the baggage train and the beasts of burden, and after them a mixed host of all sorts of nations, not according to their divisions but all mingled together; when more than half had passed there was a space left, and these latter came not near the king. After that, first came a thousand horsemen, chosen out of all Persians; next, a thousand spearmen, picked men like the others, carrying their spears reversed; and after them, ten horses of the breed called Nesaean, equipped with all splendour. The horses are called Nesaean, because there is in Media a wide plain of that name, where the great horses are bred. Behind these ten horses was the place of the sacred chariot of Zeus, drawn by eight white horses, the charioteer on foot following the horses and holding the reins; for no mortal man may mount into that seat. After these came Xerxes himself in a chariot drawn by Nesaean horses, his charioteer, Patiramphes, son of Otanes a Persian, standing beside him.
41. It was thus that Xerxes rode out of Sardis; but when he was so minded he would alight from the chariot into a carriage. Behind him came a thousand spearmen of the best and noblest blood of Persia, carrying their spears in the customary manner; after them a thousand picked Persian horsemen, and after the horse ten thousand that were footmen, chosen out of the rest of the Persians. One thousand of these latter bore golden pomegranates on their spear-shafts in place of the spike, and surrounded the rest; the nine thousand were enclosed within, and bore silver pomegranates; they that held their spears reversed carried golden pomegranates also, and they that were nearest to Xerxes, apples of gold. After the ten thousand came ten thousand Persian horsemen in array. After these there was a space of two furlongs, and next the rest of the multitude followed without order or division.
42. From Lydia the army took its course to the river Caicus and the land of Mysia, and leaving the Caicus, through Atarneus to the town of Carene, keeping the mountain of Cane on the left. Thence they journeyed over the plain of Thebe, passing the town of Adramytteum and the Pelasgian town Antandrus; and then came into the territory of Ilium, with Ida on their left. Then this first befel them, that when they had halted for the night at the foot of Ida they were smitten by a storm of thunder and fiery winds, whereby very many there perished.
43. When the army had come to the river Scamander, which was the first river after the beginning of their march from Sardis that fell short of their needs and could not suffice for the army and the cattle,—being arrived at this river, Xerxes ascended to the citadel of Priam, having a desire to view it; and having viewed and enquired of all that was there he sacrificed a thousand kine to Athene of Ilium, and the Magians offered libations to the heroes. After their so doing, the army was seized with a panic fear in the night. When it was day they journeyed on thence, keeping on their left the towns of Rhoetium and Ophryneum and Dardanus, which marches with Abydos, and on their right the Teucrian Gergithae.
44. When Xerxes had come to the midst of Abydos, he desired to see the whole of his army; and this he could do, for a lofty seat of white stone had been set up for him on a hill there with that intent, built by the people of Abydos at the king’s command. There Xerxes sat, and looked down on the sea-shore, viewing his army and his fleet; and as he viewed them he was fain to see the ships contend in a race. They did so, and the Phoenicians of Sidon won it; and Xerxes was pleased with the race, and with his armament.
45. But when he saw the whole Hellespont hidden by his ships, and all the shores and plains of Abydos thronged with men, Xerxes first declared himself happy, and presently he fell a-weeping.
46. Perceiving that, his uncle Artabanus, who in the beginning had spoken his mind freely and coun-selled Xerxes not to march against Hellas—Artabanus, I say, marking how Xerxes wept, questioned him and said, “What a distance is there, O king, between your acts of this present and a little while ago! Then you declared your happiness, and now you weep.” “Ay verily,” said Xerxes; “for I was moved to compassion, when I considered the shortness of all human life, seeing that of all this multitude of men not one will be alive a hundred years hence.” “In our life,” Artabanus answered, “we have deeper sorrows to bear than that. For short as our lives are, there is no man here or elsewhere so fortunate, that he shall not be constrained, ay many a time and not once only, to wish himself dead rather than alive. Misfortunes so fall upon us and sicknesses so trouble us, that they make life to seem long for all its shortness. Thus is life so sorry a thing that death has come to be a man’s most desirable refuge therefrom; the god is seen to be envious therein, after he has given us but a taste of the sweetness of living.”
47. Xerxes answered and said, “Human life, Artabanus, is such as you define it to be. Yet let us speak no more of that, nor remember evils in our present prosperous estate; but tell me this. If you had not seen the vision in your dream so clearly, would you still have held your former opinion, and counselled me not to march against Hellas, or would you have changed from it? Come, tell me that truly.” Artabanus answered and said, “O king, may the vision that appeared in my dream bring such an end as we both desire! But for myself, I am even now full of fear, yea distraught, for many other reasons that I have, and this in especial—that I see the two greatest things in the world to be most your enemies.”
48. “Sir,” Xerxes answered, “I marvel at you. What are these two things that you say are most my enemies? Is it that you find some fault with the numbers of my land army, and suppose that the Greek host will be many times greater than ours? Or think you that our navy will fall short of theirs? Or that the fault is in both? For if in this regard our power seems to you to lack aught, it were best to muster another host with all speed.”
49. “O king,” Artabanus answered and said, “there is no fault that any man of sound judgment could find either with this army or with the number of your ships; and if you gather more, those two things whereof I speak grow yet the more your enemies. These two are the land and the sea. The sea has nowhere any harbour, as I guess, that if a storm arise will be warrantable to receive this navy and save your ships. Yet such harbours there should be, not in one place alone but all along the land along which you sail. Seeing then that there are no harbours able to receive you, learn thereby that men are the subjects and not the rulers of their accidents. Now I have spoken of one of the two, and I will tell you of the other: this is how the land is your enemy: if so be that nothing stands in your way to hinder you, the land is the more your enemy the further you advance, with never true knowledge of what lies beyond; and no man is ever full fed with success. Therefore, I say, if none withstand you, the increase of your territory and the time passed in getting it will beget famine. He is the best man, who is timid in counsel because he takes all that may befal him into account, but is in action bold.”
50. “Artabanus,” Xerxes answered, “you do reasonably in so defining all these matters. But this I say, fear not everything, nor take account of all alike; for if on whatever occasion befal you were minded to take everything alike into account, you would never do anything; better it is to suffer half the dreaded ill by facing all with a stout heart, rather than to fear all chances and so suffer nought. But if you quarrel with whatever is said, yet cannot show where security lies, you must be proved as wrong on your part as he that holds the contrary opinion. In this then both are alike; and how shall one that is but man know where there is security? It is, I think, impossible. It is they, then, who have the will to act that do oftenest win the prizes, not, truly, they that palter and take account of all chances. You see, to what power Persia has attained. Now, if those kings who came before me had held such opinions as yours, or not holding them themselves had had counsellors like you, you would never have seen our fortunes at their present height; but as it is, those kings encountered dangers, and by so doing advanced them to this height. Great successes are not won save by great risks. We, then, will do as they did; we are using the fairest season of the year to journey in, and we will return home the conquerors of all Europe, having nowhere suffered famine or any other harm; for firstly, we carry ample provision with us on our march, and secondly we shall have the food of those whose land and nation we invade; and those against whom we march are no wandering tribes, but tillers of the soil.”
51. Then said Artabanus: “O king, I see that you will not suffer us to fear any danger; yet take from me this counsel: for needs must there be much speaking when our businesses are so many. Cyrus son of Cambyses subdued and made tributary to Persia all Ionians save only the Athenians. It is my counsel, then, that you do by no means lead these Ionians against the land of their fathers; even without their aid we are well able to overcome our enemies; for if they come with our army, they must behave either very unjustly by enslaving their parent state or very justly by aiding it to be free. Now, if they deal very unjustly, they bring us no great advantage, but by dealing very justly they may well thereby do great harm to your army. Take therefore to heart the truth of even that ancient saying, ‘That the end of every matter appeareth not at its beginning.’”
52. “Artabanus,” Xerxes answered, “there is no opinion which you have declared wherein you are so misled as in this your fear lest the Ionians change sides; we have the surest warranty for them (and you and all that marched with Darius against the Scythians can witness it) in that with these it lay to destroy or to save the whole Persian army; and they gave proof of justice and faithfulness, and no evil intent. Moreover, seeing that they have left in our country their children and wives and possessions, we need not deem it even possible that they will make any violent change. Therefore be quit of that fear too; keep a stout heart and guard my household and sovereignty; for to you alone I entrust the symbols of my kingship.”
53. Having thus spoken, and sent Artabanus away to Susa, Xerxes next sent for the most notable among the Persians; and when they were present, “Persians,” he said, “I have assembled you to make this demand, that you bear yourselves bravely and never sully the great and glorious former achievements of the Persians; let us each and all be zealous; for this is the common advantage of all that we seek. For this cause I bid you set your hands to the war with might and main; for as I am assured, we march against valiant men, whom if we overcome, it is certain that no other human host will ever withstand us. Now let us cross over, having first prayed to the gods who hold Persia for their allotted realm.”
54. All that day they made preparation for the crossing; and on the next they waited till they should see the sun rise, burning all kinds of incense on the bridges, and strewing the way with myrtle boughs. At sunrise, Xerxes poured a libation from a golden phial into the sea, praying to the sun that no such accident should befal him as to stay him from subduing Europe ere he should reach its farthest borders. After the prayer, he cast the phial into the Hellespont, and a golden bowl withal, and a Persian sword, that which they call “acinaces.” As to these, I cannot rightly determine whether he cast them into the sea for offerings to the sun, or repented of his scourging of the Hellespont and gave gifts to the sea as atonement.
55. This done, they crossed over, the foot and horse all by the bridge nearest to the Pontus, and the beasts of burden and the train of service by the bridge towards the Aegean. In the van came the ten thousand Persians, all wearing garlands, and after them the mixed host of divers nations. All that day these crossed, and on the next, first the horsemen and they that bore their spears reversed; these also wore garlands. After them came the sacred horses and the sacred chariot, then Xerxes himself and the spearmen and the thousand horse, and after them the rest of the host. Meanwhile the ships put out and crossed to the opposite shore. But I have heard ere now, that the king crossed last of all.
56. Having passed over to Europe, Xerxes viewed his army crossing under the lash; seven days and seven nights it was in crossing, with never a rest. There is a tale that, when Xerxes had now crossed the Hellespont, a man of the Hellespont cried, “O Zeus, why hast thou taken the likeness of a Persian man and changed thy name to Xerxes, leading the whole world with thee to remove Hellas from its place? For that thou mightest have done without these means.”
57. When all had passed over and they were ready for the road, a great portent appeared among them, whereof Xerxes took no account, though it was easy of interpretation: a mare gave birth to a hare. The meaning of it was easy to guess, being this: Xerxes was to march his army to Hellas with great pomp and pride, but to come back to the same place fleeing for his life. There was another portent, that was shown to him at Sardis: a mule gave birth to a mule, that had double privy parts, both male and female, the male above the other. But of neither sign did he take any account, and journeyed on, his land army with him.
58. His navy sailed out of the Hellespont and coasted along by the land, contrariwise to the land army; for the ships voyaged westwards, laying their course for the headland of Sarpedon, whither Xerxes had bidden them come and there await him; but the army of the mainland travelled towards the east and the sunrise through the Chersonese, with the tomb of Athamas’ daughter Helle on its right and the town of Cardia on its left, and marching through the midst of a town called Agora. Thence turning the head of the Black Bay (as it is called) and crossing the Black River, which could not hold its own then against the army, but fell short of its needs—crossing this river, which gives its name to the bay, they went westwards, past the Aeolian town of Aenus and the marsh of Stentor, till they came to Doriscus.
59. The territory of Doriscus is in Thrace, a wide plain by the sea, and through it flows a great river, the Hebrus; here had been built that royal fortress which is called Doriscus, and a Persian guard had been posted there by Darius ever since the time of his march against Scythia. It seemed therefore to Xerxes to be a fit place for him to array and number his host, and he did so. All the fleet, being now arrived at Doriscus, was brought by its captains at Xerxes’ command to the beach near Doriscus, where stands the Samothracian town of Sane, and Zone; at the end thereof is Serreum, a headland of some name. This country was in former days possessed by the Cicones. To this beach they brought their ships in, and hauled them up for rest. In the meanwhile Xerxes numbered his army at Doriscus.
60. What the number of each part of it was I cannot with exactness say; for there is no one who tells us that; but the tale of the whole land army was shown to be a million and seven hundred thousand. The numbering was on this wise:—Ten thousand men were collected in one place, and when they were packed together as closely as might be a line was drawn round them; this being drawn, the ten thousand were sent away, and a wall of stones built on the line reaching up to a man’s middle; which done, others were brought into the walled space, till in this way all were numbered. When they had been numbered, they were marshalled according to their several nations.
61. Those that served in the army were as I will now show. Firstly, the Persians; for their equipment they wore on their heads loose caps called tiaras, and on their bodies sleeved tunics of divers colours, with scales of iron like in appearance to the scales of fish, and breeches on their legs; for shields they had wicker bucklers, their quivers hanging beneath these; they carried short spears, long bows, and arrows of reed, and daggers withal that hung from the girdle by the right thigh. Their commander was Otanes, father of Xerxes’ wife and son of Amestris. These Persians were in old time called by the Greeks Cephenes, but by themselves and their neighbours Artaei. But when Perseus the son of Danaë and Zeus had come to Cepheus the son of Belus, and taken his daughter Andromeda to wife, a son was born to him whom he called Perses, and him he left there; for Cepheus had no male issue; it was from this Perses that the Persians took their name.
62. The Medes in the army were equipped like the Persians; indeed that fashion of armour is Median, not Persian; their commander was Tigranes, an Achaemenid. These were in old time called by all men Arians, but when the Colchian woman Medea came from Athens among the Arians they changed their name, like the Persians. This is the Medes’ own account of themselves. The Cissians in the army were equipped like the Persians, but they wore turbans and not caps. Their commander was Anaphes son of Otanes. The Hyrcanians were armed like the Persians; their leader was Megapanus; who was afterwards the governor of Babylon.
63. The Assyrians of the army wore on their heads helmets of twisted bronze made in an outlandish fashion not easy to describe. They bore shields and spears and daggers of Egyptian fashion, and wooden clubs withal studded with iron, and they wore linen breastplates. These are called by Greeks Syrians, but the foreigners called them Assyrians. With them were the Chaldeans. Their commander was Otaspes son of Artachaees.
64. The Bactrians in the army wore a headgear most like to the Median, carrying their native bows of reed, and short spears. The Sacae, who are Scythians, had on their heads tall caps, erect and stiff and tapering to a point; they wore breeches, and carried their native bows, and daggers, and axes withal, which they call “sagaris.” These were Amyrgian Scythians, but were called Sacae; for that is the Persian name for all Scythians. The commander of the Bactrians and Sacae was Hystaspes, son of Darius and Cyrus’ daughter Atossa.
65. The Indians wore garments of tree-wool, and carried bows of reed and iron-tipped arrows of the same. Such was their equipment; they were appointed to march under the command of Pharnazathres son of Artabates.
66. The Arians were equipped with Median bows, but in all else like the Bactrians; their commander was Sisamnes son of Hydarnes. The Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, Gandarians, and Dadicae in the army had the same equipment as the Bactrians. The Parthians and Chorasmians had for their commander Artabazus son of Pharnaces, the Sogdians Azanes son of Artaeus, the Gandarians and Dadicae Artyphius son of Artabanus.
67. The Caspians in the army wore cloaks, and carried the reed bows of their country and short swords. Such was their equipment; their leader was Ariomardus, brother to Artyphius; the Sarangae made a brave show with dyed garments and boots knee-high, carrying bows and Median spears. Their commander was Pherendates son of Megabazus. The Pactyes wore cloaks and carried the bows of their country and daggers; their commander was Artaÿntes son of Ithamitres.
68. The Utians and Mycians and Paricanians were equipped like the Pactyes; the Utians and Mycians had for their commander Arsamenes son of Darius, the Paricanians Siromitres son of Oeobazus.
69. The Arabians wore mantles girded up, and carried at their right side long bows curving backwards. The Ethiopians were wrapt in skins of leopards and lions, and carried bows made of palm-wood strips, full four cubits long, and short arrows therewith, pointed not with iron but with a sharpened stone, that stone wherewith seals are carved; moreover they had spears pointed with a gazelle’s horn sharpened to the likeness of a lance, and studded clubs withal. When they went into battle they painted half their bodies with gypsum and the other half with vermilion. The Arabians, and the Ethiopians who dwell above Egypt, had for commander Arsames son of Darius and Artystone daughter of Cyrus, whom Darius loved best of his wives, and had an image made of her of hammered gold.
70. The Ethiopians above Egypt and the Arabians had Arsames for commander, and the Ethiopians of the east (for there were two kinds of them in the army) served with the Indians; they differed nothing in appearance from the others, but only in speech and hair; for the Ethiopians from the east are straight-haired, but they of Libya have of all men the woolliest hair. These Ethiopians of Asia were for the most part armed like the Indians; but they wore on their heads the skins of horses’ foreheads, stripped from the head with ears and mane; the mane served them for a crest, and they wore the horses’ ears stiff and upright; for shields they had bucklers of cranes’ skin.
71. The Libyans came in leathern garments, using javelins of charred wood. Their commander was Massages son of Oarizus.
72. The Paphlagonians in the army had plaited helmets on their heads, and small shields and short spears, and javelins and daggers withal; they wore the shoes of their country, reaching midway to the knee. The Ligyes and Matieni and Mariandyni and Syrians were equipped like the Paphlagonians. These Syrians are called by the Persians Cappadocians. Dotus son of Megasidrus was commander of the Paphlagonians and Matieni, Gobryas son of Darius and Artystone of the Mariandyni and Ligyes and Syrians.
73. The Phrygian equipment was most like to the Paphlagonian, with but small difference. By what the Macedonians say, these Phrygians were called Briges as long as they dwelt in Europe, where they were neighbours of the Macedonians; but when they changed their home to Asia they changed their name also and were called Phrygians. The Armenians, who are settlers from Phrygia, were armed like the Phrygians. Both these together had for their commander Artochmes, Darius’ son-in-law.
74. The Lydian armour was most like to the Greek. The Lydians were formerly called Meïones, till they changed their name and were called after Lydus, son of Atys. The Mysians wore on their heads helmets of native form, carrying small shields and javelins of charred wood. These are settlers from Lydia, who are called Olympieni after the mountain Olympus. The commander of the Lydians and Mysians was that Artaphrenes, son of Artaphrenes, who made the onfall on Marathon with Datis.
75. The Thracians in the army wore fox-skin caps on their heads, and tunics on their bodies; mantles of divers colours were their covering; they had shoes of fawnskin on their feet and legs, carrying withal javelins and little shields and daggers. These took the name of Bithynians after they crossed over to Asia; before that they were called (as they themselves say) Strymonians, as dwelling by the Strymon; they say that they were driven from their homes by Teucrians and Mysians. The commander of the Thracians of Asia was Bassaces son of Artabanus.
76. The [Pisidians] had little shields of raw oxhide; each man carried two wolf-hunter’s spears; they wore helmets of bronze, with the ears and horns of oxen wrought in bronze thereon, and crests withal; their legs were wrapped round with strips of purple stuff. In this country is a place of divination sacred to Ares.
77. The Cabelees, who are Meïones, and are called Lasonii, had the same equipment as the Cilicians; when I come in my recording to the place of the Cilicians, I will then declare what it was. The Milyae had short spears and garments fastened by brooches; some of them carried Lycian bows, and wore caps of skin on their heads. The commander of all these was Badres son of Hystanes.
78. The Moschi wore wooden helmets on their heads, and carried shields and small spears with long points. The Tibareni and Macrones and Mossynoeci in the army were equipped like the Moschi. Their commanders who marshalled them were, for the Moschi and Tibareni, Ariomardus son of Darius and Parmys, the daughter of Cyrus’ son Smerdis; for the Macrones and Mossynoeci, Artaÿctes son of Cherasmis, who was governor of Sestus on the Hellespont.
79. The Mares wore on their heads the plaited helmets of their country, carrying small shields of hide and javelins. The Colchians had wooden helmets and small shields of raw oxhide and short spears, and swords withal. The commander of the Mares and Colchians was Pharandates son of Teaspis. The Alarodians and Saspires in the army were armed like the Colchians; Masistius son of Siromitres was their commander.
80. The island tribes that came from the Red Sea, and from the islands where the king plants those who are called Exiles, wore dress and armour likest to the Median. The commander of these islanders was Mardontes son of Bagaeus, who in the next year, being then general at Mycale, was there slain in the fight.
81. These are the nations that marched by the mainland and had their places in the land army. Of this host the commanders were those of whom I have spoken, and these were they that marshalled and numbered the host and appointed captains of thousands and ten thousands, the captains of ten thousands appointing the captains of hundreds and of tens. Others too there were, leaders of troops and nations.
82. The commanders then were as aforesaid. The generals of these and of the whole land army were Mardonius son of Gobryas, Tritantaechmes son of that Artabanus who counselled that there should be no expedition against Hellas, Smerdomenes son of Otanes (these two latter were sons of Darius’ brethren, whereby they were Xerxes’ cousins), Masistes son of Darius and Atossa, Gergis son of Ariazus, and Megabyzus son of Zopyrus.
83. These were the generals of the whole land army, saving the Ten Thousand; Hydarnes son of Hydarnes was general of these picked ten thousand Persians, who were called Immortals for this reason, that when any one of them fell out of the number by force of death or sickness, another was chosen, and so they were never more or fewer than ten thousand. The Persians showed of all the richest adornment, and were themselves the best in the army. Their equipment was such as I have recorded; over and above this they made a brave show with the abundance of gold that they had; carriages withal they brought, bearing concubines and servants many and well equipped; and their food was brought to them on camels and beasts of burden, apart from the rest of the army.
84. There are horsemen in these nations, yet not all of them furnished cavalry, but only such as I will show: first the Persians, equipped like their foot, save that some of them wore headgear of hammered bronze and iron.
85. There are also certain nomads called Sagartian; they are Persian in speech, and the fashion of their equipment is somewhat between the Persian and the Pactyan; they furnished eight thousand horsemen. It is their custom to carry no armour of bronze or iron, save daggers only, and to use ropes of twisted leather. In these they trust when they go to battle; and this is their manner of fighting: when they are at close quarters with their enemy, they throw their ropes, these having a noose at the end; and whatever they catch, be it horse or man, the thrower drags it to himself, and the enemy thus entangled in the prisoning coils is slain.
86. This is their manner of fighting; their place in the army was with the Persians. The Median horse were equipped like their foot, and the Cissians likewise. The Indians were armed in like manner as their foot; they rode swift horses and drove chariots drawn by horses and wild asses. The Bactrians were equipped as were their foot, and the Caspians in like manner. The Libyans too were armed like the men of their infantry, and all of them too drove chariots. So likewise the Caspians and Paricanians were armed as the men of their infantry. The Arabians had the same equipment as the men of their infantry, and all of them rode on camels no less swift than horses.
87. These nations alone are riders; and the number of the horsemen was shown to be eighty thousand, besides the camels and the chariots. All the rest of the riders were ranked in their several troops, but the Arabians were posted hindmost; for the horses not enduring the sight of camels, their place was in the rear, that so the horses might not be affrighted.
88. The captains of horse were Harmamithres and Tithaeus, sons of Datis; the third who was captain with them, Pharnuches, had been left behind sick at Sardis. For as they set forth from Sardis, an unwelcome mishap befel him; a dog ran under the feet of the horse that he rode, and the horse taken unawares reared up and threw Pharnuches; after his fall he vomited blood and his hurt turned to a wasting sickness. The horse was straightway dealt with according to Pharnuches’ command; his servants led it away to the place where it had thrown their master, and cut off its legs at the knee. Thus it was that Pharnuches lost his captaincy.
89. The number of the triremes was shown to be twelve hundred and seven; and these were they that furnished them. First, the Phoenicians; they, with the Syrians of Palestine, furnished three hundred. For their equipment, they had on their heads helmets well-nigh of Greek fashion; they wore linen breastplates, and carried shields without rims, and javelins. These Phoenicians dwelt in old time, as they themselves say, by the Red Sea; passing over from thence, they now inhabit the sea-coast of Syria; that part of Syria and as much of it as reaches to Egypt, is all called Palestine. The Egyptians furnished two hundred ships. These wore plaited helmets, and carried hollow shields with broad rims, and spears for sea-warfare, and great poleaxes. The greater part of them wore cuirasses and carried long swords.
90. Such was their armour: the Cyprians furnished a hundred and fifty ships; for their equipment, their princes wore turbans wrapped round their heads; the people wore tunics, but in all else were like the Greeks. Their tribes are these: some are from Salamis and Athens, some from Arcadia, some from Cythnus, some from Phoenice, and some from Ethiopia, as the Cyprians themselves say.
91. The Cilicians furnished a hundred ships. These, too, wore on their heads the helmets of their country, carrying bucklers of raw oxhide for shields, and clad in woollen tunics; each had two javelins and a sword fashioned well-nigh like the falchions of Egypt. These Cilicians were in old time called Hypachaei, and took the name they bear from Cilix a Phoenician, son of Agenor. The Pamphylians furnished thirty ships: they were armed like Greeks. These Pamphylians are descended from the Trojans of the dispersal who followed Amphilochus and Calchas.
92. The Lycians furnished fifty ships; they wore cuirasses and greaves, carrying bows of cornel-wood and unfeathered arrows and javelins; goat-skins hung from their shoulders, and they wore on their heads caps set about with feathers; daggers they had too, and scimitars. The Lycians were of Cretan descent, and were once called Termilae; they took the name they bear from Lycus, an Athenian, son of Pandion.
93. The Dorians of Asia furnished thirty ships; their armour was Greek; they were of Peloponnesian descent. The Carians furnished seventy ships; they had scimitars and daggers, but for the rest Greek equipment. Of them I have spoken in the beginning of my history, telling by what name they were formerly called.
94. The Ionians furnished a hundred ships; their equipment was like the Greek. These Ionians, as long as they were in the Peloponnese dwelling in what is now called Achaia, before Danaus and Xuthus came to the Peloponnese, as the Greeks say, were called Aegialian Pelasgians; they were named Ionians after Ion the son of Xuthus.
95. The islanders furnished seventeen ships; they were armed like Greeks; they also were of Pelasgian stock, which was later called Ionian by the same right as were the Ionians of the twelve cities, who came from Athens. The Aeolians furnished sixty ships; they were equipped like Greeks; in former days they were called Pelasgian, as the Greek story goes. Of the people of the Hellespont, they of Abydos had been charged by the king to abide at home and guard the bridges; the rest that came from Pontus with the army furnished a hundred ships, and were equipped like Greeks. They were settlers from the Ionians and Dorians.
96. There were fighting men of the Persians and Medes and Sacae on all the ships. The best sailing ships were furnished by the Phoenicians, and among them by the Sidonians. These, like those of them that were ranked in the land army, had their native leaders severally, whose names I do not record, as not being needful for the purpose of my history; for these several leaders of nations are not worthy of mention, and every city, too, of each nation had a leader of its own. These came not as generals but as slaves, like the rest of the armament; who the generals of supreme authority were, and who the Persian commanders of each nation, I have already said.
97. Of the navy, the admirals were Ariabignes son of Darius, Prexaspes son of Aspathines, Megabazus son of Megabates, and Achaemenes son of Darius, Ariabignes, son of Darius and Gobryas’ daughter, being admiral of the Ionian and Carian fleet; the admiral of the Egyptians was Achaemenes, full brother to Xerxes, and the two others were admirals of the rest. As for the ships of thirty and of fifty oars, and light galleys, and great transports for horses, the sum of them altogether was shown to be three thousand.
98. Of those that were on shipboard, the most famous, after the admirals, were these: Tetramnestus of Sidon, son of Anysus, Matten of Tyre, son of Siromus, Merbalus of Aradus, son of Agbalus, Syennesis of Cilicia, son of Oromedon, Cyberniscus of Lycia, son of Sicas, Gorgus son of Chersis, and Timonax son of Timagoras, Cyprians both; and of the Carians, Histiaeus son of Tymnes, Pigres son of Hysseldomus, and Damasithymus son of Candaules.
99. I name none of the rest of the captains, having no need so to do, save only Artemisia, who moves me to marvel greatly that a woman should have gone with the armament against Hellas; for her husband being dead, she herself had his sovereignty and a young son withal, and followed the host under no stress of necessity, but of mere high-hearted valour. Artemisia was her name; she was daughter to Lygdamis, on her father’s side of Halicarnassian lineage, and a Cretan on her mother’s. She was the leader of the men of Halicarnassus and Cos and Nisyrus and Calydnos, furnishing five ships. Her ships were reputed the best in the whole fleet after the ships of Sidon; and of all his allies she gave the king the best counsels. The cities, whereof I said she was the leader, are all of Dorian stock, as I can show, the Halicarnassians being of Troezen, and the rest of Epidaurus. Here ends what I have said of the fleet.
100. When his host had been numbered and marshalled, Xerxes had a desire to ride through and view it. This he presently did; riding in a chariot past the men of each nation, he questioned them, and his scribes wrote all down, till he had gone from end to end of the horse and foot. This done, and the ships being drawn down and launched in the sea, Xerxes alighted from his chariot into a ship of Sidon, sitting wherein under a golden canopy he was carried past the prows of the ships, questioning of them in like manner as of the army and making the answers to be written down. The captains put out as far as four hundred feet from the shore, and there kept the ships anchored in a line, their prows turned landward, and the fighting men on them armed as for war; Xerxes viewed them, passing between the prows and the land.
101. Having passed by all his fleet likewise and disembarked from his ship, he sent for Demaratus son of Ariston, who was marching with him against Hellas, and called and questioned him, saying: “Now, Demaratus, it is my pleasure to ask you what I would fain know. You are a Greek, and, as I am told by you and the other Greeks that converse with me, a man of not the least nor the weakest of Greek cities. Now therefore tell me this: will the Greeks offer me battle and abide my coming? For to my thinking, even if all the Greeks and all the men of the western lands were assembled together, they are not of power to abide my attack, if they be not in accord. Nathless I would fain learn your mind and hear what you say of them.” To this question Demaratus made answer, “O king, must I speak truly, or so as to please you?” Xerxes bade him speak the truth, and said that he would lose none of the king’s favour thereby.
102. Hearing that, “O king,” said Demaratus, “seeing that you bid me by all means speak the whole truth, and say that which you shall not afterwards prove to be false,—in Hellas poverty is ever native to the soil, but courage comes of their own seeking, the fruit of wisdom and strong law; by use of courage Hellas defends herself from poverty and tyranny. Now I say nought but good of all Greeks that dwell in those Dorian lands; yet it is not of all that I would now speak, but only of the Lacedaemonians; and this I say of them; firstly, that they will never accept conditions from you that import the enslaving of Hellas; and secondly, that they will meet you in battle, yea, even though all the rest of the Greeks be on your side. But, for the number of them, ask me not how many these men are, who are like to do as I say; be it of a thousand men, or of more or of fewer than that, their army will fight with you.”
103. Hearing that, Xerxes smiled, and said, “A strange saying, Demaratus! that a thousand men should fight with a host so great as mine! I pray you tell me this: you were (you say) these men’s king: will you consent at this present to fight with ten men? Yet if the order of your state be such as you define it to be, you, being their king should rightly encounter twice as many according to your laws; for if each of those Greeks is a match for ten men of my army, then it is plain to me that you must be a match for twenty. That were a proof that what you say is true; but if you Greeks who so exalt yourselves are like in stature and all else to yourself and those of your nation who have audience of me, then beware lest the words you have spoken be but idle boasting. Nay, let us look at it by plain reason’s light: how should a thousand, or ten thousand, or even fifty thousand, if they be all alike free and not under the rule of one man, withstand so great a host as mine? For grant your Greeks to be five thousand, we should so be more than a thousand to one. For, were they under the rule of one according to our custom, they might from fear of him show a valour greater than natural, and under compulsion of the lash might encounter odds in the field; but neither of these would they do while they were suffered to be free. For myself, I think that even were they equal in numbers it would go hard with the Greeks to fight against the Persians alone. Not so; it is we alone and none others that have this skill whereof you speak, yet even of us not many but a few only; there are some among my Persian spearmen that will gladly fight with three Greeks at once; of this you have no knowledge and do but utter arrant folly.”
104. To this Demaratus answered, “O king, I knew from the first that the truth would be unwelcome to you. But since you constrained me to speak as truly as I could, I have told you how it stands with the Spartans. Yet you yourself best know what love I bear them—men that have robbed me of my honourable office and the prerogative of my house, and made me a cityless exile; then it was your father that received me and gave me dwelling and livelihood. It is not then to be thought that a right-minded man will reject from him plain good will, but rather that he will requite it with full affection. But for myself, I will not promise that I can fight with ten men, no, nor with two, and of my own will I would not even fight with one; yet under stress of necessity, or of some great issue to spur me on, I would most gladly fight with one of those men who claim to be each a match for three Greeks. So is it with the Lacedaemonians; fighting singly they are as brave as any man living, and together they are the best warriors on earth. Free they are, yet not wholly free; for law is their master, whom they fear much more than your men fear you. This is my proof—what their law bids them, that they do; and its bidding is ever the same, that they must never flee from the battle before whatsoever odds, but abide at their post and there conquer or die. If this that I say seems to you but foolishness, then let me hereafter hold my peace; it is under constraint that I have now spoken. But may your wish, O king! be fulfilled.”
105. Thus Demaratus answered; Xerxes made a jest of the matter and showed no anger, but sent him away with all kindness. Having thus conversed with Demaratus, and having appointed Mascames son of Megadostes his viceroy of that same Doriscus, deposing him whom Darius had set there, Xerxes marched his army through Thrace towards Hellas.
106. This Mascames, whom he left, so bore himself that to him alone Xerxes ever sent gifts, as being the most valiant of all the viceroys that he or Darius set up; every year he would send them; and so too did Artoxerxes his son to Mascames’ descendants. For before this march, viceroys had been appointed everywhere in Thrace and on the Hellespont. All these in that country, except the viceroy of Doriscus, were after this expedition dispossessed by the Greeks; but Mascames of Doriscus could never be dispossessed by any, though many essayed it. For this cause it is that the gifts are sent by whoever is at any time king of Persia.
107. Of those who were dispossessed by the Greeks there was none whom king Xerxes deemed a valiant man except only Boges, from whom they took Eïon. But this Boges he never ceased praising, and gave very great honour to his sons who were left alive in Persia; and indeed Boges proved himself worthy of all praise. Being besieged by the Athenians under Cimon son of Miltiades, he might have departed under treaty from Eïon and so returned to Asia; yet he would not, lest the king should think that he had saved his life out of cowardice, but he resisted to the last. Then, when there was no food left within his walls, he piled up a great pyre and slew and cast into the fire his children and wife and concubines and servants; after that, he took all the gold and silver from the city and scattered it from the walls into the Strymon; which done, he cast himself into the fire. Thus it is that he is justly praised by the Persians to this day.
108. From Doriscus Xerxes went on his way towards Hellas, compelling all that he met to go with his army; for, as I have before shown, all the country as far as Thessaly had been enslaved and was tributary to the king, by the conquests of Megabazus and Mardonius after him. On his road from Doriscus he first passed the Samothracian fortresses, whereof that one which is builded farthest westwards is a town called Mesambria. Next to it is a Thasian town, Stryme; between them runs the river Lisus, which now could not furnish water enough for Xerxes’ army, but was exhausted. All this region was once called Gallaïc, but it is now called Briantic; yet it too is by rights a land of the Cicones.
109. Having crossed the bed (then dried up) of the river Lisus he passed by the Greek cities of Maronea, Dicaea, and Abdera. Past these he went, and past certain lakes of repute near to them, the Ismarid lake that lies between Maronea and Stryme, and near Dicaea the Bistonian lake, into which the rivers Travus and Compsantus disembogue. Near Abdera Xerxes passed no lake of repute, but crossed the river Nestus where it flows into the sea. From these regions he passed by the cities of the mainland, one whereof has near it a lake of about thirty furlongs in circuit, full of fish and very salt; this was drained dry by no more than the watering of the beasts of burden. This town is called Pistyrus.
110. Past these Greek towns of the sea-board Xerxes marched, keeping them on his left; the Thracian tribes through whose lands he journeyed were the Paeti, Cicones, Bistones, Sapaei, Dersaei, Edoni, and Satrae. Of these tribes they that dwelt by the sea followed his host on shipboard; they that dwelt inland, whose names I have recorded, were constrained to join with his land army, all of them save the Satrae.
111. But these Satrae, as far as our knowledge goes, have never yet been subject to any man; they alone of all Thracians have ever been and are to this day free; for they dwell on high mountains, covered with forests of all kinds and snow; and they are warriors of high excellence. It is they who possess the place of divination sacred to Dionysus; which place is among the highest of their mountains; the Bessi, a clan of the Satrae, are the prophets of the shrine, and it is a priestess that utters the oracle, as at Delphi; nor is aught more of mystery here than there.
112. Passing through the land aforesaid Xerxes next passed the fortresses of the Pierians, one called Phagres and the other Pergamus. By this way he marched under their very walls, keeping on his right the great and high Pangaean range, wherein the Pierians and Odomanti and the Satrae in especial have mines of gold and silver.
113. Marching past the Paeonians, Doberes, and Paeoplae, who dwell beyond and northward of the Pangaean mountains, he went ever westwards, till he came to the river Strymon and the city of Eïon, the governor whereof was that Boges, then still alive, of whom I have lately made mention. All this region about the Pangaean range is called Phyllis; it stretches westwards to the river Angites, which issues into the Strymon, and southwards to the Strymon itself; by that water the Magi slew white horses, offering thus sacrifice for good omens.
114. Having used these enchantments and many other besides on the river, they passed over it at the Edonian town of Nine Ways, by the bridges which they found thrown across it. There, learning that Nine Ways was the name of the place, they buried alive that number of boys and maidens, children of the people of the country. To bury alive is a Persian custom; I have heard that when Xerxes’ wife Amestris attained to old age she buried fourteen sons of notable Persians, as a thank-offering on her own behalf to the fabled god of the nether world.
115. Journeying from the Strymon, the army passed by Argilus, a Greek town standing on a stretch of sea-coast further westwards; the territory of which town and that which lies inland of it are called Bisaltia. Thence, keeping on his left hand the gulf off Poseideïon, Xerxes traversed the plain of Syleus (as they call it), passing by the Greek town of Stagirus, and came to Acanthus; he took along with him all these tribes, and those that dwelt about the Pangaean range, in like manner as those others whom I have already recorded, the men of the coast serving in his fleet and the inland men in his land army. All this road, whereby king Xerxes led his army, the Thracians neither break up nor sow aught on it, but they hold it in great reverence to this day.
116. When Xerxes came to Acanthus, he declared the Acanthians his guests and friends, and gave them a Median dress, praising them for the zeal wherewith he saw them furthering his campaign, and for what he heard of the digging of the canal.
117. While Xerxes was at Acanthus, it so befel that Artachaees, overseer of the digging of the canal, died of a sickness. He was high in Xerxes’ favour, an Achaemenid by lineage; he was the tallest man in Persia, lacking four finger-breadths of five royal cubits in stature, and his voice was the loudest on earth. Wherefore Xerxes mourned him greatly and gave him a funeral and burial of great pomp, and the whole army poured libations on his tomb. The Acanthians hold Artachaees a hero, and sacrifice to him, calling upon his name; this they do by the bidding of an oracle.
118. King Xerxes, then, mourned for the death of Artachaees. But the Greeks who received Xerxes’ army and entertained the king himself were brought to the depth of misery, insomuch that they were driven from house and home; witness the case of the Thasians, who received and feasted Xerxes’ army on behalf of their towns on the mainland; Antipatrus son of Orgeus, as notable a man as any of his townsmen, chosen by them for this task, rendered them an account of four hundred silver talents expended on the dinner.
119. A like account was rendered in all the other cities by the controllers. For since the command for it had been given long before, and the matter was esteemed a weighty one, the dinner was somewhat on this wise: As soon as the townsmen had word from the heralds’ proclamation, they divided corn among themselves in their cities and all of them for many months ground it to wheaten and barley meal; moreover they fed the finest beasts that money could buy, and kept landfowl and waterfowl in cages and ponds, for the entertaining of the army; and they made gold and silver cups and bowls and all manner of service for the table. These latter were made for the king himself and those that ate with him; for the rest of the army they provided only what served for food. At the coming of the army, there was a pavilion built for Xerxes’ own lodging, and his army abode in the open air. When the hour came for dinner, the hosts would have no light task; as for the army, when they had eaten their fill and passed the night there, on the next day they would rend the pavilion from the ground and take all things movable, and so march away, leaving nothing but carrying all with them.
120. It was then that there was a very apt saying uttered by one Megacreon of Abdera: he counselled his townsmen to go all together, men and women, to their temples, and there in all humility entreat the gods to defend them in the future from half of every threatened ill; and let them (so he counselled) thank the gods heartily for past favour, in that it was Xerxes’ custom to take a meal only once a day; else, had they been commanded to furnish a breakfast of like fashion as the dinner, the people of Abdera would have had no choice but either to flee before Xerxes’ coming, or to perish most miserably if they awaited him.
121. So the townsmen, hard put to it as they were, yet did as they were commanded. Quitting Acanthus, Xerxes sent his ships on their course away from him, giving orders to his generals that the fleet should await him at Therma, the town on the Thermaic gulf which gives the gulf its name; for this, he learnt, was his shortest way. For the order of the army’s march, from Doriscus to Acanthus, had been such as I will show: dividing all his land army into three portions, Xerxes appointed one of them to march beside his fleet along the sea-coast, with Mardonius and Masistes for its generals; another third of the army marched as appointed further inland, under Tritantaechmes and Gergis; the third portion, with which went Xerxes himself, marched between the two, and its generals were Smerdomenes and Megabyzus.
122. Now when the fleet had left Xerxes and sailed through the canal made in Athos (which canal reached to the gulf wherein stand the towns of Assa, Pilorus, Singus, and Sarte), thence taking on board troops from these cities also, it stood out to sea for the Thermaic gulf, and rounding Ampelus, the headland of Torone, it passed the Greek towns of Torone, Galepsus, Sermyle, Mecyberna, and Olynthus, from all which it received ships and men.
123. This country is called Sithonia. The fleet held a straight course from the headland of Ampelus to the Canastraean headland, where Pallene runs farthest out to sea, and received ships and men from the towns of what is now Pallene but was formerly called Phlegra, to wit, Potidaea, Aphytis, Neapolis, Aege, Therambus, Scione, Mende, and Sane. Sailing along this coast they made for the place appointed, taking troops from the towns adjacent to Pallene and near neighbours of the Thermaic gulf, whereof the names are Lipaxus, Combrea, Aesa, Gigonus, Campsa, Smila, Aenea; whose territory is called Crossaea to this day. From Aenea, the last-named in my list of the towns, the course of the fleet lay thenceforward to the Thermaic gulf itself and the Mygdonian territory, till its voyage ended at Therma, the place appointed, and the towns of Sindus and Chalestra, where it came to the river Axius; this is the boundary, between the Mygdonian and the Bottiaean territory, wherein stand the towns of Ichnae and Pella on the narrow strip of sea-coast.
124. So the fleet lay there off the river Axius and the city of Therma and the towns between them, awaiting the king. But Xerxes and his land army marched from Acanthus by the straightest inland course, making for Therma. Their way lay through the Paeonian and the Crestonaean country to the river Cheidorus, which, rising in the Crestonaean land, flows through the Mygdonian country and issues by the marshes of the Axius.
125. As Xerxes thus marched, lions attacked the camels that carried his provision; nightly they would come down out of their lairs and made havoc of the camels alone, seizing nothing else, man or beast of burden; and I marvel what was the reason that constrained the lions to touch nought else but attack the camels, creatures whereof till then they had no sight or knowledge.
126. There are many lions in these parts, and wild oxen, whose horns are those very long ones which are brought into Hellas. The boundary of the lions’ country is the river Nestus that flows through Abdera and the river Achelous that flows through Acarnania. Neither to the east of the Nestus anywhere in the nearer part of Europe, nor to the west of the Achelous in the rest of the mainland, is any lion to be seen; but they are found in the country between those rivers.
127. Being come to Therma Xerxes quartered his army there. Its encampment by the sea covered all the space from Therma and the Mygdonian country to the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon, which unite their waters in one stream and so make the border between the Bottiaean and the Macedonian territory. In this place the foreigners lay encamped; of the rivers aforesaid, the Cheidorus which flows from the Crestonaean country was the only one which could not suffice for the army’s drinking but was thereby exhausted.
128. When Xerxes saw from Therma the exceeding great height of the Thessalian mountains Olympus and Ossa, and learnt that the Peneus flows in a narrow pass through them, which was the way that led into Thessaly, he was taken with a desire to view the mouth of the Peneus, because he was minded to march by the upper road through the highland people of Macedonia to the country of the Perrhaebi and the town of Gonnus; for it was told him that this was the safest way. As he desired, so he did; embarking in a ship of Sidon, wherein he ever embarked when he had some such business in hand, he hoisted his signal for the rest also to put out to sea, leaving his land army where it was. Great wonder took him when he came and viewed the mouth of the Peneus; and calling his guides he asked them if it were possible to turn the river from its course and lead it into the sea by another way.
129. Thessaly, as tradition has it, was in old times a lake, being enclosed all round by exceeding high mountains; for on its eastern side it is fenced in by the joining of the lower parts of the mountains Pelion and Ossa, to the north by Olympus, to the west by Pindus, towards the south and the southerly wind by Othrys: in the midst of which mountains aforesaid lies the vale of Thessaly. Seeing therefore that many rivers pour into this vale, whereof the five most notable are Peneus, Apidanus, Onochonus, Enipeus, Pamisus: these five, while they flow towards their meeting from the mountains that surround Thessaly, have their several names, till their waters all unite together and so issue into the sea by one and that a narrow passage; but as soon as they are united, the name of the Peneus thereafter prevails and makes the rest to be nameless. In ancient days, it is said, there was not yet this channel and outfall, but those rivers and the Boebean lake withal, albeit not yet named, had the same volume of water as now, and thereby turned all Thessaly into a sea. Now the Thessalians say that Poseidon made this passage whereby the Peneus flows; and this is reasonable; for whosoever believes that Poseidon is the shaker of the earth, and that rifts made by earthquakes are that god’s handiwork, will judge from sight of that passage that it is of Poseidon’s making; for it is an earthquake, as it seems to me, that has riven the mountains asunder.
130. Xerxes enquiring of his guides if there were any other outlet for the Peneus into the sea, they answered him out of their full knowledge: “The river, O king, has no other way into the sea, but this alone; for there is a ring of mountains round the whole of Thessaly.” Whereupon, it is said, quoth Xerxes: “They are wise men, these Thessalians; this then in especial was the cause of their precaution long before when they changed to a better mind, that they saw their country to be so easily and speedily conquerable; for nought more would have been needful than to let the river out over their land by barring the channel with a dam and turning it from its present bed, that so the whole of Thessaly save only the mountains might be under water.” This he said with especial regard to the sons of Aleues, these Thessalians being the first Greeks who surrendered themselves to the king; Xerxes supposed that when they offered him friendship they spoke for the whole of their nation. Having so said, and ended his viewing, he sailed back to Therma.
131. Xerxes delayed for many days in the parts of Pieria; for a third part of his army was clearing a road over the Macedonian mountains, that all the army might pass by that way to the Perrhaebian country; and now returned the heralds who had been sent to Hellas to demand earth, some empty-handed, some bearing earth and water.
132. Among those who paid that tribute were the Thessalians, Dolopes, Enienes, Perrhaebians, Locrians, Magnesians, Melians, Achaeans of Phthia, Thebans, and all the Boeotians except the men of Thespiae and Plataea. Against all of these the Greeks who declared war with the foreigner entered into a sworn agreement, which was this: that if they should be victorious they would dedicate to the god of Delphi the possessions of all Greeks who had of free will surrendered themselves to the Persians. Such was the agreement sworn by the Greeks.
133. But to Athens and Sparta Xerxes sent no heralds to demand earth, and this was the reason: when Darius had before sent men with this same purpose, the demanders were cast at the one city into the Pit and at the other into a well, and bidden to carry thence earth and water to the king. For this cause Xerxes sent no demand. What calamity befel the Athenians for thus dealing with the heralds I cannot say, save that their land and their city was laid waste; but I think that there was another reason for this, and not the aforesaid.
134. Be that as it may, the Lacedaemonians were visited by the wrath of Talthybius, Agamemnon’s herald; for at Sparta there is a shrine of Talthybius, and descendants of Talthybius called Talthybiadae, who have by right the conduct of all embassies from Sparta. Now after that deed the Spartans could not win good omens from sacrifice, and for a long time it was so. The Lacedaemonians were grieved and dismayed; ofttimes they called assemblies, and made a proclamation inviting some Lacedaemonian to give his life for Sparta; then two Spartans of noble birth and great wealth, Sperthias son of Aneristus and Bulis son of Nicolaus, undertook of their own free will that they would make atonement to Xerxes for Darius’ heralds who had been done to death at Sparta. Thereupon the Spartans sent these men to Media for execution.
135. Worthy of all admiration was these men’s deed of daring, and so also were their sayings which I here record. As they journeyed to Susa, they came to Hydarnes, a Persian, who was general of the sea-coast of Asia; he entertained and feasted them as guests, and as they sat at his board, “Lacedaemonians,” he questioned them, “why do you shun the king’s friendship? You can judge from what you see of me and my condition how well the king can honour men of worth. So might it be with you; would you but put yourselves in the king’s hands, being as you are of proven worth in his eyes, every one of you might by his commission be a ruler of Hellas.” To this the Spartans answered: “Your counsels to us, Hydarnes, are ill assorted; one half of them rests on knowledge, but the other on ignorance; you know well how to be a slave, but you have never tasted of freedom, to know whether it be sweet or not. Were you to taste of it, not with spears you would counsel us to fight for it, no, but with axes.”
136. This was their answer to Hydarnes. Thence being come to Susa and into the king’s presence, when the guards commanded and would have compelled them to fall down and do obeisance to the king, they said they would never do that, no not if they were thrust down headlong; for it was not their custom (said they) to do obeisance to mortal men, nor was that the purpose of their coming. Having beaten that off, they next said, “The Lacedaemonians have sent us, O king of the Medes, in requital for the slaying of your heralds at Sparta, to make atonement for their death,” and more to that effect; whereupon Xerxes of his magnanimity said that he would not imitate the Lacedaemonians; “for you,” said he, “made havoc of all human law by slaying heralds; but I will not do that which I blame in you, nor by putting you in turn to death set the Lacedaemonians free from this guilt.”
137. Thus by this deed of the Spartans the wrath of Talthybius was appeased for the nonce, though Sperthias and Bulis returned to Sparta. But long after that it awoke to life again in the war between the Peloponnesians and Athenians, as the Lacedaemonians say. That seems to me to be a sure sign of heaven’s handiwork. It was but just that the wrath of Talthybius descended on ambassadors, nor was abated till it was satisfied; but the venting of it on the sons of those men who went up to the king to appease it, namely, on Nicolas son of Bulis and Aneristus son of Sperthias (that Aneristus who landed a merchant ship’s crew at the Tirynthian settlement of Halia and took it), makes it plain to me that this was heaven’s doing by reason of Talthybius’ anger. For these two had been sent by the Lacedaemonians as ambassadors to Asia; betrayed by the Thracian king Sitalces son of Tereus and Nymphodorus son of Pytheas of Abdera, they were made captive at Bisanthe on the Hellespont, and carried away to Attica, where the Athenians put them to death, and with them Aristeas son of Adimantus, a Corinthian. This happened many years after the king’s expedition; I return now to the course of my history.
138. The professed intent of the king’s march was to attack Athens, but in truth all Hellas was his aim. This the Greeks had long since learnt, but not all of them regarded the matter alike. Those of them that had paid tribute of earth and water to the Persian were of good courage, thinking that the foreigner would do them no harm; but they who had refused tribute were sore afraid, since there were not in Hellas ships enough to do battle with their invader, and the greater part of them had no stomach for grappling with the war, but were making haste to side with the Persian.
139. Here I am constrained perforce to declare an opinion which will be displeasing to most; but I will not refrain from uttering what seems to me to be true. Had the Athenians been panic-struck by the threatened peril and left their own country, or had they not indeed left it but remained and surrendered themselves to Xerxes, none would have essayed to withstand the king by sea. If, then, no man had withstood him by sea, I will show what would have happened by land: though the Peloponnesians had built not one but many walls across the Isthmus for their armour, yet the Lacedaemonians would have been deserted by their allies (these having no choice or free will in the matter, but seeing their cities taken one by one by the foreign fleet), till at last they would have stood alone; and so standing they would have fought a great fight and nobly perished. Such would have been their fate; or it may be that, when they saw the rest of Hellas siding with the enemy, they would have made terms with Xerxes; and thus either way Hellas would have been subdued by the Persians. For I cannot perceive what advantage could accrue from the walls built across the isthmus, while the king was master of the seas. But as it is, to say that the Athenians were the saviours of Hellas is to hit the truth. For which part soever they took, that way the balance was like to incline; and by choosing that Hellas should remain free they and none others roused all the rest of the Greeks who had not gone over to the Persians, and did under heaven beat the king off. Nor were they moved to desert Hellas by the threatening oracles that came from Delphi and sorely dismayed them, but they stood firm and were bold to abide the invader of their country.
140. For the Athenians had sent messages to Delphi and asked that an oracle be given them; and when they had performed all due rites at the temple and sat them down in the inner hall, the priestess, whose name was Aristonice, gave them this answer:
141. When the Athenian messengers heard that, they were very greatly dismayed, and gave themselves up for lost by reason of the evil foretold. Then Timon son of Androbulus, as notable a man as any Delphian, counselled them to take boughs of supplication, and to go once again and in that guise enquire of the oracle. Thus the Athenians did; “Lord” they said, “regard in thy mercy these suppliant boughs which we bring to thee, and give us some better answer concerning our country; else we will not depart out of thy temple, but abide here till we die.” Thereupon the priestess gave them this second oracle:
142. This being in truth and appearance a more merciful answer than the first, they wrote it down and departed back to Athens. So when the messengers had left Delphi and laid the oracle before the people, there was much enquiry concerning its meaning, and there were two contrary opinions in especial among the many that were uttered. Some of the elder men said that the god’s answer signified that the acropolis should be saved; for in old time the acropolis of Athens had been fenced by a thorn hedge, and by their interpretation it was this fence that was the wooden wall. But others supposed that the god signified their ships, and they were for doing nought else but equip these. They then that held their ships to be the wooden wall were disabled by the two last verses of the priestess’ answer:
These verses confounded the opinion of those who said that their ships were the wooden wall; for the readers of oracles took the verses to mean, that they should offer battle by sea near Salamis and be there overthrown.
143. Now there was a certain Athenian, by name and title Themistocles son of Neocles, who had lately risen to be among their chief men. He said, that the readers of oracles had not rightly interpreted the whole; and this was his plea: had the verse been verily spoken of the Athenians, the oracle had used a word less mild of import, and had called Salamis rather “cruel” than “divine,” if indeed the dwellers in that place were in it and for it to perish; nay (said he), rightly understood, the god’s oracle was spoken not of the Athenians but of their enemies; and his counsel was that they should believe their ships to be the wooden wall, and so make ready to fight by sea. Themistocles thus declaring, the Athenians judged him to be a better counsellor than the readers of oracles, who would have had them prepare for no sea fight, and in brief offer no resistance at all, but leave Attica and settle in some other country.
144. Themistocles had ere this given another counsel that seasonably prevailed. The revenues from the mines at Laurium had brought great wealth into the Athenians’ treasury, and when they were to receive each man ten drachmae for his share, then Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to make no such division, but out of the money to build two hundred ships for the war, that is, for the war with Aegina; it was that war whereof the outbreak then saved Hellas, by compelling the Athenians to become seamen. The ships were not used for the purpose wherefor they were built, but it was thus that they came to serve Hellas in her need. These ships, then, had been made and were already there for the Athenians’ service, and now they must build yet others besides; and in their debate after the giving of the oracle they resolved, that they would put their trust in heaven and meet the foreign invader of Hellas with the whole power of their fleet, ships and men, and with all other Greeks that were so minded.
145. These oracles, then, had been given to the Athenians. All the Greeks that had the better purpose for Hellas now assembling themselves together and there taking counsel and plighting faith, they resolved in debate to make an end of all their feuds and their wars against each other, from whatever cause arising; and among others that were afoot the greatest was the war between the Athenians and the Aeginetans. Presently, learning that Xerxes was at Sardis with his army, they planned to send men into Asia to spy out the king’s doings, and to despatch messengers, some to Argos, who should make the Argives their brothers in arms against the Persian, some to Gelon son of Dinomenes in Sicily, some to Corcyra, praying aid for Hellas, and some to Crete; for they hoped that since the danger threatened all Greeks alike, all of Greek blood might unite and work jointly for one common end. Now the power of Gelon was said to be very great, surpassing by far any power in Hellas.
146. Being so resolved, and having composed their quarrels, they first sent three men as spies into Asia. These came to Sardis, and took note of the king’s army; but they were discovered, and after examination by the generals of the land army they were led away for execution. So they were condemned to die; but when Xerxes heard of it he blamed the judgment of his generals, and sent some of his guards, charging them if they found the spies alive to bring them before him. They were found still living and brought into the king’s presence; then Xerxes, having enquired of them the purpose of their coming, bade his guards lead them about and show them all his army, horse and foot; and when the spies should have seen all to their hearts’ content, send them away unharmed whithersoever they would go.
147. The reason alleged for his command was this: had the spies been put to death, the Greeks would not so soon have learnt the unspeakable greatness of his power, and the Persians would have done their enemy no great harm by putting three men to death; “but if they return to Hellas,” said he, “methinks when the Greeks hear of my power they will before the expedition surrender this peculiar freedom that they have, and so we need not be at pains to march against them.” This was like that other saying of Xerxes’, when he was at Abydos and saw ships laden with corn sailing out of the Pontus through the Hellespont, voyaging to Aegina and the Peloponnese. They that sat by him, perceiving that they were enemy ships, were for taking them, and looked to the king for him to give the word. But Xerxes asked them whither the ships were sailing; “to your enemies, Sire,” said they, “carrying corn.” Whereto Xerxes answered, “And are not we too sailing to the same places as they, with corn among all our other provisions? What wrong are they doing us in carrying food thither?”
148. So the spies were sent back after they had thus seen all, and returned to Europe. They of the Greeks who had sworn alliance against the Persian next after sending the spies sent messengers to Argos. Now this is what the Argives say of their own part in the matter:—They were informed from the first that the foreigner was stirring up war against Hellas; knowing this, when they learnt that the Greeks would essay to gain their aid against the Persian, they sent (they say) messengers to Delphi, there to enquire of the god how it were best for themselves that they should act; for six thousand of them had been lately slain by a Lacedaemonian army and Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides its general; for this cause, they said, the messengers were sent. The priestess gave this answer to their questioning:
This answer had already been uttered by the priestess; and presently the messengers came to Argos, and there appeared in the council chamber and spoke as they were charged. Then the Argives (this is their story) answered to what was said, that they would do as was asked of them if they might first make a thirty years’ peace with Lacedaemon, and the command of half the allied power were theirs; they would be content with half, albeit if they had their rights they should have commanded the whole.
149. This, they say, was the answer of their council, although the oracle forbade them to make the alliance with the Greeks; and though they feared the oracle, yet they were instant that a thirty years’ treaty might be made, that so their children might have time in those years to grow to be men; were there no such treaty,—so, by their account they reasoned,—then, if after the evil that had befallen them the Persian should deal them yet another wound, it was to be feared that they would be at the Lacedaemonians’ mercy. Then those of the envoys that were Spartans replied to what was said by the council, “That the matter of a treaty would be brought before their general assembly; but as touching the command, they themselves had been commissioned to answer, and to say, that the Spartans had two kings, and the Argives but one; now it was impossible to deprive either Spartan of his command; but there was nought to hinder the Argive from having the same right of voting as their two had.” At that,—say the Argives,—they deemed that the Spartans’ covetousness was past all bearing, and that it was better to be ruled by the foreigners than give way to the Lacedaemonians; and they bade the envoys depart from the land of Argos before sunset, else they would be entreated as enemies.
150. Such is the Argives’ account of this matter; but there is another story told in Hellas: That before Xerxes set forth on his march against Hellas, he sent a herald to Argos, who said on his coming (so the story goes), “Men of Argos, this is the message to you of king Xerxes. Perses our forefather had, as we believe, Perseus son of Danaë for his father, and Andromeda daughter of Cepheus for his mother; if that be so, then we are descended from your nation. Wherefore in all right and reason neither should we march against the land of our forefathers, nor should you become our enemies by aiding others, nor do aught but abide by yourselves in peace; for if all go as I desire, I will hold none in higher esteem than you.” Hearing this, the Argives were thereby much moved; and though for the nonce they made no promise and demanded no share, yet when the Greeks strove to gain their aid, then, knowing that the Lacedaemonians would not grant it, they did demand a part of the command, that so they might have a pretext for abiding at peace.
151. This is borne out (say some Greeks) by the tale of a thing which happened many years afterwards. It chanced that while Athenian envoys, Callias son of Hipponicus, and the rest who had come up with him, were at Susa, called the Memnonian, about some other business, the Argives also had at this same time sent envoys to Susa, asking of Xerxes’ son Artoxerxes “if the friendship which they had compounded with Xerxes still held good, as they desired; or did he consider them as his enemies?” Whereto Artoxerxes answered, “Ay indeed it holds good, and I deem no city a better friend to me than Argos.”
152. Now, if it be true that Xerxes sent a herald with the aforesaid message to Argos, and that the Argive envoys came up to Susa and questioned Artoxerxes about their friendship, I cannot with exactness say; nor do I now declare that I hold aught for truth but what the Argives themselves say. But this I know full well,—if all men should carry their own private troubles to market for barter with their neighbours, not one but when he had looked into the troubles of other men would be right glad to carry home again what he had brought. Thus judging, you shall see that others did yet more foully than the Argives. For myself, though it be my business to set down that which is told me, to believe it is none at all of my business; let that saying hold good for the whole of my history; for indeed there is another tale current, whereby it would seem that it was the Argives who invited the Persian into Hellas, because after the breaking of their battle by the Lacedaemonians there was nothing that they would rather not have than their present distresses.
153. Thus ends the story of the Argives. As for Sicily, envoys were sent thither by the allies to hold converse with Gelon, Syagrus from Lacedaemon being among them. This Gelon’s ancestor, he who made a settlement at Gela, was of the island of Telos that lies off Triopium; he, when the founding of Gela by Antiphemus and the Lindians of Rhodes was afoot, would not be left behind. His posterity became in time ministering priests of the goddesses of the nether world and continued so to be; this office had been won as I shall show by Telines, one of their forefathers. Certain Geloans, worsted in party strife, having been banished to the town of Mactorium, inland of Gela, Telines brought them back to Gela, with no force of men to aid him but only the holy instruments of the goddesses’ worship. Whence he got these, and whether or no they were of his own discovering, I cannot say; however that be, it was in their strength that he restored the exiles, on the condition that his posterity should be ministering priests of the goddesses. Now the story that is told me makes me marvel that Telines should have achieved such a feat; for I have ever supposed that such feats are not for every man’s performing but only such as have a stout heart and a manly strength; but Telines is reported by the dwellers in Sicily to have been contrariwise of a soft and womanish habit.
154. So he won this right; and at the decease of Cleandrus son of Pantares,—who was for seven years despot of Gela, and was slain by a man of that city named Sabyllus,—the sovereignty passed to Cleandrus’ brother Hippocrates. While Hippocrates was despot, Gelon, a descendant of the ministering priest Telines, was one of Hippocrates’ guard, as were Aenesidemus son of Pataecus and many others; and in no long time he was appointed for his worth to be captain of all the horse; for Hippocrates besieging Callipolis and Naxos and Zancle and Leontini, nay, Syracuse too and many of the foreigners’ towns, Gelon in those wars shone prëeminent. None of the cities aforesaid escaped being enslaved by Hippocrates save only Syracuse; the Syracusans were defeated in battle on the river Elorus, but were rescued by the Corinthians and Corcyraeans, who made a peace for them on the condition that the Syracusans should deliver up to Hippocrates Camarina, which was formerly theirs.
155. When Hippocrates, too, after reigning the same number of years as his brother Cleandrus, came to his end near the town of Hybla, whither he had marched against the Sicels, then Gelon made a pretence of serving the cause of Hippocrates’ sons Euclides and Cleandrus, whose rule the citizens would no longer bear; but in very deed, when he had defeated the men of Gela, he deposed the sons of Hippocrates and held sway himself. After this stroke of good fortune, the Syracusan landowners (as they were called) being driven into banishment by the commonalty and their own slaves (Cyllyrians, as they were called), Gelon brought them back from the town of Casmena to Syracuse, and took possession of that city also; for the Syracusan commonalty delivered themselves and it to Gelon at his coming.
156. Having taken Syracuse for his own, he made less account of his rule over Gela, which he gave in charge to his brother Hiero; over Syracuse he reigned, and all his care was for Syracuse Straightway that city grew and waxed great; for not only did Gelon bring all the people of Camarina to Syracuse and give them its citizenship, razing the town of Camarina, but he did likewise to more than half of the townsmen of Gela; and when the Megarians in Sicily surrendered to him on terms after a siege, he took the wealthier of them, who had made war on him and looked to be put to death therefor, and brought them to Syracuse to be citizens there; but as for the commonalty of Megara, who bad had no hand in the making of that war and expected that no harm would be done them, these too he brought to Syracuse and sold them for slaves to be carried out of Sicily. In like fashion he dealt with the Euboeans of Sicily, making the same difference; the cause of his so doing to the people of both places was, that he held the commonalty to be an exceeding thankless crew to live withal.
157. By these means Gelon had grown to greatness as a despot; and now, when the Greek envoys were come to Syracuse, they had audience of him and spoke as follows. “The Lacedaemonians and their allies,” said they, “have sent us to win your aid against the foreigner; for it cannot be, we think, that you have no knowledge of the Persian invader of Hellas, how he purposes to bridge the Hellespont and lead all the hosts of the east from Asia against us, making an open show of marching against Athens, but in very deed with intent to subdue all Hellas to his will. Now you are rich in power, and being lord of Sicily you rule thereby what is not the least part of Hellas; wherefore, we pray you, send help to them that would free Hellas, and aid them in so doing. For the uniting of all of Greek stock is the mustering of a mighty host, able to meet our invaders in the field; but if some of us play false, and others will not come to our aid, and the sound part of Hellas be but small, then it is to be feared that all Greek lands alike will be undone. Think not that if the Persian defeat us in battle and subdue us, he will leave you unassailed; but look well to yourself ere that day come. Aid us, and you champion your own cause; a well-laid plan commonly leads to a happy issue.”
158. Thus they spoke; whereto Gelon answered, speaking very vehemently, “Men of Hellas, it is with a self-seeking plea that you have made bold to come hither and invite me to be your ally against the foreigners; yet what of yourselves? When I was at feud with the Carchedonians, and prayed you to stand my comrades against a foreign army, and when I was instant that you should avenge the slaying of Dorieus son of Anaxandrides by the men of Egesta, and when I promised to free those trading ports whence great advantage and profit have accrued to you,—then neither for my sake would you come to aid nor to avenge the slaying of Dorieus; and for all that you did, all these lands lie beneath the foreigners’ feet. Let that be; for all ended well, and our state was bettered. But now that the war has come round to you in your turn, ’tis the time for remembering Gelon! Yet albeit you so slighted me, I will not take example by you; I am ready to send to your aid two hundred triremes, twenty thousand men-at-arms, two thousand horse, two thousand archers, two thousand slingers, and two thousand light-armed men to run with horsemen; and I undertake that I will furnish provision for the whole Greek army till we have made an end of the war. But I thus promise on this one condition, that I shall be general and leader of the Greeks against the foreigner. On no other condition will I come myself or send others.”
159. When Syagrus heard that, he could not contain himself; “Verily,” he cried, “loud would lament Agamemnon son of Pelops, an he heard that the Spartans had been bereft of their command by Gelon and his Syracusans! Nay, put that thought from you, that we will deliver up the command to you. If it is your will to aid Hellas, know that you must obey the Lacedaemonians; but if (as I think) you are too proud to obey, then send no aid.”
160. Thereupon Gelon, seeing how unfriendly were Syagrus’ words, thus and for the last time declared his mind to them: “My Spartan friend, the hard words that a man hears are apt to arouse his anger; but for all the arrogant tenor of your speech you shall not move me to make an unseemly answer. When you set such store by the command, it is but reasonable that I should set yet more, being the leader of an army many times greater than yours and more ships by far. But seeing that you answer me thus stiffly, we will abate somewhat of our first condition. It might be, that you should command the army, and I the fleet; or if it be your pleasure to lead by sea, then I am willing that the army should be mine. With that you must needs be content, unless you would depart hence without such allies as we are.”
161. Such was Gelon’s offer; and the Athenian envoy answered him ere the Lacedaemonian could speak. “King of the Syracusans,” said he, “Hellas sends us to you to ask not for a leader but for an army; and you say no word of sending an army save and except you can be the leader of Hellas; it is for the command that all your desire is. Now as long as you sought the leadership of the whole armament, we Athenians were content to hold our peace, knowing that the Laconian was well able to answer for both of us; but since, failing to win the whole, you would fain command the fleet, we would have you know how the matter stands. Even though the Laconian should suffer you to command it, not so will we; for the command of the fleet is ours, the Lacedaemonians desire it not for themselves. If they desire to lead it, we withstand them not; but none other will we suffer to be admiral. For it were vain that we should possess the greatest multitude of sea-faring men in Hellas, if, being Athenians, we yield up our command to Syracusans,—we who can show of all the longest lineage, and who alone among Greeks have never changed our dwelling; and whose he was of whom the poet Homer says, that of all who came to Ilion he was the best man in ordering and marshalling armies. Thus we are not to be reproached for this that we say.”
162. “My Athenian friend,” Gelon answered, “it would seem that you have many that lead, but none that will follow. Since, then, you will waive no claim but must have the whole, ’tis high time that you depart home with all speed and tell your Hellas that her year has lost its spring.” Of which saying this is the signification, that Gelon’s army was the most notable part of the Greek army, even as the spring is of the year; so he compared Hellas deprived of alliance with him to a year bereft of its spring.
163. After such trafficking with Gelon the Greek envoys sailed away. But Gelon feared therefore that the Greeks would not avail to overcome the foreigner, yet deemed it a thing hard and intolerable that he, the despot of Sicily, should go to the Peloponnese to be at the beck and call of Lacedaemonians; wherefore of this plan he thought no more, but followed another instead. As soon as he was informed that the Persian had crossed the Hellespont, he sent Cadmus son of Scythes, a man of Cos, to Delphi with three ships of fifty oars, carrying with them money and messages of friendship; Cadmus was to watch the event of the battle, and if the foreigner should be victorious then to give him the money, and earth and water withal on behalf of Gelon’s dominions; but if the Greeks, then to carry all back again.
164. This Cadmus had ere now inherited from his father the despotism of Cos; and albeit it was strong and well stablished, yet of his own will and under no constraint of danger, but of mere justice, he gave over the government to the whole body of Coans and betook himself to Sicily, where he was given by the Samians that city of Zancle which changed its name to Messene, and he planted a colony there. Thus had Cadmus come, and it was he now whom Gelon sent, by reason of the justice that he knew to be ever in him; and this that I will relate was not the least of the many just acts of Cadmus’ life; he had in his power great sums entrusted to him by Gelon, and might have kept them; yet he would not so do, but when the Greeks had prevailed in the sea-fight and Xerxes had betaken himself homeward, Cadmus for his part returned back to Sicily with all that money.
165. But there is another story told by the dwellers in Sicily: that even though he was to be under Lacedaemonian authority Gelon would still have aided the Greeks, had it not been for Terillus son of Crinippus, the despot of Himera; who, being expelled from Himera by Theron son of Aenesidemus, sovereign ruler of Acragas, did at this very time bring against Gelon three hundred thousand Phoenicians, Libyans, Iberians, Ligyes, Elisyci, Sardinians, and Cyrnians, led by Amilcas son of Annon, the king of the Carchedonians; whom Terillus won to this purpose partly by private friendship, but chiefly by the zealous aid of Anaxilaus son of Cretines, despot of Rhegium; he gave his own children as hostages to Amilcas, and brought him into Sicily to the help of his father-in-law; for Anaxilaus had to wife Terillus’ daughter Cydippe. Thus it was (they say) that Gelon sent the money to Delphi, because he could not aid the Greeks.
166. They add this tale too,—that Gelon and Theron won a victory over Amilcas the Carchedonian in Sicily on the selfsame day whereon the Greeks vanquished the Persian at Salamis. This Amilcas was, on his father’s side, a Carchedonian, and a Syracusan on his mother’s, and had been made king of Carchedon for his manly worth. When the armies met and he was worsted in the battle, it is said that he vanished out of sight; for Gelon sought for him in every place, yet nowhere on earth could he be found, dead or alive.
167. The story told by the Carchedonians themselves has a show of truth. They say, that the foreigners fought with the Greeks in Sicily from dawn till late evening (so long, it is said, the mellay was drawn out), during all which time Amilcas stayed in his camp offering sacrifice and striving to win favourable omens by burning whole bodies on a great pyre; and when he saw his army routed, he cast himself into the fire where he was pouring libations on the sacrifice; whereby he was consumed and no more seen. Whether it were thus that he vanished, as the Phoenicians say, or in some other way, as say the Carchedonians and Syracusans, sacrifice is offered to him, and monuments have been set up in all the colonists’ cities, the greatest of all which is in Carchedon itself.
168. Thus much of the Sicilian part. As for the Coreyraeans, their answer to the envoys and their acts were as I will show; for the men who had gone to Sicily sought their aid too, using the same plea as they had used with Gelon; and the Corcyraeans for the nonce promised to send help and protection, declaring that they could not suffer Hellas to perish,—for if she should fall, of a surety the very next day would see them also enslaved,—but they must render aid to the best of their power. Thus they gave a specious answer; but when the time came for sending help, their minds were changed; they manned sixty ships, and did with much ado put out to sea and make the coast of the Peloponnese; but there they anchored off Pylos and Taenarus in the Lacedaemonian territory, waiting like the others to see which way the war should incline; they had no hope that the Greeks would prevail, but thought that the Persian would win a great victory and be lord of all Hellas. What they did, therefore, was done of set purpose, that they might be able to say to the Persian, “O king, we whose power is as great as any, and who could have furnished as many ships as any state save Athens,—we, when the Greeks essayed to gain our aid in this war, would not resist you nor do aught displeasing to you.” This plea they hoped would win them some advantage more than ordinary; and so, methinks, it would have been. But they were ready with an excuse which they could make to the Greeks, and in the end they made it; when the Greeks blamed them for sending no help, they said that they had manned sixty triremes, but by stress of the etesian winds they could not round Malea; thus it was (they said) that they could not arrive at Salamis: it was no craven spirit that made them late for the sea-fight.
169. With such a plea they put the Greeks off. But the Cretans, when the Greeks appointed to deal with them strove to gain their aid, did as I will show. They sent messengers to Delphi, enquiring if it should be for their advantage to succour the Greeks. The priestess answered them, “Foolish folk, ye are not then content with the weeping that Minos sent upon your people for the help given to Menelaus, angered because that those others would not aid to avenge his death at Camicus, yet ye did aid them to avenge the stealing of that woman from Sparta by a foreigner.” This being brought to the ears of the Cretans, they would have nought to do with succouring the Greeks.
170. For Minos (it is said), having gone to Sicania, which is now called Sicily, in search for Daedalus, there perished by a violent death; and presently all the Cretans save the men of Polichne and Praesus were bidden by a god to go with a great host to Sicania, where for five years they beleaguered the town of Camicus, where in my day the men of Acragas dwelt; but since they could not take it nor abide there for the famine that afflicted them, they left it and departed away. But when they were at sea off Iapygia, a great storm caught and drove them ashore; and their ships being wrecked, and no way left of returning to Crete, they founded there the town of Hyria, and abode in it, changing from Cretans to Messapians of Iapygia, and from islanders to dwellers on the mainland. From Hyria they made settlements in those other towns, which a very long time afterwards the Tarentines essayed to destroy, but suffered great disaster thereby; so that none has ever heard of so great a slaughter of Greeks as was made of the Tarentines and Rhegians; three thousand townsmen of these latter were slain, who had been constrained by Micythus son of Choerus to come and help the Tarentines, and of the Tarentine slain no count was kept. Micythus was a servant of Anaxilaus, and had been left in charge of Rhegium; it was he who was banished from Rhegium and settled in Tegea of Arcadia, and who set up those many statues at Olympia.
171. But this business of the Rhegians and Tarentines is a matter apart from my history. Crete being thus left desolate (so the Praesians say), it was peopled by Greeks in especial among other men; and in the third generation after Minos befel the Trojan business, wherein the Cretans bore themselves as bravely as any in the cause of Menelaus. After this when they returned from Troy they and their flocks and herds were afflicted by famine and pestilence, till Crete was once more left desolate; then came a third people of Cretans, and it is they who, with those that were left, now dwell there. It was this that the priestess bade them remember, and so stayed them from aiding the Greeks as they would have done.
172. The Thessalians had at first taken the Persian part not willingly but of necessity, as their acts showed, because they misliked the devices of the Aleuadae. For as soon as they heard that the Persian was about to cross over into Europe, they sent messengers to the Isthmus, where were assembled in council for the Greek cause men chosen from the cities that had the best will towards Hellas. To these the Thessalian messengers came, and said, “Men of Hellas, the pass of Olympus must be guarded, that Thessaly and all Hellas may be sheltered from the war. Now we are ready to guard it with you; but you too must send a great force; if you will not send it, be assured that we shall make terms with the Persian; for it is not right that we should be left to stand alone for an outpost of Hellas and so perish for your sakes. If you will not send help, there is no constraint that you can put upon us; for no necessity can prevail over lack of ability. As for us, we will essay for ourselves to find some way of deliverance.” Thus spoke the men of Thessaly.
173. Thereupon the Greeks resolved that they would send a land army to Thessaly by sea to guard the pass. When the army had mustered, they passed through the Euripus, and came to Alus in Achaea, where they disembarked and took the road for Thessaly, leaving their ships where they were; and they came to the pass of Tempe, which runs from the lower Macedonia into Thessaly along the river Peneus, between the mountains Olympus and Ossa. There the Greeks encamped, to the number of about ten thousand men-at-arms altogether, and the Thessalian horse was there withal; the general of the Lacedaemonians was Euaenetus son of Carenus, chosen among the polemarchs, yet not of the royal house; and of the Athenians, Themistocles son of Neocles. They remained but a few days there; for messengers came from Alexander son of Amyntas, the Macedonian, counselling them to depart and not abide there to be trodden under foot of the invading host; whereby the message signified the multitude of the army, and the ships. Thus admonished by the messengers (as they thought that the advice was good and that the Macedonian meant well by them), the Greeks followed their counsel. But to my thinking what persuaded them was fear, since they were informed that there was another pass leading into Thessaly by the hill country of Macedonia through the country of the Perrhaebi, near the town of Gonnus; which indeed was the way whereby Xerxes’ army descended on Thessaly. So the Greeks went down to their ships and made their way back to the Isthmus.
174. This was their expedition to Thessaly, while the king was planning to cross into Europe from Asia and was already at Abydos. The Thessalians, being bereft of their allies, did thereupon take the Persian part whole-heartedly and with no further doubt, so that in their acts they approved themselves men most useful to the king.
175. Being come to the Isthmus, the Greeks consulted together how and where they should stand to fight, having regard to what was said by Alexander. The counsel that prevailed was, that they should guard the pass of Thermopylae; for they saw that it was narrower than the pass into Thessaly and moreover nearer home; and for the path which brought about the fall of those Greeks who fell at Thermopylae, they knew not even that there was one till they came to Thermopylae and learnt of it from the men of Trachis. This pass then they were resolved to guard, and so stay the foreigners’ passage into Hellas, while their fleet should sail to Artemisium in the territory of Histiaea. These places are near together, so that each force could be informed of the other’s doings; and their nature is as I will now show.
176. As touching Artemisium first: the wide Thracian sea draws in till the passage between the island of Sciathus and the mainland of Magnesia is but narrow; and this strait leads next to Artemisium, which is a beach on the coast of Euboea, with a temple of Artemis thereon. The pass through Trachis into Hellas is at its narrowest fifty feet wide. Yet it is not here but elsewhere that the way is narrowest, namely, in front of Thermopylae and behind it; at Alpeni, which lies behind, it is but the breadth of a cart-way, and the same at the Phoenix stream, near the town of Anthele. To the west of Thermopylae rises a high mountain inaccessible and precipitous, a spur of Oeta; to the east of the road there is nought but marshes and sea. In this pass are warm springs for bathing, called by the people of the country The Pots, and an altar of Heracles stands thereby. Across this entry a wall had been built, and formerly there was a gate therein; it was built by the Phocians for fear of the Thessalians, when these came from Thesprotia to dwell in the Aeolian land which they now possess; inasmuch as the Thessalians were essaying to subdue them, the Phocians made this their protection, and in their search for every means to keep the Thessalians from invading their country they then turned the stream from the hot springs into the pass, that it might be a watercourse. The ancient wall had been built long ago and time had by now laid the most of it in ruins; it was now built up again, that the foreigners’ way into Hellas might thus be barred. Very near the road is a village, called Alpeni, whence the Greeks reckoned that they would get provender.
177. These places, then, were thought by the Greeks to suit their purpose; for after due survey they reckoned that the foreigners could not make use of their multitude, nor of their horsemen; and therefore they resolved, that here they would encounter the invader of Hellas. Then, hearing that the Persian was in Pieria, they broke up from the Isthmus and set out with their army to Thermopylae and their fleet to Artemisium.
178. So with all speed the Greeks went their several ways to meet the enemy. In the meantime, the Delphians, being sore afraid for themselves and for Hellas, enquired of the god, and the oracle was given them, That they should pray to the winds; for these would be potent allies of Hellas. Having received the oracle, the Delphians first sent word of it to such Greeks as desired to be free, for which message in their mortal fear of the foreigner these were for ever grateful; and next, they made an altar to the winds at Thyia, where is now the precinct of Thyia the daughter of Cephisus; and they offered sacrifices to them.
179. So the Delphians offer to the winds sacrifice of propitiation to this day by the oracle’s bidding. But Xerxes’ fleet set forth from the city of Therma, and the ten swiftest of the ships laid their course straight for Sciathus, where there lay an advance guard of three Greek ships, a Troezenian and an Aeginetan and an Attic. These, when they sighted the foreigners’ ships, took to flight.
180. The ship of Troezen, whereof Prexinus was captain, was pursued and straightway taken by the foreigners, who thereupon brought the goodliest of its fighting men and cut his throat on the ship’s prow, so making a common sacrifice of the first and goodliest of their Greek captives. The name of him that was thus offered up was Leon; and mayhap it was his name that he had to thank for it.
181. But the Aeginetan trireme, whereof Asonides was captain, did even give them some trouble. There was a fighting man aboard, Pytheas son of Ischenous, who that day bore himself very gallantly; for his ship being taken, he would not give over fighting till he was all hacked about with wounds; and when he fell, yet was not slain but had life in him, the Persian soldiers on the ships were at great pains to save him alive for his valour, tending his wounds with ointments and wrapping him in bandages of linen cloth; and when they returned back to their own station, they showed him to the whole host in admiration, and made much of him and kindly entreated him. But the rest that they took in that ship they used as slaves.
182. So two of the ships were thus made captive; the third trireme, whereof Phormus an Athenian was captain, ran ashore in her flight at the mouth of the Peneus, and the foreigners got the hull of her, but not the crew; for the Athenians, as soon as they had run their craft aground, leapt out of her and made their way through Thessaly to Athens.
183. The Greeks that had their station at Artemisium were informed of these matters by beacons from Sciathus; whereupon, being affrighted, they changed their anchorage from Artemisium to Chalcis, purposing to guard the Euripus, and leaving watchmen on the heights of Euboea. Three of the ten foreign ships ran foul of the reef called the Ant, between Sciathus and Magnesia. The foreigners then brought a pillar of stone and set it on the reef; and presently, when their course was plain before them, the whole fleet set forth and sailed from Therma, eleven days after the king had marched thence. Pammon of Scyros it was who showed them where the reef lay, in the strait itself. Voyaging all day, the foreign fleet made Sepias in Magnesia and the beach between the town of Casthanaea and the Sepiad headland.
184. Until the whole host reached this place and Thermopylae it suffered no hurt; and calculation proves to me that its numbers were still such as I will now show. The ships from Asia being twelve hundred and seven, the whole multitude of all the nations, which was in them from the first, was two hundred and forty-one thousand and four hundred men, two hundred being reckoned for each ship. On board of all these ships were thirty fighting men of the Persians and Medes and Sacae, over and above the company which each had of native fighters; the sum of this added multitude is thirty-six thousand, two hundred and ten. But to this and to the first number I add the crews of the ships of fifty oars, reckoning each at eighty men, be they more or fewer. Now seeing that, as has already been said, there were collected three thousand of these craft, the number of men in them must be on that showing two hundred and forty thousand. These then were the ships’ companies from Asia, and the total sum of them was five hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten. The footmen were shown to be seven hundred thousand and one hundred in number, and the horsemen eighty thousand; to whom I add the Arabian camel-riders and Libyan charioteers, reckoning them at twenty thousand men. Thus if the forces of sea and land be added together their total sum will be two millions, three hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten. Thus far I have spoken of the armament that came from Asia itself, without the service-train that followed it and the corn-bearing craft and the companies thereof.
185. But I must still take into account, besides all the host that I have numbered, the armament brought from Europe, speaking to the best of my belief. For ships, then, the Greeks of Thrace and the islands off Thrace furnished one hundred and twenty; the companies of these ships must then be twenty-four thousand men; and of the land army supplied by all the nations—Thracians, Paeonians, Eordi, Bottiaei, Chalcidians, Brygi, Pierians, Macedonians, Perrhaebi, Enienes, Dolopes, Magnesians, Achaeans, dwellers on the seaboard of Thrace—of all these I suppose the number to have been three hundred thousand. These numbers being added to the numbers from Asia, the full tale of fighting men is seen to be two millions, six hundred and forty-one thousand, six hundred and ten.
186. Such was the sum of the fighting part of the whole; as for the service-train that followed them, and the crews of the light corn-bearing vessels and all the other craft besides that came by sea with the armament, these I suppose to have been no fewer but more than the fighting men. But put the case that they were as many, neither more nor fewer: then if they were equal to the fighting part they make up as many tens of thousands as the others; and thus the number of those whom Xerxes son of Darius led as far as the Sepiad headland and Thermopylae was five millions, two hundred and eighty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty.
187. That is the number of Xerxes’ whole armament: but none can say what was the exact sum of cooking women, and concubines, and eunuchs; nor of the beasts of draught and burden, and the Indian dogs that were with the host, could any one tell the number, so many they were. Wherefore it is to me no marvel that some of the streams of water ran dry; rather I marvel how there were provisions sufficient for so many tens of thousands; for calculation shows me, that if each man received one choenix of wheat a day and no more, there would be every day a full tale of eleven hundred thousand and three hundred and forty bushels; and in this I take no account of what was for the women and eunuchs and beasts of draught and dogs. Of all those tens of thousands of men, for goodliness and stature there was not one worthier than Xerxes himself to hold that command.
188. The fleet having put to sea and come to the strand of Magnesia which is between the town of Casthanaea and the Sepiad headland, the first comers of the ships lay close to the land, and others outside them at anchor; for the strand being of no great length, they lay eight ships deep, their prows pointing seaward. So it was with them for that night; but at dawn, after clear and calm weather, the sea began to boil, and there brake upon them a great storm and a strong east wind, that wind which the people of that country call the Hellespontian. As many of them as noted the wind’s rising, or so lay that this could be done, hauled their ships ashore ere the storm came, and thereby saved themselves and the ships; but the ships that were caught at sea were driven some on the rocks of Pelion called Ovens, and some on the beach; others were wrecked on the Sepiad headland itself, and others cast up at the town of Meliboea, or at Casthanaea. In truth the storm was past all bearing.
189. There is a tale that the Athenians at an oracle’s bidding prayed to Boreas to aid them, another divination having been sent them that they should call for help to their son-in-law; the Greek story makes Boreas the husband of an Attic wife, Orithyia daughter of Erechtheus; by reason of which kinship the Athenians, if the tale current is to be believed, inferred that Boreas was their son-in-law, and when at their station of Chalcis they perceived that the storm was rising, then (or mayhap before that) they offered sacrifice and called on Boreas and Orithyia to aid them and destroy the foreigners’ ships, even as before on the coast of Athos. Now if this was the cause that the wind Boreas assailed the foreigners, I cannot tell; however it be, the Athenians say that Boreas came to their aid before and that the present effect was of his achieving; and when they went home they built a temple of Boreas by the river Ilissus.
190. In that stress there perished by the least reckoning not fewer than four hundred ships, and men innumerable and a great plenty of substance; insomuch, that Aminocles son of Cretines, a Magnesian who held land about Sepias, was greatly benefited by that shipwreck; for he presently gathered many drinking-cups of gold and silver that were cast ashore, and he found Persian treasures, and won unspeakable wealth besides. Yet though luck greatly enriched him he was not in all things fortunate, for even he was afflicted by a grievous mischance in the slaying of his son.
191. The corn-bearing ships of merchandise and other craft destroyed were past all counting; wherefore the admirals of the fleet, fearing lest the Thessalians should set upon them in their evil plight, built a high fence of the wreckage for their protection. For the storm lasted for three days; and at last the Magians, by using victims and wizards’ spells on the wind, and by sacrificing also to Thetis and the Nereids, did make it to cease on the fourth day, or mayhap it was not of their doing but of itself that it abated. To Thetis they sacrificed after hearing from the Ionians the story how that it was from this country that she had been carried off by Peleus, and all the Sepiad headland belonged to her and the other daughters of Nereus.
192. So on the fourth day the storm ceased; and the watchers ran down from the heights of Euboea on the second day after its beginning and told the Greeks all the story of the shipwreck; who, hearing this, offered prayer and libation to Poseidon their deliverer, and made all speed back to Artemisium, supposing that they would find but few ships to withstand them.
193. So they came back once more and lay off Artemisium; and ever since then to this day they have called Poseidon by the title of Deliverer. The foreigners, when the wind ceased and the waves no more ran high, put to sea and coasted along the mainland, and turning the headland of Magnesia ran straight into the gulf that stretches toward Pagasae. There is a place on this gulf in Magnesia, where, it is said, Heracles was sent for water and so left behind by Jason and his comrades of the Argo, when they were sailing to Aea in Colchis for the fleece; for their purpose was to draw water thence and so launch out to sea; and thence that place has been called Aphetae. Here Xerxes’ men made their anchorage.
194. Fifteen of those ships had put to sea a long time after all the rest, and it chanced that they sighted the Greek ships off Artemisium. Supposing these to be their own fleet, the foreigners held on their course into the midst of their enemies. Their captain was the viceroy from Cyme in Aeolia, Sandoces son of Thamasius; he had once before this, being then one of the king’s judges, been taken and crucified by Darius because he had given unjust judgment for a bribe. But Sandoces having been hung on the cross, Darius found on a reckoning that his good services to the royal house were more than his offences; whereat the king perceived that he had acted with more haste than wisdom, and so set Sandoces free. Thus he escaped with his life from being put to death by Darius; but now that he was borne into the midst of the Greeks he was not to escape a second time; for when the Greeks saw the Persians bearing down on them they perceived their mistake, and put to sea and easily took them captive.
195. They took in one of these ships Aridolis, the despot of Alabanda in Caria, and in another the Paphian captain Penthylus son of Demonous; of twelve ships that he had brought from Paphos he had lost eleven in the storm off the Sepiad headland, and was in the one that remained when he was taken as he bore down on Artemisium. Having questioned these men and learnt what they desired to know of Xerxes’ armament, the Greeks sent them away to the isthmus of Corinth in bonds.
196. So the foreign fleet, all but the fifteen ships whereof, as I have said, Sandoces was captain, came to Aphetae. Xerxes and his land army journeyed through Thessaly and Achaea, and it was three days since he had entered Malis. In Thessaly he made a race for his own horses, wherein he also tried the mettle of the Thessalian horse, having heard that it was the best in Hellas; and the Greek horses were far outpaced. Of the Thessalian rivers, the Onochonus was the only one that could not give water enough for his army’s drinking. But in Achaea, even the greatest river there, the Apidanus, gave out, all but a sorry remnant.
197. When Xerxes was come to Alus in Achaea, his guides, desiring to inform him of all they knew, told him the story that is related in that country concerning the worship of Laphystian Zeus: how Athamas son of Aeclus plotted Phrixus’ death with Ino, and further, how the Achaeans by an oracle’s bidding compel Phrixus’ posterity to certain tasks: namely, they bid the eldest of that family forbear to enter their town hall (which the Achaeans call the People’s House), and themselves keep watch there; if he enter, he may not come out, save only to be sacrificed; and further also, how many of those that were to be sacrificed had fled away in fear to another country, but if they returned back at a later day and were taken, they had been brought into the town hall; and the guides showed Xerxes how the man is sacrificed, with fillets covering him all over and a procession to lead him forth. It is the descendants of Phrixus’ son Cytissorus who are thus dealt with, because when the Achaeans by an oracle’s bidding made Athamas son of Aeolus a scapegoat for their country and were about to sacrifice him, this Cytissorus came from Aea in Colchis and delivered him, but thereby brought the god’s wrath on his own posterity. Hearing all this, Xerxes when he came to the temple grove forbore to enter it himself and bade all his army do likewise, holding the house and the precinct of Athamas’ descendants alike in reverence.
198. These were Xerxes’ doings in Thessaly and Achaea; whence he came into Malis along a gulf of the sea, in which the tide ebbs and flows daily. There is low-lying ground about this gulf, sometimes wide and sometimes very narrow; and about it stand mountains high and inaccessible, enclosing the whole of Malis, called the Rocks of Trachis. Now the first town by the gulf on the way from Achaea is Anticyra, near to which the river Spercheus flows from the country of the Enieni and issues into the sea. About twenty furlongs from that river is another named Dyras, which is said to have risen from the ground to aid Heracles against the fire that consumed him; and twenty furlongs again from that there is another river, called the Black river.
199. The town of Trachis is five furlongs distant from this Black river. Here is the greatest width in all this region between the sea and the hills whereon Trachis stands; for the plain is two million and two hundred thousand feet in extent. In the mountains that hem in the Trachinian land there is a ravine to the south of Trachis, wherethrough flows the river Asopus past the lower slopes of the mountains.
200. There is another river south of the Asopus, the Phoenix, a little stream, that flows from those mountains into the Asopus. Near this stream is the narrowest place; there is but the space of a single builded cart-way. Thermopylae is fifteen furlongs distant from the river Phoenix. Between the river and Thermopylae there is a village named Anthele, past which the Asopus flows out into the sea, and there is a wide space about it wherein stands a temple of Amphictyonid Demeter, and seats withal for the Amphictyons and a temple of Amphictyon himself.
201. King Xerxes, then, lay encamped in that part of Malis which belongs to Trachis, and the Greeks in the midst of the pass: the place where they were is called by most of the Greeks Thermopylae, but by the people of the country and their neighbours Pylae. In these places, then, they lay encamped, Xerxes being master of all that was north of Trachis, and the Greeks of all that lay southward towards this part of the mainland.
202. The Greeks that awaited the Persian in that place were these:—Of the Spartans, three hundred men-at-arms; a thousand Tegeans and Mantineans, half from each place; from Orchomenus in Arcadia a hundred and twenty, and a thousand from the rest of Arcadia; besides these Arcadians, four hundred from Corinth, two hundred from Phlius, and eighty Mycenaeans. These were they who had come from Peloponnesus: from Boeotia, seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans.
203. Besides these the whole power of the Opuntian Locrians and a thousand Phocians had been summoned, and came. The Greeks had of their own motion summoned these to their aid, telling them by their messengers that they themselves had come for an advance guard of the rest, that the coming of the remnant of the allies was to be looked for every day, and that the sea was strictly watched by them, being guarded by the Athenians and Aeginetans and all that were enrolled in the fleet; there was nought (they said) for them to fear; for the invader of Hellas was no god, but a mortal man, and there was no mortal, nor ever would be, to whom at birth some admixture of misfortune was not allotted; the greater the man, the greater the misfortune; most surely then he that marched against them, being but mortal, would be disappointed of his hope. Hearing that, the Locrians and Phocians marched to aid the Greeks at Trachis.
204. All these had their generals, each city its own; but he that was most regarded and was leader of the whole army was Leonidas of Lacedaemon, whose descent was from Anaxandrides, Leon, Eurycratides, Anaxandrus, Eurycrates, Polydorus, Alcamenes, Teleclus, Archelaus, Hegesilaus, Doryssus, Leobotes, Echestratus, Agis, Eurysthenes, Aristodemus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus, Hyllus, Heracles; who was king at Sparta, yet had not looked to be such.
205. For since he had two elder brothers, Cleomenes and Dorieus, he had renounced all thought of the kingship. But when Cleomenes died without male issue, and Dorieus was dead too (having met his end in Sicily), so it came about that the succession fell to Leonidas, because he was older than Anaxandrides’ youngest son Cleombrotus, and moreover had Cleomenes’ daughter to wife. He now came to Thermopylae, with a picked force of the customary three hundred, and those that had sons; and he brought with him too those Thebans whom I counted among the number, whose general was Leontiades son of Eurymachus. Leonidas was at pains to bring these Thebans more than any other Greeks, because they were constantly charged with favouring the Persian part; therefore it was that he summoned them to the war, because he desired to know whether they would send their men with him or plainly refuse the Greek alliance. They sent the men; but they had other ends in view.
206. These, the men with Leonidas, were sent before the rest by the Spartans, that by the sight of them the rest of the allies might be moved to arm, and not like others take the Persian part, as might well be if they learnt that the Spartans were delaying; and they purposed that later when they should have kept the feast of the Carnea, which was their present hindrance, they would leave a garrison at Sparta and march out with the whole of their force and with all speed. The rest of the allies had planned to do the same likewise; for an Olympic festival fell due at the same time as these doings; wherefore they sent their advance guard, not supposing that the war at Thermopylae would so speedily come to an issue.
207. Such had been their intent; but the Greeks at Thermopylae, when the Persian drew near to the entrance of the pass, began to lose heart and debate whether to quit their post or no. The rest of the Peloponnesians were for returning to the Peloponnese and guarding the isthmus; but the Phocians and Locrians were greatly incensed by this counsel, and Leonidas gave his vote for remaining where they were and sending messages to the cities to demand aid, seeing that he and his were too few to beat off the Median host.
208. While they thus debated, Xerxes sent a mounted watcher to see how many they were and what they had in hand; for while he was yet in Thessaly, he had heard that some small army was here gathered, and that its leaders were Lacedaemonians, Leonidas a descendant of Heracles among them. The horseman rode up to the camp and viewed and overlooked it, yet not the whole; for it was not possible to see those that were posted within the wall which they had restored and now guarded; but he took note of those that were without, whose arms were piled outside the wall, and it chanced that at that time the Lacedaemonians were posted there. There he saw some of the men at exercise, and others combing their hair. Marvelling at the sight, and taking exact note of their numbers, he rode back unmolested, none pursuing nor at all regarding him; so he returned and told Xerxes all that he had seen.
209. When Xerxes heard that, he could not understand the truth, namely, that the Lacedaemonians were preparing to slay to the best of their power or be slain; what they did appeared to him laughable; wherefore he sent for Demaratus the son of Ariston, who was in his camp, and when he came questioned him of all these matters, that he might understand what it was that the Lacedaemonians were about. “I have told you already,” said Demaratus, “of these men, when we were setting out for Hellas; but when you heard, you mocked me, albeit I told you of this which I saw plainly would be the outcome; for it is my greatest endeavour, O king, to speak truth in your presence. Now hear me once more: these men are come to fight with us for the passage, and for that they are preparing; for it is their custom to dress their hair whensoever they are about to put their lives in jeopardy. Moreover I tell you, that if you overcome these and what remains behind at Sparta, there is no other nation among men, O king! that will abide and withstand you; now are you face to face with the noblest royalty and city and the most valiant men in Hellas.” Xerxes deemed what was said to be wholly incredible, and further enquired of him how they would fight against his army, being so few. “Ο king,” Demaratus answered, “use me as a liar, if the event of this be not what I tell you.”
210. Yet for all that Xerxes would not believe him. For the space of four days the king waited, ever expecting that the Greeks would take to flight; but on the fifth, seeing them not withdrawing and deeming that their remaining there was but shame-lessness and folly, he was angered, and sent the Medes and Cissians against them, bidding them take the Greeks alive and bring them into his presence. The Medes bore down upon the Greeks and charged them; many fell, but others attacked in turn; and though they suffered grievous defeat yet they were not driven off. But they made it plain to all and chiefly to the king himself that for all their number of human creatures there were few men among them. This battle lasted all the day.
211. The Medes being so roughly handled, they were then withdrawn from the fight, and the Persians whom the king called Immortals attacked in their turn, led by Hydarnes. It was thought that they at least would make short and easy work of the Greeks; but when they joined battle, they fared neither better nor worse than the Median soldiery, fighting as they were in a narrow space and with shorter spears than the Greeks, where they could make no use of their numbers. But the Lacedaemonians fought memorably. They were skilled warriors against unskilled; and it was among their many feats of arms, that they would turn their backs and feign flight; seeing which, the foreigners would pursue after them with shouting and noise; but when the Lacedaemonians were like to be overtaken they turned upon the foreigners, and so rallying overthrew Persians innumerable; wherein some few of the Spartans themselves were slain. So when the Persians, attacking by companies and in every other fashion, could yet gain no inch of the approach, they drew off out of the fight.
212. During these onsets the king (it is said) thrice sprang up in fear for his army from the throne where he sat to view them. Such was then the fortune of the fight, and on the next day the foreigners had no better luck at the game. They joined battle, supposing that their enemies, being so few, were now disabled by wounds and could no longer withstand them But the Greeks stood arrayed by battalions and nations, and each of these fought in its turn, save the Phocians, who were posted on the mountains to guard the path. So when the Persians found the Greeks in no way different from what the day before had shown them to be, they drew off from the fight.
213. The king being at a loss how to deal with the present difficulty, Epialtes son of Eurydemus, a Malian, came to speak with him, thinking so to receive a great reward from Xerxes, and told him of the path leading over the mountain to Thermopylae; whereby he was the undoing of the Greeks who had been left there. This Epialtes afterwards fled into Thessaly, for fear of the Lacedaemonians; and he being so banished a price was put on his head by the Pylagori when the Amphictyons sat together in their council at Thermopylae; and a long time after that, having returned to Anticyra, he was slain by Athenades, a man of Trachis. It was for another cause (which I will tell in the latter part of my history) that this Athenades slew Epialtes, but he was none the less honoured for it by the Lacedaemonians.
214. Such was the end of Epialtes at a later day. There is another story current, that it was Onetes son of Phanagoras, a Carystian, and Corydallus of Anticyra, who spoke to the king to this effect and guided the Persians round the mountain; but I wholly disbelieve it. For firstly, we must draw conclusion from what the Pylagori did; they set a price on the head of the Trachinian Epialtes, not of Onetes and Corydallus; and it must be supposed that they used all means to learn the truth; and secondly, we know that Epialtes was for this cause banished. I do not deny that Onetes might know the path, even though not a Malian, if he had many times been in that country; but the man who guided them by that path round the mountain was Epialtes, and on him I here fix the guilt.
215. Xerxes was satisfied with what Epialtes promised to accomplish; much rejoicing thereat, he sent Hydarnes forthwith and Hydarnes’ following; and they set forth from the camp about the hour when lamps are lit. Now this path had been discovered by the Malians of the country, who guided the Thessalians thereby into Phocis, at the time when the Phocians sheltered themselves from attack by fencing the pass with a wall; thus early had the Malians shown that the pass could avail nothing.
216. Now the path runs thuswise. It begins at the river Asopus which flows through the ravine; the mountain there and the path have the same name, Anopaea; this Anopaea crosses the ridge of the mountain and ends at the town of Alpenus, the Locrian town nearest to Malis, where is the rock called Blackbuttock and the seats of the Cercopes; and this is its narrowest part.
217. Of such nature is the path; by this, when they had crossed the Asopus, the Persians marched all night, the Oetean mountains being on their right hand and the Trachinian on their left. At dawn of day they came to the summit of the pass. Now in this part of the mountain-way a thousand Phocians were posted, as I have already shown, to defend their own country and guard the path; for the lower pass was held by those of whom I have spoken, but the path over the mountains by the Phocians, according to the promise that they had of their own motion given to Leonidas.
218. Now the mountain-side where the Persians ascended was all covered by oak woods, and the Phocians knew nothing of their coming till they were warned of it, in the still weather, by the much noise of the enemy’s tread on the leaves that lay strewn underfoot; whereupon they sprang up and began to arm, and in a moment the foreigners were upon them. These were amazed at the sight of men putting on armour; for they had supposed that no one would withstand them, and now they fell in with an army. Hydarnes feared that the Phocians might be Lacedaemonians, and asked Epialtes of what country they were; being informed of the truth he arrayed the Persians for battle; and the Phocians, assailed by showers of arrows, and supposing that it was they whom the Persians had meant from the first to attack, fled away up to the top of the mountain and prepared there to perish. Such was their thought; but the Persians with Epialtes and Hydarnes paid no regard to the Phocians, but descended from the mountain with all speed.
219. The Greeks at Thermopylae were warned first by Megistias the seer; who, having examined the offerings, advised them of the death that awaited them in the morning; and presently came deserters, while it was yet night, with news of the circuit made by the Persians; which was lastly brought also by the watchers running down from the heights when day was now dawning. Thereupon the Greeks held a council, and their opinions were divided, some advising that they should not leave their post, and some being contrariwise minded; and presently they parted asunder, these taking their departure and dispersing each to their own cities, and those resolving to remain where they were with Leonidas.
220. It is said indeed that Leonidas himself sent them away, desiring in his care for them to save their lives, but deeming it unseemly for himself and the Spartans to desert that post which they had first come to defend. But to this opinion I the rather incline, that when Leonidas perceived the allies to be faint of heart and not willing to run all risks with him he bade them go their ways, departure being for himself not honourable; if he remained, he would leave a name of great renown, and the prosperity of Sparta would not be blotted out. For when the Spartans enquired of the oracle concerning this war at its very first beginning, the Pythian priestess had prophesied to them that either Lacedaemon should be destroyed of the foreigners, or that its king should perish: which answer was given in these hexameter verses:
Of this (it is my belief) Leonidas bethought himself, and desired that the Spartans alone should have the glory; wherefore he chose rather to send the allies away than that the departure of those who went should be the unseemly outcome of divided counsels.
221. In which matter I hold it for one of my strongest proofs, that Megistias the Acarnanian (reputed a descendant of Melampus), who advised the Greeks from the offerings of what should befal them, was past all doubt bidden by Leonidas to depart, lest he should perish with the rest. Yet though thus bidden Megistias himself would not go; he had an only son in the army, and him he sent away instead.
222. So those of the allies who were bidden to go went their ways in obedience to Leonidas, and the Thespians and Thebans alone stayed by the Lacedaemonians; the Thebans indeed against their will and desire, and kept there by Leonidas as hostages; but the Thespians remained with great goodwill. They refused to depart and leave Leonidas and his comrades, but remained there and died with him. Their general was Demophilus son of Diadromes.
223. Xerxes, having at sunrise offered libations, waited till about the hour of marketing and then made his assault, having been so advised by Epialtes; for the descent from the mountain is more direct and the way is much shorter than the circuit and the ascent. So the foreigners that were with Xerxes attacked; but the Greeks with Leonidas, knowing that they went to their death, advanced now much farther than before into the wider part of the strait For ere now it was the wall of defence that they had guarded, and all the former days they had withdrawn themselves into the narrow way and fought there; but now they met their enemies outside the narrows, and many of the foreigners were there slain; for their captains came behind the companies with scourges and drove all the men forward with lashes. Many of them were thrust into the sea and there drowned, and more by far were trodden down bodily by each other, none regarding who it was that perished; for inasmuch as the Greeks knew that they must die by the hands of those who came round the mountain, they put forth the very utmost of their strength against the foreigners, in their recklessness and frenzy.
224. By this time the spears of the most of them were broken, and they were slaying the Persians with their swords. There in that travail fell Leonidas, fighting most gallantly, and with him other famous Spartans, whose names I have learnt for their great worth and desert, as I have learnt besides the names of all the three hundred. There too fell, among other famous Persians, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, two sons of Darius by Phratagune daughter of Artanes. This Artanes was brother to king Darius, and son of Hystaspes who was the son of Arsames; and when he gave his daughter in marriage to Darius he dowered her with the whole wealth of his house, she being his only child.
225. So two brothers of Xerxes fell there in the battle; and there was a great struggle between the Persians and Lacedaemonians over Leonidas’ body, till the Greeks of their valour dragged it away and four times put their enemies to flight. Nor was there an end of this mellay till the men with Epialtes came up. When the Greeks were aware of their coming, from that moment the face of the battle was changed; for they withdrew themselves back to the narrow part of the way, and passing within the wall they took post, all save the Thebans, upon the hillock that is in the mouth of the pass, where now stands the stone lion in honour of Leonidas. In that place they defended themselves with their swords, as many as yet had such, ay and with fists and teeth; till the foreigners overwhelmed them with missile weapons, some attacking them in front and throwing down the wall of defence, and others standing around them in a ring.
226. Thus did the men of Lacedaemon and Thespiae bear themselves. Yet the bravest of them all (it is said) was Dieneces, a Spartan, of whom a certain saying is reported: before they joined battle with the Medes, it was told Dieneces by a certain Trachinian that the enemies were so many, that when they shot with their bows the sun was hidden by the multitude of arrows; whereby being no whit dismayed, but making light of the multitude of the Medes, “Our friend from Trachis,” quoth he, “brings us right good news, for if the Medes hide the sun we shall fight them in the shade and not in the sunshine.”
227. This and other sayings of a like temper are recorded of Dieneces, whereby he is remembered. The next after him to earn the palm of valour were, it is said, two Lacedaemonian brothers, Alpheus and Maron, sons of Orsiphantus. The Thespian who gained most renown was one whose name was Dithyrambus, son of Harmatides.
228. All these, and they that died before any had departed at Leonidas’ bidding, were buried where they fell, and there is an inscription over them, which is this:
This is the inscription common to all; the Spartans have one for themselves:
That is for the Lacedaemonians, and this for the seer:
The inscriptions and the pillars were set there in their honour by the Amphictyons, except the epitaph of the diviner Megistias; that inscription was made for him for friendship’s sake by Simonides son of Leoprepes.
229. There is a story told concerning two of these three hundred, Eurytus and Aristodemus. Leonidas had suffered them both to leave the camp, and they were lying at Alpeni, very sick of ophthalmia; they might have both made common cause and returned in safety to Sparta, or if they had no desire to return have died with the rest; but though they might have done one thing or the other, they could not agree, and each followed his own plan. Eurytus, when he learnt of the Persians’ circuit, called for his armour and put it on, and bade his helot lead him into the battle; the helot led him thither and then himself fled; and Eurytus rushed into the press and was slain. But Aristodemus’ heart failed him, and he stayed behind. Now if Aristodemus alone had been sick, and so returned to Sparta, or if they had betaken themselves home together, then to my thinking the Spartans would have shown no anger against them; but as it was, when one of the two was slain, and the other had the selfsame pretext to rely upon, yet would not die, they could not but be very wroth with Aristodemus.
230. Some, then, say that it was thus and with such an excuse that Aristodemus came safe back to Sparta; according to others he had been sent on a message from the camp, and might have come back in time for the battle’s beginning, yet would not, but lingered on the way and so saved his life; whereas his fellow-messenger returned for the battle and was there slain.
231. When Aristodemus returned to Lacedaemon, he was disgraced and dishonoured; this was the manner of his dishonour, that no Spartan would give him fire, nor speak with him; and they called him for disgrace, Aristodemus the coward.
232. But he repaired all that was laid to his charge in the fight at Plataeae. It is said too that another of the three hundred, whose name was Pantites, was saved alive, carrying a message into Thessaly; he also returned to Sparta, but being there dishonoured hanged himself.
233. As for the Thebans, whose general was Leontiades, they were for a while with the Greeks and constrained by necessity to fight against the king’s army; but as soon as they saw the Persians gaining the upper hand, then, when the Greeks with Leonidas were pressing towards the hillock, the Thebans separated from them and drew nigh to the foreigners, holding out their hands and crying that they were the Persians’ men and had been among the first to give earth and water to the king; it was under constraint (they said) that they had come to Thermopylae, and they were guiltless of the harm done to the king; which was the truest word ever spoken; so that by this plea they saved their lives, the Thessalians being there to bear witness to what they said. Howbeit they were not wholly fortunate; for when the foreigners caught them coming, they even slew some of them as they drew near; the most of them were branded by Xerxes’ command with the king’s marks, from their general Leontiades downwards. This is he whose son Eurymachus long afterwards put himself at the head of four hundred Thebans and seized the citadel of Plataeae, but was slain by the Plataeans.
234. Thus did the Greeks at Thermopylae contend. Xerxes then sent for Demaratus and questioned him, saying first, “Demaratus, you are a right good man. I hold that proved by the plain truth; for the event has been none other than what you foretold. Now, tell me this: how many are the Lacedaemonians that are left, and how many of them are warriors like these? or is it so with them all?” “O king,” said Demaratus, “the Lacedaemonians altogether are many in number, and their cities are many. But what you would know, I will tell you: there is in Lacedaemon a city called Sparta, a city of about eight thousand men, all of them equal to those who have here fought; the rest of the Lacedaemonians are not equal to these; yet they are valiant men.” “And how, Demaratus,” answered Xerxes, “shall we with least ado master those men? Come, make that plain to me; for you have been their king, and know the plan and order of their counsels.”
235. “O king,” Demaratus replied, “if you do in sincerity ask my counsel, it is but right that I should point out to you the best way. It is this: that you should send three hundred ships of your fleet to the Laconian land. There is an island lying off their coasts called Cythera, whereof it was said by Chilon, a man of much wisdom among us, that for the Spartans’ advantage Cythera were better beneath the sea than above it; for he ever looked that some such business should spring from thence as I now set before you; not that he had any foreknowledge of your armament, but he dreaded all men’s armaments alike. Let them then make that island their station and issue thence to strike fear into the Lacedaemonians; if these have a war of their own on their borders, you will have no cause to fear lest they send men to save the rest of Hellas from being overrun by your armies: and the enslavement of the rest of Hellas must weaken Laconia, if it be thus left to stand alone. But if you will not do this, then look for that whereof I tell you: a narrow isthmus leads to the Peloponnese; all the Peloponnesians will be there banded together against you, and you may expect battles more stubborn than those that you have fought already. But if you do as I have said, then you may have that isthmus and all their cities without striking a blow.”
236. Next spoke Achaemenes, Xerxes’ brother and admiral of the fleet; it chanced that he was present at their converse, and he feared lest Xerxes be over-persuaded to follow Demaratus’ counsel. “O king,” said he, “I see that you are hearkening to a man who is jealous of your good fortune or perchance is even a traitor to your cause. These are the ways that are dear to the hearts of all Greeks: they are jealous of success and they hate power. Nay, if after the late calamity which has wrecked four hundred of your ships you send away three hundred more from your fleet to sail round the Peloponnese, your enemies will be enough to do battle with you; but while your fleet is united, it is thereby invincible, and your enemies will not so much as be enough to fight; moreover, all your navy will be a help to your army and your army to your navy, both moving together; but if you separate some from yourself, you will be of no use to them, nor they to you. My counsel is rather that you lay your own plans well, and take no account of the business of your adversaries, what battlefields they will choose, and what they will do, and how many they be. They are well able to think for themselves, and we likewise for ourselves. As for the Lacedaemonians, if they meet the Persians in the field, they will in nowise repair their late hurts.”
237. “Achaemenes,” Xerxes answered, “methinks you say well, and I will do as you counsel. But Demaratus, albeit your advice is better than his, says what he supposes to be most serviceable to me: for assuredly I will never believe that he is no friend to my cause; I judge that he is so by all that he has already said, and by what is the truth, namely, that if one citizen prosper another citizen is jealous of him and shows his enmity by silence, and no one (except he have attained to the height of excellence; and such are seldom seen) if his own townsman asks for counsel will give him what he deems the best advice. But if one stranger prosper, another stranger is beyond all men his well-wisher, and will if he be asked impart to him the best counsel he has. Wherefore I bid you all refrain from maligning Demaratus, seeing that he is a stranger and my friend.”
238. Having thus spoken, Xerxes passed over the place where the dead lay; and hearing that Leonidas had been king and general of the Lacedaemonians, he bade cut off his head and impale it. It is plain to me by this especial proof among many others, that while Leonidas lived king Xerxes was more incensed against him than against all others; else had he never dealt so outrageously with his dead body; for the Persians are of all men known to me the most wont to honour valiant warriors. So they who were thus charged did as I have said.
239. I return now to that place in my history where it lately left off. The Lacedaemonians were the first to be informed that the king was equipping himself to attack Hellas; with this knowledge it was that they sent to the oracle at Delphi, where they received the answer whereof I spoke a little while ago; and the way of their being so informed was strange. Demaratus son of Ariston, being an exile among the Medes, was, as I suppose (reason being also my ally), no friend to the Lacedaemonians, and I leave it to be imagined whether what he did was done out of goodwill or despiteful triumph. Xerxes being resolved to march against Hellas, Demaratus, who was then at Susa and had knowledge of this, desired to send word of it to the Lacedaemonians. But he feared to be detected, and had no other way of acquainting them than this trick:—taking a double tablet, he scraped away the wax from it, and then wrote the king’s intent on the wood; which done, he melted the wax back again over the writing, so that the bearer of the tablet thus left blank might not be troubled by the way-wardens. When the tablet came to Lacedaemon, the Lacedaemonians could not guess its meaning, till at last (as I have been told) Gorgo, Cleomenes’ daughter and Leonidas’ wife, discovered the trick of herself and advised them to scrape the wax away, when they would find writing on the wood. So doing, they found and read the message, and presently sent it to the rest of the Greeks. This is the story, as it is told.