However, the vision kept haunting him, growing more menacing with each appearance. Greatly frightened, he summoned Artabanus and made him don his regal attire, sit on his throne and sleep in his bed hoping that the same vision would strike him. And it did. Artabamus woke up screaming and adopted the majority opinion. Xerxes laid it all out before the Persians war it was to be.
Preparations begin in earnest and take five years.
A mighty polyglot army and a large fleet is assembled under a single command with contingents from the far reaches of the empire Herodotus even mentions an Indian presence. While it was certainly large, of the order of a few hundred thousand, his later Greek sources must have exaggerated the numbers to make their own valor and victory seem all the more heroic. In 480 BCE, the Persian army bridges and crosses the Hellespont, the fleet follows along the coast. Heralds are sent to towns ahead with a demand for earth and water , and agreements secured to feast the king s entourage. The logistics of provisions each night for his troops is nothing short of a Herculean task.