"S ^ J^.C\%,^, \ o ' ^^^''W o -v ri^ /• .0^. <^ OV^ -#<^. ^^^^i^^^ •^ 0^ >^X ^^ o>' Xerxes, Frontispiece The Capture of the Acropolis by the Persians. ( Seep. 306. ) irfli."];^ Md0BteMaB>»B^Mi0& art^fCnKTj |^jjj|Ajvy of Darius. 2— Xerxe.; 18 XERXES. medical science and skill. The physican said thab he would undertake her case on condition that she would promise to grant him a certain request that he would make. She wished to know what it was beforehand, but the physician would not tell her. He said, however, that it was nothing that it would be in any way de- rogatory to her honor to grant him. On these conditions Atossa concluded to agree to the physician^s proposals. He made her take a solemn oath that, if he cured her of her malady, she would do whatever he required of her, provided that it was consistent with honor and propriety. He then took her case under his charge, prescribed for her and attend- ed her, and in due time she was cured. The physician then told her that what he wished her to do for him was to find some means to persuade Darius to send him home to his native land. Atossa was faithful in fulfilling her promise. She took a private opportunity, when she was alone with Darius, to propose that he should engage in some plans of foreign conquest. She reminded him of the vastness of the mili- tary power which was at his disposal, and of the facility with which, by means of it, he might extend his dominions. She extolled, too, his genius and energy, and endeavored to inspire in his mind some ambitious desires to distin- THE MOTHER OF XERXES. 19 guisli himself in the estiiiKiiiuii ol' nuuikind by bringing his cai">acities for the performance of great deeds into action. Darius listened to these suggestions of A tossa with interest and with evident pleasure, lie said that he had been forming some such plans himself. He was going to build a bridge across the Hellespont or the Bosporus, to unite Europe and Asia ; and he was also going to make an incursion into the country of the Scy- thians., the people by whom Cyrus, his great predecessor, had been defeated and slain. It would be a great glory for him, he said, to suc- ceed in a conquest in which Cyrus had so totally failed. But these plans would not answer the pur- pose which Atossa had in view. She urged her husband, therefore, to postjione his inva- sion of the Scythians till some future time, and first conquer the Greeks, and annex their terri- tory to his dominions. The Scythians, she said, were savages, and their country not worth the cost of conquering it, while Greece would constitute a noble prize. She urged the inva- sion of Greece, too, rather than Scythia, as a personal favor to herself, for she had been wanting, she said, some slaves from Greece for a long time — some of the women of Sparta, of Corinth, and of Athens, of whose graces and accomplishments she had heard so much. 20 XERXES. There was sometbiiig gratifying to the mili- tary vanity of Darius in being thus requested to maiie an incursion to another continent^ and undertake the conquest of the mightiest nation of the earth, for the purpose of procuring ac- complished waiting-maids to offer as a present to his queen. He became restless and excited while listening to Atossa's proposals, and to the arguments with which she enforced them, and it was obvious that he was very strongly in- clined to accede to her views. He finally con- cluded to send a commission into Greece to ex- plore the country, and to bring back a report on their return ; and as he decided to make the Greek physician the guide of the exjoedition, Atossa gained her end. A full account of this expedition, aud of the various adventures which the party met with on their voyage, is given in our history of Da- rius. It may be proper to say here, however, that the physician fully succeeded in his plans of making his escape. He pretended, at first, to be unwilling to go ; and he made only the most temporary arrangements in respect to the conduct of his affairs while he should be gone, in order to deceive the king in regard to his intentions of not returning. The king, on his part, resorted to some stratagems to ascertain whether the physician was sincere in his pro- fessions, but he did noi succeed in detecting THE MOTHER OF XERXES. 21 tlie artifice, and so the party went away. The physician never returned. Atossa had tour sons. Xerxes was the eldest of them. He was not, however, the eldest of the sons of Darius, as there were other sons, the children of another wife, whom Darius had married before he ascended the throne. The oldest of these children was named Artoba- zanes. Artobazanes seems to have been a prince of an amiable and virtuous character, and not particularly ambitious and aspiring in his dis- position, although as he was the eldest son of his father, he claimed to be his heir. Atossa did not admit the validity of this claim, but main- tained that the eldest of her children was en- titled to the inheritance. It became necessary to decide this question before Darius's death ; for Darius, in the pros- ecution of a war in which he was engaged, formed the design of accompanying his army on an expedition into Greece, and, before doing this, he was bound, according to the laws and usages of the Persian realm, to regulate the succession. There immediately arose an earnest dispute between the friends and partisans of Artobaza- nes and Xerxes, each side urging very eagerly the claims of its own candidate. The mother and the friends of Artobazanes maintained that he was the oldest son, and, consequently, the 22 XERXES. heir. Atossa, on the other hand, contended that Xerxes was the grandson of Cyrus, and that he derived from that circumstance the highest possible hereditary rights to the Persian throne. This was in some respects true, for Cyrus had been the founder of the empire and the le- gitimate monarch, while Darius had no heredi- tary claims. He was originally a noble, of high rank, indeed, but not of the royal line ; and he had been designated as Cyruses successor in a time of revolution, because there was, at that time, no prince of the royal family who could take the inheritance. Those, therefore, who were disposed to insist on the claims of a legit- imate hereditary succession, might very plaus- ibly claim that Darius's government had been a regency rather than a reign ; tliafc Xerxes, "be- ing the oldest son of Atossa, Cyrns^'s daughter, was the true representative of the royal line ; and that, although it might not be expedient to disturb the possession of Darius during his lifetime, yet that, at his death, Xerxes was un- questionably entitled to the throne. There was obviously a great deal of truth and justice in this reasoning, and yet it was a view of the subject not likely to be very agreeable to Darius, since it seemed to deny the existence of any real and valid title to the sovereignty in him. It assigned the crown, at his death, not THE MOTHER OF XERXES. 23 to his son as sucli, but to his predecessor's grand- son ; for though Xerxes was both the son of Dariiis and the grandson of Cyrus, it was in tlie latter capacity that he was regarded as entitled to the crown in the argument referred to above. The doctrine was very gratifying to the pride of Atossa, for it made Xerxes the successor to the crown as her son and heir, and not as the son and heir of her husband. For this very reason it was likely to be not very gratifying to Darius. He hesitated very much in respect to adopting it. Atossa's ascendency over his mind, and her influence generally in the Persian court, was almost overwhelming, — and yet Darius was very unwilling to seem, by giving to the oldest grandson of Cyrus the precedence over his own eldest son, to admit that he himself had no legitimate and proper title to the throne. While things were in this state, a Greek, named Demaratus, arrived at Susa. He was a dethroned prince from Sparta, and had fled from the political storms of his own country to seek refuge in Darius's capital. Demaratus found a way to reconcile Darius's pride as a sovereign with his personal preferences as a husband and a father. He told the king that, according to the principles of hereditary succession which were adopted in Greece, Xerxes was his heir as well as Cyrus's, for he was the oldest son who was born after his accession. A son, lie said. 24 XERXES. according to the Greek ideas on the subject, was entitled to inherit only such rank as his father held when the son was born ; and that^ consequently, none of his children who had been born before his accession could have any claims to the Persian throne. Artobazanes, in a word, was to be regarded, he said, only as the son of Darius the noble, while Xerxes was the son of Darius the king. In the end Darius adopted this view, and des- ignated Xerxes as his successor in case he should not return from his distant expedition. He did not return. He did not even live to set out upon it. Perhaps the question of the succession had not been absolutely and finally settled, for it arose again and was discussed anew when the death of Darius occurred. The manner in which it was finally disposed of will be described in the next chapter. The Sphinx. CHAPTER II. EGYPT AND GllEECE. The arrangements which Darius had made to fix and determine the succession, before his death, did not entirely prevent the question from arising again when his death occurred. Xerxes was on the spot at the time, and at once assumed the royal functions. His brother was absent. Xerxes sent a messenger to Artoba- zanes * informing him of their father's death, and of his intention of assuming the crown. He said, however, that if he did so, he should give his brother the second rank, making him, in all respects, next to himself in office and honor. He sent, moreover, a great many splendid pres- ents to Artobazanes, to evince the friendly re- gard which he felt for him, and to propitiate his favor. Artobazanes sent back word to Xerxes that he thanked him for his presents, and that he accepted them with pleasure. He said that he ♦Plutarch, who gives an account of these occur- rences, varies the orthography of tlie name. We, however, retain the name as given by Herodotus. 26 XERXES. considered himself, nevertheless, as jnstly en- titled to the crown, though he should, in the event of his accession, treat all his brothers and especially Xerxes, with the utmost considera- tion and respect. Soon after these occurrences, Artobazanes came to Media, where Xerxes was, and the question which of them should be the king was agitated anew among the nobles of the court. In the end, a public hearing of the cause was had before Artabanus, a brother of Darius, and, of course, an uncle of the contending princes. The question seems to have been referred to him, either because he held some public office which made it his duty to consider and decide such a question, or else because he had been specially commissioned to act as judge in this particular case. Xerxes was at first quite nn- willing to submit his claims to the decision of such a tribunal. The crown was, as he main- tained, rightfully his. He thought that the public voice was generally in his favor. Then, besides he was already in possession of the throne, and by consenting to plead his cause be- fore his nncle, he seemed to be virtually aban- doning all this vantage ground, and trusting Instead to the mere chance of Artabanus's decision. Atossa, however, recommended to him to ac- cede to the plan of referring the question to Ar- EGYPT AND GREECE. 27 tabanus. He would consider the subject, she said, with fairness and impartiality, and decide it right. She had no doubt that he would de- cide it in Xerxes^s favor ; '^ and if he does not/' she added, ^'and you lose your cause, you only become the second man in the kingdom instead of the first, and the difference is not so very great, after all.'' Atossa may have had some secret intimation how Artabanus would decide. However this may be, Xerxes at length con- cluded to submit the question. A solemn court was held, and the case was argued in the pres- ence of all the nobles and great officers of state. A throne was at hand to which the successful competitor was to be conducted as soon as the decision should be made, Artabanus heard the arguments, and decided in favor of Xerxes. Artobazanes, his brother, acquiesced in the de- cision with the utmost readiness and good hu- mor. He was the first to bow before the king in token of homage, and conducted him, him- self, to the throne. Xerxes kept his promise faithfully of making his brother the second in his kingdom. He ajj- pointed him to a very high command in the army, and Artobazanes, on his part, served the king with great zeal and fidelity, until he was at last killed in battle, in the manner hereafter to be described. 28 XERXES. As soon as Xerxes found himself established on his throne, he was called upon to decide im- mediately a great question, namely, which of two important wars in which his father had been engaged he should first undertake to pros- ecute, the war in Egypt or the war in Greece. By referring to the map, the reader will see that, as the Persian empire extended westward to Asia Minor and to the coasts of the Mediter- ranean Sea, the great countries which bordered upon it in this direction were, on the north Greece, and on the south, Egypt ; the one in Europe, and the other in Africa. The Greeka and the Egyptians were both wealthy and pow^ erful, and the countries which they respectively inhabited were fertile and beautiful beyond ex- pression, and yet in all their essential feature?, and characteristics they were extremely dissim- ilar. Egypt was a long and narrow inland valley. Greece rej^osed, as it were, in the bo- som of the sea, consisting, as it did, of an end' less number of islands, promontories, peninsu. las, and winding coasts, laved on every side hy the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Egypt was a plain, diversified only by the varieties of vegetation, and by the towns and villages, and the enormous monumental structures which had been erected by man. Greece was a pictur- esque and ever-changing scene of mountaina and valleys ; of precipitous cliffs, winding EGYPT AND GREECE. 29 beaches, rocky capes, and lofty headlands. The character and genius of the inhabitants of these two countries took their cast, in each case, from the physical conformations of the soil. The Egyptians were a quiet, gentle, and harmless race of tillers of the ground. They spent their lives in pumping water from the river, in the patient, persevering toil of sow- ing smooth and mellow fields, or in reaping the waving grain. The Greeks drove flocks and herds up and down the declivities of the mountains, or hunted wild beasts in forests and fastnesses. They constructed galleys for navigat- ing the seas ; they worked the mines and man- ufactured metals. They built bridges, citadels, temples, and towns, and sculptured statuary from marble blocks which they chiseled from the strata of the mountains. It is surprising what a difference is made in the genius and character of man by elevations, here and there, of a few thousand feet in the country where his genius and character are formed. The architectural wonders of Egypt and of Greece were as diverse from each other as the natural features of the soil, and in each case the structures were in keeping and in harmony with the character of the landscape which they respectively adorned. The harmony was, how- ever, that of contrast, and not of correspond- ence. In Greece, where the landscape itself 30 XERXES. was grand and sublime, the architect aimed only at beauty. To have aimed at magnitude and grandeur in human structures among the mountains, the cliffs, the cataracts, and the re- sounding ocean shores of Greece, would have been absurd. The Grecian artists were de- terred by their unerring instincts from the at- tempt. They accordingly built beautiful tem- ples, whose white and symmetrical colonnades adorned the declivities, or crowned the summits of the hills. They sculptured statues, to be placed on pedestals in groves and gardens ; they constructed fountains ; they raised bridges and aqueducts on long ranges of arches and piers ; and the summits of ragged rocks crystallized, as it were, under their hands into towers, bat- tlements, and walls. In Egypt, on the other hand, where the country itself was a level and unvarying plain, the architecture took forms of prodigious magnitude, of lofty elevation, and of vast extent. There were ranges of enormous columns, colossal statues, towering obelisks, and pyramids rising like mountains from the verdure of the plain. Thus, while nature gave to the country its elements of beauty, man completed the landscape by adding to it the grand and the sublime. The shape and proportions of Egypt would be represented by a green ribbon an inch wide and a yard long, lying upon the ground in a EGPPT AND GllEECE. 31 serpentine form ; jinil to complete the model, we might imagine a silver filament passing along the center of the green to denote the Nile. The real valley of verdure, however, is not of uniform breadth, like the ribbon so represent- ing it, but widens as it approaches the sea, as if there had been originally a gulf or estuary there, which the sediment from the river had filled. In fact, the rich and fertile plain which the alluvial deposits of the Nile have formed, has been protruded for some distance into the sea, and the stream divides itself into three great branches about a hundred miles from its mouth, two outermost of which, with the sea-coast in front, inclose a vast triangle, which was called the Delta, from the Greek letter delta, A, which is of a triangular form. In ascending the river beyond the Delta, the fertile plain, at first twenty-five or thirty miles wide, grows gradually narrower, as the ranges of barren hills and tracts of sandy deserts on either hand draw nearer and nearer to the river. Thus the country consists of two long lines of rich and fertile intervals, one on each side of the stream. In the time of Xerxes the whole ex- tent was densely populated, every little eleva- tion of the land being covered with a village or a town. The inhabitants tilled the land, rais- ing upon it vast stores of corn, much of which 3— X.rxi-s 82 XERXES. was floated down the river to its mouth, and taken thence to various countries of Europe and Asia, in merchant ships, over the Mediterranean Sea. Caravans, too, sometimes came across the neighboring deserts to obtain supplies of Egyp- tian corn. This was done by the sons of Jacob when the crops failed them in the land of Canaan, as related in the sacred Scriptures. There were two great natural wonders in Egypt in ancient times as now : first, it never rained there, or, at least, so seldom, that rain was regarded as a marvelous phenomenon, in- terrupting the ordinary course of nature, like an earthquake in England or America. The falling of drops of water out of clouds in the sky was an occurrence so strange, so unaccount- able, that the whole population regarded it with astonishment and awe. With the excep- tion of these rare and wonder-exciting instances, there was no rain, no snow, no hail, no clouds in the sky. The sun was always shining, and the heavens were always serene. These meteor- ological characteristics of the country, result- ing as they do, from permanent natural causes, continue, of course, unchanged to the present day ; and the Arabs who live now along the banks of the river, keep their crops, when har- vested, in heaps in the open air, and require no roofs to their huts except a light covering of sheaves to protect the inmates from the sun. EGYPT AND GREECE. 33 The other natural wonder of Egypt was the annual rising of the Nile. About midsummer, the peasantry who lived along the banks would find the river gradually beginning to rise. The stream became more turbid, too, as the bosom of the waters swelled. No cause for this mys- terious increase appeared, as the sky remained as blue and serene as before, and the sun, then nearly vertical, continued to shine with even more than its wonted splendor. The inhabi- tants, however, felt no surprise, and asked for no explanation of the phenomenon. It was the common course of nature at that season. They had all witnessed it, year after year, from childhood. They, of course, looked for it when the proper month came round, and, though they would have been amazed if tlie annual flood had failed, they thought nothing extraor- dinary of its coming. When the swelling of the waters and the grad- ual filling of the channels and low grounds in the neighborhood of the river warned tlie people that the flood was at hand, they all engaged busily in the work of completing their prep- arations. The harvests were all gathered from tlie fields, and the vast stores of fruit and corn which they yielded were piled in roofless gran- aries, built on every elevated spot of ground, where they would be safe from the approach- ing inundation. The rise of the water was very 34 XERXES. gradual and slow. KStreams began to flow in all directions over the land. Ponds and lakes, growing every day more and more extended, spread mysteriously over the surface of the meadows ; and all the time while this deluge of water was rising to submerge the land, the air continued dry, the sun was sultry, and the sky was without a cloud. As the flood continued to rise, the proportion of land and water, and the conformation of the irregular and temporary shores which separated them, were changed continually, from day to day. The inhabitants assembled in their vil- lages, which were built on rising grounds, some natural, others artificially formed. The waters rose more and more, until only these crowded islands appeared above its surface — when, at length, the valley presented to the view the spectacle of a vast expanse of water calm as a summer's sea, brilliant with the reflected rays of a tropical sun, and canopied by a sky, which, dis- playing its spotless blue by day and its countless stars at night, was always cloudless and serene. The inundation was at its height in October. After that period the waters gradually subsid- ed, leaving a slimy and very fertilizing deposit all over the lands which they had covered. Though the inhabitants themselves, who had been accustomed to this overflow from infancy, felt no wonder or curiosity about its cause, the EGYPT AND GREECE. 35 philosophers of the day, and travelers from other countries who visited Egypt, made many at- tempts to seek an explanation of the phenome. non. They had three theories on the subject, which Herodotus mentions and discusses. The first explanation was, that tlie rising of the river was occasioned by the prevalence of northerly winds on the Mediterranean at that time of the year, which drove back the waters at the mouth of the river, and so caused the ac- cumulation of the water in the upper parts of the valley. Herodotus thought that this was not a satisfactory explanation ; for sometimes, as he said, these northerly winds did not blow, and yet the rising of the river took place none the less when the appointed season came. Be- sides, there were other rivers similarly situated in respect to the influence of prevailing winds at sea in driving in their waters at at their mouths, which were, nevertheless, not subject to inundations like the Nile. The second theory was, that the Nile took its rise, not, like other rivers, in inland lakes, or among inland mountains, but in someremoce and unknown ocean on the other side of the continent, which ocean the advocates of this theory supposed might be subject to some great annual ebb and flow ; and from this it might result that at stated periods an unusual tide of waters might be poured into the channel of the 36 XERXES. river. This, however, could not be true, for the waters of the inundation were fresh, not salt, which proved that they were not furnished by any ocean. A third hypothesis v/as, that the rising of the water was occasioned by the melting of the snows in summer on the mountains from which the sources of the river came. Against this sup- position Herodotus found more numerous and more satisfactory reasons even than he had ad- vanced against the others. In the first place, the river came from the south — a direction in which the heat increased in intensity with every league, as far as travelers had explored it ; and beyond those limits, they supposed that the burning sun made the country uninhabitable. It was preposterous to suppose that there could be snow and ice there. Then, besides, the Nile had been ascended to a great distance, and re- ports from the natives had been brought down from regions still more remote, and no tidings had ever been brought of ice and snow. It was unreasonable, therefore, to suppose that the inundations could arise from such a cause. These scientific theories, however, were dis- cussed only among philosophers and learned men. The common people had a much more simple and satisfactory mode of disposing of the subject. They, in their imaginations, invested the bene- ficent river with a sort of life and personality, EGYPT AND GREECE. 37 and when thoy saw its waters rising so gently but yet surely, to overflow their whole land, leaving it, as they withdrew again, endued with a new and exuberant fertility, they im- agined it a living and acting intelligence, that in the exercise ot some mysterious and inscru- table powers, the nature ol which was to them unknown, and impelled by a kind and friendly regard for the country and its inhabitants, came annually, of its own accord, to spread over the land the blessings of fertility and abundance. The mysterious stream being viewed in this light, its wonderful powers awakened their ven- eration and awe, and its boundless beneficence their gratitude. Among the ancient Egyptian legends, there is one relating to a certain King Pheron which strikingly illustrates this feeling. It seems that during one of the inundations, while he was standing with his courtiers and watching the flow ot the water, the commotion in the stream was much greater than usual on account of a strong wind which was blowing at that time, and which greatly increased the violence of the whirlpools, and the force and swell of the boil- ing eddies. There was given, in fact, to the ap- pearance of the river an expression of anger, and Pheron, who was of a proud and haughty character, like most of tlie Egyptian kings, threw his Javelin into one of the wildest of the 88 XERXES. whirlpools, as a token of his defiance of its rage. He was instantly struck blind ! The sequel of the story is curious, though it has no connection with the personality of the Nile. Pheron remained blind or ten years. At the end of that time it was announced to him, by some supernatural communication, that the period of his punishment had expired, and that his sight might be brought back to him by the employment of a certain designated means of restoration, which was the bathing of his eyes by a strictly virtuous woman. Pheron undertook compliance with the requisition, without any idea that the finding of a virtuous woman would be a difficult task. He first tried his own wife, but her bathing produced no ef- fect. He then tried, one after another, various ladies of his court, and afterward others of dif- ferent rank and station, selecting those who were most distinguished for the excellence of their characters. He was disappointed, however, in them all. The blindness continued un- changed. At last, however, he found the wife of a peasant, whose bathing produced the effect. The monarches sight was suddenly restored. The king rewarded the peasant woman, whose virtuous character was established by this in- disputable test, with the highest honors. The others he collected together, and then shut them up in one of his towns. AVhen they were all thus EGYPT AND Gil EEC E. 39 safely imprisoned, he set the town on fire, and burned them all up together. To return to the Nile. Certain columns were erected in different parts of the valley, on which cubits and the subdivisions of cubits were marked and numbered, for the purpose of as- certaining precisely the rise of the water. Such a columri was called a Nilometer. There was one near Memphis, which was at the upper point of the Delta, and others further up the river. Such pillars continue to be used to mark the height of the inundations to the present day. The object of thus accurately ascertaining the rise of the water was not mere curiosity, for there were certain important business oper- ations which depended upon the results. The fertility and productiveness of the soil each year were determined almost wholly by the ex- tent of the inundation ; and as the ability of the people to pay tribute depended upon their crops, the Xilometer furnished the government with a criterion by which they regulated the annual assessments of the taxes. There were certain canals, too, made to convey the water to dis- tant tracts of land, which were opened or kept closed according as the water rose to a higher or lower point. All these things were regulated by the indications of the Kilometer. Egypt was famed in the days of Xerxes for 40 XERXES. those enormous structures and ruins of struc- tures ^vhose origin was then, as noY\% lost in a remote antiquity. Herodotus found the Pyra- mids standing in his day, and presenting the same spectacle of mysterious and solitary gran- deur which they exhibited to Napoleon. He speculated on their origin and their history, just as the philosophers and travelers of our day do. In fact, he knew less and could learn less about them than is known now. It helps to im- press our minds with an idea of the extreme antiquity of these and the otlier architec- tural wonders of Egypt, to compare them with things which are considered old in the Western world. The ancient and venerable colleges and halls of Oxford and Cambridge are, many of them, two or three hundred years old. There are remains of the old wall of the city of London which has been standing seven hundred years. This is considered a great antiquity. There are, however, Eoman ruins in Britain, and in various parts of Europe, more ancient still. They have been standing eighteen hundred years ! People look upon these with a species of wonder and awe that they have withstood the destructive influences of time so long. But as to the Pyramids, if we go back twenty -five liuyi- dred years, we find travelers visiting and de- scribing them then — monuments as ancient, as venerable, as mysterious and unknown in their EGYPT AND GREECE. 41 eyes, as they appear now in ours. We judge that a mountaiu is very distant when, after traveling many miles toward it, it seems still as distant as ever. Xow, in tracing the history of the pyramids, the obelisks, the gigantic statues, and the vast columnar ruins of the Nile, we may go back twenty-five hundred years, without, apparently, making any progress what- ever toward reaching their origin. Such was Egypt. Isolated as it was from the rest of the world, and full of fertility and riches, it offered a marked and definite object to the ambition of a conqueror. In fact, on ac- count of the peculiar interest which this long and narrow valley of verdure, with its wonderful structures, the strange and anomalous course of nature which prevails in it, and the extraor- dinary phases which human life, in consequence, exhibits there, has always excited among man- kind, heroes and conquerors have generally con- sidered it a peculiarly glorious field for their exploits. Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, contemplated the subjugation of it. He did nofc carry his designs into effect, but left them for Cambyses his son. Darius held the country as a dependency during his reign, thougl), near the close of his life, it revolted. This revolt took place while he was preparing for his grand expedition against Greece, and he was perplexed with the question which of the 42 XEKXES. two undertakings, the subjugation of the Egyp- tians or the invasion of Greece, he should first engage in. In the midst of this uncertainty he suddenly died, leaving both the wars themselves and, the perplexity of deciding between them as a part of the royal inheritance falling to his son. Xerxes decided to prosecute the Egyptian campaign first, intending to postpone the con- quest of Greece till he had brought the valley of the Nile once more under Persian sway. He deemed it dangerous to leave a province of his father's empire in a state of successful rebellion, while leading: his armies oif to new undertak- ings. Mardonius, who was the commander-in- chief of the army, and the great general on whom Xerxes mainly relied for tlie execution of his schemes, was very reluctant to consent to this plan. He was impatient for the con- quest of Greece. There was little glory for him to acquire in merely suppressing a revolt, and reconquering \vhat had been already once sub- dued. He was eager to enter upon a new field. Xerxes, however, overruled his wishes, and the armies commenced their march for Egypt. They passed the land of Judea on their way, where the captives who had returned from Bab- ylon, and their successors, were rebuilding the cities and reoccupying the country. Xerxes confirmed them in the j^rivileges which Cyrus EGYPT AND GREECE. 43 and Darius had granted tbcni, and aided them in their work, lie then went on toward tlic Nile. The rebellion was easily put down. In less than a year from the time of leaving Susa, Rebuilding a City of Judea. he had reconquered the whole land of Egypt, punished the leaders of the revolt, established his brother as viceroy of the country, and re- turned in safety to Susa. All this took place in the second year of liis reigu. CHAPTEE III. DEBATE OK THE PROPOSED INVASION OF GREECE. The two great counselors on whose jnclg- ment Xerxes mainly relied, so far as he looked to any other judgment than his own in tlie formation of his plans, were Artabanus, the uncle by whose decision the throne had been awarded to him, and Mardonius, the command- er-in-chief of his armies. Xerxes himself was quite a young man, of a proud and lofty, yet generous character, and full of self-confidence and hope. Mardonius was much older, but he was a soldier by profession, and was eager to distinguish himself in some great military cam- paign. It has always been unfortunate for the peace and happiness of mankind, under all mon- archical and despotic governments, in every age of the World, that, through some depraved and unaccountable perversion of public senti- ment, those who are not born to greatness have had no means of attaining to it except as heroes in war. Many men have, indeed, by their men- tal powers or their moral excellences, acquired 44 THE DEBATE. 45 ail cxteiulud and lasting- ^>o^7A?^;//o/^v fame ; }>ut in respect to all iiuniediato and exalted distinc- tion and honor, it will be found, on reviewing the history of the human race, that there have generally been but two possible avenues to them : on the one hand, high birth, and on the other, the performance of great deeds of carnage and destruction. There must be, it seems, as tlie only valid claim to renown, either blood in- herited or blood shed. The glory of the latter is second, indeed, to that of the former, but it is only second. He who has sacked a city stands very high in the estimation of his fellows. lie yields precedence only to him whose grand- father sacked one. This state of things is now, it is true, rap- idly undergoing a change. The age of chivalry, of military murder and robbery, and of the glo- ry of great deeds of carnage and blood, is pass- ing away, and that of peace, of industry, and of achievements for promoting the comfort and happiness of mankind is coming. The men who are now advancing to the notice of the world are those who, through their commerce or their manufactures, feed and clothe their fel- low-men by millions, or, by opening new chan- nels or new means for international intercourse, nivilize savages, and people deserts ; while the glory of killing and destroying is less and less regarded, and more and more readily forgotten. 4— Xerxes 46 XEKXES. In the days of Xerxes, however, there was no road to honor but by war, and Mardonius found that his only hope of rising to distinction was by conducting a vast torrent of military devas- tation over some portion of the globe ; and the fairer, the richer, the happier the scene which he was thus to inundate and overwhelm, the greater would be the glory. He was very much disposed, therefore, to urge on the invasion of Greece by every means in his power. Arfcabanus, on the other hand, the uncle of Xerxes, was a man advanced in years, and of a calm and cautious disposition. He was better aware than younger men of the vicissitudes and hazards of war, and was much more inclined to restrain tlian to urge on the youthful am- bition of his nephew. Xerxes had been able to present some show of reason for his campaign in Egypt, by calling the resistance w^hich that country offered to his power a rebellion. Tliere was, however, no such reason in the case of Greece. There had been two wars between Persia and the Athenians already, it is true. In the first, the Athenians had aided their coun- trymen in Asia Minor in a fruitless attempt to recover their independence. This the Persian government considered as aiding and abetting a rebellion. In the second, the Persians under Datis, one of Darius's generals, had undertaken a grand invasion of Greece, and, after landing THE DEBATE. 47 ill the neighborhood of Athens, were beaten', with immense slaughter, at the great battle of Marathon, near that city. The former of these wars is known in history as the Ionian rebel- lion ; the latter as the first Persian invasion of Greece. They had both occurred during the reign of Darius, and the invasion under l)atis had taken place not many years before the ac- cession of Xerxes, so that a great number of the officers who had served in that campaign were still remaining in the court and army of Xerxes at Susa. These wars had, however, both been terminated, and Artabanus was very little inclined to have the contests renewed. Xerxes, however, was bent npon making one more attem^Dt to conquer Greece, and when the time arrived for commencing his preparations, he called a grand council of the generals, tlie nobles, and the potentates of the realm, to lay his plans before them. The historian who nar- rated these proceedings recorded the debate that ensued in the following manner. Xerxes himself first addressed the assembly, to announce and explain his designs. ^^The enterprise, my friends," said he, ^^in which I propose now to engage, and in which I am about to ask your co-operation, is no new scheme of my own devising. What I design to do is, on the other hand, only the carrying for- ward of the grand course of measures marked 48 XERXES. out by my predecessors, and pursued by them Avith steadiness and energy, so long as the power remained in their hands. That power has now descended to me, and with it has devolved the responsibility of finishing the work which they so successfully began. ^'It is the manifest destiny of Persia to rule the world. From the time that Cyrus first commenced the work of conquest by subduing Media, to the present day, the extent of our em- pire has been continually widening, until now it covers all of Asia and Africa, with the excep- tion of the remote and barbarous tribes, that, like the wild beasts which share their forests with tliem, are not worth the trouble of subdu- ing. These vast conquests have been made by tlie courage, the energy, and the military power of Cyrus, Darius, and Canibyses, my renowned predecessors. They, on their part, have sub- dued Asia and Africa ; Europe remains. It devolves on me to finish what the}^ have begun. Had my father lived, he would, himself, have completed the work. He had already made great preparations for the undertaking ; but he died, leaving the task to me, and it is plain that 1 cannot hesitate to undertake it without a manifest dereliction of duty. ^' You all remember the unprovoked" and wan- ton aggressions which the Athenians com- mitted against us in the time of the Ionian re- THE DEBATE. 49 bellion, taking part against us with rebels and enemies. They crossed the ^gean Sea on that occasion, invaded our territories, and at hist captured and burned the city of Sardis, the principal capital of our Western empire. I will never rest until I have had my revenge by burn- ing Athens. Many of you, too, who are here present, remember the fate of the expedition nnder Datis. Those of you who were attached to that expedition will have no need that I should urge you to seek revenge for your own wrongs. lam sure that you will all second my undertaking with the utmost fidelity and zeal. ** My plan for gaining access to the Grecian territories is not, as before, to convey the troops by a fleet of galleys over the ^gean Sea, but to build a bridge across the Hellespont, and march the army to Greece by land. This course, which I am well convinced is practicable, will be more safe than the other, and the bridg- ing of the Hellespont will be of itself a glorious deed. The Greeks will be utterly unable to re- sist the enormous force which we shall be able to pour upon them. We cannot but conquer ; and inasmuch as beyond the Greek territories there is, as I am informed, no other power at all able to cope with us, we shall easily extend our empire on every side to the sea, and thus the Persian dominion will cover the whole hab- itable world. 50 XERXES. '^ I am sure that T can rely on your cordial and faithful co-operation in these plans, and that each one of you will bring me, from his own province or territories, as large a quota of men, and of supplies for the war, as is in hi& power. They who contribute thus most liber- ally I shall consider as entitled to the highest honors and rewards.^' Such was, in substance, the address of Xerxes to his council. He concluded by saying that it was not his wish to act in the affair in an ar- bitrary or absolute manner, and he invited all present to express, with perfect freedom, any opinions or views which they entertained in respect to the enterprise. While Xerxes had been speaking, the soul of Mardonius had been on fire with excitement and enthusiasm, and every word which the king had uttered only fanned the flame. He rose immediately when the king gave permission to the counselors to speak, and earnestly seconded the monarch's proposals in the following words : *' For my part, sire, I cannot refrain from expressing my high admiration of the lofty spirit and purpose on your part, which leads you to propose to us an enterprise so worthy of your illustrious station and exalted personal renown. Your position and power at the present time are higher than those ever attained by any hu- man sovereign that has ever lived ; and it is THE DEJ3ATE. 51 easy to foresee that tlierc is a career of glory before you which no future monarch can ever surpass. You are about to complete the con- quest of the world ! That exploit can, of course, never be exceeded. We all admire the proud spirit on your part which will not submit tame- ly to the aggressions and insults which we have received from the Greeks. We have con- qnered the people of India, of Egypt, of Ethi- opia, and of Assyria, and that, too, without having previously suffered any injury from them, but solely from a noble love of dominion ; and shall we tamely stop in our career when we see natiotis opposed to us from whom we have received so many insults, and endured so many wrongs ? Every consideration of honor and manliness forbids it. " We have nothing to fear in respect to the success of the enterprise in which you invite ns to engage. I know the Greeks, and I know that they cannot stand against our arms. I have encountered them many times and in va- rious ways. I met them in the provinces of Asia Minor, and you all know the result. I met them during the reign of Darius your father, in Macedon and Thrace — or, rather, sought to meet them ; for, though I marched through the country, the enemy always avoided me. They could not be found. They have a great name, it is true ; but, in fact, all their 52 XERXES. plans and arrangements are governed by im- becility and folly. They are not even united among themselves. As thoy speak one com- mon language, any ordinary prudence and sa- gacity would lead them to combine together, and make common cause against the nations that surround them. Instead of this, they are divided into a multitude of petty states and kingdoms, and all their resources and power are exhausted in fruitless contentions with each other. I am convinced that, once across the Hellespont, w^e can march to Athens without finding any enemy to oppose our progress ; or, if we should encounter any resisting^ force, it will be so small and insignificant as to be in- stantly overwhelmed.^' In one point Mardonius was nearly right in his predictions, since it proved subsequently, as will hereafter be seen, that when the Persian army reached the pass of Thermopylae, which was the great avenue of entrance, on the north, into tlie territories of the Greeks, they found only three hundred men ready there to oppose their passage ! When Mardonius had concluded his speech, he sat down, and quite a solemn pause ensued. The nobles and chieftains generally were less ready than he to encounter the hazards and un- certainties of so distant a campaign. Xerxes would acquire, by the success of the enterprise. THE DEBATE. 53 a great accession to his wealth and to his do- minion, and Mardonius, too, might expect to reap very rich rewards ; but what were they themselves to gain ? They did not dare, how- ever, to seem to oi:)2">ose the wishes of the king, and, notwithstanding the invitation which he had given them to speak, they remained silent, not knowing, in fact, exactly what to say. All this time Artabanus, the venerable uncle of Xerxes, sat silent like the rest, hesitating whether his years, his rank, and the relation which he sustained to the young monarch would justify his interposing, and make it pru- dent and safe for him to attempt to warn his nephew of the consequences which he would hazard by indulging his dangerous ambition. At length he determined to speak. '' I hope,^' said he, addressing the king, " that it will not displease you to have other views presented in addition to those wliich have al- ready been expressed. It is better that all opinions should be heard ; the just and the true will then appear the more just and true by com- parison with others. It seems to me that the enterprise which you contemj)late is full of dan- ger, and should be well considered before it is undertaken. When Darius, your father, con- ceived of the plan of his invasion of the country of the Scythians beyond the Danube, I coun- seled him against the attempt. The benefits 54 XEEXES. to be secured by such an undertaking seemed to me wholly insufficient to compensate for the expense, the difficulties, and the dangers of it. My counsels were, however, overruled. Your father proceeded on the enterprise. He crossed the Bosporus, traversed Thrace, and then crossed the Danube ; but, after a long and weary contest with the hordes of savages which he found in those trackless wilds, he was forced to abandon the undertaking, and return, with the loss of half his army. The plan which you pro- pose seems to me to be liable to the same dan- gers, and I fear very much that it will lead to the same results. *^The Greeks have the name of being a val- iant and formidable foe. It may prove in the end that they are so. They certainly repulsed Datis and all his forces, vast as they were, and compelled them to retire with an enormous loss. Your invasion, I grant, will be more formidable than his. You will throw a bridge across the Hellespont, so as to take your troops round through the northern parts of Europe into Greece, and you will also, at the same time, have a powerful fleet in the ^gean Sea. But it must be remembered that the naval arma- ments of the Greeks in all those waters are very formidable. They may attack and destroy your fleet. Suppose that they should do so, and that then, proceeding to the northward in THE DEBATE. 55 triumph, they should enter the Hellespont and destroy your bridge ? Your retreat would be cut off, and, in case of a reverse of fortune, your army would be exposed to total ruin. ^' Your father, in fact, very narrowly escaped precisely this fate. The Scythians came to de- stroy his bridge across the Danube while his forces were still beyond the river, and, had it not been for the very extraordinary fidelity and zeal of Histiaeus, who had been left to guard the post, they would have succeeded in doing it. It is frightful to think that the whole Persian army, with the sovereign of the empire at their head, were placed in a position where their be- ins: saved from overwhelming and total destruc- tion depended solely on the fidelity and firm- ness of a single man ! Should you place your forces and your own person in the same danger, can you safely calculate upon the same fortunate escape ? " Even the very vastness of your force may be the means of insuring and accelerating its destruction, since whatever rises to extraordi- nary elevation and greatness is always exposed to dangers correspondingly extraordinary and great. Thus tall trees and lofty towers seem always specially to invite the thunderbolts of Heaven. 'Olardonius charges the Greeks with a want of sagacity, efficiency, and valor, and speaks 56 XERXES. contemptuously of them, as soldiers, in every respect. I do not think that such imputations are just to the people against whom they are directed, or honorable to him who makes them ; To disparage the absent, especially an absent enemy, is not magnanimous or wise ; and I very much fear that it will be found in the end that the conduct of the Greeks will evince very different military qualities from those which Mardonius has assigned them. They are rep- resented by common fame as sagacious, hardy, efficient, and brave, and it may prove that these representations are true. " My counsel therefore is that you dismiss this assembly, and take further time to consider this subject before coming to a final decision. Perhaps, on more mature reflection, you will conclude to abandon the project altogether. If you should not conclude to abandon it, but should decide, on the other hand, that it must be prosecuted, let me entreat you not to go yourself in company with the expedition. Let Mardonius take the charge and the responsibil- ity. If he does so, I predict that he will leave the dead bodies of the soldiers that you intrust to him, to be devoured by dogs on the plains of Athens or Lacedgemon.^^ Xerxes was exceedingly displeased at hearing such a speech as this from his uncle, and he made a very angry reply. He accused Arta- THE DEBATE. 57 banus of meanness of spirit, and of a cowardice disgraceful to liis rank and station, in tlius ad- vocating a tame submission to the arrogant pre- tensions of tlie Greeks. Were it not, he said, for the respect which he felt for Artabanus, as his father's brother, he would punish him se- verely for his presumption in thus basely op- posing his sovereign's plans. '^ As it is," con- tinued he, ^'I will carry my plans into effect, but you shall not have the honor of accompa- nying me. You shall remain at Susa with tlie women and children of the palace, and spend your time in the effeminate and ignoble jileas- ures suited to a spirit so mean. As for myself, I must and will carry my designs into execu- tion. I could not, in fact, long avoid a contest with the Greeks, even if I were to adopt the cowardly and degrading policy which you rec- ommend ; for I am confident that they will very soon invade my dominions, if I do not antici- pate them by invading theirs." So saying, Xerxes dismissed the assembly. His mind, however, was not at ease. Though he had so indignantly rejected the counsel which Artabanus had offered him, yet the impressive words in v/hich it had been uttered, and the arguments with which it had been enforced, weighed upon his spirit, and oppressed and de- jected him. The longer he considered the sub- ject, the more serious his doubts and fears be- 68 XERXES. came, until at length, as the night approached, he became convinced that Artabanus was right, and that he himself was wrong. His mind found no rest until he came to the deter- mination to abandon the project after all. He resolved to make this change in his resolution known to Artabanus and his nobles in the morning, and to countermand the orders which he had given for the assembling of the troops. Having by this decision restored something like repose to his agitated mind, he laid him- self down upon his couch and went to sleep. In the night he saw a vision. It seemed to him that a resplendent and beautiful form ap- peared before him, and after regarding him a moment with an earnest look, addressed him as follows : '' And do you really intend to abandon your deliberate design of leading an army into Greece, after having formally announced it to the realm and issued your orders ? Such fick- leness is absurd, and will greatly dishonor you. Eesume your plan, and go on boldly and perse- veringly to the execution of it." So saying, the vision disappeared. When Xerxes awoke in the morning, and the remembrance of the events of the preceding day returned, mingling itself with the new im- pressions which had been made by the dream, THE DEBATE. 69 he was again agitated and perplexed. As, liow- ever, the various influences wliicli pressed upon him settled to their final equilibrium, tlie fears produced by Artabanus's substantial arguments and warnings on the preceding day proved to be of greater weight than the empty appeal to his pride which had been made by the phantom of the night. He resolved to persist in the abandonment of his scheme. He called his council, accordingly, together again, and told them that, on more mature reflection, he liad become convinced that his unole was riglit and that he himself had been wrong. The project, therefore, was for the present suspended, and the orders for the assembling of the forces were revoked. The announcement was received by the members of the council with the most tu- multuous joy. That night Xerxes had another dream. The same spirit appeared to him again, liis counte- nance, however, bearing uow, instead of the friendly look of the preceding night, a new and stern expression of displeasure. Pointing men- acingly at the frightened monarcli with his fin- ger, he exclaimed, ^'' You have rejected my ad- vice ; you have abandoned your plan ; and now I declare to you that, unless you immediately resume your enterprise and carry it forward to the eiul, sliort as has been the time since you were raised to your present elevation^ a still 5 — Xcrxci 60 XERXES. shorter period shall elapse before your downfall and destruction/^ The spirit then disappeared as suddenly as it came, leaving Xerxes to awake in an agony of terror. As soon as it was day, Xerxes sent for Arta- banus, and related to him his dreams. '' I was willing," said he, '' after hearing what you said, and maturely considering the subject, to give up my plan ; but these dreams, I cannot but think, are intimations from Heaven that I ought to proceed." Artabanus attempted to combat this idea by representing to Xerxes that dreams were not to be regarded as indications of the will of Heaven, but only as a vague and disordered reproduction of the waking thoughts, v/hile the regular action of the reason and the judg- ment by which they were ordinarily controlled was suspended or disturbed by the influence of slumber. Xerxes maintained, on the other hand, that, though this view of the case might explain his first vision, the solemn repetition of the warning proved that it was supernatural and divine. He proposed that, to put the re- ality of the apparition still further to the test, Artabanus should take his place on the royal couch the next night, to see if the specter would not appear to him. '^'^ You shall clothe yourself," said he, ^' in my robes, put the crown THE DEBATE. 61 upon your head, and take your seat upon the throne. After that, you shall retire to my apartment, lie down upon the couch, and go to sleep. If the vision is supernatural, it will undouhtedly appear to you. If it does not so appear, I will admit that it was nothing but a dream Artabanus made some objection, at first, to the details of the arrangement which Xerxes proposed, as he did not see, he said, of what ad- vantage it could be for him to assume the guise and habiliments of the king. If the vision was divine, it could not be deceived by such artifices as those. Xerxes, however, insisted on his prop- osition, and Artabanus yielded. He assumed for an hour the dress and the station of the king, and then retired to the king^s apartment, and laid himself down upon the couch under the royal pavilion. As he had no faith in the reality of the vision, his mind was quiet an-d composed, and he soon fell asleep. At midnight, Xerxes, who was lying in an adjoining apartment, was suddenly aroused by a loud and piercing cry from the room where Artabanus was sleeping, and in a moment after- ward Artabanus himself rushed in, perfectly wild with terror. He had seen the vision. It had appeared before him with a countenance and gestures expressive of great displeasure, and after loading him with reproaches for hav- 62 XERXES. ing attempted to keep Xerxes back from his proposed expedition into Greece, it attempted to bore out his eyes with a red-hot iron with which it was armed. Artabanus had barely succeeded in escaping by leaping from his couch and rushing precipitately out of the room.''' Artabanus said that he was now convinced and satisfied. It was i^lainly the divine will that Xerxes should undertake his projected in- vasion, and he would himself, thenceforth, aid the enterprise by every means in his power. The council was, accordingly, once more con- vened. The story of the three apparitions was related to them, and the final decision an- nounced that the armies were to be assembled for the march without any further delay. It is proper here to repeat, once for all in this volume, a remark which has elsewhere often been made in the various works of this series, that in studying ancient history at the present day, it is less important now to know, in regard to transactions so remote, what the facts act- ually were which really occurred, than it is to know the story respecting them, which, for the last two thousand years, has been in circulation among mankind. It is now, for example, of very little consequence whether there ever was or never was such a personage as Hercules ; but THE DEBATE. 68 it is essential that every educated man should know the story which ancient writers tell in relating his doings. In this view of the case, our object, in this volume, is sim])ly to give the history of Xerxes just as it stands, without stop- ping to separate the false from the true. In relating the occurrences, therefore, which have been described in this chapter, we simply give the alleged facts to our readers precisely as the ancient historians give them to us, leaving each reader to decide for himself how far he will be- lieve the narrative. In respect to this particu- lar story, we will add, that some people think that Mardonius was really the ghost by whose appearance Artabanus and Xerxes were so dreadfully frightened. Ancient Athens, OHAPTEE TV. PREPARATIONS FOR THE IJS^VASIOI^^ OF GREECE, As soon as the invasion of Greece was finally decided upon, the orders were transmitted to all the provinces of the empire, requiring the various authorities and powers to make the nec- essary preparations. There were men to be levied, arms to be manufactured, ships to be built, and stores of food to be provided. The expenditures, too, of so vast an armament as Xerxes was intending to organize, would re- quire a large supply of money. For all these things Xerxes relied on the revenues and the contributions of the provinces, and orders, very full and very imperative, w^ere transmitted, ac- cordingly, to all the governors and satraps of Asia, and especially to those who ruled over the countries which lay near the western confines of the empire, and consequently near the Greek frontiers. In modern times it is the practise of power- ful nations to accumulate arms and munition of war on storage in arsenals and naval depotS;^ 64 THE PREPARATIONS. 65 SO that the necessary supplies for very extended operations, whether of attack or defense, can be procured in a very short period of time. In respect to funds, too, modern nations have a great advantauge over those of foimer days, in case of any sudden emergency arising to call for great and unusual expenditures. In conse- quence of the vast accumulation of capital in the hands of private individuals, and the con- fidence which is felt in the mercantile honor and good faith of most established governments at the present day, these governments can pro- cure indefinite supplies of gold and silver at any time, by promising to pay an annual interest in lieu of the principal borrowed. It is true that, in these cases, a stipulation is made, by which the government may, at a certain specified period, pay back the principal, and so extin- guish the annuity ; but in respect to a vast por- tion of the amount so borrowed, it is not ex- pected that this repayment will ever be made. The creditors, in fact, do not desire that it should be, as owners of property always prefer a safe annual income from it to the custody of the principal ; and thus governments in good credit have sometimes iiicuiced their creditors to abate the rate of interest which they were receiving, by threatening otherwise; to pay the debt in full. These inventions, however, by which a gov- 66 X3RXES. eminent in one generation may enjoy the pleas- ure and reap the glory of waging war, and throw the burden of the expense on another, were not known in ancient times. Xerxes did not understand the art of funding a national debt, and there would, besides, have probably been very little confidence in Persian stocks, if any had been issued. He had to raise all his funds by actual taxation, and to have his arms, and his ships and chariots of war, manufactured ex- press. The food, too, to sustain the immense army which he was to raise, was all to be pro- duced, and store -houses were to be built for the accumulation and custody of it. All this, as might naturally be expected, would require time ; and the vastness of the scale on which these immense preparations were made is evinced by the fact that /o?^r years were the time allotted for completing them. This period includes, however, a considerable time before the great debate on the suDJect described in the last chapter. The chief scene of activity, during all this time, was the tract of country in the western part of Asia Minor, and aJong the shores of the ^gean Sea. Taxes ana contributions were raised from all parts of the empire, but the actual material of war was furnished mainly from those provinces which were nearest to the future scene of it. Each district provided such THE PREPARATIONS. 67 things as it naturally and most easily produced. One contributed horses, another arms and am- munition, another ships, and another provisions. The ships which were built were of various forms and modes of construction, according to the purposes which they were respectively in- tended to serve. Some were strictly ships of war, intended for actual combat ; others were transports, their destination being simply the conveyance of troops or of military stores. There were also a large number of vessels, which were built on a peculiar model, prescribed by the engineers, being very long and straight- sided, and smooth and flat upon their decks. These were intended for the bridge across the Hellespont. They were made long, so that, when placed side by side across the stream, a greater breadth might be given to the platform of the: bridge. All these things were very de- liberately and carefully planned. Although it was generally on tlie Asiatic side of the ^gean Sea that these vast works of prep- aration were going on, and the crossing of the Hellespont was to be the first great movement of the Persian army, the reader must not sup- pose that, even at this time, the European shores were wholly in the liands of tiie Greeks. The Persians had, long before, conquered Til race and a part of Macedon ; and thus the northern shores of the ^Egean Sea, and many 68 XERXES. of the islands, were already in Xerxes's hands. The Greek dominions lay further south, and Xerxes did not anticipate any opposition from the enemy, until his army, after crossing the strait, should have advanced to the neighbor- hood of Athens. In fact, all the northern country through which his route would lie was already in his hands, and in passing through it he anticipated no difficulties except such as should arise from the elements themselves, and the physical obstacles of the way. The Helles- pont itself was, of course, one principal point of danger. The difficulty here was to be sur- mounted by the bridge of boats. There was, however, another point, whicii was, in some respects, still more formidable : it was the prom- ontory of Mount Athos. By looking at the map of Greece, placed at the commencement of the next chapter, the reader will see that there are two or three sin- gular promontories jutting out from the main land in the northwestern part of the ^gean Sea. The most northerly and the largest of these was formed by an immense mountainous mass rising out of the water, and connected by a narrow isthmus with the main land. The highest summit of this rocky pile was called Mount Athos in ancient times, and is so marked upon the map. In modern days it is called Monte Santo, or Holy iMountain, being covered THE PREPARATIONS. 69 with monasteries, and convents, and other ec- clesiastical establishments built in the Middle Ages. Mount Athos is very celebrated m ancient history. It extended along the promontory for many miles, and terminated abruptly in lofty cliffs and precipices toward the sea, where it was so high that its shadow, as was said, was thrown, at sunset, across the water to the is- land of Lemnos, a distance of twenty leagues. It was a frightful specter in the eyes of the an- cient navigators, when, as they came coasting along from the north in their frail galleys, on their voyages to Greece and Italy, they saw it frowning defiance to them as they came, with threatening clouds hanging npon its summit, and the surges and surf of the ^gean perpet- ually thundering upon its base below. ^ To make this stormy promontory the more terrible, it was believed to be the haunt of innumerable uncouth and misshapen monsters of the sea, that lived by devouring the hapless seamen who were thrown upon the rocks from then- wrecked vessels by the merciless tumult of the waves. , The plan which Xerxes had formed for the advance of his expedition was, that the army which was to cross the Hellespont by the bridge should advance thence through Macedonia and Thessaly, by land, attended by a squadron ot 70 XERXES. ships, transports, and galleys, which was to ac- company the expedition along the coast by sea. The wen could be marched more conveniently to their place of destination by land. Tlie stores, on the other hand, the arms, the sup- plies, and the baggage of every description, could be transported more easily by sea. Mar- donius was somewhat solicitous in respect to the safety of the great squadron which would be required for this latter service, in doubling the promontory of Mount Athos. In fact, he had special and personal reason for his solicitude, for he had himself, some years before, met with a terrible disaster at this very spot. It was during the reign of Darius that this disaster occurred. On one of the ex- peditions which Darius had intrusted to his charge, he was conducting a very large fleet along the coast, when a sudden storm arose just as he was approaching this terrible prom- ontory. He was at the northern side of the promon- tory when the storm came on, and as the wind was from the north, it blew directly upon the shore. For the fleet to make its escape from the impending danger, it seemed necessary, therefore, to turn the course of the ships back against the wind ; but this, on account of the sudden and terrific violence of the gale, it was impossible to do. The sails, when they at- THE PREPARATIONS. '<'t tempted to use them, were blown away by the howling gusts, and the oars were broken to pieces by the tremendous dashing of the sea. It soon appeared that the only hope of escape for the squadron was to press on in the desper- ate attempt to double the promontory, and thus gain, if possible, the sheltered water under its lee. The galleys, accordingly, went on, the pi- lots and the seamen exerting their utmost to keep them aw^ay from the shore. All their efforts, however, to do this, were vain. The merciless gales drove the vessels, one after another, upon the rocks, and dashed them to pieces, while the raging sea wrenched the wretched mariners from the wrecks to which they attempted to cling, and tossed them out into the boiling wdiirlpools around, to the monsters that were ready there to devour them, as if she were herself some ferocious mon- ster, feeding her offspring with their proper prey. A few, it is true, of the hapless wretches suc- ceeded in extricating themselves from the surf, by crawling up upon the rocks, through the tangled sea- weed, until they were above the reach of the surges ; but when they had done so, they found themselves hopelessly imprisoned between the impending precipices which frowned above them and the frantic billows which were raging and roaring below^ They gained, of course, by their apparent escape, only 72 XERXES. a brief prolongation of suffering, for they all soon miserably perished from exhaustion, ex- posure, and cold. Mardonius had no desire to encounter this danger again. Now the promontory of Mount Athos, though high and rocky itself, was con- nected with the main land by an isthmus level and low, and not very broad. Xerxes deter- mined on cutting a canal through this isthmus so as to take his fleet of galleys across the neck, and thus avoid the stormy navigation of the outward passage. Such a canal would be of service not merely for the passage of the great fleet, but for the constant communication which it would be neccessary for Xerxes to maintain with his own dominions during the whole period of the invasion. It might have been expected that the Greeks would have interfered to prevent the execution of such a work as this ; but it seems that they did not, and yet there was a considerable Greek population in that vicinity. The promontory of Athos itself was quite extensive, being about thirty miles long and four or five wide, and it had several towns upon it. The canal which Xerxes was to cut across the neck of this penin- sula was to be wide enough for two triremes to pass each other. Triremes were galleys pro- pelled by three banks of oars, and were vessels of the largest class ordinarily employed ; and as THE PREPARATIONS. 73 the oars by which they were impelled required almost as great a breadth of water as the ves- sels themselves, the canal was consequently, to be very wide. The engineers, accordingly, laid out the ground, and, marking the boundaries by stakes and lines, as guides to the workmen, the exca- vation was commenced. Immense numbers of men were set at work, arranged regularly in gangs, according to the various nations which furnished them. As the excavation gradually proceeded, and the trench began to grow deep, they placed ladders against the sides, and sta- tioned a series of men upon them ; then the earth dug from the bottom was hauled up from one to another, in a sort of basket or hod, un- til it reached the top, where it was taken by other men and conveyed away. The work was very much interrupted and impeded, in many parts of the line, by the con- tinual caving in of the banks, on account of the workmen attempting to dig perpendicu- larly down. In one section — the one which had been assigned to the Phoenicians — this diffi- culty did not occur ; for the Phoenicians, more considerate than the rest had taken the precau- tion to make the breadth of their part of the trench twice as great at the top as it was below. By this means the banks on each side were formed to a gradual slope, and consequently O— Xerxea T4 XERXES. stood firm. The canal was at length completed, and the water was let in. North of the promontory of Mount Athos the reader will find upon the map the River Stry- mon, flowing south, not far from the boundary between Macedon and Thrace, into the ^gean Sea. The army of Xerxes, in its march from the Hellespont, would, of course, have to cross this river ; and Xerxes having, by cutting the canal across the isthmus of Mount Athos, re- moved an obstacle in the way of his fleet, re- solved next to facilitate the progress of his army by bridging the Strymon. The king also ordered a great number of granaries and store-houses to be built at various points along the route which it was intended that his army should pursue. Some of these were on the coasts of Macedonia and Thrace, and some on the banks of the Strymon. To these magazines the corn raised in Asia for the use of the expedition was conveyed, from time to time, in transport ships, as fast as it was ready, and, being safely deposited, was protect- ed by a guard. No very extraordinary means of defense seems to have been thought neces- sary at these points, for, although \he scene of all these preliminary arrangements was on the European side of the line, and in what was called Greek territory, still this part of the country had been long under Persian do- THE PREPARATIONS. 75 minion. The inde))ondent states and cities of Greece were all further soiitli, and tlie people who inliabited them did not seem disposed to interrupt tliese preparations. Perliaps they were not aware to what object and end all these formidable movements on their northern frontier were tending. Xerxes, during all this time, liad remained in Persia. The period at length arrived when, his preparations on the frontiers being far ad- vanced toward completion, he concluded to move forward at the head of his forces to Sar- dis. Sardis was the great capital of the west- ern part of his dominions, and was situated not far from the frontier. He accordingly as- sembled his forces, and, taivin^ leave of his capital of Susa with much -psLrade and many ceremonies. Ire advanced toward Asia ]\Iinor. Entering and traversing Asia Minor, he crossed the Halys, which had been in former times, the western boundary of the empire, though its limits had now been extended very far beyond. Having crossed the Halys, the immense jiro- cession advanced into Phrygia. A very romantic tale is told of an interview between Xerxes and a certain nobleman named Py thins, who resided in one of the Phrygian towns. The circumstances were these : After crossing the Halys, which river flows north into the Euxine Sea, the army went on to the west- 76 XERXES, ■ward through nearly the whole extent of Phry- gia, until at length they came to the sources of the streams which flowed west into the ^gean Sea. One of the most remarkable of these riv- ers was the Meander. There was a town built exactly at the source of the Meander — so ex- actly, in fact, that the fountain from which the stream took its rise was situated in the public square of the town, walled in and ornamented like an artificial fountain in a modern city. The ntime of this town was Celeenae. When the army reached Cela3nas and en- camped there, Pythius made a great entertain- ment for the officers, Avhich, as the number was very large, was of course attended with an enor- mous expense. Not satisfied with this, Pyth- ius sent word to the king that if he was, in any respect, in want of funds for his approaching campaign, he, Pythius, would take great pleas- ure in supplying him. Xerxes was surprised at such proofs of wealth and munificence from a man in comparatively a private station. He inquired of his attend- ants who Pythius was. They replied that, next to Xerxes himself, he was the richest man in the world. They said, moreover, that he was as generous as he was rich. He had made Da- rius a present of a beautiful model of a fruit- tree and of a vine, of solid gold. He was by birth, they added, a Lydian. THE PREPARATIONS. 77 Lydia was west of Phrygia, and was famous for its wealth. The River Pactohis, which was so celebrated for its golden sands, flowed through the country, and as the i^rinces and nobles contrived to monopolize the treasures which were found, both in the river itself and in the mountain from which it flowed, some of them became immensely wealthy. Xerxes was astonished at the accounts which he heard of Pythius's fortune. He sent for him, and asked him what was the amount of his treasures. This was rather an ominous ques- tion ; for, under such des2:)otic governments as those of the Persian kings, the only real safe- guard of wealth was, often, the concealment of it. Inquiry on the part of a goverment, in re- spect to treasures accumulated by a subject, was, often, only a preliminary to the seizure and confiscation of them. Pythius, however, in reply to the king's ques- tion, said that he had no hesitation in giving his majesty full information in respect to his fortune. He had been making, he said, a care- ful calculation of the amount of it, with a view of determining how much he could offer to con- tribute in aid of the Persian campaign. He found, he said, that he had two thousand tal- ents of silver, and four millions, wanting seven thousand, of staters of gold. The stater was a Persian coin. Even if we 78 xfiRXfig. knew, at the present day, its exact value, we could not determine the precise amount denot- ed by the sum which Pythius named, the value of money being subject to such vast fluctua- tions in different ages of the world. Scholars who have taken an interest in inquiring into such points as these, have come to the conclu- sion that the amount of gold and silver coin which Pythius thus reported to Xerxes was equal to about thirty millions of dollars. Pythius added, after stating the amount of the gold and silver which he had at command, that it was all at the service of the king for the purpose of carrying on the war. He had, he said, besides his money, slaves and farms enough for his own maintenance. Xerxes was extremely gratified at this gener- osity, and at the proof which it afforded of the interest which Pythius felt in the cause of the king. ^^ You are the only man,'^ said he, " who has offered hospitality to me or to my army since I set out upon this march, and, in addition to your hospitality, you tender me your whole fortune. 1 will not, however, de- prive you of your treasure. I will, on the con- trary, order my treasurer to pay to you the seven thousand staters necessary to make your four millions complete. I offer you also my friend- ship, and will do anything in my power, now and hereafter, to serve you. Continue to live THE PREPARATIONS. 79 in the enjoyment of your fortune. If you al- ways act under, the influence of the noble and generous impulses which govern you now, you will never cease to be prosperous and happy." If we could end the account of Pythius and Xerxes here, what generous and noble-minded men Ave might suppose them to be ! But alas ! how large a portion of the apparent generosity and nobleness which shows itself among poten- tates and kings, turns into selfishness and hy- pocrisy when closely examined. Pythius was one of the most merciless tyrants that ever lived. He held all the people that lived upon his vast estates in a condition of abject slavery, compelling them to toil continually in his mines, in destitution and wretchedness, in order to add more and more to his treasures. The people came to his wife with their bitter complaints. She pitied them, but could not relieve them. One day, it is said that, in order to show her husband the vanity and folly of living only to amass silver and gold, and to convince him how little real power such treasures have to satisfy the wants of the human soul, she made him a great entertainment, in wliicli* there was a boundless profusion of wealtli in the way of ves- sels and furniture of silver and gold, but scarce- ly any food. There was everything to satisfy the eye with the sight of magnificence, but nothing to satisfy hunger. The noble guest sat 80 XERXES. starving in the midst of a scene of unexampled riches and splendor, because it was not possible to eat silver and gold. And as for Xerxes's professions of gratitude and friendship for Pythius, they were put to the test, a short time after the transactions which we have above described, in a remark- able manner. Pythius had five sons. They were all in Xerxes's army. By their departure on the distant and dangerous expedition on which Xerxes was to lead them, their father Avould be left alone. Pythius, under these cir- cumstances, resolved to venture so far on the sincerity of his sovereign's professions of regard as to request permission to retain one of his sor,s at home with his father, on condition of freely giving up the rest. Xerxes, on hearing this proposal, was greatly enraged. ^^ How dare you," said he, ^' come to me with such a demand ? You and all that pertain to you are my slaves, and are bound to do my bidding without a murmur. You de- serve the severest punishment for such an in- solent request. In consideration, however, of your past good behavior, I will not inflict upon you what you deserve. I will only kill one of your sons — the one that you seem to cling to so fondly. I will spare the rest.'' So saying, the enraged king ordered the son whom Py thins had endeavored to retain to be slain before his THE PREPARATIONS. 81 eyes, and then directed that the dead body should be sj^lit in two, and the two halves thrown, the one on the right side of the road and the other on the left, that his army, as he said, might " march between them/'' On leaving Phrygia, the army moved on to\vard the west. Their immediate destina- tion, as has already been said, was Sardis, where they were to remain nntil the ensuing spring. The historian mentions a number of objects of interest which attracted the atten- tion of Xerxes and his officers on this march, wdiich mark the geographical peculiarities oi the country, or illustrate, in some degree, the ideas and manners of the times. There was one town, for example, situated, not like Celjenae, where a river had its origin, but where one disappeared. The stream was a branch of the Meander. It came down from the mountains like any other mountain tor- rent, and then, at the town in question, it i:)lunged suddenly down into a gulf or chasm and disappeared. It rose again at a consider- able distance below, and thence flowed on, without any further evasions, to the Meander. On the confines between Phrygia and Lydia the army came to a place where the road di- vided. One branch tuimed toward the north, and led to Lydia ; the other inclined to the south, and conducted to Caria. Here, too, on 82 XERXES. the frontier, was a monument wliicli had been erected by Croesus, the great king of Lydia, who lived in Cyrus's day, to mark the eastern boundaries of his kir.gdom. The Persians were, of course, much interested in looking upon this ancient landmark, which designated not only the eastern limit of Croesus's empire, but also what was, in ancient times, the west- ern limit of their own. There was a certain species of tree which grew in these countries called the plane-tree. Xerxes found one of these trees so large and beautiful that it attracted his special admira- tion. He took possession of it in his own name, and adorned it with golden chains, and set a guard over it. This idolization of a tree was a striking instance of the childish caprice and folly by which the actions of the ancient des- pots were so often governed. As the army advanced, they came to other places of interest and objects of curiosity and wonder. There was a district where the people made a sort of artificial honey from grain, and a lake from which the inhabitants procured salt by evaporation, and mines, too, of silver and of gold. These objects interested and amused the minds of the Persians as they moved along, without, however, at all retarding or interrupt- ing their progress. In due time they reached the great city of Sardis in safety, and here THE PREPARATIONS. 83 Xerxes established liis iieadquarters, and awaited the coming of spring. In the mean time, however, he sent lieralds into Greece to summon the country to surren- der to him. This is a common formality when an army is about to attack either a town, a castle, or a kingdom. Xerxes's heralds crossed the ^Egean Sea, and made their demands, in Xerxes's name, upon the Greek authorities. As might have been expected, the embassage was fruitless ; and the heralds returned, bring- ing with them, from the Greeks, not acts or proffers of submission, but stern expressions of hostility and defiance. Xothing, of course, now remained, but that both parties should prej^are for the impending crisis. CHAPTER V. CliOSSII^G THE HELLESPONT. Although the ancient Asia Minor was in the same latitude as New York, there was yet very little winter there. Snows fell, indeed, upon the summits of the mountains, and ice formed occasionally upon quiet streams, and yet, in general, the imaginations of the inhabi- tants, in forming mental images of frost and snow, sought them not in their own winters, but in the cold and icy regions of the north, of which, however, scarcely anything was known to them except what was disclosed by wild and exaggerated rumors and legends. There was, however, a period of blustering winds and chilly rains which was called winter, and Xerxes was compelled to wait, before com- mencing his invasion, until the inclement sea- son had passed. As it was, he did not wholly escape the disastrous effects of the wintery gales. A violent storm arose while he was at Sardis, and broke up tlie brid.o-e which he had built across the Hellespont. When the tidings 84 CROSSING THE HELLESPONT. 85 of this disaster were brouglit to Xerxes at his winter quarters, he was very much enraged. He was angry both with the sea for having de- stroyed the structure, and with the architects who had built it for not having made it strong enough to stand against its fury. He deter- mined to punish both the waves and the work- men. He ordered the sea to be scourged with a monstrous whip, and directed that heavy chains should be thrown into it, as symbols of his defiance of its power, and of his determina- tion to subject it to his control. The men who administered this senseless discipline cried out to the sea, as they did it, in the following words, which Xerxes ha-d dictated to them : " Miser- able monster ! this is the jDunishment which Xerxes your master inflicts upon you, on ac- count of the unprovoked and wanton injury you have done him. Be assured that he will pass over you, whether you will or no. He hates and defies you, object as you are, through your insatiable cruelty, and the nauseous bitterness of your waters, of the common abomination of mankind." As for the men who had built the bridge, which had been found thus inadequate to with- stand the force of a wintery tempest, he or- dered every one of them to be beheaded. The vengeance of the king being thus satis- fied, a new set of engineers and workmen Avere 86 XERXES. designated and ordered to build another bridge. Knowing, as, of course, they now did, that their lives depended upon the stability of their struc- ture, they omitted no possible precaution which could tend to secure it. They selected the strongest ships, and arranged them in positions which would best enable them to withstand the pressure of the current. Each vessel was se- cured in its place by strong anchors, placed sci- entifically in such a manner as to resist, to the best advantage, the force of the strain to which they would be exposed. There were two ranges of these vessels, extending from shore to shore, containing over three hundred in each. In each range one or two vessels were omitted, on the Asiatic side, to allow boats and galleys to pass through, in order to keep the communication open. These omissions did not interfere with the use of the bridge, as the superstructure and the roadway above was continued over them. The vessels which were to serve for the foun- dation of the bridge being thus arranged and secured in their places, two immense cables were made and stretched from shore to shore^ each being fastened, at the ends, securely to the banks, and resting in the middle of the decks of the vessels. For the fastenings of these ca- bles on the shore there were immense piles driv- en into the ground, and huge rings attached to the piles. The cables, as they passed along the CROSSING THE HELLESPONT. 87 decks of the voxels over the water, were secured to them all by strong cordage, so that each vessel was firmly and indissolubly bound to all the rest. Over these cables a platform was made of trunks of trees, with branches phiced upon them to fill the interstices and level the sur- face. The whole was then covered with a thick stratum of earth, which made a firm and substantial road like that of a public highway. A high and close fence was also erected on eacli side, so as to shut off the view of the water, which might otherwise alarm the horses and the beasts of burden that were to cross with the army. When the news was brought to Xerxes at Sardis that the bridge was completed, and that all things were ready for the passage, he made arrangements for commencing his march. A circumstance, however, here occurred that at first alarmed him. It was no less a phenome- non than an eclipse of the sun. Eclipses were considered in those days as extraordinary and supernatural omens, and Xerxes was naturally anxious to know what this sudden darkness was meant to portend. He directed the magi to consider the subject, and to give him their opinion. Their answer was, that, as the sun was the guardian divinity of the Greeks, and the moon that of the Persians, the meaning of 7 — Xerxes 88 XERXES. the sudden withdrawal of the light of day doubtless was, that Heaven was about to with- hold its protection from the Greeks in the approaching struggle. Xerxes Vv^as satisfied with this explanation, and the preparations for the march went on. The movement of the grand procession from the city of Sardis was inconceivably splendid. First came the long trains of baggage, on mules, and camels, and horses, and other beasts of burden, attended by the drivers, and the men who had the baggage in charge. Next came an immense body of troops of all nations, marching irregularly, bat under the command of the proper officers. Then, after a consider- able interval, came a body of a thousand horse, splendidly caparisoned, and followed by a thousand spearmen, who marched trailing their spears upon the ground, in token of re- spect and submission to the king who was coming behind them. Next to these troops, and immediately in ad- vance of the king, were certain religious and sacred objects and personages, on which the ^ people who gazed upon this gorgeous spectacle looked with the utmost awe and veneration. There were, first, ten sacred horses, splendidly caparisoned, each led by his groom, who was clothed in appropriate robes, as a sort of priest officiating in the service of a god. Behind CROSSING THE HELLESPONT. 89 these came the sacred car of Jupiter. This car was very large, and elaborately worked, and was profusely ornamented with gold. It was drawn by eight white horses. No human being was allowed to set his foot upon any part of it, and, consequently, the reins of the horses were carried back, under the car, to the charioteer, who walked behind. Xerxes's own chariot came next, drawn by very splendid horses, selected especially for their size and beauty. His charioteer, a young Persian noble, sat by his side. Then came great bodies of troops. There was one corps of two thousand men, the life- guards of the king, who were armed in a very splendid and costly manner, to designate their high rank in the army, and the exalted nature of their duty as personal attendants on the sov- ereign. One thousand of these life-guards were foot soldiers, and the other thousand horsemen. After the life-guards came a body of ten thousand infantry, and after them ten thousand cavalry. This completed what was strictly the Persian part of the army. There was an interval of about a quarter c^f a mile in the rear of these bodies of troops, and then came a vast and countless multitude of servants, attendants, adventurers, and camp followers of every description — a confused, promiscuous, disorderly, and noisy throng. 90 XERXES. The immediate destination of this vast horde was Abydos ; for it was between Sestos, on the European shore, and Abydos, on the Asiatic, that the bridge had been built. To reach Abydos, the route was north, through the province of Mysia. In their progress the guides of the army kept well inland, so as to avoid the indentations of the coast, and the various small rivers which here flow westward toward the sea. Thus advancing, the army passed to the right of Mount Ida, and arrived at last on the bank of the Scamander. Here they encamped. They were upon the plain of Troy. The world was filled, in those days, with the glory of the military exploits which had been performed, some ages before, in the siege and capture of Troy ; and it was the custom for every military hero who passed the site of the city to pause in his march and spend some time amid the scenes of those ancient conflicts, that he might inspirit and invigorate his own ambition by the associations of the spot, and also render suitable honors to the memories of those that fell there. Xerxes did this. Alex- ander subsequently did it. Xerxes examined the various localities, ascended the ruins of tne citadel of Priam, walked over the ancient battle-fields, and at length, when his curiosity had thus been satisfied, he ordered a grand CROSSING THE HELLESPONT. 91 sacrifice of a thousand oxen to be made, and a libatioji of corresponding magnitude to be of- fered, in honor of the shades of the dead heroes whose deeds had consecrated the spot. Whatever excitement and exhilaration, how- ever, Xerxes himself may have felt, in approach- ing, under these circumstances, the transit of the stream, where the real labors and dangers of his expedition were to commence, his miser- able and helpless soldiers did not share them. Their condition and prospects were wretched in the extreme. In the first place, none of them went willingly. In modern times, at least in England and America, armies are recruited by enticing the depraved and the miserable to en- list, by tendering them a bounty, as it is called, that is, a sum of ready money, which, as a means of temporary and often vicious pleasure, jire- sents a temptation they cannot resist. The act of enlistment is, however, in a sense voluntary, so that those who have homes, and friends, and useful pursuits in which they are i:)eacefully engaged, are not disturbed. It was not so with the soldiers of Xerxes. They were slaves, and had been torn from their rural homes all over the empire by a merciless conscription, from which there was no possible escape. Their life in camp, too, was comfortless and wretched. At the present day, when it is so much more difficult than it tlien was to obtain 92 XERXES. soldiers^ and when so mncli more time and at- tention are required to train them to their work in the modern art of war, soldiers must be taken care of when obtained ; but in Xerxes^s day it was much easier to get new supplies of recruits than to incur any great expense in providing for the health and comfort of those already in the service. The arms and trappings, it is true, of such troops as were in immediate attendance on the king, were very splendid and gay, though this was only decoration after all, and the king's decoration too, not theirs. In respect, however, to everything like personal comfort, whether of food and of clothing, or the means of shelter and repose, the common soldiers were utterly destitute and wretched. They felt no interest in the campaign ; they had nothing to hope for from its success, but a continuance, if their lives were spared, of the same miserable bondage which they had always endured. There was, however, little probability even of this ; for whether, in the case of such an in- vasion, the aggressor was to succeed or to fail, the destiny of the soldiers personally was almost inevitable destruction. The mass of Xerxes's army was thus a mere herd of slaves, driven along by the whips of their officers, reluctant, wretched, and despairing. This helpless mass was overtaken one night, among the gloomy and rugged defiles and passes CKOSSING THE HELLESPONT. 93 of Mount Ida, by a dreadful storm of wind and rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Unprovided as they were with the means of pro- tection against such tempests, they were thrown into confusion, and spent the night in terror. Great numbers perished, struck by the light- ning, or exhausted by the cold and exposure ; and afterward, when they encamped on the plains of Troy, near tlie Scamander, the whole of the water of the stream was not enough to supply the wants of the soldiers and the immense herds of beasts of burden, so that many thou- sands suffered severely from thirst. All these things conspired greatly to depress the spirits of the men, so that at last, when they arrived in the vicinity of Abydos, the whole army was in a state of extreme dejection and despair. This, however, was of little con- sequence. The repose of a master so despotic and lofty as Xerxes is very little disturbed by the mental sorrows of his slaves. Xerxes reached Abydos, and prepared to make the passage of the strait in a manner worthy of the grandeur of the occasion. The first thing was to make arrangements for a great parade of his forces, not, apparently, for the purpose of accomplishing any useful end of military organization in the arrangement of the troops, but to gratify the pride and pleasure of the sovereign with an opportunity of survey- / 94 XERXES. ing them. A great white throne of marble was accordingly erected on an eminence not far from the shore of the Hellespont, from which Xerxes looked down with great complacency and pleasure, on the one hand, upon the long lines of troops, the countless squadrons of horse- men, the ranges of tents, and the vast herds of beasts of burden which were assembled on the land, and, on the other hand, upon the fleets of ships, and boats, and galleys at anchor upon the sea ; while the shores of Europe were smil- ing in the distance, and the long and magnifi- cent roadway which he had made lay floating upon the water, all ready to take his enormous armament across whenever he should issue the command. Any deep emotion of the human soul, in per- sons of a sensitive physical organization, tends to tears ; and Xerxes's heart, being filled with exultation and pride, and with a sense of inex- pressible grandeur and sublimity as he looked upon this scene, was softened by the pleasura- ble excitements of the hour, and though, at first- his countenance was beaming with satisfaction and pleasure, his uncle Artabanus, who stood by his side, soon perceived that tears were standing in his eyes. Artabanus asked him what this meant. It made him sad, Xerxes rej^lied, to reflect that, immensely vast as the countless multitude before him was, in one CROSSING THE HELLESPONT. 95 hundred years from that time not one of them all would be alive. The tender-heartedness which Xerxes mani- fested on this occasion, taken in connection with the stern and unrelenting tyranny which he was exercising over tlie mighty mass of humanity whose mortality he mourned, has drawn forth a great variety of comments from writers of every age who have repeated the story. Artaba- nus replied to it on the spot by saying that he did not think that the king ought to give him- self too much uneasiness on the subject of hu- man liability to death, for it haj)pened, in a vast number of cases, that the privations and suffer- ings of men were so great, that often, in the course of their lives, they rather wished to die than to live ; and that death was, consequently, in some respects, to be regarded, not as in it- self a wo, but rather as the relief and remedy for wo. There is no doubt that this theory of Arta- banus, so far as it applied to the unhappy sol- diers of Xerxes, all marshaled before him when he uttered it, was eminently true. Xerxes admitted that what his uncle said was just, but it was, he said, a melancholy subject, and so he changed the conversation. He asked his uncle whether he still entertained the same doubts and fears in respect to the expedition that he had expressed at Susa when the plan 96 XERXES. was first proposed in the council. Artabanns replied that he most sincerely hoped that the prognostications of the vision would prove true, but that he had still great apprehensions of the result. ^' I have been reflecting," continued he, '' with great care on the whole subject, and it seems to me that there are two dangers of very serious character to which your expedition will be imminently exposed.''^ Xerxes wished to know what they were. '^ They both arise," said Artabanus, '^' from the immense magnitude of your operations. In the first place, you have so large a number of ships, galleys, and transports in your fleet, that I do not see how, when you have gone down upon the Greek coast, if a storm should arise, you are going to find shelter for them. There are no harbors there large enough to afford an- chorage ground for such an immense number of vessels." " And what is the other danger ? " asked Xerxes. '' The other is the difficulty of finding food for such a vast multitude of men as you have brought together in your armies. The quan- tity of food necessary to supply such countless numbers is almost incalculable. Your grana- ries and magazines will soon be exhausted, and then, as no country whatever that you can pass through wiil have resources of food adequate CnOSSTNG THE HELLESPONT. 97 for such a multitude of mouths, it seems to me that your march must enevitably end in a fam- ine. The less resistance you meet with, and the further you consequently advance, the worse it will he for you. I do not see how this fatal result can possibly be avoided ; and so uneasy and anxious am I on the subject, that I have no rest or peace." " I admit,'' said Xerxes, in reply, " that what you say is not wholly -unreasonable ; but in great undertakings it will never do to take counsel wholly of our fears. I am willing to submit to a very large portion of the evils to which I expose myself on this expedition, rather than not accomplish the end which I have in view. Besides, the most prudent and cautious counsels iire not always the best. He who haz- ards nothing gains nothing. I have always ob- served that in all the aifairs of human life, those who exhibit some enterprise and courage in what they undertake are far more likely to be successful than those who weigh everything and consider everything, and will not advance where they can see any remote prospect of dan- ger. If my predecessors had acted on the prin- ciples which you recommend, the Persian em- pire Avould never have acquired the greatness to which it has now attained. In continuing to act on the same principles which governed them, I confidently expect the same success. 98 XERXES. "We shall conquer Europe, and then return in peace, I feel assured, without encountering the famine which you dread so much, or any other great calamity/^ On hearing these words, and observing how fixed and settled the determinations of Xerxes were, Artabanus said no more on the general subject, but on one point he ventured to offer his counsel to his nephew, and that was on the subject of employing, the lonians in the war. The lonians were Greeks by descent. Their ancestors had crossed the ^gean Sea, and set- tled at various places along the coast of Asia Minor, in the western part of the provinces of Caria, Lydia, and Nysia. Artabanus thought it was dangerous to take these men to fight against their countrymen. However faithfully disposed they might be in commencing the en- terprise, a thousand circumstances might occur to shake their fidelity and lead them to revolt, when they found themselves in the land of their forefathers, and heard the enemies against whom they had been brought to contend speak' ing their owm mother tongue. Xerxes, however, was not convinced by Ar- tabanus's arguments. He thought that the employment of the lonians was perfectly safe. They had been eminently faithful and firm, he said, under Histiseus, in the time of Darius^y invasion of Scythia, when Darius had left them CROSSING THE HELLESPONT. 09 to guard his bridge over the Danube. They had proven themselves trustworthy then, and lie would, he said, accordingly trust tliem now. " Besides," he added, -- they have left their property, their wives and their children, and all else that they hold dear, in our hands in Asia, and they will not dare, while we retain such hostages, to do anything against us." Xerxes said, however, that since Artabanus was so much concerned in respect to the result of the expedition, he should not be compelled to accompany it any further, but tliat he might return to Susa instead, and take charge of the government there until Xerxes should return. A part of the celebration on the great day of parade, on which this conversation between the king and his uncle was held, consisted of a na- val sea fight, waged on the Hellespont, between two of the nations of his army, for the king's amusement. The Phoenicians were the victors in this combat. Xerxes was greatly delighted with the combat, and, in fact, with tlie whole of the magnificent spectacle which the day had displayed. Soon after this, Xerxes dismissed Artabanus, ordering him to return to Susa, and to assume the regency of the empire. lie convened, also, another general council of the nobles of his court and the officers of tliearmy, to annouiice to them that the time had arrived for crossing LiTC. 100 XERXES. the bridge, and to make his farewell address to them before they should take their final depart- ure from Asia. He exhorted them to enter upon the great work before them with a de- termined and resolute spirit, saying that if the Greeks were once subdued, no other enemies able at all to cope with the Persians would be left on the habitable globe. On the dismission of the council, orders were given to commence the crossing of the bridge the next day at sunrise. The preparations were made accordingly. In the morning, as soon as it was light, and while waiting for the rising of the sun, they burned upon the bridge all manner of perfumes, and strewed the way with branches of myrtle, the emblem of triumph and joy. As the time for the rising of the sun drew nigh, Xerxes stood with a golden vessel full of wine, which he was to pour out as a li- bation as soon as the first dazzling beams should appear above the horizon. When, at length, the moment arrived, he poured out the wine into the sea, throwing the vessel in which it had been contained after it as an offering. He also threw in, at the same time, a golden goblet of great value, and a Persian cimetar. The an- cient historian who records these facts was un- certain whether those offerings were intended as acts of adoration addressed to the sun, or as oblations presented to the sea — a sort of peace CROSSING THE HELLESPONT. 101 offering, perhaps, to soothe the feelings of tlie mighty monster, irritated and chafed by the chastisement which it had previously received. One circumstance indicated that the offering was intended for the sun, for, at the time of making it Xerxes addressed to the great lumi- nary a sort of petition, which might be consid- ered either an apostrophe or a prayer, imploring its protection. He called upon the sun to ac- company and defend the expedition, and to pre- serve it from every calamity until it should have accomplished its mission of subjecting all Europe to the Persian sway. The army then commenced its march. The order of march was very much the same as that which had been observed in the departure from Sardis. The beasts of burden and the baggage were preceded and followed by immense bodies of troops of all nations. The whole of the first day was occupied by the passing of this part of the army. Xerxes himself, and the sacred portion of the train, were to follow them on the second day. Accordingly there came, on the second day, first, an immense squadron of horse, with garlands on the heads of the horsemen ; next, the sacred horses and the sacred car of Jupiter. Then came Xerxes him- self, in his war chariot, with trumpets sounding, and banners waving in the air. At the moment when Xerxes's chariot entered upon the bridge, 102 XEKXES. the fleet of galleys, which had been drawn np in preparation near the Asiatic shore, were set in motion, and moved in a long and majestic line across the strait to the European side, accompanying and keeping pace with their mighty master in his progress. Thus was spent the second day. Five more days were consumed in getting over the remainder of the army, and the im- mense trains of beasts and of baggage which followed. The officers urged the work forward as rapidly as possible, and, toward the end, as is always the case in the movement of such enor- mous masses, it became a scene of inconceiv- able noise, terror, and confusion. The officers drove forward men and beasts alike by the lashes of their whips — every one struggling, under the influence of such stimulants, to get forward — while fallen animals, broken wagons, and the bodies of those exhausted and dying with excitement and fatigue, choked the way. The mighty mass was, however, at last trans- ferred to the European continent, full of anx- ious fears in respect to what awaited them, but yet having very faint and feeble conceptions of the awful scenes in which the enterprise of their reckless leader was to end. CHAPTER VI. THE KE\ lEW OF THE TROOPS AT DOKISCUS. As soon as the expedition of Xerxes li5id crossed the Hellespont and arrived safel}^ on the European side, as narrated in the last chapter, it became necessary for the fleet and the army to separate, and to move, for a time, in opposite directions from each other. The reader will observe, by examining tlie map, that the army, on reaching the European shore, at the poiiit to which they would he conducted by a bridge at Abydos, would find themselves in the middle of a long and narrow peninsula called tbe Chersonesus, and that, before commencing its regular march along the northern coast of the /Egean Sea, it would be necessary first to pro- ceed for fifteen or twenty miles to the eastward, in order to get round the bay -by which the pen- insula is bounded on tlie north and west. While, therefore, the fleet went directly west- ward along the coast, the army turned to the eastward, a place of rendezvous having been appointed on the northern coast of the sea, where they were all soon to meet again. 103 10-4 XERXES, The army moved on by a slow and toilsome progress until it reached the neck of the peninsula, and then turning at the head of the bay, it moved westward again, following the direction of the coast. The line of march was, however, laid at some distance from the shore, partly for the sake of avoiding the in- dentations made in the land by gulfs and bays, and partly for the sake of crossing the streams from the interior at points so far inland that the water found in them should be fresh and pure. Notwithstanding these precautions, however, the water often failed. So immense were the multitudes of men and of beasts, and so crav- ing was the thirst which the heat and the fa- tigues of the march engendered, that, in several instances, they drank the little rivers dry. The first great and important river which the army had to pass after entering Europe was the Hebrus. Xot far from the mouth of the Hebrus, where it emptied into the ^gean Sea, was a great plain, which was called the plain of Doriscus. There was an extensive fortress here, which had been erected by the orders of Darius wlien he had subjugated this part of the country. The position of this fortress was an important one, because it com- manded the whole region watered by the He- brus, which was a very fruitful and populous district. Xerxes had been intending to have REVIEW OB"' THE TROOPS. 105 a grand review and enumeration of liis forces on entering the European territories, and lie judged Doriscus to be a very suitable place for his purpose. He could establish his own headquarters in the fortress, while his armies could be marshaled and reviewed on the 2:)lain. The fleet, too, had been ordered to draw up to the shore at the same spot, and when the army- reached the ground, they found the vessels already in the oflfing. The army accordingly halted, and the nec- essary arrangements were made for the review. The first thing was to ascertain the numbers of the troops ; and as the soldiers were too nu- merous to be counted, Xerxes determined to measure the mighty mass as so much bulk, and then ascertain the numbers by a computation. They made the measure itself in the following manner : They counted off, first, ten thousand meii, and brought them together in a compact circular mass, in the middle of the plain, and then marked a line upon the ground inclosing them. Upon this line, thus determined, they built a stone wall, about four feet high, with openings on opposite sides of it, by which men might enter and go out. AVhen the wall was built, soldiers were sent into the inclosure — just as corn would be poured by a husbandman into a wooden peck — until it was full. The \/^ mass thus required to fill the inclosure was 106 XERXES. deemed and taken to be ten thousand men. This was the first filling of the measure. These men were then ordered to retire, and a fresh mass was introduced, and so on until the whole army was measured. The inclosure was filled one hundred and seventy times with the foot soldiers before the process was completed, indi- cating, as the total amount of the infantry of the army, a force of one million seven hundred thousand men. This enumeration, it must be remembered, included the land forces alone. This method of measuring the army in bulk was applied only to the foot soldiers ; they constituted the great mass of the forces con- vened. There were, however, various other bodies of troops in the army, which, from their nature, were more systematically organized than the common foot soldiers, and so their numbers were known by the regular enrollment. There was, for example, a cavalry force of eighty thousand men. There was also a corps of Arabs, on camels, and another of Egyptians, in war chariots, which together amounted to twenty thousand. Then, besides these land forces, there were half a million of men in the fleet. Immense as these numbers are, they were still further increased, as the army moved on, by Xerxes's system of compelling the forces af every kingdom and province through which he passed to join the expedition ; so that, at V REVIEW OP THE TKOOPS. 107 length, when the Persian king fairly entered the heart of the Greek territory, Herodotus, the great narrator of Jiis history, in summing up the whole number of men regularly connected / with the army, makes a total of about five mil- lions of men ! One hundred thousand men, which is but one fiftieth part of five millions, is considered, in modern times, an immense army ; and, in fact, half even of that number was thought, in the time of the American Revolution, a sufficient force to threaten tlie colonies with overwhelming destruction. *^If ten thousand men will not do to put down the rebellion,^^ said an orator in the House of Commons, ^' fifty thousand shall." Herodotus adds that, besides the five millions regularly connected with the army, there was an immense and promiscuous mass of women, slaves, cooks, bakers, and camp followers of every description, that no human powers could estimate or number. But to return to the review. The numbers of the army having been ascertained, the next thing was to marshal and arrange the men by nations under their respective leaders, to be re- viewed by the king. A ver}'- full enumeration of these divisions of the army is given by tlie historians of tlie day, Avith minute descriptions of the kind of armor which the troops of the several nations wore. There were more than 108 XERXES. fifty of these nations in all. Some of them were highly civilized, others were semi-barbarous tribes ; and, of course, they presented, as mar- shaled in long array upon the plain, every pos- sible variety of dress and equipment. Some were armed with brazen helmets, and coats of mail formed of plates of iron ; others wore lin- en tunics, or rude garments made of the skins of beasts. The troops of one nation had their heads covered with helmets, those of another with meters, and of a third with tiaras. There was one savage-looking horde that had caps made of the skin of the upper part of a horse^s head, in its natural form, with the ears stand- ing up erect at the top, and the mane flowing down behind. These men held the skins of cranes before them instead of shields, so that they looked like horned monsters, half beast and half bird, endeavoring to assume the guise and attitude of men. There was another corps whose men were really horned, since they Wore caps made from the skins of the heads of oxen, with the horns standing. Wild beasts were personated, too, as well as tame ; for some na- tions were clothed in lions' skins, and others in panthers' skins — the clothing being considered, apparently, the more honorable, in proportion to the ferocity of the brute to which it had orig- inally belonged. The weapons, too, were of every possible form BEVIEW OF THE TROOPS. 109 and guise. Spears — some pointed with iron, some with stone, and others sliaped simply by being burned to a point in the fire ; bows and arrows, of every variety of material and form ; swords, daggers, slings, clubs, darts, javelins, and every other imaginable species of weapon which human ingenuity, savage or civilized, had then conceived. Even the lasso — the weapon of the American aborigines of modern times — was there. It is described by the an- cient historian as a long thong of leather wound into a coil, and finished in a noose at the end, which noose the rude warrior who used the implement launched through the air at the en- emy, and entangling rider and horse togethe by means of it, brought them both to the ground. There was every variety of taste, too, in the fashion and the colors of the dresses which were worn. Some were of artificial fabrics, and dyed in various and splendid hues. Some were very plain, the wearers of them affecting a simple and savage ferocity in the fashion of their vest- ure. Some tribes had painted skins — beauty, in their view, consisting, apparently, in hide- ousness. There was one barbarian horde who wore very little clothing of any kind. They had knotty clubs for weapons, and, in lieu of a dress, they had painted their naked bodies half white and half a bright vermilion. 110 XERXES. In all tliis vast array, the corps whicli stood at the head, in respect to their rank and the costliness and elegance of their equipment, was a Persian squadron of ten thousand men, called the Immortals. They had received this desig- nation from the fact that the body was kept al- ways exactly full, as, whenever any one of the number died, another soldier was instantly put into his place, whose life was considered in some respects a continuation of the existence of the man who had fallen. Thus, by a fiction somewhat analogous to that by which the king, in England, never dies, these ten thousand Per- sians were an immortal band. They were all carefully-selected soldiers, and they enjoyed very unusual privileges and honors. They were mounted troops, and their dress and their armor were richly decorated with gold. They were accompanied in their campaigns by their wives and families, for whose use carriages were provided which followed the camp, and there was a long train of camels besides, attached to the service of the corps, to carry their provisions and their baggage. While all these countless varieties of land troops were marshaling and arranging them- selves upon the plain, each under its own offi- cers and around its own standards, the naval commanders were employed in bringing up the fleet of galleys to the shore, wdiere they were REVIEW OF THE TROOPS. Ill anchored in a long line not far from the beach, and with their jorows toward the land. Thus there was a space of oi:)en water left between the line of vessels and the beach, along which Xerxes^s barge was to pass when the time for the naval part of the review should arrive. When all things were ready, Xerxes mounted his war chariot and rode slowly around the plain, surveying attentively, and with great in- terest and pleasure, the long lines of soldiers, in all their variety of equipment and costume, as they stood displayed before him. It required a progress of many miles to see them all. When this review of the land forces was concluded, the king went to the shore, and embarked on board a royal galley which had been prepared for him, and there, seated upon the deck under a gilded canopy, he was rowed by the oarsmen along the line of ships, between their j-)rows and the land. The ships were from many nations as well as the soldiers, and exhibited the same variety of fashion and equipment. The land troops had come from the inland realms and provinces which occupied the heart of Asia, while the ships and the seamen had been fur- nished by the maritime regions which extended along the coasts of the Black, and the ^gean, and the Mediterranean Seas. Thus the people of Egypt had furnished two hundred ships, the Phoenicians three hundred, Cyprus fifty, the 112 XERXES. Cilicians and the lonians one hundred each, and so with a great many other nations and tribes. The various squadrons which were thus com- bined in forming this immense fleet were manned and officered, of course, from the na- tions that severally furnished them, and one of them was actually commanded in person by a queen. The name of this lady admiral was Artemisia. She was the Queen of Caria, a small province in the southwestern part of Asia Minor, having Halicarnassus for its capital. Artemisia, though in history called a queen, was, in reality, more properly a regent, as she governed in the name of her son, who was yet a child. The quota of ships which Caria was to furnish was five. Artemisia, being a lady of ambitious and masculine turn of mind, and fond of adventure, determined to accompany the expedition. Not only her own vessels, but also those from some neighboring islands, were placed under her charge, so that she com- manded quite an important division of the fleet. She proved, also, in the course of the voyage, to be abundantly qualified for the discharge of her duties. She became, in fact, one of the ablest and most efficient commanders in the fleet, not only maneuvering and managing her own particular division in a very successful manner, but also taking a very active and im- REVIEW OF THE TROOPS. 11»] portaiitpart in the general consultations, where what she said was listened to with great re- spect, and always had great weight in deter- mining the decisions. In the great battle of Salainis she acted a very conspicuous part, as will hereafter appear. The whole number of galleys of the first class in Xerxes's fleet was more than twelve hundred, a number abundantly sufficient to justify the apprehensions of Artabanus that no harbor would be found capacious enough to shelter them in the event of a sadden storm. The line which they formed on this occasion, when drawn up side by side upon the shore for review, must have extended many miles. Xerxes moved slowly along this line in his barge, attended by the officers of his court and the great generals of his army, who surveyed the various ships as they passed them, and noted the diverse national costumes and equipments of the men with curiosity and pleasure. Among those who attended the king on this oc- casion was a certain Greek named Demaratus, an exile from his native land, who had fled to Persia, and had been kindly received by Darius some years before. Having remained in the Persian court until Xerxes succeeded to the throne and undertook the invasion of Greece, he concluded to accompany the expedition. The story of the political difficulties in which 114 XERXES. Demaratus became involved in his native land, and which led to his flight from Greece, was very extraordinary. It was this : The mother of Demaratus was the daughter of parents of high rank and great affluence in Sparta, but in her childhood her features were extremely plain and repulsive. Now there was a temple in the neighborhood of the place where her parents resided, consecrated to Helen, a princess who, while she lived, enjoyed the fame of being the most beautiful woman in the world. The nurse recommended that the child should be taken every day to this temple, and that pe- titions should be offered there at the shrine of Helen that the repulsive deformity of her feat- ures might be removed. The mother consented to this plan, only enjoining upon the nurse not to let any one see the face of her unfortunate offspring in going and returning. The nurse accordingly carried the child to the temple day after day, and, holding it in her arms before the shrine, implored the mercy of Heaven for her helpless charge, and the bestowal upon it of the boon of beauty. These petitions were, it seems, at length heard, for one day, when the nurse was coming down from the temple, after offering her cus- tomary prayer, she was met and accosted by a mysterious-looking woman, who asked her what it was that she was carrying in her arms. The REVIEW OF THE TROOPS. 115 nurse replied tliat it was a child. The woman wanted to look at it. The nurse refused to show the face of the child, saying that she had been forbidden to do so. The woman, however, in- sisted upon seeing its face, and at last the nurse consented and removed the coverings. The stranger stroked down the face of the child, say- ing, at the same time, that now that child should become the most beautiful woman of SjDarta. Her words proved true. The features of the young girl rapidly changed, and her counte- nance soon became as wonderful for its loveli- ness as it had been before for its hideous defor- mity. When she arrived at a projoer age, a certain Spartan nobleman named Agetus, aj^ar- ticular friend of the king's, made her his wife. The name of the king of Sjiarta at that time was Ariston. He had been twice married, and liis second wife was still living, but he had no children. When he came to see and to know the beautiful wife of Agetus, he wished to ob- tain her for himself, and began to revolve the subject in his mind, with a view to discover some method by which he might hope to accomplish his purpose. He decided at length upon the following plan. He proposed to Agetus to make an exchange of gifts, offering to give to him any one object which he might choose from all his, that is, Ariston's effects, provided that Agetus would, in the same manner, give to Ariston 116 XERXES. whatever Ariston might choose. Agetus con- sented to the proposal, without, however, giving it any serious consideration. As Ariston was already married, he did not for a moment im- agine that his wife could be the object which the king would demand. The parties to this foolish agreement confirmed the obligation of it by a solemn oath, and then each made known to the other what he had selected. Agetus gained some jewel, or costly garment, or perhaps a gilded and embellished weapon, and lost for- ever his beautiful wife. Ariston repudiated his own second wife, and put the prize which he had thus surreptitiously acquired in her place as a third. About seven or eight months after this time Demaratus was born. The intelligence was brought to Ariston one day by a slave, when he was sitting at a public tribunal. Ariston seemed surprised at the intelligence, and exclaimed that the child was not his. He, however, after- ward retracted this disavowal, and owned Demaratus as his son. The child grew up, and iu process of time, when his father died, he succeeded to the throne. The magistrates, how- ever, who had heard the declaration of his father at the time of his birth, remembered it, and reported it to others ; and when Ariston died and Demaratus assumed the supreme power, the next heir denied his right to the succession. REVIEW OF THE TROOPS. IIT and ill process of time formed a strong party against him. A long series of civil dissensions arose, and at length the claims of Demaratus were defeated, his enemies triumphed, and he fled from the country to save his life. He ar- rived at Susa near the close of Darius's reign, and it was his counsel which led the king to decide the contest among his sons for the right of succession, in favor of Xerxes, as described at the close of the first chapter. Xerxes had remembered his obligations to Demaratus for this interposition. He had retained him in the royal court after his accession to the throne, and had bestowed upon him many marks of distinction and honor. Demaratus had decided to accompany Xerxes on his expedition into Greece, and now, while the Persian officers were looking with so much pride and pleasure on the immense preparations which they were making for the subjugation of a foreign and hostile state, Demaratus, too, was in the midst of the scene, regarding the specta- cle with no less of interest, probably, and yet, doubtless, with very different feelings, since the country upon which this dreadful cloud of gloom and destruction was about to burst was his own native land. After the review was ended, Xerxes sent for Demaratus to come to the castle. When he arrived, the king addressed him as follows : 9— Xerxes 118 XERXES. '^You are a Greek, Demaratiis, and yon know your countrymen well ; and now, as you have seen the fleet and the army that have been displayed here to-day, tell me what is your opinion. Do you think that the Greeks will undertake to defend themselves against such a force, or will they submit at once without at- tempting any resistance ? "' Demaratus seemed at first perplexed and un- certain, as if not knowing exactly what answer to make to the question. At length he asked the king whether it was his wish that he should respond by speaking the blunt and honest truth, or by saying what would be polite and agreeable. Xerxes replied that he wished him, of course, to speak the truth. The truth itself would be what he should consider the most agreeable. '' Since you desire it, then,^^ said Demaratus, '^I will speak the exact truth. Greece is the child of poverty. The inhabitants of the land have learned wisdom and discipline in the severe school of adversity, and their resolution and courage are absolutely indomitable. They all deserve this praise ; but I speak more particu- larly of my own countrymen, the people of Sparta. I am sure that they will reject any proposal which you may make to them for sub- mission to your power, and that they will resist you to the last extremity. The disparity of numbers will have no influence whatever on REVIEW OF THE TKOOPS. 119 their decision. If till the rest of Greece were to submit to you, leaving the Spartans alone, and if they should find themselves unable to muster more than a thousand men, they would give you battle/^ Xerxes expressed great surprise at this asser- tion, and thought that Demaratus could not possibly mean wliat he seemed to say. ^^I ap- peal to yourself,"' said he ; " would you dare to encounter, alone, ten men ? You have been the prince of the Spartans, and a prince ought, at least, to be equal to two common men ; so that to show that the Spartans in general could be brought to fight a superiority of force of even ten to one, it ought to appear that you would dare to engage twenty. This is manifestly ab- surd. In fact, for any person to pretend to be able or willing to fight under such a disparity of numbers, evinces only pride and insolent presumption. And even this proportion of ten to one, or even twenty to one, is nothing com- pared to the real disparity ; for, even if we grant to the Spartans as large a force as there is any possibility of their obtaining, I shall then have a thousand to one against them. '^ Besides,"" continued the king, " there is a great difference in the character of the troops. The Greeks are all freemen, while my soldiers are all slaves — bound absolutely to do my bid- ding, without complaint or murmur. Such 120 XERXES. soldiers as mine, who are habituated to subiiiit entirely to the will of another, and who live under the continual fear of the lash, might, per- haps, be forced to go into battle against a great superiority of numbers, or under other manifest disadvantages ; but free men, never. I do not believe that a body of Greeks could be brought to engage a body of Persians, man for man. Every consideration shows, thus, that the opin- ion which you have expressed is unfounded. You could only have been led to entertain such an opinion through ignorance and unaccount- able presumption."' ^'' I was afraid,^"* replied Demaratus, "from the first, that, by speaking the truth, I should offend you. I should not have given you my real opinion of the Spartans if you had not ordered me to speak without reserve. You certainly cannot suppose me to have been in- fluenced by a feeling of undue partiality for the men whom I commended, since they have been my most implacable and bitter enemies, and have driven me into hopeless exile from my native land. Your father, on the other hand, received and protected me, and the sin- cere gratitude which I feel for the favors which I have received from him and from you incline me to take the most favorable view possible of the Persian cause. I certainly should not be willing, as you i( REVIEW OF THE TROOPS. 121 justly suppose, to engage, alone, twenty men, or ten, or even one, unless there was an abso- lute necessity for it. I do not say that any single Lacedemonian could successfully en- counter ten or twenty Persians, although in personal conflicts they are certainly not inferior to other men. It is when they are combined in a body, even though that body be small, that their great superiority is seen. " As to their being free, and thus not easily led into battle in circumstances of imminent danger, it must be considered that their freedom is not absolute, like that of savages in a fray, where each acts according to his own individual will and pleasure, but it is qualified and con- trolled by law. The Spartan soldiers are not personal slaves, governed by the lash of a mas- ter, it is true ; but they have certain principles of obligation and duty which they all feel most solemnly bound to obey. They stand in greater awe of the authority of this law than your subjects do of the lash. It commands them never to fly from the field of battle, whatever may be the number of their adversaries. lb commands them to preserve their ranks, to stand firm at the posts assigned them, and there to conquer or die. '^ This is the truth in respect to them. If what I say seems to you absurd, I will in future be silent. I have spoken honestly what I think^ 122 XERXES. because your majesty commanded me to do so ; and, notwithstanding what I have said, I sin- cerely wish that all your majesty's desires and expectations may be fulfilled/' The ideas which Demaratus thus appeared to entertain of danger to the countless and for- midable hosts of Xerxes's army, from so small and insignificant a power as that of Sparta, seemed to Xerxes too absurd to awaken any seri- ous displeasure in his mind. He only smiled, therefore, at Demaratus's fears, and dismissed him. Leaving a garrison and a governor in posses- sion of the castle of Doriscus, Xerxes resumed his march along the northern shores of the ^gean Sea, the immense swarms of men filling all the roads, devouring everything capable of being used as food, either for beast or man, and drinking all the brooks and smaller rivers dry. Even with this total consumption of the food and the water which they obtained on the march, the supplies would have been found in- sufficient if the whole army had advanced through one tract of country. They accord- ingly divided the host into three great columns, one of which kept near the shore ; the other marched far in the interior, and the third in the intermediate space. They thus exhausted the resources of a very wide region. All the men, too, that were capable of bearing arms in the REVIEW OF THE TllOOPS. 123 nations that these several divisions passed on the way, they compelled to join them, so that the army left, as it moved along, a very broad extent of country trampled down, impoverished, desolate, and full of lamentation and wo. The whole march was perhaps the most gigantic crime against the riglits and the happiness of man that human wickedness has ever been able to commit. The army halted, from time to time, for various purposes, sometimes for the perform- ance of what they considered religious ceremo- nies, Avhich were intended to propitiate the supernatural powers of the earth and of the air. When they reached the Strymon, where, it will be recollected, a bridge had been previously built so as to be ready for the army when it should arrive, they offered a sacrifice of five white horses to the river. In the same region, too, they halted at a place called the Nine Ways, where Xerxes resolved to offer a human sacrifice to a certain god whom the Persians believed to reside in the interior of the earth. The mode of sacrificing to this god was to bury the wretched yictims alive. The Persians seized, accordingly, by Xerxes's orders, nine young men and nine girls from among the people of the country, and buried them aliw ! ]\larc]iing slowly on in this manner, the army at length reached the point upon the coast 124 XERXES. where the canal had been cut across the isth- mus of Mount Athos. The town which was nearest to this spot was Acanthus, the situation of which, together with that of the canal, will be found upon the map. The fleet arrived at this point by sea nearly at the same time with the army coming by land. Xerxes examined the canal, and was extremely well satisfied with its construction. He commended the chief engineer, whose name was Artachaees, in the highest terms, for the successful manner in which he had executed the work, and ren- dered him very distinguished honors. It unfortunately happened, however, that, a few days after the arrival of the fleet and the army at the canal, and before the fleet had commenced the passage of it, that Artachaees died. The king considered this event as a se- rious calamity to him, as he expected that other occasions would arrive on which he would have occasion to avail himself of the engineer's talents and skill. He ordered preparations to be made for a most magnificent burial, and the body was in due time deposited in the grave with imposing funeral solemnities. A very splendid monument, too, was raised upon the spot, which employed, for some time, all the mechanical force of the army in its erection. While Xerxes remained at Acanthus, he re- quired the people of the neighboring country FvEVIEW 01^ THE TROOPS. 125 to entertain his army at a grand feast, the cost of which totally ruined them. Not only wus all the food of the vicinity consumed, but all the means and resources of the inhabitants, of every kind, were exhausted in the additional supplies which they had to procure from the surrounding regions. At this feast the army in general ate, seated in groups upon the ground, in the open air ; but for Xerxes and the nobles of the court a great pavilion was built, where tables were spread, and vessels and furniture of silver and gold, suitable to the dignity of the occasion, were provided. Almost all the property which the people of the region had accumulated by years of patient industry was consumed at once in furnishing the vast amount of food which was required for this feast, and the gold and silver plate which was to be used in the pavilion. During the enter- tainment, the inhabitants of the country waited upon their exacting and insatiable guests until they were utterly exhausted by the fatigues of the^ service, When, at length, the feast was ended, and Xerxes and his company left the pavilion, the vast assembly outside broke up in disorder, pulled the pavilion to pieces, plun- dered the tables of the gold and silver plate, and departed to their several encampments, leaving nothing behind them. The inhabitants of the country were so com- 126 XERXES. pletely inipoverislied and ruined by these ex- actions, that those who were not impressed into Xerxes^s service and compelled to follow his army, abandoned their homes, and roamed away in the hope of finding elsewhere the means of subsistence which it was no longer possible to obtain on their own lands ; and thus, when Xerxes at last gave orders to the fleet to pass through the canal, and to his army to resume its march, he left the whole region utterly depopulated and desolate. He went on to Therma, a port situated on the northwestern corner of the ^gean Sea, which was the last of his places of rendezvous before his actual advance into Greece. CHAPTER VII. THE PREPARATIONS OF THE GREEKS FOR DEFENSE. We must now leave, for a time, the operations of Xerxes and his army, and turn our attention to the Greeks, and to the preparations which they were making to meet the ^emergency. The two states of Greece which were most prominent in the transactions connected with the invasion of Xerxes were Athens and Sparta. By referring to the map, Athens will be found to have been situated upon a promontory just without the Peloponnesus, while Sparta, on the other hand, was in the center of a valley which lay in the southern part of the peninsula. Each of these cities was the center and strong- hold of a small but very energetic and powerful commonwealth. The two states were entirely independent of each other, and each had its own peculiar system of government, of usages, and of laws. These systems, and, in fact, the characters of the two communities, in all re- spects, were extremely dissimilar. ^ 127 128 XERXES. Both these states^, though m name republics, had certain magistrates, called commonly, in history, kings. These kings were, however, in fact, only military chieftains, commanders of the armies rather than sovereign rulers of the state. The name by which such a chieftain was actually called by the people themselves, in those days, was tyrannus, the name from which our word tyrant is derived. As, how- ever, the word tyrannus had none of that op- probrious import which is associated with its English derivative, the latter is not now a suit- able substitute for the former. Historians, therefore, commonly use the word king instead, though that word does not properly express the idea. They were commanders, chieftains, he- reditary generals, but not strictly kings. We shall, however, often call them kings, in these narratives, in conformity with the general usage. Demaratus, Avho had fled from Sparta to seek refuge with Darius, and who was now accom- panying Xerxes on his march to Greece, was one of these kings. It was a peculiarity in the constitution of Sparta that, from a very early period of its his- tory, there had been always two kings, who had held the supreme command in conjunction with each other, like the Roman consuls in later times. This custom was sustained partly by the idea that by this division of the executive THE GREEKS. 129 power of the state, the exercise of the powct was less likely to become despotic or tyrannical. It had its origin, however, according to the an- cient legends, in the following singular occur- rences : At a very early period in the history of Sparta, when the people had always been accustomed, like other states, to liave one prince or chief- tain, a certain prince died, leaving his wife, whose name was Argia, and two infant children, as his survivors. The children were twins, and the father had died almost immediately after they were born. Now the office of king was in a certain sense hereditary, and yet not abso- lutely so ; for the people were accustomed to assemble on the death of the king, and deter- mine who should be his successor, choosing al- ways, however, the oldest son of the former monarch, unless there was some very extraor- dinary and imperious reason for not doing so. In this case they decided, as usual, that the oldest son should be king. But here a very serious difficulty arose, which was, to determine which of the twins was the oldest son. They resembled each other so closely that no stranger could distinguish one from the other at all. The mother said that she could not distinguish them, and that she did not know which Avas the first-born. Til is was not strictly true ; for she did, in fact, 130 XERXES. know, and only denied lier power to decide the question because she wished to have both of her children kings. In this perplexity the Spartans sent to the oracle at Delphi to know what they were to do. The oracle gave, as usual, an ambiguous and unsatisfactory response. It directed the people to make both the children kings, but to render the highest honors to the first-born. When this answer was reported at Sparta, it only in- creased the difficulty; for how were they to render peculiar honors to the first-born unless they could ascertain which the first-born was ? Ill this dilemma, some person suggested to the magistrates that perhaps Argia really knew which was the eldest child, and that if so. by watching her, to see whether she washed and fed one, uniformly, before the other, or gave it precedence in any other way, by which her la- tent maternal instinct or partiality might ap- pear, the question might possibly be determined. This plan was accordingly adopted. The mag- istrates contrived means to place a servant maid in the house to watch the mother in the way proposed, and the result was that the true order of birth was revealed. From that time forward, while they were both considered as princes, the one now supposed to be the first-born too"k pre- cedence of the other. When, however, the children arrived at an THE GREEKS. 181 asQ to assume the exercise of the governmental powers, as there was no perce[)tible ditlurence between them in age, or strength, or accom- plishments, the one who had been decided to be the younger was little disposed to submit to the other. Each had his friends and adherents, parties were formed, and a long and angry civil dissension.ensued. In the end the question was compromised, the command was divided, and the system of having two chief magistrates be- came gradually established, the power descend- ing in two lines, from father to son, through many generations. Of course there was per- petual jealousy and dissension, and often open and terrible conflicts, between these two rival lines. The Spartans were an agricultural peoi^le, cultivating the valley in the southeastern part of the Peloponnesus, the waters of which were collected and conveyed to the sea by the Eiver Eurotas and its branches. They lived in the plainest possible manner, and prided themselves on the stern and stoical resolution with which they rejected all the refinements and luxuries of society. Courage, hardihood, indifference to life, and the power to endure without a mur- mur the most severe and protracted sufferings, were the qualities which they valued. They despised wealtli just as other nations despise effeminacy and foppery. Their laws discour- 10 — Xer\e« 132 XERXES. aged commerce, lest it should make some of the people rich. Their clothes were scanty and plain, their houses were comfortless, their food was a coarse bread, hard and brown, and their money was of iron. With all this, however, they were the most ferocious and terrible sol- diers in the world. They were, moreover, with all their plain- ness of manners and of life, of a very proud and lofty spirit. All agricultural toil, and every other species of manual labor in their state, were performed by a servile peasantry, while the free citizens, wliose profession was exclusively that of arms, were as aristocratic and exalted in soul as any nobles on earth. People are sometimes, in our day, when money is so much valued, proud, notwithstanding their poverty. The Spartans were proud of their poverty itself. They could be rich if they chose, but they de- spised richos. They looked down on all the re- finements and delicacies of dress and of living from an elevation far above them. They looked down on labor, too, with the same contempt. They were yet very nice and particular about their dress and military appearance, though everything pertaining to both was coarse and simple, and they had slaves to wait upon them even in their campaigns. The Athenians were a totally different peo- ple. Tiie leading classes in their common- THE GREEKS. 133 wealth were cultivated, intellectual, and refined. The city of Athens was renowned for the splendor of its architecture, its temples, its cit- adels, its statues, and its various public institu- tions, which in subsequent times made it the great intellectual center of Europe. It was populous and wealthy. It had a great com- merce and a powerful fleet. The Spartan char- acter, in a word, was stern, gloomy, indomita- ble, and wholly unadorned. The Athenians were rich, intellectual, and refined. The two nations were nearly equal in power, and were engaged in a perpetual and incessant rivalry. There were various other states and cities in Greece, but Athens and Sparta were at this time the most considerable, and they were al- together the most resolute and determined inliheir refusal to submit to the Persian sway. In fact, so well known and understood was the spirit of defiance with which these two powers were disposed to regard the Persian invasion, that when Xerxes sent his summons demand- ing submission, to the other states of Greece, he did not send any to these. When Darius in- vaded Greece some years before, he had sum- moned Athens and Sparta as well as the others, but his demands were indignantly rejected. It seems that the custom was for a government or a prince, when acknowledging the dominion of a superior power, to send, as a token of ter- 134 XERXES. ritorial submission, a little earth and water^ which was a sort of legal form of giving up pos- session of their country to the sovereign who claimed it. Accordingly, when Darius sent his ambassadors into Greece to summon the coun- try to surrender, the ambassadors, according to the usual form, called upon the governments of the several states to send earth and water to the king. The Athenians, as has been already said, indignantly refused to comply with this demand. The Spartans, not content with a simple refusal, seized the ambassadors and threw them into a well, telling them, as they went down, that if they wanted earth and water for the King of Persia, they might get it there. The Greeks had obtained some information of Xerxes's designs against them before they received his summons. The first intelligence was communicated to the Spartans by Dema- ratus himself, while he was at Susa, in the fol- lowing singular manner. It was the custom, in those days, to write with a steel point on a smooth surface of wax. The wax was spread for this purpose on a board or tablet of metal, in a very thin stratum, forming a ground upon which the letters traced with the point were easily legible. Demaratus took two writing- tablets such as these, and removing the wax from them, he wrote a brief account of the pro- THE GREEKS. 135 posed Persian invasion, by tracing ttie charac- ters upon the surface of the wood or metal itself, beneath ; tlien, restoring the wax so as to conceal the letters, he sent the two tab- lets, seemingly blank, to Leonidas, king of Sparta. The messengers wlio bore them had other pretexts for their journey, and they had various other articles to carry. The Persian guards, who stopped and examined the mes- sengers from time to time along the route, thought nothing of the blank tablets, and so they reached Leonidas in safety. Leonidas being a blunt, rough soldier, and not much accustomed to cunning contrivances himself, was not usually much upon the watch for them from others, and when he saw no ob- vious communication ujjon the tablets, he threw them aside, not knowing what the sending of them could mean, and not feeling any strong interest in ascertaining. His wife, however — her name was Gorgo — had more curiosity. There was something mysterious about the af- fair, and she wished to solve it. She examined the tablets attentively in every part, and at length removed cautiously a little of the wax. The letters began to appear. Full of excite- ment and pleasure, she proceeded with the work until the whole cereous coating was removed. The result was, that the communication was revealed, and Greece received the warning. 136 XERXES. When the Greeks hearii that Xerxes was at Sardis^ they sent three messengers in disguise, to ascertain the facts in respect to the Persian army assembled there, and, so far as possible, to learn the plans and designs of the king. Nocwithstandiiio" all the efforts of these men to preserve their concealment and disguise, they were discovered, seized, and tortured by the Persian officer who took them, until they con- fessed that they were s])ies. The officer was about to put them to death, when Xerxes him- self received information of the circumstances. He forbade the execution, and directed, on the other hand, that the men should be conducted through all his encampments, and be allowed to view and examine everything. He then dis- missed them, with orders to return to Greece and report what they had seen. He thought^ he said, that the Greeks would be more likely to surrender if they knew how immense his prep- arations were for effectually vanquishing them if they attempted resistance. The city of Athens, being farther north than Sparta, would be the one first exposed to dan- ger from the invasion, and when the people heard of Xerxes^s approach, the whole city was filled with anxiety and alarm. Some of the in- habitants were panic-stricken, and wished to submit ; others were enraged, and uttered noth- ing but threats and defiance. A thousand dif- THE GKEEKS. 187 ferent plans of defense were proposed and eagerly discussed. At lengtli the government sent messengers to tlie oracle at Delphi, to learn what their destiny was to be, and to obtain, if possible, divine direction in respect to the best mode of averting the danger. The messengers received an awful response, pretending, in wild and solemn^ though dark and mysterious lan- guage, the most dreadful calamities to the ill- fated city. The messengers were filled with alarm at hearing this reply. One of the inhab- itants of Delphi,, the city in which the oracle was situated, proposed to them to make a sec- ond application, in tlie character of the most humble supplicantoj and to implore that the or- acle would give them some directions in respect to the best course for them to pursue in order to avoid, or at least to mitigate the impending danger. They did so, and after a time they received an answer, vague, mysterious, and al- most unintelligible, bun which seemed to denote that the safety of the city was connected in some manner with Salamis, and with certain '' wooden walls, ^' to which the inspired distich of the response obscurely alluded. The messengers returned to Athens and re- ported the answer which they had received. The people were puzzled and perplexed in their attempts to understand it. It seems that the citadel of Athens had been formerlv surrounded 138 XERXES. by a wooden palisade. Some thought that this was what was referred to by the ^' wooden walls/^ and that the meaning of the oracle was that they must rebuild the palisade, and then retreat to the citadel where the Persians should approach, and defend themselves there. Others conceived that the phrase referred to ships, and that the oracle meant to direct them to meet their enemies with a fleet upon the sea. Salamis, which was also mentioned by the oracle, was an island not far from Athens, being west of the city, between it and the Isthmus of Corinth. Those who supposed that by the ^' wooden wall " was denoted the fleet, thought that Salamis might have been alluded to as the place near which the great naval battle was to be fought. This was the interpretation which seemed finally to prevail. The Athenians had a fleet of about two hun- dred galleys. These vessels had been purchased and built, some time before this, for the Athe- nian government, through the influence of a certain public officer of high rank and influence, named Themistocles. It seems that a large sum had accumulated in the public treasury, the produce of certain mines belonging to the city, and a proposal was made to divide it among the citizens, which would have given a small sum to each man,. Themistocles opposed this prop- osition, and urged instead that the government THE GREEKS. 139 should build and equip a fleet with the mOney. This plan was finally adopted. The fleet was built, and it was. now determined to call it into active service io meet and repel the Persians, though the naval armament of Xerxes was six times as large. The next measure was to establish a confed- eration, if possible, of the Grecian states, or at least of all those who were willing to combine, and thus to form an allied army to resist the invader. The smaller states were very generally panic-stricken, and had either already signified their submission to the Persian rule, or were timidly hesitating, in doubt whether it would be safer for them to submit to the overwhelming force which was advancing against them, or to join the x\thenians and the Spartans in tlieir almost desperate attempts to resist it. The Athenians and Spartans settled, for the time, their own quarrels, and held a council to take the necessary measures for forming a more ex- tended confederation. All this took place while Xerxes was slowly advancing from Sardis to the Hellespont, and from the Hellespont to Doriscus, as described In the preceding chapter. The council resolved on despatching an embassy at once to all the states of Greece, as well as to some of the remoter neighboring powers, asking them to join the alliance. 140 XERXES. Tile first Greek city to which these ambassa- dors came was Argos^ which was the capital of a kingdom or state lying between Athens and Sparta^ thongh within the Peloponnesus. The states of Argos and Sparta, being neighbors, had been constantly at war. Argos had recently lost six thousand men in a battle with the Spartans, and were, consequently, not likely to be in a very favorable mood for a treaty of friendship and alliance. When the ambassadors had delivered their message, the Argolians replied that they had anticipated such a proposal from the time that they had heard that Xerxes had commenced his march toward Greece, and that they had applied, accordingl}^, to the oracle at Delphi, to know what it would be best for them to do in case the proposal were made. The answer of the oracle had been, they said, unfavorable to their entering into an alliance with the Greeks. They were willing, however, they added, not- withstanding this, to enter into an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Spartans, for thirty years, on condition that they should themselves have the command of half the Pelo- ponnesian troops. They were entitled to the command of the whole being, as they contended, the superior nation in rank, but they would waive their just claim, and be satisfied with half, if the Spartcins would agree to that arrangement* THE G KEEKS. 141 The Spartans replied that they could not agree to those conditions. They were them- selves, they said, the superior nation in rank, and entitled to the whole command ; and as they had two kings, and Argos but one, there was a double difficulty in complying with the Argive demand. They could not surrender one half of the command without depriving one of their kings of his rightful power. Thus the proposed alliance failed entirely, the people of Argos saying that they would as willingly submit to the dominion of Xerxes as to the insolent demands and assumptions of superiority made by the government of Sparta. The ambassadors, among other countries which they visited in their attempts to obtain alliance and aid, went to Sicily. Gelon was the King of Sicily, and Syracuse was his capital. Here the same difficulty occuried which had broken up the negotiations at Argos. The ambassadors, when they arrived at Syracuse, represented to Gelon that, if the Persians sub- dued Greece, they would come to Sicily next, and that it was better for him and for his coun- trymen that they should meet the enemy while he was still at a distance, rather than to wait until he came near. Gelon admitted the just- ice of this reasoning, and said that he would furnish a large force, both of ships and men, for 142 XERXES. carrying on the war, provided that he might have the command of the combined army. To this, of course, the Spartans would not agree. He then asked that he might command the fleet, on condition of giving up his claim to the land forces. This proposition the Athenian ambassadors rejected, saying to Gelon tliat what they were in need of, and came to him to obtain, was a supply of troops, not of leaders. The Athenians, they said, were to command the fleet, being not only the most ancient nation of Greece, but also the most immediately exposed to the invasion, so that they were doubly enti- tled to be considered as the principals and leaders in the war. Gelon then told the ambassadors that, since they wished to obtain everything and to con- cede nothing, they had better leave his domin- ions without delay, and report to their country- men that they had nothing to expect from Sicily. The ambassadors went then to Corcyra, a large island on the western coast of Greece, in the Adriatic Sea. It is now called Corfu. Here they seemed to meet with their first success. The people of Corcyra acceded to the propo- sals made to them, and promised at once to equip and man their fleet, and send it round into the ^gean Sea. They immediately en- gaged in the work, and seemed to be honestly THE GKEEKS. 143 intent on fulfilling their promises. They were, however, in fact, only pretending. They were really undecided which cause to espouse, the Greek or the Persian, ana kept their promised squadron back by means of various delays, nntil its aid was no longer needed. But the most important of all these negotia- tions of the Athenians an-d Spartans with the neighboring states were those opened with Thes- saly. Thessaly was a kingdom in the northern part of Greece. It was, therefore, the territory which the Persian armies would first enter, on turning the northwestern corner of the ^gean Sea. There were, moreover, certain points in its geographical position, and in the physical conformation of the country, that gave it a pe- culiar importance in respect to the approaching conflict. By referring to the maj) placed at the com- mencement of the fifth chapter, it will be seen that Thessaly was a vast valley, surrounded on all sides by mountainous land, and drained by the River Peneus and its branches. The Pe- neus flows eastwardly to tlie jEgean Sea, and escapes from the great valley through a narrow and romantic pass lying between the Moun- tains Olympus and Ossa. This pass was called in ancient times the Olympic Straits, and a i^art of it formed a romantic and beautiful glen called the Vale of Tempe, There was a road 144 XERXES. through this pass, which was the only access by which Thessaly could be entered from the eastward. To the south of the Vale of Tempe, the mountains, as will appear from the map, crowd- ed so hard upon the sea as not to allow any passage to the eastward to them. The natural route of Xerxes, therefore, in descending into Greece, would be to come down along the coast until he reached the mouth of the Peneus, and then, following the river up through the Vale of Tempe into "thessaly, to pass down toward the Peloponnesus on the western side of Ossa and Pelion, and of the other mountains near the sea. If he could get through the Olympic Straits and the Vale of Tempe, the way would be open and unobstructed until he should reach the southern frontier of Thessaly, where there was another . narrow pass leading from Thes- saly into Greece. This last defile was close to the sea, and was called the Straits of Ther- mopylae. Thus Xerxes and his hosts, in continuing their march to the southward, must necessarily traverse Thessaly, and in doing so they would have two narrow and dangerous defiles to pass : one at Mount Olympus, to get into the coun- try, and the other at Thermopylae, to get out of it. It consequently became a point of great importance to the Greeks to determine at which 11-Xc THE GREEKS. 145 of these two passes they shoiihl make their stand against the torrent which was coming down upon them. This question would, of course, depend very mucli upon the disposition of Thessaly herself. The government of that country, understand- ing the critical situation in which tlioy wore placed, had not waited for the Athenians and Spartans to send ambassadors to them, but, at a very early period of the war — before, in fact, Xerxes had yet crossed the Hellespont, had sent messengers to Athens to concert some plan of action. These messengers were to say to the Athenians that the government of Thessaly were expecting every day to receive a summons from Xerxes, and that they must speedily de- cide what they were to do ; that they them- selves were very unwilling to submit to him, but they could not undertake to make a stand against his immense host alone ; that the soutli- ern Greeks might include Thessaly in their plan of defense, or exclude it, just as tliey thought best. If they decided to include it, then they must make a stand at the Olympic Straits, that is at the pass between Olympus and Ossa ; and to do that, it would be neces- sary to send a strong force immediately to take possession of the pass. If, on the contrary, they decided wo/^ to defend Tliessaly, then the pass of Thermopylae would be the point at 146 XERXES. which they must make their stand, and in that case Thessaly must be at liberty to submit on the first Persian summons. The Greeks, after consultation on the sub- ject, decided that it would be best for them to defend Thessaly, and to take their standi ac- cordingly, at the Straits of Olympus. They immediately put a large force on board their fleet, armed and equipped for the expedition. This was at the time when Xerxes was just about crossing the Hellespont. The fleet sailed from the port of Athens, passed up through the narrow strait called Euripus, lying between the island of EubG3a and the mainland, and finally landed at a favorable point of disembarkation, south of Thessaly. From this point the forces marched to the northward until they reached the Peneus, and then established themselves at the narrowest part of the passage between the mountains, strengthened their position there as much as possible, and awaited the coming of the enemy. The amount of the force was ten thousand men. They had not been here many days before a messenger came to them from the King of Mac- edon, which country, it will be seen, lies im- mediately north of Thessaly, earnestly dissuad- ing them from attempting to make a stand at the Vale of Tempe. Xerxes was coming on, he said, with an immense and overwhelming THE GREEKS. 147 force, one against whicli it would be utterly impossible for them to make good their defense at such a point as that. It would be far better for them to fall back to Thermopylae which, being a narrower and more rugged pass, could be more easily defended. Besides this, the messenger said that it was possible for Xerxes to enter Thessaly without going through the Vale of Tempe at all. The country between Thessaly and Macedon was mountainous, but it was not impassable, and Xerxes would very probably come by that way. The only security, therefore, for the Greeks, would be to fall back and intrench themselves at Thermopylae. Nor was there any time to be lost. Xerxes was crossing the Hellespont, and the whole country was full of excitement and terror. The Greeks determined to act on this ad- vice. They broke up their encampment at the Olympic Straits, and, retreating to the south- wxird, established themselves at Thermopyhie, to await there the coming of the conqueror. The people of Thessaly then surrendered to Xerxes as soon as they received his summons. Xerxes, from his encampment at Therma, where we left him at the close of the last chap- ter, saw the peaks of Olympus and Ossa in the southern horizon. They were distant perhaps fifty miles from where he stood. He inquired 148 XERXES. about them, and was told that the Eiver Peneus flowed between them to the cea, and that through the same defile there lay the main en- trance to Thessaly. He had previously de. termined to march his army round the other way, as the King of Macedon had suggested, but he said that he should like to see this de- file. So he ordered a swift Sidonian galley to be prepared, and, taking with him suitable guides and a fleet of other vessels in attend- ance on his galley, he sailed to the mouth of the Peneus, and, entering that river, he as- cended it until he came to the defile. Seen from any of the lower elevations which projected from the bases of the mountains at the head of this defile, Thessaly lay sj^read out before the eye as one vast valley — level, ver- dant, fertile, and bounded by distant groups and ranges of mountains, which formed a blue and beautiful horizon on every side. Through the midst of this scene of rural loveliness the Peneus^ with its countless branches, grace- fully meandered, gathering the water from every part of the valley, and then pouring it forth in a deep and calm current through the gap in the mountains at the observer's feeto Xerxes asked his guides if it would be pos- sible to find any other place where the waters of the Peneus could be conducted to the sea» They replied that it would not be^ for the THE GREEKS. 149 valley was bounded on every side by ranges of mountainous land. " Then/' said Xerxes, " the Thessalians were Departure of the Grecian Fleet for Thessaly. wise in submitting at once to my summons ; for, if they had not done so, I would have raised a vast embankment across the valley here, and thus stopped the river, turned their country into a lake, and drowned them uJJ/' CHAPTER VIII. THE ADVANCE OF XEEXES INTO GREECE. From Therma — the last of tlie great stations at which the Persian army halted before its final descent upon Greece — the army com- menced its march, and the fleet set sail, nearly at the same time, which was early in the summer. The army advanced slowly, meeting with the usual difficulties and delays, but with- out encountering any special or extraordinary occurrences, until, after having passed through Macedon into Thessaly, and through Thessaly to the northern frontier of Phocis, they began to approach the Straits of Thermopylae. What took place at Thermopylae will be made the subject of the next chapter. The movements of the fleet are to be narrated in this. In order distinctly to understand these move- ments, it is necessary that the reader should first have a clear conception of the geographical conformation of the coasts and seas along which the path of the expedition lay. By referring to the map of Greece, we shall see that the 150 ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 151 course which the fleet would naturally take from Therma to the southeastward, along the coast, was unobstructed and clear for about a hundred miles. We then come to a group of four is- lands, extending in a range at right angles to the coast. The only one of these islands with which we have particularly to do in this history is the innermost of them, which was named Sciathus. Opposite to these islands the line of the coast, having passed around the point of a mountainous and rocky promontory called Mag- nesia, turns suddenly to the westward, and runs in that direction for about thirty miles, when it again turns to the southward and eastward as before. In the sort of corner thus cut off by the deflection of the coast lies the long is- land of Eaboea, which may be considered, in fact, as almost a continuation of the continent, as it is a part of the same conformation of country, and is separated from the main land only by submerged valleys on the north and on the east. Into these sunken valleys the sea of course flows, forming straits or channels. The one on the north was, in ancient times, called Artemisium, and the one on the west, at its narrowest point, Euripus. All these islands and coasts were high and picturesque. They were also, in the days of Xerxes, densely populated, and adorned profusely with temples, citadels, and towns. 152 XERXES. On passing the soathernmost extremity of the island of Euboea, and turning to the west- ward, we come to a promontory of the main land, which constituted Attica, and in the middle of which the city of Athens was situ- ated. Beyond this is a capacious gulf, called the Saronian Gulf. It lies between Attica and the Peloponnesus. In the middle of the Saronian Gulf lies the island of ^gina, and in the north- ern part of it the island of Salamis. The prog- ress of the Persian fleet was from Therma down the coast to Sciathus, thence along the shores of Euboea to its southern point, and so round into the Saronian Gulf to the island of Salamis. The distance of this voyage was per- haps two hundred and fifty miles. In accom- plishing it the fleet encountered many dangers, and met with a variety of incidents, and events, which we shall now proceed to describe. J" The country, of course, was everywhere in / a state of the greatest excitement and terror. The immense army was slowly coming down by land, and the fleet, scarcely less terrible, since its descents upon the coast would be so fearfully sudden and overwhelming when they were made, was advancing by sea. The in- habitants of the country were consequently in a state of extreme agitation. The sick and the infirm, who were, of course, utterly helpless in such a danger, exhibited everywhere the sj)ec- ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 153 tacle of silent dismay. Mothers, wives, maid- ens, and children, on the other hand, wcro wild with excitement and terror. The men, too full of passion to fear, or too full of pride to allow their fears to be seen, were gathering in arms, or hurrying to and fro with intelli- gence, or making hasty arrangements to remove their wives and children from the scenes of cruel suffering which were to ensue. They stationed watchmen on the hills to give warn- ing of the approach of the enemy. They agreed upon signals, and raised piles of wood for beacon fires on every commanding eleva- tion along the coast ; while all the roads lead- ing from the threatened provinces to other regions more remote from the danger were covered with flying parties, endeavoring to make their escape, and carrying, wearily and in sorrow, whatever they valued most and were most anxious to save. Mothers bore their children, men their gold and silver, and sisters aided their sick or feeble brothers to sustain the toil and terror of the flight. All this time Xerxes was sitting in his war chariot, in the midst of his advancing army, full of exultation, happiness, and pride at the thoughts of the vast harvest of glory which all this panic and suffering were bringing him in. The fleet at length — which was under the command of Xerxes's brothers and cousins. 154 XERXES. whom he had appointed the admirals of it — be- gan to move down the coast from Therma, with the intention of first sweeping the seas clear of any naval force which the Greeks might have sent forward there to act against them, and then of landing upon some point on the coast, wherever they could do so most advantageously for co-operation with the army on the land. The advance of the ships was necessarily slow. So immense a flotilla could not have been other- wise kept together. The admirals, however, selected ten of the swiftest of the galleys, and, after manning and arming them in the most perfect manner, sent them forward to recon- noiter. The ten galleys were ordered to ad- vance rapidly, but with the greatest circum- spection. They were not to incur any needless danger, but, if they met with any detached ships of the enemy, they were to capture them, if possible. They were, moreover, to be con- stantly on the alert, to observe everything, and to send back to the fleet all important intelli- gence which they could obtain. The ten galleys went on without observing anything remarkable until they reached the island of Sciathus. Here they came in sight of three Greek ships, a sort of advanced guard, which had been stationed there to watch the movements of the enemy. The Greek galleys immediately hoisted their ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 155 anchors and fled ; the Persian galleys numned their oars, and j^ressed on after them. They overtook one of the guard-ships very soon, and, after a short conflict, they succeeded in cai^turing it. The Persians made prisoners of the officers and crew, and then, selecting from among them the fairest and most noble- looking man, just as they would have selected a bullock from a herd, they sacrificed him to one of their deities on the prow of the captured ship. This was a religious ceremony, intended to signalize and sanctify their victory. The second vessel they also overtook and cap- tured. The crew of this ship were easily sub- dued, as the overwhelming superiority of their enemies appeared to convince them that all re- sistance was hopeless, and to plunge them into despair. There was one man, however, who, it seems, could not be conquered. He fought like a tiger to the last, and only ceased to deal his furious thrusts and blows at the enemies that surrounded him when, after being entirely cov- ered with wounds, he fell faint and nearly life- less upon the bloody deck. When the conflict with him was thus ended, the murderous hos- tility of his' enemies seemed suddenly to bo changed into pity for his sufferings and admi- ration of his valor. They gathered around him, bathed and bound up his wounds, gave him cordials, and at length restored him to life. 156 XERXES. Finally^ when tlie detachment returned to the fleet, some days afterward, they carried this man with them, and presented him to the com- manders as a hero worthy of the highest admi- ration and honor. The rest of the crew were made slaves. The third of the Greek guard-ships contrived to escape, or, rather, the crew escaped, while the vessel itself was taken. This ship, in its flight, had gone toward the north, and the crew at last succeeded in running it on shore on the coast of Thessaly, so as to escape, themselves, by abandoning the vessel to the enemy. The officers and crew, thus escaping to the shore, went through Thessaly into Greece, spreading the tidings everywhere that the Persians were at hand. This intelligence was communicated, also, along the coast, by beacon fires which the people of Sciathus built upon the heights of the island as a signal, to give the alarm to the coun- try southward of them, according to the pre- concerted plan. The alarm was communicated by other fires built on other heights, and sen^ tinels were stationed on every commanding em^ inence on the highlands of Eubosa toward th« south, to watch for the first appearance of the enemy. The Persian galleys that had been sent for- ward having taken the three Greek guard-ships, and finding the sea before them now clear of ADVANCE INTO GilEECE. 157 all appearances of an enemy, conclutled to re- turn to the fleet with their prizes and their re- port. They had been directed, when they were despatched from the fleet, to hiy up a monu- ment of stones at the furthest point whicli they sliould reach in their cruise : a measure often resorted to in similar cases, by way of furnisli- ing proof that a party thus sent forward have really advanced as far as they pretend on their return. The Persian detachment had actually brought the stones for the erection of their land- mark with them in one of their galleys. The galley containing the stones, and two others to aid it, pushed on beyond Sciathus to a snuill rocky islet standing in a conspicuous position in the sea, and there the^ built their monument or cairn. The detachment then returned to meet the fleet. The time occupied by this whole expedition was eleven days. The fleet was, in the mean time, coming down along the coast of Magnesia. The whole company of ships had advanced safely and pros- perously thus far, but now a great calamity was about to befall them — the first of tlie series of disasters by which the expedition was ulti- mately ruined. It was a storm at sea. The fleet had drawn up for the night in a long and shallow bay on the coast. There was a rocky promontory at one end of this bay and a cape on the other, with a long beach between 158 XERXES. them. It was a very good place of refuge and rest for the night in calm weather, but such a bay afforded very little shelter against a tem- pestuous wind, or even against the surf and swell of the sea, which were sometimes pro- duced by a distant storm. When the fleet en- tered this bay in the evening, the sea was calm and the sky serene. The commanders expected to remain there for the night, and to proceed on the voyage on the following day. The bay was not sufficiently extensive to allow of the drawing up of so large a fleet in a single line along the shore. The ships were ac- cordingly arranged in several lines, eight in all. The innermost of these lines was close to the shore ; the others were at different distances from it, and every separate ship was held to the place assigned it by its anchors. In this posi- tion the fleet passed the night in safety, but before morning there were'indications of a storm. The sky looked wild and lurid. A heavy swell came rolling in from the offing. The wind be- gan to rise, and to blow in fitful gusts. Its di- rection was from the eastward, so that its ten- dency was to drive the fleet upon the shore. The seamen were anxious and afraid, and the commanders of the several ships began to de- vise, each for his own vessel, the best means of safety. Some, whose vessels were small, drew them up upon the sand, above the reach of ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 159 the swell. Others strengtliened the anchoring tackle, or added new anchors to those already down. Others raised their anchors altogether, and attempted to row their galleys away, up or down the coast, in hope of finding some better place of shelter. Thus all was excitement and confusion in the fleet, through the eager efforts made by every separate crew to escape the im- pending danger. In the mean time, the storm came on apace. The rising and roughening sea made the oars useless, and the wind howled frightfully through the cordage and the rigging. The galleys soon began to be forced away from their moorings. Some were driven upon the beach and dashed to pieces by the waves. Some were wrecked on the rocks at one or the other of the projecting points which bounded the bay on either hand. Some foundered at their place of anchorage. Vast numbers of men were drowned. Those who escaped to the shore were in hourly dread of an attack from the inhabitants of the coun- try. To save themselves, if possible, from this danger, they dragged up the fragments of the wrecked vessels upon the beach, and built a fort with them on the shore. Here they in- trenched themselves, and then prepared to de- fend their lives, armed with the weapons which, like the materials for their fort, were washed up, from time to time, by the sea. 12— Xerxes' 160 XERXES. The storm continued for three days. It de- stroyed about three hundred galleys, besides an immense number of provision transports and other smaller vessels. Great numbers of sea- men, also, were drowned. The inhabitants of the country along the coast enriched themselves with the plunder which they obtained from the wrecks, and from the treasures, and the gold and silver vessels, which continued for some time to be driven up upon the beach by the waves. The Persians themselves recovered, it was said, a great deal of valuable treasure, by employing a certain Greek diver, whom they had in their fleet, to dive for it after the storm was over. This diver, whose name was Scyl- lias, was famed far and wide for his power of remaining under water. As an instance of what they believed him capable of performing, they said that when, at a certain period subse- quent to these transactions, he determined to desert to the Greeks, he accomplished his de- sign by diving into the sea from the deck of a Persian galley, and coming up again in the midst of the Greek fleet, ten miles dis- tant ! After three days the storm subsided. The Persians then repaired the damages which had been sustained, so far as it was now possible to repair them, collected what remained of the fleet, took the shipwrecked mariners from their ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 161 rude fortification on the beach, and set sail again on their voyage to the southward. In the mean time, the Greek fleet had as- sembled in the arm of the sea lying north of Euboea, and between Euboea and the main land. It was an allied fleet, made np of con- tributions from various states that had finally agreed to come into the confederacy. As is usually the case, however, with allied or confed- erate forces, they were not well agreed among themselves. The Athenians had furnished far the greater number of ships, and they consid- ered themselves, therefore, entitled to the com- mand ; but the other allies were envious and jealous of them on account of that very superi- ority of wealth and j^ower which enabled them to supply a greater portion of the naval force than the rest. They were willing that one of the Spartans should command, but they would not consent to put themselves under an Athe- nian. If an Athenian leader were chosen, they would disperse, they said, and the various por- tions of the fleet return to their respective homes. The Athenians, though burning with resent- ment at this unjust declaration, were compelled to submit to the necessity of the case. They could not take the confederates at their word, and allow the fleet to be broken up, for the de- fense of Athens was the great object for which 162 XEKXES. it was assembled. The other states might make their peace with the conqueror by sub- mission, but the Athenians could not do so. In respect to the rest of Greece, Xerxes wished only for dominion. In respect to Athens, he wished for vengeance. The Athenians had burned the Persian city of Sard is, and he had determined to give himself no rest until he had burned Athens in return. It was well understood, therefore, that the assembling of the fleet, and giving battle to the Persians where they now were, was a plan adopted mainly for the defense and benefit of the Athenians. The Athenians, accordingly, waived their claim to command, secretly re- solving that, when the war was over, they would have their revenge for the insult and injury. A Spartan was accordingly appointed com- mander of the fleet. His name was Eurybiades. Things were in this state when the two fleets came in sight of each other in the strait be- tween the northern end of Euboeaand the main land. Fifteen of the Persian galleys, advanc- ing incautiously some miles in front of the rest, came suddenly upon the Greek fleet, and were all captured. The crews were made prisoners and sent into Greece. The remainder of the fleet entered the strait, and anchored at the eastern extremity of it, sheltered by the prom- ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 163 ontory of Magnesia, which now lay to the north of them. The Greeks were amazed at the immense magnitude of the Persian fleet, and the first opinion of the commanders was, tliat it was wholly nseless for them to attempt to engage them. A council was convened, and, after a long and anxious debate, they decided that it was best to retire to the sou tli ward. The in- habitants of Euboea, who had been already in a state of great excitement and terror at the near approach of so formidable an enemy, were thrown, by this decision of the allies, into a state of absolute dismay. It was abandoning them to irremediable and hopeless destruction. The government of the island immediately raised a very large sum of money, and went with it to Themistocles, one of the most influ- ential of the Athenian leaders, and offeredit to him if he would contrive any way to persuade the commanders of the fleet to remain and give the Persians battle where they were. Themis- tocles took the money, and agreed to the condi- tion. He went witli a small part of it — though this part was a very considerable sum — to Eu- rybiades, the commander-in-chief, and offered it to him if he would retain the fleet in its present position. There were some other similar offerings made to other influential men, judiciously selected. All this was done in a 164 XERXES. very private manner, and, of course, Tliemisto- cles took care to reserve to himself the lion^s share of the Euboean contribution. The effect of this money in altering the opinions of the naval officers was marvelous. A new council was called, the former decision was annulled, and the Greeks determined to give their enemies battle where they were. The Persians had not been unmindful of the danger that the Greeks might retreat by retir- ing through the Euripus, and so escape them. In order to prevent this, they secretly sent off a fleet of two hundred of their strongest and fleetest galleys, with orders to sail round Eubcea and enter the Euripus from the south, so as to cut off the retreat of the Greeks in that quar- ter. They thought that by this plan the Greek fleet would be surrounded, and could have no possible mode of escape. They remained, there- fore, with the principal fleet, at the outer en- trance of the northern strait for some days, be- fore attacking the Greeks, in order to give time for the detachment to pass round the island. The Persians sent off the two hundred gal- leys with great secrecy, not desiring that the Greeks should discover their design of thus in- tercepting their retreat. They did discover it, however, for this was the occasion on which the great diver, Scyllias, made his escape from one ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 165 fleet to the other by swimming under water ten miles, and he brought the Greeks the tidings.* The Greeks desj^atched a small squadron of ships with orders to jDroceed southward into the Euripus, to meet this detachment whicli the Persians sent round ; and, in the mean time, they determined themselves to attack the main Persian fleet without any delay. Notwithstand- ing their absurd dissensions and jealousies, and the extent to which the leaders were influenced by intrigues and bribes, the Greeks always evinced an undaunted and indomitable spirit when the day of battle came. It was, more- over, in this case, exceedingly important to de- fend the position which they had taken. By referring to the map once more, it will be seen that the Euripus was the great high^vay to Athens by sea, as the pass of Thermopyl^ was by land. Thermopylae was west of Artemisium, where the fleet was now stationed, and not many miles from it. The Greek army had made its great stand at Thermopylae, and Xerxes was fast coming down the country with all his forces to endeavor to force a passage there. The Persian fleet, in entering Artemisium, was making the same attempt by sea in respect to * There is reason to suppose that Scyllias made his escape by night in a boat, managing the circum- stances, however, in such a way as to cause the story to be circulated that he swam. 166 XEKXES. the narrow passage of Euripus ; and for either of the two forces, the fleet of the army, to fail of making good the defense of its position, with- out a desperate effort to do so, would justly be considered a base betrayal and abandonment of the other. The Greeks therefore advanced, one morn- ing, to the attack of the Persians, to the utter astonishment of the latter, who believed that their enemies were insane when they thus saw them coming into the jaws, as they thought, of certain destruction. Before night, however, they were to change their opinions in respect to the insanity of their foes. The Greeks pushed boldly on into the midst of the Persian fleet, where they were soon surrounded. They then formed themselves into a circle, with the prows of the vessels outward, and the sterns toward the center within, and fought in this manner with the utmost desperation all the day. With the night a storm came on, or, rather, a series of thunder-showers and gusts of wind, so severe that both fleets were glad to retire from the scene of contest. The Persians went back to- ward the east, the Greeks to the westward, to- ward Thermopylas — each party busy in repair- ing their wrecks, taking care of their wounded, and saving their vessels from the tempest. It was a dreadful night. The Persians, particu- larly, spent it in the midst of scenes of horror. ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 167 The wind and the current, it seems, set out- ward, toward the sea, and carried the masses and fragments of the wrecked vessels, and the swollen and ghastly bodies of the dead, in among the Persian fleet, and so choked up the surface of the water that the oars became entangled and useless. The whole mass of seamen in the Persian fleet, durijig this terrible night, were panic-stricken and filled with horror. The wind, the perpetual thunder, the concussions of the vessel with the wrecks and with one another, and the heavy shocks of the seas, kept them in continual alarm ; and the black and in- scrutable darkness was rendered the more dread- ful, while it prevailed, by the hideous spectacle which, at every flash of lightning, glared bril- liantly npon every eye from the wide surface of the sea. The shouts and cries of officers vocif- erating orders, of wounded men writhing in agony, of watchmen and sentinels in fear of collisions, mingled with the howling wind and roaring seas, created a scene of indescribable terror and confusion. The violence of the sudden gale was still greater further out at sea, and the detachment of ships which had been sent around Euba^a was wholly dispersed and destroyed by it. The storm was, however, after all, only a se- ries of summer evening showers, such a-s to the inhabitants of peaceful dwellings on the land 108 XERXES. have no terror^ but only come to clear the sul- try atmosphere in the night, and in the morn- ing are gone. When the sun rose, accordingly, upon the Greeks and Persians on the morning after their conflict, the air was calm, the sky serene, and the sea as blue and pure as ever. The bodies and the wrecks had been floated away into the offing. The courage or the fe- rocity, whichever we choose to call it, of the combatants, returned, and they renewed the conflict. It continued, with varying success, for two more days. During all this time the inhabitants of the island of Euboea were in the greatest distress and terror. They watched these dreadful con- flicts from the heights, uncertain how the struggle would end, but fearing lest their de- fenders should be beaten, in which case the whole force of the Persian fleet would belauded on their island, to sweep it with pillage and destruction. They soon began to anticipate the worst, and, in preparation for it, they re- moved their goods — all that could be removed — and drove their cattle down to the southern part of the island, so as to be ready to escape to the main land. The Greek commanders, finding that the fleet would probably be com- pelled to retreat in the end, sent to them here, recommending that they should kill their cattle and eat them, roasting the flesh at fires which ADVANCE INTO GREECE. 169 they should kindle on the plain. The cattle could not be transported, they said, across the channel, and it was better that the flying popu- lation should be fed, than that the food should fall into Persian hands! If they would dis- pose of their cattle in this manner, Eurybiades would endeavor, he said, to transport the peo- ple themselves and their valuable goods across into Attica. How many thousand peaceful and happy homes were broken up and destroyed forever by this ruthless invasion ! In tlie meantime, the Persians, irritated by the obstinate resistance of the Greeks, were, on the fourth day, preparing for some more vigor- ous measures, when they saw a small boat com- ing toward the fleet from down the channel. It proved to contain a countryman, who came to tell them that the Greeks had gone away. The whole fleet, he said, had sailed oif to the southward, and abandoned those seas altogether. The Persians did not, at first, believe this in- telligence. They suspected some ambuscade or stratagem. They advanced slowly and cau- tiously down the channel. When they had gone half down to Thermopylae, they stopped at a place called Histiaea, where, upon the rocks on the shore, they found an inscription addressed to the lonians — who, it will be recol- lected, had been brought by Xerxes as auxil- 170 XERXES. iaries, contrary to the advice of Artabanns — entreating them not to fight against their countrymen. This inscription was written in large and conspicuous characters on the face of the cliff, so that it could be read by the Ionian seamen as they passed in their galleys. The fleet anchored at Histiaea, the command- ers being somewhat uncertain in respect to what it was best to do. Their suspense was very soon relieved by a messenger from Xerxes, who came in a galley up the channel from Thermopylse, with the news that Xerxes had arrived at Thermopylae, had fought a great battle there, defeated the Greeks, and obtained possession of the pass, and that any of the officers of the fleet who chose to do so might come and view the battle ground. This intel- ligence and invitation produced, throughout the fleet, a scene of the wildest excitement, enthusiasm, and joy. All the boats and smaller vessels of the fleet were put into requisition to carry the officers down. When they arrived at ThermopylaG the tidings all proved true. Xerxes was in possession of the pasS;, and the Greek fleet was gone. CHAPTER IX. THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE. The pass of Tliermopylae was not a ravine among mountains, but a narrow space be- tween mountains and the sea. The mountains landward were steep and inaccessible ; the sea was shoal. The passage between them was narrow for many miles along the shore, being narrowest at the ingress and egress. In the middle the space was broader. The place was celebrated for certain warm springs which here issued from the rocks, and which had been used in former times for baths. The position had been considered, long be- fore Xerxes^s day, a very important one in a military point of view, as it was upon the frontier between two Greek states that were frequently at war. One of these states, of course, was Thessaly. The other was Phocis, which lay south of Thessaly. The general boundary between these two states was moun- tainous, and impassable for troops, so that each could invade the territories of the other 171 172 XERXES. only by passing round between the mountains and the shore at Thermopylae. The PhocaeanSj in order to keep the Thessa- lians out, had, in former times, built a wall across the way, and put up gates there, which they strongly fortified. In order still further to increase the difficulty of forcing a passage, they conducted the water of the warm springs over the ground without the wall, in such a way as to make the surface continually wet and miry. The old wall had now fallen to ruins, but the miry ground remained. The place was so/itary and desolate, and overgrown with a confused and wild vegetation. On one side the view extended far and wide over the sea, with the highlands of Euboea in the distance, and on the other dark and inaccessible moun- tains rose, covered with forests, indented with mysterious and unexplored ravines, and frown- ing in a wild and gloomy majesty over the narrow passway which crept along the shore below. The Greeks, when they retired from Thes- saly, fell back upon Thermopylae, and estab- lished themselves there. They had a force variously estimated, from three to four thou- sand men. These were from the different states of Greece, some within and some with- out the Peloponnesus — a few hundred men only being furnished, in general, from each THE BATTLE OF THEUMOPYLJC. 178 state or kingdom. Each of tliese bodies of troops had its own officers, tliougli there was one general-in-chief, who commanded the whole. Tliis was Leonidas the Spartan. He had brought with liim three hundred Si:)artans, as the cp.iota furnished by that city. Tliese men he had specially selected himself, one by one, from among the troops of the city, as men on Avhom he could rely. It will be seen from the map that Thermop- ylae is at some distance from the Isthmus of Cor- inth, and that of the states which would be pro- tected by making a stand at the pass, some were without the isthmus and some within. These states, in sending each a few hundred men only to Thermopylae, did not consider that they were making their full contribution to the army, but only sending forward for the emergency those that could be dispatched at once ; and they were all making arrangements to supply more troops as soon as they could be raised and equipped for the service. In the mean time, however, Xerxes and his immense hordes came on faster than they had expected, and the news at length came to Leonidas, in the pass, that the Persians, with one or two millions of men, were at hand, wliile he had only three or four thousand at Thermop- ylae to oppose them. The question arose, What was to be done ? Those of the Greeks who came from the Pel \o — Xerxes 174 XERXES. oponnesus were in favor of abandoning Ther- mopylse^, and falling back to the isthmus. The isthmus, they maintained, was as strong and as favorable a position as the place where they were ; and, by the time they had reached it, they would have received great reenforcements ; whereas, with so small a force as they had then at command, it was madness to attempt to re- sist the Persian millions. This plan, however, was strongly opposed by all those Greeks who represented countries loitliout the Pelopon- nesus ; for, by abandoning Tliermopylse, and falling back to the isthmus, their states would be left wholly at the mercy of the enemy. After some consultation and debate, it was decided to remain at Thermopylae. The troops accord- ingly took up their positions in a deliberate and formal manner, and, intrenching themselves as strongly as possible, began to await the onset of the enemy. Leonidas and his three hundred were foremost in the defile, so as to be the first exposed to the attack. The rest occupied vari- ous positions along the passage, except one corps, which was stationed on the mountains above, to guard the pass in that direction. This corps was from Phocis, which, being the state nearest to the scene of conflict, had fur- nished a larger number of soldiers than any other. Their division numbered a thousand men. These being stationed on the declivity THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE. 175 of the mountain, left only two or three thousand in the defile below. From what has been said of the stern and savage character of the Spartans, one would scarcely exj^ect in them any indications or dis- plays of personal vanity. There was one par- ticular, it seems, however, in regard to which they were vain, and that was in respect to their hair. They wore it very long. In fact, the length of the hair was, in their commonwealth, a mark of distinction between freemen and slaves. All the agricultural and mechanical labors were performed, as has already been stated, by the slaves, a body which constituted, in fact, the mass of the population ; and the Spartan freemen, though very stern in their manners, and extremely simple and plain in their habits of life, were, it must be remembered, as proud and lofty in spirit as tliey were plain and poor. They constituted a military aris- tocracy, and a military aristocracy is always more proud and overbearing than any other. It must be understood, therefore, that these Spartan soldiers were entirely above the per- formance of any useful labors ; and while they prized, in character, the savage ferocity of the tiger, they had a taste, in person, for something like his savage beauty too. They were never, moreover, more particular and careful in re- spect to their personal appearance than when 176 XERXES. Lhcy were going into battle. The field of battle was their particular theater of display^ not only of the substantial qualities of strength^ for- titude, and valor, but also of such personal adornments as were consistent with the plain- ness and severity of their attire, and could be appreciated by a taste as rude and savage as theirs. They proceeded, therefore, when es- tablished at their post in the throat of the pass, to adorn themselves for the approaching battle. In the mean time the armies of Xerxes were approaching. Xerxes himself, though he did not think it possible that the Greeks could have a sufficient force to offer him any effectual re- sistance, thought it probable that they would attempt to make a stand at the pass, and, Avhen he began to draw near to it, he sent forward a horseman to reconnoiter the ground. The horseman rode into the pass a little way, until he came in sight of the enemy. He stopped upon an eminence to survey the scene, being all ready to turn in an instant, and fly at the top of his speed, in case he should be pursued. The Spartans looked upon him as he stood there, but seemed to consider his appearance as a cir- cumstance of no moment, and then went on with their avocations. The horseman found, as he leisurely observed them, that there was an intrenchment thrown across the straits, and that the Spartans were in front of it. There THE BATTLE OF THEKMOPYL.E. 177 were other forces behind ; but these the horse- man could not see. The Sj^artans were engaged, some of them in athletic sports and gymnastic exercises, and the rest in nicely arranging their dress, which was red and showy in color, though simple and plain in form, and in smoothing, adjusting, and curling their hair. In fact, they seemed to be, one and all, preparing for an entertainment. And yet these men were actually preparing themselves to be slaughtered, to be butchered, one by one, by slow degrees, and in the most horrible and cruel manner ; and they knew per- fectly well that it was so. The adorning of them- selves was for this express and particular end. The horseman, when he had attentively noticed all that was to be seen, rode slowly back to Xerxes, and reported the result. The king was much amused at hearing such an account from his messenger. He sent for Demaratus, the Spartan refugee, with whom, the reader ^vill recollect, he held a long conversation in respect to the Greeks at the close of the great review at Doriscus. AVhen Demaratus came, Xerxes related to him what the' messenger had re- ported. ^^The Spartans in the pass," said he, ''present, in their encampment, the appear- ance of being out on a party of pleasure. What does it mean ? You will admit now, I suppose, that they do not intend to resist us.'* 178 XERXES. Demaratus shook his head. " Your Majesty does not know the Greeks/^ said he, " and I am very much afraid that, if I state what I know respecting them, I shall offend you. These ap- pearances which your messenger observed indi- cate to me that the men he saw were a body of Spartans, and that they supposed themselves on the eve of a desperate conflict. Those are the men, practising athletic feats, and smoothing and adorning their hair, that are the most to be feared of all the soldiers of Greece. If you can conquer them, you will" have nothing beyond to fear." Xerxes thought this opinion of Demaratus extremely absurd. He was convinced that the party in the pass was some small detachment that could ]iot possibly be thinking of serious resistance. They would, he was satisfied, now that they found that the Persians were at hand, immediately retire down the pass, and leave the way clear. He advanced, therefore, up to the entrance of the pass, encamped there, and waited several days for the Greeks to clear the way. The Greeks remained quietly in their places, paying apparently no attention, whatever to the impending and threatening presence of their formidable foes. At length Xerxes concluded that it was time for him to act. On the morning, therefore, of the fifth day, he called out a detachment of his THE BATTLE OF TllEKMOPYL.E. 179 troops, sufficient, as lie tliouglit, for the pur- pose, and sent them down the pass, with orders to seize all the Greeks that were there, and bring them, alive, to him. The detachment that he sent was a body of xMedes, who were considered as the best troops in the army, ex- cepting always the Immortals, who, as has been before stated, were entirely superior to the rest. The ]\Iedes, however, Xerxes supposed, would find no difficulty in executing his orders. The detachment marched, accordingly, into •the pass. In a few hours a spent and breath- less messenger came from them, asking for re- enforcements. The reenforcements were sent. Toward night a remnant of the whole body came back, faint and exhausted with a long and fruitless combat, and bringing many of their wounded and bleeding comrades w^ith them. The rest they had left dead in the de- file. Xerxes was both astonished and enraged at these results. He determined that this trifling should continue no longer. He ordered the Im- mortals themselves to be called out on the following morning, and then placing himself at the head of them, he advanced to the vicin- nity of the Greek intrenchments. Here he ordered a seat or throne to be placed for him upon an eminence, and, taking his seat upon it, prepared to witness the conflict. The Greeks, ISO XERXEg. in the mean time, calmly arranged themselves on the line which they had undertaken to defend, and awaited the charge. npon the ground, on every side, were lying the mangled bodies of the Persians slain the day before, some exposed fully to view, ghastly and horrid spectacles, others trampled down and half buried in the mire. The Immortals advanced to the attack, but they made no impression. Their superior num- bers gave them no advantage, on account of the narrowness of the defile. The Greeks stood, each corps at its own assigned station on the line, forming a mass so firm and immovable that the charge of the Persians was arrested on en- countering it as by a wall. In fact, as the spears of the Greeks were longer than those of the Per- sians, and their muscular and athletic strength and skill were greater, it was found that in the desperate conflict which raged, hour after hour, along the line, the Persians were continually falling, while the Greek ranks continued entire. Sometimes the Greeks would retire for a space, falling back with the utmost coolness, regular- ity, and order ; and then, when the Persians pressed on in pursuit, supposing that they were gaining the victory, the Greeks would turn so soon as they found that the order of pursuit had thrown the enemies' lines somewhat into confu- sion, and, presenting the same firm and terrible THE BATTLE OF THEKMOPYLvE. 181 front as before, would press again upon the of- fensive, and cut down their enemies with re- doubled slaughter. Xerxes, who witnessed all these things from among the group of officers around him upon the eminence, was kept con- tinually in a state of excitement and irritation. Three times he leaped from his throne, with loud exclamations of vexation and rage. All, however, was of no avail. When night came the Immortals were compelled to with- draw, and leave the Greeks in possession of their intrenchments. Things continued substantially in this state for one or two days longer, when one morning a Greek countryman appeared at the tent of Xerxes, and asked an audience of the king. He had something, he said, of great importance to communicate to him. The king ordered him to be admitted. The Greek said that his name was Ephialtes, and that he came to inform the king that there was a secret path leading along a wild and hidden chasm in the mountains, by which he could guide a body of Persians to the summit of the hills overhanging the pass at a point below the Greek intrenchment. This point being once attained, it would be easy, Ephialtes said, for the Persian forces to descend into the pass below the Greeks, and thus to sur- round them and shut them in, and that the con- quest of them would then be easy. The path 182 XERXES. was a secret one, and known to very few. He knew it, however, and was willing to conduct a detachment of troops through it, on condition of receiving a suitable reward. The king was greatly surprised and delighted at this intelligence. He immediatel acceded to Ephialtes's proposals, and organized a strong force to be sent up the path that very night. On the north of Thermopylae there was a small stream, which came down through a chasm in the mountains to the sea. The path which Ephialtes was to show commenced here, and following the bed of this stream up the chasm, it at length turned to the southward through a succession of wild and trackless ra- vines, till it came out at last on the declivities of the mountains near the lower part of the pass, at a place where it was possible to descend to the defile below. This was the point which the thousand Phocseans had been ordered to take possession of and guard, when the plan for the defense of the pass was first organized. They were posted here, not with the idea of repelling any attack from the mountains behind them — for the existence of the path was wholly un- known to them — but only that they might com- mand the defile below, and aid in preventing the Persians from going through, even if those who were in the defile were defeated or slain. The Persian detachment toiled all night up THE BATTLE OF THERM0PYLJ3. 183 the steep and dangerous pathway, among rocks, chasms, and precipices, frightful by day, and now made still more frightful by the gloom of the night. They came out at last, in the dawn of the morning, into valleys and glens high up the declivity of the mountain, and in the imme- diate vicinity of the Phoccean encampment. The Persians were concealed, as they advanced, by the groves and thickets of stunted oaks which grew here, but the morning air was so calm and still, that the Phocaean sentinels heard the noise made by their trampling upon the leaves as they came up the glen. The Phocaeans im- mediately gave the alarm. Both parties were completely surprised. The Persians had not expected to find a foe at this elevation, and the Greeks who had ascended there had supposed that all beyond and above them was an impass- able and trackless desolation. There was a short conflict. The Phocaeans were driven off their ground. They retreated up the mountain, and toward the southward. The Persians decided not to pursue them. On the other hand, they descended toward the defile, and took up a position on the lower de- clivities of the mountain, which enabled them to command the pass below : there they paused, and awaited Xerxes's orders. The Greeks in the defile perceived at once that thev were now wholly at the mercy of their 184 XERXES. enemies. They might yet retreat, it is true, for the Persian detachment had not yet de- scended to intercept them ; but, if they re- mained where they were, they would, in a few hours, be hemmed in by their foes ; and even if they could resist, for a little time, the doubl© onset which would then be made upon them, their supplies would be cut off, and there would be nothing before them but immediate starva- tion. They held hurried councils to determine what to do. There is some doubt as to what took place at these councils, though the prevailing testimony is, that Leonidas recommended that they should retire — that is, that all except himself and the three hundred Spartans should do so. " You,"* said he, addressing the other Greeks, '''are at liberty, by your laws, to consider, in such casea as this, the question of expediency, and to with- draw from a position which you have taken, or stand and maintain it, according as you judge best. But by our laws, such a question, in such a case, is not to be entertained. Wherever we are posted, there we stand, come life or death, to the end. We have been sent here from Sparta to defend the pass of Thermopylae. We have received no orders to withdraw. Here, therefore, we must remain ; and the Persians, if they go through the pass at all, must go through it over our graves. It is. THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYL^. 185 therefore, your duty to retire. Our duty is here, and we will remain and do it/' After all that may be said of the absurdity and folly of throwing away the lives of three hundred men in a case like this, so utterly and hopelessly desperate, there is still something in the noble generosity with which Leonidas dis- missed the other Greeks, and in the undaunted resolution with which he determined himself to maintain his ground, which has always strongly excited the admiration of mankind. It was un- doubtedly carrying the point of honor to a wholly unjustifiable extreme, and yet all the world, for the twenty centuries which have intervened since those transactions occurred, while they have unanimously disapproved, in theory, of the course which Leonidas pursued, have none the less unanimously admired and applauded it. In dismissing the other Greeks, Leonidas re- tained with him a body of Thebans, whom he suspected of a design of revolting to the enemy. ^\ hether he considered his decision to keep them in the pass equivalent to a sentence of death, and intended it as a punishment for their sup- posed treason, or only that he wished to secure their continued fidelity by keeping them closely to their duty, does not appear. At all events, he retained them, and dismissed the otlier allies. Those dismissed retreated to the open country 186 XERXES. below. The Spartans and the Thebans remained in the pass. There were also, it was said, some other troops, who, not willing to leave the Spartans alone in this danger, chose to remain with them and share their fate. The Thebans remained very unwillingly. The next morning Xerxes prepared for his final effort. He began by solemn religious services, in the presence of his army, at an early hour ; and then, after breakfasting quietly, as usual, and waiting, in fact, until the business part of the day had arrived, he gave orders to advance. His troops found Leonidas and his party not at their intrenchments, as before, but far in advance of them. They had come out and forward into a more open part of the defile, as if to court and anticipate their inevi- table and dreaded fate. Here a most terrible combat ensued ; one which, for a time, seemed to have no other object than mutual destruction, until at length Leonidas himself fell, and then the contest for the possession of his body su- perseded the unthinking and desperate strug- gles of mere hatred and rage. Four times the body, having been taken by the Persians, was retaken by the Greeks; at last the latter re- treated, bearing the dead body with them past their intrenchment, until they gained a small eminence in the rear of it, at a point where the pass was wider. Here the few that were still THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYL^. 187 left gathered together. The detachment which Ephialtes had guided were coming up from be- low. The Spartans were faint and exhausted with their desperate efforts, and were bleeding from the wounds they had received ; their swords and spears were broken to pieces, their leader and nearly all their company were slain. But the savage and tiger-like ferocity which ani- mated them continued unabated till the last. They fought with tooth and nail when all other weapons failed them, and bit the dust at last, as they fell, in convulsive and unyielding despair. The struggle did not cease till they were all slain, and every limb of every man ceased to quiver. There were stories in circulation among man- kind after this battle, importing that one or two of the corps escaped the fate of the rest. There were two soldiers, it was said, that had been left in a town near the pass, as invalids, being afflicted with a severe inflammation of the eyes. One of them, when he heard that the Spartans were to be left in the pass, went in, of his own accord, and joined them, choosing to share the fate of his comrades. It was said that he ordered his servant to conduct him to the place. The servant did so, and then fled, himself, in great terror. The sick soldier re- mained and fought with the rest. The other of the invalids was saved, but, on his return to 14— Xerxes 188 XERXES. Sparta, ho was considered as stained with in- delible disgrace for what his countrymen re- garded a base dereliction from duty in not shar- ing his comrade's fate. There was also a story of another man, wlio had been sent away on some mission into Thes- saly, and who did not return nntil all was over ; and also of two others who had been sent to Sparta, and were returning when they heard of the approaching conflict. One of them hast- ened into the pass, and was killed with his companions. The other delayed, and was saved. Whether any or all of these rumors were true, is not now certain ; there is, however, no doubt that, with at most a few exceptions such as these, the whole three hundred were slain. The Thebans, early in the conflict, went over in a body to the enemy. Xerxes came after the battle to view the ground. It ^vas covered with many thousands of dead bodies, nearly all of whom, of course, were Persians. The wall of the intrenchment was broken down, and the breaches in it choked up by the bodies. The morasses made by the water of the springs were trampled into dee]) mire, and were full of the mutilated forms of men and of broken weapons. When Xerxes came at last to the body of Leonidas, and was told that that was the man who had been the leader of the band, he gloried over it in great THE RATTLE OF THERMOPVL^. 189 exultation and triiinipli. At length he ord(3rcd the body to bo decapitated, and the headless trunk to bo nailed to a cross. Xerxes then commanded that a great hole should be dug, and ordered all tlie bodies of tlie Persians that had been killed to be buried in it, except only about a thousand, which he left upon the ground. The object of this was to conceal the extent of the loss which his army had sustained. The more perfectly to accom- plish this end, he caused the great grave, when it was filled uji, to be strewed over with leaves, so as to cover and conceal all indications of wliat had been done. This having been care- fully effected, he sent the message to the fleet, which was alluded to at the close of the last chapter, inviting the officers to come and view the ground. The operations of the fleet described in the last chapter, and those of the army narrated in this, took place, it will be remembered, at the same time, and in the same vicinity too ; for, by referring to the map, it will appear that Thermopylae was upon the coast, exactly op- posite to the channel or arm of the sea lying north of Eubo3a, where the naval contests had been waged ; so that, while Xerxes had been making his desperate efforts to get through the pass, his fleet had been engaged in a similar conflict with the squadrons of the Greeks, 190 XERXES. directly opposite to him, twenty or thirty miles in the offing. After the battle of Thermopylae was over^, Xerxes sent for Demaratns, and inquired of him how many more snch soldiers there were in Greece as Leonidas and his three hundred Spar- tans. Demaratus replied that he could not say how many precisely there were in Greece, but that there were eight thousand such in Sparta alone. Xerxes then asked the opinion of Demaratus as to the course best to be pursued for making the conquest of the country. This conversation was held in the presence of various nobles and officers, among whom was the ad- miral of the fleet, who had come, with the vari- ous other naval commanders, as was stated in the last chapter, to view the battle-field. Demaratus said that he did not think that the king could easily get possession of the Pel- oponnesus by marching to it directly, so formi- dable would be the opposition that he would encounter at the isthmus. There was, however, he said, an island called Cythera, opposite to the territories of Sparta, and not far from the shore, of which he thought that the king could easily get possession, and which, once fully in his power, might be made the base of future operations for the reduction of the whole pen- insula, as bodies of troops could be despatched from it to the main land in any numbers and at THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYL^. 191 any time. He recommended, therefore, tliat three hundred ships, with a proper complement of men, should be detached from tlie fleet, and sent round at once to take possession of that island. To this plan the admiral of the fleet was to- tally opposed. It was natural that he should be so, since the detaching of three hundred ships for this enterprise would greatly weaken the force under his command. It would leave the fleet, he told the king, a miserable remnant, not superior to that of the enemy, for they had already lost four hundred ships by storms. He thought it infinitely preferable that the fleet and the army should advance together, the one by sea and the other on the land, and complete their conquests as they went along. He advised the king, too, to beware of Demaratus's advice. He was a Greek, and, as such, his object was, the admiral believed, to betray and ruin the expedition. After hearing these conflicting opinions, the king decided to follow the admiral's advice. ^^ I will adopt your counsel,''^ said he, " but I will not hear anything said against Demaratus, for I am convinced that he is a true and faithful friend to me." Saying this, he dismissed the council. CHAPTER X. THE BURKIJs^G OF ATHENS. WHEi^ the officers of the Persian fleet had satisfied themselves with examining the battle- field at Thermopylae, and had heard the narra- tions given by the soldiers of the terrible com- bats that had been fonght with the desperate garrison which had been stationed to defend the pass, they went back to their vessels, and prepared to make sail to the southward, in pur- suit of the Greek fleet. The Greek fleet had gone to Salamis. The Persians in due time overtook them there, and a great naval con- flict occurred, which is known in history as the battle of Salamis, and was one of the most celebrated naval battles of ancient times. An account of this battle will form the subject of the next chapter. In this we are to follow the operations of the army on the land. As the Pass of Thermopylae was now in Xerxes's possession, the way was open before him to all that portion of the great territory which lay north of the Peloponnesus. Of course, before he could enter the peninsula 192 THE BURNING OF ATHENS. 193 itself, he must joass the Isthmus of Corinth, where he niiglit, perhaps, encounter some con- centrated resistance. North of the isthmus, however, there was no place where the Greeks could make a stand. The country was all open, or, rather, there were a thousand ways open through the various valleys and glens, and along the banks of the rivers. All that was neces- sary was to procure guides and proceed. The Thessalians were very ready to furnish guides. They had submitted to Xerxes before the battle of Thermopylae, as they considered themselves, accordingly, as his allies. They had, besides, a special interest in conducting the Persian army, on account of the hostile feel- ings which they entertained toward the people immediately south of the pass, into whose ter- ritories Xerxes would first carry his ravages. This people were the Phocaeans. Their coun- try, as has already been stated, was separated from Thessaly by impassable mountains, except where the Straits of Thermopylae opened a pas- sage ; and through this pass both nations had been continually making hostile incursions into the territory of the other for many years before the Persian invasion. The Thessalians had surrendered readily to the summons of Xerxes, while the Phocaeans had determined to resist him, and adhere to the cause of the Greeks in the struggle. They were suspected of having 194 XERXES. been influenced, in a great measure, in their de- termination to resist, by the fact that the Thes- salians had decided to surrender. They were resolved that they would not, on any account, be upon the same side with their ancient and inveterate foes. The hostility of the Thessalians to the Pho- caeans was equally implacable. At the last in- cursion which they had made into the Phocagan territory, they had been defeated by means of stratagems in a manner which tended greatly to vex and irritate them. There were two of these stratagems, which were both completely successful, and both of a very extraordinary character. The first was this. The Thessalians were in the Phocaean country in great force, and the Phocseans had found themselves utterly unable to expel them. Under these circumstances, a body of the Phocseans, six hundred in number, one day whitened their faces, their arms and hands, their clothes, and all their weapons, with chalk, and then, at the dead of night — perhaps, however, when the moon was shining — made an onset upon the camp of the enemy. The Thessalian sentinels were terrified and ran away, and the soldiers, awakened from their slumbers by these unearthly-looking troops, screamed with fright, and fled in all directions, in utter confusion and dismay. A night attack is usu- THE BURNING OF ATHENS. 195 ally II diiiigcruus atieiii^^t, even if the assault- ing party is the strongest, as, in the darkness and confusion which then prevail, the assailants cannot ordinarily distinguish friends from foes, and so are in great danger, amid tlie tumult and obscurit}^ of slaying one another. That difficulty Avas obviated in this case by the strange disguise which the Phoceeans had as- sumed. They knew that all were Tliessalians who were not whitened like themselves. The Thessalians were totally discomfited and dis- persed by this encounter. The other stratagem was of a different char- acter, and was directed against a troop of cav- alry. The Thessalian cavalry were renowned throughout the world. The broad plains ex- tending through the heart of their country contained excellent fields for training and exercising such troops, and the mountains which surrounded it furnished grassy slopes and verdant valleys, that supplied excellent pasturage for the rearing of horses. The na- tion was very strong, therefore, in this species of force, and many of the states and kingdoms of Greece, when planning their means of in- ternal defense, and potentates and conquerors, when going forth on great campaigns, often considered their armies incomplete unless there was included in them a corps of Thessalian cavalry. 196 XERXES. A troop of tliis cavalry had invaded Phocis, and the Phocseans, conscious of their inability to resist them in open war, contrived to entrap them in the following manner. They dug a long trench in the ground, and then putting in baskets or casks sufficient nearly to fill the space, they spread over the top a thin layer of soil. They then concealed all indications that the ground had been disturbed, by spreading leaves over the surface. The trap being thus prepared, they contrived to entice the Thes- salians to the spot by a series of retreats, and at length led them into the pitfall thus provided for them. The substructure of casks was strong enough to sustain the Phocseans, who went over it as footmen, but was too fragile to bear the weight of the mounted troops. The horses broke through, and the squadron was thrown into such confusion by so unexpected a disaster, that, when the Phocseans turned and fell upon them, they were easily overcome. These things had irritated and vexed the Thessalians very much. They were eager for revenge, and they were very ready to guide the armies of Xerxes into the country of their ene- mies in order to obtain it. The troops advanced accordingly, awakening everywhere, as they came on, the greatest con- sternation and terror among the inhabitants, and producing on all sides scenes of indescrib- THE BURNING OF ATHP^NS. 197 able anguish and suffering. They came into the valley of the Cephisus, a beautiful river flowing through a delightful and fertile region, which contained many cities and towns, and was filled everywhere with an industrious rural population. Through this scene of peace, and happiness, and plenty, the vast horde of in- vaders swept on with the destructive force of a tornado. They plundered the towns of every- thing which could be carried away, and de- stroyed what they were compelled to leave behind them. There is a catalogue of twelve cities in this valley which they burned. The inhabitants, too, were treated with the utmost cruelty. Some were seized, and compelled to follow the army as slaves ; others were slain ; and others still were subjected to nameless cruelties and atrocities, worse sometimes than death. Many of the women, both mothers and maidens, died in consequence of the brutal violence with which the soldiers treated them. The most remarkable of the transactions connected Avith Xerxes's advance through the country of Phocis, on his way to Athens, were those connected with his attack upon Delphi. Delphi was a sacred town, the seat of the oracle. It was in the vicinity of Mount Parnassus and of the Castalian spring, places of very great renown in the Greek mythology. Parnassus was the name of a short moun- 198 XERXES. tainous range ratlier tlian of a single peak, though the loftiest summit of the range was called Parnassus too. This summit is found, by modern measurement, to be about eight thousand feet high, and it is covered with snow nearly all the year. When bare it consists only of a desolate range of rocks, with mosses and a few Alpine plants growing on the shel- tered and sunny sides of them. From the top of Parnassus travelers who now. visit it look down upon almost all of Greece as upon a map. The Gulf of Corinth is a silver lake at their feet, and the plains of Thessaly are seen extending far and wide to the northward, with Olympus, Pelion, and Ossa, blue and distant peaks, bounding the view. Parnassus has, in fact, a double summit, be- tween the peaks of which a sort of ravine com- mences, which, as it extends down the moun- tain, becomes a beautiful valley, shaded with rows of trees, and adorned with slopes of verd- ure and banks of flowers. In a glen connected with this valley there is a fountain of water springing copiously from among the rocks, in a grove of laurels. This fountain gives rise to a stream, which, after bounding over the rocks, and meandering between mossy banks for a long distance down the mountain glens, becomes a quiet low^land stream, and flows gently through a fertile and undulating country to tlie sea. THE BURNING OF ATHENS. 199 This fountain was the famous Castalian spring. It was, as the ancient Greek legends said, the favorite resort and residence of Apollo and the Muses, and its waters became, accordingly, the symbol and the emblem of poetical inspira- tion. The city of Delphi was built upon the lower declivities of the Parnassian ranges, and yet high above the surrounding country. It was built in the form of an amphitheater, in a sort of lap in the hill where it stood, with steep prec- ipices descending to a great depth on either side. It was thus a position of difficult access, and was considered almost impregnable in respect to its military strength. Besides its natural defenses,it was considered as under the special protection of Apollo. Delphi was celebrated throughout the world, in ancient times, not only for the oracle itself, but for the magnificence of the architectural structures, the boundless profusion of the works of art, and the immense value of the treasures which, in process of time, had been accumulated there. The various 2:)0wers and potentates that had resorted to it to obtain the responses of the oracle, had brought rich presents, or made costly contributions in some way, to the service of the shrine. Some had built temples, others had constructed porches or colonnades. Some had adorned the streets of the city with arclii- 200 XERXES. tectnral embellishments ; others had caused statues to be erected ; and others had made splendid donations of vessels of gold and silver, until at length the wealth and magnificence of Delphi was the wonder of the world. All na- tions resorted to it, some to see its splendors, and others to obtain the counsel and direction of the oracle in emergencies of difficulty or danger. In the time of Xerxes, Delphi had been for several hundred years in the enjoyment of its fame as a place of divine inspiration. It was said to have been originally discovered in the following manner. Some herdsmen on the mountains, watching their flocks, observed one day a number of goats performing very strange and unaccountable antics among some crevices in the rocks, and, going to the place, they found that a mysterious wind was issuing from the crevices, which produced an extraordinary ex- hilaration on all who breathed it. Everything extraordinary was thought, in those days, to be supernatural and divine, and the fame of this discovery was spread everywhere, the people supposing that the effect produced upon the men and animals by breathing the mysterious air was a divine inspiration. A temple was built over the spot, priests and priestesses were installed, a city began to rise, and in process of time Delphi become the most celebrated oracle THE BURNING OF ATHENS. 201 in the world ; and as the vast treasures which had been accumuhited there consisted mainly of gifts and offerings consecrated to a divine and sacred service, they were all understood to be under divine protection. They were defended, it is true, in part by the inaccessibleness of the position of Delphi, and by the artificial fortifica- tions which had been added from time to time to increase the security, but still more by the feeling which everywhere prevailed, that any violence offered to such a shrine would be pun- ished by the gods as sacrilege. The account of the manner in which Xerxes was repulsed, as related by the ancient historians, is somewhat marvelous. We, however, in this case, as in all others, transmit the story to our readers as the ancient historians give it to us. The main body of the army pursued its way directly southward toward the city of Athens, which was now the great object at which Xerxes aimed. A large detachment, however, sepa- rating from the main body, moved more to the westward, toward Delphi. Their plan was to plunder the temples and the city, and send the treasures to the king. The Delphians, on hear- ing this, were seized with consternation. They made application themselves to the oracle, to know what they were to do in respect to the sa- cred treasures. They could not defend them, they said, against such a host, and they inquired 202 XERXES. whether they should bury them in the earth, or attempt to remove them to some distant place of safety. The oracle replied that they were to do noth- ing at all in respect to the sacred treasures. The divinity, it said, was able to protect what was its own. They, on their part, had only to provide for themselves, their wives, and their children. On hearing this response, the people dismissed all care in respect to the treasures pt the tem- ple and of the shrine, and made arrangements for removing their families and their own effects to some place of safety toward the southward. The military force of the city and a small number of the inhabitants alone remained. When the Persians began to draw near, a prodigy occurred in the temple, which seemed intended to warn the profane invaders away. It seems that there was a suit of arms, of a costly character doubtless, and highly decorated with gold and gems — the present, probably, of some Grecian state or king — which were hung in an inner and sacred apartment of the temple, and which it was sacrilegious for any human hand to touch. These arms were found, on the day when the Persians were approaching, re- moved to the outward front of the temple. The priest who first observed them was struck with amazement and awe. He spread the intelli- gence among the soldiers and the people that THE BURNING OF ATHENS. 203 remained, and the circumstance awakened in them great animation and courage. Nor were the hopes of divine interposition which this wonder awakened disappointed in the end ; for, as soon as the detachment of Per- sians came near the hill on which Delphi was situated, loud thunder burst from the sky, and a bolt, descending upon the precipices near the town, detached two enormous masses of rock, which rolled down upon the ranks of the in- vaders. The Delphian soldiers, taking advan- tage of the scene of panic and confusion which this awful visitation produced, rushed down up- on their enemies and completed their dis- comfiture. They were led on and assisted in this attack by the spirits of two ancient heroes, who had been natives of the country, and to whom two of the temples of Delphi had been consecrated. These spirits appeared in the form of tall and full-armed warrioi's, who led the attack, and performed prodigies of strength and valor in the onset upon the Persians ; and then, when the battle was over, disappeared as mysteriously as they came. In the mean time the great body of the army of Xerxes, with the monarch at their head, was advancing on Athens. During his advance the city had been in a continual state of panic and confusion. In the first place, when the Greek fleet had concluded to give up the contest in the 204 XERXES. Artemisian Channel, before the battle of Ther- mopylae, and had passed around to Salamis, the commanders in the city of Athens had given up the hope of making any effectual defense, and had given orders that the inhabitants should save themselves by seeking a refuge wherever they could find it. This annunciation, of course, filled the city with dismay, and the preparations for a general flight opened every- where scenes of terror and distress, of which those who have never witnessed the evacuation of a city by its inhabitants can scarcely con- ceive. The immediate object of the general terror was, at this time, the Persian fleet ; for the Greek fleet, having determined to abandon the waters on that side of Attica, left the whole coast exposed, and the Persians might be ex- pected at any hour to make a landing within a few miles of the city. Scarcely, however, had the impending of this danger been made known to the city, before the tidings of one still more imminent reached it, in the news that the Pass of Thermopylae had been carried, and that in addition to the peril with which the Athenians were threatened by the fleet on the side of the sea, the whole Persian army was coming down upon them by land. This fresh alarm greatly increased, of course, the general consternation. All the roads leading from the city toward the THE BUKNING OF ATHENS. 205 south and west were soon covered with parties of wretched fugitives^ exhibiting as they pressed forward, weary and wayworn, on their toilsome and almost hopeless flight, every ]30ssible phase of misery, destitution, and despair. The army fell back to the isthmus, intending to make a stand, if possible, there, to defend the Pel- oponnesus. The fugitives made the best of their way to the sea-coast, where they were re- ceived on board transjDort ships sent thither from the fleet, and conveyed, some to Egina, some to Salamis, and others to other points on tlie coasts and islands to the south, wherever the terrified exiles thought there was the best prospect of safety. Some, however, remained at Athens. There was a part of the population who believed that the phrase *^ wooden walls, '^ used by the oracle, referred, not to the ships of the fleet, but to the wooden palisade around the citadel. They accordingly repaired and strengthened the pali- sade, and established themselves in the fortress with a small garrison which undertook to de- fend it. The citadel of Athens, or the Acropolis, as it was called, was the richest, and most splen- did, and magnificent fortress in the world. It was built upon an oblong rocky hill, the sides of which were perpendicular cliffs, except at one end, where alone the summit was acces- 206 XERXES, sible. This summit presented an area of an oval form, about a thousand feet in length and five hundred broad, thus containing a space of about ten acres. This area upon the summit, and also the approaches at the western end, were covered with the most grand, imposing, and costly architectural structures that then existed in the whole European world. There were temples, colonnades, gateways, stairways, porticoes, towers, and walls, which, viewed as a whole, presented a most magnificent spec- tacle, that excited universal admiration, and which, when examined in detail, awakened a greater degree of wonder still by the costliness of the materials, the beauty and perfection of the workmanship, and the richness and pro- fusion of the decorations, which were seen on every hand. The number and variety of stat- ues of bronze and of marble which had been erected in the various temples and upon the different platforms were very great. There was one, a statue of Minerva, which was exe- cuted by Phidias, the great Athenian sculptor, after the celebrated battle of Marathon, in the days of Darius, which, with its pedestal, was sixty feet high. It stood on the left of the grand entrance, towering above the buildings in full view from the country below, and lean- ing upon its long spear like a colossal sentinel on guard. In the distance, on the right, from THE BURNING OF ATHENS. 207 the same point of view, the great temple called the Parthenon was to be seen, a temple, which was, in some respects, the most celebrated in the world. The ruins of these edifices remain to the present day, standing in desolate and solitary grandeur on the rocky hill which they once so richly adorned. When Xerxes arrived at Athens, he found, of course, no difficulty in obtaining possession of the city itself, since it had been deserted by its inhabitants, and left defenseless. The peo- ple that remained had all crowded into the cit- adel. They . had built the wooden palisade across the only approach by which it was pos- sible to get near the gates, and they had col- lected large stones on the tops of the rocks, to roll down upon their assailants if they should attempt to ascend. Xerxes, after ravaging and burning the town, took up a position upon a hill opposite to the citadel, and there he had engines constructed to throw enormous arrows, on which tow that had been dipped in pitch was wound. This combustible envelopment of the arrows was set on fire before the weapon was discharged, and a shower of the burning missiles thus formed was directed toward the palisade. The wooden walls were soon set on fire by them, and totally consumed. The access to the Acropolis was, however, still difficult, being by a steep ac- 208 XERXES. ity, up which it was very dangerous to as- cend so long as the besiegers were ready to roll down rocks upon their assailants from above. At last, however, after a long conflict and much slaughter, Xerxes succeeding in forcing his way into the citadel. Some of his troops contrived to find a path by which they could climb up the walls. Here, after a desperate combat with those who were stationed to guard the place, they succeeded in gaining admission, and then opened the gates to their comrades below. The Persian soldiers, exasperated with the resistance which they had encountered, slew the soldiers of the garrison, perpetrated every imaginable violence on the wretched in- habitants who had fled there for shelter, and then plundered the citadel and set it on fire. The heart of Xerxes was filled with exulta- tion and joy as he thus arrived at the attain- ment of what had been the chief and prominent object of his campaign. To plunder and des- troy the city of Athens had been the great pleasure that he had promised himself in all the mighty preparations that he had made. This result was now realized, and he despatched a special messenger immediately to Susa with the triumphant tidings. CHAPTER XI. THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. Salamis is an island of a very irregular form, lying in the Saronian Gulf, north of Egina, and to the westward of Athens. What was called the Port of Athens was on the shore opposite to Salamis, the city itself being situated on ele- vated land four or five miles back from the sea. From this port to the bay on the southern side of Salamis, where the Greek fleet was lying, it was only four or five miles more, so that, when Xerxes burned the city, the people on board the galleys in the fleet might easily see the smoke of the conflagration. The Isthmus of Corinth was west of Salamis, some fifteen miles, across the bay. The army, in retreating from Athens, toward the isthmus, would have necessarily to pass round the bay in a course somewhat circuitous, while the fleet, in following them, would pass in a direct line across it. The geographical relation of these places, a knowledge of which is necessary to a full understanding of the operations of the 209 210 XERXES. Greek and Persian forces, will be distinctly seen by comparing the above description with the map placed at the commencement of the fifth chapter. It had been the policy of the Greeks to keep the fleet and army as much as possible together, and thus, during the time in which the troops were attempting a concentration at Thermop- ylae, the ships made their rendezvous in the Ar- temisian Strait or Channel, directly opposite to that point of the coast. There they fought, maintaining their position desperately, day after day, as long as Leonidas and his Spartans held their ground on the shore. Their sudden disap- pearance from those waters, by which the Per- sians had been so much surprised, was caused by their having received intelligence that the pass had been carried and Leonidas destroyed. They knew then that Athens would be the next point of resistance by the land forces. They therefore fell back to Salamis, or, rather, to the bay lying between Salamis and the Athenian shore, that being the nearest position that they could take to support the operations of the army in their attempts to defend the capital. When, however, the tidings came to them that Athens had fallen, and that what remained of the army had retreated to the isthmus, the question at once arose whether the fleet should retreat too, across the bay, to the isthmus shore, with a view THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 211 to co-operate more fully with the army in the new position which the latter had taken, or whether it should remain where it was, and de- fend itself as it best could against the Persian squadrons which would soon be drawing near. The commanders of the fleet held a consulta- tion to consider this question. In this consultation the Athenian and the Co- rinthian leaders took different views. In fact, they were very near coming into open collision. Such a difference of opinion, considering the cir- cumstances of the case, was not at all surpris- ing. It might, indeed, have naturally been ex- pected to arise, from the relative situation of the two cities, in respect to the danger which threat- ened them. If the Greek fleet were to withdraw from Salamis to the isthmus, it might be in a better position to defend Corinth, but it would, by such a movement, be withdrawing from the Athenian territories, and abandoning what re- mained in Attica wholly to the conqueror. The Athenians were, therefore, in favor of main- taining the position at Salamis, while the Co- rinthians were disposed to retire to the shores of the isthmus, and co-operate with the army there. The council was convened to deliberate on this subject before the news arrived of the act- ual fall of Athens, although, inasmuch as the Persians were advancing into Attica in im- 212 XERXES. mense numbers^ and there was no Greek force left to defend the city, they considered its fall as all but inevitable. The tidings of the cap- ture and destruction of Athens came while the council was in session. This seemed to deter- mine the question. The Corinthian command- ers, and those from the other Peloponnesian cities, declared that it was perfectly absurd to remain any longer at Salamis, in a vain attempt to defend a country already conquered. The council was broken up in confusion, each com- mander retiring to his own ship, and the Pelo- ponnesians resolving to withdraw on the fol- lowing morning. Eurybiades, who, it will be recollected, was the commander-in-chief of all the Greek fleet, finding thus that it w^as impos- sible any longer to keep the ships together at Salamis, since a part of them would, at all events, withdraw, concluded to yield to the necessity of the case, and to conduct the whole fleet to the isthmus. He issued his orders accordingly, and the several commanders repaired to their respective ships to make the preparations. It was night when the council was dismissed, and the fleet was to move in the morning. One of the most influential and distinguished of the Athenian officers was a general named Themis tocles. Very soon after he had returned to his ship from this council, he was visited by another Athenian named Mnesiphilus, who, THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 213 uneasy and anxious in the momentous crisis, had come in his boat, in the darkness of the night, to Themistocles's ship, to converse with liimon the 23lans of the morrow. Mnesiphihis asked Themistocles what was the decision of tlie council. '^To abandon Salamis/^ said Themistocles, '' and retire to the isthmus.''^ '^ Then,^' said Mnesiphilus, " we shall never have an opportunity to meet the enemy. I am sure that if we leave this position the fleet will be Avholly broken up, and that each portion will go, under its own commander, to defend its own state or seek its own safety, independently of the rest. We shall never be able to concen- trate our forces again. The result will be the inevitable dissolution of the fleet as a combined and allied force, in spite of all that Eurybiades or any one else can do to prevent it.^^ Mnesiphilus urged this danger with so much earnestness and eloquence as to make a very considerable impress on the mind of Themis- tocles. Themistocles said nothing, but his coun- tenance indicated that he was very strongly in- clined to adopt Mnesiphilus's views. Mnesi- jDhilus urged him to go immediately to Eury- biades, and endeavor to induce him to obtain a reversal of the decision of the council. The- mistocles, without expressing either assent or dissent, took his boat, and ordered the oarsmen 214 XERXES. to row him to the galley of Eurybiades. Mne- si2:)hilus, having so far accomplished his object^ went away. Themistocles came in his boat to the side of Eurybiades^s galley. He said that he wished to S23eak with the general on a subject of great importance. Eurybiades, when this was re- ported to him, sent to invite Themistocles to come on board. Themistocles did so, and he urged upon the general the same arguments that Mnesiphilus had pressed upon him, namely, that if the fleet were once to move from their actual position, the different squadrons would inevi- tably sej)arate, and could never be assembled again. He urged Eurybiades, therefore, very strermously to call a new council, with a view of reversing the decision that had been made to retire and of resolving instead to give battle to the Persians at Salamis. Eurybiades was persuaded, and immediately took measures for convening the council again. The summons, sent around thus at midnight, calling upon the principal officers of the fleet to repair again in haste to the commander's galley, when they had only a short time before been dismissed from it, produced great excitement. The Corinthians, Avho had been in favor of the plan of abandoning Salamis, conjectured that the design might be to endeavor to reverse that decision, and they came to the council deter- THE BATTLE OF SAL AMIS. 216 mined to resist any such attempt, if one should be made. When the officers had arrived, Themistocles began immediately to open the discussion, be- fore, in fact, Eurybiades had stated why he had called them together. A Corinthian officer in- terrupted and rebuked him for presuming to speak before his time. Themistocles retorted upon the Corinthian, and continued his ha- rangue. He urged the council to review their former decision, and to determine, after all, to remain at Salamis. He, however, now used different arguments from those which he had employed when speaking to Eurybiades alone ; for to have directly charged the officers them- selves with the design of which he had accused them to Eurybiades, namely, that of abandon- ing their allies, and retiring with their respect- ive ships, each to his own coast, in case the posi- tion at Salamis were to be given up, would only incense them, and arouse a hostility which would determine them against anything that he might propose. He therefore urged the expediency of remain- ing at Salamis on other grounds. Salamis was a much more advantageous position, he said, than the coast of the isthmus, for a small fleet to occupy in awaiting an attack from a large one. At Salamis they were defended in part by the projections of the land, which protected 216 XERXES. their flanks, and prevented their being assailed, except in front, and their front they might make a very narrow one. At the isthmus, on the con- trary, there was a long, unvaried, and unshel- tered coast, with no salient points to give strength or protection to their position there. They could not expect to derive serious advan- tage from any degree of co-operation with the army on the land which would be practicable at the isthmus, while their situation at sea there would be far more exposed and dangerous than where they then were. Besides, many thousands of the people had fled to Salamis for refuge and protection, and the fleet, by leaving its present position, Avould be guilty of basely abandoning them all to hopeless destruction, without even making an effort to save them. This last was, in fact, the great reason why the Athenians were so unwilling to abandon Salamis. The unhappy fugitives with which the island was thronged were their wives and children, and they were extremely unwilling to go away and leave them to so cruel a fate as they knew would await them if the fleet were to be withdrawn. The Corinthians, on the other hand, considered Athens as already lost, and it seemed madness to them to linger use- lessly in the vicinity of the ruin which had been made, while there were other states and cities in other quarters of Greece yet to be THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 217 saved. The Corinthicin speaker who had re- buked Themistocles at first interrupted him again, angrily, before he finished his appeal. " You have no right to speak/' said he. '^ You have no longer a country. When you cease to represent a power, you have no right to take a part in our councils/' This cruel retort aroused in the mind of The- mistocles a strong feeling of indignation and anger against the Corinthian. He loaded his opponent, in return, with bitter reproaches, and said, in conclusion, that as long as the Athenians had two hundred ships in the fleet, they had still a country — one, too, of sufficient importance to the general defense to give them a much better title to be heard in the common consultations than any Corinthian could pre- sume to claim. Then turning to Eurybiades again, Themis- tocles implored him to remain at Salamis, and give battle to the Persians there, as that was, he said, the only course by which any hope re- mained to them of the salvation of Greece. He declared that the Athenian part of the fleet would never go to the isthmus. If the others decided on going there, they, the Athe- nians, would gather all the fugitives they could from the island of Salamis and from the coasts of Attica, and make the best of their way to Italy, where there was a territory to which they 16— Xerxes 218 XERXES. had some claim;, and, abandoning Greece for-, ever, they would found a new kingdom there. Eurybiades, the commander-in-chief, if he was not convinced by the arguments that The- mistocles had offered, was alarmed at his decla- ration that the Athenian ships would abandon the cause of the Greeks if the fleet abandoned Salamis ; he accordingly gave his voice very decidedly for remaining where they were. The rest of the officers finally acquiesced in this de- cision, and the council broke up, the various members of it returning each to his own com- mand. It was now nearly morning. The whole fleet had been, necessarily, during the night in a state of great excitement and sus- pense, all anxious to learn the result of these deliberations. The awe and solemnity which would, of course, pervade the minds of men at midnight, while such momentous questions were pending, were changed to an appalling sense of terror, toward the dawn, by an earth- quake which then took place, and which, as is usually the case with such convulsions, not only shook the land, but was felt by vessels on the sea. The men considered this phenomenon as a solemn warning from heaven, and measures were immediately adopted for appeasing, by certain special sacrifices and ceremonies, the divine displeasure which the shock seemed to portend. THE BATTLE OF SAL A MIS. 219 In the meantime, the Persian fleet, which we left, it will be recollected, in the channels be- tween Euboea and the main land, near to Ther- mopylae, had advanced when they found that the Greeks had left those waters, and, follow- ing their enemies to the southward through the channel called the Euripus, had doubled the promontory called Sunium, which is the south- ern promontory of Attica, and then, moving northward again along the western coast of Attica, had approached Phalerum, which was not far from Salamis. Xerxes, haviug con- cluded his operations at Athens, advanced to the same point by land. The final and complete success of the Persian expedition seemed now almost sure. All the country north of the peninsula had fallen. The Greek army had retreated to the isthmus, having been driven from every other post, and its last forlorn hope of being able to resist the advance of its victorious enemies was depend- ing there. And the commanders of the Persian fleet, having driven the Greek squadrons in the same manner from strait to strait and from sea to sea, saw the discomfited galleys drawn up, in apparently their last place of refuge, in the Bay of Salamis, and only waiting to be cap- tured and destroyed. In a word, everything seemed ready for the decisive and final blow, and Xerxes sum- 220 XERXES moned a grand council of war on board one of the vessels of the fleet as soon as he arrived at Phalerum, to decide upon the time and manner of striking it. The convening of this council was arranged^ and the deliberations themselves conducted, with great parade and ceremony. The princes of the various nations represented in the army and in the fleet, and the leading Persian offi- cers and nobles were summoned to attend it. It was held on board one of the principal gal- leys, where great preparations had been made for receiving so august an assemblage. A throne was provided for the king, and seats for the various commanders according to their re- spective- ranks, and a conspicuous place was assigned to Artemisia, the Carian queen, who, the reader will perhaps recollect, was described as one of the prominent naval commanders, in the account given of the great review at Do- riscus. Mardonius appeared at the council as the king's representative and the conductor of the deliberations, there being required, accord- ing to the parliamentary etiquette of those days, in such royal councils as these, a sort of mediator, to stand between the king and his counselors, as if the monarch himself was on too sublime an elevation of dignity and gran- deur to be directly addressed even by princes and nobles. THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 221* Accordingly, when the council was con- vened and the time arrived for opening the deliberations, the king directed Mardonius to call npon the commanders present, one by one, for their sentiments on the question whether it were advisable or not to attack the Greek fleet at Salamis. Mardonius did so. They all ad- vised that the attack should be made, urging severally various considerations to enforce their opinions, and all evincing a great deal of zeal and ardor in the cause, and an impatient desire that the great final conflict should come on. When, however, it came to Artemisia's turn to speak, it appeared that she was of a different sentiment from the rest. She commenced her speech with something like an apology for pre- suming to give the king her council. She said that, notwithstanding her sex, she had performed her part, with other commanders, in the battles which had already occurred, and that she was, perhaps, entitled accordingly, in the consultations which were held, to express her opinion. '' Say, then, to the king,'' she continued, addressing Mardonius, as all the others had done, "^^ that my judgment is, that we should not attack the Greek fleet at Sala- mis, but, on the contrary, that we should avoid a battle. It seems to me that we have nothing to gain, but should put a great deal at hazard by a general naval confli<;t at the present time. 222 XERXES. The truth is, that the Greeks, always terrible as combatants, are rendered desperate now by the straits to which they are reduced and the losses that they have sustained. The seamen of our fleet are as inferior to them in strength and courage as women are to men. I am sure that it will be a very dangerous thing to en- counter them in their present chafed and irri- tated temper. Whatever others may think, I myself should not dare to answer for the re- sult. " Besides, situated as they are,^' continued Artemisia, ^'a battle is what they must most desire, and, of course, it is adverse to our in- terest to accord it to them. I have ascertained that they have but a small supply of food, either in their fleet or upon the island of Salamis, while they have, besides their troops, a great multitude of destitute and helpless fugitives to be fed. If we simply leave them to themselves under the blockade in which our position here now places them, they will soon be reduced to great distress. Or, if we withdraw from them, and proceed at once to the Peloponnesus, to co- operate with the army there, we shall avoid all the risk of a battle, and I am sure that the Greek fleet will never dare to follow or to molest us.'''' The several members of the council listened to this unexpected address of Artemisia with THE BATTLE OF SALAMTS. 223 great attention and interest^ but witli very dif- ferent feelings. Slie had many friends among the counselors, and they were anxious and un- easy at hearing her speak in this manner, for they knew very well that it was the king's decided intention that, a battle should be fought, and they feared that by this bold and strenuous opposition to it, Artemisia would incur the mighty monarch's displeasure. There were others who were jealous of the influence which Artemisia enjoyed, and envious of the favor with which they knew that Xerxes regarded her. These men were secretly pleased to hear her .uttering sentiments by which they confi- dently believed that she would excite the anger of the king, and wholly lose her advantageous position. Both the hopes and the fears, how- ever, entertained respectively by the queen's enemies and friends, proved altogether ground- less. Xerxes was not displeased. On the con- trary, he applauded Artemisia's ingenuity and eloquence in the highest terms, though he said, nevertheless, that he would follow the advice of the other counselors. He dismissed the assembly, and gave orders to prepare for battle. In the mean time a day or two had passed away, and the Greeks, who had been originally very little inclined to acquiesce in the decision which Eurybiades had made, under the influ- 224. XERXES. ence of ThemistocleSj to remain at Salamis and give the Persians battle^, became more and more dissatisfied and uneasy as the great crisis drew nigh. In fact, the discontent and disaffection which appeared in certain portions of the fleet became so decided and so open, that Themisto- cles feared that some of the commanders would actually revolt, and go away with their squad- rons in a body, in defiance of the general de- cision to remain. To prevent such a desertion as this, he contrived the following very desper- ate stratagem. He had a slave in his family named Sicinnus, who was an intelligent and educated man, though a slave. In fact, he was the teacher of Themistocles^s children. Instances of this kind, in which slaves were refined and culti- vated men, were not uncommon in ancient times, as slaves were, in many instances, cap- tives taken in war, who before their captivity had occupied as high social positions as their masters. Themistocles determined to send Sicinnus to the Persian fleet with a message from him, which should induce the Persians themselves to take measures to prevent the dis- persion of the Greek fleet. Having given the slave, therefore, his secret instructions, he put him into a boat when night came on, with oars- men who were directed to row him wherever he should require them to go. The boat pushed THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 225 off stealthily from Tliemistocles's galley, and, taking care to keep clear of the Greek ships which lay at anchor near them, went southward toward the Persian fleet. When the boat reached the Persian galleys, Sicinniis asked to see the commander, and, on being admitted to an interview with him, he informed him that he came from Themistocles, who was the leader, he said^ of the Athenian portion of the Greek fleet. ^' I am charged," he added, '^to say to yon from Themistocles that he considers the cause of the Greeks as wholly lost, and he is now, ac- cordingly, desirous himself of coming over to the Persian side. This, however, he cannot actually and openly do, on account of the situ- ation in which he is placed in respect to the rest of the fleet. He has, however, sent me to inform you that the Greek fleet is in a very dis- ordered and helpless condition, being distracted by the dissensions of the commanders, and the general discouragement and despair of the men ; that some divisions are secretly intending to make their escape ; and that, if you can pre- vent this by surrounding them, or by taking such positions as to intercept any who may at- tempt to withdraw, the whole squadron will in- evitably fall into your hands." Having made this communication, Sicinnus went on board his boat again, and returned to 22G XERXES. the Greek fleet as secretly and stealthily as he came. The Persians immediately determined to re- sort to the measures which Themistocles had recommended to prevent the escape of any part of the Greek fleet. There was a small island between Salamis and the coast of Attica, that is, on the eastern side of Salamis, called Psyt- talia, which was in such a position as to com- mand, in a great measure, the channel of water between Salamis and the mainland on this side. The Persians sent forward a detachment of galleys to take possession of this island in the night. By this means they hoped to prevent the escape of any part of the Greek squadron in that direction. Besides, they foresaw that in the approaching battle the principal scene of the conflict must be in that vicinity, and that, consequently, the island would become the great resort of the disabled ships and the wounded men, since they would naturall}^ seek refuge on the nearest land. To preoccupy this ground, therefore, seemed an important step. It would enable them, when the terrible con- flict should come on, to drive back any wretched refugees who might attempt to escape from destruction by seeking the shore. By taking possession of this island, and sta- tioning galleys in the vicinity of it, all which was done secretly in the night, the Persians THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 227 cut off all possibility of escape for the Greeks in that direction. At the same time, they sent another considerable detachment of their fleet to the westward, which was the direction to- ward the isthmus, ordering the galleys thus sent to station themselves in such a manner as to prevent any portion of the Greek fleet from going round the island of Salamis, and making their escape through the northwestern channel. By this means the Greek fleet was environed on every side — hemmed in, though they were not aware of it, in such a way as to defeat any at- tempt which any division might make to retire from the scene. The first intelligence which the Greeks re- ceived of their being thus surrounded was from an Athenian general named Aristides, who came one night from the island of ^gina to the Greek fleet, making his way with great difficulty through the lines of Persian galleys. Aristides had been, in the political conflicts which had taken place in former years at Athens, Themis- tocles's great rival and enemy. He had been defeated in the contests which had taken place, and had been banished from Athens. He now, however, made his way through the enemy's lines, incurring, in doing it, extreme difficulty and danger, in order to inform his country- men of their peril, and to assist, if possible, in saving them. 228 XEBXES. When he reached the Greek fleet, the com- manders were in council, agitating, in angry and incriminating debates, the perpetually recur- ring question whether they should retire to the isthmus, or remain where they were. Aris- tides called Themistocles out of the council. Themistocles was very much surprised at see- ing his ancient enemy thus unexpectedly ap- pear. Aristides introduced the conversation by saying that he thought that at such a crisis they ought to lay aside every private animosity, and only emulate each other in the efforts and sacrifices which they could respectively make to defend their country ; that he had, accordingly, come from ^gina to join the fleet, with a view of rendering any aid that it might be in his power to afford ; that it was now wholly useless to debate the question of retiring to the isth- mus, for such a movement was no longer pos- sible. " The fleet is surrounded, ^^ said he. *^ The Persian galleys are stationed on every side. It was with the utmost difficulty that I could make my way through the lines. Even if the whole assembly, and Eurybiades himself, were resolved on withdrawing to the isthmus, the thing could not now be done. Eeturn, therefore, and tell them this, and say that to defend themselves where they are is the only alternative that now remains." In reply to this communication, Themistocles THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 229 Baid that nothing could give him greater pleas- ure than to learn what Aristides had stated. '^ The movement which the Persians have made," he said, '' was in consequence of a com- munication which I myself sent to them. I sent it, in order that some of our Greeks, who seem so very reluctant to fight, might be compelled to do so. But you must come yourself into the assembly," he added, " and make your state- ment directly to the commanders. They will not believe it if they hear it from me. Come in, and state what you have seen." Aristides accordingly entered the assembly, and informed the officers who were convened that to retire from their present position was no longer possible, since the sea to the west was fully guarded by lines of Persian ships, which had been stationed there to intercept them. He had just come in himself, he said, from ^gina, and had found great difficulty in passing through the lines, though he had only a single small boat, and was favored by the darkness of the night. He was convinced that the Greek fleet was entirely surrounded. Having said this, Aristides withdrew. Al- though he could come, as a witness, to give his testimony in respect to facts, he was not entitled to take any part in the deliberations. The assembly was thrown into a state of the greatest possible excitement by the intelligence 230 XEEXES. wliicli Aristides had communicated. Instead of producing harmony among them, it made the discord more violent and uncontrollable. Of those who had before wished to retire, some were now enraged that they had not been al- lowed to do so while the opportunity remained ; others disbelieved Aristides's statements, and were still eager to go ; while the rest, confirmed in their previous determination to remain where they were, rejoiced to find that retreat was no longer possible. The debate was con- fused and violent. It. turned, in a great meas- ure, on the degree of credibility to be attached to the account which Aristides had given them. Many of the assembly wholly disbelieved it. It was a stratagem, they maintained, contrived by the Athenian party, and those who wished to remain, in order to accomplish their end of keeping the fleet from changing its posi- tion; The doubts, however, which the assembly felt in respect to the truth of Aristides^s tidings were soon dispelled by new and incontestable evidence ; for, while the debate was going on, it was announced that a large galley — a trireme, as it was called^iad come in from the Persian fleet. This galley proved to be a Greek ship from the island of Tenos, one which Xerxes, in prosecution of his plan of compelling those por- tions of the Grecian territories that he had con- THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 281 quered, or that had surrendered to him, to fur- nish forces to aid him in subduing the rest, had pressed into his service. The commander of this galley, unwilling to take part against his countrymen in the conflict, had decided to de- sert the Persian fleet by taking advantage of the night, and to come over to the Greeks. The name of the commander of this trireme was Pa- rsetius. He confirmed fully all that Aristides had said. He assured the Greeks that they were completely surrounded, and that nothing remained for them but to prepare, where they were, to meet the attack which would certainly be made upon them in the morning. The ar- rival of this trireme was thus of very essential service to the Greeks. It put an end to their discordant debates, and united them, one and all, in the work of making resolute preparations for action. This vessel was also of very essen- tial service in the conflict itself which ensued ; and the Greeks were so grateful to Parastius and to his comrades for the adventurous courage which they displayed in coming over under such circumstances, in such a night, to espouse the cause and to share -the dangers of their country- men, that after the battle they caused all their names to be engraved upon a sacred tripod, made in the most costly manner for the pur- pose, and then sent the tripod to be deposited at the oracle of Delphi, where it long remained 282 XERXES. a monument of this example of Delian patriot- ism and fidelity. As the morning approached, the preparations were carried forward with ardor and energy, on board both fleets, for the great struggle which was to ensue. Plans were formed ; orders were given ; arms were examined and placed on the decks of the galleys, where they would be most ready at hand. The officers and soldiers gave mutual charges and instructions to each other in respect to the care of their friends and the disposal of their effects — charges and instruc- tions which each one undertook to execute for his friend in case he should survive him. The commanders endeavored to animate and encour- age their men by cheerful looks, and by words of confidence and encouragement. They who felt resolute and strong endeavored to inspirit the weak and irresolute, while those who shrank from the approaching contest, and dreaded the result of it, concealed their fears, and endeav- ored to appear impatient for the battle. Xerxes caused an elevated seat or throne to be prepared for himself on an eminence near the shore, upon the main land, in order that he might be a personal witness of the battle. He had a guard and other attendants around him. Among these were a number of scribes or sec- retaries, who were prepared with writing ma- terials to record the events which might tak« THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 233 placG;, as they occurred, and especially to register the name of those whom Xerxes should see dis- tinguishing themselves by their courage or by their achievements. He justly supposed that these arrangements, the whole fleet being fully informed in regard to them, would animate the several commanders with strong emulation, and excite them to make redoubled exertions to per- form their 'part well. The record which was thus to be kept, under the personal supervision of the sovereign, was with a view to punish- ments too, as well as to honors and rewards ; and it happened in many instances during the battle that ensued, that commanders, who, after losing their ships, escaped to the shore, were brought up before Xerxes's throne, and there expiated their fault or their misfortune, which- ever it might have been, by being beheaded on the spot, without mercy. Some of the officers thus executed were Greeks, brutally slaughtered for not being successful in fighting, by com- ^ pulsion, against their own countrymen. As the dawn approached, Themistocles called together as many of the Athenian forces as it was possible to convene, assembling them at a place upon the shore of Salamis where he could conveniently address them, and there made a speech to them, as was customary with the Greek commanders before going into battle. He told them that, in such contests as that in 17— Xorxes 234 XERXES. which they were about to engage^ the result depended, not on the relative numbers of the combatants, but on the resohition and activity which they displayed. He reminded them of the instances in which small bodies of men, firmly banded together by a strict discipline, and animated by courage and energy, had over- thrown enemies whose numbers far exceeded their own. The Persians were more' numerous, he admitted, than they, but still the Greeks would conquer them. If they faithfully obeyed their orders, and acted strictly and persever- ingly in concert, according to the plans formed by the commanders, and displayed the usual courage and resolution of Greeks, he was sure of victory. As soon as Themistocles had finished his speech, he ordered his men to embark, and the fleet immediately afterward formed itself in battle array. Notwithstanding the strictness of the order and discipline which generally prevailed in Greek armaments of every kind, there was great excitement and much confusion in the fleet while making all these preparations, and this excitement and confusion increased contin- ually as the morning advanced and the hour for the conflict drew nigh. The passing of boats to and fro, the dashing of the oars, the clangor of the weapons, the vociferation of orders by THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 235 the officers and of responses by the men, mingled with each other in dreadful turmoil, while all the time the vast squadrons were advancing toward each other, each party of combatants eager to begin the contest.. In fact, so full of wild excitement was the scene, that at length the battle was found to be raging on every side, while no one knew or could remember, how it began. Some said that a ship, which had been sent away a short time before to ^gina to ob- tain succors, was returning that morning, and that she commenced the action as she came through the Persian lines. Others said the Greek squadrons advanced as soon as they could see, and attacked the Persians; and there were some whose imaginations were so much excited by the scene, that they saw a female form por- trayed among the dim mists of the morning, that urged the Greeks onward by beckonings and calls. They heard her voice, they said, crying to them, '' Come on ! come on ! this is no time to linger on your oars." ^-i However this may be, the battle was soon fu- ' ^ riously raging on every part of the Bay of Sala- mis, exhibiting a widespread scene of conflict, fury, rage, despair, and death, such as had then been seldom witnessed in any naval conflict, and such as human eyes can now never look upon again. In modern warfare the smoke of the guns soon draws an impenetrable veil over the 236 XERXEB. scene of horror, and the perpetual thunder of the artillery overpowers the general din. In a modern battle, therefore, none of the real hor- rors of the conflict can either be heard or seen by any spectator placed beyond the immediate scene of it. The sights and the sounds are alike buried and concealed beneath the smoke and the noise of the cannonading. There were, however, no such causes in this case to obstruct the ob- servations which Xerxes was making from his throne on the shore. The air was calm, the sky serene, the water was smooth, and the atmos- phere was as transparent and clear at the end of the battle as at the beginning. Xerxes could discern every ship, and follow it Avith liis eye in all its motions. He could see who advanced and who retreated. Out of the hundreds of separate conflicts he could choose any one, and watch the progress of it from the commence- ment to the termination. He could see the combats on the decks, the falling of repulsed assailants into the water, the weapons broken, the wounded carried away, and swimmers strug- gling like insects on the smooth surface of the sea. He could see the Avrecks, too, which were drifted upon the shores, and the captured gal- leys, which, after those wlio defended them had been vanquished — some killed, others thrown overboard, and others made prisoners — were THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 237 slowly towed away by the victors to a place of safety. There was one incident which occurred in this scene, as Xerxes looked down upon it from the eminence where he sat, which greatly in- terested and excited him, though he was de- ceived in respect to the true nature of it. The incident was one of Artemisia's stratagems. It must be premised, in relating the story, that Artemisia was not without enemies among the officers of the Persian fleet. Many of them were envious of the high distinction which she enjoyed, and jealous of the attention which she received from the king, and of the influence vvhich she possessed over him. This feeling showed itself very distinctly at the grand coun- cil, when she gave her advice, in connection with that of the other commanders, to the king. Among the most decided of her enemies was a certain captain named Damasithymus. Arte- misia had had a special quarrel with him while the fleet was coming through the Hellespont, which, though settled for the time, left the minds of both parties in a state of great hostil- ity toward each other. It happened, in the course of the battle, that the ship which Artemisia personally command- ed and that of Damasithymus were engaged, together with other Persian vessels, in the same part of the bay ; and at a time when the ardor 238 XERXES. and confusion of the conflict was at its height, the galley of Artemisia^ and some others that were in company with hers, became separated from the rest, perhaps by the too eager pursuit of an enemy, and as other Greek ships came up suddenly to the assistance of their com- rades, the Persian vessels found themselves in great danger, and began to retreat, followed by their enemies. We speak of the retreat- ing galleys as Persian, because they were on the Persian side in the contest, though it happened that they were really ships from Greek nations, which Xerxes had bribed or forced into his service. The Greeks knew them to be enemies, by the Persian flag which they bore. In the retreat, and while the ships were more or less mingled together in the confusion, Arte- misia perceived that the Persian galley nearest her was that of Damasithymus. She immedi- ately caused her own Persian flag to be pulled down, and, resorting to such other artifices as might tend to make her vessel appear to be a Greek galley, she began to act as if she were one of the pursuers instead of one of the pur- sued. She bore down upon the ship of Dama- sithymus, saying to her crew that to attack and sink that ship was the only way to save their own lives. They accordingly attacked it with the utmost fury. The Athenian ships THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 239 which were near, seeing Artemisia's galley thus engaged, supposed that it was one of their own, and pressed on, leaving the vessel of Damasi- thymus at Artemisia's mercy. It was such mercy as would be expected of a woman who would volunteer to take command of a squad- ron of ships of war, and go forth on an active campaign to fight for her life among such fero- cious tigers as Greek soldiers always were, con- sidering it all an excursion of pleasure. Arte- misia killed Damasithymus and all of his crew, and sunk his ship, and then, the crisis of danger being past, she made good her retreat back to the Persian lines. She probably feft no special animosity against the crew of this ill-fated vessel, but she thought it most pru- dent to leave no man alive to tell the story. Xerxes watched this transaction from his place on the hill with extreme interest and pleasure. He saw the vessel of Artemisia bear- ing down upon the other, which last he sup- posed, of course, from Artemisia's attacking it, was a vessel of the enemy. The only sub- ject of doubt was whether the attacking ship was really that of Artemisia. The officers who stood about Xerxes at the time that the trans- action ov^curred assured him that it was. They knew it well by certain peculiarities in its con- struction. Xerxes then watched the progress of the contest with the most eager interest, and. 240 XERXES. when he saw the result of it, he praised Arte> misia in the highest terms, saying that the men in his fleet behaved like Avomen, while the only woman in it behaved like a man. •Thus Artemisia's exploit operated like a double stratagem. Both the Greeks and the Persians were deceived, and she gained an ad- vantage by both the deceptions. She saved her life by leading the Greeks to believe that her galley was their friend, and she gained great glory and renown among the Persians by making them believe that the vessel which she sunk was that of an enemy. Though these and some of the other scenes and incidents which Xerxes witnessed as he looked down upon the battle gave him pleasure, yet the curiosity and interest with which he surveyed the opening of the contest were grad- ually changed to impatience, vexation, and rage as he saw in its progress that the Greeks were everywhere gaining the victory. Not- withstanding the discord and animosity which had reigned among the commanders in their councils and debates, the men were united, res- olute, and firm when the time arrived for ac- tion ; and they fought with such desperate cour- age and activity, and, at the same time, with so much coolness, circumspection, and disci- pline, that the Persian lines were, before many hours, everywhere compelled to give way. A THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 241 striking example of the indomitable and effi- cient resolution which, on such (5ccasions, always characterized the Greeks, was shown in the conduct of Aris tides. The reader will rec- ollect that the Persians, on the night before the battle, had taken possession of the island of Psyttalia — which was near the center of the scene of contest — for the double purpose of ena- bling themselves to use it as a place of refuge and retreat during the battle, and of prevent- ing their enemies from doing so. Now Aris- tides had no command. He had been expelled from Athens by the influence of Themistocles and his other enemies. He had come across from j^gina to the fleet at Salamis, alone, to give his countrymen information of the dispo- sitions which the Persians had made for sur- rounding them. When the battle began, he had been left, it seems, on the shore of Salamis a spectator. There was a small body of troo]3S left there also, as a guard to the shore. In the course of the combat, when Aristides found that the services of this guard were no longer likely to be required where they were, he placed himself at the head of them, obtained possession of boats or a galley, transported the men across the channel, landed them on the island of Psyttalia, conquered the post, and killed every man that the Persians had stationed there. 242 XERXES. When the day was spent, and the evening came on/» it was found that the result of the battle was a Greek victory, and yet it was not a victory so decisive as to compel the Persians wholly to retire. Vast numbers of the Persian ships were destroyed, but still so many remained, that when at night they drew back from the scene of the conflict, toward their anchorage ground at Phalerum, the Greeks were very willing to leave them unmolested there. The Greeks, in fact, had full employment on the fol- low^ing day in reassembling the scattered rem- nants of their own fleet, repairing the damages that they had sustained, taking care of tlieir wounded men, and, in a word, attending to the thousand urgent and pressing exigencies always arising in the service of a fleet after a battle, even when it has been victorious in the contest. They did not know in exactly what condition the Persian fleet had been left, nor how far there might be danger of a renewal of the con- flict on the following day. They devoted all their time and attention, therefore, to strength- ening their defenses and reorganizing the fleet, so as to be ready in case a new assault should be made upon them. But Xerxes had no intention of any new at- \ tack. The loss of this battle gave a final blow to, his expectations of being able to carry his conquests in Greece any further. He too, like THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS, 243 the Greeks^ employed his men in industrious and vigorous efforts to repair the damages which had been done, and to reassemble and reorganize that portion of the fleet which had not been destroyed. While, however, his men were doing this, he was himself revolving in his mind, moodily and despairingl}^, plans, not for new conflicts, but for the safest and speed- iest way of making his own personal escape from the dangers around him back to his home in Susa. In the mean time, the surface of the sea, far and wide in every direction, was covered with the wrecks, and remnants, and fragments strewed over it by the battle. Dismantled hulks, masses of entangled spars and rigging, broken oars, weapons of every description, and the swollen and ghastly bodies of the dead, floated on the rolling swell of the sea wherever the winds or the currents carried them. At length many of these mournful memorials of the strife found their way across the whole breadth of the Mediterranean, and were driven up upon the beach on the coast of Africa, at a barbarous country called Colias. The savages dragged the fragments up out of the sand to use as fuel for their fires, pleased with their unexpected acquisitions, but wholly ignorant, of course, of the nature of the dreadful tragedy to which their coming was due. The circumstance, how- 244 XERXES. ever, explained to the Greeks an ancient proph- esy which had been uttered long before in Xenophon. Athens, and which the interpreters of such mysteries had never been able to understand, The prophecy was this . The Colian dame on Afric's shores Shall roast their food with Persian oars. CHAPTER XII. THE RETURi^ OE XERXES TO PERSIA. Mardokius, it will be recollected, was the .commander-in-chief of the forces of Xerxes, and thus, next to Xerxes himself, he was the officer highest in rank of all those who attend- ed the expedition. He was, in fact, a sort of prime minister, on whom the responsibility for almost all the measures for the govern- ment and conduct of the expedition had been thrown. Men in such positions, while they may expect the highest rewards and honors from their sovereign in case of success, have always reason to apprehend the worst of consequences to themselves in case of failure. The night after the battle of Salamis, ac- cordingly, Mardonius was in great fear. He did not distrust the future success of the ex- pedition if it were allowed to go on ; but, knowing the character of such despots as those who ruled great nations in that age oi the world, he was well aware that he might reason- ably expect, at any moment, the appearance of officers sent from Xerxes to cut. off his head. 245 246 XERXES. His anxiety was increased by observing that Xerxes seemed very much depressed, and very restless and uneasy, after the battle, as if he were revolving in his mind some extraordinary design. He presently thought that he perceived indications that the king was planning a re- treat. Mardonius, after much he£:tation, con- cluded to speak to him, and endeavor to dispel his anxieties and fears, and lead him to take a more favorable view of the prospects of the ex- pedition. He accordingly accosted him on the subject somewhat as follows : '' It istrue,^' said he, ^^that we were not as successful in the combat yesterday as we desired to be ; but this reverse, as well as all the preceding disasters that we have met with, is, after all, of comparatively little moment. Your majesty has gone steadily on, accomplish- ing most triumphantly all the substantial ob- jects aimed at in undertaking the expedition. Your troops have advanced successfully by land against all opposition. With them you have traversed Thrace, Macedon, and Thessaly. You have fought yonr way, against the most desperate resistance, through the Pass of Ther- mopylae. You have overrun all Northern Greece. You have burned Athens. Thus, far from there being any uncertainty or doubt in respect to the success of the expedition, we see that all the great objects which you pro- THE RETURN TO PERSIA. 247 posed by it are already accomplished. The fleet, it is true, has now suffered extensive damage ; but we must remember that it is upon the army, not upon the fleet, that our hopes and expectatioiis mainly depend. The army is safe ; and it cannot be possible that the Greeks can hereafter bring any force into the field by which il can be seriously endangered.'^ By these and similar sentiments, Mardonius endeavored to revive and restore the failing courage and resolution of the king. He founds however, that he met with very partial success. Xerxes was silent, thoughtful, and oppressed apparently with a sense of anxious concern. Mardonius finally proposed that, even if the king should think it best to return himself to Susa, he should not abandon the enterprise of subduing Greece, but that he should leave a portion of the army under his (Mardonius's) charge, and he would undertake, he said, to complete the work which had been so success- fully begun. Three hundred thousand men, he was convinced, would be sufficient for the purpose. This suggestion seems to have made a favor- able impression on the mind of Xerxes. He was disposed, in fact, to be pleased with any plan, provided it opened the way for his own escape from the dangers in which he imagined that he was entangled. He said that he would 1 8— X' rxes 248 XERXES. consult some of the other commanders upon the subject. He did so, and then, before commg to a final decision, he determined to confer with Artemisia. He remembered that she had counseled him not to attack the Greeks at Sala- mis, and, as the result had proved that counsel to be eminently wise, he felt the greater confi- dence in asking her judgment again. He accordingly sent for Artemisia, and, di- recting all the officers, as well as his own at« tendants, to retire, he held a private consulta- tion with her in respect to his plans. ^' Mardonius proposes," said he, ^' that the expedition should on no account be abandoned in consequence of this disaster, for he says that the fleet is a very unimportant part of our force, and that the army still remains un- harmed. He proposes that, if I should decide myself to return to Persia, I should leave three hundred thousand men with him, and he un- dertakes, if I will do so, to complete, with them, the subjugation of Greece. Tell me what you think of this plan. You evinced so much sagacity in foreseeing the result of this engagement at Salamis, that I particularly wish to know your opinion." Artemisia, after pausing a little to reflect upon the subject, saying, as she hesitated, that it was rather difficult to decide, under the ex= traordinary circumstances in which they were THE RETURN TO PERSIA. 249 placed, what it really was best to do, came at length to the conclusion that it would be wisest for the king to accede to Mardonius's proposal. ^' Since he offers, of his own accord, to remain and undertake to complete the subjugation of Greece, you can, very safely to yourself, allow him to make the experiment. The great ob- ject which was announced as the one which you had chiefly in view in the invasion of Greece, was the burning of Athens. This is already accomplished. You have done, there- fore, what you undertook to do, and can, con- sequently, now return yourself, without dis- honor. If Mardonius succeeds in his attempt, the glory of it will redound to you. His vic- tories will be considered as only the successful completion of what you began. On the other hand, if he fails, the disgrace of failure will be his alone, and the injury will be confined to his destruction. In any event, your person, your interests, and your honor are safe, and if Mardonius is willing to take the responsibility and incur the danger involved in the plan that he proposes, I would give him the opportu- nity.'' Xerxes adopted the view of the subject whicli Artemisia thus presented with the utmost read- iness and pleasure. That advice is always very welcome which makes the course that we had previously decided upon as the most agreeable 250 XERXES. Beem the most wise. Xerxes immediately de- termined on returning to Persia himself, and leaving Mardonius to complete the conquest. In carrying out this design, he concluded to march to the northward by land^ accompanied by a large portion of his army and by all his principal officers, until he reached the Helles- pont. Then he was to give np to Mardonius the command of such troops as should be selected to remain in Greece, and, crossing the Helles- pont, return himself to Persia with the re- mainder. If, as is generally the case, it is a panic that I causes a flight, a flight, in its turn, always in- creases a panic. It happened, in accordance with this general law, that, as soon as the thoughts of Xerxes were once turned toward an escape from Greece, his fears increased, and his mind became more and more the prey of a rest- less uneasiness and anxiety lest he should notj be able to effect his escape. He feared that the bridge of boats would have been broken down, and then how would he be able to cross the Hel- lespont ? To prevent the Greek fleet from pro- ceeding to the northward, and thus intercept- ing his passage by destroying the bridge, he de- termined to conceal, as long as possible, his own departure. Accordingly, while he was mak- ing the most efficient and rapid arrangements on the land for abandoning the whole region. THE RETURN TO PERSIA. 251 he brought up his fleet by sea, and began to build, by means of the ships, a floating bridge from the main land to the island of Salamis, as if he were intent only on advancing. He con- tinued this work all day, postponing his in- tended retreat until the night should come, in order to conceal his movements. In the course of the day he placed all his family and family relatives on board of Artemisia's ship, under the charge of a tried and faithful domestic. Artemisia was to convey them, as rapidly as possible, to Ephesus, a strong city in Asia Minor, where Xerxes supposed that they would be safe. In the night the fleet, in obedience to the or- ders which Xerxes had given them, abandoned their bridge and all their other undertakings, and set sail. They were to make the best of their way to the Hellespont, and post them- selves there to defend the bridge of boats until Xerxes should arrive. On the following morn- ing, accordingly, when the sun rose, the Greeks found, to their utter astonishment, that their enemies were gone. A scene of the greatest animation and excite- ment on board the Greek fleet at once ensued. The commanders resolved on an immediate pur- suit. The seamen hoisted their sails, raised their anchors, and manned their oars, and the whole squadron was soon in rapid motion. The 252 XERXES. fleet went as far as to the island of Andros, look- ing eagerly all around the horizon, in every di- rection, as they advanced, but no signs of the fugitives were to be seen. The ships then drew up to the shore, and the commanders were con= vened in an assembly, summoned by Eurybi- ades, on the land, for consultation. A debate ensued, in which the eternal en- mity and dissension between the Athenian and Peloponnesian Greeks broke out anew. There was, however, now some reason for the disagree- ment. The Athenian cause was already ruined. Their capital had been burned, their country ravaged, and their wives and children driven forth to exile and misery. Nothing remained now for them but hopes of revenge. They were eager, therefore, to press on, and overtake the Persian galleys in their flight, or, if this could not be done, to reach the Hellespont before Xerxes should arrive there, and intercept his passage by destroying the bridge. This was the policy which Themistocles advocated. Eurybiades, on the other hand, and the Pelo- ponnesian commanders, urged the expediency of not driving the Persians to desperation by har- assing them too closely on their retreat. They were formidable enemies after all, and, if they were now disposed to retire and leave the coun- try, it was the true policy of the Greeks to allow them to do so. To destroy the bridge THE RETURN TO PERSIA. 253 of boats would only be to take effectual meas- ures for keeping the pest among them. The- mistocles was out-voted. It was determined best to allow the Persian forces to retire. Themistocles, when he found that his coun- sels were overruled, resorted to another of the audacious stratagems that marked his career, which was to send a second pretended message of friendship to the Persian king. He em- ployed the same Sicinnus on this occasion that he had sent before into the Persian fleet, on the eve of the battle of Salamis. A galley was given to Sicinnus, with a select crew of faith- ful men. They were all put under the most solemn oaths never to divulge to any person, under any circumstances, the nature and object of their commission. With this company, Si- cinnus left the fleet secretly in the night, and went to the coast of Attica. Landing here, he left the galley, with the crew in charge of it, upon the shore, and, with one or two select at- tendants, he made his way to the Persian camp, and desired an interview with the king. On being admitted to an audience, he said to Xerxes that he had been sent to him by Themis- tocles, whom he represented as altogether the most prominent man among the Greek com- manders, to say that the Greeks had resolved on pressing forward to the Hellespont, to in- tercept him on his return, but that he, The- 254 XERXES. mistocles, had dissuaded them from it, under the influence of the same friendship xor Xerxes which had led him to send a friendly commu- nication to the Persians before the late battle ; that, in consequence of the arguments and per- suasions of Themistocles, the Greek squadrons would remain where they then were, on the southern coasts, leaving Xerxes to retire with- out molestation. All this was false, but Themistocles thought it would serve his purpose well to make the statement ; for, in case he should, at any future time, in following the ordinary fate of the bravest and most successful Greek generals, be obliged to fly in exile from his country to save his life, it might be important for him to have a good understanding beforehand with the King of Persia, though a good understanding, founded on pretensions so hypocritical and empty as these, would seem to be worthy of very little reliance. In fact, for a Greek gen- eral, discomfited in the councils of his own nation, to turn to the Persian king with such prompt and cool assurance, for the purpose of gaining his friendship by tendering falsehoods so bare and professions so hollow, was an instance of audacious treachery so original and lofty as to be almost sublime. ^ Xerxes pressed on with the utmost diligence \ toward the north. The country had been rav- THE KETURN TO PEKSIA. 255 aged and exhausted by his march through it in coming down; and now, in returning, he found infinite difficulty in obtaining supplies of food and water for his army. Forty-five days were consumed in getting back to the Hellespont. During all this time the privations and suf- ferings of the troops increased every day. The soldiers were spent with fatigue, exhausted with hunger, and harassed with incessant ap- prehensions of attacks from their enemies. Thousands of the sick and wounded that at- tempted at first to follow the army, gave out by degrees as the columns moved on. Some were left at the encampments ; others lay down by the roadsides, in the midst of the day^s march, wherever their waning strength finally failed them ; and everywhere broken chariots, dead and dying beasts ofburden, and the bodies of soldiers, that lay neglected where they fell, encumbered and choked the way. In a word, all the roads leading toward the northern prov- inces exhibited in full perfection those awful scenes which usually mark the track of a great army retreating from an invasion. The men were at length reduced to extreme distress for food. They ate the roots and stems of the herbage, and finally stripped the very bark from the trees and devoured it, in the vain hope that it might afford some nutriment tore- enforce the vital principle, for a little time at 250 XERXES. least, in the dreadful struggle which it was waging within them. There are certain forms of pestilential disease which, in cases like this, always set in to hasten the work which famine alone would be too slow in performing. Ac- cordingly, as was to have been expected, camp fevers, choleras, and other corrupt and infec- tious maladies, broke out with great violence as the army advanced along the northern shores of the ^gean Sea ; and as every victim to theso dreadful and hopeless disorders helped, by his own dissolution, to taint the air for all the rest, the wretched crowd was, in the end, reduced to the last extreme of misery and terror. At length Xerxes, with a miserable remnant 1 of his troops, arrived at Abydos, on the shores of the Hellespont. He found the bridge broken down. The winds and storms had demolished what the Greeks had determined to spare. The immense structure, which it had cost so much toil and time to rear, had wholly disappeared, leaving no traces of its existence, except the wrecks which lay here and there half buried in the sand along the shore. There were some small boats at hand, and Xerxes, embarking in one of them, with a few attendants in the others, and leaving the exhausted and wretched rem- nant of his army behind, was rowed across the strait, and landed at last safely again on the Asiatic shores. THE RETURN TO PERSIA. 257 The place of his landing was Sestos. From Sestos he went to Sardis, and from Sardis he proceeded, in a short time, to Susa. Mardo- nius was left in Greece. Mardoniiis was a gen- eral of great military experience and skill, and, when left to himself, he found no great difficul- ty in reorganizing the army, and in putting it again in an efficient condition. He was not able, however, to accomplish the undertaking which he had engaged to perform. After vari- ous adventures, prosperous and adverse, which it would be foreign to our purpose here to de- tail, he was at last defeated in a great battle, and killed on the field. The Persian army was now obliged to give up the contest, and was ex- pelled from Greece finally and forever. When Xerxes reached Susa, he felt over- joyed to find himself once more safe, as he thought, in his own palaces. He looked back upon the hardships, exposures, and perils through which he had passed, and, thankful for having so narrowly escaped from them, he determined to encounter no such hazards again. He had had enough of ambition and glory. He was now going to devote himself to ease and pleasure. Such a man would not naturally be expected to be very scrupulous in respect to the means of enjoyment, or to the character of the companions whom he would select to share his pleasures, and the life of the king soon 258 XERXES. presented one continual scene of dissipation, revelry, and vice. He gave himself up to such prolonged carousals, that one night was some- times protracted through the following day into another. The administration of his gov- ernment was left wholly to his ministers, and every personal duty was neglected, that he might give himself to the most abandoned and profligate indulgence of his appetites and pas- sions, n He had three sons who might be considered as heirs to his throne — Darius, Hystaspes, and Artaxerxes. Hystaspes was absent in a neigh- boring province. The others were at home. He had also a very prominent officer in his court, whose name, Artabanus, was the same with that of the uncle who had so strongly at- tempted to dissuade him from undertaking the conquest of G-reece. Artabanus the uncle dis- appears finally from view at the time when Xerxes dismissed him to return to Susa at the first crossing of the Hellespont. This second Artabanus was the captain of the king's body- guard, and, consequently, the common execu- tioner of the despot's decrees. Being thus established in his palace, surrounded by his family, and protected by Artabanus and his guard, the monarch felt that all his toils and dangers were over, and that there was nothing now before him but a life of ease, of pleasure, THE RETURN TO PERSIA. 259 and of safety. Instead of this, he was, in fact, in the most imminent danger. Artabanns was already plotting his destruction. One day in the midst of one of his carousals, ^^ he became angry with his oldest son Darius for some cause, and gave Artabanus an order to kill him. Artabanus neglected to obey this order. The king had been excited with wine when he gave it, and Artabanus supposed that all recollection of the command would pass away from his mind with the excitement that occasioned it. The king did not, however, so readily forget. The next day he demanded why his order had not been obeyed. Arta- banus now began to fear for his own safety, and he determined to proceed at once to the execution of a plan which he had long been revolving, of destroying the whole of Xerxes^'s family, and placing himself on the throne in their stead. He contrived to bring the king^s chamberlain into his schemes, and, with the connivance and aid of this officer, he went at night into the king's bed-chamber, and mur- dered the monarch in his sleep. Leaving the bloody weapon with which the deed had been perpetrated by the side of the victim, Artabanus went immediately into the bed-chamber of Artaxerxes, the youngest son, and, awaking him s^nddenly, he told him, with tones of voice and looks expressive of great 260 XEEXES. excitement and alarm^ tliat his father had been killed^ and that it was his brother Darius that had killed him. '^ His motive is/' continued Artabanus, '^ to obtain the throne, and to make the more sure of an undisturbed possession of it, he is intending to murder you next. Eise, therefore, and defend your life." Artaxerxes was aroused to a sudden and un- controllable paro:^ysm of anger at this intelli- gence. He seized his weapon, and rushed into the apartment of his innocent brother, and slew him on the spot. Other summary assassina- tions of a similar kind followed in this compli- cated tragedy. Among the victims, Artabanus and all his adherents were slain, and at length Artaxerxes took quiet possession of the throne, and reigned in his father's stead. ALTENIUS' Young People's Library, Price, 50 Cents Each. ROBINSON CRUSOE : His Life and Strange Surprising Adventures. With 70 beautiful illustrations by Walter Paget. Arranged for young readers. "There exists no work, either of instruction or entertainment, which has been more generally read, and universally admired." — Walter Scott. ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. With 42 ilhistrations by John Tenniel. " This is Carroll's immortal story." — AthenceMm. " The most delightful of children's stories. Elegant and deli- cious nonsense." — Saturday Review. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE. (A companion to Alice in Wonderland.) With 50 illustrations by John Tenniel. '■ Not a whit inferior to its predecessor in grand extravagance of imagination, and delicious allegorical nonsense." — Quarterly Revieiv. BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. With 50 full-page and text illustrations. Pilgrim's Progress is the most popular story book in the world. With the exception of the Bible it has been translated into more languages than any other book ever printed. A CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. With 72 full-page illustrations. Tells in simple language and in a form fitted for the hands of the younger members of the Christian flock, the tale of God's dealings with his Chnsn People under the Old Dispensation, with its foresh ado wings of the coming of that Messiah who was to make all mankind one fold under one Shepherd. ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. A CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. With 49 illustrations. God has implanted in the infant's heart a desire to hear of Jesus, and children are early attracted and sweetly riveted by the won- derful Story of the Master from the Manger to the Throne. In this little book we have brought together from Scripture every incident, expression and description within the verge of their com- prehension, in the effort to weave them into a memorial garland of their Saviour. THE FABLES OF ^SOP. Compiled from the best ac- cepted sources. With 62 illustrations. The fables of yEsop are among the very earliest compositions of this kind, and probably have never been surpassed for point and brevity, as well as for the practical good sense they display. In their grotesque grace, in their quaint humor, in their trust in the simpler virtues, in their insight into the cruder vices, in their inno- cence of the fact of sex, yEsop's Fables are as little children — and for that reason will ever find a home in the heaven of little chil- dren's souls. THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, or the Adventures of a Shipwrecked Family on an Uninhabited Island. With 50 illustrations. A remarkable tale of adventure that will interest the boys and girls. The father of the family tells the tale and the vicissitudes through which he and his wife and children pass, the wonderful discoveries they make, and the dangers they encounter. It is a standard work of adventure that has the favor of all who have read it. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. With 70 illustrations. It is the duty of every American lad to know the story of Chris- topher Columbus. In this book is depicted the story of his life and struggles ; of his persistent solicitations at the courts of Eu- rope, and his contemptuous receptions by the learned Geographical Councils, until his final employment by Queen Isabella. Records the day-by-day journeyings while he was pursuing his aim and his perilous way over the shoreless ocean, until he "gave to Spain a New World." Shows his progress through Spain on the occasion of his first return, when he was received with rapturous demon- strations and more than regal homage. His displacement by the ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. Odjeas, Ovandos and Bobadilas ; his last return in chains, and the story of his death in poverty and neglect. THE STORY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY IN AFRICA. With 80 illustrations. Records the adventures, privations, sufferings, trials, dangers and discoveries in developing the "Dark Continent," from the early days of Bruce and Mungo Park down to Livingstone and Stanley and the heroes of our own times. The reader becomes carried away by conflicting emotions of wonder and sympathy, and feels compelled to pursue the story, which he cannot lay down. No present can be more acceptable than such a volume as this, where courage, intrepidity, resource and devotion are so pleasantly mingled. It is very fully illustra- ted with pictures worthy of the book. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS INTO SOME REMOTE RE- GIONS OF THE WORLD. With 50 illustrations. In description, even of the most common-place things, his power is often perfectly marvellous. Macaulay says of Swift : " Under a plain garb and ungainly deportment were concealed some of the choicest gifts that ever have been bestowed on any of the children of men — rare powers of observation, brilliant art, grotesque inven- tion, humor of the mo,t austere flavor, yet exquisitely delicious, eloquence singularly pure, manly and perspicuous." MOTHER GOOSE'S RHYMES, JINQLES AND FAIRY TALES. With 300 illustrations. " In this edition an excellent choice has been made from the standard fiction cf the little ones. The abundant pictures are well- drawn and graceful, the effect frequently striking and always deco- rative." — Critic. '* Only to see the book is to wish to give it to every child one knows. ' ' — Queen. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Compiled from authoritative sources. With portraits of the Presidents ; and also of the unsuccessful candidates for the office; as well as the ablest of the Cabinet officers. This book should be in every home and school library. It tells, in an impartial way, the story of the political history of the United States, from the first Constitutional convention to the last Presi- ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. dential nominations, it is just the book for intelligent boys, and it will help to make them intelligent and patriotic citizens. THE STORY OF ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN SEA. With 70 illustrations. Compiled from authorized sources. We here have brought together the records of the attempts to reach the North Pole. Our object being to recall the stories of the early voyagers, and to narrate the recent efforts of gallant adven- turers of various nationalities to cross the " unknown and inacces- ible " threshold ; and to show^ how much can be accomplished by indomitable pluck and steady perseverance. Portraits and numer- ous illustrations help the narration. ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. By the Rev. J. G. Wood. With 80 illustrations. Wood's Natural History needs no commendation. Its author has done more than any other writer to popularize the study. His work is known and admired overall the civilized world. The sales of his works in England and America have been enormous. The illustrations in this edition are entirely new, striking and life-like. A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles Dickens. With 50 illustrations. Dickens grew tired of listening to his children memorizing the old fashioned twaddle that went under the name of English his- tory. He thereupon wrote a book, in his own peculiarly happy style, primarily for the educational advantage of his own children, but was prevailed upon to publish the work, and make its use gen- eral. Its success was instantaneous and abiding. BLACK BEAUTY; The Autobiography of a Horse. By Anna Sewell. With 50 illustrations This NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION is sure to command attention. Wherever children are, whether boys or girls, there this Autobiog- raphy should be. It inculcates habits of kindness to all members of the animal creation. The literary merit of the bo jk is excellent. THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS. With 50 illustrations. Contains the most favorably known of the stories. The text is somewhat abridged and edited for the young. It forms an excellent introduction to those immortal tales which have helped so long to keep th2 weary world young. ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES. By Hans Christian An- dersen. With 77 illustrations. ■ The spirit of high moral teaching, and the delicacy of sentiment, feeling and expression that pervade these tales make these won- derful creations not only attractive to the young, but equally accept- able to those of mature years, who are able to understand their real significance and appreciate the depth of their meaning. GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. With 50 illustrations. These tales of the Brothers Grimm have carried their names into every household of the civilized world. The Tales are a wonderful collection, as interesting, from a lit- erary point of view, as they are delightful as stories. GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR; A History for Youth. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 60 illustrations. The story of America from the landing of the Puritans to the acknowledgment withoiit reserve of the Independence of the United States, told with all the elegance, simplicity, grace, clear- ness and force for which Hawthorne is conspicuously noted. FLOWER FABLES. By Louisa May Alcott. With colored and plain illustrations. A series of very interesting fairy tales by the most charming of American story-tellers. AUNT MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD. By Mary and Elizabeth Kirby. With 60 illustrations. Stories about Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Rice and Chinaware, and other accessories of the well-kept Cupboard. A book full of in- terest for all the giris and many of the boys. WATER-BABIES; A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. By Charles Kingsley. With 94 illustrations. " Come read me my riddle, each good little man ; If you cannot read it, no grown-up folk can." BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. By Prescott Holmes. With 70 illustrations. A graphic ard full history of the RebelHon of the American Col- onies from the yoke and oppression of England, with the causes 6 ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. that led thereto, and including an account of the second war with Great Britain, and the War with Mexico. BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION. By Prescott Holmes. With 80 illustrations. A correct and impartial account of the greatest civil war in the annals of history. Both of these histories of American wars are a necessary part of the education of all intelligent American boys and girls. YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN. By Prescott Holmes. With 89 illustrations. This history of our war with Spain, in 1898, presents in a plain, easy style the splendid achievements of our army and navy, and the prominent figures that came into the public view during that period. Its glowing descriptions, wealth of anecdote, accuracy of statement and profusion of illustration make it a most desirable gift-book for young readers. HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. By Hartwell James. With 65 illustrations. The story of our navy is one of the most brilliant pages in the world's history. The sketches and exploits contained in this vol- ume cover our entire naval history from the days of the hone>t, rough sailors of Revolutionary times, with their cutlasses and boarding pikes, to the brief war of 1898, when our superbly ap- pointed warships destroyed Spain' s proud cruisers by the merci- less accuracy of their fire. MILITARY HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES. By Hartwell James. With 97 illustrations. In this volume the brave lives and heroic deeds c f our military heroes, from Paul Revere to Lawton, are told in the most captiva- ting manner. The material for the work has been gathered from the North and the Sou h alike. The volume presents all the im- portant facts in a manner enabling the young people of our united and prosperous land to easily become familiar with the command- ing figures that have arisen in our military history. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; or Life Among the Lowly. By Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. With 90 illustrations. ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. The unfailing interest in the famous old story suggested the need of an edition specially prepared for young readers, and elaborately illustrated. This edition completely fills that want. SEA KINGS AND NAVAL HEROES. By Hartwell James. With 50 illustrations. The most famous sea battles of the world, with sketches of the lives, enterprises and achievements of men who have become fam- ous in naval history. They are stories of brave lives in times of trial and danger, charmingly told for young people. POOR BOYS' CHANCES. By John Habberton. With 50 illustrations. There is a fascination about the writings of the author of " Helen's Babies," from which none can escape. In this charm- ing \oIume, Mr. Habberton tells the boys of America how they can attain the highest positions in the land, without the struggles and privations endured by poor boys who rose to eminence and fame in former times. ROMULUS, the Founder of Rome. By Jacob Abbott. With 49 illustrations. In a plain and connected narrative, the author tells the stories of the founder of Rome and his great ancestor, ^neas. These are of necessity sumewhat legendary in character, but are pre- sented precisely as they have come down to us from ancient times. They are prefaced by an account of the life and inventions of Cad- mus, the " Father of the Alphabet," as he is often called. CYRUS THE GREAT, the Founder of the Persian Empire. By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. For nineteen hundred years, the story of the founder of the an- cient Persian empire has been read by every generation of man- kind. The story of the life and actions of Cyrus, as told by the author, presents vivid pictures of the magnificence of a monarchy that rose about five hundred years before the Christian era, and rolled on in undisturbed magnitude and glory for many centuries. ADVENTURES IN TOYLAND. By Edith King Hull. With 70 illustrations by Alice B. Woodward. The sayings and doin^^softhe dwellers in toyland, related by one of them to a dear little girl. It is a delightful book for chil- dren, and admirably illustrated. ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. DARIUS THE GREAT, King of the Medes and Persians. By Jacob Abbott. With 34 illustrations. No great exploits marked the career of this monarch, who was at one time the absolute sovereign of nearly one-half of the world. He reached his high position by a stratagem, and left behind him no strong impressions of personal character, yet, the history of his life and reign should be read along with those of Cyrus, Caesar, Hannibal and Alexander. XERXES THE GREAT, King of Persia. By Jacob Ab- bott. With 39 illustrations. For ages the name of Xerxes has been associated in the minds of men with the idea of the highest attainable human magnificence and grandeur. He was the sovereign of the ancient Persian em- pire at the height of its prosperity and power. The invasion of Greece by the Persian hordes, the battle of Thermopylae, the burn- ing of Athens, and the defeat of the Persian galleys at Salamis are chapters of thrilling interest. THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE. By Miss Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentleman, etc. With 18 illustrations. One of the best of Miss Murlock's charming stories for children. All the situations are amusing and are sure to please youthful readers. ALEXANDER THE GREAT, King of Macedon. By Jacob Abbott. With 51 illustrations. Born heir to the throne of Macedon, a country on the confines of Europe and Asia, Alexander crowded into a brief career of twelve years a brilliant series of exploits. The readers of to-day will find pleasure and profit in the history of Alexander the Great, a potentate before whom ambassadors and princes from nearly all the nations of the earth bowed in humility. PYRRHUS, King of Epirus. By Jacob Abbott. With 45 illustrations. The story of Pyrrhus is one of the ancient narratives which has been told and retold for many centuries in the literature, eloquence and poetry of all civilized nations. While possessed of extraordi- nary ability as a military leader, Pyrrhus actually accomplished nothing, but did mischief on a gigantic scale. He was naturally ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. of a noble and generous spirit, but only succeded in perpetrating crimes against the peace and welfare of mankind. HANNIBAL, the Carthaginian. By Jacob Abbott. With 37 illustrations. Hannibal's distinction as a warrior was gained during the des- perate contests between Rome and Carthage, known as the Punic wars. Entering the scene when his country was engaged in peace- ful traffic with the various countries of the known world, he turned its energies into military aggression, conquest and war, becoming himself one of the greatest military heroes the world has ever known. MIXED PICKLES. By Mrs. E. M. Field. With 31 illus- trations by T. Pym. A remarkably entertaining story for young people. The reader is introduced to a charming little girl whose mishaps while trying to do good are very appropriately termed " Mixed Pickles." JULIUS C^SAR, the Roman Conqueror. By Jacob Ab- bott. With 44 illustrations. The life and actions of Julius Casar embrace a period in Roman history beginning with the civil wars of Marius and Sylla and end- ing with the tragic death of Caesar Imperator. The work is an accurate historical account of the life and times of one of the great military figures in history, ia fact, it is history itself, and as such is especially commended to the readers of the present generation. ALFRED THE GREAT, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. In a certain sense, Alfred appears in history as the founder of the British monarchy : his predecessors having governed more like savage chieftains than English kings. The work has a special value for young readers, for the character of Alfred was that of an honest, conscientious and far-seeing statesman. The romantic story of Godwin furnishes the concluding chapter of the volume. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 43 illustrations. The life and times of William of Normandy have always been a fruitful theme for the historian. War and pillage and conquest were at least a part of the everyday business of men in both Eng- lO ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. land and France : and the story of William as told by the author of this volume makes some of the most fascinating page.^ in his- tory. It is especially delightful to young readtr-;. FIERNANDO CORTEZ, the Conqueror of Mexico. By. Jacob Abbott. With 30 illustrations. In this volume the author gives vivid pictures of the wild and adventurous career of Cortez and his companions in the conque>t of Mexico. Many good motives were united with those of ques- tionable character, in the prosecution of his enterprise, but in those days it v.'as a matter of national ambition to enlarge the boundaries of nations and to extend their commerce at any cost. The career of Cortez is one of absorbing interest. THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. By Miss Mulock. With 24 illustrations. The author styles it "A Parable for Old and Young." It is in her happiest vein and delightfully interesting, especially to youthful readers. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. By Jacob Abbott. With 45 illustrations. The story of Mary Stuart holds a prominent place in the present series of historical narrations. It has had many tellings, for the melancholy story of the unfortunate queen has always held a high place in the estimation of successive generations of readers. Her story is full of romance and pathos, and the reader is carried along by conflicting emotions of wonder and sympathy. QUEEN ELIZABETH, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 49 illustrations. In strong contrast to the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, is that of Elizabeth, Queen of England. They were cousins, yet im- placable foes. Elizabeth's reign was in many ways a glorious one, and her successes gained her the applause of the world. The stirring tales of Drake, Hawkins and other famous mariners of her lime have been incorporated into the story of Elizabeth's life and reign. KING CHARLES THE FIRST, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 41 illustrations. The well-known figures in the stormy reign of Charles T. are brought forward in this narrative of his life and times. It is his- tory told in the most fascinating manner, and embraces the early ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. II life of Charles ; the court of James I.; struggles between Charles and the Parliament ; the Civil war ; the trial and execution of the king. The narrative is impartial and holds the attention of the reader. KING CHARLES THE SECOND, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With ;^S illustrations. Beginning with his infancy, the life of the *' Merry Monarch " is related in the author's inimitable style. His reign was signal- ized by many disastrous events, besides those that related to his personal troubles and embarrassments. There were unfortunate wars ; naval defeats ; dangerous and disgraceful plots and con- spiracies. Trobule sat very lightly on the shoulders of Charles II., however, and the cares of state were easily forgotten in the society of his court and dogs. THE SLEEPY KING. By Aubrey Hopwood and Seymour Hicks. With 77 illustrations by Maud Trelawney. A charmingly-told Fairy Tale, full of delight and entertain- ment. The illustrations are original and striking, adding greatly to the interest of the text. MARIA ANTOINETTE, Queen of France. By John S. C. Abbott. With 42 illustrations. The tragedy of Maria Antoinette is one of the most mournful in the history of the world. " Her beauty dazzled the whole king- dom," says Lamartine. Her lofty and unbending spirit under unspeakable indignities and atrocities, enlists and holds the sympa- thies of the readers of to-day, as it has done in the past. MADAME ROLAND, A Heroine of the French Revolution. By Jacob Abbott. With 42 illustrations. The French Revolution developed few, if any characters more worthy of notice than that of Madame Roland. The absence of playmates, in her youth, inspired her with an insatiate thirst for knowledge, and books became her constant companions in every unoccupied hour. She fell a martyr to the tyrants of the French Revolution, but left behind her a career full of instruction that never fails to impress itself upon the reader. JOSEPHINE, Empress of France. By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. 12 ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. Maria Antoinette beheld the dawn of the French Revolution ; Madame Roland perished under the lurid glare of its high noon ; Josephine saw it fade into darkness. She has been called the " Star of Napoleon ; " and it is certain that she added luster to his brilliance, and that her persuasive influence was often exerted to win a friend or disarm an adversary. The lives of the Empress Josephine, of Maria Antoinette, and of Madame Roland are especially commended to young lady readers. TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Charles and Mary Lamb. With 80 illustrations. The text is somewhat abridged and edited for young people, but a clear and definite outline of each play is presented. Such episodes or incidental sketches of character as are not absolutely necessary to the development of the tales are omitted, while the many moral lessons that lie in Shakespeare's plays and make them valuable in the training of the young are retained. The b 10k is winnmg, help- ful and an effectual guide to the "inner shrine" of the great dramatist. MAKERS OF AMERICA. By Hartwell James. With 75 illustrations. This volume contains attractive and suggestive sketches of the lives and deeds of men who illustrated some special phase in the political, religious or social life of our country, from its settlement to the close of the eighteenth century. It affords an opportunity for young readers to become easily familiar with these characters and their historical relations to the building of our Republic. An account of the discovery of America prefaces the work. A WONDER BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 50 illustrations. IxL tjjj^ volume the genius of Hawthorne has shaped anew wonder tales that have been hallowed by an antiquity of two or three thousand years. Seeming " never to have been made " they are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own fancy as to manners and sentiment, and its own views of morality. The volume has a charm fo old and young alike, for the author has not thought it necessary to "write downward" in order to meet the comprehensjion of children. 6 22 * ff 1 ^ \ V V ^ "^ ^^^^.^^ ^ A^' ^- %^^ t/- '\'