<h2><SPAN name="Chapter_VI" id="Chapter_VI"></SPAN><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></h2>
<h2><span class="smcap">The Review of the Troops at Doriscus.</span></h2>
<h3>B.C. 480</h3>
<div class="sidenote">The fleet and the army separate.<br/>The Chersonesus.</div>
<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">s</span>
soon as the expedition of Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont and
arrived safely on the European side, as narrated in the last chapter, it
became necessary for the fleet and the army to separate, and to move,
for a time, in opposite directions from each other. The reader will
observe, by examining the map, that the army, on reaching the European
shore, at the point to which they would be conducted by a bridge at
Abydos, would find themselves in the middle of a long and narrow
peninsula called the Chersonesus, and that, before commencing its
regular march along the northern coast of the Ægean Sea, it would be
necessary first to proceed for fifteen or twenty miles to the eastward,
in order to get round the bay by which the peninsula is bounded on the
north and west. While, therefore, the fleet went directly westward along
the coast, the army turned to the eastward, a place of rendezvous having
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</SPAN></span>been appointed on the northern coast of the sea, where they were all
soon to meet again.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Sufferings from thirst.</div>
<p>The army moved on by a slow and toilsome progress until it reached the
neck of the peninsula, and then turning at the head of the bay, it moved
westward again, following the direction of the coast. The line of march
was, however, laid at some distance from the shore, partly for the sake
of avoiding the indentations made in the land by gulfs and bays, and
partly for the sake of crossing the streams from the interior at points
so far inland that the water found in them should be fresh and pure.
Notwithstanding these precautions, however, the water often failed. So
immense were the multitudes of men and of beasts, and so craving was the
thirst which the heat and the fatigues of the march engendered, that, in
several instances, they drank the little rivers dry.</p>
<div class="sidenote">The Hebrus.<br/>Plain of Doriscus.</div>
<p>The first great and important river which the army had to pass after
entering Europe was the Hebrus. Not far from the mouth of the Hebrus,
where it emptied into the Ægean Sea, was a great plain, which was called
the plain of Doriscus. There was an extensive fortress here, which had
been erected by the orders of Darius when he had subjugated this part of
the <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</SPAN></span>country. The position of this fortress was an important one,
because it commanded the whole region watered by the Hebrus, which was a
very fruitful and populous district. Xerxes had been intending to have a
grand review and enumeration of his forces on entering the European
territories, and he judged Doriscus to be a very suitable place for his
purpose. He could establish his own head-quarters in the fortress, while
his armies could be marshaled and reviewed on the plain. The fleet, too,
had been ordered to draw up to the shore at the same spot, and when the
army reached the ground, they found the vessels already in the offing.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Preparations for the great review.<br/>Mode of taking a census.<br/>Immense numbers of the troops.</div>
<p>The army accordingly halted, and the necessary arrangements were made
for the review. The first thing was to ascertain the numbers of the
troops; and as the soldiers were too numerous to be counted, Xerxes
determined to <i>measure</i> the mighty mass as so much bulk, and then
ascertain the numbers by a computation. They made the measure itself in
the following manner: They counted off, first, ten thousand men, and
brought them together in a compact circular mass, in the middle of the
plain, and then marked a line upon the ground inclosing them. Upon this
line, thus determined, they <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</SPAN></span>built a stone wall, about four feet high,
with openings on opposite sides of it, by which men might enter and go
out. When the wall was built, soldiers were sent into the
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 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, indicating, as the total
amount of the infantry of the army, a force of one million seven hundred
thousand men. This enumeration, it must be remembered, included the land
forces alone.</p>
<div class="sidenote">The cavalry.<br/>Corps of Arabs and Egyptians.<br/>Sum total of the army.</div>
<p>This method of measuring the army in bulk was applied only to the foot
soldiers; they constituted the great mass of the forces convened. There
were, however, various other bodies of troops in the army, which, from
their nature, were more systematically organized than the common foot
soldiers, and so their numbers were known by the regular enrollment.
There was, for example, a cavalry force of eighty thousand <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</SPAN></span>men. There
was also a corps of Arabs, on camels, and another of Egyptians, in war
chariots, which together amounted to twenty thousand. Then, besides
these land forces, there were half a million of men in the fleet.
Immense as these numbers are, they were still further increased, as the
army moved on, by Xerxes's system of compelling the forces of every
kingdom and province through which he passed to join the expedition; so
that, at length, when the Persian king fairly entered the heart of the
Greek territory, Herodotus, the great narrator of his history, in
summing up the whole number of men regularly connected with the army,
makes a total of about five millions of men. One hundred thousand men,
which is 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 the 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 <i>shall</i>."</p>
<p>Herodotus adds that, besides the five millions regularly connected with
the army, there was <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</SPAN></span>an immense and promiscuous mass of women, slaves,
cooks, bakers, and camp followers of every description, that no human
powers could estimate or number.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Various nations.<br/>Dress and equipments.<br/>Uncouth costumes.</div>
<p>But to return to the review. The numbers of the army having been
ascertained, the next thing was to marshal and arrange the men by
nations under their respective leaders, to be reviewed by the king. A
very full enumeration of these divisions of the army is given by the
historians of the day, with minute descriptions of the kind of armor
which the troops of the several nations wore. There were more than fifty
of these nations in all. Some of them were highly civilized, others were
semi-barbarous tribes; and, of course, they presented, as marshaled in
long array upon the plain, every possible variety of dress and
equipment. Some were armed with brazen helmets, and coats of mail formed
of plates of iron; others wore linen tunics, or rude garments made of
the skins of beasts. The troops of one nation had their heads covered
with helmets, those of another with miters, and of a third with tiaras.
There was one 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
standing <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</SPAN></span>up erect at the top, and the mane flowing down behind. These
men held the skins of cranes before them instead of shields, so that
they looked like horned monsters, half beast and half bird, endeavoring
to assume the guise and attitude of men. There was another corps whose
men were really horned, since they wore caps made from the skins of the
heads of oxen, with the horns standing. Wild beasts were personated,
too, as well as tame; for some nations were clothed in 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 originally belonged.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Various weapons.<br/>The lasso.</div>
<p>The weapons, too, were of every possible form and guise. Spears—some
pointed with iron, some with stone, and others shaped simply by being
burned to a point in the fire; bows and arrows, of every variety of
material and form, swords, daggers, slings, clubs, darts, javelins, and
every other imaginable species of weapon which human ingenuity, savage
or civilized, had then conceived. Even the lasso—the weapon of the
American aborigines of modern times—was there. It is described by the
ancient historian as a long thong of leather wound into <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</SPAN></span>a coil, and
finished in a noose at the end, which noose the rude warrior who used
the implement launched through the air at the enemy, and entangling
rider and horse together by means of it, brought them both to the
ground.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Dresses of various kinds.</div>
<p>There was every variety of taste, too, in the fashion and the colors of
the dresses which were worn. Some were of artificial fabrics, and dyed
in various and splendid hues. Some were very plain, the wearers of them
affecting a simple and savage ferocity in the fashion of their vesture.
Some tribes had painted skins—beauty, in their view, consisting,
apparently, in hideousness. There was one barbarian horde who wore very
little clothing of any kind. They had knotty clubs for weapons, and, in
lieu of a dress, they had painted their naked bodies half white and half
a bright vermilion.</p>
<div class="sidenote">The Immortals.<br/>Privileges of the Immortals.</div>
<p>In all this vast array, the corps which stood at the head, in respect to
their rank and the costliness and elegance of their equipment, was a
Persian squadron of ten thousand men, called the Immortals. They had
received this designation from the fact that the body was kept always
exactly full, as, whenever any one of the number died, another soldier
was instantly put into his place, whose life was considered in <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</SPAN></span>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 Persians were an immortal band.
They were all carefully-selected soldiers, and they enjoyed very unusual
privileges and honors. They were mounted troops, and their dress and
their armor were richly decorated with gold. They were accompanied in
their campaigns by their wives and families, for whose use carriages
were provided which followed the camp, and there was a long train of
camels besides, attached to the service of the corps, to carry their
provisions and their baggage.</p>
<div class="sidenote">The fleet.</div>
<p>While all these countless varieties of land troops were marshaling and
arranging themselves upon the plain, each under its own officers and
around its own standards, the naval commanders were employed in bringing
up the fleet of galleys to the shore, where they were anchored in a long
line not far from the beach, and with their prows toward the land. Thus
there was a space of open 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.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Xerxes reviews the troops.<br/>He reviews the fleet.</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>When all things were ready, Xerxes mounted his war chariot and rode
slowly around the plain, surveying attentively, and with great interest
and pleasure, the long lines of soldiers, in all their variety of
equipment and costume, as they stood displayed before him. It required a
progress of many miles to see them all. When this review of the land
forces was concluded, the king went to the shore, and embarked on 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 prows and the land. The ships were from
many nations as well as the soldiers, and exhibited the same variety of
fashion and equipment. The land troops had come from the inland realms
and provinces which occupied the heart of Asia, while the ships and the
seamen had been furnished by the maritime regions which extended along
the coasts of the Black, and the Ægean, and the Mediterranean Seas. Thus
the people of Egypt had furnished two hundred ships, the Phœnicians
three hundred, Cyprus fifty, the Cilicians and the Ionians one hundred
each, and so with a great many other nations and tribes.</p>
<div class="sidenote">A lady admiral.<br/>Her abilities.</div>
<p>The various squadrons which were thus combined <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</SPAN></span>in forming this immense
fleet were manned and officered, of course, from the nations that
severally furnished them, and one of them was actually commanded in
person by a queen. The name of this lady admiral was Artemisia. She was
the Queen of 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
commanded quite an important division of the fleet. She proved, also, in
the course of the voyage, to be abundantly qualified for the discharge
of her duties. She became, in fact, one of the 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 important part in the general consultations, where what she
said was <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</SPAN></span>listened to with great respect, and always had great weight in
determining the decisions. In the great battle of Salamis she acted a
very conspicuous part, as will hereafter appear.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Number of vessels in the fleet.</div>
<p>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 sudden storm. The line which
they formed on this occasion, when drawn up side by side upon the shore
for review, must have extended many miles.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Demaratus the Greek.</div>
<p>Xerxes moved slowly along this line in his barge, attended by the
officers of his court and the great generals of his army, who surveyed
the various ships as they passed them, and noted the diverse national
costumes and equipments of the men with curiosity and pleasure. Among
those who attended the king on this occasion was a certain Greek named
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.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Story of Demaratus.</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>The story of the political difficulties in which Demaratus became
involved in his native land, and which led to his flight from Greece,
was very extraordinary. It was this:</p>
<div class="sidenote">Childhood of his mother.</div>
<p>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 petitions should be
offered there at the shrine of Helen that the repulsive deformity of her
features might be removed. The mother consented to this plan, only
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.</p>
<p>These petitions were, it seems, at length heard, for one day, when the
nurse was coming <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</SPAN></span>down from the temple, after offering her customary
prayer, she was met and accosted by a mysterious-looking woman, who
asked her what it was that she was carrying in her arms. The nurse
replied that it was a child. The woman wanted to look at it. The nurse
refused to show the face of the child, saying that she had been
forbidden to do so. The woman, however, insisted upon seeing its face,
and at last the nurse consented and removed the coverings. The stranger
stroked down the face of the child, saying, at the same time, that now
that child should become the most beautiful woman of Sparta.</p>
<div class="sidenote">The change.</div>
<p>Her words proved true. The features of the young girl rapidly changed,
and her countenance soon became as wonderful for its loveliness as it
had been before for its hideous deformity. When she arrived at a proper
age, a certain Spartan nobleman named Agetus, a particular friend of the
king's, made her his wife.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Ariston, king of Sparta.<br/>The agreement.</div>
<p>The name of the king of Sparta at that time was Ariston. He had been
twice married, and his second wife was still living, but he had no
children. When he came to see and to know the beautiful wife of Agetus,
he wished to obtain her for himself, and began to revolve the <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</SPAN></span>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 whatever Ariston might choose. Agetus consented to the
proposal, without, however, giving it any serious consideration. As
Ariston was already married, he did not for a moment imagine that his
wife could be the object which the king would demand. The parties to
this foolish agreement confirmed the obligation of it by a solemn oath,
and then each made known to the other what he had selected. Agetus
gained some jewel, or costly garment, or perhaps a gilded and
embellished weapon, and lost forever his beautiful wife. Ariston
repudiated his own second wife, and put the prize which he had thus
surreptitiously acquired in her place as a third.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Birth of Demaratus.<br/>Demaratus disowned.<br/>His flight.</div>
<p>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
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</SPAN></span>surprised at the intelligence, and exclaimed that the child was not his.
He, however, afterward retracted this disavowal, and owned Demaratus as
his son. The child grew up, and in process of time, when his father
died, he succeeded to the throne. The magistrates, however, 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, and in 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 arrived 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.</p>
<p>Demaratus had decided to accompany Xerxes <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</SPAN></span>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 spectacle with no less of
interest, probably, and yet, doubtless, with very different feelings,
since the country upon which this dreadful cloud of gloom and
destruction was about to burst was his own native land.</p>
<p>After the review was ended, Xerxes sent for Demaratus to come to the
castle. When he arrived, the king addressed him as follows:</p>
<div class="sidenote">Question of Xerxes.</div>
<p>"You are a Greek, Demaratus, and you 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 attempting any resistance?"</p>
<p>Demaratus seemed at first perplexed and uncertain, as if not knowing
exactly what answer to make to the question. At length he asked the king
whether it was his wish that he should respond by speaking the blunt and
honest truth, <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</SPAN></span>or by saying what would be polite and agreeable.</p>
<p>Xerxes replied that he wished him, of course, to speak the truth. The
truth itself would be what he should consider the most agreeable.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Demaratus describes the Spartans.</div>
<p>"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 particularly of my own countrymen,
the people of Sparta. I am sure that they will reject any proposal which
you may make to them for submission to your power, and that they will
resist you to the last extremity. The disparity of numbers will have no
influence whatever on their decision. If all the rest of Greece were to
submit to you, leaving the Spartans alone, and if they should find
themselves unable to muster more than a thousand men, they would give
you battle."</p>
<div class="sidenote">Surprise of Xerxes. </div>
<p>Xerxes expressed great surprise at this assertion, and thought that
Demaratus could not possibly mean what he seemed to say. "I appeal to
yourself," said he; "would <i>you</i> dare to <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</SPAN></span>encounter, alone, ten men? You
have been the prince of the Spartans, and a prince ought, at least, to
be equal to two common men; so that to show that the Spartans in general
could be brought to fight a superiority of force of even ten to one, it
ought to appear that you would dare to engage twenty. This is manifestly
absurd. In fact, for any person to pretend to be able or willing to
fight under such a disparity of numbers, evinces only pride and insolent
presumption. And even this proportion of ten to one, or even twenty to
one, is nothing compared to the real disparity; for, even if we grant to
the Spartans as large a force as there is any possibility of their
obtaining, I shall then have <i>a thousand</i> to one against them.</p>
<div class="sidenote">His displeasure.</div>
<p>"Besides," continued the king, "there is a great difference in the
character of the troops. The Greeks are all freemen, while my soldiers
are all slaves—bound absolutely to do my bidding, without complaint or
murmur. Such soldiers as mine, who are habituated to submit entirely to
the will of another, and who live under the continual fear of the lash,
might, perhaps, be forced to go into battle against a great superiority
of numbers, or under other manifest disadvantages; but free men, never.
I do not <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</SPAN></span>believe that a body of Greeks could be brought to engage a
body of Persians, man for man. Every consideration shows, thus, that the
opinion which you have expressed is unfounded. You could only have been
led to entertain such an opinion through ignorance and unaccountable
presumption."</p>
<div class="sidenote">Demaratus's apology.<br/>His gratitude to Darius.</div>
<p>"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 can not suppose me to have been influenced by a
feeling of undue partiality for the men whom I commended, since they
have been my most implacable and bitter enemies, and have driven me into
hopeless exile from my native land. Your father, on the other hand,
received and protected me, and the sincere gratitude which I feel for
the favors which I have received from him and from you incline me to
take the most favorable view possible of the Persian cause.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Demaratus's defense of the Spartans.</div>
<p>"I certainly should not be willing, as you justly suppose, to engage,
alone, twenty men, or ten, or even one, unless there was an absolute
necessity for it. I do not say that any single <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</SPAN></span>Lacedæmonian could
successfully encounter ten or twenty Persians, although in personal
conflicts they are certainly not inferior to other men. It is when they
are combined in a body even though that body be small, that their great
superiority is seen.</p>
<div class="sidenote">They are governed by law.</div>
<p>"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 controlled by law. The Spartan soldiers are not personal slaves,
governed by the lash of a master, it is true; but they have certain
principles of obligation and duty which they all feel most solemnly
bound to obey. They stand in greater awe of the authority of this law
than your subjects do of the lash. It commands them never to fly from
the field of battle, whatever may be the number of their adversaries. It
commands them to preserve their ranks, to stand firm at the posts
assigned them, and there to conquer or die.</p>
<p>"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
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</SPAN></span>think, because your majesty commanded me to do so; and, notwithstanding
what I have said, I sincerely wish that all your majesty's desires and
expectations may be fulfilled."</p>
<p>The ideas which Demaratus thus appeared to entertain of danger to the
countless and formidable hosts of Xerxes's army, from so small and
insignificant a power as that of Sparta, seemed to Xerxes too absurd to
awaken any serious displeasure in his mind. He only smiled, therefore,
at Demaratus's fears, and dismissed him.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Xerxes resumes his march.<br/>Division of the army.</div>
<p>Leaving a garrison and a governor in possession of the castle of
Doriscus, Xerxes resumed his march along the northern shores of the
Ægean Sea, the immense swarms of men filling all the roads, devouring
every thing capable of being used as food, either for beast or man, and
drinking all the brooks and smaller rivers dry. Even with this total
consumption of the food and the water which they obtained on the march,
the supplies would have been found insufficient if the whole army had
advanced through one tract of country. They accordingly divided the host
into three great columns, one of which kept near the shore; the other
marched far in the interior, and the third in the <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</SPAN></span>intermediate space.
They thus exhausted the resources of a very wide region. All the men,
too, that were capable of bearing arms in the nations that these several
divisions passed on the way, they compelled to join them, so that the
army left, as it moved along, a very broad extent of country trampled
down, impoverished, desolate, and full of lamentation and woe. The whole
march was perhaps the most gigantic crime against the rights and the
happiness of man that human wickedness has ever been able to commit.</p>
<div class="sidenote">The Strymon.<br/>Human sacrifices.</div>
<p>The army halted, from time to time, for various purposes, sometimes for
the performance of what they considered religions ceremonies, which 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 <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</SPAN></span>victims 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 alive!</p>
<div class="sidenote">Arrival at the canal.</div>
<p>Marching slowly on in this manner, the army at length reached the point
upon the coast where the canal had been cut across the isthmus 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 Artachæes, in the highest terms, for the
successful manner in which he had executed the work, and rendered him
very distinguished honors.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Death of the engineer.<br/>Burial of the engineer.</div>
<p>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 Artachæes died. The king considered
this event as a serious calamity to him, as he expected that other
occasions would arrive on which he would have occasion to avail himself
of the engineer's <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</SPAN></span>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.</p>
<div class="sidenote">A grand feast.<br/>Scene of revelry.</div>
<p>While Xerxes remained at Acanthus, he required the people of the
neighboring country to entertain his army at a grand feast, the cost of
which totally ruined them. Not only was all the food of the vicinity
consumed, but 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 <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</SPAN></span>in the pavilion. During the entertainment, 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, plundered the tables of the gold and silver plate,
and departed to their several encampments, leaving nothing behind them.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Desolation and depopulation of the country.</div>
<p>The inhabitants of the country were so completely impoverished and
ruined by these exactions, 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.</p>
<p>He went on to Therma, a port situated on the northwestern corner of the
Ægean Sea, which was the last of his places of rendezvous before his
actual advance into Greece.</p>
<hr class="large" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</SPAN></span></p>
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