Book 7: Polymnia

Chapter 1

1When word of the battle fought at Marathon came to King Darius son of Hystaspes—he already bore the Athenians a deep grudge for their raid on Sardis—his anger grew far greater, and he set his mind more eagerly than ever on marching against Hellas.

2At once he sent messengers out city by city with orders to raise an army, imposing on each far larger levies than before, and demanding ships, and horses, and grain, and transports besides. While this summons went round, Asia was in an uproar for three whole years, the best men being enrolled for the march on Hellas and all things made ready.

3In the fourth year the Egyptians, whom Cambyses had enslaved, broke away from the Persians; then his eagerness rose higher still, for he meant to march against both.

Chapter 2

1But as Darius made ready his march on Egypt and Athens, a great strife arose among his sons over the kingship—which of them, once acknowledged king after the law of the Persians, must lead the campaign.

2Darius had had three sons by his first wife, daughter of Gobryas, before he ever came to the throne, and four more after he was king, by Atossa daughter of Cyrus. Artobazanes was the eldest of the first brood, Xerxes of the later; and born of different mothers, the two contended—

3Artobazanes on the ground that he was the eldest of all the offspring, and that it is the rule with all men for the eldest to hold the rule; Xerxes, that he was the son of Atossa daughter of Cyrus, and that it was Cyrus who won the Persians their freedom.

Chapter 3

1Darius had not yet declared his judgment, and just at this time Demaratus son of Ariston, stripped of his kingship in Sparta and gone into exile out of Lacedaemon, happened to be up at Susa.

2This man, hearing of the dispute among Darius' sons, went to Xerxes and, so the story has it, advised him to add to what he was already saying this point: that he had been born while Darius was already king and held the sovereign power of the Persians, while Artobazanes was born while Darius was still a private man;

3so that it was neither seemly nor right that any other should hold the honor before himself. For Demaratus declared—and he set this forward as the rule in Sparta—where there are sons born before their father comes to the throne and a later son is then born to the reigning king, the succession to the kingship falls to the son born after.

4Xerxes took the hint of Demaratus, and Darius, seeing that his claim was just, acknowledged him king. Yet it is my belief that Xerxes would have come to the throne even without this prompting; Atossa held all the power.

Chapter 4

1So Darius, having acknowledged Xerxes king of the Persians, made ready to march. But in the year after the Egyptian revolt, while the preparations were still going forward, death overtook Darius after a reign of thirty-six years in all; and he never lived to have his revenge, neither on the rebellious Egyptians nor on the Athenians.

Chapter 5

1On Darius' death the kingship passed to his son Xerxes. At the first Xerxes was not at all eager to march against Hellas; it was an army against Egypt that he set about gathering. But Mardonius son of Gobryas, the greatest in power of the Persians about him—Xerxes' cousin, son of Darius' sister—pressed on him an argument of this kind:

2"Master, it is not fitting that the Athenians, having worked the Persians so much harm, should go unpunished for what they did. Do now the thing you have in hand; then, having tamed Egypt for her insolence, lead your army against Athens, so that you may have a good name among men—and so that others hereafter may think twice before marching into your land."

3That was his plea for vengeance; and to it he kept adding this rider: that Europe was a land of surpassing beauty, bearing every kind of cultivated tree, and of such worth that it deserved to be possessed by a king alone of all mortal men.

Chapter 6

1He spoke so as a man hungry for new undertakings, wanting to be governor of Hellas himself. In time he had his way and talked Xerxes round; for other allies fell in to help bring Xerxes to it.

2First, messengers came up from Thessaly, from the Aleuadae, kings of Thessaly, calling the king to Hellas with every pledge of zeal. Then the Pisistratids who had gone up to Susa held to the same arguments as the Aleuadae, and dangled before him something further besides:

3they had brought with them, the feud made up, Onomacritus, an Athenian, a chanter of oracles and the arranger of the oracles of Musaeus. Hipparchus son of Pisistratus had banished Onomacritus from Athens after Lasus of Hermione caught him in the very act of slipping into the oracles of Musaeus a prophecy that the islands lying off Lemnos were fated to vanish beneath the sea.

4For this Hipparchus drove him out, though before then he consulted him above all men. Now Onomacritus had gone up with them; and once the Pisistratids had spoken of him in grand terms, he began to recite the oracles. Whatever in them spelled disaster for the Persian he passed over in silence; but choosing out the luckiest lines he declared that the Hellespont must be bridged by a man of Persia, and laid out the whole march.

5So it was this man with his oracles, and the Pisistratids and the Aleuadae with their arguments, that pressed the case upon him.

Chapter 7

1When Xerxes was resolved to march against Hellas, then in the second year after Darius' death he first led an army against the rebels. He subdued them, and made all Egypt far more a slave than she had been under Darius, and gave her over to Achaemenes, his own brother, son of Darius. Achaemenes, governing Egypt, was murdered some time later by Inarus son of Psammetichus, a Libyan.

Chapter 8

1After the fall of Egypt, as Xerxes was on the point of taking the army for the march on Athens into his hands, he summoned an assembly of the best of the Persians, to learn their opinions and to set before them all what he himself wished. When they were gathered, Xerxes spoke as follows.

Chapter 8A

1"Men of Persia, I am not the first to set this custom among you; it came down to me, and having accepted it I will use it. As I learn from our elders, we have never stood still since we took over this empire from the Medes, when Cyrus cast Astyages down: God leads us so, and amid our many undertakings things fall out ever to the better. What Cyrus and Cambyses and my father Darius conquered and won for us, nations upon nations, no one who knows his business could find fault with."

2"But since I took this throne I have been pondering how I may not fall short of those who came before me in this honor, nor add to the Persians' power anything less than they; and pondering, I find that a glory accrues to us, and a land no smaller than the one we hold now, no worse and far more fruitful besides—while at the same time vengeance and requital are worked. That is why I have gathered you here now, to lay before you what I intend to do:"

Chapter 8B

1"I intend to bridge the Hellespont and drive an army through Europe against Hellas, to punish the Athenians for all they have done to the Persians and to my father."

2"You saw with your own eyes how my father Darius was bent on marching against these men. He died, and did not get his vengeance; but I, for him and for all the other Persians, will not stop until I have taken Athens and burned it—those who began the wrong against me and my father."

3"First they came to Sardis, in company with Aristagoras the Milesian, our slave, and burned the groves and the temples; then look at what they did to us when they landed on our own shore, when Datis and Artaphernes were in command—you all know that."

Chapter 8C

1"For these reasons I have resolved to march against them; and reckoning it up I find these goods in it: if we subdue these men and their neighbors who till the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we shall make the land of Persia border on the sky of Zeus—"

2"—the sun will look upon no land that lies on our borders; no, I will make all those lands one with yours, passing through the whole of Europe."

3"For I learn that it stands thus: when what I have recited is taken out of the way, no city of men, no nation of people will be left that can come to battle with us. So the guilty among them will bear the yoke of slavery—and the guiltless too."

Chapter 8D

1"You will please me by doing this: when I give the signal for the time you must come, let every man of you be there eagerly with his full levy. And whoever arrives with his army equipped most beautifully, to him I will give the gifts that are counted most precious among us."

2"This then is what must be done. And so that it may not seem I am deciding alone, I set the matter in your midst, bidding any of you who wishes to declare his opinion." With that he stopped.

Chapter 9

1After him Mardonius spoke: "Master, you are not only the best of the Persians who have been but of those who are yet to be; for in all else you speak best and truest, and you will not let the Ionians, dwellers in Europe, hold us in scorn, unworthy as they are."

2"For it would be a monstrous thing if, having subdued and kept as slaves Sacae and Indians and Ethiopians and Assyrians and many another great nation, who never wronged the Persians at all but only wished to enlarge their power, we do not take vengeance on the Greeks who began the wrong—"

Chapter 9A

1"—afraid of what? Of a massed crowd of men? Of the power of their money? We know their way of battle, and we know their strength is feeble; and we hold their children already as our subjects—the Ionians and Aeolians and Dorians settled in our own land."

2"I myself made trial of them, marching against those men at your father's command; and in all my driving, on to Macedonia and within a little of Athens itself, not one came out to meet me in battle."

Chapter 9B

1"And yet the Greeks, as I am told, are readiest to settle their wars in the way most against their own interest, out of folly and perversity. When they have declared war on one another, they seek out the fairest and flattest ground and go down into it and fight, so that the victors come away with great hurt—and of the losers I say nothing at all: they are simply destroyed."

2"Speaking one tongue, they ought to settle their differences by heralds and by envoys, and by any means rather than battle; or if they absolutely must war on one another, let them find the ground where each is hardest to dislodge and try the issue there. Such little good sense have the Greeks shown: driven as I drove them to the borders of Macedonia, they never so much as stirred to fight me."

Chapter 9C

1"Who then, King, will rise up against you, bringing war, when you lead the whole host of Asia and all the ships? As I judge it, the affairs of the Greeks do not rise to such daring. But if I should prove wrong in my judgment, and they, puffed up with their own folly, should come to battle with us, they would learn that we are the best of men at war. Let nothing be left untried; nothing comes of itself, but everything comes to men through trial."

Chapter 10

1Mardonius, having thus called Xerxes back to his purpose, stopped. The other Persians kept silence, not daring to set an opinion against what had been laid before them; but Artabanus son of Hystaspes, Xerxes' uncle and the man he trusted most, spoke as follows.

Chapter 10A

1"King, when no opinions stand against one another, a man cannot choose the better and be done; he must simply use what has been said. But where they stand against one another, he can—just as with gold untouched by alloy, which by itself we cannot tell apart, but when we rub it against other gold, we know the finer."

2"I counseled your father, my own brother Darius, not to march against the Scythians, men who have no city anywhere on earth. He, hoping to subdue the nomad Scythians, would not listen to me; he marched, and lost many good men of his army, and came home."

3"And now you, King, are about to march against men far better than the Scythians, who are said to be the best both at sea and on land. What is formidable in them I ought in justice to set before you."

Chapter 10B

1"You say you will bridge the Hellespont and drive your army through Europe into Hellas. Then it may befall you to be beaten by land, or by sea, or by both at once; for these men are said to be valiant—and this much we may weigh: it was with an army such as this that Datis and Artaphernes went up into the land of Attica, and the Athenians alone destroyed it."

2"And even so they were not matched on both elements. But suppose they fall upon your ships, and winning the sea fight sail for the Hellespont, and then break the bridge—there, King, is disaster."

Chapter 10C

1"I do not reason this out by any cleverness of my own; I speak from a calamity we once came within a hair of knowing, when your father bridged the Thracian Bosporus and, bridging the river Ister, crossed against the Scythians. Then the Scythians tried every means to persuade the Ionians, to whom the guarding of the bridges of the Ister had been entrusted, to break the bridge."

2"Had Histiaeus tyrant of Miletus then followed the other tyrants' opinion instead of opposing it, the affairs of the Persians had been undone. It is dreadful even to hear said—that all the king's power hung upon one man."

Chapter 10D

1"Do not then, of your own will, run into a danger like that when no necessity forces you; listen to me. Break up this assembly now; and again later, when it seems good to you, having taken counsel with yourself, proclaim what you judge best."

2"For I find that to take counsel well is the greatest of gains: even if some accident runs against it, the counsel is no whit less good—fortune has beaten the plan. But the man who has counseled ill, should fortune smile upon him, has happened on a windfall; his counsel was none the less bad."

Chapter 10E

1"You see how God strikes with his thunderbolt the creatures that stand above the rest and suffers them not to make a swagger; the small ones never trouble him at all. You see how his bolts always fall upon the greatest buildings and the tallest trees; for God loves to lop everything that towers. So a great army is destroyed by a small one in just this way: when God, envying it, casts fear or thunder into it, it perishes unworthily of itself. For God suffers none to think great thoughts but himself."

Chapter 10F

1"Haste is the mother of stumbling in everything, and from stumbling great losses tend to come; in waiting there is good, even when it does not seem so at the moment, but with time a man finds it out."

Chapter 10G

1"This then is my counsel to you, King. And you, Mardonius son of Gobryas, have done with these empty words about the Greeks, as though they deserved to be ill spoken of. In slandering the Greeks you goad the king himself to march; and for that very thing, it seems to me, you strain with all this zeal. May it not fall out so."

2"Slander is the most dreadful thing of all: in it two do the wrong and one is wronged. The slanderer wrongs the absent man by accusing him; the listener wrongs him by letting himself be persuaded before he has learned the truth; and the man absent from it all is wronged in both ways at once—slandered by the one and held for wicked by the other."

Chapter 10H

1"But if against these men you absolutely must march, then look here: let the king himself remain among his Persians; and with our two selves staking our children, do you lead the campaign yourself, choosing the men you wish and taking as large an army as you please."

2"If things go for the king as you say, then let my children be put to death, and I with them; but if things fall out as I foretell, then let yours suffer this, and you with them—if you come home."

3"But if you will not run this stake, and will in any case lead an army against Hellas, I say some one of those you leave behind here will hear that Mardonius, having worked the Persians some great hurt, is being torn by dogs and birds—whether in the land of the Athenians or in yours at Lacedaemon—or perhaps even earlier on the road, when he learns what manner of men you are leading the king against."

Chapter 11

1Artabanus spoke so; and Xerxes, in a rage, made answer: "Artabanus, you are my father's brother; that shall save you from ever receiving any worthy reward for your empty words. And this disgrace I add to it for you, coward and spiritless as you are: you shall not march with me against Hellas—you shall stay here with the women. I will carry out all that I said without you."

2"May I never have been sprung from Darius son of Hystaspes son of Arsames son of Ariaramnes son of Teispes son of Cyrus son of Cambyses son of Teispes son of Achaemenes, if I fail to take vengeance on the Athenians; for I know well that if we keep quiet, it will not be they who do: they will most assuredly march against our land, if a man is to weigh what has already come from them, men who burned Sardis and drove into Asia."

3"Neither side can draw back now; a contest lies before us, to do or to suffer, so that either all these things become the Greeks', or all those things the Persians'. For there is no middle ground in this enmity."

4"Then the time has come for us, wronged as we were first, to take vengeance, and that I too may learn the terror I am to suffer, marching against these men—men whom Pelops the Phrygian, a slave of my fathers, subdued so utterly that to this day both the people and their land are called after their conqueror."

Chapter 12

1So much for the debate. Then evening came, and the opinion of Artabanus gnawed at Xerxes; and giving himself up to thought in the night, he found the march on Hellas a thing not to be done at all. And when he had settled on this, sleep came over him; and in the night, so the Persians tell it, he saw a vision of this kind: it seemed to Xerxes that a man stood over him, tall and handsome, and said:

2"Is it after all your thought, Persian, not to lead your army against Hellas—you who have all but proclaimed the Persian host undone? Your change of counsel profits you nothing, nor is there any who will pardon you. But go the way you resolved on this day."

Chapter 13

1It seemed to Xerxes that the speaker fled away; and when day broke he made nothing whatever of the dream, but gathering the Persians he had assembled before, he said to them:

2"Men of Persia, forgive me that I changed my counsel so abruptly: my mind has not yet come into its own maturity, and those who urge this on me give me not a single hour's rest. Yet when I heard the opinion of Artabanus, my youth leapt up at once, so that I flung at an older man words more unseemly than was right. Now, owning my fault, I will follow his counsel."

3"Since then I have changed my mind and will not march against Hellas, be at rest."

Chapter 14

1When the Persians heard this, they rejoiced and bowed before him in reverence. But when night came again, the same dream stood over Xerxes as he lay fast asleep and said: "Son of Darius, is it then before the Persians that you renounce the campaign, and make nothing of my words, as though you had heard them from no one? Know this for certain: if you do not lead the march at once, this will follow out of your own words: as you grew great and many in a little time, so shall you in your turn quickly be brought low."

Chapter 15

1Terrified by the vision, Xerxes sprang from his bed and sent a messenger to summon Artabanus; and when he was come, Xerxes said: "Artabanus, at the first I lacked all soundness of mind, and flung foolish words at you in return for your good counsel;"

2"But after no long time I repented, and saw that I must do what you urged. And yet I am not able to do it as I wish: for as soon as I had turned and changed my mind, the dream kept coming to me in my sleep, in no way approving that I do this thing—and just now it threatened me and was gone."

3"If then it is a god who sends it, and it is wholly his pleasure that the campaign against Hellas be made, this same dream will alight on you too, laying on you the same command as me. And I think it will come about thus: take all my apparel and put it on, then sit on my throne, and after that lie down to sleep in my bed."

Chapter 16

1Xerxes said this to him. Artabanus at the first would not obey—for he thought it far above him to sit upon the royal throne—but in the end, being forced, he spoke as follows and then did what was commanded.

Chapter 16A

1"King, I have long held this for settled with myself: to think soundly, and to be willing to be persuaded by the man who speaks good things. But both of these are tripped up in you, beset as you are by the company of wicked men—as they say the sea, the most serviceable thing of all to men, is battered by blasts of wind that suffer it not to use its own nature."

2"But when you spoke harshly to me, what stung me was not so much the pain as this: two opinions lay before the Persians, the one swelling insolence, the other checking it and teaching that it is an evil to school the soul ever to seek to have more than it has—and out of opinions set out like these I was choosing for myself and for the Persians the more ruinous one."

Chapter 16B

1"Now that you have turned to the better course, you say that the dream keeps visiting you—sent, as you say, by the convoy of some god—commanding the march against the Greeks and forbidding you to break it up."

2"But this too, my boy, is nothing divine. The dreams that wander among men are such as I will teach you, being many years your elder: those images of dreams are readiest to wander that a man has been turning over in the day. And we, in the days before this, had this campaign before us, and in great measure in our hands."

Chapter 16C

1"But if it is not as I define it, but has some share in the divine, then you have grasped the whole matter aright: let it appear to me as it did to you, giving its command. Its appearing to me should be no whit different whether I wear my dress or yours—no, nor any more while I rest in your bed than in my own, if indeed it chooses to appear in some other way."

2"For the thing, whatever it is, that shows itself to you in sleep is not so foolish as to take me for you, judging by your clothes. But if it shall make nothing of me, nor deign to appear whether I wear my dress or yours, if it does not visit me at all, then this we shall have learned: that it is not what you say. For if it should visit me again and again, I myself would grant that it is divine."

3"But if it is so decreed to happen and cannot be turned aside, and I must even sleep in your bed—then, look you, when these things have been done through me, let it appear to me also. Until then, I hold to my present opinion."

Chapter 17

1Artabanus spoke thus much, hoping that Xerxes would disown what he said; then he did what was commanded. Having put on Xerxes' dress and sat upon the royal throne, and gone after that to his bed, the same dream visited him in his sleep that had haunted Xerxes, and standing over Artabanus it said:

2"Are you then that man who tries to hold Xerxes back from marching against Hellas, caring for him as you claim? But it will not serve you, neither hereafter nor even now, to thrust aside what must be. That Xerxes must suffer what is appointed, though no one obey it—himself it has been declared."

Chapter 18

1It seemed to Artabanus that the dream was threatening him, and about to brand his eyes with hot irons. With a great cry he sprang up, and sitting down by Xerxes, told him out the whole vision of the dream; then a second time he said:

2"I, King, have seen with my own eyes how great and mighty enterprises have fallen before lesser powers; therefore I would not have you yield in everything to your years—knowing how evil a thing it is to crave much: I remember Cyrus' expedition against the Massagetae and how it fared, I remember Cambyses' against the Ethiopians, and I marched myself with Darius against the Scythians."

3"Knowing all this, I held the opinion that you, keeping quiet, would be called blessed by all men. But since a heaven-sent impulse has come upon us, and since, as it seems, a god-driven destruction seizes the Greeks, I too am turned about and change my opinion. Do you now make known to the Persians what is sent from the god, and bid them obey your first instructions for the preparation—and so order it that, with the god giving the way, you lack none of your own things."

4When these things had been said, they were both lifted up by the vision; and as soon as ever day broke, Xerxes laid all this before the Persians, and Artabanus, who alone had before seemed to hold the march back, now appeared openly urging it on.

Chapter 19

1Xerxes being now set on the march, a third vision came to him in his sleep; and the Magi, when they heard it, judged that it signified he would carry his power over all the earth and enslave all mankind. The vision was this: it seemed to Xerxes that he was crowned with a wreath of olive, and that branches spread from the olive over all the earth; then the wreath, as it lay upon his head, vanished away.

2When the Magi had so interpreted it, each man of the assembled Persians went off at once to his own command and flung his whole zeal into what had been said, every man wanting to win the promised gifts for himself; and after this manner Xerxes made his levy of the army, ransacking every corner of the continent.

Chapter 20

1For from the fall of Egypt four full years went to the gathering of the army and all that the army needed; and in the fifth year he led it out, a host vast in numbers.

2For of all the expeditions we know of, this was by far the greatest, so that neither Darius' march against the Scythians shows beside it at all, nor the Scythian one—when the Scythians, pursuing the Cimmerians, poured into the land of Media and subdued and held almost all the upper regions of Asia, for which Darius afterward took vengeance—nor, as the story goes, the expedition of the Atreidae to Ilion, nor that of the Mysians and Teucrians before the Trojan War, who, crossing into Europe by the Bosporus, subdued all the Thracians and came down to the Ionian Sea, marching south as far as the river Peneus.

Chapter 21

1All these together—not though others were added to them—are not worth this one alone. For what nation of Asia did Xerxes not lead against Hellas? What drinking water did not fail him, except the great rivers?

2Some nations furnished ships; some were drawn up on foot; to some horses were assigned; some, serving with the army, had ships for carrying horses; some were charged to furnish ships for the long bridges; and some, grain and ships.

Chapter 22

1And this much was in preparation—the works about Athos had been making ready for some three years past, after the first ships sailing round Athos came to grief there. The triremes lay moored at Elaeus in the Chersonese; and from there as their base the army, men of every race, dug under the lash, companies following one another without pause; and the people settled about Athos dug as well.

2Bubares son of Megabazus and Artachaees son of Artaeus, Persians both, were overseers of the work. Athos is a mountain great and famous, running down into the sea, and peopled by men. On its landward side juts out a peninsula, and an isthmus of some twelve stades; this is a plain with hills not large, reaching from the sea of the Acanthians to the sea that lies opposite Torone.

3On this isthmus, on which Athos ends, is settled Sane, a Greek city; the other cities settled within Athos are these, which the Persian then meant to make into island cities instead of cities of the mainland: Dion, Olophyxus, Acrothoon, Thyssus, Cleonae.

Chapter 23

1These are the cities that hold Athos. The barbarians dug as follows, dividing out the ground by nation: they stretched a measuring line along by the city of Sane, and when the cutting grew deep, some stood at the bottom digging, while others handed up the earth as it was dug to men standing above them on stages, and these again passed it to others, until it came to those highest of all, who carried it off and flung it away.

2For all the others except the Phoenicians the cliffs of the cutting kept breaking down and doubled their toil; for as they made the mouth at the top and the mouth below the same width, this was bound to befall them.

3The Phoenicians show their skill in all their other works, and in this one not least. Allotted the share that fell to them, they dug the upper mouth of the canal twice the width the channel itself needed to be, and as the work went forward kept narrowing it, until at the bottom it came level with the work of the rest.

4There is a meadow there, where their market gathered and their grain was pounded; and milled grain came to them in plenty from Asia.

Chapter 24

1As it falls to me to judge, Xerxes ordered the cutting out of sheer magnificence, wishing both to display his power and to leave a monument behind; for it lay open to them to haul their ships across the isthmus with no toil at all, yet he bade them dig a canal for the sea of breadth enough for two triremes to row through abreast. And to these same men who dug the canal was joined the task of bridging the river Strymon.

Chapter 25

1These things he did so; and he prepared besides cables for the bridges, of papyrus and of white flax, laying this charge on the Phoenicians and the Egyptians; and he laid in stores of food for the army, so that neither the army nor the baggage animals on the march into Hellas should go hungry.

2Having looked out the country, he ordered stores laid down wherever it was most convenient, convoys bringing different supplies by freighter and by transport ship from every part of Asia. Most was brought to the headland in Thrace called the White Headland; some to Tyrodiza of the Perinthians, some to Doriscus, some to Eion on the Strymon, and some to Macedonia, each detail having its appointed place.

Chapter 26

1While these were toiling at the labor set before them, the whole land force, gathered together, was marching with Xerxes to Sardis, setting out from Critalla in Cappadocia; for there it had been appointed that the whole army that was to march with Xerxes overland should assemble.

2Which of the governors, for bringing his contingent most splendidly arrayed, received the promised gifts from the king, I cannot say; for I never knew the matter to be brought to judgment at all.

3When they had crossed the river Halys and come into Phrygia, they marched through it and arrived at Celaenae, where the springs of the river Maeander rise, and of another river no smaller than the Maeander, named the Catarectes; this rises in the very marketplace of the Celaenaeans and empties into the Maeander. There too hangs the skin of Silenus the satyr Marsyas, which, by the Phrygians' story, Apollo flayed and hung up.

Chapter 27

1In this city, having come down, Pythius son of Atys, a Lydian, entertained the king's whole army with feasts the greatest, Xerxes himself besides; and he offered money, wishing to give it for the war.

2When Pythius offered money, Xerxes asked the Persians present who this man Pythius was, and how much wealth he had amassed that he should offer so much. They said: "King, this is the man who gave your father Darius the golden plane-tree and the golden vine; and he is now the richest man we know of, after you."

Chapter 28

1Xerxes marveled at this last word of theirs, and asked Pythius himself a second time how much money he had. Pythius said: "King, I will neither hide it from you nor pretend not to know my own substance; I know it exactly, and will reckon it up for you."

2"For as soon as I heard you were going down to the Greek sea, wanting to give you money for the war I made inquiry, and found by reckoning that I have two thousand talents of silver, and four hundred myriads of Darius staters of gold, lacking seven thousand."

3"These I give to you; for myself, I have enough to live on from my slaves and my farmlands."

Chapter 29

1He spoke thus; and Xerxes, delighted with what he heard, said: "Lydian guest, since I went out from the land of Persia I have met with no man who was willing to set a feast before my army, nor any who came into my presence and of his own motion offered to put money into this war—until you. You have entertained my army magnificently, and you offer great sums."

2"To you then, in return, I give these honors: I make you my guest-friend; and I will fill out the four hundred myriads of staters for you from my own store, giving you the seven thousand, so that your four hundred myriads shall not fall short by seven thousand, but be counted up complete by my giving."

3"Keep what you yourself have gathered, and know that you will always be such a man; for doing as you have done, you will never repent it, neither now nor hereafter."

Chapter 30

1Having said this and made it good, he marched ever onward. Passing the Phrygian city called Anaua, and the lake out of which salt is gathered, he came to Colossae, a great city of Phrygia, where the river Lycus plunges into a chasm in the earth and vanishes, then, reappearing after about five stades—as I myself judge—it too flows out into the Maeander.

2From Colossae the army set out toward the boundary of the Phrygians and Lydians, and came to the city of Cydrara, where a pillar stands fixed, set up by Croesus, and marks out the boundary in writing.

Chapter 31

1When he marched out of Phrygia into Lydia, the road splits, one branch bearing left toward Caria, the other right toward Sardis; and on this road the traveler must cross the river Maeander and pass Callatebus, a city where craftsmen make honey out of tamarisk and wheat. On this way Xerxes found a plane-tree, and for its beauty he adorned it with ornaments of gold and gave it in keeping to one of the Immortals; and on the second day he came to the city of the Lydians.

Chapter 32

1Arrived at Sardis, he first sent heralds into Hellas to ask for earth and water, and to proclaim that dinners were to be made ready for the king; though to Athens and to Lacedaemon both he sent none on the errand of asking for earth—everywhere else he did. And the reason he sent this second time for earth and water was this: those who before had refused Darius when he sent, he supposed would now give for very fear; wanting to know this precisely, he sent.

Chapter 33

1After this he made ready to go down to Abydos; and in the meantime they were bridging the Hellespont out of Asia into Europe. In the Chersonese that lies in the Hellespont, between the city of Sestos and Madytus, a broad headland juts down into the sea, right opposite Abydos. It was there, not long after these things, in the generalship of Xanthippus son of Ariphron, that the Athenians took Artayctes, a Persian, governor of Sestos, and nailed him alive to a plank—the man who used to bring women into the temple of Protesilaus at Elaeus and outrage them unlawfully.

Chapter 34

1From Abydos they bridged the strait toward this headland: the Phoenicians the cable of white flax, the Egyptians the one of papyrus. From Abydos to the shore opposite is seven stades. But no sooner was the crossing joined than a great storm burst on it, and shivered all that work and broke it apart.

Chapter 35

1When Xerxes heard of it, he was enraged, and ordered the Hellespont to be given three hundred strokes of the lash, and a pair of fetters to be sunk in the sea. I have heard, too, that he sent branders along with these to brand the Hellespont.

2He bade the men scourging speak out over it words barbarous and outrageous: "Bitter water, your master lays this punishment upon you, because you wronged him who had done you no wrong. And King Xerxes will cross you, whether you will or no; and in justice no man offers you sacrifice, a turbid and briny river."

3He commanded the sea itself to be punished in this way, and the heads cut off of those who had been set over the bridging of the Hellespont.

Chapter 36

1So those men did their work—this thankless honor had been laid upon them—and other master builders bridged the strait. The bridging was done thus: they joined penteconters and triremes together, three hundred and sixty for the bridge toward the Euxine Sea, and three hundred and fourteen for the other; the one they laid athwart the wind from the Euxine, the other down the stream of the Hellespont, that the one might take the strain off the cables of the other.

2The ships joined, they let down anchor cables of great length: those toward the Euxine because of the winds that breathe from within it, the others toward west and the Aegean, because of the zephyr and the south wind. They left a gap for a passage through among the penteconters and triremes, so that anyone wishing to sail with light craft could pass into the Euxine and out of it again.

3This done, they stretched the cables tight from the land, twisting them with wooden windlasses; and no longer setting the two kinds apart, they allotted two of flax to each bridge and four of the papyrus. In thickness and in beauty the two sorts were alike, but in proportion the flaxen were the heavier—a cubit of them weighed a talent.

4When the crossing was bridged, they sawed trunks of trees to a length equal to the breadth of the ferryway and laid them above the stretched cables in order; and having laid them, they then drew all fast together again.

5This done, they carried over brushwood; and having laid the brushwood level they carried over earth; and having beaten the earth down they drew a barrier along on either side, so that the baggage animals and the horses, looking down at the sea, should not take fright.

Chapter 37

1When the bridges were finished, and the works about Athos too—the breakwaters about the mouths of the canal, made because of the shoal, so that the mouths of the cutting should not fill with sand—and the canal itself was reported complete, then, having wintered, with the spring come, the army set out from Sardis and marched down to Abydos.

2But as he set out, the sun, quitting its seat in the heavens, vanished away, though there were no clouds and the sky was at its clearest, and night took the place of day. When Xerxes saw it and took note, it weighed upon him; and he asked the Magi what the apparition might portend.

3They told him the god was showing the Greeks the failing of their cities; the sun, they said, was the foreteller of the Greeks, and the moon of the Persians. Hearing this, Xerxes went on his march with great joy.

Chapter 38

1As he drove the army out, Pythius the Lydian, terrified by the sign from heaven and lifted up by the gifts he had received, came to Xerxes and said: "Master, I wish to obtain a favor of you—one light for you to grant, but great for me to gain."

2Xerxes, supposing he would ask anything rather than what he did ask, said he would grant it, and bade him declare his want. When Pythius heard this, he took heart and said: "Master, I have five sons, and it falls to all of them together with you to march against Hellas."

3"Do you then, King, take pity on me, who have come to this my time of life, and release from the service one of my sons, the eldest, that he may be a keeper to me and to my money; take the other four with you; and having done all you purpose, may you come home again."

Chapter 39

1Xerxes was mightily angry, and made answer: "Wretched man! You have dared—you, my slave, whose wife ought to be following in the train with all the household—to speak of your son, when I am myself marching against Hellas and bringing my own sons and brothers and kinsmen and friends? Know this then for certain: the spirit of men dwells in their ears; when it hears good things it fills the whole body with delight, but hearing the contrary, it swells with rage."

2"When you did good and offered as you did, you might have boasted that you had outdone the king in generosity; but since you have turned to utter shamelessness, you shall not receive the honor you earned, but less: you yourself and four of your sons are saved by my hospitality; the fifth, whom you cling to most, shall pay the penalty with his life."

3Having so answered, he at once commanded those appointed for the work to do this: to seek out Pythius' eldest son and cut him in two through the midst, and the two halves to set one on the right of the road and one on the left, for the army to march out between them.

Chapter 40

1When this had been done, the army marched out. First went the baggage bearers and the beasts of burden; after them a host of all sorts of nations mingled without order; and these were more than half the army: here came an interval, for these did not mingle with the king.

2Then rode a thousand horsemen, chosen out of all the Persians; after them a thousand spearmen, chosen likewise out of all, their spears carried point downward to the ground; after them ten sacred horses called Nisaean, adorned with the greatest beauty.

3They are called Nisaean horses for this reason: there is a great plain in the land of Media named Nisaea, and it is this plain that breeds those great horses.

4Behind these ten horses was set the sacred chariot of Zeus, drawn by eight white horses; and behind the horses walked on foot the charioteer, holding the reins—for no man of men mounts that seat. Behind it came Xerxes himself upon a chariot drawn by Nisaean horses; and beside him rode the charioteer, whose name was Patiramphes, son of Otanes, a Persian.

Chapter 41

1So Xerxes rode out from Sardis; and whenever the mood took him he would step down from the chariot into a covered carriage. Behind him followed a thousand Persian spearmen, the best and bravest, bearing their spears after the custom; then another thousand picked Persian horse; then ten thousand foot, picked out from the rest of the Persians.

2Of these ten thousand, a thousand bore on their spear-butts, in place of spikes, pomegranates of gold, and these closed around the others; the nine thousand within them had pomegranates of silver. Pomegranates of gold too had those who turned their spears to the ground, and the men who followed nearest Xerxes had golden apples. Over the ten thousand was set a body of ten thousand Persian horse; and after the horse came a gap of two stades, and then the rest of the host poured on, all mingled.

Chapter 42

1From Lydia the army made its way to the river Caïcus and into the land of Mysia; and setting out from the Caïcus, with Mount Cane on the left hand, it passed through Atarneus to the city of Carene; from there it went through the plain of Thebe, skirting the city of Adramyttium and Pelasgian Antandrus.

2Taking Mount Ida into its left hand, it went up into the Ilian land. And first, spending the night below Ida, it was beset by thunder and lightning, and a great number of the host perished there.

Chapter 43

1When the army came to the river Scamander—the first of the rivers, after they set out from Sardis, to fail them, its stream not enough for the army and the cattle to drink—Xerxes went up to the citadel of Priam, his desire being to see it.

2Having gazed on everything and inquired into it all, he sacrificed to Athena of Ilium a thousand cattle, and the Magi poured drink-offerings to the heroes. The night after they had done this, fear fell upon the camp; but at daybreak they marched on from there, leaving on the left the city of Rhoeteum and Ophryneum and Dardanus, which adjoins Abydos, and on the right the Teucrian Gergithes.

Chapter 44

1Being come into the midst of Abydos, Xerxes wished to see his whole army; for on a hill a seat of white stone had been built for him beforehand by the men of Abydos at the king's earlier command. Sitting there, he looked down along the shore and gazed at the land force and the ships; and as he gazed he conceived the desire to see the ships run a race. This was done; the Phoenicians of Sidon won; and Xerxes was delighted with the race and with his army.

Chapter 45

1But when the time came—he saw the whole Hellespont hidden by the ships, and every shore and the plains of Abydos brimming over with men—then Xerxes called himself happy; and after that he wept.

Chapter 46

1Artabanus his uncle, who at the first had freely declared his opinion against Xerxes' marching against Hellas, marked him as he wept and asked: "King, how far apart in time are the two things you have just done! A little while ago you called yourself happy, and now you weep."

2He said: "A thought came over me, and I pitied men, how brief is the whole of human life, since of all these men not one will be left alive in a hundred years." He answered: "We suffer in our lives things yet more piteous than that."

3"For in a life so brief, no man is born so blessed, either of these or of all others, that it will not come to him, often and not once only, to wish to die rather than to live. For the mishaps that fall upon him and the sicknesses that shake him make life, though short, seem long."

4"So death, life being wretched, has become for man the most welcome of refuges; and God, having given him a taste of the sweetness of life, is found to be envious in it."

Chapter 47

1Xerxes answered: "Artabanus, about human life, since it is such as you define it, let us have done, and let us not dwell on evils when we have good things in hand. But tell me this: if the vision of the dream had not appeared so plainly, would you have kept to your old opinion, hindering my march against Hellas—or would you have changed? Tell me this truly."

2He answered: "King, may the apparition of the dream end as we both desire! But even to this hour I am still brimful of fear, not master of myself, pondering many things—and among them, seeing that there are two things greatest of all and most hostile to us."

Chapter 48

1Xerxes answered: "Marvelous among men, what are these two things you say are most hostile to me? Do you find fault with the land force for its numbers, because the Greek army will appear many times ours? Or is it that our fleet will fall short of theirs? Or both at once? For if our affairs show weakness on that side, let someone make the quickest mustering of another army."

Chapter 49

1He answered: "King, no one who has any understanding would find fault with this army or with the number of the ships; and if you gather more, the two things I speak of become yet more hostile to us. These two are the land and the sea."

2"For nowhere, as I reckon, is there a harbor so great that, if a storm should rise and take this fleet of yours, it could stand surety for saving the ships. And it would not be one harbor you would need, but harbors all along the coast of the mainland by which you are carried."

3"There being then no harbors to receive you, learn this: disasters rule men, and not men disasters. But of the two things I come now to the other of which I spoke."

4"The land is an enemy to you in this wise: even if nothing should rise up against you, the farther you advance, so much the more hostile it becomes, the ground ever being stolen from before your feet; and of good success there is no surfeit for men."

5"I say too that the land, even with no one opposing, will in the longer time grow dearer and breed famine. That man is best who, taking counsel, shudders and reckons up everything that may befall, but in the deed is bold."

Chapter 50

1Xerxes answered: "Artabanus, it is reasonable that you should argue each point after this manner; but do not fear everything, nor reckon every peril alike. If you choose to bring your whole reckoning to bear alike on every matter as it comes, you will do nothing at all ever; and it is better, facing all things boldly, to suffer half of what is dreadful, than to dread everything beforehand and never suffer anything at all."

2"But if you are going to set yourself against everything said and admit nothing for certain, then equally you must be at fault with the man who speaks the opposite of these things. On that you stand equal. And how is a man, being a man, to know what is certain? I think by no means. So with those who are willing to act, gains for the most part love to come; with those who reckon everything and hesitate, not so very willingly."

3"You see how far the Persians' enterprise has advanced in power. But if the kings who came before me had been guided by opinions such as yours, or had not been guided by such, but had kept counselors of that kind, you would never have seen those enterprises come to what they are. No—it was by hurling themselves into dangers that they brought themselves to this. For great enterprises, it is their way, to be won by great risks."

4"So we, making ourselves like those men, march in the fairest season of the year; and having subdued all Europe we will come home again, meeting famine nowhere and suffering no other hardship either. For on the one hand we carry great store of provender with us; on the other, whichever land and nation we set foot in, we shall have their grain—for we are marching against men who till the soil, not nomads."

Chapter 51

1After this Artabanus spoke: "King, since you allow nothing to go undreaded, do you receive counsel from me; for it is a necessity to pay out much speech upon many matters. Cyrus the son of Cambyses subdued all of Ionia, the Athenians alone excepted, and made it tributary to the Persians.

2These are the men, then, that I advise you never by any device to lead against their fathers; for even without them we are well able to rise far above our enemies. For if we follow them, they must become most unjust, enslaving their mother-country, or most just, joining in her liberation.

3Becoming most unjust, they bring us no great gain; becoming most just, they can work great harm upon your army. So cast into your mind also that old saying, for it is well said: the whole end does not show itself all at once from the beginning."

Chapter 52

1Xerxes made answer: "Artabanus, of the opinions you pronounced you go most astray in this one, that you fear the Ionians may change sides—the very men of whom we have the greatest proof, you yourself a witness of it, and the others who campaigned with Darius against the Scythians: that upon those men it lay for the whole Persian army to be destroyed or to be saved, and they chose justice and loyalty, and were in nothing ungrateful.

2Besides, leaving children and wives and property behind in our land, they cannot be supposed to be plotting anything new. So do not fear this either, but keep a good heart, and preserve my house and my kingship; for to you alone of all men I entrust my scepters."

Chapter 53

1Having said this, and sent Artabanus away to Susa, Xerxes next summoned the Persians most in honor; and when they had come before him he spoke to them as follows. "Men of Persia, it was in this need of you that I gathered you: that you prove yourselves men of worth and do not disgrace the deeds done of old by the Persians, deeds great and worthy of much, but that each one of you and all together hold an eager spirit; for this good is striven for in common by all.

2And therefore I proclaim beforehand: hold fast to the war with taut hearts; for as I learn, we are marching against men of worth, and if we master them, no other host of men will ever again stand against us. Now let us cross over, having prayed to the gods who have allotted the Persians their portion."

Chapter 54

1That day they made ready for the crossing; on the next they waited for the sun, wishing to watch it rise, and burned all manner of incense upon the bridges, and strewed the road with myrtle.

2When the sun rose, Xerxes poured a libation from a golden bowl into the sea, and prayed to the sun that no such mischance befall him as would stop him from subduing Europe before he stood upon its farthest bounds; and his prayer made, he dropped the bowl into the Hellespont, and a golden mixing bowl with it, and a Persian sword, which they call an akinakes.

3I cannot decide this for certain: whether, having dedicated them to the sun, he sent them down into the deep, or whether he repented of his flogging of the Hellespont and made the sea this gift in place of it.

Chapter 55

1When this was done they crossed: over the bridge facing the Pontus went all the foot and all the horse; over the one facing the Aegean went the pack animals and the attendants.

2Leading the way, on the first day, were the ten thousand Persians, all garlanded; after them the mixed host of nations of every kind. So it went that day; on the next, first came the horsemen and the men who bore their spears turned downward, and these also were garlanded.

3Then the sacred horses and the sacred chariot; then Xerxes himself and the spear-bearers and the thousand horsemen; after these the rest of the army. At the same time the ships were putting out for the shore opposite. And I have heard that the king crossed last of all.

Chapter 56

1When Xerxes had crossed into Europe he watched his army passing over under the lash; and his army crossed in seven days and seven nights, resting no time at all.

2Here it is told that, Xerxes having crossed the Hellespont, a Hellespontine man said: "O Zeus, why, taking the likeness of a Persian man and setting the name Xerxes in place of Zeus, do you mean to make Greece desolate, leading all mankind with you? For even without these it was yours to do so."

Chapter 57

1When all had crossed and were setting out upon the road, a great portent appeared to them, which Xerxes made nothing of, easy as it was to read: a mare brought forth a hare. Easy to read in this way: that Xerxes would drive his army upon Greece in the greatest pride and magnificence, but would come back to this same place running for his life. And another portent befell him while he was still in Sardis:

2a mule gave birth to a mule with twofold genitals, male and female, the male parts above. Making no account of either, he marched onward, the land army with him.

Chapter 58

1The fleet, sailing out of the Hellespont, kept along the land, doing just what the land army did not.

2For the one sailed west, making its landfall at the headland of Sarpedon, where it had been told to wait for him when it arrived; the army on the mainland made its way east and toward the sunrise through the Chersonese, with on its right the tomb of Helle daughter of Athamas, on its left the city of Cardia, and passing through the middle of a city whose name happens to be Agora.

3From there, rounding the gulf called Black and the river Black, whose stream at that time did not stand against the army but failed it, and crossing this river, from which the gulf itself takes its name, he went west, passing by Aenus, a city of Aeolis, and the lake Stentoris, until he came to Doriscus.

Chapter 59

1Doriscus is in Thrace a beach and a great plain, and through it runs the great river Hebrus; in it had been built a royal fort, this one called Doriscus, and a garrison of Persians had stood there from that day when Darius campaigned against the Scythians.

2It seemed to Xerxes, then, that this place was fit for drawing up and numbering the army, and this he did. The admirals, at Xerxes' command, brought every ship that had come to Doriscus to the beach adjoining it, within which are settled the Samothracian city of Sale and Zone, and at its end the famous headland of Serreum. This country in the old days belonged to the Cicones.

3Hauling their ships up on this beach they rested; and Xerxes meanwhile was in Doriscus making the count of the army.

Chapter 60

1How many each nation contributed in the count I cannot tell exactly, for it is not told by any man; but the whole of the land army together was found to number a hundred and seventy myriads.

2They counted it in this manner: they gathered ten thousand men into one place and packed them as close as might be, and drew a circle around them on the outside; then, the circle drawn and the ten thousand let go, they built a stone wall along the circle, of a height that came to a man's navel;

3this built, they set other men within the walled space, until they had counted them all by this method. Having counted them, they drew them up by nations.

Chapter 61

1These were the men who served. The Persians were equipped thus: on their heads soft caps called tiaras; on their bodies sleeved tunics of many colors, with the look of fish scales of iron; on their legs trousers; instead of shields, wickerwork shields; under these hung quivers; and they carried short spears, great bows, arrows of reed, and daggers swinging from the belt beside the right thigh.

2Their commander was Otanes son of Amestrius, father of the wife of Xerxes. The Greeks in the old days called these people Cephenes; they themselves and their neighbors called them Artaii.

3But when Perseus son of Danae and of Zeus came to Cepheus son of Belus and won his daughter Andromeda, there was born to him a son, whom he named Perses, and this son he left behind; for Cepheus chanced to be childless of male issue. From this one they took their name.

Chapter 62

1The Medes marched arrayed in this same fashion, for this dress is Median, not Persian. Their commander was Tigranes, an Achaemenid. In the old times all men called them Arians; but when Medea of Colchis came from Athens to the Arians, they too changed to this name. This is what the Medes themselves say of themselves.

2The Cissians marched equipped in all else like the Persians, but instead of the soft caps they wore mitres. Anaphes son of Otanes led the Cissians. The Hyrcanians were armed like the Persians, their commander being Megapanus, who afterwards governed Babylon.

Chapter 63

1The Assyrians who marched wore bronze helmets on their heads, plaited in a foreign fashion of some kind not easy to describe; they had shields and spears and daggers much like the Egyptians'; besides these, wooden clubs studded with iron, and corselets of linen. The Greeks call these men Syrians; the foreigners named them Assyrians. Among them were the Chaldaeans. Otaspes son of Artachaees led them.

Chapter 64

1The Bactrians marched with headgear on their heads very close to the Median, and had bows of native reed and short spears.

2The Sacae, who are Scythians, had on their heads tall caps, stiff and drawn up to a point; they wore trousers, and carried native bows and daggers, and battle-axes besides, which they call a sagaris. These Scythians were called Amyrgian Sacae; for the Persians call all the Scythians Sacae. Hystaspes son of Darius and of Atossa daughter of Cyrus commanded the Bactrians and the Sacae.

Chapter 65

1The Indians wore garments made from trees, and had bows of reed and arrows of reed, with iron upon them. Thus arrayed were the Indians; they were marshaled under Pharnazathres son of Artabates.

Chapter 66

1The Arians were equipped with Median bows, but in all else like the Bactrians. Sisamnes son of Hydarnes led the Arians. The Parthians and the Chorasmians and the Sogdians and the Gandarians and the Dadicae marched with the same equipment as the Bactrians.

2Their commanders were these: Artabazus son of Pharnaces over the Parthians and Chorasmians; Azanes son of Artaeus over the Sogdians; Artypius son of Artabanus over the Gandarians and Dadicae.

Chapter 67

1The Caspians marched wearing goatskin cloaks, carrying native bows of reed and akinakes swords. Such was their equipment, their commander being Ariomardus, brother of Artyphius. The Sarangae wore brilliantly dyed garments and had shoes reaching to the knee, with bows and spears of the Median kind. Pherendates son of Megabazus led the Sarangae.

2The Pactyes wore goatskins, and had native bows and daggers. Their commander was Artayntes son of Ithamitres.

Chapter 68

1The Utians and the Mycians and the Paricanians were equipped like the Pactyes. Their commanders were these: Arsames son of Darius over the Utians and Mycians; Siromitres son of Oeobazus over the Paricanians.

Chapter 69

1The Arabs wore cloaks girt about them, and carried long bows that bend backward, on the right side. The Ethiopians wore skins of leopard and lion, and carried bows made from the spathe of the palm, long ones, no less than four cubits, with short reed arrows; instead of iron, a sharpened stone sat upon them, the stone with which they also engrave their seals; they had spears too, upon which was the horn of a gazelle, sharpened in the manner of a lance-head; and clubs of knotted wood. Going into battle they smeared half the body with white chalk, the other half with red ochre.

2Of the Arabs and the Ethiopians dwelling above Egypt the commander was Arsames son of Darius and of Artystone daughter of Cyrus, whom Darius loved best of all his wives, and for her he had an image of gold made, wrought with the hammer.

Chapter 70

1Arsames, then, led the Ethiopians and Arabs above Egypt; the Ethiopians from the sunrise (for there were two kinds of them in the host) were marshaled with the Indians, differing in nothing from the others in look, only in speech and hair: the Ethiopians from the sunrise have straight hair, while those from Libya have the woolliest hair of all mankind.

2These Ethiopians of Asia were armed for the most part like the Indians, but they wore on their heads the foreheads of horses, wrought complete with the ears and the mane; in place of a crest the mane did service, and they had the horses' ears fixed upright; for shields they used coverings made of cranes' skins.

Chapter 71

1The Libyans wore dress of leather and used javelins hardened in fire; their commander was Massages son of Oarizus.

Chapter 72

1The Paphlagonians marched with plaited helmets on their heads, small shields, spears not large, and javelins and daggers besides, and on their feet native shoes reaching to mid-shin. The Ligyes and the Matienians and the Mariandyni and the Syrians marched with the same equipment as the Paphlagonians. These Syrians the Persians call Cappadocians.

2Of the Paphlagonians and Matienians the commander was Dotes son of Megasidrus; of the Mariandyni and Ligyes and Syrians, Gobryas son of Darius and of Artystone.

Chapter 73

1The Phrygians had equipment very close to the Paphlagonian, with a small difference. As the Macedonians say, the Phrygians were called Briges for as long as they were Europeans and dwelt as neighbors of the Macedonians; but when they crossed into Asia they changed land and name together, and became Phrygians. The Armenians were armed like the Phrygians, being colonists of the Phrygians. Both these together were commanded by Artochmes, who had taken a daughter of Darius to wife.

Chapter 74

1The Lydians had armor very close to the Greek. The Lydians in the old days were called Meiones, and they took the name of Lydians from Lydus son of Atys, changing their name. The Mysians wore native helmets on their heads and small shields, and used javelins hardened in fire.

2These are colonists of the Lydians, and from Mount Olympus they are called Olympieni. Artaphrenes son of Artaphrenes, who invaded Marathon together with Datis, led the Lydians and the Mysians.

Chapter 75

1The Thracians marched with caps of fox-skin on their heads, tunics about their bodies, brightly patterned cloaks thrown over, shoes of fawn-skin on feet and shins, and, besides, javelins and small shields and little daggers.

2These, having crossed into Asia, were called Bithynians; before that, as they themselves say, they were called Strymonians, dwelling on the Strymon; and they say the Teucrians and the Mysians drove them from their homes. Bassaces son of Artabanus led the Thracians of Asia.

Chapter 76

1They had small shields of raw ox-hide, and each man carried two javelins made for the hunting of wolves; on their heads were bronze helmets, and to the helmets were fitted ears and horns of an ox in bronze, and crests besides; their shins they wound about with strips of crimson cloth. In the country of these men there is an oracle of Ares.

Chapter 77

1The Cabelees, who are Meiones, and are called Lasonii, had the same equipment as the Cilicians, which I will point out when, in the course of my account, I come to the place of the Cilicians. The Milyae carried short spears and garments fastened with pins; some of them had Lycian bows, and helmets made of leather on their heads. Badres son of Hystanes led all of these.

Chapter 78

1The Moschi wore wooden helmets on their heads, and had small shields and short spears, and long lances upon them. The Tibarenians and the Macrones and the Mossynoeci marched equipped like the Moschi. These were marshaled by the following commanders: over the Moschi and Tibarenians, Ariomardus son of Darius and of Parmys daughter of Smerdis son of Cyrus; over the Macrones and Mossynoeci, Artayctes son of Cherasmis, who had charge of Sestos on the Hellespont.

Chapter 79

1The Mars wore native plaited helmets on their heads, and carried small leather shields and javelins. The Colchians wore wooden helmets on their heads, and carried small shields of raw ox-hide and short spears, and swords besides. Phalandates son of Teaspis led the Mari and the Colchians. The Alarodii and the Saspires marched armed like the Colchians; Masistius son of Siromitres led these.

Chapter 80

1The island nations that follow from the Red Sea—on their islands the king settles those called the Deported—had dress and arms very close to the Median. Of these islanders the commander was Mardontes son of Bagaeus, who, general at Mycale, met his end in the battle there in the second year after these events.

Chapter 81

1Such were the nations that campaigned on the mainland and were marshaled in the infantry. Of this army the leaders were the men just named; and those who drew it up and counted it were they who appointed the chiliarchs and the myriarchs, while the myriarchs appointed the centurions and the decurions. There were others also to bear the signals of the tribes and nations.

Chapter 82

1Such were the commanders named above; but the generals over these and over the whole land army were Mardonius son of Gobryas, and Tritantaechmes son of Artabanus (the man who gave it as his opinion not to campaign against Greece), and Smerdomenes son of Otanes—both these two sons of brothers of Darius and cousins to Xerxes—and Masistes son of Darius and of Atossa, and Gergis son of Ariazus, and Megabyzus son of Zopyrus.

Chapter 83

1These were the generals of the whole infantry, apart from the ten thousand; over these ten thousand chosen Persians was general Hydarnes son of Hydarnes. These Persians were called the Immortals for this reason: if any one of them fell out of the number, whether by a violent death or by sickness, another man was chosen in his place, and they were never either more or fewer than ten thousand.

2Of all the army the Persians made the finest show, and they were themselves the best men; they had the equipment just described, and besides they glittered with much gold worn in abundance, and wagons came along with them, in which were their concubines and a great retinue of well-appointed servants; and their food, apart from that of the other soldiers, was carried for them by camels and beasts of burden.

Chapter 84

1Of these nations there was cavalry—not all provided horse, but only these: the Persians, equipped as their infantry was, except that some of them wore on their heads hammered work of bronze and of iron.

Chapter 85

1There is a certain wandering people, the Sagartii, Persian in stock and in speech; their equipment is made midway between the Persian and the Pactyan. These furnished eight thousand horse; it is not their custom to carry arms of bronze or of iron, daggers excepted; they use ropes of plaited thongs,

2trusting to these they go to war. This is the manner of their fighting: when they close with the enemy they cast their ropes, which carry a noose at the tip; whatever the rope catches, horse or man, they drag toward themselves; and the man caught in the coils is entangled and destroyed.

Chapter 86

1Such was their fighting, and they were marshaled next to the Persians. The Medes had the same equipment as in the infantry, and the Cissians likewise. The Indians were armed in the same manner as in the infantry, and drove saddle-horses and chariots, under which ran horses and wild asses. The Bactrians were equipped just as in the infantry, and the Caspians likewise.

2The Libyans also were equipped as in the infantry, and they too all drove chariots; so in like manner the Caspians and Paricanians were armed just as in the infantry. The Arabs had the same dress as in the infantry, and all of them rode camels, in swiftness not falling behind horses.

Chapter 87

1These nations alone formed the cavalry. The number of the horse came to eighty myriads, apart from the camels and the chariots. The other horsemen were drawn up by tribes; the Arabs alone were placed last, because the horses cannot endure the camels, so that the cavalry might not be frightened.

Chapter 88

1The commanders of the horse were Harmamithres and Tithaeus, sons of Datis; the third of their joint commanders, Pharnuches, had been left behind at Sardis, sick. For as they were setting out from Sardis he met with an unwilled misfortune: as he rode, a dog ran beneath the feet of his horse; the horse, not seeing it beforehand, took fright, and rearing straight up threw Pharnuches off; he fell, vomited blood, and his sickness turned to a wasting decline.

2As for the horse, they dealt with it at once, in the way he ordered: the servants led it to the very place where it had thrown its master, and cut off its legs at the knees. Thus Pharnuches was stripped of his command.

Chapter 89

1The number of the triremes came to one thousand two hundred and seven; they were furnished by these: the Phoenicians, together with the Syrians of Palestine, three hundred, equipped thus: on their heads helmets wrought very nearly in the Greek fashion; on their bodies linen corselets; and they carried shields without rims and javelins.

2These Phoenicians of old, as they themselves say, dwelt by the Red Sea; from there they crossed over and dwell on the seaboard of Syria; and this region of Syria, and all the country as far as Egypt, is called Palestine. The Egyptians furnished two hundred ships.

3These wore hollow helmets on their heads, and carried hollow shields with great rims, sea-fighting spears, and great axes; the most of them were corseleted, and they carried great swords.

Chapter 90

1Thus arrayed were these; the Cyprians furnished a hundred and fifty ships, equipped thus: their kings wound their heads in turbans, the rest wear tunics, but in all else they are like the Greeks. Of these nations they come, as the Cyprians themselves say: from Salamis and Athens, from Arcadia, from Cythnos, from Phoenicia, and from Ethiopia.

Chapter 91

1The Cilicians furnished a hundred ships. These in turn wore native helmets on their heads, and had bucklers of raw ox-hide in place of shields, and wore tunics of wool; each man carried two javelins and a sword made very like the Egyptian falchions. In the old days these men were called Hypachaei, and they took their name from Cilicus son of Agenor, a man of Phoenicia. The Pamphylians furnished thirty ships, equipped with Greek arms; these Pamphylians are of the scattered host that came out of Troy with Amphilochus and Calchas.

Chapter 92

1The Lycians furnished fifty ships, being corseleted and greaved; they carried bows of cornel wood and unfeathered arrows of reed, and javelins, with goatskins swinging about their shoulders, and on their heads caps crowned about with feathers; they had daggers and sickle-swords. The Lycians in earlier times were called Termilae, having come from Crete, and they took their name from Lycus son of Pandion, an Athenian.

Chapter 93

1The Dorians of Asia furnished thirty ships, carrying Greek arms and sprung from Peloponnese. The Carians furnished seventy ships; in other respects arrayed like the Greeks, but they carried sickle-swords and daggers as well. What these men were called before has been told at the beginning of the history.

Chapter 94

1The Ionians furnished a hundred ships, equipped like the Greeks. For as long as the Ionians dwelt in Peloponnese, in the country now called Achaea—before Danaus and Xuthus came to Peloponnese, as the Greeks say—they were called Aegialian Pelasgians, and Ionians after Ion son of Xuthus.

Chapter 95

1The islanders furnished seventeen ships, armed like the Greeks; this too is a Pelasgian people, later called Ionian by the same account as the twelve cities of the Ionians who came from Athens. The Aeolians furnished sixty ships, equipped like the Greeks and in the old days called Pelasgians, as the account of the Greeks has it.

2The Hellespontines—except the Abydenes, for the king had assigned to the Abydenes, remaining in their own land, to be guards of the bridges—the rest, who campaigned from the Pontus, furnished a hundred ships, and were equipped like the Greeks. These are colonists of the Ionians and the Dorians.

Chapter 96

1Persians and Medes and Sacae embarked on all the ships. Of these the Phoenicians furnished the ships that sailed best, and of the Phoenicians the Sidonians. To all these, and to those of them drawn up in the infantry, native commanders were attached, each to each; of these I make no mention, for it is not of necessity that I go into this inquiry.

2For the leaders were not worthy of the nations they led; and within each nation there were as many leaders as there were cities, and they followed, not as generals, but as slaves among the soldiers, like the rest. As for the generals who held the whole command, and the leaders of each nation, so many of them as were Persians have been named by me.

Chapter 97

1Over the fleet were generals Ariabignes son of Darius, and Prexaspes son of Aspathines, and Megabazus son of Megabates, and Achaemenes son of Darius: Ariabignes son of Darius and of the daughter of Gobryas commanded the fleet of Ionia and Caria; Achaemenes, brother to Xerxes on both sides, commanded the Egyptians; the other two commanded the rest of the fleet. The thirty-oared ships and the fifty-oared, the light galleys, and the long horse-transports, gathered into the count, were found to be three thousand.

Chapter 98

1Of those who sailed after the generals, the most famous were these: Tetramnestus son of Anysus, a Sidonian; Matten son of Siromus, a Tyrian; Merbalus son of Agbalus, an Aradian; Syennesis son of Oromedon, a Cilician; Cyberniscus son of Sicas, a Lycian; of the Cyprians, Gorgus son of Chersis and Timonax son of Timagoras; of the Carians, Histiaeus son of Tymnes and Pigres son of Hysseldomus; and Damasithymus son of Candaules.

Chapter 99

1Of the other commanders of divisions I make no mention, since I am not compelled to; but it is Artemisia I wonder at most, that she joined the campaign against Greece, a woman: for when her husband died, she herself holding the sovereignty and her son being still a young man, she went to war, borne up by her own bold spirit and manly courage, no necessity lying upon her.

2Her name, then, was Artemisia; she was daughter of Lygdamis, of Halicarnassus on the father's side, Cretan on the mother's. She ruled the Halicarnassians and the Coans and the Nisyrians and the Calydnians, furnishing five ships.

3Her ships, after those of the Sidonians, were the most famous of all the fleet together, and she offered the king the best counsels of all the allies. Of the cities I said she led, I declare the people to be wholly Dorian: the Halicarnassians Troezenians, the rest Epidaurians. So much, then, for the fleet.

Chapter 100

1Xerxes, when the army had been counted and drawn up, desired to drive through it himself and view it; and this he did: driving in a chariot past each nation in turn he questioned them, and the scribes wrote it all down, until he had gone from the last to the last of both horse and foot.

2When this was done, and the ships hauled down into the sea, Xerxes stepped out of his chariot into a Sidonian ship and sat under a golden awning, and sailed along past the prows of the ships, questioning each in the same manner as the foot, and having it all written down.

3The admirals brought the ships out and moored them about four plethra from the shore, prows turned toward the land, all of them facing front, and armed the fighting men as for battle. And as he sailed within the line of beaks he viewed the shore as well.

Chapter 101

1When he had sailed past these also and stepped ashore from the ship, Xerxes sent for Demaratus son of Ariston, who was sharing the campaign with him against Greece; and calling him, he questioned him thus. "Demaratus, now it would give me pleasure to ask you what I wish. You are a Greek, and, as I learn from you and from the other Greeks who come to speak with me, of a city neither smallest nor weakest.

2Now tell me this: will the Greeks endure to stand against me, hands raised to meet me? For, as I judge, not even if all the Greeks and the rest of the peoples dwelling toward the west were gathered together are they a match worth fighting, coming as I come, unless they were my equals in number.

3Yet I wish to learn this also from you, what sort of thing you say about them." So much he asked; and the other, taking him up, said: "King, shall I use truth with you, or pleasure?" And he told him to use truth, saying that nothing would be more unwelcome to him than it had already been.

Chapter 102

1When Demaratus heard this he spoke thus: "King, since you command me absolutely to use truth, so that I say to you words by which no man will hereafter be caught lying by you: poverty has ever been Greece's companion, but excellence she has won, brought in by wisdom and the strength of law; using which she wards off both poverty and servitude.

2I commend all the Greeks who dwell in those Dorian lands; yet I am going to speak not of all of these, but of the Lacedaemonians alone: first, that there is no way they will ever accept from you terms that carry slavery to Greece; and next, that they will meet you in battle even if all the other Greeks side with you.

3As for numbers, do not ask how many they are who can do these things; for if a thousand of them chance to march out, these will fight you, whether they be fewer than that or more.

Chapter 103

1Hearing this, Xerxes laughed and said: "Demaratus, what a word you have let slip—that a thousand men will fight an army so great! Come now, tell me: you say you yourself became king of these men. Would you then be willing at once to fight ten men? And yet, if your whole civic order is such as you describe, it befits you, their king, to stand against twice the number, according to your laws.

2For if each of those men is worth ten men of my army, then I claim that you must be worth twenty; so would the tale you tell stand upright. But if you, being of such a sort and of such great size—you and those Greeks who come to me for talk—boast so much, take care this talk of yours has not been uttered as a mere vaunt.

3For come, let me see it by every likelihood: how could a thousand, or ten thousand, or even fifty thousand, all of them equally free and ruled by no one man, stand against so great a host? For we are more than a thousand to one of them, their number being fifty thousand.

4Ruled by one man after our fashion they might become: dreading him, and showing themselves better than their nature, and marching compelled by the lash against numbers even greater than their own; but let loose into freedom they would do neither of these things. And I hold, for my part, that even matched in numbers the Greeks would find it hard to fight the Persians alone.

5Yet among us alone there exists the thing you speak of—not in great numbers, but rare: for there are some of the Persians, my spear-bearers, who will willingly fight three Greeks at once; you, knowing nothing of them, say many fooleries.

Chapter 104

1To this Demaratus says: "King, from the very first I knew that, speaking the truth, I should not speak what pleases you; but since you compelled me to speak the words that are most true, I said what befits the Spartans.

2And yet how I am now bereft of those men, you yourself know best: they, stripping me of the honor and the privileges of my fathers, made me cityless and an exile; your father took me in and gave me a living and a home. But it is not the way of a man of sense to thrust away goodwill when it shows itself; he must love it most of all.

3I, for my part, neither promise that I can fight ten men nor two, nor would I willingly fight even one. But if necessity lay upon me, or the contest that urged me on were a great one, I would fight most gladly with one of those men whom every Greek says is worth three.

4So too the Lacedaemonians: fighting one against one they are no worse men than any; joined together they are the best of all men. For free as they are, they are not free in all things; over them is law as a master, whom they fear far more than your men fear you.

5They do whatever it commands; and it commands ever the same: never to flee from battle before any multitude of men, but to stand fast in their place and conquer or die. And if I seem to you to speak folly in saying this, I choose to keep silence hereafter; for it was compelled that I spoke now. Yet may it fall out according to your mind, king."

Chapter 105

1This was his answer; Xerxes turned it to laughter and made no show of anger at all, but sent him away in kindness. Then Xerxes, having talked with him, and having set over Doriscus this Mascames son of Megadostes as governor—putting an end to the man whom Darius had established there—drove the army on through Thrace toward Greece.

Chapter 106

1Such a man was this Mascames he left behind: to him alone Xerxes used to send gifts, as to one who had proved best of all the governors he himself had appointed, or that Darius had, and he sent them every year; so too did Artaxerxes son of Xerxes send gifts to the descendants of Mascames. For governors had been established before this march all through Thrace and everywhere about the Hellespont.

2All these, then, both those from Thrace and those from the Hellespont, except the one in Doriscus, were afterwards removed by the Greeks after this campaign; but Mascames in Doriscus no man ever was able to remove, though many tried. For this reason gifts are ever sent to him by the king who reigns over the Persians.

Chapter 107

1Of those removed by the Greeks King Xerxes held no one to be a good man, except Boges alone, he of Eion; nor did he ever cease praising this man, and he honored his children who remained in Persia above all, for Boges proved worthy of great praise: when he was being besieged by the Athenians under Cimon son of Miltiades, and it lay open to him to go out under truce and return to Asia, he would not, lest he be thought to have given up the place to the king through cowardice, but he held out to the very last.

2When no food was left within the wall, he built a great pyre, slaughtered his children and his wife and his concubines and his servants, and cast them upon the fire; after that he scattered from the wall into the Strymon all the gold and all the silver there was in the town; and having done this, he threw himself into the fire. So he continues even to this day to be justly praised by the Persians.

Chapter 108

1From Doriscus Xerxes marched on toward Greece, compelling to join the campaign all who ever came in his path; for all the country as far as Thessaly had been enslaved, as I made clear before, and was tributary to the king—subdued by Megabazus and later by Mardonius.

2Marching out of Doriscus he passed first the Samothracian walls, at the westernmost end of which stands a city whose name is Mesambria; next to it is Stryme, a city of the Thasians, and through the middle of them runs the river Lisus, which at that time did not hold its water to serve the army of Xerxes, but failed.

3This country was in the old days called Gallaica, and now is called Brintica; by the most correct of accounts, it too belongs to the Cicones.

Chapter 109

1Crossing the dried-up bed of the river Lisus, he passed these Greek cities, Maroneia, Dicaea, and Abdera; past these he went, and past the famous lakes that lie by them: Ismaris, lying between Maroneia and Stryme, and Bistonis, by Dicaea, into which two rivers pour their water, the Traus and the Compsatus. By Abdera Xerxes passed no famous lake, but he did pass the river Nestos, which flows into the sea.

2Going on from these lands he passed the inland cities, in one of which there is a lake of about thirty stades around, most nearly so, full of fish and very salt; the pack animals alone drank from it, and did not exhaust it. The name of this city is Pistyrus.

Chapter 110

1Passing these cities, those on the coast and the Greek ones, keeping them on his left hand, he went; and the Thracian peoples through whose country the road was made are these: the Paitoi, the Cicones, the Bistones, the Sapaei, the Dersaei, the Edoni, the Satrae. Of these, those settled by the sea followed in the ships; those who dwell inland, whom I have named—all the rest of them, except the Satrae, were compelled to follow on foot.

Chapter 111

1The Satrae, so far as we know, have never been subject to any man; they continue to this day the only free Thracians, as they have always been; for they dwell among high mountains covered with forests of every kind and with snow, and in the things of war they are the very best.

2They are the holders of the oracle of Dionysus; the oracle stands on the highest of their mountains, and the Bessi, a clan of the Satrae, are the prophets of the shrine; the priestess who gives the answers is as at Delphi, and nothing more elaborate.

Chapter 112

1Having passed the place named, Xerxes passed next the walls of the Pierians, in whose country is a city named Phagres and another Pergamus. Along those very walls the road ran, keeping on the right the mountain Pangaion, great and high, in which are mines of gold and silver, worked by the Pierians and the Odomanti, and above all by the Satrae.

Chapter 113

1Passing by the Paeonians of Doberus and Paeoplae, who dwell beyond Pangaion toward the north wind, he went westward until he came to the river Strymon and the city of Eion, of which Boges, of whom I spoke a little before, was governor while he still lived.

2This land about the mountain Pangaion is called Phyllis, reaching westward to the river Angites, which pours into the Strymon, and stretching southward to the Strymon itself; on the Strymon the Magi were working holy rites, slaughtering white horses.

Chapter 114

1Having worked their spells upon the river with these offerings and many others besides, they marched by the Nine Ways of the Edoni along the bridges, and found the Strymon bridged. And hearing that this place was called Nine Ways, they buried alive in it that number of boys and maidens of the men of the country.

2Burying alive is a Persian custom; for I learn that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, too, when she had grown old, buried alive twice seven sons of famous Persian men, giving thanks in return on her own behalf to the god who is said to be beneath the earth.

Chapter 115

1As the army went from the Strymon, there toward the setting sun is a beach, along which he passed the Greek city of Argilus, built there; this, and the country above it, is called Bisaltia.

2From there, with the gulf at Poseidium on his left, he went through the plain called Syleus, passing the Greek city of Stagirus, and came to Acanthus, leading with him each of these nations and of those dwelling about the mountain Pangaion, as also those I named before: those settled by the sea he had campaigning in ships, those away from the sea following on foot.

3This road by which King Xerxes drove his army, the Thracians neither disturb nor sow, but hold it in great reverence to my day.

Chapter 116

1When he came to Acanthus, Xerxes proclaimed guest-friendship for the Acanthians, gave them Median dress as a gift, and praised them, seeing that they too were eager for the war, and hearing about the canal.

Chapter 117

1While Xerxes was at Acanthus it came about that Artachaees, who was set over the canal, died of sickness—a man of high esteem with Xerxes and of the race of the Achaemenids, of the very greatest stature among the Persians (for he fell short of five royal cubits by four fingers) and the loudest of men in voice; so that Xerxes, taking his loss grievously, gave him the finest of burials, and the whole army made lamentation at his mound.

2The Acanthians sacrifice to this Artachaees as a hero, by command of an oracle, calling him by his name.

Chapter 118

1King Xerxes, then, mourned the death of Artachaees. But those who received the army of the Greeks and entertained Xerxes came to every kind of evil, so that they were uprooted from their homes—as when the Thasians, for receiving the army of Xerxes on behalf of their cities on the mainland and entertaining it, chose out Antipater son of Oreges, a man of the citizens of highest repute, and he laid out for the dinner four hundred talents of coined silver.

Chapter 119

1In the other cities too those in charge made the same showing. The dinner was of such a kind as this, ordered long beforehand and made with things of great price:

2To begin with, as soon as they learned from the heralds who went about making proclamation, the townspeople portioned out grain through their cities and made flour and barley meal all for many months; then they kept cattle for the feast, seeking out the finest to be had for the price, and reared birds of the land and of the marsh, indoors and in ponds, for the reception of the army; and they had drinking cups and mixing bowls made of gold and of silver, and everything else that is set upon a table.

3These things were made ready for the king himself and for those who ate at his table; for the rest of the army only what was allotted for food. And when the army came, a tent stood fixed and ready wherever Xerxes made his halt, while the rest of the army lay under the open sky.

4When the hour of dinner came, the hosts had toil upon them, while the soldiers, once gorged, passed their night there; and on the following day, tearing up the tent and taking all the furnishings, they drove away, leaving nothing behind, but carrying everything off.

Chapter 120

1Here then a word was well spoken by Megacreon, a man of Abdera, who advised the Abderites, all together, men and women both, to go to their temples and sit there as suppliants of the gods, beseeching them to turn away half of the evils still to come, and to hold in great thankfulness those already past—that King Xerxes had not judged it right to take a meal twice in the day;

2for he would have brought it upon the Abderites—had he also ordered a breakfast made like the dinner—either not to endure Xerxes' coming, or, having waited for it, to wear themselves out in the worst misery of all men.

Chapter 121

1So they, hard pressed, performed what was laid upon them all the same. Xerxes, from Acanthus, after charging the generals of the fleet to wait at Therma, let the ships go on their way; Therma is a city dwelling in the Thermaic Gulf, from which this gulf has its name; for by that way, he learned, the passage was shortest.

2For up to Acanthus the army made its way from Doriscus drawn up in this order: Xerxes divided the whole land army into three parts, and appointed one of these to go along the shore together with the fleet.

3Over this part Mardonius and Masistes were generals; the second division, a third of the army, went the inland way, with Tritantaechmes and Gergis as generals; the third of the parts, with which Xerxes himself marched, went in the middle of them, having as generals Smerdomenes and Megabyzus.

Chapter 122

1The fleet, then, being let go by Xerxes, sailed through the canal cut through Athos, which reaches into a gulf in which are settled the cities of Assa and Pilorus and Singus and Sarte; from there, having taken troops from these cities too, it sailed away for the Thermaic Gulf; and, rounding Ampelus, the Toronaean headland, it passed these Greek cities, taking from them ships and troops: Torone, Galepsus, Sermylus, Mecyberna, Olynthus.

Chapter 123

1This country is called Sithonia. The fleet of Xerxes, cutting straight across from the headland of Ampelus to the headland of Canastreum—the one that stretches out farthest toward Pallene—from there took ships and troops from Potidaea and Aphytis and Neapolis and Aegae and Therambus and Scione and Mende and Sane; these are the cities that occupy the country now called Pallene, formerly Phlegra.

2Sailing past this country also, the fleet sailed on toward the place named before, taking troops too from the cities that adjoin Pallene and border on the Thermaic Gulf, whose names are these: Lipaxus, Combreia, Aisa, Gigonus, Campsa, Smila, Aineia; the country of these is called Crossaea even to this day.

3From Aineia, where my list of the cities came to an end, the voyage of the fleet was then into the Thermaic Gulf itself and to the land of Mygdonia; and sailing it came to the Therma named before, and to Sindus and Chalaestra, upon the river Axius, which parts the land of Mygdonia from Bottiaea; of this last the cities Ichnae and Pella hold the narrow strip by the sea.

Chapter 124

1The fleet encamped there about the river Axius and the city of Therma and the cities between them, waiting for the king; Xerxes and the land army marched from Acanthus cutting across the inland way, wishing to come to Therma; and they went through the country of Paeonia and Crestonia to the river Echedorus, which, rising among the Crestonaeans, flows through the land of Mygdonia and issues by the marsh upon the Axius.

Chapter 125

1On this march lions fell upon the camels that carried the baggage. For the lions came down by night, leaving their own haunts, and touched nothing else, neither beast of burden nor man, but attacked the camels alone. I wonder what it was, of all else, that forced the lions, holding off from the rest, to fall upon the camels—a beast they had neither seen before nor tasted.

Chapter 126

1In these regions there are many lions, and wild oxen too, whose horns, beyond all size, are the ones brought to Greece. The boundary of the lions is the river Nestos, which flows through Abdera, and the Achelous, which flows through Acarnania: for east of the Nestos, nowhere in all the Europe before it would one see a lion, nor west of the Achelous in the rest of the mainland, but between these two rivers they are bred.

Chapter 127

1When Xerxes came to Therma he stationed his army there. His army halted encamped in so much of the land along the sea—beginning from the city of Therma and Mygdonia and reaching to the rivers Ludias and Haliacmon, which bound the lands of Bottiaea and Macedonia, joining their water in one stream.

2In these places, then, the foreigners encamped; and of the rivers I have named, the Echedorus, flowing from Crestonia, alone failed to serve the army to drink, but fell short.

Chapter 128

1Xerxes, seeing from Therma the Thessalian mountains, Olympus and Ossa, exceeding great in size, and learning that a narrow gorge lay between them through which the Peneius flows, and hearing that this way there was a road leading into Thessaly, desired to sail and view the mouth of the Peneius—because he meant to drive the upper road through the Macedonians who dwell beyond, as far as the Perrhaebi and the city of Gonnus; for this way, he learned, was safest.

2Having desired this, he did it: boarding a Sidonian ship—into which he always stepped whenever he wished to do anything of the kind—he gave the signal for the rest to weigh anchor, leaving the land army behind. And when Xerxes had come and viewed the mouth of the Peneius, he fell into great wonder; and calling the guides of the road he asked whether it were possible to turn the river and lead it out to the sea by another way.

Chapter 129

1Thessaly, the story goes, was of old a lake, enclosed on every side by mountains exceeding high: on its eastern side the mountain Pelion and Ossa close it in, their lower slopes joining one another; toward the north wind stands Olympus, toward the west Pindus, and toward the south and the south wind Othrys; and in the hollow middle of these mountains just named lies Thessaly.

2Many rivers besides flow into it—and five of the most notable are these: the Peneius, Apidanus, Onochonus, Enipeus, and Pamisus—which, gathering from the mountains that ring Thessaly round into this plain, each called by its own name, run out to the sea through one gorge, and that a narrow one, all of them mixing their water together;

3and when they are mingled, from that point the Peneius, ruling by its name, makes the rest nameless. It is said that in the old days, when this gorge and its outflow did not yet exist, these rivers—and with them the Boebeian lake—were not named as now, but flowed no less than now, and their flowing made all Thessaly a sea.

4The Thessalians themselves say that Poseidon made the gorge through which the Peneius flows, and they speak with reason: for whoever believes that Poseidon shakes the earth, and that the sundered places are the works of this god, would say, seeing this too, that Poseidon made it; for the parting of those mountains is, as it seems to me, the work of an earthquake.

Chapter 130

1The guides, when Xerxes asked whether there was any other outlet to the sea for the Peneius, knew the matter exactly and answered: "King, for this river there is no other descent to the sea, but this one only; for all Thessaly is crowned round about with mountains." Xerxes is said to have answered: "The Thessalians are wise men."

2This, then, is what they had guarded against long before, contending for their knowledge, among other things, that they held a country both worth the having and quickly taken; for the river was the one thing that could be brought against their country—by damming it out of the gorge and turning it through the channels in which it now flows, so as to make all Thessaly, save the mountains, lie under water.

3This, too, he said concerning the sons of Aleuas—that the Thessalians, first of all the Greeks, had given themselves to the king; for Xerxes supposed that they offered friendship on behalf of the whole nation. And having said this and viewed the place, he sailed back to Therma.

Chapter 131

1He lingered many days in Pieria; for the Macedonian mountain sheared off a third part of the army, so that the whole army might go out by this way into the country of the Perrhaebi. And the heralds who had been sent to Greece to ask for earth came back—some empty-handed, and the others bringing earth and water.

Chapter 132

1The peoples who gave earth and water were these: the Thessalians, Dolopes, Enienes, Perrhaebians, Locrians, Magnetes, Malians, the Achaeans of Phthiotis, the Thebans, and all the other Boeotians except the Thespians and the Plataeans.

2Upon this the Greeks who had taken up the war against the foreigner bound themselves by an oath; and the oath ran so: every Greek who had given himself to the Persian of his own free will, not under compulsion, was to pay a tithe of his goods to the god at Delphi, once their affairs had turned out well. Such was the oath the Greeks swore.

Chapter 133

1Xerxes did not send heralds to Athens and Sparta to demand earth and water, and for this reason: when Darius had sent men on that very errand before, the Athenians threw those who made the demand into the pit, the Spartans into a well, and told them to take their earth and water for the king from down there.

2For that reason Xerxes sent no one to make the demand. But what ill befell the Athenians for having served the heralds so, I cannot say — except that their land and their city were laid waste. That, I do not believe, happened on account of that offense.

Chapter 134

1But upon the Lacedaemonians fell the wrath of Talthybius, the herald of Agamemnon. For at Sparta there is a shrine of Talthybius, and descendants too, called Talthybiadae, to whom every herald's office that goes out from Sparta is granted as an honor.

2After this, whenever the Spartans sacrificed, no favorable omen would come, and this held with them for a long time. As the Lacedaemonians were hard pressed and losing ground, their assemblies met again and again and made this proclamation: whether any Lacedaemonian would die in Sparta's stead. Then Sperthias son of Aneristus and Bulis son of Nicolaus, Spartans of good birth and counted among the first in wealth, offered themselves of their own will to pay Xerxes the penalty for the heralds of Darius who had perished at Sparta.

3So the Spartans sent these men off to the Medes as men already dead.

Chapter 135

1That daring of theirs was worth wondering at, and so were the words that followed it. For as they traveled to Susa they came to Hydarnes, a Persian by birth and commander of the coast peoples of Asia; he set guest-gifts before them and spread sail to speed them on, and asked them this as he entertained them:

2"Men of Lacedaemon, why do you shun becoming friends of the king? You can see from me and my fortunes how well he knows to honor good men. Just so, if you gave yourselves to the king — for he already holds you to be good men — each of you, the king granting it, would rule land in Greece."

3To this they made answer: "Hydarnes, your counsel is not given from an even footing. Of one thing you speak with trial behind you, of the other without; slavery you know well, but freedom you have never tasted, neither whether it is sweet nor whether it is not. Had you ever tasted it, you would counsel us to fight for it not with spears only, but with axes."

Chapter 136

1That was their answer to Hydarnes. From there they went up to Susa and came before the king; and when the spearmen of the guard ordered them to fall on their faces before the king and bore them toward it by force, they said that pushed by others they would never do such a thing on their heads — for it was not their custom to worship a man, nor had they come for that. When they had beaten off this demand, they say these words followed, of the sort that comes next:

2"King of the Medes, the Lacedaemonians sent us in place of the heralds who perished at Sparta, to pay the penalty for them." And Xerxes, out of greatness of spirit, they say, answered that he would not be like the Lacedaemonians: they had confounded the lawful customs of all mankind by killing heralds; he would not do the very things he charged them with, nor, by killing them in return, release the Lacedaemonians from their guilt.

Chapter 137

1So the wrath of Talthybius paused for the moment, despite all the Spartans had done, and though Sperthias and Bulis had come home again to Sparta. Long afterward it woke again, in the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, so the Lacedaemonians say. To my mind this is the most divine thing that happened in the whole story.

2That the wrath of Talthybius fell on messengers and never ceased until it had run its course — that was only justice taking its way. But that it should light upon the sons of the very men who went up to the king because of that wrath, on Nicolaus son of Bulis and on Aneristus son of Sperthias — the same Aneristus who took the Halieis, men of Tiryns, prisoner as they sailed down in a transport packed with men — it is clear to me the thing came about by divine working out of the wrath:

3for they, sent as envoys by the Lacedaemonians to Asia, were betrayed by Sitalces son of Teres, king of the Thracians, and by Nymphodorus son of Pytheas, an Abderite; they were taken at Bisanthe in the Hellespont, carried off to Attica, and put to death by the Athenians — and with them died Aristeas son of Adimantus, a Corinthian. All this happened many years after the king's expedition; but I return to the earlier account.

Chapter 138

1The king's expedition bore the name of a march against Athens, but it was aimed at all Greece. The Greeks learned this long in advance, and they did not all take it the same way.

2Those of them who had given earth and water to the Persian were of good courage, since they expected no ingratitude from the foreigner; but those who had not given were sunk in great fear, for Greece had no fleet in numbers worth fighting to meet the invader, and most men would not take up the war — they were eagerly going over to the Mede instead.

Chapter 139

1Here necessity forces me to declare an opinion that most people will resent; still, since it seems to me the truth, I will not hold it back.

2If the Athenians, terrified by the danger that was coming, had abandoned their own country, or had stayed in it yet given themselves to Xerxes, no one would have tried to resist the king at sea. And if no one had withstood Xerxes at sea, then on land it would have gone like this:

3even if many lines of wall had been thrown up across the Isthmus for the Peloponnesians, the Lacedaemonians would have been abandoned by their allies, not willingly but of necessity, as their cities were taken one by one by the foreigners' fleet; left alone, they would have done great deeds and died nobly.

4Either that would have been their fate, or else, seeing the other Greeks gone over to the Mede, they would have come to terms with Xerxes before the end. Either way Greece would have fallen to the Persians. For what good walls driven across the Isthmus would have been, I cannot discover, once the king commanded the sea.

5As things were, anyone who said the Athenians became the saviors of Greece would not miss the truth. Whichever side they turned to in the struggle, there the scale was bound to fall; and choosing that Greece remain free, they were the ones who roused the whole of what was left of the Greek world, all that had not gone over, and repelled the king with the gods at their side.

6Nor did the terrifying oracles that came from Delphi, casting them into fear, persuade them to abandon Greece; they stood their ground and braced themselves to receive the invader into their land.

Chapter 140

1The Athenians had sent sacred envoys to Delphi, ready to consult the god; and when they had performed the customary rites about the sanctuary and entered the hall and sat down, the Pythia, whose name was Aristonice, gave them this oracle:

2"Foolish ones, why do you sit still? / Flee to the ends of the earth, leaving your houses / and the high heads of your wheel-shaped city. / Neither the head nor the body stays firm, / neither the feet beneath nor the hands, / nor is anything of the middle left; all has slipped its yoke. / For fire and keen Ares bring it down, / driving a Syrian-born chariot."

3"Many towers besides it will destroy, not yours alone, / and many temples of the immortals it will give to ravening fire — / they stand even now streaming with sweat, / trembling with fear, and from their highest rooftops / black blood runs down, foreknowing the hard necessities of evil. / But go, leave the inner shrine, and brace your hearts for sorrow."

Chapter 141

1When the Athenian envoys heard this they fell into the greatest distress. But Timon son of Androbulus, a man of Delphi whose good standing was second to none, came to them under the weight of the evil answer and advised them, taking suppliant boughs, to go again a second time and consult the oracle as suppliants.

2The Athenians were persuaded, and said: "Lord, give us some better answer about our fatherland, out of regard for these suppliant boughs we have come carrying — or we will not leave the shrine, but stay right here until we die." They say the prophetess then gave them a second oracle, this:

3"Pallas Athena cannot appease Olympian Zeus / though she beg with many words and close-woven cunning. / I speak to you once more a word set in adamant: / when all else is taken that the bounds of Cecrops hold / and the hollow of holy Cithaeron, / far-voiced Zeus grants to Tritogeneia alone a wooden wall / that shall stand unbroken; it will save you and your children."

4"And you, wait not for the horsemen nor for the host of foot / that comes up vast from the mainland; turn your back and give way. / The day will come when you meet them face to face. / O divine Salamis — women's children you shall destroy, / whether Demeter is scattered or is sown."

Chapter 142

1This oracle both was and seemed gentler than the first; writing it down, the envoys departed for Athens. When they had returned and reported it to the people, many opinions arose as they argued over the meaning, and these carried the most weight. Some of the elders held that the god meant the acropolis would be spared, for in ancient days the Athenians' acropolis was fenced about with a hedge of thorns.

2This party took the thorn fence to be the wooden wall; the others said the god was pointing to the ships, and urged them to make those ready and let everything else go. But those who held the ships to be the wooden wall were confounded by the two closing lines of the Pythia: "O divine Salamis — women's children you shall destroy, whether Demeter is scattered or is sown."

3Because of those lines the view of those who said the ships were the wooden wall was held down; for the oracle-mongers took them this way: that if they made ready for a sea battle, they would be beaten at Salamis.

Chapter 143

1There was a certain Athenian who had lately come forward among the leading men; his name was Themistocles, and he was called son of Neocles. This man said the oracle-mongers were not interpreting everything rightly, saying this: "If the verse had truly been spoken of the Athenians, it would not have sounded so gentle to your ears — it would have read 'O wretched Salamis' instead of 'O divine Salamis' — if indeed its inhabitants were to perish there:

2Rather, the god had spoken the oracle of the enemy, taking it aright, and not of the Athenians." He advised them, then, to make ready for a sea battle, for this was the wooden wall.

3Themistocles giving this as his opinion, the Athenians judged it more to be chosen than the oracle-mongers' view, who would not have them prepare for a sea battle — in short would not have them lift even a hand in defense — but would have them leave the land of Attica and settle some other place.

Chapter 144

1Another counsel of Themistocles, given earlier than this, proved its worth at exactly the right moment. When a great sum of money had come into the public treasury — the proceeds of the mines at Laureium — the Athenians were on the point of dividing it, ten drachmas a man. Themistocles then persuaded them to give up this division and use the money to build two hundred ships for the war, naming the war with the Aeginetans.

2That war, once it had arisen, saved Greece at the time, for it forced the Athenians to become a sea power. The ships were not used for the purpose for which they were built, but at the pinch of need they served Greece so. These ships, built beforehand, were ready to hand for the Athenians, and others had to be built besides.

3After the oracle they resolved, in council, to receive the foreigner coming against Greece with all their ships in a body, obeying the god, and together with the Greeks who were willing.

Chapter 145

1Such were the oracles that came to the Athenians. Now those Greeks of Greece whose judgments were best came together in one place and pledged one another their word and their faith; and once assembled they resolved, first, to settle all their feuds and the wars they had against one another by payment — they had quarrels with certain others as well, but the greatest was between the Athenians and the Aeginetans.

2Afterward, learning that Xerxes was in Sardis with his army, they resolved to send spies to Asia to observe the king's affairs, and envoys to Argos to conclude a bond of shared battle against the Persian, and others to Sicily to Gelon son of Deinomenes, and others to Corcyra to bid them come to the aid of Greece, and others still to Crete — their thought being that somehow the Greek world might stand as one, and that all, yielding to one another, might act alike, since terrible things were coming equally upon all the Greeks. Gelon's power was said to be very great, not much short of any power in the Greek world.

Chapter 146

1This being resolved and their feuds settled, they first sent three men to Asia as spies. These came to Sardis and took stock of the king's army; but when they were caught, the generals of the land army put them to the torture and were leading them off to be put to death.

2Death had already been decreed for them; but Xerxes, hearing of it, found fault with the generals' judgment and sent some of his spearmen with orders that if they caught the spies alive they were to bring them before him.

3So when they found the men still alive and brought them into the king's sight, he, learning what they had come for, ordered the spearmen to lead them round and let them see everything, the whole land army and the cavalry alike; and when they had gazed their fill, to send them away unharmed to whatever country they themselves wished.

Chapter 147

1He added this reasoning to his orders: if the spies died, the Greeks would neither learn beforehand of his power, which was past all telling, nor would the enemy be greatly alarmed at the loss of three men; but if these men returned to Greece, then, he said, he supposed the Greeks, on hearing of his might, would give up their freedom of their own accord before the fleet set out — and so he would have no need to campaign against them at all.

2This thought of his agreed with what came next. For while Xerxes sat at Abydos he saw grain ships sailing out of the Pontus through the Hellespont, bound for Aegina and the Peloponnese. His attendants, learning these were enemy ships, made ready to seize them, watching for whatever word the king should give.

3Xerxes asked where they were bound; and they answered: "To your enemies, master, carrying grain." He took the answer up: "But are we not ourselves sailing to the very place they sail to, equipped with all else and with grain besides? How then do these men wrong us, running food past us?"

Chapter 148

1So the spies, after gazing their fill and being sent safely off, got back to Europe; and the Greeks sworn together against the Persian, once the spies were gone, sent envoys to Argos a second time.

2The Argives say their affairs fell out as follows. At the very outset they learned of the stirrings the foreigner was raising against Greece; and knowing this, and knowing too that the Greeks would try to draw them in against the Persian, they sent sacred envoys to Delphi to ask the god what would turn out best for them to do; for six thousand of their men had just lately died at the hands of the Lacedaemonians and of Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides — for that cause they sent.

3To their inquiry the Pythia answered: "You who are hated by your neighbors but dear to the immortal gods: / keep within your rampart and sit in watchfulness; / guard the head, and the head will keep safe the body." This, they say, the Pythia pronounced first; afterward, when the envoys had come back to Argos, they went into the council house and spoke their instructions.

4To what was said they answered that the Argives were ready to do these things: to make a truce of thirty years with the Lacedaemonians and to command half of the whole alliance. True, by right the command ought to be theirs alone; still, half the command was enough for them.

Chapter 149

1Such, they say, was the council's answer, even though the oracle forbade them to make an alliance with the Greeks; yet they were eager for a truce of thirty years, in spite of fearing the oracle, so that their sons would come to manhood in those years. For if the truce were not made, they dreaded that, should another blow from the Persian overtake them on top of the disaster already suffered, they would ever after be subjects of the Lacedaemonians.

2Of the envoys, those from Sparta replied to the council's words as follows: about the truce they would lay it before the assembly; but about the command they were instructed to answer in this way: the Lacedaemonians had two kings, the Argives one, and it was not possible for either of the two from Sparta to step down from the command — though nothing hindered the Argive from casting a vote equal to their two.

3So the Argives say they could not endure the greed of the Spartans, but chose rather to be ruled by foreigners than yield anything to the Lacedaemonians; and they told the envoys to be gone from the Argive country before sundown, or be delivered over as enemies.

Chapter 150

1So much the Argives themselves say of these matters; but another story runs through Greece: that Xerxes sent a herald to Argos before ever he set out to march against Greece:

2and when the man had come, he is said to have spoken as follows: "Men of Argos, King Xerxes says this to you: 'We Persians hold that we descend from Perseus son of Danae, born of Andromeda daughter of Cepheus; from this we reckon ourselves Persian. By that reckoning we should be your descendants. It is not fitting, then, that we march against our own forefathers, nor that you, avenging others, should stand against us; keep quiet at home, and stay out of it all. If matters fall out as I wish, I will set no one above you.'"

3The Argives, having heard this, are said to have acted thus: at first they put forward no claim at all; but when the Greeks were about to take them in, then — knowing full well that the Lacedaemonians would never share the command — they made the claim, so that they might have a pretext for sitting quietly by.

Chapter 151

1Some of the Greeks add a further story, saying it fell in with these events many years later. It chanced that the Athenian envoys — Callias son of Hipponicus and those who had gone up with him — were at Susa of Memnon on another errand; and the Argives, having sent envoys of their own to Susa at this very time, asked Artaxerxes son of Xerxes whether he still of his own will kept the friendship they had concluded with Xerxes, or whether they should count themselves his enemies. King Artaxerxes answered that he kept it above all, and held no city dearer than Argos.

Chapter 152

1Whether Xerxes really did send a herald speaking these words to Argos, and whether envoys of the Argives went up to Susa and questioned Artaxerxes about the friendship, I cannot say with certainty; I give no opinion on these matters beyond what the Argives themselves say:

2I know this much: that if all people were to bring their own miseries into a common pile, wishing to exchange them with their neighbors, then, when each had looked into the miseries of the rest, he would gladly carry back home the very ones he had brought.

3So it did not fall out worst of all for the Argives. But I am bound to tell what is told, though not in every case to believe it — and let this saying stand for my whole account. Since it is also said that the Argives were the ones who called the Persian in against Greece, because their fortunes stood badly against the Lacedaemonians and they wished for anything on earth rather than the grief they had:

Chapter 153

1So much about the Argives. For Sicily other envoys arrived from the allies and met with Gelon — and from the Lacedaemonians, Syagrus. This Gelon's forefather, a settler in Gela, had come from the island of Telos that lies off Triopium; when Gela was founded by the Lindians from Rhodes together with Antiphemus, he was not left behind.

2As time went on, his descendants continued to be hierophants of the gods below the earth — Telines, one of that stock, had won the office in this way: men of Gela, worsted in a faction fight, had fled to Macotorion, a town settled above Gela,

3and this Telines brought them back to Gela, trusting in no force of men but only in the sacred rites of those gods; where he got those rites, or won them for himself, that I cannot say — but trusting in them he brought the exiles home, and for that reason his descendants are hierophants of the gods.

4This, too, has struck me as a wonder in the inquiries I make — that Telines accomplished so great a work. For deeds of that kind, men hold, do not come from just anyone, but from a stout spirit and manly vigor; whereas he is said to have been by nature the opposite of these among the dwellers in Sicily — an effeminate man, and softer than most.

Chapter 154

1This man won that office. When Cleander son of Pantares ended his life — he had ruled Gela as tyrant seven years, and died at the hand of Sabyllus, a man of Gela — thereupon Hippocrates, brother of Cleander, took up the sole rule. While Hippocrates held the tyranny, Gelon, a descendant of Telines the hierophant, served among his many spearmen, along with Aenesidemus son of Pataicus, himself also one of Hippocrates' spearmen.

2Not long after, for his valor he was made commander of the whole cavalry; for when Hippocrates was besieging the Callipolitae, the Naxians, the Zancleians, the Leontines, and the Syracusans besides, and many of the foreigners too, Gelon shone as the most brilliant man in all those wars. None of the cities just named escaped subjection to Hippocrates, except the Syracusans:

3the Corinthians and the Corcyraeans rescued the Syracusans, beaten in battle on the river Helorus, and made the peace on these terms: that the Syracusans give Camarina up to Hippocrates. Camarina had in ancient times belonged to the Syracusans.

Chapter 155

1Hippocrates, who had held his tyranny just as long as his brother Cleander, met his death campaigning against the Sicels before the city of Hybla. Then Gelon — pleading that he avenged Hippocrates' sons Euclides and Cleander, whom the citizens would no longer obey — in fact, once he had beaten the men of Gela in battle, took the rule himself, thrusting the sons of Hippocrates aside.

2After this exploit, the men of property among the Syracusans, called the gamoroi, had been driven out by the commons and by their own slaves, called Cyllyrians. Gelon brought these exiles down from the city of Casmenae to Syracuse and took that city too; for the Syracusan commons surrendered the city and themselves to Gelon as he advanced.

Chapter 156

1As soon as he had Syracuse in his hands, Gelon counted Gela a matter of less moment, entrusting it to his brother Hiero; and he made Syracuse strong, and all the Syracusans were his:

2and it at once ran up and blossomed. For he brought all the Camarinaeans to Syracuse and made them citizens, and razed the town of Camarina itself; and to more than half the townsfolk of Gela he did the same as to the Camarinaeans. The Megareans of Sicily, when their city was besieged and they came to terms — the well-to-do among them, who had begun the war against him and looked to die for it, he brought to Syracuse and made citizens; but the Megarean commons, who had no share in that war and expected to suffer nothing, these too he brought to Syracuse and sold them off, to be carried out of Sicily.

3He dealt the same way with the Euboeans in Sicily, making the same distinction. With both peoples he acted thus, holding the commons the most graceless of housemates.

Chapter 157

1Such was the way in which Gelon became a great tyrant. Now when the Greek envoys reached Syracuse, they came before him for talks and spoke as follows: "The Lacedaemonians and their allies sent us to take you up against the foreigner. Of the man coming against Greece you have surely heard by now: a Persian, who means to yoke the Hellespont, bring up out of Asia all the host of the dawn, and march on Greece — making it his pretext that he drives against Athens, but keeping it in his mind to make all Greece his own."

2"You come, after all, with very great power, and your share of Greece is no small one, ruling Sicily as you do: come to the aid of those who are setting Greece free, and be a liberator with them. For if all Greece falls enslaved, a single great hand is gathered together, and we become worth fighting to the power that comes against us; but if some of us betray outright and others will not take vengeance, while the sound part of Greece is small, then it becomes a fearsome thing indeed, lest all Greece fall."

3"And do not hope, if the Persian beats us in battle and makes us his, that he will not come your way: look to it before that day. In coming to our aid you avenge your own cause. For a matter well planned wishes, as a rule, to end well."

Chapter 158

1So they spoke; but Gelon pressed back on them hard, saying this: "Greeks, holding a self-serving argument, you have dared to invite me as an ally against the foreigner.

2Yet when I begged you before to join in driving back a foreign host, at the time my quarrel with the Carthaginians arose — when I called on you to exact punishment for Dorieus son of Anaxandrides, killed by the Egestaeans, and offered to free for you together the trading posts from which great gains and revenues have come to you — you neither came to help me nor moved to avenge Dorieus' death; and yet now all that is yours is being dealt out to the foreigners.

3But for us things turned out for the better. Now the war has swung around and landed on you — and so you remember Gelon.

4Though I met dishonor at your hands, I will not repay you in kind. I am ready to come to your aid, offering two hundred triremes, twenty thousand armored infantry, two thousand horse, two thousand archers, two thousand slingers, and two thousand light-armed runners to keep pace with the horse; and I undertake to provide grain for the whole army of the Greeks for as long as the war lasts.

5All this I promise on one term only: that I be commander and leader of the Greeks against the foreigner. On any other terms I will neither come myself nor send anyone."

Chapter 159

1When Syagrus heard this he could not endure it, and said: "Agamemnon son of Pelops would groan aloud, indeed, to learn that the Spartans had been robbed of their command by Gelon and the Syracusans. But say no more of that — no, we will not be handing you the command. If you wish to help Greece, know that you will serve under the Lacedaemonians; and if you do not think it just to be under command, then you at any rate do not come to the rescue."

Chapter 160

1Gelon, once Syagrus' words had been turned away, brought out his final answer, this: "Spartan guest, when insults come at a man they love to call his temper up again; but though you have offered me outrage in your words, you will not persuade me to answer shamefully.

2But where you so clutch at the command, it is more fitting that I hold it than you — as leader of an army many times the size and of ships that sail in far greater number. Yet since your words stand so opposed to mine, I will yield something of my first demand: let the land army be yours to lead, the fleet mine. Or if it pleases you to command at sea, then I am willing to lead on land. Either you must content yourselves with these terms, or go away stripped of allies such as these."

Chapter 161

1Gelon had stretched out these terms; but the Athenian envoy, forestalling the Lacedaemonian, answered him thus: "Ruler of the Syracusans, Greece did not send us to you because she needed a commander, but because she needed an army. You show no way of sending an army without leading Greece — yet it is to command her that you reach."

2"As much as you craved to lead the whole army of the Greeks, it would have sufficed for us Athenians to sit quietly, knowing the Lacedaemonian would be likely to suffice and answer for us both. But since, repulsed from the whole, you plead to rule the entire fleet, then hear this: not even if the Lacedaemonian consents that you lead it will we agree — this command is ours, not theirs to give away, Lacedaemonians though they be. To them, then, if they wish to command, we do not object; but to no one else will we yield the admiralty."

3"For it would be in vain for us to have equipped the greatest fleet of the Greeks, if we Athenians were to concede the command to Syracusans — surrendering away the most ancient stock of Greece, we who alone of the Greeks are no immigrants, of whom Homer the singer of epics said that the best man who came to Ilios was he who arrayed and set in order the host. So it is no disgrace for us to say these things."

Chapter 162

1Gelon answered as follows: "Athenian guest, you think to have commanders but not to be commanded. Since then, yielding not one thing, you want the whole, you would do well to lose no time in turning back home and announcing to Greece that spring has been taken out of her year."

2The drift of the saying is this: spring is plainly the most honored season of the year, and of the host of the Greeks, their own army; so he likened Greece, robbed of its own ally, to a year from which spring had been plucked away.

Chapter 163

1The Greek envoys, then, having transacted nothing with Gelon, sailed away. Gelon, for his part, feared for the Greeks lest they prove unable to beat back the foreigner, yet found it terrible and unendurable to come to the Peloponnese and serve under the Lacedaemonians while he was tyrant of Sicily; so he let that road go and laid hold of another.

2For the instant he heard that the Persian had crossed the Hellespont, he sent Cadmus son of Scythes, a man of Cos, to Delphi in three fifty-oared ships, carrying much money and words of friendship, to watch and see which way the battle fell: if the foreigner won, Cadmus was to give him the money and to offer earth and water for all that Gelon ruled; if the Greeks won, to bring it all back.

Chapter 164

1This same Cadmus, before all this, had accepted from his father the tyranny over Cos, a rule in good standing — yet of his own will, though no danger pressed, but out of a sense of justice, he laid the power down among the Coans and departed for Sicily, where from the Samians he took and settled the city of Zancle, the one that later changed its name to Messene.

2Gelon sent this Cadmus, who had come to Sicily in so just a way — a justice of a kind he knew to be other than his own; and over and above the other just deeds Cadmus had done of himself, he left this one too, no small one among them: for though he had control of the great sums entrusted to him by Gelon, and it lay in his power to keep them, he would not; but when the Greeks won the sea battle and Xerxes had fled away in retreat, he too came back to Sicily, bringing every last coin with him.

Chapter 165

1The dwellers in Sicily tell also this: that Gelon would have come to the Greeks' aid all the same, even though he was to serve under the Lacedaemonians, had not Terillus son of Crinippus, tyrant of Himera — driven out of Himera by Theron son of Aenesidemus, sole ruler of the Agrigentines — brought against him at just that time three hundred thousand men: Phoenicians, Libyans, Iberians, Ligurians, Elisycans, Sardinians, and Cyrnians, with Amilcas son of Annon, king of the Carthaginians, as their general. Terillus drew them in on the strength of his guest-friendship, and above all through the eagerness of Anaxilaus son of Cretines, tyrant of Rhegium, who gave his own children as hostages to Amilcas and brought him against Sicily to avenge his father-in-law; for Anaxilaus had married Terillus' daughter, whose name was Cydippe. Gelon, finding it thus impossible to help the Greeks, sent the money off to Delphi.

Chapter 166

1They tell this too: that it fell on one and the same day that in Sicily Gelon and Theron beat Amilcas the Carthaginian, and at Salamis the Greeks beat the Persian. Amilcas the Carthaginian — Carthaginian on his father's side, Syracusan on his mother's, who had won the kingship of the Carthaginians by his valor — I learn that as the battle closed and he was being beaten, he vanished from sight; for he appeared nowhere on earth, living or dead, so far as Gelon searched the whole matter through.

Chapter 167

1But this is the story the Carthaginians themselves tell — and they have the look of men who know: while the foreigners fought the Greeks in Sicily from dawn to late evening (the battle is said to have been drawn out that long), Amilcas stayed the while in the camp, sacrificing and burning whole carcasses on a great pyre; and seeing his men routed, just as he was pouring the drink-offering over the sacrifices, he drove himself into the fire; and so, consumed by fire, he vanished.

2Amilcas, then, vanished — whether in this manner, as the Phoenicians say, or in another, as the Carthaginians and Syracusans say — to him the Carthaginians offer sacrifice, and tombs have been raised to him in all the cities of their colonies, and the greatest of all in Carthage itself.

Chapter 168

1So much from Sicily. The Corcyraeans answered the envoys and then did this: the very same men who had gone to Sicily received them, and hearing the same words they had spoken to Gelon, at once promised to send help and stand in defense, saying that Greece perishing was not something they could stand and watch; for if she fell, they themselves would be enslaved before anyone else; and vengeance must be had with the utmost of their power.

2So fair-spoken was their answer; but when it came to giving help, they manned sixty ships with other intentions, and only with difficulty put to sea and crept up to the Peloponnese, where they lay to their anchors about Pylos and Taenarum in Lacedaemonian territory, watching, like the rest, which way the war would fall — having no hope the Greeks could beat back the Persians, and reckoning that the Persian, once master, would rule a long time over all of Greece.

3They acted thus of set purpose, so that they might have this to say to the Persian: "King, when the Greeks tried to draw us into this war — we with no small power, and able to put forward no few ships but the most after the Athenians — we were unwilling to stand against you or do anything to displease you." By such words they hoped to win more than the others did; and that, in my judgment, is just what happened.

4But toward the Greeks they had a plea ready made, and it was the one they used. When the Greeks taxed them with not coming to the rescue, they said they had manned sixty triremes, but that the etesian winds had made it impossible to round Malea; and so they had not reached Salamis — they had not been left out of the sea battle through any cowardice.

Chapter 169

1So those men brushed the Greeks off. The Cretans, when the Greeks appointed to this errand came to them, acted as follows: they sent envoys in common to Delphi and asked the god whether it would turn out better for them to take vengeance for Greece.

2The Pythia answered: "Foolish ones! You complain of all the tears Minos sent you in his anger for Menelaus' acts of vengeance — because those men did not join in avenging the death he met at Camicus, while you joined in avenging for them the woman carried off from Sparta by a foreign man." When the Cretans heard this charge brought against them, they held back from the vengeance.

Chapter 170

1For Minos is said to have come to Sicania, the island now called Sicily, in search of Daedalus, and to have died there a violent death. Later, at the god's urging, the Cretans — all except the men of Polichna and of Praesus — came with a great fleet to Sicania and for five years besieged the city of Camicus, which in my day the Agrigentines held:

2and at the last, unable either to take the city or to stay on, worn down by famine, they gave it up and went away. As they sailed along Iapygia a great winter storm caught them and threw them onto the land; their ships were dashed to pieces, and no way of return to Crete now appeared to them. There they founded the city of Hyria, stayed on, and changed: instead of Cretans they became Iapygian Messapians, instead of islanders, men of the mainland.

3From Hyria they founded the other cities, which the Tarentines afterward, long after, uprooted — and fell into great misfortune, so that this was the greatest slaughter of Greeks of all we know: of the Tarentines themselves and of the Rhegines, who, driven out from among their townsfolk by Micythus son of Choerus, and come as avengers to the Tarentines' side, perished to the number of three thousand; of the Tarentines themselves no count was given.

4This Micythus, a houseborn slave of Anaxilaus, had been left guardian of Rhegium — the man who, driven from Rhegium afterward and living in Tegea of Arcadia, dedicated the many statues at Olympia.

Chapter 171

1But this business of the Rhegines and Tarentines has been a digression from my account. As for Crete, laid waste — so the Praesians say — other people came to settle it, and Greeks most of all; in the third generation after Minos' death came the Trojan War, in which the Cretans proved themselves not the worst of avengers for Menelaus.

2But after their return from Troy, famine and plague came upon them and on their flocks, so that Crete was emptied a second time; and it is now for the third time, with those who were left, that Cretans dwell in it. The Pythia, then, by reminding them of these things, kept them back from avenging the Greeks.

Chapter 172

1The Thessalians went over to the Mede at first under necessity, as they themselves proved, because they did not like what the Aleuadae were contriving. As soon as they learned the Persian was soon to cross into Europe, they sent envoys to the Isthmus; for counselors of Greece had gathered there, chosen from the cities that held the better thoughts for Greece.

2Coming among these men, the Thessalian envoys said: "Greeks, the Olympian pass must be guarded, so that Thessaly and with it all Greece may stand sheltered from the war. We for our part are ready to keep watch with you; but you must send a great army as well. If you do not send one, know that we will come to terms with the Persian: it is not right that we, placed so far in front of all the rest of Greece, should have to perish ahead of you.

3And if you are not willing to come to our aid, you cannot put any necessity upon us: for nowhere has necessity ever proved stronger than helplessness. We shall try to contrive some salvation of our own."

Chapter 173

1So spoke the Thessalians. The Greeks thereupon resolved to send a land army into Thessaly by sea to guard the pass. When the force was gathered, it sailed through the Euripus, and reaching Halus in Achaea, disembarked and marched into Thessaly, leaving its ships behind, and came to the pass of Tempe — the one that leads from lower Macedonia into Thessaly along the river Peneus, lying between the mountain Olympus and Ossa.

2There the Greeks encamped, gathered to about ten thousand armored infantry, and the Thessalian horse joined them. Evaenetus son of Carenus commanded the Lacedaemonians, chosen from among the polemarchs, though not of the royal line; Themistocles son of Neocles the Athenians. They stayed there a few days:

3for envoys came from Alexander son of Amyntas, a Macedonian, advising them to withdraw and not remain in the pass to be trampled down by the oncoming host, and telling them of the multitude of the army and of the ships. Since they seemed to counsel well, and the Macedonian seemed well disposed toward them, the Greeks were persuaded.

4In my judgment, what persuaded them was fear: they had learned of another pass into Thessaly, by way of upper Macedonia through the country of the Perrhaebians past the city of Gonnus — the very pass by which the army of Xerxes did in fact come in. So the Greeks went down to their ships and marched back to the Isthmus.

Chapter 174

1That was the expedition into Thessaly, at the time when the king was on the point of crossing from Asia into Europe and was already at Abydos. The Thessalians, abandoned by their allies, went over to the Mede as eagerly as could be, with no more wavering, so that in what followed they showed themselves to the king among the most useful of men.

Chapter 175

1When the Greeks got back to the Isthmus, they took counsel on Alexander's words: where they would make their stand in the war, and on what ground. The opinion that won was to guard the pass at Thermopylae; it seemed narrower than the way into Thessaly, and nearer at the same time to their own country:

2as for the track by which the Greeks who were caught at Thermopylae were taken, they did not even know it existed until they had come to Thermopylae and learned of it from the Trachinians. So they resolved to guard the pass and not let the foreigner through into Greece, and to send the fleet sailing to Artemisium, off the land of Histiaeotis. These two stations lie close enough together for each to learn how the other fares — such is the lie of that country.

Chapter 176

1This is the Artemisium: the broad Thracian sea narrows into the strait that runs between the island of Sciathos and the coast of Magnesia; and out of that strait on the Euboean shore lies the Artemisium, with a temple of Artemis upon it.

2The way into Greece through Trachis is at its narrowest half a plethron wide. Yet that is not the narrowest spot in that country; the narrowest lies both before and behind Thermopylae — behind, at the Alpeni, only a single cart-track; and in front, by the river Phoenix, close to the city of Anthela, another single cart-track.

3At Thermopylae, on the west rises a mountain, sheer and impassable, high, reaching up toward Oeta; on the east of the road lie the sea and the marshes. In this pass are hot baths, which the people of the country call the Pots, and an altar of Heracles stands near them. A wall had been built across the pass, and in ancient times there were gates in it.

4It was the Phocians who built this wall, afraid when the Thessalians came out of Thesprotis to settle the Aeolian land, which is now called Thessaly. So when the Thessalians tried to subdue them, the Phocians guarded against it beforehand: they channeled the hot water into the pass, so that the ground might be cut into gullies — contriving everything so that the Thessalians should not come down upon their land.

5The old wall had been built long before, and the better part of it had already tumbled down with time; but they raised it again, and resolved to hold this line against the foreigner's way into Greece. Nearest to the road lies the village called Alpeni; from there the Greeks reckoned to draw their provisions.

Chapter 177

1These grounds, then, seemed to the Greeks well suited to their need: they had looked over everything and reckoned that there the foreigners could make no use of their numbers nor of their horse; and so they resolved to receive the invasion of Greece at that place. And when word came that the Persian was in Pieria, they broke off from the Isthmus and set out — some of them by land to Thermopylae, others by sea to Artemisium.

Chapter 178

1The Greeks, each in their ordered place, hurried to the rescue. Meanwhile the Delphians, in terror for themselves and for Greece, consulted the god, and he answered that they should pray to the winds: these would be mighty allies for Greece.

2The Delphians, receiving the oracle, first reported what had been spoken to them to the Greeks who wished to be free; and with this word, as they were in terror of the foreigner, they laid up gratitude immortal. After this the Delphians set up an altar to the winds at Thyia, where is the precinct of Thyia, daughter of Cephisus, from whom this country takes its name; and they offered sacrifice to them.

Chapter 179

1The Delphians, in obedience to that oracle, appease the winds to this very day. The fleet of Xerxes, putting out from the city of Therme, sent its ten fastest-sailing ships straight for Sciathos, where three Greek ships lay on watch — one of Troezen, one of Aegina, and one of Attica. Seeing the foreigners' ships, these made off in flight.

Chapter 180

1The Troezenian ship, whose commander was Praxinus, the foreigners overtook at once and took; then, leading to the ship's prow the best-looking man of her crew, they cut his throat — treating it as a good omen that their first capture of the Greeks was the best and handsomest. The slaughtered man's name was Leon; and perhaps even his name did him some service.

Chapter 181

1The Aeginetan ship, whose trierarch was Asonides, gave them some trouble too, for Pytheas son of Ischenous served aboard her, and he proved the best man that day: when the ship was being taken, he held out fighting until he was cut down utterly.

2When he fell, though, he did not die but still breathed; and the Persians who had boarded the ships, because of his valor, took great pains to keep him alive, healing his wounds with myrrh and binding them up with bands of the finest linen:

3and when they got back to their own camp they showed him off, an object of wonder to the whole army, cared for as he was. The other men taken in that ship they drove about and sold as slaves.

Chapter 182

1So the two ships were taken. The third, with Phormus the Athenian as her trierarch, in fleeing ran aground at the mouths of the Peneus; the foreigners got the hulk, but not the men: the Athenians, the moment they had run their ship aground, leapt out and made their way through Thessaly back to Athens.

Chapter 183

1Of these things the Greeks encamped at Artemisium learned by beacons from Sciathos; and learning of them, and taking fright, they shifted their anchorage from Artemisium to Chalcis, guarding the Euripus while leaving lookouts on the heights of Euboea.

2Of the ten foreign ships, three ran onto the reef lying between Sciathos and Magnesia, called Myrmex. There the foreigners set up a stone pillar which they had brought to the reef, so that the hazard would be plainly marked for those who came after; then, having put out themselves from Therme, they sailed on with the whole fleet, eleven days after the king's own setting-out from Therme.

3The reef had been pointed out to them as lying in the fairway mostly by Pammon of Scyros. Sailing the whole day, the foreigners make the coast of Magnesia, off Sepias and the beach that lies between the city of Casthanaea and the headland of Sepias.

Chapter 184

1Up to that ground and to Thermopylae the army had suffered no misfortune, and its numbers were then still, as I find when I reckon them out: the seaborne force from Asia — the ships numbering one thousand two hundred and seven — the original muster of each nation came to twenty-four myriads and fourteen hundred men besides, reckoning two hundred men to each ship.

2Aboard these same ships, apart from each country's own fighting men, there sailed thirty men apiece — Persians, Medes, and Sacae. This makes a second muster of thirty myriads and six thousand two hundred and ten men.

3I will add still further to this and the former number the men of the fifty-oared ships, taking them at eighty men apiece, more or less. These craft had been gathered together, as was said before, to the number of three thousand. The men in them would then be twenty-four myriads.

4Such, then, was the naval power from Asia, in all fifty-one myriads and seven thousand six hundred and ten men. The land army numbered one hundred and seventy myriads, the horsemen eight myriads. To these I will add still the drivers of the camels, the Arabs, and the drivers of the Libyan wagons, making them twenty myriads of men.

5So the numbers of the fleet and the land army, taken together, come to two hundred and thirty-one myriads and seven thousand six hundred and ten men. Such is the host led out from Asia itself — counting none of the attendants who followed it, nor the grain ships, nor the crews that sailed in them.

Chapter 185

1The host brought from Europe must still be reckoned on top of this whole number I have laid out; here conjecture must serve. The Greeks of Thrace and of the islands that lie off Thrace furnished one hundred and twenty ships: from these ships the men come to twenty-four thousand.

2As for the land forces, the Thracians, Paeonians, Eordians, Bottiaeans, the Chalcidian stock, Brygi, Pieres, Macedonians, Perrhaebians, Enienes, Dolopes, Magnetes, and Achaeans, together with all who dwelt along the coast of Thrace — of these nations I suppose there were thirty myriads.

3These myriads, added to the ones from Asia, make the whole body of fighting men two hundred and sixty-four myriads and sixteen hundred and ten men besides.

Chapter 186

1This fighting force being of such a size, the attendants who trailed after it, and the crews of the grain ships and of the other vessels that sailed with the army — these, I judge, were not fewer but more than the fighting men.

2But I set them down as equal to the others, neither more nor less; made equal to the fighting men, they fill out the same number of myriads. So Xerxes son of Darius brought as far as Sepias and Thermopylae five hundred and twenty-eight myriads and three thousand two hundred and twenty men.

Chapter 187

1This, then, is the count of the whole host of Xerxes. But of the women who baked the bread, the concubines, and the eunuchs, no one could state the true number; nor yet of the draught oxen and the other beasts of burden and the Indian dogs that followed along — they were so many that no one could give their count. So it is no wonder to me that the army laid bare the channels of some rivers; the wonder rather is how food sufficed for myriads so great.

2For I find, when I make the reckoning, that if each man took a choenix of wheat a day and nothing more, the daily total would come to eleven myriads of medimni complete, and three hundred and forty medimni besides; the women, the eunuchs, the beasts of burden, and the dogs I do not count into this. And the men being myriads so many, for beauty and for stature none of them was worthier to hold this power than Xerxes himself.

Chapter 188

1The fleet, after setting out, came and landed on the coast of Magnesia, at the beach that lies between the city of Casthanaea and the headland of Sepias. The first of the ships moored close in to land, and the others behind them at anchor; for the beach being not large, they lay at moorings out into the sea, eight ships deep.

2So they passed that night; and at dawn, out of a clear sky and a windless calm over the sea, there fell upon them a great storm and a violent east wind — the one the people who dwell about those parts call the Hellespontine.

3Those of them who saw the wind rising, and whose moorings allowed it, hauled their ships ashore before the storm broke, and both the men and their ships came through alive; but the ships the storm caught out on the water, some it carried to the places called Hipni in Pelion, and some to the beach; some were dashed against the very headland of Sepias, some were thrown ashore at the city of Meliboea, and some at Casthanaea. The storm was a thing not to be endured.

Chapter 189

1There is a story that the Athenians called upon Boreas at an oracle's bidding, another oracle having come to them commanding them to call in their son-in-law as a helper. Boreas, in the account of the Greeks, has for his wife an Attic woman, Oreithyia, daughter of Erechtheus.

2It was by virtue of this marriage, so the tale goes, that the Athenians, reckoning Boreas to be their son-in-law, lay at anchor at Chalcis in Euboea, and as soon as they learned the storm was gathering—or even before that—sacrificed and called upon Boreas and Oreithyia to avenge them and destroy the ships of the foreigners, as he had done once before at Athos.

3Whether it was for this reason that Boreas fell upon the foreigners as they lay at anchor, I cannot say; but the Athenians say that he came to their aid before and now did the like, and that on their return home they founded a temple of Boreas beside the river Ilissus.

Chapter 190

1In this affliction, they say, the ships destroyed—at the lowest count—were no fewer than four hundred, and the men past numbering, and money in boundless plenty. So this shipwreck turned out a great windfall for Ameinocles son of Cretines, a Magnesian landowner with estates about Sepias: in later days he gathered up many golden cups cast ashore by the surf and much silver with them, he found treasures of the Persians, and he came into other wealth past telling. Yet this man, lucky in nothing else, became very rich on these finds; for a graceless affliction preyed on him too, one that had taken his children.

Chapter 191

1The grain-carriers and the other ships that perished could not be counted. The admirals of the fleet, fearing the Thessalians might fall upon them in their crippled state, threw up a lofty barricade out of the wreckage;

2for the storm had beaten on them three days. At last the Magi performed their rites and sang the wind down with incantations, and in addition to these things offered sacrifice to Thetis and the Nereids, and so brought it to an end on the fourth day—or else the wind of its own will chose to cease. It was to Thetis they sacrificed because they had heard the story from the Ionians, how she was carried off by Peleus from this very place, and how the whole headland of Sepias belonged to her and to the other Nereids.

Chapter 192

1The wind died on the fourth day, then; but on the second day after the storm began, the day-watchers ran down from the headlands of Euboea and signaled to the Greeks all that had befallen in the shipwreck.

2When they heard of it, the Greeks prayed to Poseidon the Savior and poured libations, and made all haste back to Artemisium, hoping to find only a few ships left to oppose them.

Chapter 193

1So the Greeks came to anchor a second time at Artemisium, believing that Poseidon had taken from this event his title of Savior, which has been kept in his honor to this day. The foreigners, when the wind dropped and the sea lay smooth, dragged their ships down and sailed along the mainland; and rounding the headland of Magnesia they sailed straight into the gulf that leads up to Pagasae.

2There is a place in this gulf of Magnesia where they say Heracles was left behind by Jason and his comrades of the Argo, sent ashore for water, as they sailed for Aea, the city of Colchis—for from there they meant to take on water and then put out into the open sea. The place has from that day borne the name of Aphetae. Here, then, the ships of Xerxes made their anchorage.

Chapter 194

1Fifteen of these ships happened to be carried far out behind the rest, and somehow caught sight of the Greek ships at Artemisium. The foreigners took them for their own and, sailing on, fell among their enemies; their commander was Sandoces son of Thamasius, admiral from Cyme in Aeolis—the very man whom Darius had once arrested and crucified on this charge: that he, being one of the royal judges, had given an unjust judgment for money.

2As he hung there, Darius, making his reckoning, found that the services he had done the royal house outnumbered his offenses; and discovering this, and seeing that he himself had acted with more haste than wisdom, Darius released him.

3So he had escaped King Darius and come off with his life; but now, sailing down upon the Greeks, he was fated not to escape a second time, for when the Greeks saw them bearing down and learned the mistake they were making, they put about and took them with ease.

Chapter 195

1In one of these ships was taken, as he sailed with them, Aridolis, tyrant of Alabanda in Caria; in another the Paphian commander Penthylos son of Demonous, who had led twelve ships out of Paphos and lost eleven of them in the storm off Sepias, and was taken as he came down to Artemisium with the one left to him. The Greeks, after questioning them of all they wished to learn about the army of Xerxes, sent them away in bonds to the Isthmus of the Corinthians.

Chapter 196

1The foreigners' fleet, then, arrived at Aphetae—all but the fifteen ships whose commander, as I said, was Sandoces. Xerxes and the land army, marching through Thessaly and Achaea, had by the third day already invaded the land of the Malians. In Thessaly he had held a contest of horses, proving his own cavalry and that of the Thessalians—for he had heard it was the best in Greece; and there the horses of the Greeks were left far behind. Of the rivers of Thessaly, the Onochonus alone failed to give the army enough to drink, its stream being swallowed up; of the rivers of Achaea, even the Epidanus, greatest of them, barely held out, and that but feebly.

Chapter 197

1When Xerxes came to Alus in Achaea, the guides of the road, wishing to instruct him in everything, told him the local story of the temple of Zeus Laphystius: how Athamas son of Aeolus plotted death for Phrixus, taking counsel with Ino, and how afterward, in obedience to an oracle, the Achaeans laid upon that man's descendants penalties such as these:

2Whoever is the eldest of this race, him they bind to serve in the leiton, and they themselves keep watch on him. The Achaeans call the prytaneion the 'leiton.' Once a man has gone in, there is no way he comes out until the day he is to be sacrificed; and besides this, many of those fated for sacrifice have already fled in fear to another country, and when time passed and they returned and were caught, they were sent into the prytaneion; and it is said that he goes out to the sacrifice garlanded over his whole body and led forth in procession.

3The descendants of Cytissorus son of Phrixus suffer these things because, when the Achaeans were purifying the land at the god's command and were on the point of sacrificing Athamas son of Aeolus, this Cytissorus, coming from Aea in Colchis, rescued him—and by doing so brought the god's wrath down upon the generations sprung from himself.

4Xerxes, hearing all this just where the grove lay, both kept clear of it himself and laid his command on his whole army to do the like, honoring alike the house of the descendants of Athamas and the sacred precinct.

Chapter 198

1Such were the doings in Thessaly and in Achaea. From those lands he marched along the shore of the gulf into Malis, in which the tide ebbs and shoal water shows every day. Around this gulf lies a level stretch of ground, in one part broad, in another very narrow; and it is girt round about by high and impassable mountains closing in the whole land of Malis—the rocks called the Trachinian.

2The first city on the gulf as one enters it from Achaea is Anticyra, past which the river Spercheius, flowing down from the land of the Enianians, empties into the sea. From this river, some twenty stades away, is another whose name is Dyras—the story is that it sprang forth to help Heracles as he burned. Twenty stades beyond it again is another river called the Melas.

Chapter 199

1The city of Trachis lies five stades from this river Melas. Here the plain is widest of all this country, from the mountains down to the sea—the stretch where Trachis was built; for there are twenty-two thousand plethra of level ground. The mountain that closes in the land of Trachis has a cleft facing south, on the Trachis side, and through this cleft the river Asopus runs along the lower slopes of the mountain.

Chapter 200

1There is another river, the Phoenix, no great one, south of the Asopus, which flows down from these same mountains and empties into the Asopus. At the Phoenix the pass is narrowest, for there only a single cart-track has been made. From the river Phoenix it is fifteen stades to Thermopylae.

2Between the river Phoenix and Thermopylae lies a village named Anthela, past which the Asopus, flowing by, runs out into the sea; and the country about it is wide, and in it stand a temple of Demeter Amphictyonis, seats for the Amphictyons, and a temple of Amphictyon himself.

Chapter 201

1King Xerxes camped in the Trachinian country of Malis, and the Greeks in the pass. This place is called by most of the Greeks Thermopylae, by the people of the country and their neighbors the Gates. Both sides had camped, then, in these grounds, and each held mastery—the one of all that faced the north wind as far as Trachis, the others of what stretched south and toward midday on this side of the mainland.

Chapter 202

1These were the Greeks who awaited the Persian in that place: three hundred hoplites of the Spartans; a thousand of the Tegeans and Mantineans, half from each; a hundred and twenty from Orchomenus in Arcadia; a thousand from the rest of Arcadia—so many were the Arcadians; from Corinth four hundred; from Phlius two hundred; and of the Mycenaeans eighty. These came from the Peloponnese; from the Boeotians, seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans.

Chapter 203

1Besides these, the Opuntian Locrians came in full force and a thousand Phocians, summoned by the Greeks themselves. The Greeks had sent them word by messengers that they had come as the forerunners of the rest, that the other allies might be looked for any day, that the sea lay under guard, kept watch by the Athenians and the Aeginetans and all who were appointed to the fleet, and that they had nothing to fear;

2for the one marching against Hellas was not a god but a man; and there is no mortal alive, nor ever will be, into whose lot evil is not mingled from the very beginning—and to the greatest of them come the greatest ills. The invader too, being mortal, was owed a fall from his glory. Hearing this, they marched to the rescue in Trachis.

Chapter 204

1Each of their cities had other commanders besides, but the man most marveled at, and leader of the whole army, was the Lacedaemonian Leonidas son of Anaxandrides son of Leon son of Eurycratides son of Anaxandrus son of Eurycrates son of Polydorus son of Alcamenes son of Teleclus son of Archelaus son of Hegesilaus son of Doryssus son of Leobotes son of Echestratus son of Agis son of Eurysthenes son of Aristodemus son of Aristomachus son of Cleodaeus son of Hyllus son of Heracles—he who had come to the kingship at Sparta beyond all expectation.

Chapter 205

1For he had two brothers older than himself, Cleomenes and Dorieus, and all thought of the kingship had been driven far from him. But Cleomenes died without male offspring, and Dorieus too was no longer alive, having ended his days in Sicily; and so the kingship climbed up to Leonidas, and passed to him before Cleombrotus—for Cleombrotus was the youngest of Anaxandrides' sons, and had, besides, married Cleomenes' daughter.

2He it was who then marched for Thermopylae, picking out the three hundred who stood in the king's service and such men as happened to have sons; and he took up the Thebans as well, whose number he reckoned as I have set it down, with Leontiades son of Eurymachus as their commander.

3The reason Leonidas made a point of taking these men alone of the Hellenes was that loud blame was laid upon them for medizing; so he summoned them to the war, wanting to know whether they would send their men with the rest or openly renounce the Greek alliance. And they, their minds divided, sent their men.

Chapter 206

1The Spartans sent out Leonidas and his men first of all, so that the other allies, seeing them already on the march, might take the field too and not go over to the Medes if they learned that the Spartans were being left behind; afterward—the Carneia stood in their way—they meant, when the festival was done and the guards left behind at Sparta, to come to the rescue at full speed with all their people.

2The rest of the allies intended to do the like; for the Olympic festival had fallen in with these events. Since they did not suppose the war at Thermopylae would be decided quickly, they sent on their advance guard.

Chapter 207

1Such was the plan they had agreed upon. But the Greeks at Thermopylae, when the Persian drew near to the entrance of the pass, were seized with dread and took counsel of retreat. To the rest of the Peloponnesians it seemed best to go down into the Peloponnese and hold the Isthmus under guard; but Leonidas—the Phocians and Locrians pressing hard against this counsel—gave his vote to remain where they were and to send messengers to the cities bidding them come to their aid, since they, being so few, could not hold off the army of the Medes.

Chapter 208

1While they were in this deliberation, Xerxes sent out a horseman to spy how many they were and what they did. Even while still in Thessaly he had heard that a small force was gathered at this place, and that its leaders were Lacedaemonians, and that Leonidas was of the race of Heracles.

2When the horseman rode up to the camp he watched and observed—though not the whole camp; for those drawn up inside the wall, which they had rebuilt and kept under guard, it was impossible for him to see. But he marked the men outside, whose arms lay in front of the wall; and it happened that at this moment the Lacedaemonians were drawn up outside.

3Some of the men he saw exercising; others he saw combing out their hair. Looking on at these things, he marveled, and he marked their number. Having learned everything exactly, he rode quietly back, for no one pursued him, and he met with utter unconcern. Coming away, he told Xerxes all that he had seen.

Chapter 209

1Xerxes, hearing this, could not put the truth together—that they were making ready, as men about to be destroyed and to destroy after their power. But since what they did seemed to him laughable, he sent for Demaratus son of Ariston, who was in the camp.

2When he came, Xerxes questioned him about each of these things, wishing to learn what the Lacedaemonians were about. And he said: "I heard of these men before, even when we first set out for Hellas; and hearing the tale I laughed at him who told it, for I saw how these things would fall out. For me, to practice the truth in your presence, king, is the greatest contest of all."

3"Hear me, then, now. These men are come to fight us for the pass, and that is what they are making ready for. Such is the law they keep: when they are about to hazard their lives, then they adorn their heads."

4"Know this too: if you conquer these men and the force that waits at Sparta, there is no other people of men that will lift hands against you, king. For you are now matched against royal power and the noblest city of the Greeks, and against the bravest of men."

5What was said seemed to Xerxes utterly past belief, and a second time he asked in what manner so few as they would fight against his army. And he said: "King, use me as a liar if these things I say do not fall out here just so."

Chapter 210

1Though he said this he did not persuade Xerxes. Four days the king let pass, forever hoping they would run; on the fifth, when they showed no sign of going and seemed to him to be staying out of shamelessness and want of counsel, in wrath he sent Medes and Cissians against them, with orders to take them alive and bring them before his eyes.

2When the Medes bore down upon the Greeks, many fell, and still others pressed in behind, and they got nowhere, though they flung themselves on again and again. It became clear to every man, and not least to the king himself, that they had many people but few men. The clash went on through the day.

Chapter 211

1When the Medes had been roughly handled, these drew off, and the Persians came on to take their place—the men the king called the Immortals, under Hydarnes—expecting to make short work of it.

2But when they too closed with the Greeks they gained nothing more than the Median force had, but the same; for they fought in ground narrow of passage and used spears shorter than the Greeks', and could not bring their numbers to bear.

3The Lacedaemonians fought in a manner worth the telling, proving among other things that they knew how to fight against men who did not; and as often as they turned their backs they ran in feigned flight, and the foreigners, seeing them flee, came on with shouting and clamor—but those caught up would turn about and stand against the foreigners, and so wheeling they threw down Persians past all counting; a few of the Spartans themselves fell here too. And when the Persians, trying every way—by whole companies and in every fashion of assault—could win nothing of the pass, they drew off.

Chapter 212

1In these onsets of the battle, they say the king, looking on, sprang thrice up from his throne in fear for his army. So they fought that day; and on the next day the foreigners contended no better. Because the Greeks were few, they hoped they were hacked with wounds and no longer able to lift a hand against them, and so closed.

2The Greeks stood arrayed by ranks and by nations, and each fought in its turn—except the Phocians, who had been posted on the mountain to watch the path. When the Persians found nothing different from what they had seen the day before, they withdrew again.

Chapter 213

1While the king was at a loss what to do with the difficulty before him, Ephialtes son of Eurydemus, a Malian, came to him for a talk; expecting to win some great thing from the king, he told him of the path that leads over the mountain to Thermopylae, and so brought destruction upon the Greeks who had remained there.

2Later, in fear of the Lacedaemonians, he fled into Thessaly; and in his absence a price was set upon his head by proclamation of the Pylagorae of the Amphictyons, gathered at their meeting at the Pylaea. After a time—for he came down to Anticyra—he was killed by Athenades, a man of Trachis.

3This Athenades killed Ephialtes for another cause, which I will make plain in the later parts of my story; but for all that he was honored by the Lacedaemonians no less.

Chapter 214

1Ephialtes died thus, later than these events. But there is another story told: that it was Onetes son of Phanagoras, a man of Carystus, and Corydallus of Anticyra who spoke these words to the king and led the Persians round the mountain. This I do not believe at all.

2For this much one must weigh: that the Pylagorae of the Greeks set their price not upon Onetes and Corydallus but upon Ephialtes the Trachinian—and they can scarcely have failed to learn the exact truth; and we know that it was this charge Ephialtes fled.

3Onetes, even though he was not a Malian, might have known this path if he had kept much company in the country; but it was Ephialtes who led the way round the mountain by the path, and him I set down as the guilty one.

Chapter 215

1Xerxes, pleased with what Ephialtes undertook to accomplish, instantly grew overjoyed, and sent off Hydarnes and the men under Hydarnes' command; they set out from the camp about the time the lamps are lit. This path the native Malians had discovered, and having discovered it, they had guided the Thessalians by it against the Phocians, at the time when the Phocians fenced the entrance with a wall and so kept themselves sheltered from the war; and from that time on it had proved of no use at all to the Malians.

Chapter 216

1This path is as follows: it begins at the river Asopus, which runs through the cleft; the name given to this mountain and to the path is one and the same—Anopaea. This Anopaea stretches along the spine of the mountain and ends at Alpeni, the first city of the Locrians on the side toward the Malians, and at the stone called Melampygos and at the seats of the Cercopes, where the way is narrowest.

Chapter 217

1By this path, such as it is, the Persians, crossing the Asopus, marched all the night, with the mountains of the Oetaeans on their right hand and those of the Trachinians on their left. Dawn was already showing when they were at the crest of the mountain.

2At this point of the mountain a thousand hoplites of the Phocians were keeping guard—as I have said before—defending their own country and watching the path. The entrance below was guarded by the men I have named; the path over the mountain the Phocians had undertaken of their own will to guard for Leonidas.

Chapter 218

1The Phocians learned of their climbing in this way: the Persians had come up the whole mountain unseen, and it was thick with oaks. There was no wind, but a great noise arose—as was natural with leaves strewn under their feet—and the Phocians sprang up and armed themselves, and in a moment the foreigners were there.

2When they saw men putting on their armor, the Persians were thrown into amazement; for they had expected no one to appear against them, and had stumbled upon a force in arms. Then Hydarnes, fearing the Phocians might be Lacedaemonians, asked Ephialtes of what country the force was; and when he had learned the truth, he arrayed the Persians for battle.

3The Phocians, when the arrows came upon them thick and fast, fled to the crest of the mountain, believing—and with cause—that the Persians had set out against them from the first, and they made ready to die. Such were their thoughts; but the Persians with Ephialtes and Hydarnes paid no heed at all to the Phocians, and went down the mountain at speed.

Chapter 219

1To the Greeks at Thermopylae the seer Megistias first, looking into the sacrifices, declared the death that was coming with the dawn; and after him came deserters who brought word of the Persians' circuit. These gave their signal while it was still night; third were the day-watchers, who ran down from the heights as the day was already breaking.

2Then the Greeks took counsel, and their opinions were torn in two: some held they must not leave their post, others were all for going. After the dispute, one party withdrew and, scattering, made off each to his own city; the others made ready to remain there with Leonidas.

Chapter 220

1It is said too that Leonidas himself sent them away, caring that they should not perish; but that for himself, and for the Spartans who were present, it was not honorable to leave the post they had come to keep in the first place.

2In this I lean the more strongly to the opinion that Leonidas, when he saw the allies faint of heart and unwilling to share the danger, ordered them away; but that for himself to go was not right—and by remaining, great glory was left him, and the good fortune of Sparta was not wiped away.

3For the Pythia had answered the Spartans when they consulted her about this war, at its very first stirring, that either Lacedaemon must be laid waste by the foreigners or their king must perish. This answer she gave them in hexameter verses, speaking thus:

4"For you, O dwellers in broad Sparta, / either your great city, famed far and wide, shall be sacked by men of the race of Perseus, / or, if not that, then the land of Lacedaemon shall mourn a king dead, of the line of Heracles. / For not the strength of bulls, nor yet of lions, shall stand against his force; he has the strength of Zeus; / and I declare he shall not be withstood until one of these two be torn utterly asunder." This oracle standing before his eyes, then, and his wish to lay up glory for the Spartans alone, moved Leonidas to send the allies away—rather than let them go off so, in disorder, divided in their judgment.

Chapter 221

1A proof of this, and no small one: that Leonidas is seen plainly sending away the seer who followed this army, Megistias the Acarnanian, said to descend from Melampus in the ancient line—this man having declared from the sacrifices what was about to befall them—so that he might not perish with them. The seer, though dismissed, would not leave; but he sent away his son, who served in the campaign and was his only child.

Chapter 222

1The allies who were sent away went, and obeyed Leonidas; but the Thespians and the Thebans alone remained with the Lacedaemonians. Of these, the Thebans stayed unwillingly and against their will, for Leonidas held them fast as hostages; the Thespians stayed most gladly of their own accord, declaring they would not desert Leonidas and his men but would remain and die with them. Their commander was Demophilus son of Diadromes.

Chapter 223

1Xerxes, when the sun was risen, made libations, and then, waiting a while, advanced about the time the market fills—for so Ephialtes had instructed him: the descent from the mountain is shorter, and the space far narrower, than the circuit and the climb.

2So the foreigners with Xerxes came on, and the Greeks with Leonidas went out far further than on the days before, as men making their sally forth upon death, into the wider part of the neck. For up to then the barrier of the wall had been held, and they had fought falling back from it into the narrows.

3Now, joining battle out beyond the narrows, many of the foreigners fell; for behind them the captains of the companies held whips and lashed every man, ever urging them forward. Many of them tumbled into the sea and perished, and far more were trodden alive under one another's feet; and no count was kept of the dying.

4For, knowing the death that awaited them from the men going round the mountain, they put forth against the foreigners the greatest strength they had, flinging themselves on in recklessness and despair.

Chapter 224

1By then the spears of most of them were broken, and they were cutting the Persians down with swords. In this struggle Leonidas fell, having proved himself a most excellent man, and with him other famous Spartans, whose names, as men worth remembering, I took care to learn—indeed I learned the names of all the three hundred.

2Of the Persians too many fell here, and famous men among them; among them two sons of Darius, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, born to Darius of Phratagune, daughter of Artanes. This Artanes was brother to King Darius and son of Hystaspes son of Arsames; and he, in giving his daughter to Darius, handed over to him all his house—for this daughter was his only child.

Chapter 225

1Here too two brothers of Xerxes fell fighting; and over the body of Leonidas there arose a great shoving-struggle of Persians against Lacedaemonians, until the Greeks dragged it away by their valor and four times turned their enemies to flight. This struggle lasted until the men with Ephialtes came up.

2When the Greeks learned that these were come, the battle changed its form from that moment: they withdrew along the narrow part of the road, and passing beyond the wall took their place upon the mound, all of them together except the Thebans. The mound is at the entrance of the pass, where the stone lion now stands over Leonidas.

3Here, defending themselves with their knives—for such as still had them—and with their hands and their very teeth, they were buried under a rain of missiles by the foreigners, some of whom pressed upon them from in front after throwing down the barrier of the wall, while others had gone round and closed in from every side.

Chapter 226

1Among deeds like these of the Lacedaemonians and Thespians, they say the best man was the Spartan Dieneces. Of him they tell this saying, spoken before the Greeks closed with the Medes: having heard one of the Trachinians say that when the foreigners let fly their arrows they hid the sun with the multitude of the shafts—so many they were, he said.

2He, nothing daunted by this, and making light of the multitude of the Medes, answered that their Trachinian guest brought them tidings of all good things: if the Medes hid the sun, they would do battle in the shade and not in the sun.

Chapter 227

1Sayings like these, and others of the same kind, they say Dieneces the Lacedaemonian left behind as memorials. After him two Lacedaemonian brothers are said to have proved themselves preeminent, Alpheus and Maron, sons of Orsiphantus. Of the Thespians, the man most renowned was one whose name was Dithyrambus son of Harmatides.

Chapter 228

1They were buried on the spot where they fell—these and those who had died before they were sent away by Leonidas—and over them was written an inscription saying this: "Here once, against three hundred myriads, four thousand men from the Peloponnese fought."

2That was the inscription for them all; for the Spartans alone there was this one: "Stranger, carry the word to the Lacedaemonians that here we lie, obedient to their bidding."

3That for the Lacedaemonians, and this for the seer: "This is the memorial of famous Megistias, whom the Medes slew when they had crossed the river Spercheius—a seer who saw clearly the fates coming upon them, yet had not the heart to forsake the leaders of Sparta."

4The Amphictyons are the ones who honored them with these inscriptions and pillars—all but the seer's epitaph; the epitaph of the seer Megistias was written by Simonides son of Leoprepes, out of guest-friendship.

Chapter 229

1Of these three hundred, two are said to have been let go—Eurytus and Aristodemus—who had a choice in common, either to be saved together and return to Sparta (both had been sent out of the camp by Leonidas and lay at Alpeni, stricken with disease of the eyes), or, if they would not go home, to die with the rest; and having it in their power to do either of these, they refused to be of one mind. Eurytus, learning of the Persians' circuit, asked for his arms, buckled them on, and ordered his helot to lead him to the fighters; when the helot had brought him there, the man ran off in flight, while Eurytus flung himself into the thick of the battle and perished. Aristodemus, his heart failing, was left behind.

2If, then, Aristodemus alone had come back to Sparta sick at heart, or if both had made their journey home together, I think the Spartans would have laid no wrath upon them; but as it was—the one of them dead, and the other holding to the same excuse yet unwilling to die—they had no choice but to be very wrathful with Aristodemus.

Chapter 230

1Some say Aristodemus was saved and came back to Sparta on this pretext; others that he was a messenger sent out from the camp, who might have come up with the battle as it was being fought, but would not, and so waited on the road and survived—while his fellow messenger came up to the battle and died.

Chapter 231

1Yet when Aristodemus came back to Lacedaemon he bore reproach and disgrace; such was his dishonor: no Spartan gave him fire, none spoke with him; and men called him Aristodemus the Trembler. But in the battle at Plataea he wiped away all the blame that had been fastened on him.

Chapter 232

1It is said that another of the three hundred also survived, a messenger sent into Thessaly, named Pantites; and that when he came home to Sparta and found himself dishonored, he hanged himself.

Chapter 233

1The Thebans, whose commander was Leontiades, had fought a while with the Greeks against the king's army, held fast by necessity; but when they saw the fortunes of the Persians plainly gaining the upper hand, they broke away from the Greeks just as the Greeks with Leonidas were hurrying up to the mound, and stretching out their hands they went toward the foreigners, telling them the truest of their claims: that they too had medized, that they had been among the first to give earth and water to the king, that necessity had brought them to Thermopylae, and that they were blameless of the hurt the king had taken.

2So speaking they saved themselves, for they had the Thessalians as witnesses of what they said; yet not all came off lucky: when the foreigners laid hold of them as they came up, some were killed on the spot, and the greater number, at Xerxes' order, were branded with the royal mark, beginning with their commander Leontiades—whose son Eurymachus was murdered later on by the Plataeans, when he had commanded four hundred Thebans and seized the city of the Plataeans.

Chapter 234

1So fought the Greeks at Thermopylae. Xerxes then called Demaratus to him and questioned him, beginning from this: "Demaratus, you are a good man. I judge this from the truth of it, for all that you said has fallen out just so. Now tell me how many Lacedaemonians are left, and how many of them are such men in war—or are they all alike?"

2And he said: "King, all the Lacedaemonians are a great multitude, and there are many cities of them; but what you wish to learn, you shall know. In Lacedaemon there is a city, Sparta, of some eight thousand men, and all these are the equals of those who fought here. The other Lacedaemonians are not like these—but they are good men."

3To this Xerxes said: "Demaratus, by what easiest way shall we get the better of these men? Come, instruct me; you have the run of their counsels, having been their king."

Chapter 235

1He answered: "King, if you are ready to take my counsel in earnest, it is right that I tell you the best thing: send off three hundred ships of the fleet against the Lacedaemonian country.

2There is an island lying off that coast, named Cythera; and Chilon, a man who was among us the wisest, said the Spartans would gain more to sink beneath the sea than to hold it—for he was forever expecting from it some such thing as I now describe; he did not have your fleet in mind, but dreaded alike any fleet of men.

3From this island, setting out, you would keep the Lacedaemonians in fear; and with a war at their own doors, they are not likely to bring help there, even if the rest of Hellas is being taken by your land army. And when the rest of Hellas has been enslaved, the strength of Laconia alone is left, and that already weak.

4But if you do not do this, expect this: there is a narrow isthmus of the Peloponnese; on that ground, when all the Peloponnesians have sworn themselves together against you, expect battles mightier than any yet fought. But if you do the first thing, this isthmus and their cities will come over to you without a battle."

Chapter 236

1After him spoke Achaemenes, brother of Xerxes and admiral of the fleet, who had come in upon the talk and feared Xerxes might be persuaded to do this: "King, I see you lending ear to a man who envies you in your good fortune, or who betrays your affairs outright. It is just in such ways that the Greeks delight: they envy prosperity and loathe what is stronger than they.

2But if, with the luck you now have—seeing four hundred of the ships wrecked—you send off another three hundred from the army to sail round the Peloponnese, your enemies become your equals in battle; whereas if your fleet is the victor, it is hard for them to handle, and they will be no match for you to begin with, and your whole fleet will stand by the land army and the land army by the fleet, as they move together. But if you tear them apart, you will be of no use to them, nor they to you.

3Keep to what is your own; I think it well not to take up the enemy's affairs—where they will make their stand, what they will do, how many they are. It is enough for them to look to themselves; let us look to ourselves in the same way. And if the Lacedaemonians come out against Persians in battle, they will not heal the wound just given."

Chapter 237

1Xerxes made answer thus: "Achaemenes, you speak well in my sight, and I will do as you say. Demaratus indeed gives what he takes to be the best counsel for me—but in judgment you are the better of the two.

2I will never accept that he bears my cause ill will; I measure this both by what he said before and by what he says now: a fellow citizen envies a fellow citizen who prospers and stands his enemy in silence; and a citizen will not counsel another with what he himself knows to be best, unless he rises far above common virtue—and such men are few.

3But a guest-friend toward a guest-friend who prospers is the best disposed of all men, and asked for counsel will give the best. Therefore I charge every man henceforth to leave off speaking ill of Demaratus, who is my guest-friend."

Chapter 238

1Having said this, Xerxes passed out through the dead; and Leonidas—hearing that he had been king and commander of the Lacedaemonians—he ordered the head cut off and the body crucified.

2It is plain to me by many other proofs—and by this one not least—that King Xerxes raged above all men against Leonidas while he lived; for never otherwise would he have committed this outrage upon the dead, since I know that the Persians, of all men I know, hold nothing in higher honor than brave men in war. So the men did these things to whom it was commanded.

Chapter 239

1I return now to the part of the story I left aside before. The Lacedaemonians were the first to learn that the king was setting out against Hellas; and they sent to the oracle at Delphi, where they received the answer I told of just now. And the way they learned of it was a marvelous one.

2Demaratus son of Ariston, exiled among the Medes—not, as I judge, and the likelihood agrees with me, well disposed toward the Lacedaemonians, though it is open to guess whether he did this out of good will or in mockery—heard then in Susa that Xerxes had resolved to lead his army against Hellas, and wished to announce it to the Lacedaemonians.

3In any other way he had no means of giving the sign, for it would have been full of danger that he be caught. So he contrived this: taking a folding tablet he scraped the wax clean from it, and then wrote upon the wood of the tablet the king's intent; this done, he melted the wax back over the writing, so that the tablet, carried on its way, might give the road-guards no occasion.

4When it came to Lacedaemon, the Lacedaemonians could make nothing of it, until at last—so I am told—Gorgo, daughter of Cleomenes and wife of Leonidas, divined it of herself and showed them: scrape the wax, she told them, and they would find writing on the wood. Obeying her, they found it and read it; and after that they sent word to the other Greeks. Thus, then, is this said to have happened.

Chapter 1

1When the news of the battle that was fought at Marathon reached King Darius son of Hystaspes—he had been deeply angry at the Athenians even before this, because of their invasion of Sardis—he planned things far more terrible than before, and he became much more eager to march against Greece.

2At once he sent messengers around to the cities, ordering them to get an army ready. He demanded from each of them far more than before: ships, horses, grain, and transport vessels. While these orders went around, Asia was shaken for three years, for its best men were enrolled for the march against Greece and everything was being made ready.

3In the fourth year the Egyptians, who had been enslaved by Cambyses, broke away from the Persians. Then he wanted even more to march, and against both of them.

Chapter 2

1As Darius was making ready to march against Egypt and Athens, a great quarrel broke out among his sons about who should hold the kingship. For by the law of the Persians he had to accept one of them as king before he led such a march.

2Darius had three sons born to him before he became king, by his earlier wife, the daughter of Gobryas, and four more after he became king, by Atossa daughter of Cyrus. Artobazanes was the oldest of the first group; Xerxes was the oldest of those born later. They had different mothers, and they quarreled.

3Artobazanes argued that he was the oldest of all the children and that it was accepted by all mankind that the oldest holds the rule. Xerxes argued that he was the son of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, and that Cyrus was the man who had won freedom for the Persians.

Chapter 3

1While Darius had not yet given his decision, it happened that at this same time Demaratus son of Ariston had come up to Susa. He had been stripped of his kingship in Sparta and had gone into exile from Lacedaemon.

2When this man learned of the quarrel among Darius' sons, he went to Xerxes—and this is the story people tell—and advised him to add this to the arguments he was already making: that he himself had been born when Darius was already king and held the Persian power, but Artobazanes had been born while Darius was still a private man.

3It was not right, he said, that anyone else hold the honor before himself. Demaratus claimed that this is how the rule goes in Sparta: if a man's older sons were born before their father became king, but a later son is born while he is king, then the succession to the kingship falls to the later-born son.

4Xerxes used Demaratus' advice, and Darius, judging that he spoke what was just, made him king. It seems to me that Xerxes would have become king even without this advice, for Atossa held all the power.

Chapter 4

1So Darius, having accepted Xerxes as king for the Persians, got ready to march. But in the year after these events and the revolt of Egypt, while Darius was making his preparations, he died. He had reigned over everything for thirty-six years in all. He did not live to take vengeance either on the Egyptians who had revolted or on the Athenians.

Chapter 5

1When Darius died, the kingship passed to his son Xerxes. At first Xerxes was not at all eager to march on Greece; he gathered his army against Egypt. But Mardonius son of Gobryas, who was with him and had more power with him than any other Persian—he was Xerxes' cousin, the son of Darius' sister—kept taking up this kind of argument, saying:

2"Master, it is not right that the Athenians, who have done many wrongs to the Persians, go unpunished for what they did. Finish the work you now have in hand; then, when you have tamed Egypt, which has broken out in insolence, lead your army against Athens. Then you will have a good name among men, and others will be careful in the future before they march into your land."

3This was his argument of vengeance. And he would attach to it this addition: that Europe was a land of the greatest beauty, that it grows every kind of cultivated tree, and that it is of the highest worth—worthy to be owned by the king alone of all mortal men.

Chapter 6

1He said this because he hungered for new deeds himself and wanted to be governor of Greece himself. In time he won his point and persuaded Xerxes to do these things, for other things too came to help him in getting Xerxes to listen.

2Messengers had come from Thessaly from the Aleuadae—these Aleuadae were kings of Thessaly—calling on the king and offering all their eagerness for the campaign against Greece. And the Pisistratids who had gone up to Susa used the same arguments as the Aleuadae, and they even offered him something more besides:

3They had brought Onomacritus, an Athenian, a speaker of oracles and the man who had arranged the oracles of Musaeus; they had first settled the hatred between them and him. Hipparchus son of Pisistratus had banished Onomacritus from Athens, because Lasus of Hermione caught him in the act of slipping into the oracles of Musaeus a prophecy that the islands that lie off Lemnos would sink beneath the sea.

4That is why Hipparchus drove him out, though before that he had used him as a seer more than anyone. Now Onomacritus went up with the Pisistratids, and when he came into the king's sight, while they were speaking grand words about him, he recited from the oracles. If any oracle held any error bringing harm to the foreigner, he said nothing of it; picking out the luckiest parts, he said that the Hellespont had to be bridged by a Persian man, and he explained the march.

5So this man brought his oracle readings, and the Pisistratids and the Aleuadae brought their opinions.

Chapter 7

1When Xerxes' plan to march against Greece was confirmed, then, in the second year after the death of Darius, he first led his campaign against the rebels. He subdued them and made all Egypt far more enslaved than it had been under Darius, and he handed it over to Achaemenes, his own brother and a son of Darius. Achaemenes, while he was governing Egypt, was later murdered by Inarus son of Psammetichus, a man of Libya.

Chapter 8

1After the capture of Egypt, when Xerxes was about to take in hand the army against Athens, he called an assembly of the best of the Persians, so that he could hear their opinions and himself tell them everything he wanted. When they had gathered, Xerxes spoke as follows:

Chapter 8A

1"Men of Persia, I did not set this law among you myself, and I did not begin to use it after taking it up. As I learn from my elders, we have never stood still since we took over this rule from the Medes, when Cyrus brought down Astyages. God leads us this way, and as we keep going, many things work together for our good. Cyrus, Cambyses, and my father Darius conquered and added nations, and no one who knows the facts can find fault with what they did."

2"Since I took over this throne, I have been thinking how I may not fall behind those who ruled before me in this honor, and how I may win for the Persians power no smaller than theirs. As I think it over, I find that we gain glory, and land no smaller than what we hold now and no worse, and richer too—and at the same time vengeance and payment. That is why I have called you together now, so that I can set before you what I have in mind:"

Chapter 8B

1"I am going to bridge the Hellespont and lead my army through Europe against Greece, so that I may punish the Athenians for all they have done to the Persians and to my father."

2"You saw my father Darius himself setting out to march against these men. But he died, and he did not get to punish them. I, for his sake and for the sake of all the other Persians, will not stop before I take Athens and burn it. They were the ones who began the wrong against me and my father."

3"First they came to Sardis, with Aristagoras of Miletus, our slave, and burned the groves and the temples. Second, you all know what they did to us when they attacked and were driven back to their own land, while Datis and Artaphrenes were in command."

Chapter 8C

1"For these reasons I am set on marching against them, and when I reckon it up I find these good things: if we subdue these men and their neighbors, who hold the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we will make the land of Persia reach as far as the sky of Zeus."

2"No, the sun will look on no country that borders on ours. I will make all those lands one single country, together with you, when I have gone through the whole of Europe."

3"For I learn that it is so: no city of men and no nation of men will be left that can meet us in battle, once the ones I named are removed out of the way. Then both those who are guilty toward us and those who are guiltless will wear the yoke of slavery."

Chapter 8D

1"You will please me by doing this: when I signal the time at which you must come, let every one of you come eagerly, bringing everything he needs. And to whoever comes with his army best prepared I will give the gifts that are counted the most precious among us."

2"So this is what must be done. But so that it does not seem that I take counsel alone, I put the matter before you all, and I ask each man who wishes to give his opinion." Having said this, he stopped.

Chapter 9

1After him Mardonius said: "Master, you are not only the best of the Persians who have ever lived, but of those who are still to come. What you have said is the best and truest of all. And you will not let the Ionians who live in Europe, unworthy as they are, make a laughingstock of us."

2"It would be a terrible thing if we subdue and hold as slaves the Sacae, the Indians, the Ethiopians, the Assyrians, and many other great nations, who never wronged the Persians, and whom we attacked only because we wanted more power—and yet take no vengeance on the Greeks who began the wrongdoing."

Chapter 9A

1"What are we afraid of? Their mass of numbers? Their power in money? We know how to fight them, and we know their strength is weak. We already hold their children as subjects—the people who live in our land and are called Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians."

2"I myself made trial of these men too, when your father ordered me to drive against them. I marched as far as Macedonia and came within a little of Athens itself, and no one came out to meet me in battle."

Chapter 9B

1"And yet the Greeks, as I learn, are by custom most unwilling to start wars, through their foolishness and their stubbornness. When they declare war on each other, they find the finest and flattest piece of ground, go down into it, and fight, so that the winners leave with great harm. Of the losers I do not even begin to speak—they are utterly destroyed."

2"They all speak one language, so they ought to end their disputes through heralds and messengers, and by any means rather than by battle. And if they truly had to make war on each other, they ought to find the ground hardest for each side to take and try it there. So poorly do the Greeks settle their affairs: when I marched as far as the land of Macedonia, they never came to the point of fighting me."

Chapter 9C

1"Who, King, is going to stand against you when you declare war, when you lead both the whole host from Asia and all the ships? As I judge, the affairs of the Greeks do not reach that boldness. But if I turn out to be wrong in my judgment, and they, puffed up out of their senses, come to battle with us, then they would learn that we are the best of men in war. But let nothing be left untried; nothing happens of itself. Everything comes to men from trial."

Chapter 10

1Mardonius stopped after saying this much, passing over Xerxes' opinion. The other Persians kept silent and did not dare to put forward an opinion against the one laid before them. But Artabanus son of Hystaspes, Xerxes' uncle, the man he trusted, spoke as follows.

Chapter 10A

1"King, if opinions opposed to each other are not spoken, there is no way to choose the better one, and one must use the one that was spoken. But when both are spoken, one can choose—just as we cannot tell pure gold by itself, but when we rub it against other gold, we know which is better."

2"I urged your father, my brother Darius, not to march against the Scythians, men who hold no city anywhere on earth. But he, hoping to conquer the wandering Scythians, would not listen to me. He marched, lost many good men of his army, and came home."

3"You, King, are about to march against men far better than the Scythians, men said to be the best by sea as well as by land. What those men have in them is terrible, and it is right for me to tell you what it is."

Chapter 10B

1"You say you will bridge the Hellespont and lead your army through Europe to Greece. Then it may happen that you are beaten by land or by sea, or even by both. These men are said to be brave; and one can measure it: the Athenians alone destroyed so large an army as the one that came with Datis and Artaphrenes into the land of Attica."

2"In that case they did not have both. But suppose they attack you with their ships, win the sea fight, sail to the Hellespont, and then break the bridge. That, King, would be a terrible thing."

Chapter 10C

1"I do not work this out by any clever wisdom of my own. I call to mind a trouble that once came very close to us, when your father bridged the Thracian Bosporus and bridged the river Ister and crossed against the Scythians. At that time the Scythians tried every kind of plea with the Ionians to break the bridge—to the men to whom the guarding of the bridges over the Ister had been entrusted."

2"If at that time Histiaeus tyrant of Miletus had followed the opinion of the other tyrants and had not opposed it, the affairs of the Persians would have been finished. It is terrible even to hear in words that the king's whole undertaking hung on one man."

Chapter 10D

1"So do not choose to come into any such danger when no necessity forces you. Listen to me. Break up this meeting now. Later, when it seems good to you, take counsel with yourself, and announce what seems to you best."

2"I find that good counsel is the greatest gain there is. If something goes against it, the counsel was no less good, but the plan is defeated by fortune. And the man who planned badly, if fortune comes to his side, has made a lucky find—but his counsel was no less bad."

Chapter 10E

1"You see how God strikes the tallest animals with lightning and does not let them stand out, while the small ones do not trouble him at all. You see how his bolts always fall on the biggest buildings and on trees like them. God likes to cut down everything that towers. In this way a great army is destroyed by a small one: when God, in envy, casts fear or thunder into it, and through these it perishes, unworthy of itself. For God does not allow anyone but himself to think great thoughts."

Chapter 10F

1"Haste in everything gives birth to mistakes, and from mistakes great losses usually come. But in waiting there is the chance of good, even if it does not look like good at the moment. In time a man may find it so."

Chapter 10G

1"King, this is my advice to you. And you, Mardonius son of Gobryas, stop speaking empty words about the Greeks, who do not deserve to be spoken against in that low way. You slander the Greeks to goad the king on to the march, and it seems to me that you stretch all your eagerness for that end. May it not turn out so."

2"Slander is the worst evil of all. In it two men do wrong and one is wronged. The slanderer wrongs the absent man by accusing him; the listener wrongs him by being persuaded before he has learned the whole truth. And the man who is away from the argument is wronged in both these ways—slandered by one and judged bad by the other."

Chapter 10H

1"But if it must be that we march against these men no matter what, then let the king himself stay here among the Persians in his proper place. Let the two of us stake our children. Then you yourself lead the army: pick whichever men you want and take an army as large as you like."

2"If things go for the king the way you say, let my children be killed, and I with them. If things go the way I predict, let yours suffer that death, together with you—if you come home."

3"But if you will not submit to this, and you will still lead an army against Greece, then I say this: you will hear, here at home, that Mardonius, whom you leave behind in your place, has worked a great evil on the Persians and lies torn apart by dogs and birds somewhere in the land of the Athenians—or, if not there, in your own land of the Lacedaemonians—or perhaps even earlier on the road, once he learns what kind of men he is leading the king against."

Chapter 11

1Artabanus said this. Xerxes, in anger, answered as follows: "Artabanus, you are my father's brother. That will save you from receiving any worthy reward for these empty words. And I add this disgrace to you, a bad man and a coward: you shall not march with me against Greece, but you shall stay here with the women. I will carry out everything I said without you."

2"May I not be born from Darius son of Hystaspes son of Arsames son of Ariaramnes son of Teispes son of Cyrus son of Cambyses son of Teispes son of Achaemenes, if I do not punish the Athenians! I know well that if we stay quiet, they will not stay quiet; they will certainly march against our land, if we weigh what they have already done—those who burned Sardis and drove into Asia."

3"It is not possible for either side to draw back. The contest set before us is to do or to suffer, so that either all these things become the Greeks' or all those things become the Persians'. There is no middle ground in this hatred."

4"So it is now time for us, who have already suffered, to take vengeance, and to learn the terrible thing I will suffer, by marching against these men—the men whom Pelops the Phrygian, a slave of my fathers, subdued so completely that to this very day both the people and their land are called after the man who conquered them."

Chapter 12

1That was the end of the talking. Then evening came, and Artabanus' opinion pricked at Xerxes. During the night he took counsel with himself, and he found altogether that the march on Greece was not a good plan. When he had decided this, he fell asleep. And during that night, so the Persians tell it, he had this vision: it seemed to Xerxes that a man, tall and handsome, stood over him and said:

2"So now you are changing your plan, Persian, and will not lead the army against Greece, though you announced the destruction of the Persian army? You do no good by changing your mind, and no one who would pardon you is at hand. But go by the road you decided on in the daytime."

Chapter 13

1In the vision Xerxes seemed to see the man fly away after saying this. When daylight came, he paid no attention to the dream at all. He gathered the same Persians as before and said to them:

2"Men of Persia, forgive me because I changed my plan so quickly. I am not yet master of my own thoughts, and those who urge me on never leave me alone. When I heard Artabanus' opinion, my youth boiled up at once, so that I threw at an older man words more shameful than was right. But now, having come to my senses, I will use his opinion."

3"So I have changed my mind about marching against Greece. Stay quiet."

Chapter 14

1When the Persians heard this, they rejoiced and bowed before him. But when night came again, the same dream came to Xerxes as he slept. The man stood over him and said: "Son of Darius, are you already shown among the Persians giving up the march, and making nothing of my words, as if you had heard them from nobody? Know this well: if you do not set out at once, this will grow up out of it: as you became great and numerous in a short time, so you will quickly fall back into low estate."

Chapter 15

1Terrified by the vision, Xerxes sprang up out of bed and sent a messenger to call Artabanus. When he came, Xerxes said to him: "Artabanus, at first I did not think straight, and because of your good advice I threw empty words at you."

2"But not long after that I changed my mind, and I saw that I must do what you advised. Yet I cannot do it as I wish: as soon as I turned back and changed my mind, a dream kept coming to me that in no way approved what I meant to do. And just now it went away after threatening me."

3"Now, if the sender of this dream is a god, and it is truly his pleasure that the march on Greece happen, then this same dream will come upon you too, commanding you as it commanded me. And I think it will come about this way: take all my clothes and put them on, then sit on my throne, and after that sleep in my bed."

Chapter 16

1Xerxes said this to him. Artabanus did not obey at the first command—he did not think himself worthy to sit on the king's throne. But in the end, when he was forced, he spoke as follows and did what was ordered.

Chapter 16A

1"King, I hold these two things equal: to think well, and to be willing to follow the man who gives good advice. You have both of them, and they are shaken out of you by your constant company with bad men—just as they say of the sea, the most useful thing there is for men, that the winds blowing on it do not let it use the calm that belongs to it."

2"It was not so much the pain of your harsh words that bit me, as this: two opinions were laid before the Persians, one that feeds insolence, and one that stops it and says it is a bad thing to teach the soul always to seek to have more than it has. And when opinions like these were laid before us, I chose the more ruinous one for you and for the Persians."

Chapter 16B

1"Now that you have turned to the better course, you say that the dream about the expedition against the Greeks keeps coming to you, sent by some god, and will not let you break off the expedition."

2"But this too, my boy, is not divine. The dream-shapes that wander to men are such as I will teach you, for I am many years older than you. The visions of dreams wander most of all toward the things a man is thinking about during the day. But in the days before this one, we were heavily taken up with this expedition—it was much in our hands."

Chapter 16C

1"But if it is not as I break it down, and it has some share of the divine, then you have spoken the whole of it correctly: let it appear to me too, as it did to you, giving its commands. It ought to appear to me no more in your clothes than in mine, nor resting in your bed any more than in mine—unless it wants on purpose to appear some other way."

2"Whatever this thing is that appears to you in sleep, it surely does not rise to such silliness as to mistake me for you, judging by your clothes. If, however, it takes no account of me and does not think me worth appearing to, whether I wear my clothes or yours, and does not keep coming—then we will learn this for certain. But if it does come to me again and again, I myself would say that it is divine."

3"But if it is so decreed that this must happen and it cannot be turned aside, then it must be that I sleep in your bed. Let it, then, appear to me too, when all this has been done with me. Until then I will hold to my present opinion."

Chapter 17

1Artabanus said all this, hoping that Xerxes would be won over even though he had said nothing more. Then he did what was commanded. He put on Xerxes' clothes, sat on the royal throne, and after that went to bed. And the same dream that visited Xerxes came to him as he slept. It stood over Artabanus and said:

2"Are you the man who tries to hold back Xerxes from marching against Greece, claiming to care for him? But you will not stop it, now or later, by trying to turn aside what must happen. That Xerxes must suffer what he must has already been made plain to him."

Chapter 18

1In the vision it seemed to Artabanus that the dream threatened him and was about to burn out his eyes with hot irons. He cried out loud, sprang up, sat down by Xerxes, and, after telling him the whole vision, he then spoke these words.

2"King, I am a man who has already seen many great undertakings fall to weaker ones. I could not bear that you give way to your youth in everything, for I know how bad it is to long for much. I remember how Cyrus' expedition against the Massagetae ended, I remember Cambyses' expedition against the Ethiopians, and I marched myself with Darius against the Scythians."

3"Knowing all this, I held the opinion that you, if you kept still, would be counted blessed by all men. But since a heaven-sent urge comes upon us, and some destruction driven by the god, as it seems, takes hold of the Greeks, I myself turn around and change my opinion. So you announce to the Persians what is sent from the god, and tell them to follow the first instructions they got from you for the preparations. And manage it so that, with the god handing things to you, you will lack nothing of your own."

4After these words were spoken, both of them were lifted up by the vision. As soon as day came, Xerxes laid all this before the Persians, and Artabanus, who before had seemed the only one working against the march, was now plainly seen working for it.

Chapter 19

1After this, when Xerxes was setting out on his march, he had a third vision in his sleep. The Magi, when they heard it, judged that it meant he would carry his rule over the whole earth and enslave all mankind. The vision was this: it seemed to Xerxes that he was crowned with a branch of olive, and that the branches of the olive spread over the whole earth; then the crown that lay on his head vanished.

2When the Magi had given this judgment, each of the Persians assembled at once hurried off to his own post, eager with all his heart over what had been said, each one wanting the prizes that had been offered. And in this way Xerxes gathered his army, searching every part of the mainland.

Chapter 20

1From the capture of Egypt he spent four full years getting the army together and getting everything the army needed. In the fifth year he set out on his march with a host of great size.

2Of all the expeditions we know of, this one was by far the greatest, so that neither Darius' expedition against the Scythians, nor the Scythians' own expedition, can be set beside it—when the Scythians, pursuing the Cimmerians, invaded the land of Media and, conquering almost all the upper part of Asia, held it, for which Darius later took his revenge; nor the expedition of the Atreidae to Ilium as it is told; nor that of the Mysians and Teucrians, which came before the Trojan War: they crossed into Europe at the Bosporus, subdued all the Thracians, came down to the Ionian Sea, and marched south as far as the river Peneius.

Chapter 21

1All these expeditions together—and even if others were added to them—are not the equal of this single one. For what nation did Xerxes not bring from Asia against Greece? And what drinking water did his men not use up, except the great rivers?

2Some nations provided ships; some were drawn up in the land army; some had cavalry assigned to them; some had to supply horse-transport ships along with the soldiers; some had to supply ships for the long bridges; and some had to supply food and ships.

Chapter 22

1The work around Mount Athos had been prepared for about three years, ever since the first fleet sailing around Athos was wrecked there. Triremes lay at anchor at Elaeus in the Chersonese, and from that camp men of every sort in the army dug at the canal, working under the whip, with relays of workers coming and going. The people who lived around Athos dug too.

2Bubares son of Megabazus and Artachaees son of Artaeus, Persian men, were in charge of the work. Athos is a great and famous mountain that runs down into the sea, and it is inhabited by men. At its landward end the mountain makes a peninsula-like neck, with an isthmus about twelve stades wide. This is flat ground with some small hills, stretching from the sea of the Acanthians to the sea that lies opposite Torone.

3On this isthmus, at the end where Athos comes to its end, the Greek city of Sane is settled. The towns beyond Sane, on the inner side of Athos, are the ones the Persian planned then to turn from mainland towns into island towns. They are these: Dion, Olophyxus, Acrothoon, Thyssus, and Cleonae.

Chapter 23

1These are the cities that hold Mount Athos. The foreigners dug the canal after marking out the ground by nations. They stretched a measuring line by the city of Sane, and when the trench became deep, the men at the bottom dug, and others passed the earth up to men standing above on platforms. Those men handed it on to others, until it reached the topmost ones; and those carried it off and threw it away.

2For all the workers except the Phoenicians, the cliffs of the trench kept breaking off and gave them double trouble. They made the mouth at the top and the mouth at the bottom the same width, and so this was bound to happen.

3The Phoenicians show their skill in the other works, and they showed it in this one too. Taking the share that fell to them, they dug, making the mouth at the top of the canal twice as wide as the canal itself was meant to be; and as the work went forward they kept narrowing it. So in the end their part came out the same as the parts of the others.

4There is a meadow there where their market was held and where grain was pounded. A great deal of grain, ground into meal, kept coming to them from Asia.

Chapter 24

1As I work it out, Xerxes ordered the digging out of pride—he wanted to show his power and leave memorials behind. For it was possible for them to drag their ships across the isthmus without any labor at all; instead he ordered them to dig a canal wide enough for two triremes to row through side by side. To these same men, the men who dug the canal, was also given the task of bridging the river Strymon.

Chapter 25

1So he did these things. He also had cables made ready for the bridges, of papyrus and white flax, and he assigned that work to the Phoenicians and the Egyptians. And he had stores of food laid up for the army, so that the army and the pack animals driven toward Greece should not go hungry.

2After asking about the country, he had the stores set down wherever it was most convenient, different supplies in different places, brought in freight ships and ferry boats from every part of Asia. Most of them were carried to the headland in Thrace called Leuke Acte; others to Tyrodiza of the Perinthians, others to Doriscus, others to Eion on the Strymon, and others to Macedonia, each group assigned to its place.

Chapter 26

1While they did this assigned labor, the whole land army gathered and marched with Xerxes to Sardis, starting from Critalla in Cappadocia. For it had been ordered that the whole army that was to march with Xerxes over the mainland gather there.

2Which of the commanders brought his army in the finest array and received the prizes set by the king, I cannot say. I do not know that this ever came to a judgment at all.

3When they had crossed the river Halys and come into Phrygia, they marched through it and reached Celaenae. There are the springs of the Maeander river, and of another river no smaller than the Maeander, named the Catarectes. This one rises in the very marketplace of Celaenae and empties into the Maeander. There too hangs the skin of Marsyas the Silenus, which, so the Phrygian story goes, Apollo flayed and hung up.

Chapter 27

1In this city Pythius son of Atys, a Lydian man, waited on the army. He entertained the king's whole army and Xerxes himself with the greatest hospitality, and he offered money, wanting to give it for the war.

2When Pythius offered his money, Xerxes asked the Persians present who this Pythius was, and how much money he had made, that he could offer such a sum. They said: "King, this is the man who gave your father Darius the golden plane tree and the golden vine. He is now the richest man we know of, after you."

Chapter 28

1Xerxes marveled at the last part of what they said, and he asked Pythius himself, a second time, how much money he had. Pythius said: "King, I will hide nothing from you, and I will not pretend not to know my own fortune. I know it exactly, and I will count it out for you."

2"As soon as I heard you were coming down to the Greek sea, I wanted to give money for the war, so I made inquiries. I found by calculation that I have two thousand talents of silver, and gold to the amount of four million Daric staters, lacking seven thousand."

3"All this I give to you as a gift. For myself, my life is provided well enough by my slaves and my farmland."

Chapter 29

1He said this, and Xerxes, pleased with what he had heard, said: "Lydian guest-friend, since I left the land of Persia, you are the only man I have met who was willing to set out hospitality before my army, and the only one who came into my sight and offered of his own accord to give me money for the war. You have entertained my army nobly, and you offer great sums of money."

2"So in return for this I give you these honors: I make you my guest-friend, and I will complete the four million staters from my own money, giving you the seven thousand they lack. So your four million will not fall short of seven thousand, but the whole sum will be complete, filled up by me."

3"Keep for yourself what you have earned, and always be what you are. If you go on doing this, you will never regret it, neither now nor in time to come."

Chapter 30

1Having said this and carried it out, Xerxes kept moving forward. He passed the Phrygian city called Anaua, where there is a lake from which salt is made, and came to Colossae, a great city of Phrygia. There the Lycus river pours into a hole in the ground and disappears; after about five stades, more or less, it shows itself again and also empties into the Maeander.

2From Colossae the army set out toward the border between the Phrygians and the Lydians, and came to the city of Cydrara. There a pillar stands fixed, set up by Croesus, and it marks the border by writing on it.

Chapter 31

1From Phrygia he entered Lydia. There the road splits: one branch goes to the left toward Caria, the other to the right toward Sardis. On the right-hand road a traveler must cross the Maeander river and pass the city of Callatebus, where craftsmen make honey out of tamarisk and wheat. Going this way, Xerxes found a plane tree, and because of its beauty he adorned it with golden ornaments and entrusted its care to one of the immortals. The next day he came to the city of the Lydians.

Chapter 32

1When he came to Sardis, he first sent heralds into Greece to ask for earth and water, and to tell them beforehand to prepare meals for the king. But he did not send about the request for earth and water to Athens or to Lacedaemon; to every other place he did. The reason he sent a second time about earth and water was this: those who had not given it to Darius when he sent, he thought would now give it out of pure fear. It was exactly this that he wanted to learn, and that is why he sent.

Chapter 33

1After this he made ready for the march to Abydos. In the meantime men were bridging the Hellespont from Asia into Europe. On the Chersonese that lies in the Hellespont, between the city of Sestos and Madytus, a broad headland runs down into the sea, straight across from Abydos. There, not long after this, when Xanthippus son of Ariphron was general, the Athenians caught Artayctes, a Persian man, the governor of Sestos, and nailed him alive to a plank. He used to carry off women from the shrine of Protesilaus at Elaeus and treat them unlawfully.

Chapter 34

1So from Abydos they stretched the bridges toward this headland, with the materials already assigned: the Phoenicians made the one of white flax, the Egyptians the other of papyrus. It is seven stades from Abydos to the shore opposite. But when the bridge was finished, a great storm fell upon it, smashed it all, and tore it apart.

Chapter 35

1When Xerxes heard of it, he was furious. He ordered the Hellespont given three hundred blows of the whip, and a pair of fetters thrown into the sea. And I have heard that he also sent branders along with them to brand the Hellespont.

2He ordered the men doing the beating to speak over it words barbarous and reckless: "Bitter water, your master lays this punishment on you because you wronged him, though he had done you no wrong. King Xerxes will cross you, whether you want it or not. In justice no man sacrifices to you, for you are a muddy and salty river."

3He ordered the sea punished in this way, and he ordered the heads cut off of the men who had been put in charge of the bridging of the Hellespont.

Chapter 36

1So the men in charge got that thankless reward. Other master builders made the bridges. They made them this way: they set penteconters and triremes side by side, three hundred sixty under the bridge on the side toward the Euxine Sea, and three hundred fourteen under the other. The one was set against the winds that blow down from the Pontus, the other against the current of the Hellespont, so that the strain on the cables was held in check.

2They set the ships together and let down very long anchors: on the side toward the Pontus, because of the winds that blow out of it; on the other side, against the winds from the west and the Aegean—the west wind and the south wind. They left a gap in the line by pulling out some of the penteconters and triremes, so that anyone who wanted could sail into the Pontus in a light ship, and out of the Pontus too.

3Having done this, they stretched the cables from the land, twisting them tight with wooden windlasses. They no longer arranged the two bridges apart, but assigned two cables of white flax to each bridge and four of papyrus. The thickness and the beauty were the same; but by its weight the flax was heavier—a cubit of it weighed a talent.

4When the bridge was built, they sawed logs to lengths equal to the width of the bridge and laid them over the stretched cables. After placing them end to end, they bound them down again.

5After that they brought brushwood and laid it out evenly, then brought earth on top and pounded it level. Then they stretched a fence along both sides, so that the pack animals and the horses would not be frightened looking down at the sea.

Chapter 37

1When the work on the bridges and the work around Athos—including the breakwaters at the mouths of the canal, built because of the surf, so that the mouths of the cutting would not fill up—and the canal itself were reported fully finished, then the army, after wintering and with spring at hand, made ready and set out from Sardis on its march to Abydos.

2As he set out, the sun left its place in the sky and vanished, though there were no clouds and the sky was perfectly clear. Night took the place of day. When Xerxes saw it and understood what had happened, he was troubled, and he asked the Magi what the sign wanted to show.

3They said the god was showing the Greeks the failing of their cities, for the sun, they said, is the forerunner of the Greeks and the moon of them. Xerxes, hearing this, went on his march in great joy.

Chapter 38

1As the army marched out, Pythius the Lydian, frightened by the sign from heaven and made bold by the gifts, came to Xerxes and said: "Master, I would like to receive one favor from you, which will be light for you to grant but a great thing for me."

2Xerxes, thinking Pythius would ask for anything rather than what he did ask, said he would grant it and told him to say what he needed. When Pythius heard this, he took courage and said: "Master, I have five sons, and it falls to all of them together to march with you against Greece."

3"But you, King, pity a man who has come to my age: release the oldest of my sons from the campaign, so that he may take care of me and of my money. Let the other four go with you; and after you have done what you plan, may you come home."

Chapter 39

1Xerxes was terribly angry and answered: "Wretched man, you dare—when I am myself marching against Greece, taking with me my own sons and brothers and household and friends—you dare, being my slave, who ought to have come along with your whole household, your wife included, to speak of your son? Now know this well: a man's spirit lives in his ears; when it hears good things, it fills the body with joy; when it hears the opposite, it swells with anger."

2"When you offered such a thing, having done other good deeds, you could not have boasted of outdoing the king in benefits. But now that you have turned to shamelessness, you will not get the full value of what you gave—you will get less than it was worth. My hospitality saves you and your four sons; the one you love most you will pay for with his life."

3Having said this, he at once ordered the men assigned to do it: to find the oldest of Pythius' sons and cut him in half down the middle, then put one half on the right of the road and the other on the left, and let the army march between them.

Chapter 40

1After they had done this, the army marched out. The baggage carriers and the pack animals went first; after them came a mixed host of many nations, jumbled together, not sorted by people. They went by for more than half the day; then came a gap, and these troops did not march with the king.

2Leading the way were a thousand picked horsemen, chosen from all the Persians. After them came a thousand spearmen, also chosen from all, with their spears turned down toward the ground. After them came ten sacred horses called Nesaean, adorned as beautifully as possible.

3They are called Nesaean horses for this reason: in Media there is a great plain called Nesaia. This plain is what breeds those big horses.

4Behind these ten horses came the sacred chariot of Zeus, drawn by eight white horses. Behind the horses walked on foot the charioteer, holding the reins, for no man may mount that seat. Behind it came Xerxes himself on a chariot drawn by Nesaean horses. Beside him walked the charioteer, whose name was Patiramphes, son of Otanes, a Persian man.

Chapter 41

1So Xerxes rode out from Sardis; and whenever the thought took him, he would climb down from his chariot into a covered carriage. Behind him came a thousand Persian spearmen, the best and noblest, carrying their spears in the customary way. After them came another thousand picked Persian horsemen. After the horsemen came ten thousand picked men from the rest of the Persians, on foot.

2Of these ten thousand, a thousand carried golden pomegranates on the butts of their spears instead of the spike-ends, and these closed in around the others. The nine thousand inside them carried silver pomegranates. The spearmen who held their spears turned toward the ground also had golden pomegranates, and so did those who rode closest behind Xerxes. Ten thousand Persian horsemen were assigned to the ten thousand foot. After the horsemen came a gap of two stades, and then the rest of the crowd went by in a mixed throng.

Chapter 42

1From Lydia the army marched toward the Caicus river and the land of Mysia. From the Caicus, keeping Mount Cane on its left, it went through Atarneus to the city of Carene. From there it marched across the plain of Thebe, passing the city of Adramyttium and Pelasgian Antandrus.

2Taking Mount Ida on its left, it marched into the land of Ilium. First of all, while the army camped for the night under Ida, thunder and lightning came down on it and killed a great crowd of men there.

Chapter 43

1When the army came to the Scamander river—the first river to run short after they had set out from Sardis and begun the march, for its stream was not enough for the army and the animals to drink—Xerxes went up to the citadel of Priam, wanting to see it.

2Having seen it and learned everything about it, he sacrificed a thousand cattle to Athena of Ilium, and the Magi poured drink-offerings to the heroes. After they did this, fear fell on the camp during the night. At daybreak they marched on from there, passing on the left the cities of Rhoeteum, Ophryneion, and Dardanus—Dardanus borders on Abydos—and having the Teucrian Gergitha on the right.

Chapter 44

1When he was in the middle of Abydos, Xerxes wanted to see his whole army. A white-stone seat had been built for him in advance on a hill for just this purpose; the people of Abydos built it at the king's earlier command. Sitting there, he looked down at the shore and gazed at the land army and the ships. As he gazed, he longed to see the ships race. The race was held, the Sidonian Phoenicians won, and Xerxes was pleased both with the race and with his army.

Chapter 45

1When he saw the whole Hellespont hidden by the ships, and every shore and the plains of the Abydenians packed full of men, then Xerxes counted himself blessed. After that he wept.

Chapter 46

1His uncle Artabanus noticed him—the same Artabanus who at first had spoken out freely in giving the opinion that Xerxes should not march against Greece. Seeing Xerxes weeping, this man asked him: "King, how far apart the things you are doing now are from what you did a little while ago! You counted yourself blessed, and now you weep."

2Xerxes said: "A thought entered me, and I pitied men, how short the whole of human life is—of all these men here, not one will be alive in a hundred years." Artabanus answered: "We suffer other things still more pitiable than that in our life."

3"In a life so short no man is born so fortunate—not in this crowd, not anywhere—that he will not many times, and not just once, wish to be dead rather than alive. The calamities that strike us and the sicknesses that harass us make life, though short, seem long."

4"So death has become for man, in his wretched life, the most welcome refuge of all. And God, after giving men a taste of a sweet life, is found to be envious of it."

Chapter 47

1Xerxes answered: "Artabanus, let us stop talking about human life, since it is as you describe it, and let us not remember evils when good things are in our hands. But tell me this: if the vision of the dream had not appeared to you so plainly, would you have held your first opinion and tried to stop me from marching against Greece, or would you have changed? Tell me this truly."

2Artabanus answered: "King, may the vision that appeared in the dream end the way we both want. But even now I am full of fear and not in control of myself, thinking over many other things; and among them I see two things that are the greatest enemies of all."

Chapter 48

1To this Xerxes answered: "Extraordinary man, what do you mean by these two worst enemies of mine? Is it that the land army is at fault in numbers, and the Greek army will appear many times larger than ours? Or that our fleet will fall short of theirs? Or both together? If our affairs seem weaker in that way, someone should gather another army as fast as possible."

Chapter 49

1Artabanus answered: "King, no one with any sense would find fault with this army or with the number of ships. But if you gather more, those two things I speak of become that much more your enemies. The two things are land and sea."

2"For nowhere, as I reckon, is there a harbor big enough that, if a storm rises, could take in your fleet and be sure of saving the ships. And even that would not be just one harbor—it would need to be along the whole coast you travel."

3"But since there are no harbors to receive you, learn this: accidents rule men, and men do not rule accidents. That is one of the two things; now I come to speak of the other."

4"Here is how the land is an enemy: if nothing stands against you, the land grows the more hostile the farther forward you go, always slipping away ahead of you. Men never come to the point where success is enough."

5"And I say this: even if nothing opposes you, the country, growing ever wider as you go over more and more time, will breed famine. The best man would be one who, while planning, is afraid, considering everything he may suffer, but who in action is bold."

Chapter 50

1Xerxes answered: "Artabanus, it is natural that you weigh each of these things. But do not fear everything, and do not weigh every risk the same way. If you want to weigh everything equally against whatever comes up, you will accomplish nothing. It is better, facing everything with courage, to suffer half of the terrible things, than to fear everything beforehand and suffer nothing at all."

2"And if you challenge everything that is said and accept only what is certain, you must also fail equally with the man who argues the opposite. Both stand equal there. How is a human being to know what is certain? I think in no way at all. So the gains tend to go to those who want to act and do, not to those who weigh everything and hesitate."

3"You see how far the affairs of the Persians have advanced. If the kings before me had thought the way you do, or if they had not thought that way but had had other counselors like you, you would never have seen those affairs get this far. But they took risks and pushed them forward to this point. Great things tend to fall to great risks."

4"So, following their example, we march at the finest season of the year. And when we have subdued all Europe, we will come home, meeting famine nowhere and suffering no other unwelcome thing. For one thing, we carry a great deal of food with us; for another, whatever land and nation we set foot on, we will take their grain. And we are marching against men who plow the earth, not wandering herders."

Chapter 51

1After this Artabanus spoke: "King, since you allow nothing to frighten you, take advice from me. I must speak at greater length about many matters. Cyrus the son of Cambyses conquered all of Ionia except the Athenians, and made it pay tribute to the Persians."

2"So I advise you not to lead these men by any scheme at all against their fathers. Even without them we are able to prove stronger than our enemies. For if they are beaten, they must become the most unjust of men, made slaves of their mother city; or else the most just, if they join in setting it free."

3"If they become the most unjust, they add no great gain to us. If they become the most just, they become able to harm your army greatly. So lay up in your mind also the old saying, which is well said: the whole outcome does not show itself together with the beginning."

Chapter 52

1Xerxes answered this: "Artabanus, of all the opinions you have stated, you are most mistaken in this one, the one in which you fear the Ionians may turn against us. About them we have the strongest proof, and you yourself are witness to it, along with the others who marched with Darius against the Scythians: the whole Persian army was upon those Ionians with power to destroy them or to spare them, yet they gave us good faith and loyalty, and nothing unworthy."

2"Besides this, they leave children and wives and property behind in our land, so we ought not even to expect them to attempt anything new. Do not fear this either. Keep your spirit strong, and protect my house and my royal power. To you alone out of them all I hand over my rule."

Chapter 53

1After saying this and sending Artabanus off to Susa, Xerxes next called together the most respected Persians. When they had come to him, he said to them: "Persians, I gathered you because I have need of you: that you may prove good men and not bring shame on the deeds the Persians did before, deeds great and worth much. Let each man, and all of you together, be eager; for this good thing is what all men chase in common."

2"For this reason I give you word in advance to hold fast to this war with full effort. As I learn, we are marching against good men. If we beat them, no other army of men will ever stand up against us. Now let us cross over, praying first to the gods who have assigned the Persians their lot."

Chapter 54

1That day they made ready for the crossing. The next day they waited for the sun, wanting to watch it rise. They burned every kind of incense on the bridges and spread myrtle over the road.

2When the sun rose, Xerxes poured a drink offering from a golden bowl into the sea. He prayed to the sun that no such misfortune should ever happen to him as would stop him from conquering Europe before he reached its farthest ends. After praying he dropped the bowl into the Hellespont, and also a golden mixing bowl and a Persian sword, which they call an akinakes.

3About these things I cannot decide for certain: whether he dedicated them to the sun and let them sink into the sea, or whether he was sorry for whipping the Hellespont and gave the sea these gifts instead.

Chapter 55

1When this had been done, they crossed. All the foot soldiers and the horsemen went over the bridge that faced the Black Sea, and the pack animals and the servants over the one that faced the Aegean.

2The ten thousand Persians led the way, all wearing garlands; behind them came the mixed army made of peoples of every kind. These crossed on that day. On the next day the horsemen went first, and the men who carried their spears pointed down. These too wore garlands.

3Behind them came the sacred horses and the sacred chariot, then Xerxes himself and the spearmen and the thousand horsemen, and behind these the rest of the army. The ships at the same time set out toward the opposite shore. And I have heard that the king crossed last of all.

Chapter 56

1When Xerxes had crossed into Europe, he watched his army crossing under the whip. His army crossed in seven days and seven nights, without stopping for any time.

2Here, after Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont, a man of the Hellespont is said to have said: "Zeus, why do you take the shape of a Persian man, put the name Xerxes in the place of Zeus, and plan to turn Greece upside down, leading all mankind with you? You could have done these things without them."

Chapter 57

1When they had all crossed and were setting out on the road, a great omen appeared to them, and Xerxes paid no attention to it, though it was easy to read: a mare gave birth to a hare. It was easy to read in this way: Xerxes was going to drive his army against Greece in the proudest and grandest manner, but he would come back to that same place running for his life. Another omen also happened to him while he was at Sardis:

2A mule gave birth to a young mule with two sets of sex organs, one set male and the other female, and the male set was toward the rear. He made no account of either and marched forward, and the foot army with him.

Chapter 58

1The fleet, sailing out of the Hellespont, kept along the shore, doing the opposite of the foot army.

2The fleet sailed westward, making its landing at the cape of Sarpedon, where it had been told to wait when it arrived. The army on land made its way eastward toward the sunrise through the Chersonese, keeping the tomb of Helle the daughter of Athamas on its right and the city of Cardia on its left, and going through the middle of a city whose name happens to be Agora.

3From there the army bent around the gulf called Melas and crossed the river Melas, whose stream did not hold out against the army at that time but dried up. The gulf has its name from this river. After crossing it, the army went westward, passing the Aiolian city of Aenus and the lake Stentoris, until it came to Doriscus.

Chapter 59

1Doriscus is a beach and a great plain in Thrace, and through it runs a great river, the Hebrus. A royal fort had been built there, the one called Doriscus, and a garrison of Persians had been kept in it by Darius ever since the time when he marched against the Scythians.

2It seemed to Xerxes that this place was a suitable one for arranging the army and counting it, and he did this. When all the ships had come to Doriscus, the admirals, at Xerxes' order, brought them to the beach next to Doriscus, on which the city Sale, a Samothracian settlement, and Zone stand, and at its end is the famous cape of Serreion. In ancient times this land belonged to the Cicones.

3They hauled the ships up onto this beach and rested. In Doriscus, at this same time, the counting of the army was being done.

Chapter 60

1How many men each nation supplied I cannot state exactly; no one tells it. But the whole foot army, all together, came to one hundred and seventy myriads.

2They counted them in this way. They brought a myriad of men into one place and packed them together as closely as they could, and then drew a circle around them on the outside. After drawing the circle and letting the ten thousand out, they built a stone wall along the circle, with a height reaching up to a man's navel:

3When this wall was made, they brought other men into the enclosed space, until they had counted them all by this method. After counting them by nation, they drew them up.

Chapter 61

1The soldiers on the march were these. The Persians were armed like this: on their heads they wore soft caps called tiaras; on their bodies sleeved tunics of many colors, with the look of iron scales like a fish; on their legs trousers; and instead of shields, wicker shields called gerra. Quivers hung beneath these. They had short spears, large bows, and reed arrows, and daggers as well, hanging from the belt beside the right thigh.

2Their commander was Otanes son of Amestrius, the father of Xerxes' wife. Long ago the Greeks called these people Cephenes, while they themselves and their neighbors called them Artaians.

3But when Perseus, the son of Danae and of Zeus, came to Cepheus the son of Belus and took his daughter Andromeda, a son was born to him, and he named him Perses and left him behind; for Cepheus happened to have no male child. From this man they took their name.

Chapter 62

1The Medes marched dressed in this same equipment; this dress is Median, not Persian. The Medes had as their commander Tigranes, an Achaemenid. Long ago everyone called them Arii, but when Medea the Colchian came from Athens to the Arii, they too changed their name. This is what the Medes say about themselves.

2The Cissians marched equipped in other ways like the Persians, but they wore mitres on their heads instead of the caps. The commander of the Cissians was Anaphes son of Otanes. The Hyrcanians were armed like the Persians, their commander being Megapanus, who governed Babylon at a later time than this.

Chapter 63

1The Assyrians on the march wore bronze helmets on their heads, plaited in a certain foreign way that is not easy to describe. They carried shields, spears, and daggers much like the Egyptians'. They also had wooden clubs studded with iron, and corselets of linen. The Greeks call these men Syrians; the foreigners call them Assyrians. The Chaldaeans were placed among them. Their commander was Otaspes son of Artachaees.

Chapter 64

1The Bactrians marched with headgear very close to the Median kind, and they carried native reed bows and short spears.

2The Sacae, who are Scythians, wore stiff upright caps on their heads, pulled to a point, and they had trousers on their legs. They carried native bows and daggers, and also axes called sagaris. Though they were Scythians, they were called Amyrgian Sacae, for the Persians call all Scythians Sacae. The commander of the Bactrians and the Sacae was Hystaspes, son of Darius and of Atossa the daughter of Cyrus.

Chapter 65

1The Indians wore clothing made from trees. They carried reed bows and reed arrows, with iron on them. That is how the Indians were dressed; they had been placed to serve under Pharnazathres son of Artabates.

Chapter 66

1The Arii were armed with Median bows; in other ways they were like the Bactrians. The commander of the Arii was Sisamnes son of Hydarnes. The Parthians, the Chorasmians, the Sogdians, the Gandarians, and the Dadicae marched with the same equipment as the Bactrians.

2These were their commanders: Artabazus son of Pharnaces led the Parthians and the Chorasmians; Azanes son of Artaeus led the Sogdians; Artaphius son of Artabanus led the Gandarians and the Dadicae.

Chapter 67

1The Caspians marched wearing goatskin cloaks and carrying native reed bows and akinakes swords. They were equipped like this, their commander being Ariomardus, the brother of Artyphius. The Sarangiae wore brightly dyed clothes, and they had footwear reaching up to the knee; they carried Median bows and spears. The commander of the Sarangiae was Pharendates son of Megabazus.

2The Pactyes wore goatskin cloaks and carried native bows and daggers. The commander of the Pactyes was Artaintes son of Ithamitres.

Chapter 68

1The Utii, the Myci, and the Paricanii were equipped like the Pactyes. These were their commanders: Arsames son of Darius led the Utii and the Myci, and Siromitres son of Oeobazus led the Paricanii.

Chapter 69

1The Arabs wore robes called zeiras, fastened with belts, and carried long bows that bend backward, slung at the right side. The Ethiopians wore skins of leopards and lions. Their bows were made from the spathe of the date palm; they were long, no shorter than four cubits. On them went short reed arrows. Instead of iron, a sharpened stone was fitted on the arrowheads, and with this same kind of stone they cut their signets. They also carried spears, on which a sharpened piece of gazelle horn was fitted, shaped like a spearhead. They had studded clubs too. When they went into battle, they smeared half the body with gypsum and the other half with red ochre.

2The commander of the Arabs and of the Ethiopians who live above Egypt was Arsames, son of Darius and of Artystone the daughter of Cyrus. Darius loved her most of all his wives, and he had a statue of her made out of hammered gold.

Chapter 70

1The commander of the Ethiopians and the Arabs above Egypt was Arsames. The Ethiopians from the place where the sun rises (for there were two kinds of them on the march) were placed next to the Indians. They looked no different from the other group; only their speech and their hair were different. The Ethiopians from the east have straight hair, while those from Libya have the woolliest hair of all mankind.

2These Ethiopians from Asia were equipped in most ways like the Indians, but on their heads they wore the foreheads of horses, with the ears and the mane still attached. The mane served in place of a helmet crest, and the horses' ears stood up stiff. In place of shields they made coverings of crane skins.

Chapter 71

1The Libyans wore leather clothing and used fire-hardened javelins. Their commander was Massages son of Oarizus.

Chapter 72

1The Paphlagonians marched with plaited helmets on their heads, small shields, and spears that were not large, and they carried javelins and daggers as well; on their feet they had native sandals reaching up to the middle of the shin. The Ligyes, the Matienoi, the Mariandynoi, and the Syrians marched with the same equipment as the Paphlagonians. These Syrians are called Cappadocians by the Persians.

2Dotos son of Megasidrus commanded the Paphlagonians and the Matienoi, and Gobryas son of Darius and of Artystone commanded the Mariandynoi, the Ligyes, and the Syrians.

Chapter 73

1The Phrygians had equipment very close to the Paphlagonian kind, differing only a little. The Phrygians, as the Macedonians say, were called Briges for as long as they were Europeans and lived beside the Macedonians; when they moved over into Asia, they changed their name along with their country and became Phrygians. The Armenians were armed like the Phrygians; they were settlers from Phrygia. The commander of both peoples together was Artochmes, who was married to a daughter of Darius.

Chapter 74

1The Lydians had weapons very close to the Greek kind. The Lydians were once called Meiones; they took their new name from Lydus the son of Atys, changing what they were called. The Mysians wore native helmets on their heads and carried small shields, and they used fire-hardened javelins.

2The Mysians are settlers from Lydia, and they are called Olympieni after Mount Olympus. The commander of the Lydians and the Mysians was Artaphrenes son of Artaphrenes, the man who attacked Marathon together with Datis.

Chapter 75

1The Thracians marched with fox skins on their heads, tunics on their bodies, and patterned zeiras wrapped over them; on their feet and shins they wore fawn-skin sandals; and they carried javelins, light shields called peltas, and small daggers.

2These men, after crossing into Asia, were called Bithynians; before that, as they themselves say, they were called Strymonians, living on the river Strymon. They say the Teucrians and the Mysians drove them from their homes. The commander of the Thracians in Asia was Bassaces son of Artabanus.

Chapter 76

1They carried small shields of raw ox-hide, and each man had two javelins made of lykion wood. On their heads they wore bronze helmets. Bronze ears and horns of an ox were fixed to the helmets, and crests sat on them as well. They wrapped their shins with rags dyed purple. Among these men there is a place of oracle belonging to Ares.

Chapter 77

1The Cabelees, who are Meiones and are called Lasonii, had the same equipment as the Cilicians; I will mark what that is when I come, in my account, to the place of the Cilicians. The Milyae carried short spears and wore clothes fastened with brooches. Some of them carried Lycian bows, and on their heads they had caps made of leather. The commander of all these was Badres son of Hystanes.

Chapter 78

1The Moschoi wore wooden caps on their heads, and carried small shields and small spears; long pikes hung on them. The Tibarenians, the Macrones, and the Mossynoeci marched equipped like the Moschoi. These commanders drew them up: Ariomardus, the son of Darius and of Parmys the daughter of Smerdis son of Cyrus, led the Moschoi and the Tibarenians; Artayctes son of Cherasmis, who had charge of Sestos on the Hellespont, led the Macrones and the Mossynoeci.

Chapter 79

1The Mariandyni wore native plaited helmets on their heads, and carried small leather shields and javelins. The Colchians wore wooden helmets on their heads, and carried small shields of raw ox-hide, short spears, and swords as well. Pharandates son of Teaspis commanded the Mariandyni and the Colchians. The Alarodii and the Saspires marched armed like the Colchians. Masistius son of Siromitres commanded these.

Chapter 80

1The island peoples came from the Red Sea; on those islands the king settles the people called the removed ones. These islanders had clothing and weapons very close to the Median kind. Their commander was Mardontes son of Bagaeus; he was commanding when he died in the battle at Mycale, in the second year after these events.

Chapter 81

1These were the peoples who marched on land and were drawn up into the foot army. The men just named commanded this army; the same men who arranged it and counted it also appointed the commanders of a thousand and the commanders of ten thousand, and the commanders of ten thousand appointed the commanders of hundreds and of tens. There were other leaders as well, over the companies and over the nations.

Chapter 82

1Those just named were the commanders; but the leaders over these men and over the whole foot army were Mardonius son of Gobryas, and Tritantaechmes son of Artabanus, the man who had given the opinion not to march against Greece, and Smerdomenes son of Otanes — both of these two were sons of Darius' brothers, and so cousins of Xerxes — and also Masistes son of Darius and of Atossa, and Gergis son of Ariazus, and Megabyzus son of Zopyrus.

Chapter 83

1These men were generals of the whole foot army, except for the ten thousand. The commander of those ten thousand chosen Persians was Hydarnes son of Hydarnes. These Persians were called the Immortals for this reason: if any one of them dropped out of the number, whether forced out by death or by sickness, another man was picked in his place, and they were never either more than ten thousand or fewer.

2The Persians had the most ornament of anyone in the whole army, and they themselves were the best men. They had the equipment just described, but they also had much gold in plenty, worn to striking effect. They brought along wagons too, and in them they kept concubines and a great body of servants, all well outfitted. Camels and pack animals carried their food, apart from what the other soldiers carried.

Chapter 84

1These nations served on horseback. Not all of them provided horsemen; only the following. The Persians were armed the same way as their foot soldiers, except that some of them had on their heads pieces worked out of bronze and iron.

Chapter 85

1There are certain wandering men called the Sagartii. They are a nation Persian in blood and in speech, and their dress is made halfway between the Persian and the Pactyan kind. They supplied eight thousand horses. They are not used to carrying weapons of bronze or iron, except daggers; instead they use lassos woven out of leather straps:

2They go to war trusting in these. Their way of fighting is this: when they close with the enemy, they throw their lassos, which have a loop at the end. Whatever they catch, horse or man, they drag toward themselves; and the enemy tangled in the nooses are destroyed.

Chapter 86

1That was the way of fighting of these men, and they were placed next to the Persians. The Medes had the same equipment as they had on foot, and the Cissians likewise. The Indians were armed the same way as on foot, and they drove riding horses and chariots; under the chariots ran horses and wild asses. The Bactrians were equipped as on foot, and the Caspians the same.

2The Libyans too were the same as on foot, and they also all drove chariots. So in the same way the Caspians and the Paricanii were armed as on foot. The Arabs had the same dress as on foot, and they all rode camels, which are not left behind by horses in speed.

Chapter 87

1These nations alone served on horseback. The number of the cavalry came to eighty myriads, not counting the camels and the chariots. The rest of the horsemen were drawn up by companies; the Arabs were placed last of all. Since horses cannot stand camels, they were put at the rear so that the horses would not be frightened.

Chapter 88

1The commanders of horse were Harmamithres and Tithaeus, sons of Datis. Their third partner in command, Pharnuches, had been left behind at Sardis, sick. As they were setting out from Sardis, an unexpected misfortune came upon him: as he rode, a dog ran under the horse's feet, and the horse, not seeing it in time, was frightened, reared straight up, and threw Pharnuches off. He vomited blood where he fell, and his sickness turned into a slow wasting away.

2The horse was dealt with at once as he ordered: the servants led it away to the very spot where it had thrown down its master, and cut off its legs at the knees. That is how Pharnuches lost his command.

Chapter 89

1The number of the triremes came to one thousand two hundred and seven. These are the peoples who supplied them. The Phoenicians, together with the Syrians of Palestine, supplied three hundred. They were equipped like this: on their heads they had helmets made very close to the Greek style; they wore linen corselets; and they carried shields without rims, and javelins.

2These Phoenicians lived long ago, as they themselves say, by the Red Sea. From there they crossed over and now live on the coast of Syria. That part of Syria, and all the land from there as far as Egypt, is called Palestine. The Egyptians supplied two hundred ships.

3These men had on their heads helmets with cheek pieces, hollow shields with large rims, sea-fighting spears, and large axes. Most of them wore corselets, and they carried large swords.

Chapter 90

1These men were dressed like that. The Cyprians supplied one hundred and fifty ships, equipped as follows. Their kings had their heads wrapped in headband; the other men wore tunics; in all other ways they were like the Greeks. The Cyprians are made up of these nations: some come from Salamis and Athens, some from Arcadia, some from Cythnos, some from Phoenicia, and some from Ethiopia — so the Cyprians themselves say.

Chapter 91

1The Cilicians supplied one hundred ships. They too had native helmets on their heads. Instead of shields they carried raw-ox-hide shields, and they wore woolen tunics. Each man had two javelins and a sword, made very like the Egyptian knives. These men were called Hypachaeans long ago, and they took their later name from Cilicus the son of Agenor, a Phoenician man. The Pamphylians supplied thirty ships, armed with Greek weapons. These Pamphylians are descended from the men who were scattered from Troy together with Amphilochus and Calchas.

Chapter 92

1The Lycians supplied fifty ships. They wore corselets and greaves. They carried bows made of cornel wood and reed arrows with no feathers, and javelins. Goat skins hung swinging from their shoulders, and on their heads they wore caps ringed with feathers. They had daggers and sickle-shaped swords too. The Lycians were once called Termilae; they came from Crete, and they took their later name from Lycus the son of Pandion, an Athenian man.

Chapter 93

1The Dorians of Asia supplied thirty ships. They had Greek weapons and came from the Peloponnese. The Carians supplied seventy ships. In other ways they were dressed like the Greeks, but they also carried sickle-shaped swords and daggers. What these men were called before has been told in the first parts of my history.

Chapter 94

1The Ionians supplied one hundred ships, armed like the Greeks. For as long as the Ionians lived in the Peloponnese, in the land now called Achaea — that is, before Danaus and Xuthus came to the Peloponnese, as the Greeks say — they were called Coast Pelasgians; then, from Ion the son of Xuthus, they were called Ionians.

Chapter 95

1The islanders supplied seventeen ships, armed like the Greeks. This too was a Pelasgian nation, and it was later called Ionian for the same reason as the twelve cities of the Ionians who came out from Athens. The Aeolians supplied sixty ships. They were armed like the Greeks, and in ancient times they were called Pelasgians, as the story of the Greeks tells.

2The Hellespontians, except the men of Abydos — for the king had assigned the Abydenes, who stayed on the land, to be guards of the bridges — the rest, those who came from the Pontus, supplied one hundred ships. They were armed like the Greeks. These men are settlers from Ionia and from Doria.

Chapter 96

1On all the ships Persians and Medes and Sacae rode as fighting men. The Phoenicians, and the Sidonians who are of Phoenicia, supplied the ships that sailed best. Over all these men, and over those drawn up on foot of each nation, native leaders were set over each one; I do not recall their names, for I am not driven to go into a long inquiry for the history:

2Those leaders were not worthy of the nations they came from. In each nation there were as many leaders as there were cities. They followed the army not as generals but as slaves, like the other men on the march. But the generals who held the whole power, and the masters of each nation, as many of them as were Persians, are the ones I have named.

Chapter 97

1The commanders of the fleet were Ariabignes son of Darius, Prexaspes son of Aspathines, Megabazus son of Megabates, and Achaemenes son of Darius. Over the force from Iasos and Caria was Ariabignes, son of Darius and of the daughter of Gobryas. Over the Egyptians was Achaemenes, who was brother to Xerxes by both father and mother. The other two commanded the rest of the force. The thirty-oared ships, the fifty-oared ships, the light galleys, and the long ships that carried horses came, all counted together, to three thousand.

Chapter 98

1Among those who sailed after the generals, these were the most famous: the Sidonian Tetramnestus son of Anysus; Matten son of Siromus, a man of Tyre; Merbalus son of Agbalus of Aradus; the Cilician Syennesis son of Oromedon; the Lycian Cyberniscus son of Sicas; the Cyprians Gorgus son of Chersis and Timonax son of Timagoras; the Carians Histiaeus son of Tymnes and Pigres son of Hysseldomus; and Damasithymus son of Candaules.

Chapter 99

1I pass over the other commanders of companies, since I am not driven to name them; but I wonder greatly at Artemisia, a woman who marched against Greece. When her husband died, she held the power herself, with a son still a young man; out of boldness and manly courage she went on the campaign, though no necessity pressed on her.

2Her name was Artemisia. She was the daughter of Lygdamis; on her father's side she came from Halicarnassus, on her mother's side from Crete. She ruled over Halicarnassus, Cos, Nisyrus, and Calydna, and she supplied five ships.

3In the whole fleet she supplied ships of the best name, after those of the Sidonians, and out of all the allies she gave the king the best advice. As for the cities I have already listed as ruled by her, I say the whole stock is Dorian: the Halicarnassians came from Troezen, and the rest from Epidaurus. This much, then, about the sea force.

Chapter 100

1When the army had been counted and drawn up, Xerxes wanted to drive through it himself and look at it. He then did this: he drove through in a chariot, past each nation in turn, asking questions about them, and scribes wrote the answers down, until he had gone from the farthest end to the farthest end, both of the cavalry and of the foot.

2When this had been done and the ships had been launched into the sea, Xerxes stepped out of the chariot into a Sidonian ship. He sat under a golden tent and sailed along past the prows of the ships, questioning each ship just as he had questioned the foot soldiers, and taking a record of them.

3The admirals brought the ships up and anchored them four plethra out from the beach, turning all their prows toward the land so that every ship faced front, and they armed the fighting men on board as for war. Xerxes sailed inside the line of prows and looked over both the ships and the shore.

Chapter 101

1When he had sailed past these also and come out of the ship, he sent for Demaratus son of Ariston, who was on the campaign with him against Greece. When he had called him up, he asked him this: "Demaratus, it is now a pleasant thing for me to ask you what I want. You are a Greek, and, as I learn from you and from the other Greeks who come to talk with me, from a city that is neither the smallest nor the weakest.

2Now tell me this: will the Greeks stand up and raise hands against me? For as I judge, not even if all the Greeks, together with all the other peoples living toward the west, were gathered into one, would they be worth meeting me in battle as I come — since they are not equal in number.

3I want, however, to learn this also from you: what kind of men you say they are." He asked this; and Demaratus answered: "King, shall I use truth with you, or pleasure?" Xerxes told him to use the truth, saying that nothing would be any more unpleasant for him than it had been before.

Chapter 102

1When Demaratus heard this, he said: "King, since you order me plainly to use the truth, speaking such things that a man who does not lie will not later be caught by you: poverty has always grown up with Greece, but virtue is something brought in, won by wisdom and by strong law; using this Greece fends off both poverty and slavery.

2I praise all the Greeks settled in those Dorian lands; but I am going to speak not about all of them but about the Lacedaemonians alone. First, there is no way they would ever accept your words, which bring slavery to Greece. And next, they will meet you in battle even if all the other Greeks think as you do.

3Do not ask about the number, how many men they are who are able to do these things. Whether a thousand of them march out, they will fight you, whether they are fewer than that or even more."

Chapter 103

1Xerxes heard this, laughed, and said: "Demaratus, what a word you have spoken, that a thousand men will fight an army this big! Come now, tell me: you say that you yourself became king of these men. Would you then be willing right away to fight against ten men? And yet, if your whole civic order is such as you describe, it is right that you, their king, be set against double that number, according to your laws.

2For if each of them is worth ten men of my army, I require you to be worth twenty; and so the claim you make would hold straight. But if you men are like that, and you and those Greeks who come to me for talks make such big claims about your greatness — watch out that this claim is not mere empty talk.

3Let me see the matter with all proper measure: how could a thousand men, or even ten thousand, or even fifty thousand, all equally free and under no one man's rule, stand against an army this big? For we outnumber each one of them by more than a thousand to one, if their whole number is five thousand.

4If they were ruled by one man, they might become like our way, fearing that man and becoming better than their own nature; they might go forced by the whip, even though fewer in number. But let loose into freedom, they would do neither of these things. And I think that even with equal numbers, the Greeks would find it hard to fight the Persians by themselves.

5But among us alone this thing you speak of exists, though not widely — only rarely: there are some of my Persian spearmen who would be willing to fight three Greeks at once. You, who know nothing about them, talk a great deal of nonsense."

Chapter 104

1To this Demaratus said: "King, I knew from the start that, if I used the truth, I would not speak what pleases you. But since you forced me to speak the truest of words, I said what belongs to the Spartans.

2And yet, as things are, I hold those men dear for what has now happened — and you yourself know this best of all: they took from me my honor and my ancestral gifts, and made me a man without a city and a fugitive; but your father took me in and gave me both a living and a home. It is not right for a sensible man to push away the goodwill that shows itself to him; he should welcome it above all.

3I do not claim to be able to fight against ten men, nor against two; willingly, I would not even fight one by one. But if there were a necessity, or some great contest urging me on, I would fight most gladly against one of those Greek men, each of whom claims to be worth three.

4So too the Lacedaemonians: fighting one by one, they are in no way worse than any men; but together they are the best of all men. For being free, they are not free in everything. Over them stands a master, the law, and they fear it far more than your men fear you.

5They do whatever it commands; and it commands the same thing always: not to run away from any crowd of men in battle, but, staying in their place, either to win or to die. If I seem to you to be talking nonsense in saying these things, I prefer to keep quiet for the rest; just now I spoke because I was forced to. May everything turn out as you wish, King."

Chapter 105

1This man made this answer; but Xerxes turned it into laughter and felt no anger at all, and sent him away kindly. After his talk with him, Xerxes set up Mascames son of Megadostes as governor in this Doriscus, removing the one Darius had placed there, and then drove the army on through Thrace toward Greece.

Chapter 106

1Such a man was this Mascames whom he left behind. To him alone Xerxes sent gifts, as to the best man of all whom he himself or Darius had set up as governors, and he sent them every year. So too Artaxerxes son of Xerxes sent gifts to the descendants of Mascames. For governors had been set up even before this campaign, both in Thrace and everywhere along the Hellespont.

2Now all these governors, both those of Thrace and those of the Hellespont, except the one in Doriscus, were afterwards driven out by the Greeks after this campaign. But no one was ever able to remove Mascames in Doriscus, though many tried. That is why gifts are sent to him by the king who rules over the Persians at any time.

Chapter 107

1Of those driven out by the Greeks, King Xerxes judged no one to be a good man except Boges alone, the man from Eion. He never stopped praising him, and in Persia he honored the sons of Boges who survived him most highly, for Boges proved worthy of great praise. When he was under siege by the Athenians and by Cimon son of Miltiades, he had the chance, under truce, to go out and return to Asia; but he would not take it, in case he should seem to give up the place to the king out of cowardice. He held out to the very end.

2When there was no food left in the fort, he built up a great pyre. He killed his children, his wife, his concubines, and his servants, and threw them onto the fire. After that he poured all the gold and silver of the town down from the wall into the Strymon; and after doing all this he threw himself into the fire. So this man is still justly praised to this day by the Persians.

Chapter 108

1From Doriscus Xerxes marched toward Greece, and he forced the peoples who lay in his path to join his campaign. For all the land as far as Thessaly had been enslaved, as was made clear to me before, and it paid tribute to the king, first conquered by Megabazus and later by Mardonius.

2Marching from Doriscus, he passed first the Samothracian walls, at the farthest western end of which stands a city named Mesambria. Next to this city is Stryme, a city of the Thasians, and the river Lisus runs through the middle of these places; at that time it did not hold its water for Xerxes' army but ran dry.

3This country was in ancient times called Gallaica, and is now called Briantica; yet, by the most correct account, this land too belongs to the Cicones.

Chapter 109

1Having crossed the dried-up stream of the Lisus, he passed these Greek cities: Maroneia, Dicaea, and Abdera. He went by them, and by these famous lakes near them: one lying between Maroneia and Stryme, called Ismaris; and one by Dicaea, called Bistonis, into which two rivers pour their water, the Traus and the Compsatus. By Abdera Xerxes passed no famous lake, but he did pass the river Nestos, which flows into the sea.

2Beyond these lands, going along the cities of the mainland, he passed by them; in one of them there happens to be a lake with a circuit of about thirty stades at most, full of fish and very salty. Only the pack animals drank from this lake, and it did not run dry. The name of this lake is Pistyrus.

Chapter 110

1These, then, were the Greek cities on the coast that he passed by on his left hand. The nations of Thracians through whose country the road ran were these: the Paitoi, the Cicones, the Bistonae, the Sapaei, the Dersaei, the Edoni, and the Satrae. Those of them who live by the sea followed in the ships; those who live inland, whom I have already listed — all of them except the Satrae — were forced to follow on foot.

Chapter 111

1The Satrae have never yet been subject to any men, as far as we know. They continue to this day, always, the only free Thracians. They live on high mountains covered with thick forests of all kinds and with snow, and they are the very best at war.

2These are the men who own the oracle-place of Dionysus. This oracle stands on the very highest mountains. The Bessi, a clan of the Satrae, act as prophets for the temple, and the priestess gives the oracle just as she does at Delphi, with nothing more elaborate.

Chapter 112

1After passing the place just described, Xerxes next went by the walls of the Pieres, in which are a place named Phagres and another named Pergamus. He made his road right beside these walls, keeping Mount Pangaeum on his right hand. It is a great and high mountain, and in it are mines of gold and silver, worked by the Pieres, the Odomanti, and most of all the Satrae.

Chapter 113

1Going past the Paeones — the Doberes and the Paeoplae — who live beyond Mount Pangaeum toward the north, he marched westward until he came to the river Strymon and the city of Eion. Boges, of whom I spoke a little before, was ruler there while he still lived.

2This land around Mount Pangaeum is called Phyllis. It stretches on the west as far as the river Agites, which empties into the Strymon, and it stretches toward the south as far as the Strymon itself. Into this river the Magi made auspicious sacrifices, killing white horses.

Chapter 114

1Having dropped these charms into the river, along with many other things besides, the army marched by the Nine Roads of the Edoni, along the bridges, and found the Strymon already spanned. When they learned that the place was called Nine Roads, they buried alive in it children and young girls of the local men, nine in number.

2Burying people alive is a Persian custom. For I learn that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, when she had grown old, buried alive twice seven Persian boys, sons of notable men, as a return-gift from herself to the god who is said to be under the earth.

Chapter 115

1When the army marched on from the Strymon, there is a stretch of coast toward the setting sun along which it passed the Greek city of Argilus. This city and the land behind it are called Bisaltia.

2From there, with the gulf that runs toward Poseideion on his left hand, the army went through a plain called Syleus, passing the Greek city of Stagirus, and came to Acanthus. Xerxes led with him each of these nations, and those living around Mount Pangaeum, just as with those I listed before: the men settled by the sea he kept serving in the ships, and those inland followed on foot.

3This road over which King Xerxes drove his army the Thracians neither plunder nor sow; and they hold it in great honor to this day.

Chapter 116

1When he came to Acanthus, Xerxes announced that the Acanthians were his hosts, and he gave them a Median dress as a gift. He praised them too, because he saw that they were eager for the war and because he heard about their digging of the canal.

Chapter 117

1While Xerxes was at Acanthus, it came about that Artachaees, the man set over the canal, died of sickness. He stood high in Xerxes' favor and was of Achaemenid blood, and he was the biggest of the Persians in size — he fell short of five royal cubits by four fingers — and he had the loudest voice of all men. Xerxes felt his loss bitterly, and sent him out and buried him in the finest way; and the whole army heaped up his burial mound.

2The Acanthians sacrifice to this Artachaees, by command of an oracle, as a hero, and they call on him by name.

Chapter 118

1King Xerxes mourned for Artachaees who had died. But the Greeks who took in the army and gave Xerxes his dinner came to every kind of misery, so that they were driven from their homes — at least the Thasians, who received Xerxes' army on behalf of their cities on the mainland and gave it a dinner: Antipater son of Orges, a man of standing among the citizens, was chosen for it above all others, and he laid out four hundred talents of coined silver for the meal.

Chapter 119

1In the other cities too, in much the same way, the men in charge supplied the story. The dinner was of this kind, planned long in advance and treated as a matter of great importance:

2First, as soon as they heard from the heralds who went about announcing it, and the grain had been divided out among the cities, all the townspeople ground flour and barley meal for many months. Next, they fed up cattle, seeking out the finest they could buy at a price, and they raised land birds and water birds in sheds and ponds, for the reception of the army. Next, they had gold and silver cups and mixing bowls made, and everything else that is set out on a table.

3These things were prepared for the king himself and for those who ate at the same table with him; for the rest of the army only what was set aside for food. When the army came, a tent had been fixed and made ready at the spot where Xerxes himself was to lodge, while the rest of the army stayed in the open air.

4When the hour of the meal came, the hosts had a hard task, while the guests, once filled, stayed the night there. On the next day they tore up the tent, took all the furnishings, and marched off like this, leaving nothing behind but carrying everything away.

Chapter 120

1Here the saying of Megacreon, a man of Abdera, was well spoken. He advised the Abderites, the whole people, men and women together, to go into their temples and sit there as suppliants of the gods, begging the gods to spare them half of the evils still to come, and to give great thanks for the evils already past — because King Xerxes did not think it right to take a meal twice a day:

2For if they were also ordered to prepare a breakfast like the dinner, Xerxes would make it so for the Abderites that they would either not wait for his coming or, if they stayed, be worn out more wretchedly than all other men.

Chapter 121

1Hard pressed, they nevertheless carried out what was ordered. From Acanthus Xerxes ordered the generals of the sea force to wait at Therma, and sent the ships on ahead of himself, to Therma, the city settled on the Thermaic gulf — from that city this gulf has its name — for he had learned that this route was the shortest.

2Up to Acanthus, you see, the army made its way from Doriscus arranged like this: Xerxes divided the whole foot army into three parts and ordered one of them to go along the shore together with the fleet.

3Over this part Mardonius and Masistes were generals. A second division marched inland from the army in three files; its generals were Tritantaechmes and Gergis. The third of the divisions, with which Xerxes himself marched, went in the middle of these; its generals were Smerdomenes and Megabyzus.

Chapter 122

1The sea force, when it was released by Xerxes, sailed through the canal dug through at Athos, which runs out into the gulf in which the cities Assa, Pilorus, Singus, and Sarte are settled. From there, after taking troops from these cities too, it sailed, heading for the Thermaic gulf. Bending around Ampelus, the headland of Torone, it went past these Greek cities as well, and from them it took ships and troops: Torone, Galepsus, Sermyle, Mecyberna, and Olynthus.

Chapter 123

1This country is called Sithonia. The sea force of Xerxes, cutting across from the headland of Ampelus toward the headland of Canastraeum, which rises highest of all Pallene, from there took ships and troops from Potidaea, Aphytis, Neapolis, Aege, Therambus, Scione, Mende, and Sane. These are the cities that hold the peninsula now called Pallene, once called Phlegra.

2Sailing along this country too, it sailed on to the place named before, taking troops also from the cities next to Pallene, which touch the Thermaic gulf. Their names are these: Lipaxus, Combreia, Lisae, Gigonus, Campsa, Smila, and Aeneia. The country of these cities is called Crossaea to this day.

3From Aeneia, where my list of the cities ended, the voyage of the sea force now passed into the Thermaic gulf itself and the land of Mygdonia. Sailing on, it came to the Therma named before and to the cities Sindus and Chalestra, at the river Axius, which draws the boundary between the country of Mygdonia and Bottiaea. Along the sea in Bottiaea lies a narrow strip of land, and in it are the cities Ichnae and Pella.

Chapter 124

1The sea force camped there, by the river Axius and the city Therma and the cities between these, waiting for the King. Xerxes and the foot army marched from Acanthus, cutting inland across the route, wanting to come to Therma. He marched through the land of Paeonia and of Crestonia to the river Cheidorus, which, beginning in the country of the Crestonians, flows through Mygdonia and lets out beside the marsh on the river Axius.

Chapter 125

1On this march lions fell upon the camels that carried the food. The lions come down at night and leave their own haunts, but they touched nothing else, neither pack animal nor man, and went only for the camels. I wonder at the reason: what could ever have made the lions keep off everything else and attack the camels, a beast they had never seen before nor had any experience of?

Chapter 126

1In these regions there are many lions and wild cattle, whose horns, of huge size, are carried into Greece. The boundary line of the lions is the river Nestos, which flows through Abdera, and the Achelous, which flows through Acarnania. For east of the Nestos no one would see a lion anywhere in all the Europe that lies before it, nor west of the Achelous in the rest of the mainland; they are born in the country between these two rivers.

Chapter 127

1When Xerxes came to Therma, he stationed his army there. His army, in camp, held all this stretch of land along the sea, starting from the city Therma and Mygdonia and reaching to the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon, which mark the border between the lands of Bottiaea and Macedonia, both pouring their water into one stream.

2The foreigners made camp in these regions. Of the rivers I have listed, the Cheidorus, which flows from the Crestonians, alone was not enough for the army drinking from it, but ran dry.

Chapter 128

1From Therma Xerxes could see the Thessalian mountains, Olympus and Ossa, of very great height, and he learned that a narrow pass ran between them, through which the Peneius flows, and that the road into Thessaly went this way. He wanted to sail and look at the mouth of the Peneius, for he meant to march the upper road through the Macedonia of the men who live inland, as far as the Perraebians, past the city of Gonnus; for he had learned that this route was the safest.

2When he wanted this, he did it. He boarded a Sidonian ship, the same one he always boarded whenever he wanted to do something like this, and gave the signal for the others to put out to sea, leaving the foot army behind. When he arrived and had looked at the mouth of the Peneius, Xerxes fell into great wonder. Calling the guides of the road, he asked whether it was possible to turn the river aside and bring it out into another sea.

Chapter 129

1The story is that Thessaly was in ancient times a lake, shut in all around by mountains of very great height. On its eastern side Mount Pelion and Ossa close it in, their lower slopes joining each other; on the north is Olympus; on the west Pindus; on the south, toward the south wind, Othrys. Thessaly lies in the middle of these mountains, a hollow land.

2Many rivers, besides others, pour into it — five are especially famous: the Peneius, the Apidanus, the Onochonus, the Enipeus, and the Pamisus. These gather in the plain from the mountains that ring Thessaly, and flow out into the sea through one pass, and that a narrow one, all their waters running together:

3And as soon as they are mixed together, from there the Peneius, taking over the name, makes the others nameless. In ancient times, it is said, when this pass did not yet exist and was not yet cut through, these rivers, and together with them the lake Boebeis, had no names as they have now, but flowed no less than they do now, and by flowing made all Thessaly into a sea.

4The Thessalians themselves say that Poseidon made the pass through which the Peneius flows, and they speak fittingly. Whoever believes that Poseidon shakes the earth, and that the works of earthquakes belong to this god, would say, on seeing that place too, that Poseidon made it. For the breaking apart of the mountains is, as it seems to me, the work of an earthquake.

Chapter 130

1The guides, being asked by Xerxes whether there was any other outlet of the Peneius into the sea, and knowing the truth exactly, said: "King, there is no other way out to the sea for this river than this one; all Thessaly is crowned about with mountains." It is said that Xerxes answered: "The Thessalians are wise men."

2It seems they had long before guarded themselves against this, and against other things too — namely, that they held a country easy to take and quickly lost. For only one thing would be needed to bring their country to a stop: the river. By heaping up a dam at the pass and turning the stream through other channels than those it now runs in, all Thessaly, except the mountains, would be put under water.

3Xerxes said this thinking of the sons of Aleuas, because the Thessalians, first of the Greeks, had given themselves over to the king; he thought that they were offering friendship on behalf of the whole nation. After saying this and viewing the place, he sailed back to Therma.

Chapter 131

1He spent many days in Pieria; for he was cutting a third of the army through the Macedonian mountain, so that the whole army might pass this way into Perraebia. In the meantime the heralds sent to Greece to ask for earth had arrived — some of them asking for it, and some of them already carrying earth and water.

Chapter 132

1After these people gave these things, those who did so were these: the Thessalians, the Dolopes, the Enienes, the Perrhaebians, the Locrians, the Magnetes, the Malieis, the Achaeans of Phthiotis, the Thebans, and the other Boeotians, except the Thespians and the Plataeans.

2On top of these things the Greeks who had taken up the war against the foreigner cut this oath. The oath ran as follows: any Greeks who gave themselves over to the Persian of their own will, not under compulsion, were to pay a tithe to the god at Delphi once things had gone well for them. Such was the oath the Greeks made.

Chapter 133

1Xerxes did not send heralds to Athens and Sparta to ask for earth, and for this reason: earlier, when Darius had sent heralds for that same purpose, some of the people there threw the men making the request into the pit, and others into a well, and told them to carry earth and water from there back to the king.

2For that reason Xerxes did not send anyone to ask. But what profit it brought the Athenians, once they had done this, that the heralds went away without getting what they asked — I cannot say anything, except that their land and their city were laid waste. But I do not think that happened for that reason.

Chapter 134

1The wrath of Talthybius, the herald of Agamemnon, fell upon the Lacedaemonians. There is a shrine of Talthybius in Sparta, and there are also descendants called Talthybiads; all the posts of herald that go out from Sparta are given to them as a privilege.

2After this the Spartans could not get fair omens when they sacrificed, and this lasted for them a long time. The Lacedaemonians were distressed and suffering misfortune; assemblies gathered often, and they made this proclamation: whether any Lacedaemonian was willing to die for Sparta. Then Sperthias son of Aneristus and Bulis son of Nicolaus, Spartan men well born by nature and of the first rank in wealth, offered themselves willingly to pay a penalty to Xerxes for the heralds of Darius who had died at Sparta.

3So the Spartans sent these men off to the Medes as men sent to their death.

Chapter 135

1This daring of these men deserves wonder, and with it these words that follow. For as they traveled to Susa they came to Hydarnes. This Hydarnes was a Persian by birth, and general of the peoples who live along the sea in Asia. He spread out for them gifts of hospitality — sail-cloth awnings — and while he entertained them as guests he asked them this:

2"Men of Lacedaemon, why do you flee from becoming friends with the king? You see that the king knows how to honor good men, as you can tell by looking at me and at my affairs. If you too gave yourselves to the king — for he has judged that you are good men — each of you would rule land in Greece, given by the king."

3To this they made the following reply. "Hydarnes, your advice to us does not come from equal experience. You advise us from what you have tried; the other thing you have never tried. You know well what it is to be a slave, but you have not yet tried freedom, to know whether it is sweet or not. If you had ever tried it, you would tell us to fight for it not only with spears but with axes as well."

Chapter 136

1They gave Hydarnes this answer. From there they went up to Susa and came into the king's presence. First the king's guards ordered them to bow down before the king, falling on the ground, and used force on them; but though the guards pushed them, they said they would never do this with their heads to the ground. It was not their custom to bow down to a human being, and they had not come for that. When they had fought off this demand, they were told the following next, in words like these:

2"King of the Medes, the Lacedaemonians sent us in place of the heralds who died at Sparta, to pay the penalty for those men." When they said this, Xerxes, out of his greatness of spirit, said he would not act like the Lacedaemonians: they had thrown the customs of all human beings into confusion by killing heralds. He himself would not do the things he blamed in them; he would not kill them in return and so free the Lacedaemonians of the guilt.

Chapter 137

1So the wrath of Talthybius stopped for the time being, once the Spartans had done these things and Sperthias and Bulis had come home safe to Sparta. But much later it woke again, in the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, as the Lacedaemonians say. This seems to me the most divine thing that happened among these events.

2For the wrath of Talthybius fell upon messengers and did not stop before it had run its course; that is what justice demanded. And its falling on the children of those same men who went up to the king because of the wrath — on Nicolaus son of Bulis and on Aneristus son of Sperthias, the one who captured the men of Halieis, settlers from Tiryns, as they sailed down in a merchant ship crowded with men — is clear to me: this thing came about by divine power, from the wrath.

3They had been sent by the Lacedaemonians as messengers to Asia, but were betrayed by Sitalces son of Teres, king of the Thracians, and by Nymphodorus son of Pytheas, a man of Abdera. They were taken at Bisanthe on the Hellespont, carried off to Attica, and put to death by the Athenians; with them died also Aristeas son of Adimantus, a Corinthian. These things happened many years after the king's expedition, and I go back to the earlier account.

Chapter 138

1The king's expedition had the name of marching against Athens, but it was aimed at all of Greece. The Greeks heard of this long in advance, and they did not all take it the same way.

2Those who had given earth and water to the Persian felt safe, since they expected nothing unpleasant from the foreigner. Those who had not given were in great fear, because Greece did not have enough ships fit to fight to receive the invader, and because most people did not want to take up the war but were eager to side with the Medes.

Chapter 139

1Here I am forced to state an opinion that most people will resent; nevertheless, because it seems to me true, I will not hold it back.

2If the Athenians, frightened by the danger that was coming, had left their own country, or if, without leaving, they had stayed and given themselves to Xerxes, no one would have tried to resist the king at sea. If no one had opposed Xerxes at sea, then this is what would have happened on land:

3Even if many rows of walls had been built across the Isthmus for the Peloponnesians, the Lacedaemonians would have been abandoned by their allies — not willingly, but under compulsion — as their cities were captured one after another by the foreigner's fleet. They would have been left alone; and left alone, after doing great deeds, they would have died bravely.

4Either they would have suffered that, or, seeing the other Greeks siding with the Medes first, they would have come to terms with Xerxes. Either way, Greece would have fallen to the Persians. I cannot see what use the walls built across the Isthmus would have been, with the king holding power over the sea.

5A person who said the Athenians became the saviors of Greece would not miss the truth. Whichever side they turned to, that was the side the scales were going to fall toward. They chose to keep Greece free, and they were the ones who roused up the rest of the Greek people — all who had not sided with the Medes — and drove back the king, with the gods' help.

6Nor was it that frightening oracles from Delphi, which threw them into fear, persuaded them to leave Greece. They held their ground and found the courage to meet the invader of their country.

Chapter 140

1The Athenians sent sacred envoys to Delphi, ready to consult the oracle. When they had performed the customary rites around the temple and had gone into the chamber and sat down, the Pythia — her name was Aristonice — spoke this oracle:

2"Wretches, why do you sit there? / Flee to the ends of the earth, leaving your houses / and the high tops of your wheel-shaped city. / For neither does the head stand firm, nor the body, / nor the feet below, nor the hands, / nor is anything in the middle left; all is wretched. / For fire and sharp Ares will bring it down, / driving a Syrian-born chariot."

3"It will destroy many other towers as well, not yours alone, / and give many temples of the immortals over to raging fire. / They now stand streaming with sweat, shaking with fear, / and black blood has poured down from their highest rooftops, / seeing ahead the compulsion of evil. / But go out from the inner chamber; brace your hearts amid evils."

Chapter 141

1When the Athenian envoys heard this, they met with the greatest misfortune. But Timon son of Androbulus, a man of Delphi of the highest standing, put before them a way out of the evil oracle: he advised them to take suppliant boughs and come back a second time and consult the oracle as suppliants.

2The Athenians were persuaded and went in and said, "Lord, give us a better answer about our native land. Respect these suppliant boughs we have come carrying, or else we will not leave your chamber; we will stay right here until we die." When they said this, the prophetess stationed at the door gave them a second oracle, this one:

3"Pallas cannot soften Olympian Zeus / with many words and close-woven schemes. / I will say this word to you again, firm as adamant: / when everything else is captured that lies within the border of Cecrops, / and the hidden hollow of holy Cithaeron, / then Zeus who sees far grants to Tritogeneia a wooden wall; / it alone shall stand unbroken; it will help you and your children."

4"Do not you stay and wait quietly for the horsemen and the footmen, / the great army coming from the mainland; turn your back and withdraw. / A time will come when you will face them again. / Divine Salamis, you will destroy the children of women, / whether Demeter is scattered or gathered in."

Chapter 142

1These words were gentler than the first ones, and they seemed gentler too. The envoys wrote them down and went back to Athens. When the envoys returned and reported to the people, many other opinions formed as people searched for the meaning of the oracle, and these stood out most: some of the older men said the god's answer meant the acropolis would be spared. In ancient times the Athenians had fenced the acropolis with a thorn hedge.

2Those who took it that way thought this fence was the wooden wall; others said the god meant the ships, and told them to get those ready and let everything else go. But the last two lines the Pythia had spoken tripped up those who said the ships were the wooden wall: "Divine Salamis, you will destroy the children of women, whether Demeter is scattered or gathered in."

3Because of these lines, the views of those who said the ships were the wooden wall lost ground. The collectors of oracles took the words this way: that if the Athenians got ready for a sea battle, they would be defeated at Salamis.

Chapter 143

1Among the Athenians was a man who had lately come forward into the first rank, named Themistocles, called the son of Neocles. This man said the oracle-mongers had not read the whole answer correctly, speaking as follows: "If the line had really been spoken about the Athenians, the oracle would not have sounded so mild; it would have read 'O wretched Salamis' instead of 'O divine Salamis,' if its people were going to die around it."

2But the oracle had been spoken by the god about the enemies, fitting them correctly, and not about the Athenians. So he advised them to prepare as men about to fight a sea battle, for the ships were this wooden wall.

3Themistocles gave this opinion, and the Athenians decided his view was better for them than that of the oracle-mongers — men who would not let them get ready for a sea battle, who, in short, would not even let them lift a hand, but told them to leave the land of Attica and settle somewhere else.

Chapter 144

1Another opinion of Themistocles, from before this one, proved its worth at the right moment. A large sum of money had come into the Athenians' public treasury from the mines at Laurium. They were about to divide it up, ten drachmas for each man. Themistocles at that time persuaded the Athenians to give up that division and use the money to build two hundred ships for the war, and he named the war with the Aeginetans.

2This war, when it came, saved Greece at that time, because it forced the Athenians to become sailors. The ships were not used for the purpose for which they were built; but when the need came, they served Greece in this way. The ships the Athenians had built in advance were at hand, and they had to build others as well.

3After the oracle, as they debated, the Athenians decided to meet the foreigner coming against Greece with all their ships, every man taking part, obeying the god, and together with the Greeks willing to join them.

Chapter 145

1Those were the oracles that had come to the Athenians. The Greeks who cared most for Greece's welfare, and who gave each other word and pledge, gathered together. In their talks they decided first of all, above everything else, to settle their hatreds and the wars they were waging against each other. They had quarrels with certain others as well, but the greatest was between the Athenians and the Aeginetans.

2Then, learning that Xerxes was in Sardis with his army, they decided to send spies to Asia to find out about the king's plans, and to send messengers to Argos to negotiate an alliance in arms against the Persian, and to send others to Sicily to Gelon son of Deinomenes, and others to Corcyra to ask for help for Greece, and others to Crete. They hoped that the Greek people might somehow become one, and that all of them, coming to agreement, might act the same way, since terrible things were coming on all Greeks alike. Gelon's power was said to be great, much greater than any of the Greek powers.

Chapter 146

1Once they had decided this, they settled their hatreds and first sent three men as spies into Asia. The spies reached Sardis and inspected the king's army, but they were caught. The generals of the land army questioned them under torture and were leading them away to be killed.

2The spies had already been condemned to death, but when Xerxes learned of this, he found fault with the generals' decision and sent some of his spear-bearers with these orders: if they caught the spies alive, they were to bring them before him.

3The spear-bearers caught the spies still alive and led them before the king. When Xerxes learned what they had come to do, he ordered the spear-bearers to walk them around and show them the whole land army and the cavalry; and when they had gazed at all this to their fill, to send them away unharmed to whatever country they wanted.

Chapter 147

1Continuing his speech, he gave these orders: if the spies died, the Greeks would not learn beforehand about his forces, which were greater than report, and killing three men would not greatly frighten the enemy. But if these men went back to Greece, he said he thought the Greeks, on hearing about his power, would hand over their own freedom before the expedition set out, and so there would be no need to march out against them.

2This opinion of his grew from something different from the rest. For while Xerxes was at Abydos, he saw grain ships coming out of the Black Sea and sailing through the Hellespont on their way to Aegina and the Peloponnese. His attendants learned that the ships were enemy vessels and were ready to seize them, watching the king for the moment he would give the order.

3Xerxes asked them where the ships were sailing. They said, "To your enemies, master, carrying grain." He answered, "Are we not sailing to the very place they are going, supplied with everything else besides grain? What wrong, then, are these men doing us, carrying food past us?"

Chapter 148

1The spies, after seeing all this and being sent away, went back to Europe. The Greeks who had sworn an oath together against the Persian, once the spies had been sent off, sent messengers to Argos a second time.

2The Argives say their own story went like this. They learned at the very start about the things the foreigner was stirring up against Greece. Learning this, and understanding that the Greeks would try to bring them in against the Persian, they sent sacred envoys to Delphi to ask the god what would turn out best for them to do. Six thousand of their men had lately died at the hands of the Lacedaemonians and of Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides, and for that reason they sent.

3To their question the Pythia gave this answer: "Enemy to your neighbors, dear to the immortal gods: / stay within your rampart, keeping watch, and guard your head; / the head will save the body." This was the Pythia's first prophecy to them. Afterward, when the messengers came to Argos, they went into the council chamber and spoke the orders they had been given.

4The Argives answered what was said that they were ready to do this, if they made a thirty-year truce with the Lacedaemonians and had command of half of the whole alliance. They said that by rights the command should belong to them alone, but that it would still be enough for them to lead half.

Chapter 149

1They say the council answered this way, even though the oracle warned them not to make an alliance with the Greeks. They were eager for a thirty-year truce, in spite of their fear of the oracle, so that their children would grow to manhood within those years. And if there were no truce, they feared that if some second disaster from the Persian struck them on top of the one they had already suffered, they would end up subjects of the Lacedaemonians forever after.

2The messengers from Sparta replied to the council's words in this way: about the truce, they would bring the matter before the assembly of the people; about the command, they had instructions to answer as follows. Sparta had two kings, Argos one. It was not possible for either of the Spartans to give up the command; but nothing stood in the way of the Argive having one vote equal to their two.

3The Argives say they could not put up with this greed of the Spartans, and chose rather to be ruled by the foreigners than to give way at all to the Lacedaemonians. They told the messengers to be gone from the land of Argos before the sun set; if not, they would be treated as enemies.

Chapter 150

1This is what the Argives themselves say about these matters. There is another story told throughout Greece: that Xerxes sent a herald to Argos before he started his march against Greece.

2It is said that when this man arrived he said: "Men of Argos, King Xerxes says this to you. We believe that Perses, from whom we have descended, was the son of Perseus, son of Danae, born of Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus. If that is so, then we would be your descendants. It would not be right, then, for us to march against our own ancestors, nor for you to become enemies of ours by helping others against us; rather you should keep quiet, keeping to yourselves. If everything falls out according to my mind, I will hold no people greater than you."

3The Argives, having heard this, are said to have acted as follows. At first they asked for nothing in return. But once the Greeks took them in as allies, they then asked for a share of the command, because they knew well that the Lacedaemonians would not share it. They did this so they would have an excuse for sitting the war out.

Chapter 151

1Some Greeks say another story that fits with these, from many years later. The Athenian envoys — Callias son of Hipponicus and those who went up with him — happened to be in Susa, in the Memnonian quarter, on other business. At that very time the Argives had also sent envoys to Susa, and they asked Artaxerxes son of Xerxes whether he still wished to keep the friendship they had struck up with Xerxes, or whether they should think of him as an enemy. King Artaxerxes said he held to it most firmly, and that he considered no city more friendly than Argos.

Chapter 152

1Whether Xerxes really sent a herald to Argos with this message, and whether Argive envoys really went up to Susa and questioned Artaxerxes about the friendship — I cannot say for sure. I state no opinion about these matters except the one the Argives themselves tell:

2But I do know this much: if all people could bring their own troubles out into the open, wanting to trade them with their neighbors, then each of them, after looking closely at the troubles of the people next to them, would gladly carry back home the very troubles they had brought out.

3So the Argives are not the only ones whose affairs have turned out worst. It is my duty to report what is said, but not entirely my duty to believe it — let that saying stand for my whole account. This too is said: that the Argives were the ones who called the Persian in against Greece, because their fortunes stood badly against the Lacedaemonians, and they wanted anything rather than the grief they were in.

Chapter 153

1So much about the Argives. Other envoys from the allies also came to Sicily and met with Gelon; from the Lacedaemonians came Syagrus. The ancestor of this Gelon was a settler in Gela, and he came from the island of Telos, which lies off Triopium. He was not left behind when Gela was founded by the Lindians from Rhodes and by Antiphemus.

2After a stretch of time his descendants became and remained priests of the gods of the underworld, because Telenes, one of those ancestors, gained the office in this way. Men of Gela, defeated in a faction fight, had fled to Mactorium, a city that sits above Gela;

3this Telenes led those men back down to Gela. He had no armed force of men at all — only the sacred things of those gods. Where he got them, or how he gained them for himself, I cannot say. Because he trusted in them he led the men back, and that is why his descendants are priests of the gods.

4This too has amazed me as I asked about it: that Telenes pulled off so great a deed. Deeds like that, in my judgment, are not done by just any man, but by a man of good spirit and manly strength. Yet the people of Sicily say he was born with the opposite nature: a womanish and softer man.

Chapter 154

1This man won that honor. When Cleander son of Pantares ended his life — he had ruled Gela as tyrant for seven years and died at the hands of Sabyllus, a man of Gela — Hippocrates, Cleander's brother, took up the single rule. While Hippocrates held the tyranny, Gelon — a descendant of Telenes the priest — served in his guard among many others, among them Aenesidemus son of Pataicus, who was one of Hippocrates' spear-bearers.

2Not long after, for his merit he was accepted as commander of the whole cavalry. For when Hippocrates was besieging the Callipolitae, the Naxians, the Zanclaeans, and the Leontines, and making war on the Syracusans and many of the foreigners, Gelon showed himself the most outstanding man in all these wars. None of these cities escaped slavery under Hippocrates except Syracuse;

3the Corinthians and the Corcyraeans saved the Syracusans after they had lost the battle at the river Elorus. They made peace on these terms: that the Syracusans hand Camarina over to Hippocrates. Camarina had belonged to Syracuse in ancient times.

Chapter 155

1Hippocrates too, after ruling the same number of years as his brother Cleander, met his death while campaigning against the Sicels at the city of Hybla. Then Gelon, who claimed in words that he was avenging Hippocrates' sons Euclides and Cleander — the citizens no longer willing to obey them — took power in fact for himself. Once he had beaten the men of Gela in battle, he ruled alone, stripping the power from Hippocrates' sons.

2After this exploit, Gelon brought the men called the gamoroi — the landowners among the Syracusans — back down from the city of Casmenae. The commons and their own slaves, who were called the Cyllyrians, had driven them out. Gelon then also held Syracuse itself: the commons of the Syracusans surrendered the city and themselves to him as he advanced.

Chapter 156

1Once he had taken Syracuse, he made Gela count for less with him, since he held it, and handed it over to his brother Hiero. He made Syracuse strong, and all Syracuse was his.

2Syracuse at once shot up and put out new growth. This is what he did: he brought all the people of Camarina to Syracuse and made them citizens, and he tore the city of Camarina down; and with more than half the townsmen of Gela he did the same as with the Camarinaeans. The Megarians in Sicily, when they were besieged and came to terms, he dealt with so: the rich among them, who had taken up the war against him and expected to be destroyed for it, he brought to Syracuse and made citizens; the commons of the Megarians, who had had no part in starting the war and expected to suffer no harm at all, he brought also to Syracuse — and sold them, to be carried out of Sicily.

3He did the very same thing to the Euboeans in Sicily, after sorting them out. He treated both peoples this way because he thought the commons the most unwelcome kind of company to live with.

Chapter 157

1This is how Gelon became a great tyrant. Now when the Greek envoys arrived at Syracuse, they went into talk with him and said: "The Lacedaemonians and their allies sent us to take you in against the foreigner. You cannot have failed to hear about the one marching on Greece: a Persian who means to yoke the Hellespont, lead all the eastern army out of Asia, and march against Greece. He makes the excuse that he is driving on Athens, but his plan is to make all of Greece his own."

2"You come with great power, and your share in Greece is not the least, since you rule Sicily. Help the men who are freeing Greece, and help free it yourself. If all Greece is enslaved, it gathers into one great hand, and we are a match for those who come upon us. But if some of us betray the cause and others refuse to take vengeance, and the sound part of Greece is small, then the danger is real that all Greece falls."

3"Do not hope that if the Persian beats us in battle he will not come to you too. Watch out for that before it happens: in helping us, you are taking vengeance for yourself. And for a man who plans well, the end of the business usually turns out good."

Chapter 158

1They said these things; but Gelon pressed back hard and said the following: "Men of Greece, you dare to invite me to be your ally against the foreigner with a request that takes advantage of me.

2"Earlier, when my quarrel with the Carthaginians arose, I asked you yourselves to join me in fighting a foreign army. I urged you to avenge the death of Dorieus son of Anaxandrides at the hands of the Egestaeans, and I offered to free the trading ports from which great gains and pleasures have come to you. You never came to help me, and you never went to avenge the death of Dorieus. And yet everything now happening to you is being dealt out by the foreigners."

3"But for us things turned out for the better. Now that the war has come full circle and arrived at you, at last you remember Gelon."

4"I have met dishonor at your hands, but I will not treat you as you treated me. I am ready to help, and I will put forward two hundred triremes and twenty thousand armored foot soldiers and two thousand horsemen and two thousand archers and two thousand slingers and two thousand lightly armed horse-runners. And I undertake to provide grain for the whole Greek army, for as long as the war lasts."

5"I make this offer on one condition: that I be general and leader of the Greeks against the foreigner. On any other condition I would neither come myself nor send others."

Chapter 159

1When Syagrus heard this, he could not bear it and said: "Agamemnon son of Pelops would groan aloud if he learned that the Spartans had the command torn from them by Gelon and the Syracusans. But speak no more of that argument — how we are to hand the command over to you. If you want to help Greece, know that you will serve under the Lacedaemonians. If you do not think it right to be commanded, then do not help at all."

Chapter 160

1To these words Gelon, when he saw that Syagrus' words had turned to abuse, brought out his final speech: "Stranger of Sparta, when insults come at a man, they love to bring his anger back up; but you, though you have thrown outrage at me in your speech, will not persuade me to answer with anything shameful."

2"Since you hold the command so tightly, it is fair that I should hold it more than you, for I lead an army many times your size and many more sailing ships. But since your argument stands so firm against me, I will give way a little from my original claim: you may lead the land army, and I the fleet. If it pleases you to command at sea, I am willing to lead on land. You must either be content with these terms or go away stripped of allies such as these."

Chapter 161

1Gelon put forward these terms. The Athenian envoy, speaking before the Lacedaemonian could, answered him as follows: "King of the Syracusans, Greece did not send us to you needing a commander; it needs an army. You give no sign that you will send an army without leading Greece; but you crave to command it."

2"As far as your wanting to lead the whole Greek army, it would have been enough for us Athenians to keep quiet, since we knew the Lacedaemonian was going to be enough to speak for us both. But since you insist on commanding the whole fleet, this is how it stands: even if the Lacedaemonian allows you to command it, we will not agree. This command is ours, not the Lacedaemonians', unless they themselves want it. So we do not oppose the Lacedaemonians when they want to lead; but we will yield the command of the sea to no one else."

3"It would be pointless for us, owners of the largest navy among the Greeks, to give up the command to Syracusans, we being Athenians, who put forward the most ancient people of the Greeks — the only ones who have never changed their home. Of this people Homer the poet of epic said that the best man came to Ilium to draw up and marshal the army. So it is no disgrace for us to say these things."

Chapter 162

1Gelon answered with these words: "Athenian stranger, you have come bringing your commanders, but you have not brought the men who are to be commanded. Since then you will yield nothing, wanting to keep everything, hurry away back home as fast as you can, and tell Greece that spring has been torn out of the year."

2This was the meaning of the words: spring is plainly the most prized part of the year, and he was likening his own army to the army of the Greeks — picturing Greece, robbed of his alliance, as if spring had been taken out of the year.

Chapter 163

1So the Greek envoys, after settling their business with Gelon, sailed away. As for Gelon: he feared for the Greeks, that they might not be able to beat off the foreigner; but he also thought it terrible and unbearable, being tyrant of Sicily, to go to the Peloponnese and serve under the Lacedaemonians. So he let that road go and held to another.

2As soon as he heard that the Persian had crossed the Hellespont, he sent Cadmus son of Scythes, a man of Cos, to Delphi in three fifty-oared ships. Cadmus carried a great deal of money and friendly words. He was to watch for the battle and which side it fell to. If the foreigner won, he was to hand the money over to him, and earth and water for the lands Gelon ruled; but if the Greeks won, he was to bring everything back.

Chapter 164

1This Cadmus had earlier received the tyranny of Cos from his father, a power firmly in place. Yet willingly, with no danger pressing on him, but out of a sense of justice, he laid his power down before the Coans and went away to Sicily. There he received and settled the city of Zancle, which later changed its name to Messene.

2Gelon sent this Cadmus, who had come to Sicily in that manner out of justice — a justice he himself knew to be different from his own. Along with the other just deeds of his own doing, this man left behind one more that was not the least of them. He had control of a great amount of money entrusted to him by Gelon, and though he could have kept it, he did not want to. When the Greeks won the sea battle and Xerxes had fled in retreat, he too came back to Sicily, bringing all the money with him.

Chapter 165

1The people who live in Sicily tell this story too: that Gelon would have helped the Greeks all the same, even though he was going to serve under the Lacedaemonians, if the following had not happened. Terillus son of Crinippus, tyrant of Himera, had been driven out of Himera by Theron son of Aenesidemus, sole ruler of the Agrigentines. At that very time Terillus brought against Gelon thirty myriads of men — Phoenicians, Libyans, Iberians, Ligurians, Elisycans, Sardinians, and Corsicans — with Amilcas son of Hanno, king of the Carthaginians, as their general. Terillus brought them in through his own guest-friendship, and above all through the eagerness of Anaxilaus son of Cretines, tyrant of Rhegium. Anaxilaus gave his own children as hostages to Amilcas and brought him against Sicily to take vengeance for his father-in-law, for Anaxilaus had married Terillus' daughter, whose name was Cydippe. So Gelon, unable to help the Greeks, sent the money off to Delphi.

Chapter 166

1They say this too: it came about on the very same day that Gelon and Theron defeated Amilcas the Carthaginian in Sicily, and the Greeks defeated the Persian at Salamis. Amilcas the Carthaginian was a Carthaginian on his father's side and a Syracusan on his mother's, and he had become king of the Carthaginians through manly courage. I learn that as the battle was joined and as he was losing it, he disappeared; for he was seen neither alive nor dead anywhere on earth, though Gelon searched for him everywhere.

Chapter 167

1The Carthaginians themselves tell this story, and it seems likely enough: the foreigners in Sicily fought the Greeks from dawn until late in the day — the battle, they say, lasted that long. During all that time Amilcas stayed in the camp, sacrificing and burning whole bodies of victims on a great pyre, seeking good omens. When he saw his own men turning to flight, he was in the middle of pouring drink-offerings on the sacrifices; he threw himself into the fire, and so, burned up, he disappeared.

2However Amilcas vanished — whether in this way, as the Phoenicians say, or in some other way, as the Carthaginians and Syracusans say — they offer sacrifices to him, and they have built memorials to him in all the cities of their settlements, the greatest in Carthage itself.

Chapter 168

1So much for Sicily. The Corcyraeans gave the envoys this answer, and this is what they did. The same envoys who had gone to Sicily also came to them, saying the same things they had said to Gelon. The Corcyraeans at once promised to send help and to defend Greece, saying that the destruction of Greece was not something they could sit and watch: if Greece failed, they themselves would be enslaved the very next day. They said vengeance would have to be taken with the greatest force they had.

2They gave this fair-sounding answer. But when the time came to help, they had other plans: they manned sixty ships, and only with difficulty sailed out and drew near the Peloponnese, where they lay at anchor with their ships around Pylos and Taenarum, on Lacedaemonian ground. They too watched to see which way the war would fall. They had no hope that the Greeks would beat back the Persian; they expected that once the Persian won control he would rule all of Greece for a long time.

3They acted deliberately, so they could say these things to the Persian: "King, when the Greeks tried to bring us into this war, we — with power by no means small, and able to offer not the fewest ships but the most after the Athenians — were not willing to oppose you or to do anything that would give you offense." With words like this they hoped to gain more than the others would; and that, in my judgment, is what happened.

4For the Greeks they had worked out an excuse, and this they used. When the Greeks blamed them for not helping, they said they had manned sixty triremes, but that the etesian winds had made it impossible to round Cape Malea. That was why, they said, they had not reached Salamis, and so they had fallen short of the sea battle through no cowardice at all.

Chapter 169

1These men, then, tricked their way past the Greeks. The Cretans, when the Greeks who had been appointed for this task came to them, did the following: they sent sacred envoys together to Delphi and asked the god whether it would turn out better for them to be avengers of Greece.

2The Pythia answered them: "Foolish ones, do you complain of the tears of the wrathful that Minos sent you out of Menelaus' acts of vengeance: / the men of that day did not join in avenging the death he met at Camicus, / while you avenged for Menelaus the woman carried off from Sparta by a foreign man." When the Cretans heard this answer brought back to them, they gave up the vengeance.

Chapter 170

1For it is said that Minos, while searching for Daedalus, came to Sicania, the land now called Sicily, and there died a violent death. After a stretch of time the Cretans — all of them except the men of Polichna and Praesus — were urged on by a god, came with a great fleet to Sicania, and besieged the city of Camicus for five years. In my day the Agrigentines held that city.

2In the end, since hunger pressed them, they could neither take the city nor stay; they went away and left it. As they were sailing along Iapygia, a great storm caught them and threw them onto the land. Their ships were broken to pieces, and they saw no way left to get back to Crete. So they founded the city of Hyria, stayed there, and changed: instead of Cretans they became Iapygian Messapians, and instead of islanders, mainland people.

3From the city of Hyria they founded the other cities. The Tarentines, many years later, destroyed those settlements — and so they stumbled very badly. The greatest killing of Greeks that we know of came about, of the Tarentines themselves and of the Rhegines: the townspeople, forced by Micythus son of Choerus, came as avengers for the Tarentines, and three thousand of them died in this way; of the Tarentines themselves the number was never counted.

4This Micythus had been left as regent of Rhegium; he was a household slave of Anaxilaus. He is the man who, after being driven out of Rhegium and settling in Tegea in Arcadia, dedicated the many statues at Olympia.

Chapter 171

1But the business of the Rhegines and the Tarentines has become a digression in my account. As for Crete: after it was emptied of people, other men came to settle there, and Greeks most of all, so the Praesians say. In the third generation after Minos' death the Trojan War happened, and in it the Cretans showed themselves not the worst of Menelaus' avengers.

2After those men came back from Troy, famine and plague struck them and their flocks, until Crete was emptied a second time. Its present dwellers, the Cretans, are the third group of people to live in it. By reminding the Cretans of all this, the Pythia stopped them from wanting to go avenge the Greeks.

Chapter 172

1The Thessalians, as they made clear, first sided with the Medes under compulsion, because they did not approve of the schemes of the Aleuadae. As soon as they learned that the Persian was about to cross into Europe, they sent messengers to the Isthmus. At the Isthmus the counselors of Greece had come together under oath — men chosen from the cities that thought most for Greece's good.

2When the Thessalian messengers came to these men, they said: "Men of Greece, the Olympic pass must be guarded, so that Thessaly and the whole of Greece stand under shelter for the war. We ourselves are ready to guard it together with you; but you too must send a large army. If you do not send one, know that we will come to terms with the Persian. It is not right that we, who stand in front of all the rest of Greece by so much, should be destroyed alone before your eyes."

3"And if you do not want to help, you cannot bring any force to bear on us. For nothing that grows is stronger than the necessity that comes from helplessness. We ourselves will try to contrive some way to safety."

Chapter 173

1This is what the Thessalians said. In answer the Greeks decided to send a land army to Thessaly by sea, to guard the pass. When the army had gathered, it sailed through the Euripus. Reaching Alus in Achaea, the soldiers went ashore and marched into Thessaly, leaving the ships there. They came to Tempe, the pass that leads from lower Macedonia into Thessaly along the river Peneus, lying between the mountain Olympus and the mountain Ossa.

2There the Greeks made camp, about ten thousand armored foot soldiers gathered together, and the Thessalian cavalry was with them. The Lacedaemonian commander was Evaenetus son of Carenus, chosen from among the polemarchs, though not of the royal family. The Athenian commander was Themistocles son of Neocles. They stayed there a few days;

3for messengers came from Alexander son of Amyntes, a Macedonian man. They advised them to go away and not, by staying in the pass, be trampled underfoot by the army that was coming, and they pointed out the size of the army and the fleet. Since this seemed good advice, and the Macedonian seemed to them well disposed, they were persuaded.

4In my judgment, fear was what persuaded them. They had learned that another pass also led into Thessaly, through upper Macedonia by way of the Perrhaebians past the city of Gonnus — the very pass by which the army of Xerxes did in fact come in. The Greeks went down to their ships and traveled back to the Isthmus.

Chapter 174

1That was the expedition to Thessaly, taken while the king was about to cross from Asia into Europe and was already at Abydos. The Thessalians, left without allies, sided with the Medes from then on eagerly, and no longer with any doubt, so that in the events that followed they showed themselves the king's most useful men.

Chapter 175

1When the Greeks got back to the Isthmus, they took counsel, in light of what Alexander had said, about where they would stand in the war and in what places. The opinion that won was to guard the pass at Thermopylae. It seemed narrower than the one into Thessaly, and at the same time closer to their own country.

2As for the hidden path through which the Greeks holding Thermopylae were later taken, they did not even know it existed until they came to Thermopylae and learned about it from the Trachinians. The plan, then, was to guard the pass and not let the foreigner through into Greece, and to have the fleet sail past the land of Histiaeotis to Artemisium. These two places lie close to each other, so that each force could learn what was happening with the other. That is how the land is laid out.

Chapter 176

1This is the Artemisium. The passage narrows from the wide Thracian sea into the strait between the island of Sciathos and the mainland of Magnesia. Out of the strait, on the shore of Euboea, the coast takes in the Artemisium, and on it stands a temple of Artemis.

2The entrance into Greece through Trachis is at its narrowest half a plethron wide. But this is not the narrowest place in the rest of that country. There is another spot behind Thermopylae as well, near Alpeni, where only a cart track passes, and another in front of it, by the river Phoenix near the city of Anthela, where again only a cart track passes.

3At Thermopylae, on the western side, a mountain rises up toward Oeta — unclimbable, steep, and high. On the eastern side of the road the sea and the flat marshes come up to meet it. In this entrance there are hot baths, which the local people call the Pots, and an altar of Heracles stands beside them. A wall had been built across this pass, and in ancient times there were gates on it.

4The Phocaeans built the wall out of fear, when the Thessalians came out of Thesprotis to settle the land of Aeolis, as that country now stretches. The Thessalians were trying to bring them under their power, so the Phocaeans guarded against this in advance. They turned the hot water to run out onto the pass at that time, so the ground would be cut up with gullies, doing everything they could so the Thessalians would not invade their land.

5The old wall had been built long ago, and most of it had already fallen down with time. The Greeks raised it up again, thinking to defend Greece against the foreigner this way. The village closest to the road is named Alpeni. The Greeks planned to get their food supplies from there.

Chapter 177

1These places seemed to the Greeks well suited for their purpose. They looked over everything and reckoned that there the foreigners could not make use either of their numbers or of their cavalry. So they decided to meet the invader of Greece there. When they learned the Persian was in Pieria, they broke up from the Isthmus and set out, some on foot for Thermopylae, others by sea for Artemisium.

Chapter 178

1The Greeks hurried to the rescue, each assigned to their place. At the same time the Delphians, afraid for themselves and for Greece, consulted the god. He told them to pray to the winds: these would be great allies for Greece.

2The Delphians received the oracle and first announced to those Greeks who wanted to be free what had been prophesied to them. By bringing this news to men in great fear of the foreigner, they laid up a favor that would not die. After this the Delphians gave the winds an altar at Thyia — the place where the sacred ground of Thyia, daughter of Cephisus, lies, from whom this district also takes its name — and they offered sacrifices to the winds.

Chapter 179

1To this day the Delphians honor the winds, in obedience to that oracle. The fleet of Xerxes put out from the city of Therma, and ten of its best-sailing ships ran down toward Sciathos, where three Greek ships were keeping watch in advance: one from Troezen, one from Aegina, and one from Attica. When those Greeks saw the ships of the foreigners, they fled.

Chapter 180

1The foreigners, following behind, at once took the ship from Troezen, whose captain was Praxinus. They then led the handsomest of the fighting men aboard her up to the bow of the ship and cut his throat there. They took it for a good omen that the first Greek they captured was also the best-looking. The man they slaughtered was named Leon, and perhaps even his name played some part.

Chapter 181

1The ship from Aegina, whose trierarch was Asonides, also gave them some trouble. Pytheas son of Ischenous served aboard her, and he proved the bravest man that day. As the ship was being taken, he held out, fighting, until his whole body was cut to pieces.

2When he fell and still breathed, the Persians who served as fighting men on the ships, because of his courage, made it their special care to keep him alive. They treated his wounds with myrrh and wrapped them in bandages of fine linen cloth;

3and when they came back to their own camp, they showed him to the whole army in wonder, treating him well. The other men they took in that ship they kept as slaves.

Chapter 182

1So the two ships were captured. The third ship, whose trierarch was an Athenian named Phormus, fled and ran aground at the mouths of the Peneus. The foreigners got the empty ship but not the men: the Athenians leaped off as soon as the ship ran aground, made their way through Thessaly, and got back safe to Athens.

Chapter 183

1The Greeks encamped at Artemisium learned of these things by signal fires from Sciathos. When they learned and were afraid, they moved their ships from Artemisium to Chalcis, to guard the Euripus, and left lookouts on the high places of Euboea.

2Three of the ten foreign ships ran onto the hidden rock that lies between Sciathos and Magnesia, called Myrmex. The foreigners had set out themselves from Therma; they brought a stone pillar and set it up on the rock, and so, the obstacle made clean for themselves, they sailed on with all their ships. It was the eleventh day after the king's army marched out of Therma.

3Pammon, a man of Scyros, had pointed out to them best where the rock lay in the passage. The foreigners sailed all day and came up the coast of Magnesia to Sepias and to the shore that lies between the city of Casthanaea and the headland of Sepias.

Chapter 184

1Up to this place and to Thermopylae the army had suffered no harm, and its numbers were still at that point, as I find by adding up, these: the ships from Asia were one thousand two hundred and seven. Counting two hundred men in each ship, the original crew of each people comes to twenty-four myriads and one thousand four hundred men.

2On these ships, besides the native fighting men of each, went thirty men — Persians, Medes, and Sacae. This makes another body: thirty-six thousand two hundred and ten men.

3I will add to this number and to the first number the men in the fifty-oared ships, counting eighty men in each, whether in truth they carried more or fewer. These boats, as was said before, were gathered together, three thousand of them. The men in them would come to twenty-four myriads.

4This then was the fleet from Asia, all together: fifty-one myriads, seven thousand, six hundred and ten men. The land army came to one hundred and seventy myriads, and the horsemen to eight myriads. I will add to these the Arabs who drove the camels and the Libyans who drove the wagons, making twenty thousand men.

5The numbers of the fleet and of the land army added together come to two hundred and thirty-one myriads, seven thousand, six hundred and ten men. That is the army brought out from Asia itself, not counting the attendants who followed it, the grain ships, or the men who sailed in those ships.

Chapter 185

1The army brought from Europe must still be added to all this counted number; here I have to speak by estimate. The Greeks from Thrace and from the islands lying off Thrace furnished one hundred and twenty ships. From these ships come forty-two thousand men.

2As for the foot soldiers: the Thracians, Paeonians, Eordians, Bottiaeans, the Chalcidian people, Brygi, Pieres, Macedonians, Perrhaebians, Enienes, Dolopes, Magnetes, Achaeans, and all who dwell along the coast of Thrace furnished them. Of these peoples I judge there were thirty myriads.

3When these myriads are added to those from Asia, all the fighting men together come to two hundred and sixty-four myriads, with sixteen hundreds and a ten on top of them.

Chapter 186

1The fighting men number so much. As for the attendants who followed them, and the men in the grain-carrying boats, and the men in the other vessels that sailed along with the army — I judge these were not fewer than the fighting men, but more.

2I make them equal to the others, neither more nor less at all. When these are set equal to the fighting men, they fill out the same myriads as the others. So Xerxes son of Darius brought to Sepias and Thermopylae five hundred and twenty-eight myriads, three thousand, two hundred and twenty men.

Chapter 187

1This then is the number of Xerxes' whole expedition. As for the women who baked the bread, the concubines, and the eunuchs, no one could say their true number. Nor of the pack animals and the other beasts of burden, nor of the Indian dogs that followed along — their numbers were too great for anyone to state. So I feel no wonder about being unable to say which river channels were drained dry; the wonder for me is how the food was enough for so many myriads.

2For I find by calculation that if each man took a choinix of wheat a day and nothing more, it would come to eleven myriads of medimnis full each day, plus three hundred and forty medimnis on top of that; and the women and eunuchs and pack animals and dogs I do not count. With men in such myriads as these, for beauty and for size no one among them was more worthy than Xerxes himself to hold this power.

Chapter 188

1When the fleet had set out and sailed and reached the coast of Magnesia — the shore that lies between the city of Casthanaea and the headland of Sepias — the first ships moored close in to land, and the others anchored behind them. Since the beach was not large, they moored with their bows sticking out into the sea, eight ships deep.

2So they passed that night. But at dawn, out of a clear sky and a calm sea, a great storm fell upon them with a strong east wind — the wind the people who live in those parts call the Hellespontian.

3Those of the men who learned that the wind was rising and beached their ships in time — both they and their ships survived. The storm caught many ships out at sea: some it carried to the place called Ipni, in Pelion; some it drove onto the shore; some were thrown around right at Sepias itself; some were wrecked at the city of Meliboea, some at Casthanaea. The storm was beyond bearing.

Chapter 189

1There is a story that the Athenians called on Boreas to help them because of an oracle, when another oracle had come to them telling them to call on their son-in-law as a helper. In the Greeks' account, Boreas has a wife from Attica, Oreithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus.

2The story goes that the Athenians, because of this marriage tie, made up their minds that Boreas was their son-in-law. While their ships lay at anchor at Chalcis in Euboea, as soon as they learned that the storm was growing—or even before this—they sacrificed and called on Boreas and Oreithyia to come to their aid and destroy the foreigners' ships, as had happened before at Athos.

3I cannot say for certain whether Boreas fell on the foreigners at their anchorage because of these prayers. But the Athenians say that Boreas had helped them before and brought these things about now too, and that when they went home they set up a temple to Boreas by the river Ilissus.

Chapter 190

1In this disaster, the reports say, no fewer than four hundred ships were destroyed, with countless men and a huge amount of money. So this shipwreck turned out to be very profitable for Ameinocles son of Cretines, a Magnesian whose ship lay at anchor near Sepias. He picked up later many gold cups washed up out of the sea, and many silver ones too; he found treasuries of the Persians, and he gathered other riches beyond telling. He became very rich from these finds, though luck failed him in other ways. A sorrow without any grace also weighed on him: it had cost him his child.

Chapter 191

1The grain carriers and the other vessels destroyed were past counting. So the commanders of the naval force, afraid that the Thessalians might attack them in this weakened state, built a high fence around themselves out of the wreckage.

2The storm had blown for three days. In the end the Magians, who are wizards, made offerings and sang charms over the wind; they also sacrificed to Thetis and to the Nereids, and on the fourth day they put the wind to rest—or else it died down on its own, however it happened. They sacrificed to Thetis because they had heard the story from the Ionians: that she had been carried off from this place by Peleus, and that the whole Sepias headland belonged to her and to the other Nereids.

Chapter 192

1The storm stopped on the fourth day. But the Greeks' lookouts ran down from the headlands of Euboea on the second day after the first storm had begun, and they signaled everything that had happened in the shipwreck.

2When they heard this, they prayed to Poseidon the Savior, poured libations as fast as they could, and hurried straight back to Artemisium. They hoped that only a few ships would be left to meet them in battle.

Chapter 193

1The Greeks came back a second time and anchored at Artemisium, and from this event Poseidon has carried the title Savior down to this day. When the wind fell and the sea grew smooth, the foreigners hauled their ships down to the water and sailed along the mainland; after rounding the point of Magnesia, they sailed straight into the bay that runs toward Pegasae.

2There is a place in this bay of Magnesia where Heracles is said to have been left behind by Jason and his companions from the Argo: they had sent him for water when they were sailing against the city of Aea in Colchis, for from this place they meant to take on water and then put out into the open sea. From this the place got the name Aphetae. Here, then, Xerxes' fleet came to anchor.

Chapter 194

1Fifteen of these ships happened to be the last ones, driven far out from the rest, and somehow they caught sight of the Greek ships at Artemisium. The foreigners took them for their own ships and sailed straight into their enemies. Their commander was Sandoces son of Thamasius, the vice-admiral from Cyme in Aeolis. Darius had formerly seized this man and crucified him, though he was one of the royal judges: Sandoces had given an unjust verdict for money.

2While he hung there, Darius counted up his deeds and found that the good things Sandoces had done for the royal house were more than his offenses. Seeing this, and realizing that the thing had been done with more speed than wisdom, Darius set him free.

3So Sandoces had escaped being put to death by the king. But now, by sailing down on the Greeks, he was not fated to escape a second time. When the Greeks saw the ships bearing down on them and learned what a mistake these men were making, they swung their own ships around and took them easily.

Chapter 195

1In one of these ships Aridolis was taken while sailing in; he was tyrant of Alabanda in Caria. In another was taken the Paphian commander Penthylos son of Demonous. He had led twelve ships out of Paphos; he lost eleven of them in the storm at Sepias, and as he sailed into Artemisium with the one ship that was left, he was taken. The Greeks questioned these men about the things they wanted to learn concerning Xerxes' army, and then sent them off bound to the Isthmus of Corinth.

Chapter 196

1The foreigners' naval force reached Aphetae, except for the fifteen ships whose commander I said was Sandoces. Xerxes' land army marched through Thessaly and Achaea, and on the third day after it invaded it was in the land of the Malians. While in Thessaly Xerxes held a contest of horses, testing his own cavalry and the Thessalian too, for he had heard that it was the best among the Greeks; there the Greek horses were left far behind. Of the rivers of Thessaly, only the Onochonus failed to give the army enough, its stream being drunk up as it flowed; of the rivers of Achaea, even the greatest of them, the Epidanus, barely held out.

Chapter 197

1When Xerxes came to Alus in Achaea, the guides of the road, wanting to explain everything to him, told him a story of the country, the one about the temple of Zeus Laphystius: how Athamas son of Aeolus plotted with Ino and contrived the death of Phrixus, and how afterward, because of an oracle, the Achaeans laid on the descendants of that man contests of this kind:

2They order the oldest of this family to serve in the leiton, and they themselves keep guard over him. The Achaeans call the town hall the leiton. If a man goes in, there is no way he can come out except to be sacrificed. And besides this, many of those due to be sacrificed have already run away in fear to another country, and when after a time they come back and are caught, they are brought into the town hall. They are led out to the sacrifice crowned with garlands all over, and they are taken out in a procession.

3This is what the descendants of Cytissorus son of Phrixus suffer. When the Achaeans were purifying the land by the oracle's command and were about to sacrifice Athamas son of Aeolus, this Cytissorus came from Aea in Colchis and rescued him. By doing this he brought the god's anger down on the descendants born from himself.

4When Xerxes heard that these things took place in the sacred grove, he avoided it himself, and he gave orders to the whole army to do the same; and he showed the same respect to the house of Athamas' descendants and to the sacred enclosure.

Chapter 198

1That is what happened in Thessaly and in Achaea. From these lands Xerxes went on into Malis, along a bay of the sea, where the tide goes out and rough ground shows itself every day. Around this bay there is a stretch of level ground, wide in one place and in another very narrow; and high mountains, impossible to cross, close in all the land of Malis around this ground. They are called the Trachinian Rocks.

2The first city as you enter the bay from Achaea is Anticyra. The river Spercheius, flowing down out of the land of the Enianians, empties past it into the sea. Twenty stades beyond it there is another river named Dyras, and the story is that this river showed itself to help Heracles while he was burning. Twenty stades beyond that there is another river called the Melas.

Chapter 199

1The city of Trachis lies five stades from this river Melas. At Trachis the land from the mountains to the sea is widest of all this country, in the region where Trachis was built; the plain there measures twenty-two thousand plethra. In the mountain that closes in the land of Trachisia on the south there is a pass, and the river Asopus flows through it along the lower slope of the mountain.

Chapter 200

1South of the Asopus there is another river, the Phoenix, not large; it flows from these mountains and empties into the Asopus. The way is narrowest at the river Phoenix, for only a single wagon track has been cut there. From the river Phoenix it is fifteen stades to Thermopylae.

2Between the river Phoenix and Thermopylae lies a village named Anthela, past which the Asopus flows as it empties into the sea, and the ground around it is wide. In that ground stands the temple of Demeter Amphictyonis, and there are seats for the Amphictyons and a temple of Amphictyon himself.

Chapter 201

1King Xerxes made his camp in the region of Trachis in Malis, and the Greeks made theirs in the pass. Most Greeks call this place Thermopylae; the people of the country and their neighbors call it the Gates. Each side camped in these places, and each held command of the ground facing it: the one all the ground that faces the north wind, as far as Trachis; the other the ground that faces the south and the noon sun, on this mainland.

Chapter 202

1These were the Greeks who waited for the Persian in this place: three hundred Spartan hoplites; from Tegea and Mantinea, one thousand, half from each; from Orchomenus in Arcadia, one hundred twenty; and from the rest of Arcadia, one thousand. So many Arcadians. From Corinth, four hundred; from Phlius, two hundred; from Mycenae, eighty. These came from the Peloponnese. From the Boeotians there were seven hundred from Thespiae and four hundred from Thebes.

Chapter 203

1Besides these, the Opuntian Locrians came to help in full force, and one thousand Phocians. The Greeks themselves had called on them. Through messengers they said that they themselves had come on ahead of the rest as the first in the field, that the rest of the allies were expected every day, that their sea was under guard, watched by the Athenians and the Aeginetans and the men appointed to the naval force, and that they had nothing to fear:

2For the one coming against Greece was not a god but a man, and there is no mortal, nor ever will be one, to whom bad luck has not been mixed in from the very start, and to the greatest of men the greatest of it. So the man making this invasion too, being mortal, was bound to fall from his glory. When these people heard this, they came to the aid of the Greeks at Trachis.

Chapter 204

1Each city had other commanders of its own besides these; but the man who was most admired and who led the whole army was the Lacedaemonian Leonidas son of Anaxandrides, son of Leon, son of Eurycratides, son of Anaxander, son of Eurycrates, son of Polydorus, son of Alcamenes, son of Teleclus, son of Archelaus, son of Hegesilaus, son of Doryssus, son of Leobotas, son of Echestratus, son of Agis, son of Eurysthenes, son of Aristodemus, son of Aristomachus, son of Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, son of Heracles. He had come to the kingship in Sparta without anyone expecting it.

Chapter 205

1He had two older brothers, Cleomenes and Dorieus, so any thought of the kingship had been pushed away from him. Cleomenes died without a male child, and Dorieus was no longer alive either, having died in Sicily. So the kingship climbed up to Leonidas, and also because he was older at birth than Cleombrotus; for Cleombrotus was the youngest son of Anaxandrides, and he had married Cleomenes' daughter.

2He went to Thermopylae at that time, after choosing the three hundred men who stood on the regular list, and all who happened to have sons. He also took along Thebans, whose number he fixed by his own count; their commander was Leontiades son of Eurymachus.

3Leonidas made a point of taking these men alone of the Greeks because they were strongly accused of siding with the Medes. He called them into the war, wanting to know whether they would send men along with the rest or openly turn away from the alliance of the Greeks. They, with their minds set the other way, sent men.

Chapter 206

1The Spartans sent Leonidas and his men out first, so that the other allies, seeing them on the march, would march too, and so that these men would not side with the Medes if they learned that the others were holding back. The rest were to follow later: the Carneia stood in their way, and they planned to celebrate the festival, leave guards behind in Sparta, and then come with all their people as fast as they could.

2The rest of the allies planned the same kind of thing for themselves. The Olympic festival had fallen at the same time as these events. Since they did not think the war at Thermopylae would be decided quickly, they sent their advance guard ahead.

Chapter 207

1That was what these had planned to do. The Greeks at Thermopylae, when the Persian came near the entrance, grew fearful and began to debate withdrawing. The other Peloponnesians thought they should go back into the Peloponnese and hold the Isthmus under guard; Leonidas, with the Phocians and Locrians strongly in favor of staying, gave his vote that they should remain there, and that messengers should be sent to the cities telling them to send help, since they, being so few, could not fend off the army of the Medes.

Chapter 208

1While they were debating this, Xerxes sent out a mounted scout to see how many they were and what they were doing. While he was still in Thessaly he had heard that a small force had been gathered at this place, that its leaders were Lacedaemonians, and that Leonidas was a Heracleid by descent.

2When the rider came up to the camp, he looked and looked, but he could not see the whole camp: the men drawn up inside the wall, which they had rebuilt and kept under guard, could not be made out. He did take note of the men outside, whose weapons lay in front of the wall. The Lacedaemonians happened to be drawn up outside at that time.

3Some of the men he saw exercising; others he saw combing their hair. Watching this he was amazed, and he also learned their numbers. Once he had learned everything exactly, he rode back quietly and unopposed; no one pursued him, and he met with no great wonder from anyone. On his return he told Xerxes everything he had seen.

Chapter 209

1Hearing this, Xerxes could not get hold of the truth: that they were preparing to destroy and be destroyed to the limit of their power. To him what they did seemed laughable. So he sent for Demaratus son of Ariston, who was in the camp.

2When he came, Xerxes asked him about each of these things, wanting to learn what the Lacedaemonians were doing. Demaratus said: "I heard about these men before too, when we were setting out against Greece; and what I heard made me laugh, because I could see how these things would turn out. For, king, the greatest contest I face is the practice of the truth in your presence."

3"Hear this too, then: these men have come to fight us over the entrance to Greece, and that is what they are preparing for. This is the law they live by: when they are about to risk their lives, then they dress their hair."

4"Know this as well: if you defeat these men and the force that is waiting in Sparta too, there is no other people on earth that will raise hands against you, king. For now you are matched against a royal house, against the finest city of the Greeks, and against the bravest men."

5To Xerxes what was said seemed completely unbelievable, and he asked a second time in what way so few would fight against his whole army. Demaratus said: "King, treat me as a liar, if what I tell you does not turn out exactly this way."

Chapter 210

1Even with these words he could not persuade Xerxes. Xerxes let four days go by, always hoping they would run away. On the fifth day, when he saw that they were not leaving but seemed to be wearing out their lives in staying, out of shamelessness and poor judgment, he lost his temper and sent the Medes and Cissians against them, with orders to take them alive and bring them into his presence.

2When the Medes charged at the Greeks, many of them fell; others kept coming on in their place, and they gained nothing, though they were thrown back again and again. It became clear to everyone, and least of all hidden from the king himself, that there were many people in his army but few men. The fighting went on all day.

Chapter 211

1When the Medes had been roughly handled, they drew out, and the Persians took their place and came on—the men the king called the Immortals, whom Hydarnes led—since everyone expected them to finish the work easily.

2When they too closed with the Greeks, they fared no better than the Median force, but just the same: they fought in ground with only a narrow way through, and their spears were shorter than the Greeks', and they could not make use of their numbers.

3The Lacedaemonians fought in a way worth telling of. They gave other proofs too of their skill at fighting to men who did not know how to fight. They would turn their backs and pretend to flee in a panic; the foreigners, seeing them run, would come on with shouts and a great crash; and when the Greeks were caught up with, they would turn and face the foreigners, and turning, they would strike down countless numbers of Persians. A few of the Spartans themselves fell here too. When the Persians could take nothing from the entrance by their attacks—now by whole companies, now every other way—they drew back.

Chapter 212

1In these attacks during the battle, the king, they say, as he watched, sprang up from his throne three times, in fear for his army. That is how they fought that day. The next day the foreigners strove no better. Since the Greeks were so few, the Persians thought they were all wounded and could no longer raise hands against them, and so they closed with them again.

2The Greeks were drawn up by companies and by nations, and each group fought in its turn, except the Phocians: these were posted on the mountain to watch the path. When the Persians found nothing different from what they had seen the day before, they drew back.

Chapter 213

1While the king was at a loss what to do with the situation before him, Ephialtes son of Eurydemus, a Malian, came to talk with him. Believing that he would win some great thing from the king, he told him about the mountain path that leads over to Thermopylae, and he brought destruction on the Greeks who stayed in that place.

2Later, in fear of the Lacedaemonians, he fled into Thessaly. While he was in exile, the Pylagorae of the Amphictyons, meeting at the Pylaea, put a price of money on his head. Some time after, he came down to Anticyra, and he was killed by Athenades, a man of Trachis.

3This Athenades killed Ephialtes for another reason, one I will point out in the later parts of my account; but the Lacedaemonians honored him for it all the same.

Chapter 214

1So Ephialtes died later. There is another story told: that Onetes son of Phanagoras, a man of Carystus, and Corydallus of Anticyra are the ones who spoke these words to the king and led the Persians around the mountain. I do not believe this story at all.

2Here is the proof: the Greek Pylagorae put the price of money not on Onetes and Corydallus but on Ephialtes the Trachinian, and they must have learned what was truest in the matter. We know that Ephialtes fled because of this charge.

3Onetes, even if he was not a Malian, could have known this path, if he had spent much time in the country. But Ephialtes is the one who led them around the mountain by the path, and I write him down as the one at fault.

Chapter 215

1When Xerxes was pleased with what Ephialtes promised to do, he became overjoyed at once and sent out Hydarnes and the men Hydarnes commanded. They set out from the camp about the time the lamps are lit. The local Malians were the ones who discovered this path; and after they found it, they showed it to the Thessalians to use against the Phocians, back when the Phocians walled off the entrance and were sheltering themselves from the war. From that time on the path had proved of no use at all to the Malians.

Chapter 216

1This path runs as follows. It begins at the Asopus river, the one that flows through the pass, and the mountain and the path bear the same name, Anopaea. This Anopaea runs along the crest of the mountain, and it ends at the city of Alpenus, the first of the Locrians toward the Malians, and at the stone called Melampygos, and at the seats of the Cercopes, where the way is at its narrowest.

Chapter 217

1On this path, laid out as I have said, the Persians crossed the Asopus and marched all through the night, with the mountains of the Oetaeans on their right and those of the Trachinians on their left. Dawn was breaking when they came to the top of the mountain.

2At this part of the mountain, as I said before, one thousand Phocian hoplites kept guard, defending their own country and watching the path. The lower entrance was guarded by the men I named; the path over the mountain was guarded by Phocian volunteers, who had offered themselves to Leonidas for that post.

Chapter 218

1The Phocians learned of the climb in this way. The Persians had gone up the mountain without being seen, though the mountain was covered full of oak trees. The night was still; then a great noise arose, such as leaves make when they are trodden underfoot, and the Phocians ran out and put on their armor, and at once the foreigners were upon them.

2When they saw men putting on armor, they were thrown into amazement: they had expected no enemy to show themselves, and instead they had run into an army. Hydarnes, afraid that the Phocians might be Lacedaemonians, asked Ephialtes what people the force was. When he had learned the truth, he drew up the Persians for battle.

3When the Phocians were hit by a shower of arrows, many and thick, they fled to the top of the mountain, sure that the attack had been aimed at them from the start, and they made ready to die. That is what they thought. But the Persians with Ephialtes and Hydarnes paid no attention to the Phocians at all; they went down the mountain at speed.

Chapter 219

1For the Greeks at Thermopylae, the seer Megistias first looked into the sacrifices and told them that death was coming with the dawn; and next there were deserters who brought word of the Persians' march around them. These brought their news in the night; third came the lookouts, who ran down from the heights as day was already breaking.

2Then the Greeks took counsel, and their opinions split. Some would not give up their post; others argued against it. After the dispute, one group went away and scattered, each turning toward his own city; the others made ready to stay there with Leonidas.

Chapter 220

1It is also told that Leonidas himself sent them away, caring that they should not die. But for him, and for the Spartans who were there, it would not have been honorable to leave the post they had come to guard from the start.

2In this I hold the other opinion much more strongly: that Leonidas, when he saw the allies without heart and unwilling to share the danger, ordered them away, and that for him to go was not right. By staying there he left great glory behind, and the good fortune of Sparta was not wiped out.

3For the Pythia had answered the Spartans when they asked about this war at its very beginning: either Lacedaemon would be laid waste by the foreigners, or their king would be lost. She gave them this answer in hexameter verses, speaking as follows:

4"For you, dwellers of Sparta of the broad dancing grounds, / either your great and famous city is sacked by men of Perseus' line, / or, if not that, the land of Lacedaemon will mourn / a dead king from the stock of Heracles. / The strength of bulls will not hold him, nor the might of lions, / for he has the strength of Zeus; / and I say he will not be stopped, I say, before one of these two is torn wholly apart." So it is said that Leonidas, calling this oracle to mind, and wanting to lay up glory for the Spartans alone, sent the allies away, rather than have those who left go off in such unseemly disagreement of opinion.

Chapter 221

1This too is no small proof for me of the same thing: Leonidas plainly sent away the seer who followed this army, Megistias the Acarnanian, said to descend from Melampus in the old line. The seer had read from the sacrifices what was going to come upon them, and Leonidas sent him away so that he would not die with them. The seer, though sent away, did not leave; but his son, who served in the campaign and was his only child, he did send off.

Chapter 222

1So the allies who were sent away went off, and they obeyed Leonidas. The Thespians and Thebans alone stayed with the Lacedaemonians. The Thebans stayed against their will and against their wish; Leonidas held them there, treating them as hostages. The Thespians stayed most willingly; they said they would not leave Leonidas and his men, and they stayed and died with them. Their commander was Demophilus son of Diadromes.

Chapter 223

1Xerxes, when the sun had risen, poured libations, and after waiting a while he began his advance at about the hour when the marketplace is fullest of people; for he had been so instructed by Ephialtes: the descent from the mountain is more direct, and the ground much shorter to cross, than the way around and the climb.

2So the foreigners with Xerxes came on, and the Greeks with Leonidas went out to meet them—going out to their death—far further than before, into the wider part of the neck of land. Up to then they had guarded the barrier of the wall, and on the days before they had fought after stepping out into the narrows.

3Now, meeting them outside the narrows, many of the foreigners fell. Behind them the commanders of the companies held whips and lashed every man, always driving them forward. Many of them fell into the sea and were destroyed, and many more were trampled alive by one another; there was no counting of the dead.

4For the Greeks knew what death was coming to them from the men going around the mountain, and so they showed the foreigners the utmost strength they had, careless and reckless of their lives.

Chapter 224

1By this time the spears of most of them were already broken, and they were killing the Persians with swords. Leonidas fell in this struggle, having proved himself a man of the greatest worth, and other famous Spartans fell with him. I learned their names, as men worth remembering; and I learned the names of all three hundred as well.

2Many Persians fell here too, some of them famous. Among them were two sons of Darius, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, born to Darius by Phratagune, daughter of Artanes. Artanes was the brother of King Darius and the son of Hystaspes son of Arsames. When he gave his daughter to Darius in marriage, he handed over his whole house with her, since she was his only child.

Chapter 225

1Here two brothers of Xerxes fell fighting; and over the body of Leonidas there was a great shoving match between Persians and Lacedaemonians, until the Greeks pulled the body away by their bravery and turned their enemies back four times. This struggle went on until the men with Ephialtes arrived.

2When the Greeks learned that these men had come, the fighting changed its form. They withdrew back into the narrow part of the road, and passing beyond the wall they came and sat down on the mound—all of them together except the Thebans. The mound is in the entrance, where the stone lion now stands for Leonidas.

3In this place they defended themselves with knives, the ones they still had left, and with their hands and with their mouths; and the foreigners buried them with missiles, some driving in from in front after throwing down the barrier of the wall, others going around and surrounding them on every side.

Chapter 226

1With the Lacedaemonians and Thespians behaving as they did, a Spartan named Dieneces is said to have been the best man of all. Before the Greeks closed with the Medes, they say, he heard from one of the Trachinians that when the foreigners shot their arrows they hid the sun with the mass of darts, so many were they. And he is said to have spoken this word:

2Dieneces was not startled by this report. Taking no account of the Medes' numbers, he said that their Trachinian guest brought them news of everything good: if the Medes hid the sun, they would fight them in the shade, not in the sun.

Chapter 227

1This saying, and others of the same kind, are said to be the memorials Dieneces the Lacedaemonian left behind. After him, two Lacedaemonian brothers are said to have fought with the greatest distinction: Alpheus and Maron, sons of Orsiphantus. Of the Thespians, the man who won the most fame was named Dithyrambus son of Harmatides.

Chapter 228

1They were buried on the spot where they fell, together with those who had died earlier and with those who had been sent away by Leonidas before they were gone. Over them is written an inscription that says this: "Four thousand men from the Peloponnese once fought three hundred myriads here."

2That is the inscription for all of them. For the Spartans alone there is this one: "Stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that here we lie, obedient to their words."

3That is for the Lacedaemonians. For the seer there is this: "This is the memorial of famous Megistias, whom the Medes once killed, after crossing the river Spercheius—a seer who clearly saw the deaths coming upon him, yet could not bear to leave the leader of Sparta."

4The Amphictyons are the ones who set up these inscriptions and pillars, except for the seer's epitaph. The one for the seer Megistias was written by Simonides son of Leoprepes, out of friendship.

Chapter 229

1Of these three hundred, two are said to have survived: Eurytus and Aristodemus. They had been given the same choice: either both together to get safe home to Sparta—Leonidas had sent them out of the camp, and both were lying at Alpeni in the worst misery of an eye disease—or, if they did not want to go home, to die with the rest. They had either of these two things open to them, but they would not agree. They differed in opinion. Eurytus, hearing that the Persians had gone around, called for his armor, put it on, and ordered his helot to lead him into the fight. The helot led him there, and then ran away. Eurytus rushed into the crowd of fighters and was killed. Aristodemus lost heart and was left behind.

2In my judgment, if Aristodemus alone had come back to Sparta in pain, or if both of them together had made the journey home, the Spartans would have felt no anger at all. But as it was, one of the two had died, while the other held to the same excuse and yet was not willing to die; the Spartans could not help being very angry with Aristodemus.

Chapter 230

1Some say Aristodemus came back to Sparta saved, in the way I told, with that excuse. Others say he was a messenger sent out from the camp; that he could have caught up with the battle while it was being fought but did not want to, that he stayed on the road and so survived, while his fellow messenger came into the battle and died.

Chapter 231

1When Aristodemus came back to Lacedaemon, he bore reproach and disgrace. This is the dishonor he suffered: no Spartan gave him fire, and no Spartan spoke with him. He was given the name "Aristodemus the coward." But in the battle at Plataea he wiped away all the blame that had been laid on him.

Chapter 232

1They say that another of these three hundred also survived: a messenger sent to Thessaly, whose name was Pantites. When he came back to Sparta and found himself in disgrace, he hanged himself.

Chapter 233

1The Thebans, whose commander was Leontiades, had fought on the side of the Greeks against the king's army while they were held by necessity. But when they saw that things were turning out far better for the Persians—and at the very moment when the Greeks with Leonidas were hurrying up onto the mound—they broke away from the Greeks, held out their hands, and went toward the foreigners, speaking what was truest of the claims: that they had sided with the Medes, that they had been among the first to give earth and water to the king, that they had come to Thermopylae held by necessity, and that they were not at fault for the wound the king had suffered.

2By saying these things they got away with their lives; they had the Thessalians as witnesses to these words. Still, not everything turned out well for them. When the foreigners took them as they came up, they killed some as they approached; and on Xerxes' orders most of the rest were branded with royal marks, beginning with their commander Leontiades. His son Eurymachus was later killed by the Plataeans, after he had led four hundred Theban men, seized the city of the Plataeans, and held it.

Chapter 234

1So fought the Greeks at Thermopylae. Xerxes called for Demaratus and questioned him, beginning with these words: "Demaratus, you are a good man. I judge this from the truth: everything you said turned out just so. Now tell me, how many Lacedaemonians are left, and how many of them are such men in war—or is it all of them?"

2Demaratus said: "King, all the Lacedaemonians together are very many, and they have many cities; but what you want to learn, you shall learn. In Lacedaemon there is the city Sparta, of about eight thousand men, and all of these are the same as the men who fought here. The other Lacedaemonians are not like these, but they are good men."

3Xerxes said to this: "Demaratus, by what way could we overcome these men at the least cost? Come, explain it: you were their king, so you know the ways their deliberations come out."

Chapter 235

1Demaratus answered: "King, if you are truly willing to take my advice, it is right for me to tell you the best plan: send three hundred ships out of the naval force against the Lacedaemonian country."

2"There is an island lying off that coast, named Cythera. Chilon, the man who became the wisest of our people, said it would be a greater gain for the Spartans to sink below the sea than to hold that island; for he was always expecting some such thing as I am describing to come from it. He was not foreseeing your fleet, but he feared any fleet of men alike."

3"Setting out from that island, you would terrify the Lacedaemonians. With a war standing at their own door, they will be of no help to the others while the rest of Greece is being taken by your land army; and once the rest of Greece has been enslaved, the Laconian part alone will be left, and it will be weak."

4"But if you do not do this, expect these things to happen. The Isthmus of the Peloponnese is narrow; in that place, if all the Peloponnesians join in one oath against you, you must expect battles stronger than any yet fought. But if you do the other thing, both this Isthmus and the cities will come over to you without a battle."

Chapter 236

1After him Achaemenes spoke, Xerxes' own brother and commander of the naval force. He had come in upon the talk, and he was afraid Xerxes might take the advice. He said: "King, I see you listening to a man who envies you when you do well, or who may even betray your affairs. The Hellenes love to behave in just this way: they envy success and hate what is stronger than they are."

2"If you send three hundred ships from your naval force, which has already lost four hundred ships in wrecks, to sail around the Peloponnese, your opponents become a match for you in battle. And if the naval force is taken, it becomes a thing hard to manage for them, and then they will not even be worth your fighting. The whole fleet supports the land army, and the land army the fleet, as they move together; but if you split them, you will be of no use to them, and they none to you."

3"In setting out your own case, I think it is best not to go over the enemy's affairs: when they will stand to the war, what they will do, and how many they are. They are well able to take thought for themselves, and we for ourselves in the same way. And if the Lacedaemonians come out against the Persians in battle, they will by no means heal the wound they have now."

Chapter 237

1Xerxes answered as follows: "Achaemenes, you seem to me to speak well, and I will do as you say. Demaratus tells me what he believes is best for me, but in judgment he falls short of you."

2"I will never accept the claim that he does not mean well by my affairs. I judge this both from what was said before and from what is true now: a fellow citizen envies a fellow citizen who is doing well, and is his enemy in silence; and no citizen would propose to another citizen what he himself believes to be best for him, unless he were lifted far above virtue. But men like that are rare."

3"A guest, on the other hand, is the best disposed of all toward a guest who does well, and if asked, he would advise what is best. So I order that no one, for the rest of this, speak ill of Demaratus, who is my guest."

Chapter 238

1After saying this, Xerxes passed through among the dead. He had heard that Leonidas was king and general of the Lacedaemonians, and he gave orders to cut off his head and impale his body.

2By many other proofs, and by this one not the least, it has become clear to me that King Xerxes was angrier at Leonidas alive than at any other man. Otherwise he would never have broken custom toward the dead body in this way; for of the peoples I know, the Persians most honor men who are brave in war. So the men did these things to whom the work was assigned.

Chapter 239

1I go back now to that part of my account which I left out earlier. The Lacedaemonians were the first to learn that the king was setting out against Greece, and so they sent to the oracle at Delphi, where they received the answer I told a little while ago. The way they learned of it was remarkable.

2Demaratus son of Ariston had fled to the Medes. In my judgment—and the likelihood here sides with me—he was not well disposed toward the Lacedaemonians. Still, one may guess whether he did this out of good will or in gloating over them. When Xerxes decided to lead his army against Greece, Demaratus was in Susa; he heard of it and wanted to announce it to the Lacedaemonians.

3He had no other way to send word, for it was dangerous for him to be caught. So he contrived this: he took a folding writing tablet and scraped the wax off it, and then he wrote the king's plan on the wood of the tablet. When he had done this, he melted the wax back over the letters, so that the tablet, as it traveled, would give the guards along the road nothing to notice.

4When the tablet reached Lacedaemon, the Lacedaemonians could not make sense of it—until Gorgo, daughter of Cleomenes and wife of Leonidas, worked it out herself, as I am told. She told them to scrape the wax, saying they would find writing on the wood. They obeyed, found the writing, and read it; then they sent word to the other Greeks. That is how this is said to have happened.

Chapter 1

1When the message concerning the fight at Marathon came to Darius son of Hystaspes, already greatly angry against the Athenians for their attack upon Sardis, he was now much more angry and eager to send an expedition against Hellas.

2Immediately he sent messengers to all the cities and commanded them to equip an army, instructing each to provide many more ships and horses and provisions and transport vessels than they had before. Asia was in commotion with these messages for three years, as the best men were enrolled for service against Hellas and made preparations.

3In the fourth year the Egyptians, whom Cambyses had enslaved, revolted from the Persians; thereupon Darius was even more eager to send expeditions against both.

Chapter 2

1But while Darius was making preparations against Egypt and Athens, a great quarrel arose among his sons concerning the chief power in the land. They held that before his army marched he must declare an heir to the kingship according to Persian law.

2Three sons had been born to Darius before he became king by his first wife, the daughter of Gobryas, and four more after he became king by Atossa daughter of Cyrus. Artobazanes was the oldest of the earlier sons, Xerxes of the later;

3and as sons of different mothers they were rivals. Artobazanes pleaded that he was the oldest of all Darius' offspring and that it was everywhere customary that the eldest should rule; Xerxes argued that he was the son of Cyrus' daughter Atossa and that it was Cyrus who had won the Persians their freedom.

Chapter 3

1While Darius delayed making his decision, it chanced that at this time Demaratus son of Ariston had come up to Susa, in voluntary exile from Lacedaemonia after he had lost the kingship of Sparta.

2Learning of the contention between the sons of Darius, this man, as the story goes, came and advised Xerxes to add this to what he said: that he had been born when Darius was already king and ruler of Persia, but Artobazanes when Darius was yet a subject;

3therefore it was neither reasonable nor just that anyone should have the royal privilege before him. At Sparta too (advised Demaratus) it was customary that if sons were born before their father became king, and another son born later when the father was king, the succession to the kingship belongs to the later-born.

4Xerxes followed Demaratus advice, and Darius judged his plea to be just and declared him king. But to my thinking Xerxes would have been made king even without this advice, for Atossa held complete sway.

Chapter 4

1After declaring Xerxes king, Darius was intent on his expedition. But in the year after this and the revolt of Egypt, death came upon him in the midst of his preparations, after a reign of six and thirty years in all, and it was not granted to him to punish either the revolted Egyptians or the Athenians.

Chapter 5

1After Darius' death, the royal power descended to his son Xerxes. Now Xerxes was at first by no means eager to march against Hellas; it was against Egypt that he mustered his army. But Mardonius son of Gobryas, Xerxes cousin and the son of Darius' sister, was with the king and had more influence with him than any Persian. He argued as follows: “Master, it is not fitting that the Athenians should go unpunished for their deeds, after all the evil they have done to the Persians.

2For now you should do what you have in hand; then, when you have tamed the insolence of Egypt, lead your armies against Athens, so that you may have fair fame among men, and others may beware of invading your realm in the future.”

3This argument was for vengeance, but he kept adding that Europe was an extremely beautiful land, one that bore all kinds of orchard trees, a land of highest excellence, worthy of no mortal master but the king.

Chapter 6

1He said this because he desired adventures and wanted to be governor of Hellas. Finally he worked on Xerxes and persuaded him to do this, and other things happened that helped him to persuade Xerxes.

2Messengers came from Thessaly from the Aleuadae (who were princes of Thessaly) and invited the king into Hellas with all earnestness; the Pisistratidae who had come up to Susa used the same pleas as the Aleuadae, offering Xerxes even more than they did.

3They had come up to Sardis with Onomacritus, an Athenian diviner who had set in order the oracles of Musaeus. They had reconciled their previous hostility with him; Onomacritus had been banished from Athens by Pisistratus' son Hipparchus, when he was caught by Lasus of Hermione in the act of interpolating into the writings of Musaeus an oracle showing that the islands off Lemnos would disappear into the sea.

4Because of this Hipparchus banished him, though they had previously been close friends. Now he had arrived at Susa with the Pisistratidae, and whenever he came into the king's presence they used lofty words concerning him and he recited from his oracles; all that portended disaster to the Persian he left unspoken, choosing and reciting such prophecies as were most favorable, telling how the Hellespont must be bridged by a man of Persia and describing the expedition.

5So he brought his oracles to bear, while the Pisistratidae and Aleuadae gave their opinions.

Chapter 7

1After being persuaded to send an expedition against Hellas, Xerxes first marched against the rebels in the year after Darius death. He subdued them and laid Egypt under a much harder slavery than in the time of Darius, and he handed it over to Achaemenes, his own brother and Darius' son. While governing Egypt, this Achaemenes was at a later time slain by a Libyan, Inaros son of Psammetichus.

Chapter 8

1After the conquest of Egypt, intending now to take in hand the expedition against Athens, Xerxes held a special assembly of the noblest among the Persians, so he could learn their opinions and declare his will before them all. When they were assembled, Xerxes spoke to them as follows:

Chapter 8A

1“Men of Persia, I am not bringing in and establishing a new custom, but following one that I have inherited. As I learn from our elders, we have never yet remained at peace ever since Cyrus deposed Astyages and we won this sovereignty from the Medes. It is the will of heaven; and we ourselves win advantage by our many enterprises. No one needs to tell you, who already know them well, which nations Cyrus and Cambyses and Darius my father subdued and added to our realm.

2Ever since I came to this throne, I have considered how I might not fall short of my predecessors in this honor, and not add less power to the Persians; and my considerations persuade me that we may win not only renown, but a land neither less nor worse, and more fertile, than that which we now possess; and we would also gain vengeance and requital. For this cause I have now summoned you together, that I may impart to you what I intend to do.

Chapter 8B

1It is my intent to bridge the Hellespont and lead my army through Europe to Hellas, so I may punish the Athenians for what they have done to the Persians and to my father.

2You saw that Darius my father was set on making an expedition against these men. But he is dead, and it was not granted him to punish them. On his behalf and that of all the Persians, I will never rest until I have taken Athens and burnt it, for the unprovoked wrong that its people did to my father and me.

3First they came to Sardis with our slave Aristagoras the Milesian and burnt the groves and the temples; next, how they dealt with us when we landed on their shores, when Datis and Artaphrenes were our generals, I suppose you all know.

Chapter 8C

1For these reasons I am resolved to send an army against them; and I reckon that we will find the following benefits among them: if we subdue those men, and their neighbors who dwell in the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we will make the borders of Persian territory and of the firmament of heaven be the same.

2No land that the sun beholds will border ours, but I will make all into one country, when I have passed over the whole of Europe.

3I learn that this is the situation: no city of men or any human nation which is able to meet us in battle will be left, if those of whom I speak are taken out of our way. Thus the guilty and the innocent will alike bear the yoke of slavery.

Chapter 8D

1This is how you would best please me: when I declare the time for your coming, every one of you must eagerly appear; and whoever comes with his army best equipped will receive from me such gifts as are reckoned most precious among us.

2Thus it must be done; but so that I not seem to you to have my own way, I lay the matter before you all, and bid whoever wishes to declare his opinion.” So spoke Xerxes and ceased.

Chapter 9

1After him Mardonius said: “Master, you surpass not only all Persians that have been but also all that shall be; besides having dealt excellently and truly with all other matters, you will not suffer the Ionians who dwell in Europe to laugh at us, which they have no right to do.

2It would be strange indeed if we who have subdued and made slaves of Sacae and Indians and Ethiopians and Assyrians and many other great nations, for no wrong done to the Persians but of mere desire to add to our power, will not take vengeance on the Greeks for unprovoked wrongs.

Chapter 9A

1What have we to fear from them? Have they a massive population or abundance of wealth? Their manner of fighting we know, and we know how weak their power is; we have conquered and hold their sons, those who dwell in our land and are called Ionians and Aeolians and Dorians.

2I myself have made trial of these men, when by your father's command I marched against them. I marched as far as Macedonia and almost to Athens itself, yet none came out to meet me in battle.

Chapter 9B

1Yet the Greeks are accustomed to wage wars, as I learn, and they do it most senselessly in their wrongheadedness and folly. When they have declared war against each other, they come down to the fairest and most level ground that they can find and fight there, so that the victors come off with great harm; of the vanquished I say not so much as a word, for they are utterly destroyed.

2Since they speak the same language, they should end their disputes by means of heralds or messengers, or by any way rather than fighting; if they must make war upon each other, they should each discover where they are in the strongest position and make the attempt there. The Greek custom, then, is not good; and when I marched as far as the land of Macedonia, it had not come into their minds to fight.

Chapter 9C

1But against you, O king, who shall make war? You will bring the multitudes of Asia, and all your ships. I think there is not so much boldness in Hellas as that; but if time should show me wrong in my judgment, and those men prove foolhardy enough to do battle with us, they would be taught that we are the greatest warriors on earth. Let us leave nothing untried; for nothing happens by itself, and all men's gains are the fruit of adventure.”

Chapter 10

1Thus Mardonius smoothed Xerxes' resolution and stopped. The rest of the Persians held their peace, not daring to utter any opinion contrary to what had been put forward; then Artabanus son of Hystaspes, the king's uncle, spoke. Relying on his position, he said,

Chapter 10A

1“O king, if opposite opinions are not uttered, it is impossible for someone to choose the better; the one which has been spoken must be followed. If they are spoken, the better can be found; just as the purity of gold cannot be determined by itself, but when gold is compared with gold by rubbing, we then determine the better.

2Now I advised Darius, your father and my brother, not to lead his army against the Scythians, who have no cities anywhere to dwell in. But he hoped to subdue the nomadic Scythians and would not obey me; he went on the expedition and returned after losing many gallant men from his army.

3You, O king, are proposing to lead your armies against far better men than the Scythians—men who are said to be excellent warriors by sea and land. It is right that I should show you what danger there is in this.

Chapter 10B

1You say that you will bridge the Hellespont and march your army through Europe to Hellas. Now suppose you happen to be defeated either by land or by sea, or even both; the men are said to be valiant, and we may well guess that it is so, since the Athenians alone destroyed the great army that followed Datis and Artaphrenes to Attica.

2Suppose they do not succeed in both ways; but if they attack with their ships and prevail in a sea-fight, and then sail to the Hellespont and destroy your bridge, that, O king, is the hour of peril.

Chapter 10C

1It is from no wisdom of my own that I thus conjecture; it is because I know what disaster once almost overtook us, when your father, making a highway over the Thracian Bosporus and bridging the river Ister, crossed over to attack the Scythians. At that time the Scythians used every means of entreating the Ionians, who had been charged to guard the bridges of the Ister, to destroy the way of passage.

2If Histiaeus the tyrant of Miletus had consented to the opinion of the other tyrants instead of opposing it, the power of Persia would have perished. Yet it is dreadful even in the telling, that one man should hold in his hand all the king's fortunes.

Chapter 10D

1So do not plan to run the risk of any such danger when there is no need for it. Listen to me instead: for now dismiss this assembly; consider the matter by yourself and, whenever you so please, declare what seems best to you.

2A well-laid plan is always to my mind most profitable; even if it is thwarted later, the plan was no less good, and it is only chance that has baffled the design; but if fortune favor one who has planned poorly, then he has gotten only a prize of chance, and his plan was no less bad.

Chapter 10E

1You see how the god smites with his thunderbolt creatures of greatness and does not suffer them to display their pride, while little ones do not move him to anger; and you see how it is always on the tallest buildings and trees that his bolts fall; for the god loves to bring low all things of surpassing greatness. Thus a large army is destroyed by a smaller, when the jealous god sends panic or the thunderbolt among them, and they perish unworthily; for the god suffers pride in none but himself.

Chapter 10F

1Now haste is always the parent of failure, and great damages are likely to arise; but in waiting there is good, and in time this becomes clear, even though it does not seem so in the present.

Chapter 10G

1This, O king, is my advice to you. But you, Mardonius son of Gobryas, cease your foolish words about the Greeks, for they do not deserve to be maligned. By slandering the Greeks you incite the king to send this expedition; that is the end to which you press with all eagerness. Let it not be so.

2Slander is a terrible business; there are two in it who do wrong and one who suffers wrong. The slanderer wrongs another by accusing an absent man, and the other does wrong in that he is persuaded before he has learned the whole truth; the absent man does not hear what is said of him and suffers wrong in the matter, being maligned by the one and condemned by the other.

Chapter 10H

1If an army must by all means be sent against these Greeks, hear me now: let the king himself remain in the Persian land, and let us two stake our children's lives upon it; you lead out the army, choosing whatever men you wish and taking as great an army as you desire.

2If the king's fortunes fare as you say, let my sons be slain, and myself with them; but if it turns out as I foretell, let your sons be so treated, and you likewise, if you return.

3But if you are unwilling to submit to this and will at all hazards lead your army overseas to Hellas, then I think that those left behind in this place will hear that Mardonius has done great harm to Persia, and has been torn apart by dogs and birds in the land of Athens or of Lacedaemon, if not even before that on the way there; and that you have learned what kind of men you persuade the king to attack.”

Chapter 11

1Thus spoke Artabanus. Xerxes answered angrily, “Artabanus, you are my father's brother; that will save you from receiving the fitting reward of foolish words. But for your cowardly lack of spirit I lay upon you this disgrace, that you will not go with me and my army against Hellas, but will stay here with the women; I myself will accomplish all that I have said, with no help from you.

2May I not be the son of Darius son of Hystaspes son of Arsames son of Ariaramnes son of Teispes son of Cyrus son of Cambyses son of Teispes son of Achaemenes, if I do not have vengeance on the Athenians; I well know that if we remain at peace they will not; they will assuredly invade our country, if we may infer from what they have done already, for they burnt Sardis and marched into Asia.

3It is not possible for either of us to turn back: to do or to suffer is our task, so that what is ours be under the Greeks, or what is theirs under the Persians; there is no middle way in our quarrel.

4Honor then demands that we avenge ourselves for what has been done to us; thus will I learn what is this evil that will befall me when I march against these Greeks—men that even Pelops the Phrygian, the slave of my forefathers, did so utterly subdue that to this day they and their country are called by the name of their conqueror.”

Chapter 12

1The discussion went that far; then night came, and Xerxes was pricked by the advice of Artabanus. Thinking it over at night, he saw clearly that to send an army against Hellas was not his affair. He made this second resolve and fell asleep; then (so the Persians say) in the night he saw this vision: It seemed to Xerxes that a tall and handsome man stood over him and said,

2“Are you then changing your mind, Persian, and will not lead the expedition against Hellas, although you have proclaimed the mustering of the army? It is not good for you to change your mind, and there will be no one here to pardon you for it; let your course be along the path you resolved upon yesterday.”

Chapter 13

1So the vision spoke, and seemed to Xerxes to vanish away. When day dawned, the king took no account of this dream, and he assembled the Persians whom he had before gathered together and addressed them thus:

2“Persians, forgive me for turning and twisting in my purpose; I am not yet come to the fullness of my wisdom, and I am never free from people who exhort me to do as I said. It is true that when I heard Artabanus' opinion my youthful spirit immediately boiled up, and I burst out with an unseemly and wrongful answer to one older than myself; but now I see my fault and will follow his judgment.

3Be at peace, since I have changed my mind about marching against Hellas.”

Chapter 14

1When the Persians heard that, they rejoiced and made obeisance to him. But when night came on, the same vision stood again over Xerxes as he slept, and said, “Son of Darius, have you then plainly renounced your army's march among the Persians, and made my words of no account, as though you had not heard them? Know for certain that, if you do not lead out your army immediately, this will be the outcome of it: as you became great and mighty in a short time, so in a moment will you be brought low again.”

Chapter 15

1Greatly frightened by the vision, Xerxes leapt up from his bed, and sent a messenger to summon Artabanus. When he came, Xerxes said, “Artabanus, for a moment I was of unsound mind, and I answered your good advice with foolish words; but after no long time I repented, and saw that it was right for me to follow your advice.

2Yet, though I desire to, I cannot do it; ever since I turned back and repented, a vision keeps coming to haunt my sight, and it will not allow me to do as you advise; just now it has threatened me and gone.

3Now if a god is sending the vision, and it is his full pleasure that there this expedition against Hellas take place, that same dream will hover about you and give you the same command it gives me. I believe that this is most likely to happen, if you take all my apparel and sit wearing it upon my throne, and then lie down to sleep in my bed.”

Chapter 16

1Xerxes said this, but Artabanus would not obey the first command, thinking it was not right for him to sit on the royal throne; at last he was compelled and did as he was bid, saying first:

Chapter 16A

1“O king, I judge it of equal worth whether a man is wise or is willing to obey good advice; to both of these you have attained, but the company of bad men trips you up; just as they say that sea, of all things the most serviceable to men, is hindered from following its nature by the blasts of winds that fall upon it.

2It was not that I heard harsh words from you that stung me so much as that, when two opinions were laid before the Persians, one tending to the increase of pride, the other to its abatement, showing how evil a thing it is to teach the heart continual desire of more than it has, of these two opinions you preferred that one which was more fraught with danger to yourself and to the Persians.

Chapter 16B

1Now when you have turned to the better opinion, you say that, while intending to abandon the expedition against the Greeks, you are haunted by a dream sent by some god, which forbids you to disband the expedition.

2But this is none of heaven's working, my son. The roving dreams that visit men are of such nature as I shall teach you, since I am many years older than you. Those visions that rove about us in dreams are for the most part the thoughts of the day; and in these recent days we have been very busy with this expedition.

Chapter 16C

1But if this is not as I determine and it has something divine to it, then you have spoken the conclusion of the matter; let it appear to me just as it has to you, and utter its command. If it really wishes to appear, it should do so to me no more by virtue of my wearing your dress instead of mine, and my sleeping in your bed rather than in my own.

2Whatever it is that appears to you in your sleep, surely it has not come to such folly as to infer from your dress that I am you when it sees me. We now must learn if it will take no account of me and not deign to appear and haunt me, whether I am wearing your robes or my own, but will come to you; if it comes continually, I myself would say that it is something divine.

3If you are determined that this must be done and there is no averting it, and I must lie down to sleep in your bed, so be it; this duty I will fulfill, and let the vision appear also to me. But until then I will keep my present opinion.”

Chapter 17

1So spoke Artabanus and did as he was bid, hoping to prove Xerxes' words vain; he put on Xerxes' robes and sat on the king's throne. Then while he slept there came to him in his sleep the same dream that had haunted Xerxes; it stood over him and spoke thus:

2“Are you the one who dissuades Xerxes from marching against Hellas, because you care for him? Neither in the future nor now will you escape with impunity for striving to turn aside what must be. To Xerxes himself it has been declared what will befall him if he disobeys.”

Chapter 18

1With this threat (so it seemed to Artabanus) the vision was about to burn his eyes with hot irons. He leapt up with a loud cry, then sat by Xerxes and told him the whole story of what he had seen in his dream, and next he said:

2“O King, since I have seen, as much as a man may, how the greater has often been brought low by the lesser, I forbade you to always give rein to your youthful spirit, knowing how evil a thing it is to have many desires, and remembering the end of Cyrus' expedition against the Massagetae and of Cambyses' against the Ethiopians, and I myself marched with Darius against the Scythians.

3Knowing this, I judged that you had only to remain in peace for all men to deem you fortunate. But since there is some divine motivation, and it seems that the gods mark Hellas for destruction, I myself change and correct my judgment. Now declare the gods' message to the Persians, and bid them obey your first command for all due preparation. Do this, so that nothing on your part be lacking to the fulfillment of the gods' commission.”

4After this was said, they were incited by the vision, and when daylight came Xerxes imparted all this to the Persians. Artabanus now openly encouraged that course which he alone had before openly discouraged.

Chapter 19

1Xerxes was now intent on the expedition and then saw a third vision in his sleep, which the Magi interpreted to refer to the whole earth and to signify that all men should be his slaves. This was the vision: Xerxes thought that he was crowned with an olive bough, of which the shoots spread over the whole earth, and then the crown vanished from off his head where it was set.

2The Magi interpreted it in this way, and immediately every single man of the Persians who had been assembled rode away to his own province and there used all zeal to fulfill the kings command, each desiring to receive the promised gifts. Thus it was that Xerxes mustered his army, searching out every part of the continent.

Chapter 20

1For full four years after the conquest of Egypt he was equipping his force and preparing all that was needed for it; before the fifth year was completed, he set forth on his march with the might of a great multitude.

2This was by far the greatest of all expeditions that we know of. The one that Darius led against the Scythians is nothing compared to it; neither is the Scythian expedition when they burst into Media in pursuit of the Cimmerians and subdued and ruled almost all the upper lands of Asia (it was for this that Darius afterwards attempted to punish them). According to the reports, the expedition led by the sons of Atreus against Troy is also nothing by comparison; neither is the one of the Mysians and Teucrians which before the Trojan war crossed the Bosporus into Europe, subdued all the Thracians, and came down to the Ionian sea, marching southward as far as the river Peneus.

Chapter 21

1All these expeditions and whatever others have happened in addition could not together be compared with this single one. For what nation did Xerxes not lead from Asia against Hellas? What water did not fail when being drunk up, except only the greatest rivers?

2Some people supplied him with ships, some were enrolled in his infantry, some were assigned the provision of horsemen, others of horse-bearing transports to follow the army, and others again of warships for the bridges, or of food and ships.

Chapter 22

1Since those who had earlier attempted to sail around Athos had suffered shipwreck, for about three years preparations had been underway there. Triremes were anchored off Elaeus in the Chersonese; with these for their headquarters, all sorts of men in the army were compelled by whippings to dig a canal, coming by turns to the work; the inhabitants about Athos also dug.

2Bubares son of Megabazus and Artachaees son of Artaeus, both Persians, were the overseers of the workmen. Athos is a great and famous mountain, running out into the sea and inhabited by men. At the mountain's landward end it is in the form of a peninsula, and there is an isthmus about twelve stadia wide; here is a place of level ground or little hills, from the sea by Acanthus to the sea opposite Torone.

3On this isthmus which is at the end of Athos, there stands a Greek town, Sane; there are others situated seaward of Sane and landward of Athos, and the Persian now intended to make them into island and not mainland towns; they are Dion, Olophyxus, Acrothoum, Thyssus, and Cleonae.

Chapter 23

1These are the towns situated on Athos. The foreigners dug as follows, dividing up the ground by nation: they made a straight line near the town of Sane; when the channel had been dug to some depth, some men stood at the bottom of it and dug, others took the dirt as it was dug out and delivered it to yet others that stood higher on stages, and they again to others as they received it, until they came to those that were highest; these carried it out and threw it away.

2For all except the Phoenicians, the steep sides of the canal caved in, doubling their labor; since they made the span the same breadth at its mouth and at the bottom, this was bound to happen.

3But the Phoenicians showed the same skill in this as in all else they do; taking in hand the portion that fell to them, they dug by making the topmost span of the canal as wide again as the canal was to be, and narrowed it as they worked lower, until at the bottom their work was of the same span as that of the others.

4There is a meadow there, where they made a place for buying and marketing; much ground grain frequently came to them from Asia.

Chapter 24

1As far as I can judge by conjecture, Xerxes gave the command for this digging out of pride, wishing to display his power and leave a memorial; with no trouble they could have drawn their ships across the isthmus, yet he ordered them to dig a canal from sea to sea, wide enough to float two triremes rowed abreast. The same men who were assigned the digging were also assigned to join the banks of the river Strymon by a bridge.

Chapter 25

1Thus Xerxes did this. He assigned the Phoenicians and Egyptians to make ropes of papyrus and white flax for the bridges, and to store provisions for his army, so that neither the army nor the beasts of burden would starve on the march to Hellas.

2After making inquiry, he ordered them to store it in the most fitting places, carrying it to the various places from all parts of Asia in cargo ships and transports. They brought most of it to the White Headland (as it is called) in Thrace; some were dispatched to Tyrodiza in the Perinthian country or to Doriscus, others to Eion on the Strymon or to Macedonia.

Chapter 26

1While these worked at their appointed task, all the land force had been mustered and was marching with Xerxes to Sardis, setting forth from Critalla in Cappadocia, which was the place appointed for gathering all the army that was to march with Xerxes himself by land.

2Now which of his governors received the promised gifts from the king for bringing the best-equipped army, I cannot say; I do not even know if the matter was ever determined.

3When they had crossed the river Halys and entered Phrygia, they marched through that country to Celaenae, where rises the source of the river Maeander and of another river no smaller, which is called Cataractes; it rises right in the market-place of Celaenae and issues into the Maeander. The skin of Marsyas the Silenus also hangs there; the Phrygian story tells that it was flayed off him and hung up by Apollo.

Chapter 27

1In this city Pythius son of Atys, a Lydian, sat awaiting them; he entertained Xerxes himself and all the king's army with the greatest hospitality, and declared himself willing to provide money for the war.

2When Pythius offered the money, Xerxes asked the Persians present who this Pythius was and how much wealth he possessed in making the offer. They said, “O king, this is the one who gave your father Darius the gift of a golden plane-tree and vine; he is now the richest man we know of after you.”

Chapter 28

1Xerxes marvelled at this last saying and next himself asked Pythius how much wealth he had. “O king,” said Pythius, “I will not conceal the quantity of my property from you, nor pretend that I do not know; I know and will tell you the exact truth.

2As soon as I learned that you were coming down to the Greek sea, I wanted to give you money for the war, so I inquired into the matter, and my reckoning showed me that I had two thousand talents of silver, and four million Daric staters of gold, lacking seven thousand.

3All this I freely give to you; for myself, I have a sufficient livelihood from my slaves and my farms.”

Chapter 29

1Thus he spoke. Xerxes was pleased with what he said and replied: “My Lydian friend, since I came out of Persia I have so far met with no man who was willing to give hospitality to my army, nor who came into my presence unsummoned and offered to furnish money for the war, besides you.

2But you have entertained my army nobly and offer me great sums. In return for this I give you these privileges: I make you my friend, and out of my own wealth I give you the seven thousand staters which will complete your total of four million, so that your four million not lack the seven thousand and the even number be reached by my completing it.

3Remain in possession of what you now possess, and be mindful to be always such as you are; neither for the present nor in time will you regret what you now do.”

Chapter 30

1Xerxes said this and made good his words, then journeyed ever onward. Passing by the Phrygian town called Anaua, and the lake from which salt is obtained, he came to Colossae, a great city in Phrygia; there the river Lycus plunges into a cleft in the earth and disappears, until it reappears about five stadia away; this river issues into the Maeander.

2From Colossae the army held its course for the borders of Phrygia and Lydia, and came to the city of Cydrara, where there stands a pillar set up by Croesus which marks the boundary with an inscription.

Chapter 31

1Passing from Phrygia into Lydia, he came to the place where the roads part; the road on the left leads to Caria, the one on the right to Sardis; on the latter the traveller must cross the river Maeander and pass by the city of Callatebus, where craftsmen make honey out of wheat and tamarisks. Xerxes went by this road and found a plane-tree, which he adorned with gold because of its beauty, and he assigned one of his immortals to guard it. On the next day he reached the city of the Lydians.

Chapter 32

1After he arrived in Sardis, he first sent heralds to Hellas to demand earth and water and to command the preparation of meals for the king. He sent demands for earth everywhere except to Athens and Lacedaemon. The reason for his sending for earth and water the second time was this: he fully believed that whoever had not previously given it to Darius' messengers would now be compelled to give by fear; so he sent out of desire to know this for certain.

Chapter 33

1After this he prepared to march to Abydos; meanwhile his men were bridging the Hellespont from Asia to Europe. On the Chersonese, which is on the Hellespont, between the city of Sestus and Madytus there is a broad headland running out into the sea opposite Abydos. It was here that not long afterwards the Athenians, when Xanthippus son of Ariphron was their general, took Artayctes, a Persian and the governor of Sestus, and crucified him alive; he had been in the habit of bringing women right into the temple of Protesilaus at Elaeus and doing impious deeds there.

Chapter 34

1The men who had been given this assignment made bridges starting from Abydos across to that headland; the Phoenicians one of flaxen cables, and the Egyptians a papyrus one. From Abydos to the opposite shore it is a distance of seven stadia. But no sooner had the strait been bridged than a great storm swept down, breaking and scattering everything.

Chapter 35

1When Xerxes heard of this, he was very angry and commanded that the Hellespont be whipped with three hundred lashes, and a pair of fetters be thrown into the sea. I have even heard that he sent branders with them to brand the Hellespont.

2He commanded them while they whipped to utter words outlandish and presumptuous, “Bitter water, our master thus punishes you, because you did him wrong though he had done you none. Xerxes the king will pass over you, whether you want it or not; in accordance with justice no one offers you sacrifice, for you are a turbid and briny river.”

3He commanded that the sea receive these punishments and that the overseers of the bridge over the Hellespont be beheaded.

Chapter 36

1So this was done by those who were appointed to the thankless honor, and new engineers set about making the bridges. They made the bridges as follows: in order to lighten the strain of the cables, they placed fifty-oared ships and triremes alongside each other, three hundred and sixty to bear the bridge nearest the Euxine sea, and three hundred and fourteen to bear the other; all lay obliquely to the line of the Pontus and parallel with the current of the Hellespont.

2After putting the ships together they let down very great anchors, both from the end of the ships on the Pontus side to hold fast against the winds blowing from within that sea, and from the other end, towards the west and the Aegean, to hold against the west and south winds. They left a narrow opening to sail through in the line of fifty-oared ships and triremes, that so whoever wanted to could sail by small craft to the Pontus or out of it.

3After doing this, they stretched the cables from the land, twisting them taut with wooden windlasses; they did not as before keep the two kinds apart, but assigned for each bridge two cables of flax and four of papyrus.

4All these had the same thickness and fine appearance, but the flaxen were heavier in proportion, for a cubit of them weighed a talent.

5When the strait was thus bridged, they sawed logs of wood to a length equal to the breadth of the floating supports, and laid them in order on the taut cables; after placing them together they then made them fast. After doing this, they carried brushwood onto the bridge; when this was all laid in order they heaped earth on it and stamped it down; then they made a fence on either side, so that the beasts of burden and horses not be frightened by the sight of the sea below them.

Chapter 37

1When the bridges and the work at Athos were ready, and both the dikes at the canal's entrances, built to prevent the surf from silting up the entrances of the dug passage, and the canal itself were reported to be now completely finished, the army then wintered. At the beginning of spring the army made ready and set forth from Sardis to march to Abydos.

2As it was setting out, the sun left his place in the heaven and was invisible, although the sky was without clouds and very clear, and the day turned into night. When Xerxes saw and took note of that, he was concerned and asked the Magi what the vision might signify.

3They declared to him that the god was showing the Greeks the abandonment of their cities; for the sun (they said) was the prophet of the Greeks, as the moon was their own. Xerxes rejoiced exceedingly to hear that and continued on his march.

Chapter 38

1As Xerxes led his army away, Pythius the Lydian, frightened by the heavenly vision and encouraged by the gifts that he had received, came to Xerxes and said, “Master, I have a favor to ask that I desire of you, easy for you to grant and precious for me to receive.”

2Xerxes supposed that Pythius would demand anything rather than what he did ask and answered that he would grant the request, bidding him declare what he desired. When Pythius heard this, he took courage and said: “Master, I have five sons, and all of them are constrained to march with you against Hellas.

3I pray you, O king, take pity on me in my advanced age, and release one of my sons, the eldest, from service, so that he may take care of me and of my possessions; take the four others with you, and may you return back with all your plans accomplished.”

Chapter 39

1Xerxes became very angry and thus replied: “Villain, you see me marching against Hellas myself, and taking with me my sons and brothers and relations and friends; do you, my slave, who should have followed me with all your household and your very wife, speak to me of your son? Be well assured of this, that a man's spirit dwells in his ears; when it hears good words it fills the whole body with delight, but when it hears the opposite it swells with anger.

2When you did me good service and promised more, you will never boast that you outdid your king in the matter of benefits; and now that you have turned aside to the way of shamelessness, you will receive a lesser requital than you merit. You and four of your sons are saved by your hospitality; but you shall be punished by the life of that one you most desire to keep.”

3With that reply, he immediately ordered those who were assigned to do these things to find the eldest of Pythius sons and cut him in half, then to set one half of his body on the right side of the road and the other on the left, so that the army would pass between them.

Chapter 40

1This they did, and the army passed between. First went the baggage train and the beasts of burden, and after them a mixed army of all sorts of nations, not according to their divisions but all mingled together; when more than half had passed there was a space left, and these did not come near the king.

2After that, first came a thousand horsemen, chosen out of all Persians; next, a thousand spearmen, picked men like the others, carrying their spears reversed; and after them ten horses of the breed called Nesaean, equipped most splendidly.

3The horses are called Nesaean because there is in Media a wide plain of that name, where the great horses are bred.

4Behind these ten horses was the place of the sacred chariot of Zeus, drawn by eight white horses, with the charioteer following the horses on foot and holding the reins; for no mortal man may mount into that seat. After these came Xerxes himself in a chariot drawn by Nesaean horses; beside him was his charioteer, whose name was Patiramphes, the son of Otanes, a Persian.

Chapter 41

1In this way Xerxes rode out from Sardis; but whenever the thought took him he would alight from the chariot into a carriage. Behind him came a thousand spearmen of the best and noblest blood of Persia, carrying their spears in the customary manner; after them a thousand picked Persian horsemen, and after the horse ten thousand that were foot soldiers, chosen out of the rest of the Persians.

2One thousand of these had golden pomegranates on their spear-shafts instead of a spike, and surrounded the rest; the nine thousand who were inside them had silver pomegranates. Those who held their spears reversed also carried golden pomegranates, and those following nearest to Xerxes had apples of gold. After the ten thousand came ten thousand Persian horsemen in array. After these there was a space of two stadia, and then the rest of the multitude followed all mixed together.

Chapter 42

1From Lydia the army took its course to the river Caicus and the land of Mysia; leaving the Caicus, they went through Atarneus to the city of Carene, keeping the mountain of Cane on the left. From there they journeyed over the plain of Thebe, passing the city of Adramytteum and the Pelasgian city of Antandrus.

2Then they came into the territory of Ilium, with Ida on their left. When they had halted for the night at the foot of Ida, a storm of thunder and lightning fell upon them, killing a great crowd of them there.

Chapter 43

1When the army had come to the river Scamander, which was the first river after the beginning of their march from Sardis that fell short of their needs and was not sufficient for the army and the cattle to drink—arriving at this river, Xerxes ascended to the citadel of Priam, having a desire to see it.

2After he saw it and asked about everything there, he sacrificed a thousand cattle to Athena of Ilium, and the Magi offered libations to the heroes. After they did this, a panic fell upon the camp in the night. When it was day they journeyed on from there, keeping on their left the cities of Rhoetium and Ophryneum and Dardanus, which borders Abydos, and on their right the Teucrian Gergithae.

Chapter 44

1When they were at Abydos, Xerxes wanted to see the whole of his army. A lofty seat of white stone had been set up for him on a hill there for this very purpose, built by the people of Abydos at the king's command. There he sat and looked down on the seashore, viewing his army and his fleet; as he viewed them he desired to see the ships contend in a race. They did so, and the Phoenicians of Sidon won; Xerxes was pleased with the race and with his expedition.

Chapter 45

1When he saw the whole Hellespont covered with ships, and all the shores and plains of Abydos full of men, Xerxes first declared himself blessed, and then wept.

Chapter 46

1His uncle Artabanus perceived this, he who in the beginning had spoken his mind freely and advised Xerxes not to march against Hellas. Marking how Xerxes wept, he questioned him and said, “O king, what a distance there is between what you are doing now and a little while ago! After declaring yourself blessed you weep.”

2Xerxes said, “I was moved to compassion when I considered the shortness of all human life, since of all this multitude of men not one will be alive a hundred years from now.”

3Artabanus answered, “In one life we have deeper sorrows to bear than that. Short as our lives are, there is no human being either here or elsewhere so fortunate that it will not occur to him, often and not just once, to wish himself dead rather than alive. Misfortunes fall upon us and sicknesses trouble us, so that they make life, though short, seem long.

4Life is so miserable a thing that death has become the most desirable refuge for humans; the god is found to be envious in this, giving us only a taste of the sweetness of living.”

Chapter 47

1Xerxes answered and said, “Artabanus, human life is such as you define it to be. Let us speak no more of that, nor remember evils in our present prosperous estate. But tell me this: if you had not seen the vision in your dream so clearly, would you still have held your former opinion and advised me not to march against Hellas, or would you have changed your mind? Come, tell me this truly.”

2Artabanus answered and said, “O king, may the vision that appeared in my dream bring such an end as we both desire! But I am even now full of fear and beside myself for many reasons, especially when I see that the two greatest things in the world are your greatest enemies.”

Chapter 48

1Xerxes made this response: “Are you possessed? What are these two things that you say are my greatest enemies? Is there some fault with the numbers of my land army? Does it seem that the Greek army will be many times greater than ours? Or do you think that our navy will fall short of theirs? Or that the fault is in both? If our power seems to you to lack anything in this regard, it would be best to muster another army as quickly as possible.”

Chapter 49

1Artabanus answered and said, “O king, there is no fault that any man of sound judgment could find either with this army or with the number of your ships; and if you gather more, those two things I speak of become even much more your enemies. These two are the land and the sea.

2The sea has nowhere any harbor, as I conjecture, that will be able to receive this navy and save your ships if a storm arise. Yet there has to be not just one such harbor, but many of them all along the land you are sailing by.

3Since there are no harbors able to receive you, understand that men are the subjects and not the rulers of their accidents. I have spoken of one of the two, and now I will tell you of the other.

4The land is your enemy in this way: if nothing is going to stand in your way and hinder you, the land becomes more your enemy the further you advance, constantly unaware of what lies beyond; no man is ever satisfied with success.

5So I say that if no one opposes you, the increase of your territory and the time passed in getting it will breed famine. The best man is one who is timid while making plans because he takes into account all that may happen to him, but is bold in action.”

Chapter 50

1Xerxes answered, “Artabanus, you define these matters reasonably. But do not fear everything, nor take account of all alike; If you wanted to take everything equally into account on every occasion that happens, you would never do anything; it is better to do everything boldly and suffer half of what you dread than to fear all chances and so never suffer anything.

2But if you quarrel with whatever is said yet cannot put forth a secure position, you must be proved as wrong on your part as he who holds the contrary opinion. In this both are alike: how can someone who is only human know where there is security? I think it is impossible. Those who have the will to act most often win the rewards, not those who hesitate and take account of all chances.

3You see what power Persia has attained. Now if those kings who came before me had held such opinions as yours, or if they had not held them but had had advisers like you, you would never have seen our fortunes at their present height; but as it is those kings ran the risks and advanced them to this height.

4Great successes are not won except by great risks. So we will do as they did; we are travelling in the fairest season of the year, and we will return home the conquerors of all Europe without suffering famine or any other harm anywhere. First, we carry ample provisions with us on our march; second, we will have the food of those whose land and nation we invade; for we are marching against men who are tillers of the soil, not nomads.”

Chapter 51

1Then said Artabanus: “O king, I see that you will not allow us to fear any danger. But take from me this advice, as there is need for much speaking when our affairs are so great.

2Cyrus son of Cambyses subdued and made tributary to Persia all Ionians except only the Athenians. I advise you by no means to lead these Ionians against the land of their fathers, since even without their aid we are well able to overcome our enemies. If they come with our army, they must either behave very unjustly by enslaving their mother city, or very justly by aiding it to be free.

3If they deal very unjustly they bring us no great advantage, but by dealing very justly they may well do great harm to your army. Take to heart the truth of that ancient saying, that the end of every matter is not revealed at its beginning.”

Chapter 52

1Xerxes answered, “Artabanus, in all your pronouncements you are most mistaken when you fear that the Ionians might change sides; we have the surest guarantee for them, and you and all who marched with Darius against the Scythians can bear witness. They had the power to destroy or to save the whole Persian army, and they gave proof of their justice and faithfulness, with no evil intent.

2Moreover, since they have left their children and wives and possessions in our country, we need not consider it even possible that they will make any violent change. So be rid of that fear; keep a stout heart and guard my household and tyranny; to you alone I entrust the symbols of my kingship.”

Chapter 53

1Xerxes spoke thus and sent Artabanus away to Susa. He next sent for the most notable among the Persians, and when they were present he said, “Persians, I have assembled you to make this demand, that you bear yourselves bravely and never sully the great and glorious former achievements of the Persians. Let us each and all be zealous, for the good that we seek is common to all.

2For these reasons I bid you set your hands to the war strenuously; I know that we march against valiant men, and if we overcome them it is certain that no other human army will ever withstand us. Let us now cross over, after praying to the gods who hold Persia for their allotted realm.”

Chapter 54

1All that day they made preparations for the crossing. On the next they waited until they could see the sun rise, burning all kinds of incense on the bridges and strewing the road with myrtle boughs.

2At sunrise Xerxes poured a libation from a golden phial into the sea, praying to the sun that no accident might befall him which would keep him from subduing Europe before he reached its farthest borders. After the prayer, he cast the phial into the Hellespont, and along with it a golden bowl, and a Persian sword which they call “acinaces.”

3As for these, I cannot rightly determine whether he cast them into the sea for offerings to the sun, or repented having whipped the Hellespont and gave gifts to the sea as atonement.

Chapter 55

1When they had done this they crossed over, the foot and horse all by the bridge nearest to the Pontus, the beasts of burden and the service train by the bridge towards the Aegean.

2The ten thousand Persians, all wearing garlands, led the way, and after them came the mixed army of diverse nations. All that day these crossed; on the next, first crossed the horsemen and the ones who carried their spears reversed; these also wore garlands.

3After them came the sacred horses and the sacred chariot, then Xerxes himself and the spearmen and the thousand horse, and after them the rest of the army. Meanwhile the ships put out and crossed to the opposite shore. But I have also heard that the king crossed last of all.

Chapter 56

1When Xerxes had passed over to Europe, he viewed his army crossing under the lash. Seven days and seven nights it was in crossing, with no pause.

2It is said that when Xerxes had now crossed the Hellespont, a man of the Hellespont cried, “O Zeus, why have you taken the likeness of a Persian man and changed your name to Xerxes, leading the whole world with you to remove Hellas from its place? You could have done that without these means.”

Chapter 57

1When all had passed over and were ready for the road, a great portent appeared among them. Xerxes took no account of it, although it was easy to interpret: a mare gave birth to a hare. The meaning of it was easy to guess: Xerxes was to march his army to Hellas with great pomp and pride, but to come back to the same place fleeing for his life.

2There was another portent that was shown to him at Sardis: a mule gave birth to a mule that had double genitals, both male and female, the male above the other. But he took no account of either sign and journeyed onward; the land army was with him.

Chapter 58

1His navy sailed out of the Hellespont and travelled along the land, going across from the land army.

2The ships sailed westwards, laying their course for the headland of Sarpedon, where Xerxes had ordered them to go and wait for him; the army of the mainland travelled towards the east and the sunrise through the Chersonese, with the tomb of Athamas' daughter Helle on its right and the town of Cardia on its left, marching through the middle of a city called Agora.

3From there they rounded the head of the Black Bay (as it is called) and crossed the Black River, which could not hold its own then against the army, but gave out—crossing this river, which gives its name to the bay, they went westwards, past the Aeolian city of Aenus and the marsh of Stentor, until they came to Doriscus.

Chapter 59

1The territory of Doriscus is in Thrace, a wide plain by the sea, and through it flows a great river, the Hebrus; here had been built that royal fortress which is called Doriscus, and a Persian guard had been posted there by Darius ever since the time of his march against Scythia.

2It seemed to Xerxes to be a fit place for him to arrange and number his army, and he did so. All the ships had now arrived at Doriscus, and the captains at Xerxes' command brought them to the beach near Doriscus, where stands the Samothracian city of Sane, and Zone; at the end is Serreum, a well-known headland. This country was in former days possessed by the Cicones.

3To this beach they brought in their ships and hauled them up for rest. Meanwhile Xerxes made a reckoning of his forces at Doriscus.

Chapter 60

1I cannot give the exact number that each part contributed to the total, for there is no one who tells us that; but the total of the whole land army was shown to be one million and seven hundred thousand.

2They were counted in this way: ten thousand men were collected in one place, and when they were packed together as closely as could be a line was drawn around them; when this was drawn, the ten thousand were sent away and a wall of stones was built on the line reaching up to a man's navel;

3when this was done, others were brought into the walled space, until in this way all were numbered. When they had been numbered, they were marshalled by nations.

Chapter 61

1The men who served in the army were the following: the Persians were equipped in this way: they wore on their heads loose caps called tiaras, and on their bodies embroidered sleeved tunics, with scales of iron like the scales of fish in appearance, and trousers on their legs; for shields they had wicker bucklers, with quivers hanging beneath them; they carried short spears, long bows, and reed arrows, and daggers that hung from the girdle by the right thigh.

2Their commander was Otanes, son of Amestris and father of Xerxes' wife. They were formerly called by the Greeks Cephenes, but by themselves and their neighbors Artaei.

3When Perseus son of Danae and Zeus had come to Cepheus son of Belus and married his daughter Andromeda, a son was born to him whom he called Perses, and he left him there; for Cepheus had no male offspring; it was from this Perses that the Persians took their name.

Chapter 62

1The Medes in the army were equipped like the Persians; indeed, that fashion of armor is Median, not Persian. Their commander was Tigranes, an Achaemenid. The Medes were formerly called by everyone Arians, but when the Colchian woman Medea came from Athens to the Arians they changed their name, like the Persians. This is the Medes' own account of themselves.

2The Cissians in the army were equipped like the Persians, but they wore turbans instead of caps. Their commander was Anaphes son of Otanes. The Hyrcanians were armed like the Persians; their leader was Megapanus, who was afterwards the governor of Babylon.

Chapter 63

1The Assyrians in the army wore on their heads helmets of twisted bronze made in an outlandish fashion not easy to describe. They carried shields and spears and daggers of Egyptian fashion, and also wooden clubs studded with iron, and they wore linen breastplates. They are called by the Greeks Syrians, but the foreigners called them Assyrians. With them were the Chaldeans. Their commander was Otaspes son of Artachaees.

Chapter 64

1The Bactrians in the army wore a headgear very similar to the Median, carrying their native reed bows and short spears.

2The Sacae, who are Scythians, had on their heads tall caps, erect and stiff and tapering to a point; they wore trousers, and carried their native bows, and daggers, and also axes which they call “sagaris.” These were Amyrgian Scythians, but were called Sacae; that is the Persian name for all Scythians. The commander of the Bactrians and Sacae was Hystaspes, son of Darius and Cyrus' daughter Atossa.

Chapter 65

1The Indians wore garments of tree-wool, and carried reed bows and iron-tipped reed arrows. Such was their equipment; they were appointed to march under the command of Pharnazathres son of Artabates.

Chapter 66

1The Arians were equipped with Median bows, but in all else like the Bactrians; their commander was Sisamnes son of Hydarnes. The Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, Gandarians, and Dadicae in the army had the same equipment as the Bactrians.

2The Parthians and Chorasmians had for their commander Artabazus son of Pharnaces, the Sogdians Azanes son of Artaeus, the Gandarians and Dadicae Artyphius son of Artabanus.

Chapter 67

1The Caspians in the army wore cloaks and carried their native reed bows and short swords. Such was their equipment; their leader was Ariomardus, brother of Artyphius. The Sarangae were conspicuous in their dyed garments and knee-high boots, carrying bows and Median spears. Their commander was Pherendates son of Megabazus.

2The Pactyes wore cloaks and carried their native bows and daggers; their commander was Artayntes son of Ithamitres.

Chapter 68

1The Utians and Mycians and Paricanians were equipped like the Pactyes; the Utians and Mycians had for their commander Arsamenes son of Darius, the Paricanians Siromitres son of Oeobazus.

Chapter 69

1The Arabians wore mantles girded up, and carried at their right side long bows curving backwards. The Ethiopians were wrapped in skins of leopards and lions, and carried bows made of palmwood strips, no less than four cubits long, and short arrows pointed not with iron but with a sharpened stone that they use to carve seals; furthermore, they had spears pointed with a gazelle's horn sharpened like a lance, and also studded clubs.

2When they went into battle they painted half their bodies with gypsum and the other half with vermilion. The Arabians and the Ethiopians who dwell above Egypt had as commander Arsames, the son of Darius and Artystone daughter of Cyrus, whom Darius loved best of his wives; he had an image made of her of hammered gold.

Chapter 70

1The Ethiopians above Egypt and the Arabians had Arsames for commander, while the Ethiopians of the east (for there were two kinds of them in the army) served with the Indians; they were not different in appearance from the others, only in speech and hair: the Ethiopians from the east are straight-haired, but the ones from Libya have the woolliest hair of all men.

2These Ethiopians of Asia were for the most part armed like the Indians; but they wore on their heads the skins of horses' foreheads, stripped from the head with ears and mane; the mane served them for a crest, and they wore the horses' ears stiff and upright; for shields they had bucklers of the skin of cranes.

Chapter 71

1The Libyans came in leather garments, using javelins of burnt wood. Their commander was Massages son of Oarizus.

Chapter 72

1The Paphlagonians in the army had woven helmets on their heads, and small shields and short spears, and also javelins and daggers; they wore their native shoes that reach midway to the knee. The Ligyes and Matieni and Mariandyni and Syrians were equipped like the Paphlagonians. These Syrians are called by the Persians Cappadocians.

2Dotus son of Megasidrus was commander of the Paphlagonians and Matieni, Gobryas son of Darius and Artystone of the Mariandyni and Ligyes and Syrians.

Chapter 73

1The Phrygian equipment was very similar to the Paphlagonian, with only a small difference. As the Macedonians say, these Phrygians were called Briges as long as they dwelt in Europe, where they were neighbors of the Macedonians; but when they changed their home to Asia, they changed their name also and were called Phrygians. The Armenians, who are settlers from Phrygia, were armed like the Phrygians. Both these together had as their commander Artochmes, who had married a daughter of Darius.

Chapter 74

1The Lydian armor was most similar to the Greek. The Lydians were formerly called Meiones, until they changed their name and were called after Lydus son of Atys. The Mysians wore on their heads their native helmets, carrying small shields and javelins of burnt wood.

2They are settlers from Lydia, and are called Olympieni after the mountain Olympus. The commander of the Lydians and Mysians was that Artaphrenes son of Artaphrenes, who attacked Marathon with Datis.

Chapter 75

1The Thracians in the army wore fox-skin caps on their heads, and tunics on their bodies; over these they wore embroidered mantles; they had shoes of fawnskin on their feet and legs; they also had javelins and little shields and daggers.

2They took the name of Bithynians after they crossed over to Asia; before that they were called (as they themselves say) Strymonians, since they lived by the Strymon; they say that they were driven from their homes by Teucrians and Mysians. The commander of the Thracians of Asia was Bassaces son of Artabanus.

Chapter 76

1The <Pisidians> had little shields of raw oxhide; each man carried two wolf-hunters' spears; they wore helmets of bronze, and on these helmets were the ears and horns of oxen wrought in bronze, and also crests; their legs were wrapped around with strips of purple rags. Among these men is a place of divination sacred to Ares.

Chapter 77

1The Cabelees, who are Meiones and are called Lasonii, had the same equipment as the Cilicians; when I come in my narrative to the place of the Cilicians, I will then declare what it was. The Milyae had short spears and garments fastened by brooches; some of them carried Lycian bows and wore caps of skin on their heads. The commander of all these was Badres son of Hystanes.

Chapter 78

1The Moschi wore wooden helmets on their heads, and carried shields and small spears with long points. The Tibareni and Macrones and Mossynoeci in the army were equipped like the Moschi. The commanders who marshalled them were, for the Moschi and Tibareni, Ariomardus son of Darius and Parmys, the daughter of Cyrus' son Smerdis; for the Macrones and Mossynoeci, Artayctes son of Cherasmis, who was governor of Sestus on the Hellespont.

Chapter 79

1The Mares wore on their heads their native woven helmets, and carried javelins and small hide shields. The Colchians had wooden helmets and small shields of raw oxhide and short spears, and also swords. The commander of the Mares and Colchians was Pharandates son of Teaspis. The Alarodians and Saspires in the army were armed like the Colchians; Masistius son of Siromitres was their commander.

Chapter 80

1The island tribes that came from the Red Sea, and from the islands where the king settles those who are called Exiles, wore dress and armor very similar to the Median. The commander of these islanders was Mardontes son of Bagaeus, who in the next year was general at Mykale and died in the battle.

Chapter 81

1These are the nations that marched by the mainland and had their places in the infantry. The commanders of this army were those whom I have mentioned, and they were the ones who marshalled and numbered them and appointed captains of thousands and ten thousands; the captains of ten thousands appointed the captains of hundreds and of tens. There were others who were leaders of companies and nations.

Chapter 82

1These were the commanders, as I have said; the generals of these and of the whole infantry were Mardonius son of Gobryas, Tritantaechmes son of that Artabanus who delivered the opinion that there should be no expedition against Hellas, Smerdomenes son of Otanes (these two latter were sons of Darius' brothers, and thus they were Xerxes' cousins), Masistes son of Darius and Atossa, Gergis son of Ariazus, and Megabyzus son of Zopyrus.

Chapter 83

1These were the generals of the whole infantry, except the Ten Thousand. Hydarnes son of Hydarnes was general of these picked ten thousand Persians, who were called Immortals for this reason: when any one of them was forced to fall out of the number by death or sickness, another was chosen so that they were never more or fewer than ten thousand.

2The Persians showed the richest adornment of all, and they were the best men in the army. Their equipment was such as I have said; beyond this they stood out by the abundance of gold that they had. They also brought carriages bearing concubines and many well-equipped servants; camels and beasts of burden carried food for them, apart from the rest of the army.

Chapter 84

1There are horsemen in these nations, but not all of them furnished cavalry. Only the following did so: the Persians, equipped like their infantry, except that some of them wore headgear of hammered bronze and iron.

Chapter 85

1There are also certain nomads called Sagartian; they are Persian in speech, and the fashion of their equipment is somewhat between the Persian and the Pactyan; they furnished eight thousand horsemen. It is their custom to carry no armor of bronze or iron, except only daggers, and to use ropes of twisted leather.

2They go to battle relying on these. This is the manner of fighting of these men: when they are at close quarters with their enemy, they throw their ropes, which have a noose at the end; whatever he catches, horse or man, each man drags to himself, and the enemy is entangled in the coils and slain. Such is their manner of fighting; they were marshalled with the Persians.

Chapter 86

1The Median cavalry were equipped like their infantry, and the Cissians similarly. The Indians were armed in the same manner as their infantry; they rode swift horses and drove chariots drawn by horses and wild asses. The Bactrians were equipped as were their foot, and the Caspians in the same manner.

2The Libyans, too, were armed like the men of their infantry, and all of them also drove chariots. In the same manner the Caspians and Paricanians were armed as the men of their infantry. The Arabians had the same equipment as the men of their infantry, and all of them rode on camels no less swift than horses.

Chapter 87

1These nations alone were on horseback; the number of the horsemen was shown to be eighty thousand, besides the camels and the chariots. All the rest of the horsemen were ranked with their companies, but the Arabians were posted last. Since horses cannot endure camels, their place was in the rear, so that the horses would not be frightened.

Chapter 88

1The captains of cavalry were Harmamithres and Tithaeus, sons of Datis; the third who was captain with them, Pharnuches, had been left behind sick at Sardis. As they set forth from Sardis, an unwelcome mishap befell him: a dog ran under the feet of the horse he was riding, and the horse was taken by surprise and frightened, so it reared up and threw Pharnuches; after his fall he vomited blood and began to waste away.

2The horse was immediately dealt with according to Pharnuces' command; his servants led it away to the place where it had thrown their master, and cut off its legs at the knee. Thus it was that Pharnuches lost his command.

Chapter 89

1The number of the triremes was twelve hundred and seven, and they were furnished by the following: the Phoenicians with the Syrians of Palestine furnished three hundred; for their equipment, they had on their heads helmets very close to the Greek in style; they wore linen breastplates, and carried shields without rims, and javelins.

2These Phoenicians formerly dwelt, as they themselves say, by the Red Sea; they crossed from there and now inhabit the seacoast of Syria. This part of Syria as far as Egypt is all called Palestine.

3The Egyptians furnished two hundred ships. They wore woven helmets and carried hollow shields with broad rims, and spears for sea-warfare, and great battle-axes. Most of them wore cuirasses and carried long swords.

Chapter 90

1Such was their armor. The Cyprians furnished a hundred and fifty ships; for their equipment, their princes wore turbans wrapped around their heads, and the people wore tunics, but in all else they were like the Greeks. These are their tribes: some are from Salamis and Athens, some from Arcadia, some from Cythnus, some from Phoenice, and some from Ethiopia, as the Cyprians themselves say.

Chapter 91

1The Cilicians furnished a hundred ships. They also wore on their heads their native helmets, carried bucklers of raw oxhide for shields, and were clad in woollen tunics; each had two javelins and a sword very close in style to the knives of Egypt. These Cilicians were formerly called Hypachaei, and took their name from Cilix son of Agenor, a Phoenician. The Pamphylians furnished a hundred ships: they were armed like the Greeks. These Pamphylians are descended from the Trojans of the diaspora who followed Amphilochus and Calchas.

Chapter 92

1The Lycians furnished fifty ships; they wore cuirasses and greaves, and carried cornel-wood bows and unfeathered arrows and javelins; goat-skins hung from their shoulders, and they wore on their heads caps crowned with feathers; they also had daggers and scimitars. The Lycians are from Crete and were once called Termilae; they took their name from Lycus son of Pandion, an Athenian.

Chapter 93

1The Dorians of Asia furnished thirty ships; their armor was Greek; they are of Peloponnesian descent. The Carians furnished seventy ships; they had scimitars and daggers, but the rest of their equipment was Greek. I have said in the beginning of my history what they were formerly called.

Chapter 94

1The Ionians furnished a hundred ships; their equipment was like the Greek. These Ionians, as long as they were in the Peloponnese, dwelt in what is now called Achaia, and before Danaus and Xuthus came to the Peloponnese, as the Greeks say, they were called Aegialian Pelasgians. They were named Ionians after Ion the son of Xuthus.

Chapter 95

1The islanders provided seventeen ships and were armed like Greeks; they were also of Pelasgian stock, which was later called Ionian for the same reason as were the Ionians of the twelve cities, who came from Athens. The Aeolians furnished sixty ships and were equipped like Greeks; formerly they were called Pelasgian, as the Greek story goes.

2Of the people of the Hellespont, the people of Abydos had been charged by the king to remain at home and guard the bridges; the rest of the people from Pontus who came with the army furnished a hundred ships and were equipped like Greeks. They were settlers from the Ionians and Dorians.

Chapter 96

1Persians and Medes and Sacae served as soldiers on all the ships. The most seaworthy ships were furnished by the Phoenicians, and among them by the Sidonians. All of these, as with those who were marshalled in the infantry, each had their native leaders, whose names I do not record, since it is not necessary for the purpose of my history.

2The leaders of each nation are not worthy of mention, and every city of each nation had a leader of its own. These came not as generals but as slaves, like the rest of the expedition; I have already said who were the generals of supreme authority and the Persian commanders of each nation.

Chapter 97

1The admirals of the navy were Ariabignes son of Darius, Prexaspes son of Aspathines, Megabazus son of Megabates, and Achaemenes son of Darius. Ariabignes, son of Darius and Gobryas' daughter, was admiral of the Ionian and Carian fleet; the admiral of the Egyptians was Achaemenes, full brother of Xerxes; and the two others were admirals of the rest. The ships of thirty and of fifty oars, the light galleys, and the great transports for horses came to a total of three thousand all together.

Chapter 98

1After the admirals, the most famous of those on board were these: from Sidon, Tetramnestus son of Anysus; from Tyre, Matten son of Siromus; from Aradus, Merbalus son of Agbalus; from Cilicia, Syennesis son of Oromedon; from Lycia, Cyberniscus son of Sicas; from Cyprus, Gorgus son of Chersis and Timonax son of Timagoras; and from Caria, Histiaeus son of Tymnes, Pigres son of Hysseldomus, and Damasithymus son of Candaules.

Chapter 99

1I see no need to mention any of the other captains except Artemisia. I find it a great marvel that a woman went on the expedition against Hellas: after her husband died, she took over his tyranny, though she had a young son, and followed the army from youthful spirits and manliness, under no compulsion.

2Artemisia was her name, and she was the daughter of Lygdamis; on her fathers' side she was of Halicarnassian lineage, and on her mothers' Cretan. She was the leader of the men of Halicarnassus and Cos and Nisyrus and Calydnos, and provided five ships.

3Her ships were reputed to be the best in the whole fleet after the ships of Sidon, and she gave the king the best advice of all his allies. The cities that I said she was the leader of are all of Dorian stock, as I can show, since the Halicarnassians are from Troezen, and the rest are from Epidaurus.

Chapter 100

1Here ends what I have said of the fleet. When his army had been numbered and marshalled, Xerxes desired to ride through and view it. Then he did this; as he rode in a chariot past the men of each nation, he questioned them while his scribes wrote it all down, until he had gone from one end to the other of the cavalry and infantry.

2After he had done this, the ships were drawn down and launched into the sea. Xerxes alighted from his chariot into a Sidonian ship and sat under a golden canopy while he was carried past the prows of the ships, questioning the men in the same way as the army and having the answers written down.

3The captains put out and anchored in line four hundred feet from the shore, with their prows turned landward and the marines armed for war; Xerxes viewed them by passing between the prows and the land.

Chapter 101

1After he passed by all his fleet and disembarked from the ship, he sent for Demaratus son of Ariston, who was on the expedition with him against Hellas. He summoned him and said, “Demaratus, it is now my pleasure to ask you what I wish to know. You are a Greek, and, as I am told both by you and by the other Greeks whom I have talked to, a man from neither the least nor the weakest of Greek cities.

2So tell me: will the Greeks offer battle and oppose me? I think that even if all the Greeks and all the men of the western lands were assembled together, they are not powerful enough to withstand my attack, unless they are united.

3Still I want to hear from you what you say of them.” To this question Demaratus answered, “O king, should I speak the truth or try to please you?” Xerxes bade him speak the truth and said that it would be no more unpleasant for him than before.

Chapter 102

1Demaratus heard this and said, “O King, since you bid me by all means to speak the whole truth, and to say what you will not later prove to be false, in Hellas poverty is always endemic, but courage is acquired as the fruit of wisdom and strong law; by use of this courage Hellas defends herself from poverty and tyranny.

2Now I praise all the Greeks who dwell in those Dorian lands, yet I am not going to speak these words about all of them, but only about the Lacedaemonians. First, they will never accept conditions from you that bring slavery upon Hellas; and second, they will meet you in battle even if all the other Greeks are on your side.

3Do not ask me how many these men are who can do this; they will fight with you whether they have an army of a thousand men, or more than that, or less.”

Chapter 103

1When he heard this, Xerxes smiled and said, “What a strange thing to say, Demaratus, that a thousand men would fight with so great an army! Come now, tell me this: you say that you were king of these men. Are you willing right now to fight with ten men? Yet if your state is entirely as you define it, you as their king should by right encounter twice as many according to your laws.

2If each of them is a match for ten men of my army, then it is plain to me that you must be a match for twenty; in this way you would prove that what you say is true. But if you Greeks who so exalt yourselves are just like you and the others who come to speak with me, and are also the same size, then beware lest the words you have spoken be only idle boasting.

3Let us look at it with all reasonableness: how could a thousand, or ten thousand, or even fifty thousand men, if they are all equally free and not under the rule of one man, withstand so great an army as mine? If you Greeks are five thousand, we still would be more than a thousand to one.

4If they were under the rule of one man according to our custom, they might out of fear of him become better than they naturally are, and under compulsion of the lash they might go against greater numbers of inferior men; but if they are allowed to go free they would do neither. I myself think that even if they were equal in numbers it would be hard for the Greeks to fight just against the Persians.

5What you are talking about is found among us alone, and even then it is not common but rare; there are some among my Persian spearmen who will gladly fight with three Greeks at once. You have no knowledge of this and are spouting a lot of nonsense.”

Chapter 104

1To this Demaratus answered, “O king I knew from the first that the truth would be unwelcome to you. But since you compelled me to speak as truly as I could, I have told you how it stands with the Spartans.

2You yourself best know what love I bear them: they have robbed me of my office and the privileges of my house, and made me a cityless exile; your father received me and gave me a house and the means to live on. It is not reasonable for a sensible man to reject goodwill when it appears; rather he will hold it in great affection.

3I myself do not promise that I can fight with ten men or with two, and I would not even willingly fight with one; yet if it were necessary, or if some great contest spurred me, I would most gladly fight with one of those men who claim to be each a match for three Greeks.

4So is it with the Lacedaemonians; fighting singly they are as brave as any man living, and together they are the best warriors on earth. They are free, yet not wholly free: law is their master, whom they fear much more than your men fear you.

5They do whatever it bids; and its bidding is always the same, that they must never flee from the battle before any multitude of men, but must abide at their post and there conquer or die. If I seem to you to speak foolishness when I say this, then let me hereafter hold my peace; it is under constraint that I have now spoken. But may your wish be fulfilled, King.”

Chapter 105

1Thus Demaratus answered. Xerxes made a joke of the matter and showed no anger, but sent him away kindly. After he had conversed with Demaratus, and appointed Mascames son of Megadostes governor of this Doriscus, deposing the governor Darius had appointed, Xerxes marched his army through Thrace towards Hellas.

Chapter 106

1Xerxes left behind this Mascames, who so conducted himself that to him alone Xerxes always sent gifts, as being the most valiant of all the governors that he or Darius appointed; he sent these gifts every year, and so did Artaxerxes son of Xerxes to Mascames' descendants. Before this march, governors had been appointed everywhere in Thrace and on the Hellespont.

2All of these in Thrace and the Hellespont, except the governor of Doriscus, were after this expedition captured by the Greeks; but no one could ever drive out Mascames in Doriscus, though many tried. For this reason gifts are sent by the successive kings of Persia.

Chapter 107

1The only one of those who were driven out by the Greeks whom king Xerxes considered a valiant man was Boges, from whom they took Eion. He never ceased praising this man, and gave very great honor to his sons who were left alive in Persia; indeed Boges proved himself worthy of all praise. When he was besieged by the Athenians under Cimon son of Miltiades, he could have departed under treaty from Eion and returned to Asia, but he refused, lest the king think that he had saved his life out of cowardice; instead he resisted to the last.

2When there was no food left within his walls, he piled up a great pyre and slew his children and wife and concubines and servants and cast them into the fire; after that, he took all the gold and silver from the city and scattered it from the walls into the Strymon; after he had done this, he cast himself into the fire. Thus he is justly praised by the Persians to this day.

Chapter 108

1From Doriscus Xerxes went on his way towards Hellas, compelling all that he met to go with his army. As I have shown earlier, all the country as far as Thessaly had been enslaved and was tributary to the king, by the conquests of Megabazus and Mardonius after him.

2On his road from Doriscus he first passed the Samothracian fortresses; of these, the city built farthest to the west is called Mesambria. Next to it is the Thasian city of Stryme; between them runs the river Lisus, which now could not furnish water enough for Xerxes' army, but was exhausted.

3All this region was once called Gallaic, but it is now called Briantic; however, by rights it also belongs to the Ciconians.

Chapter 109

1After he had crossed the dried-up bed of the river Lisus, he passed by the Greek cities of Maronea, Dicaea, and Abdera. He passed by these, and along certain well-known lakes near them: the Ismarid lake that lies between Maronea and Stryme, and near Dicaea the Bistonian lake, into which the rivers Travus and Compsantus discharge. Near Abdera Xerxes passed no well-known lake, but crossed the river Nestus where it flows into the sea.

2From these regions he passed by the cities of the mainland, one of which has near it a lake of about thirty stadia in circuit, full of fish and very salty; this was drained dry by watering the beasts of burden alone. This city is called Pistyrus.

Chapter 110

1Xerxes marched past these Greek cities of the coast, keeping them on his left. The Thracian tribes through whose lands he journeyed were the Paeti, Cicones, Bistones, Sapaei, Dersaei, Edoni, and Satrae. Of these, the ones who dwelt by the sea followed his army on shipboard; the ones living inland, whose names I have recorded, were forced to join with his land army, all of them except the Satrae.

Chapter 111

1The Satrae, as far as we know, have never yet been subject to any man; they alone of the Thracians have continued living in freedom to this day; they dwell on high mountains covered with forests of all kinds and snow, and they are excellent warriors.

2It is they who possess the place of divination sacred to Dionysus. This place is in their highest mountains; the Bessi, a clan of the Satrae, are the prophets of the shrine; there is a priestess who utters the oracle, as at Delphi; it is no more complicated here than there.

Chapter 112

1After passing through the aforementioned land, Xerxes next passed the fortresses of the Pierians, one called Phagres and the other Pergamus. By going this way he marched right under their walls, keeping on his right the great and high Pangaean range, where the Pierians and Odomanti and especially the Satrae have gold and silver mines.

Chapter 113

1Marching past the Paeonians, Doberes, and Paeoplae, who dwell beyond and northward of the Pangaean mountains, he kept going westwards, until he came to the river Strymon and the city of Eion; its governor was that Boges, then still alive, whom I mentioned just before this.

2All this region about the Pangaean range is called Phyllis; it stretches westwards to the river Angites, which issues into the Strymon, and southwards to the Strymon itself; at this river the Magi sought good omens by sacrificing white horses.

Chapter 114

1After using these enchantments and many others besides on the river, they passed over it at the Nine Ways in Edonian country, by the bridges which they found thrown across the Strymon. When they learned that Nine Ways was the name of the place, they buried alive that number of boys and maidens, children of the local people.

2To bury people alive is a Persian custom; I have learned by inquiry that when Xerxes' wife Amestris reached old age, she buried twice seven sons of notable Persians as an offering on her own behalf to the fabled god beneath the earth.

Chapter 115

1Journeying from the Strymon, the army passed by Argilus, a Greek town standing on a stretch of coast further westwards; the territory of this town and that which lies inland of it are called Bisaltia.

2From there, keeping on his left hand the gulf off Poseideion, Xerxes traversed the plain of Syleus (as they call it), passing by the Greek town of Stagirus, and came to Acanthus. He took along with him all these tribes and those that dwelt about the Pangaean range, just as he did those previously mentioned, the men of the coast serving in his fleet and the inland men in his land army.

3The entire road along which king Xerxes led his army the Thracians neither break up nor sow, but they hold it in great reverence to this day.

Chapter 116

1When Xerxes came to Acanthus, he declared the Acanthians his guests and friends, and gave them Median clothing, praising them for the zeal with which he saw them furthering his campaign, and for what he heard of the digging of the canal.

Chapter 117

1While Xerxes was at Acanthus, it happened that Artachaees, overseer of the digging of the canal, died of an illness. He was high in Xerxes' favor, an Achaemenid by lineage, and the tallest man in Persia, lacking four finger-breadths of five royal cubits in stature, and his voice was the loudest on earth. For this reason Xerxes mourned him greatly and gave him a funeral and burial of great pomp, and the whole army poured libations on his tomb.

2The Acanthians hold Artachaees a hero, and sacrifice to him, calling upon his name. This they do at the command of an oracle.

Chapter 118

1King Xerxes, then, mourned for the death of Artachaees. But the Greeks who received Xerxes' army and entertained the king himself were brought to such a degree of misery, that they were driven from house and home. Witness the case of the Thasians, who received and feasted Xerxes' army on behalf of their towns on the mainland; Antipatrus son of Orgeus, as notable a man as any of his townsmen, chosen by them for this task, rendered them an account of four hundred silver talents expended on the dinner.

Chapter 119

1Similar accounts were returned by the officers in the other towns. Now the dinner, about which a great deal of fuss had been made and for the preparation of which orders had been given long ago, proceeded as I will tell.

2As soon as the townsmen had word from the herald's proclamation, they divided corn among themselves in their cities and all of them for many months ground it to wheat and barley meal; moreover, they fed the finest beasts that money could buy, and kept landfowl and waterfowl in cages and ponds, for the entertaining of the army. They also made gold and silver cups and bowls and all manner of service for the table.

3These things were provided for the king himself and those that ate with him. For the rest of the army they provided only food. At the coming of the army, there was always a tent ready for Xerxes to take his rest in, while the men camped out in the open air.

4When the hour came for dinner, the real trouble for the hosts began. When they had eaten their fill and passed the night there, the army tore down the tent on the next day and marched off with all the movables, leaving nothing but carrying all with them.

Chapter 120

1It was then that a very apt saying was uttered by one Megacreon of Abdera. He advised his townsmen, men and women alike, to gather at their temples, and there in all humility to entreat the gods to defend them in the future from half of every threatened ill. They should also, he said, thank the gods heartily for their previous show of favor, for it was Xerxes' custom to take a meal only once a day. Otherwise they would have been commanded to furnish a breakfast similar to the dinner.

2The people of Abdera would then have had no choice but to flee before Xerxes' coming, or to perish most miserably if they awaited him.

Chapter 121

1So the townsmen, oppressed as they were, nevertheless did as they were commanded. Upon leaving Acanthus, Xerxes sent his ships on their course away from him, giving orders to his generals that the fleet should await him at Therma, the town on the Thermaic gulf which gives the gulf its name, for this, he learned, was his shortest way.

2The order of the army's march, from Doriscus to Acanthus, had been such as I will show. Dividing his entire land army into three parts, Xerxes appointed one of them to march beside his fleet along the coast.

3Mardonius and Masistes were the generals of this segment, while another third of the army marched, as appointed, further inland under Tritantaechmes and Gergis. The third part, with which Xerxes himself went, marched between the two, and its generals were Smerdomenes and Megabyzus.

Chapter 122

1Now when the fleet had left Xerxes, it sailed through the Athos canal which reached to the gulf in which are located the towns of Assa, Pilorus, Singus, and Sarte. The fleet took on board troops from all these cities and then headed for the Thermaic gulf. Then rounding Ampelus, the headland of Torone, it passed the Greek towns of Torone, Galepsus, Sermyle, Mecyberna, and Olynthus, all of which gave them ships and men.

Chapter 123

1This country is called Sithonia. The fleet held a straight course from the headland of Ampelus to the Canastraean headland, where Pallene runs farthest out to sea, and received ships and men from the towns of what is now Pallene but was formerly called Phlegra, namely, Potidaea, Aphytis, Neapolis, Aege, Therambus, Scione, Mende, and Sane.

2Sailing along this coast they made for the appointed place, taking troops from the towns adjacent to Pallene and near the Thermaic gulf, of which the names are Lipaxus, Combrea, Aesa, Gigonus, Campsa, Smila, Aenea; the territory of these cities is called Crossaea to this day.

3From Aenea, the last-named in my list of the towns, the course of the fleet lay from the Thermaic gulf itself and the Mygdonian territory until its voyage ended at Therma, the place appointed, and the towns of Sindus and Chalestra, where it came to the river Axius; this is the boundary, between the Mygdonian and the Bottiaean territory, in which are located the towns of Ichnae and Pella on the narrow strip of coast.

Chapter 124

1So the fleet lay there off the river Axius and the city of Therma and the towns between them, awaiting the king. But Xerxes and his land army marched from Acanthus by the straightest inland course, making for Therma. Their way lay through the Paeonian and the Crestonaean country to the river Cheidorus, which, rising in the Crestonaean land, flows through the Mygdonian country and issues by the marshes of the Axius.

Chapter 125

1As Xerxes marched by this route, lions attacked the camels which carried his provisions; nightly they would come down out of their lairs and made havoc of the camels alone, seizing nothing else, man or beast of burden. I wonder what prevented the lions from touching anything but the camels, creatures which they had not seen and had no knowledge of until then.

Chapter 126

1In these parts there are many lions and wild oxen, whose horns are those very long ones which are brought into Hellas. The boundary of the lions' country is the river Nestus which flows through Abdera and the river Achelous which flows through Acarnania. Neither to the east of the Nestus anywhere in the nearer part of Europe, nor to the west of the Achelous in the rest of the mainland, is any lion to be seen, but they are found in the country between those rivers.

Chapter 127

1When he had arrived at Therma, Xerxes quartered his army there. Its encampment by the sea covered all the space from Therma and the Mygdonian country to the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon, which unite their waters in one stream and so make the border between the Bottiaean and the Macedonian territory.

2In this place the foreigners lay encamped; of the rivers just mentioned, the Cheidorus, which flows from the Crestonaean country, was the only one which could not suffice for the army's drinking but was completely drained by it.

Chapter 128

1When Xerxes saw from Therma the very great height of the Thessalian mountains Olympus and Ossa and learned that the Peneus flows through them in a narrow pass, which was the way that led into Thessaly, he desired to view the mouth of the Peneus because he intended to march by the upper road through the highland people of Macedonia to the country of the Perrhaebi and the town of Gonnus; this, it was told him, was the safest way.

2He did exactly as he desired. He embarked on a Sidonian ship which he always used when he had some such business in hand, and hoisted his signal for the rest also to put out to sea, leaving his land army where it was. Great wonder took him when he came and viewed the mouth of the Peneus, and calling his guides, he asked them if it were possible to turn the river from its course and lead it into the sea by another way.

Chapter 129

1Thessaly, as tradition has it, was in old times a lake enclosed all round by high mountains. On its eastern side it is fenced in by the joining of the lower parts of the mountains Pelion and Ossa, to the north by Olympus, to the west by Pindus, towards the south and the southerly wind by Othrys. In the middle, then, of this ring of mountains, lies the vale of Thessaly.

2A number of rivers pour into this vale, the most notable of which are Peneus, Apidanus, Onochonus, Enipeus, Pamisus. These five, while they flow towards their meeting place from the mountains which surround Thessaly, have their several names, until their waters all unite and issue into the sea by one narrow passage.

3As soon as they are united, the name of the Peneus prevails, making the rest nameless. In ancient days, it is said, there was not yet this channel and outfall, but those rivers and the Boebean lake, which was not yet named, had the same volume of water as now, and thereby turned all Thessaly into a sea.

4Now the Thessalians say that Poseidon made the passage by which the Peneus flows. This is reasonable, for whoever believes that Poseidon is the shaker of the earth and that rifts made by earthquakes are the work of that god will conclude, upon seeing that passage, that it is of Poseidon's making. It was manifest to me that it must have been an earthquake which forced the mountains apart.

Chapter 130

1Xerxes asked his guides if there were any other outlet for the Peneus into the sea, and they, with their full knowledge of the matter, answered him: “The river, O king, has no other way into the sea, but this alone. This is so because there is a ring of mountains around the whole of Thessaly.” Upon hearing this Xerxes said: “These Thessalians are wise men;

2this, then, was the primary reason for their precaution long before when they changed to a better mind, for they perceived that their country would be easily and speedily conquerable. It would only have been necessary to let the river out over their land by barring the channel with a dam and to turn it from its present bed so that the whole of Thessaly, with the exception of the mountains, might be under water.”

3This he said with regard in particular to the sons of Aleues, the Thessalians who were the first Greeks to surrender themselves to the king. Xerxes supposed that when they offered him friendship they spoke for the whole of their nation. After delivering this speech and seeing what he had come to see, he sailed back to Therma.

Chapter 131

1Xerxes stayed for many days in the region of Pieria while a third part of his army was clearing a road over the Macedonian mountains so that the whole army might pass by that way to the Perrhaebian country. Now it was that the heralds who had been sent to Hellas to demand earth, some empty-handed, some bearing earth and water, returned.

Chapter 132

1Among those who paid that tribute were the Thessalians, Dolopes, Enienes, Perrhaebians, Locrians, Magnesians, Melians, Achaeans of Phthia, Thebans, and all the Boeotians except the men of Thespiae and Plataea.

2Against all of these the Greeks who declared war with the foreigner entered into a sworn agreement, which was this: that if they should be victorious, they would dedicate to the god of Delphi the possessions of all Greeks who had of free will surrendered themselves to the Persians. Such was the agreement sworn by the Greeks.

Chapter 133

1To Athens and Sparta Xerxes sent no heralds to demand earth, and this he did for the following reason. When Darius had previously sent men with this same purpose, those who made the request were cast at the one city into the Pit and at the other into a well, and bidden to obtain their earth and water for the king from these locations.

2What calamity befell the Athenians for dealing in this way with the heralds I cannot say, save that their land and their city were laid waste. I think, however, that there was another reason for this, and not the aforesaid.

Chapter 134

1Be that as it may, the anger of Talthybius, Agamemnon's herald, fell upon the Lacedaemonians. At Sparta there is a shrine of Talthybius and descendants of Talthybius called Talthybiadae, who have the special privilege of conducting all embassies from Sparta.

2Now there was a long period after the incident I have mentioned above during which the Spartans were unable to obtain good omens from sacrifice. The Lacedaemonians were grieved and dismayed by this and frequently called assemblies, making a proclamation inviting some Lacedaemonian to give his life for Sparta. Then two Spartans of noble birth and great wealth, Sperthias son of Aneristus and Bulis son of Nicolaus, undertook of their own free will to make atonement to Xerxes for Darius' heralds who had been killed at Sparta.

3Thereupon the Spartans sent these men to Media for execution.

Chapter 135

1Worthy of admiration was these men's deed of daring, and so also were their sayings. On their way to Susa, they came to Hydarnes, a Persian, who was general of the coast of Asia. He entertained and feasted them as his guests, and as they sat at his board, he asked:

2“Lacedaemonians, why do you shun the king's friendship? You can judge from what you see of me and my condition how well the king can honor men of worth. So might it be with you if you would but put yourselves in the king's hands, being as you are of proven worth in his eyes, and every one of you might by his commission be a ruler of Hellas.”

3To this the Spartans answered: “Your advice to us, Hydarnes, is not completely sound; one half of it rests on knowledge, but the other on ignorance. You know well how to be a slave, but you, who have never tasted freedom, do not know whether it is sweet or not. Were you to taste of it, not with spears you would counsel us to fight for it, no, but with axes.”

Chapter 136

1This was their answer to Hydarnes. From there they came to Susa, into the king's presence, and when the guards commanded and would have compelled them to fall down and bow to the king, they said they would never do that. This they would refuse even if they were thrust down headlong, for it was not their custom, said they, to bow to mortal men, nor was that the purpose of their coming. Having averted that, they next said,

2“The Lacedaemonians have sent us, O king of the Medes, in requital for the slaying of your heralds at Sparta, to make atonement for their death,” and more to that effect. To this Xerxes, with great magnanimity, replied that he would not imitate the Lacedaemonians. “You,” said he, “made havoc of all human law by slaying heralds, but I will not do that for which I censure you, nor by putting you in turn to death will I set the Lacedaemonians free from this guilt.”

Chapter 137

1This conduct on the part of the Spartans succeeded for a time in allaying the anger of Talthybius, in spite of the fact that Sperthias and Bulis returned to Sparta. Long after that, however, it rose up again in the war between the Peloponnesians and Athenians, as the Lacedaemonians say. That seems to me to be an indication of something divine.

2It was just that the wrath of Talthybius descended on ambassadors, nor abated until it was satisfied. The venting of it, however, on the sons of those men who went up to the king to appease it, namely on Nicolas son of Bulis and Aneristus son of Sperthias (that Aneristus who landed a merchant ships crew at the Tirynthian settlement of Halia and took it), makes it plain to me that this was the divine result of Talthybius' anger.

3These two had been sent by the Lacedaemonians as ambassadors to Asia, and betrayed by the Thracian king Sitalces son of Tereus and Nymphodorus son of Pytheas of Abdera, they were made captive at Bisanthe on the Hellespont, and carried away to Attica, where the Athenians put them, and with them Aristeas son of Adimantus, a Corinthian, to death. This happened many years after the king's expedition, and I return now to the course of my history.

Chapter 138

1The professed intent of the king's march was to attack Athens, but in truth all Hellas was his aim. This the Greeks had long since learned, but not all of them regarded the matter alike.

2Those of them who had paid the tribute of earth and water to the Persian were of good courage, thinking that the foreigner would do them no harm, but they who had refused tribute were afraid, since there were not enough ships in Hellas to do battle with their invader; furthermore, the greater part of them had no stomach for grappling with the war, but were making haste to side with the Persian.

Chapter 139

1Here I am forced to declare an opinion which will be displeasing to most, but I will not refrain from saying what seems to me to be true.

2Had the Athenians been panic-struck by the threatened peril and left their own country, or had they not indeed left it but remained and surrendered themselves to Xerxes, none would have attempted to withstand the king by sea. What would have happened on land if no one had resisted the king by sea is easy enough to determine.

3Although the Peloponnesians had built not one but many walls across the Isthmus for their defense, they would nevertheless have been deserted by their allies (these having no choice or free will in the matter, but seeing their cities taken one by one by the foreign fleet), until at last they would have stood alone. They would then have put up quite a fight and perished nobly.

4Such would have been their fate. Perhaps, however, when they saw the rest of Hellas siding with the enemy, they would have made terms with Xerxes. In either case Hellas would have been subdued by the Persians, for I cannot see what advantage could accrue from the walls built across the isthmus, while the king was master of the seas.

5As it is, to say that the Athenians were the saviors of Hellas is to hit the truth. It was the Athenians who held the balance; whichever side they joined was sure to prevail. choosing that Greece should preserve her freedom, the Athenians roused to battle the other Greek states which had not yet gone over to the Persians and, after the gods, were responsible for driving the king off.

6Nor were they moved to desert Hellas by the threatening oracles which came from Delphi and sorely dismayed them, but they stood firm and had the courage to meet the invader of their country.

Chapter 140

1The Athenians had sent messages to Delphi asking that an oracle be given them, and when they had performed all due rites at the temple and sat down in the inner hall, the priestess, whose name was Aristonice, gave them this answer:

2Wretches, why do you linger here? Rather flee from your houses and city, Flee to the ends of the earth from the circle embattled of Athens! The head will not remain in its place, nor in the body, Nor the feet beneath, nor the hands, nor the parts between; But all is ruined, for fire and the headlong god of war speeding in a Syrian chariot will bring you low.

3Many a fortress too, not yours alone, will he shatter; Many a shrine of the gods will he give to the flame for devouring; Sweating for fear they stand, and quaking for dread of the enemy, Running with gore are their roofs, foreseeing the stress of their sorrow; Therefore I bid you depart from the sanctuary. Have courage to lighten your evil.

Chapter 141

1When the Athenian messengers heard that, they were very greatly dismayed, and gave themselves up for lost by reason of the evil foretold. Then Timon son of Androbulus, as notable a man as any Delphian, advised them to take boughs of supplication and in the guise of suppliants, approach the oracle a second time.

2The Athenians did exactly this; “Lord,” they said, “regard mercifully these suppliant boughs which we bring to you, and give us some better answer concerning our country. Otherwise we will not depart from your temple, but remain here until we die.” Thereupon the priestess gave them this second oracle:

3Vainly does Pallas strive to appease great Zeus of Olympus; Words of entreaty are vain, and so too cunning counsels of wisdom. Nevertheless I will speak to you again of strength adamantine. All will be taken and lost that the sacred border of Cecrops Holds in keeping today, and the dales divine of Cithaeron; Yet a wood-built wall will by Zeus all-seeing be granted To the Trito-born, a stronghold for you and your children.

4Await not the host of horse and foot coming from Asia, Nor be still, but turn your back and withdraw from the foe. Truly a day will come when you will meet him face to face. Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.

Chapter 142

1This answer seemed to be and really was more merciful than the first, and the envoys, writing it down, departed for Athens. When the messengers had left Delphi and laid the oracle before the people, there was much inquiry concerning its meaning, and among the many opinions which were uttered, two contrary ones were especially worthy of note. Some of the elder men said that the gods answer signified that the acropolis should be saved, for in old time the acropolis of Athens had been fenced by a thorn hedge,

2which, by their interpretation, was the wooden wall. But others supposed that the god was referring to their ships, and they were for doing nothing but equipping these. Those who believed their ships to be the wooden wall were disabled by the two last verses of the oracle: Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.

3These verses confounded the opinion of those who said that their ships were the wooden wall, for the readers of oracles took the verses to mean that they should offer battle by sea near Salamis and be there overthrown.

Chapter 143

1Now there was a certain Athenian, by name and title Themistocles son of Neocles, who had lately risen to be among their chief men. He claimed that the readers of oracles had incorrectly interpreted the whole of the oracle and reasoned that if the verse really pertained to the Athenians, it would have been formulated in less mild language, calling Salamis “cruel” rather than “divine ” seeing that its inhabitants were to perish.

2Correctly understood, the gods' oracle was spoken not of the Athenians but of their enemies, and his advice was that they should believe their ships to be the wooden wall and so make ready to fight by sea.

3When Themistocles put forward this interpretation, the Athenians judged him to be a better counsellor than the readers of oracles, who would have had them prepare for no sea fight, and, in short, offer no resistance at all, but leave Attica and settle in some other country.

Chapter 144

1The advice of Themistocles had prevailed on a previous occasion. The revenues from the mines at Laurium had brought great wealth into the Athenians' treasury, and when each man was to receive ten drachmae for his share, Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to make no such division but to use the money to build two hundred ships for the war, that is, for the war with Aegina.

2This was in fact the war the outbreak of which saved Hellas by compelling the Athenians to become seamen. The ships were not used for the purpose for which they were built, but later came to serve Hellas in her need. These ships, then, had been made and were already there for the Athenians' service, and now they had to build yet others.

3In their debate after the giving of the oracle they accordingly resolved that they would put their trust in the god and meet the foreign invader of Hellas with the whole power of their fleet, ships and men, and with all other Greeks who were so minded.

Chapter 145

1These oracles, then, had been given to the Athenians. All the Greeks who were concerned about the general welfare of Hellas met in conference and exchanged guarantees. They resolved in debate to make an end of all their feuds and wars against each other, whatever the cause from which they arose; among others that were in course at that time, the greatest was the war between the Athenians and the Aeginetans.

2Presently, learning that Xerxes was at Sardis with his army, they planned to send men into Asia to spy out the king's doings and to despatch messengers, some to Argos, who should make the Argives their brothers in arms against the Persian, some to Gelon son of Dinomenes in Sicily, some to Corcyra, praying aid for Hellas, and some to Crete. This they did in the hope that since the danger threatened all Greeks alike, all of Greek blood might unite and work jointly for one common end. Now the power of Gelon was said to be very great, surpassing by far any power in Hellas.

Chapter 146

1Being so resolved and having composed their quarrels, they first sent three men as spies into Asia. These came to Sardis and took note of the king's army. They were discovered, however, and after examination by the generals of the land army, they were led away for execution.

2They were condemned to die, but when Xerxes heard of it, he blamed the judgment of his generals and sent some of his guards, charging them to bring the spies before him if they should be found alive.

3They were found still living and brought into the king's presence; then Xerxes, having inquired of them the purpose of their coming, ordered his guards to lead them around and show them his whole army. When the spies had seen all to their heart's content, they were to send them away unharmed to whatever country they pleased.

Chapter 147

1The reason alleged for his command was this: had the spies been put to death, the Greeks would not so soon have learned the unspeakable greatness of his power, and the Persians would have done their enemy no great harm by putting three men to death. Xerxes said that if they should return to Hellas, the Greeks would hear of his power and would surrender their peculiar freedom before the expedition with the result that there would be no need to march against them.

2This was like that other saying of Xerxes when he was at Abydos and saw ships laden with corn sailing out of the Pontus through the Hellespont on their way to Aegina and the Peloponnese. His counsellors, perceiving that they were enemy ships, were for taking them, and looked to the king for orders to do so.

3Xerxes, however, asked them where the ships were sailing, and they answered: “To your enemies, Sire, carrying corn.” Xerxes then answered, “And are not we too sailing to the same places as they, with corn among all our other provisions? What wrong are they doing us in carrying food there?”

Chapter 148

1So the spies were sent back after they had seen all and returned to Europe. After sending the spies, those of the Greeks who had sworn alliance against the Persian next sent messengers to Argos.

2Now this is what the Argives say of their own part in the matter. They were informed from the first that the foreigner was stirring up war against Hellas. When they learned that the Greeks would attempt to gain their aid against the Persian, they sent messengers to Delphi to inquire of the god how it would be best for them to act, for six thousand of them had been lately slain by a Lacedaemonian army and Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides its general. For this reason, they said, the messengers were sent.

3The priestess gave this answer to their question: Hated by your neighbors, dear to the immortals, Crouch with a lance in rest, like a warrior fenced in his armor, Guarding your head from the blow, and the head will shelter the body. This answer had already been uttered by the priestess when the envoys arrived in Argos and entered the council chamber to speak as they were charged.

4Then the Argives answered to what had been said that they would do as was asked of them if they might first make a thirty years peace with Lacedaemonia and if the command of half the allied power were theirs. It was their right to have the full command, but they would nevertheless be content with half.

Chapter 149

1This, they say, was the answer of their council, although the oracle forbade them to make the alliance with the Greeks; furthermore, they, despite their fear of the oracle, were eager to secure a thirty years treaty so that their children might have time in those years to grow to be men. If there were to be no such treaty—so they reasoned—then, if after the evil that had befallen them the Persian should deal them yet another blow, it was to be feared that they would be at the Lacedaemonians' mercy.

2Then those of the envoys who were Spartans replied to the demands of the council, saying that they would refer the question of the truce to their own government at home; as for the command, however, they themselves had been commissioned to say that the Spartans had two kings, and the Argives but one. Now it was impossible to deprive either Spartan of his command, but there was nothing to prevent the Argive from having the same right of voting as their two had.

3At that, say the Argives, they decided that the Spartans' covetousness was past all bearing and that it was better to be ruled by the foreigners than give way to the Lacedaemonians. They then bade the envoys depart from the land of Argos before sunset, for they would otherwise be treated as enemies.

Chapter 150

1Such is the Argives' account of this matter, but there is another story told in Hellas, namely that before Xerxes set forth on his march against Hellas, he sent a herald to Argos, who said on his coming (so the story goes),

2“Men of Argos, this is the message to you from King Xerxes. Perses our forefather had, as we believe, Perseus son of Danae for his father, and Andromeda daughter of Cepheus for his mother; if that is so, then we are descended from your nation. In all right and reason we should therefore neither march against the land of our forefathers, nor should you become our enemies by aiding others or do anything but abide by yourselves in peace. If all goes as I desire, I will hold none in higher esteem than you.”

3The Argives were strongly moved when they heard this, and although they made no promise immediately and demanded no share, they later, when the Greeks were trying to obtain their support, did make the claim, because they knew that the Lacedaemonians would refuse to grant it, and that they would thus have an excuse for taking no part in the war.

Chapter 151

1This is borne out, some of the Greeks say, by the tale of a thing which happened many years afterwards. It happened that while Athenian envoys, Callias son of Hipponicus, and the rest who had come up with him, were at Susa, called the Memnonian, about some other business, the Argives also had at this same time sent envoys to Susa, asking of Xerxes' son Artoxerxes whether the friendship which they had forged with Xerxes still held good, as they desired, or whether he considered them as his enemies. Artoxerxes responded to this that it did indeed hold good and that he believed no city to be a better friend to him than Argos.”

Chapter 152

1Now, whether it is true that Xerxes sent a herald with such a message to Argos, and that the Argive envoys came up to Susa and questioned Artoxerxes about their friendship, I cannot say with exactness, nor do I now declare that I consider anything true except what the Argives themselves say.

2This, however, I know full well, namely if all men should carry their own private troubles to market for barter with their neighbors, there would not be a single one who, when he had looked into the troubles of other men, would not be glad to carry home again what he had brought.

3The conduct of the Argives was accordingly not utterly shameful. As for myself, although it is my business to set down that which is told me, to believe it is none at all of my business. This I ask the reader to hold true for the whole of my history, for there is another tale current, according to which it would seem that it was the Argives who invited the Persian into Hellas, because the war with the Lacedaemonians was going badly, and they would prefer anything to their present distresses.

Chapter 153

1Such is the end of the story of the Argives. As for Sicily, envoys were sent there by the allies to hold converse with Gelon, Syagrus from Lacedaemon among them. The ancestor of this Gelon, who settled at Gela, was from the island of Telos which lies off Triopium. When the founding of Gela by Antiphemus and the Lindians of Rhodes was happening, he would not be left behind.

2His descendants in time became and continue to be priests of the goddesses of the underworld; this office had been won, as I will show, by Telines, one of their forefathers. There were certain Geloans who had been worsted in party strife and had been banished to the town of Mactorium, inland of Gela.

3These men Telines brought to Gela with no force of men but only the holy instruments of the goddesses worship to aid him. From where he got these, and whether or not they were his own invention, I cannot say; however that may be, it was in reliance upon them that he restored the exiles, on the condition that his descendants should be ministering priests of the goddesses.

4Now it makes me marvel that Telines should have achieved such a feat, for I have always supposed that such feats cannot be performed by any man but only by such as have a stout heart and manly strength. Telines, however, is reported by the dwellers in Sicily to have had a soft and effeminate disposition.

Chapter 154

1At the death of Cleandrus son of Pantares, who had been tyrant of Gela for seven years, and had been slain by a man of that city named Sabyllus, the sovereignty passed to Cleandrus' brother Hippocrates. While Hippocrates was tyrant, Gelon, a descendant of the ministering priest Telines, was one of Hippocrates' guard, as were Aenesidemus son of Pataecus and many others.

2In no long time he was appointed for his worth to be captain of the entire cavalry, for his performance had been preeminent while he served under Hippocrates in the assaults against Callipolis, Naxos, Zancle, Leontini, Syracuse, and many other of the foreigners' towns. None of these cities, with the exception of Syracuse, escaped enslavement by Hippocrates; the Syracusans were defeated in battle on the river Elorus.

3They were, however, rescued by the Corinthians and Corcyraeans, who made a peace for them on the condition that the Syracusans should deliver up to Hippocrates Camarina, which had formerly been theirs.

Chapter 155

1When Hippocrates, too, after reigning the same number of years as his brother Cleandrus, came to his end near the town of Hybla—from where he had marched against the Sicels—then Gelon made a pretence of serving the cause of Hippocrates' sons Euclides and Cleandrus, whose rule the citizens would no longer bear. When he had defeated the men of Gela, however, he deposed the sons of Hippocrates and held sway himself.

2After this stroke of good fortune, Gelon brought back from the town of Casmena to Syracuse both the so-called landed gentry of Syracuse, who had been driven into exile by the common people, and their slaves, the Cyllyrians. He then took possession of that city also, for the Syracusan common people surrendered themselves and it to Gelon at his coming.

Chapter 156

1When he had made Syracuse his own, he took less account of his rule over Gela, which he gave in charge to his brother Hiero; over Syracuse he reigned, and all his care was for Syracuse.

2Straightway that city grew and became great, for not only did Gelon bring all the people of Camarina to Syracuse and give them its citizenship, razing the township of Camarina, but he did the same thing to more than half of the townsmen of Gela, and when the Megarians in Sicily surrendered to him on terms after a siege, he took the wealthier of them, who had made war on him and expected to be put to death for this, and brought them to Syracuse to be citizens there. As for the common people of Megara, who had had no hand in the making of that war and expected that no harm would be done them, these too he brought to Syracuse and sold them for slaves to be taken out of Sicily.

3He dealt in a similar way with the Euboeans of Sicily, making the same distinction. The reason for his treating the people of both places in this way was that he held the common people to be exceedingly disagreeable to live with.

Chapter 157

1By these means Gelon had grown to greatness as a tyrant, and now, when the Greek envoys had come to Syracuse, they had audience with him and spoke as follows: “The Lacedaemonians and their allies have sent us to win your aid against the foreigner, for it cannot be, we think, that you have no knowledge of the Persian invader of Hellas, how he proposes to bridge the Hellespont and lead all the hosts of the east from Asia against us, making an open show of marching against Athens, but actually with intent to subdue all Hellas to his will.

2Now you are rich in power, and as lord of Sicily you rule what is not the least part of Hellas; therefore, we beg of you, send help to those who are going to free Hellas, and aid them in so doing. The uniting of all those of Greek stock entails the mustering of a mighty host able to meet our invaders in the field. If, however, some of us play false and others will not come to our aid, while the sound part of Hellas is but small, then it is to be feared that all Greek lands alike will be destroyed.

3Do not for a moment think that if the Persian defeats us in battle and subdues us, he will leave you unassailed, but rather look well to yourself before that day comes. Aid us, and you champion your own cause; in general a well-laid plan leads to a happy issue.”

Chapter 158

1This is what they said, and Gelon, speaking very vehemently, said in response to this: “Men of Hellas, it is with a self-seeking plea that you have dared to come here and invite me to be your ally against the foreigners; yet what of yourselves?

2When I was at odds with the Carchedonians, and asked you to be my comrades against a foreign army, and when I desired that you should avenge the slaying of Dorieus son of Anaxandrides on the men of Egesta, and when I promised to free those trading ports from which great advantage and profit have accrued to you,—then neither for my sake would you come to aid nor to avenge the slaying of Dorieus. Because of your position in these matters, all these lands lie beneath the foreigners' feet.

3Let that be; for all ended well, and our state was improved. But now that the war has come round to you in your turn, it is time for remembering Gelon!

4Despite the fact that you slighted me, I will not make an example of you; I am ready to send to your aid two hundred triremes, twenty thousand men-at-arms, two thousand horsemen, two thousand archers, two thousand slingers, and two thousand light-armed men to run with horsemen. I also pledge to furnish provisions for the whole Greek army until we have made an end of the war.

5All this, however, I promise on one condition, that I shall be general and leader of the Greeks against the foreigner. On no other condition will I come myself or send others.”

Chapter 159

1When Syagrus heard that, he could not contain himself; “In truth,” he cried, “loudly would Agamemnon son of Pelops lament, when hearing that the Spartans had been bereft of their command by Gelon and his Syracusans! No, rather, put the thought out of your minds that we will give up the command to you. If it is your will to aid Hellas, know that you must obey the Lacedaemonians; but if, as I think, you are too proud to obey, then send no aid.”

Chapter 160

1Thereupon Gelon, seeing how unfriendly Syagrus' words were, for the last time declared his opinion to them: “My Spartan friend, the hard words that a man hears are likely to arouse his anger; but for all the arrogant tenor of your speech you will not move me to make an unseemly answer.

2When you set such store by the command, it is but reasonable that it should be still more important to me since I am the leader of an army many times greater than yours and more ships by far. But seeing that your response to me is so haughty, we will make some concession in our original condition. It might be that you should command the army, and I the fleet; or if it is your pleasure to lead by sea, then I am ready to take charge of the army. With that you will surely be content, unless you want depart from here without such allies as we are.”

Chapter 161

1Such was Gelon's offer, and the Athenian envoy answered him before the Lacedaemonian could speak. “King of the Syracusans,” he said, “Hellas sends us to you to ask not for a leader but for an army. You however, say no word of sending an army without the condition of your being the leader of Hellas; it is the command alone that you desire.

2Now as long as you sought the leadership of the whole force, we Athenians were content to hold our peace, knowing that the Laconian was well able to answer for both of us; but since, failing to win the whole, you would gladly command the fleet, we want to let you know how the matter stands. Even if the Laconian should permit you to command it, we would not do so, for the command of the fleet, which the Lacedaemonians do not desire for themselves, is ours. If they should desire to lead it, we will not withstand them, but we will not allow anyone else to be admiral.

3It would be for nothing, then, that we possess the greatest number of seafaring men in Hellas, if we Athenians yield our command to Syracusans,—we who can demonstrate the longest lineage of all and who alone among the Greeks have never changed our place of habitation; of our stock too was the man of whom the poet Homer says that of all who came to Ilion, he was the best man in ordering and marshalling armies. We accordingly cannot be reproached for what we now say. ”

Chapter 162

1“My Athenian friend,” Gelon answered, “it would seem that you have many who lead, but none who will follow. Since, then, you will waive no claim but must have the whole, it is high time that you hasten home and tell your Hellas that her year has lost its spring.”

2The significance of this statement was that Gelon's army was the most notable part of the Greek army, just as the spring is the best part of the year. He accordingly compared Hellas deprived of alliance with him to a year bereft of its spring.

Chapter 163

1After such dealings with Gelon the Greek envoys sailed away. Gelon, however, feared that the Greeks would not be able to overcome the barbarian, while believing it dreadful and intolerable that he, the tyrant of Sicily, should go to the Peloponnese to be at the beck and call of Lacedaemonians. For this reason he took no more thought of this plan but followed another instead.

2As soon as he was informed that the Persian had crossed the Hellespont, he sent Cadmus son of Scythes, a man of Cos, to Delphi with three fifty-oared ships, bringing them money and messages of friendship. Cadmus was to observe the outcome of the battle, and if the barbarian should be victorious, he was to give him both the money, and earth and water on behalf of Gelon's dominions. If, however, the Greeks were victorious, he was to bring everything back again.

Chapter 164

1This Cadmus had previously inherited from his father the tyranny of Cos. Although the tyranny was well established, he nevertheless handed the government over to the whole body of Coans of his own free will. This he did under no constraint of danger, but out of a sense of justice, and he then went to Sicily, where he was given by the Samians the city of Zancle which he colonized and changed its name to Messene.

2This is how Cadmus had come, and it was he whom Gelon now sent because of his sense of justice. What I will now relate was not the least of the many just acts of Cadmus' life; he had in his possession great wealth entrusted to him by Gelon and might have kept it. He nevertheless would not do so, but when the Greeks had prevailed in the sea-fight and Xerxes had headed home, Cadmus returned to Sicily with all that money.

Chapter 165

1There is, however, another story told by the Sicilians: even though he was to be under Lacedaemonian authority, Gelon would still have aided the Greeks had it not been for Terillus son of Crinippus, the tyrant of Himera. This man, who had been expelled from Himera by Theron son of Aenesidemus, sovereign ruler of Acragas, at this very time brought against Gelon three hundred thousand Phoenicians, Libyans, Iberians, Ligyes, Elisyci, Sardinians, and Cyrnians, led by Amilcas son of Annon, the king of the Carchedonians. Terillus had induced him to do this partly through the prerogative of personal friendship, but mainly through the efforts of Anaxilaus son of Cretines, tyrant of Rhegium. He had handed over his own children as hostages to Amilcas, and brought him into Sicily to the help of his father-in-law; for Anaxilaus had as his wife Terillus' daughter Cydippe. Accordingly Gelon sent the money to Delphi, because he could not aid the Greeks.

Chapter 166

1They add this tale too—that Gelon and Theron won a victory over Amilcas the Carchedonian in Sicily on the same day that the Greeks defeated the Persian at Salamis. This Amilcas was, on his father's side, a Carchedonian, and a Syracusan on his mother's and had been made king of Carchedon for his virtue. When the armies met and he was defeated in the battle, it is said that he vanished from sight, for Gelon looked for him everywhere but was not able to find him anywhere on earth, dead or alive.

Chapter 167

1The story told by the Carchedonians themselves seems to have some element of truth. They say that the barbarians fought with the Greeks in Sicily from dawn until late evening (so long, it is said, the battle was drawn out), during which time Amilcas stayed in his camp offering sacrifice and striving to obtain favorable omens by burning whole bodies on a great pyre. When he saw his army routed, he cast himself into the fire where he was pouring libations on the sacrifice; he was consumed by this and was not seen any more.

2Whether he vanished as the Phoenicians say, or in the manner related by the Carchedonians and Syracusans, sacrifice is offered to him, and monuments have been set up in all the colonists' cities, the greatest of which is in Carchedon itself.

Chapter 168

1This is how the campaign in Sicily fell out. As for the Corcyraeans, their answer to the envoys and their acts were as I will show. The men who had gone to Sicily sought their aid too, using the same arguments which they had used with Gelon. The Corcyraeans straightaway promised to send help and protection, declaring that they would not allow Hellas to perish, for if she should fall, the very next day would certainly see them also enslaved. They would accordingly have to help to the best of their ability.

2Now this answer seemed fair enough, but when the time came for sending help, their minds changed. They manned sixty ships and put out to sea, making for the coast of the Peloponnese. There, however, they anchored off Pylos and Taenarus in the Lacedaemonian territory, waiting like the others to see which way the war should incline. They had no hope that the Greeks would prevail, but thought that the Persian would win a great victory and be lord of all Hellas.

3Their course of action, therefore, had been planned with a view to being able to say to the Persian, “O king, we whose power is as great as any and who could have furnished as many ships as any state save Athens,—we, when the Greeks attempted to gain our aid in this war, would not resist you nor do anything displeasing to you.” This plea, they hoped, would win them some advantage more than ordinary; and so, I believe, it would have been.

4They were, however, also ready with an excuse which they could make to the Greeks, and in the end they made it; when the Greeks blamed them for sending no help, they said that they had manned sixty triremes, but that they could not round Malea because of the Etesian winds. It was for this reason, they said, that they could not arrive at Salamis; it was not cowardliness which made them late for the sea-fight. With such a plea they put the Greeks off.

Chapter 169

1But the Cretans, when the Greeks appointed to deal with them were trying to gain their aid, acted as I will show. They sent messengers to Delphi, inquiring if it would be to their advantage to help the Greeks.

2The Pythia answered them, “Foolish men, was not the grief enough which Minos sent upon your people for the help given to Menelaus, out of anger that those others would not help to avenge his death at Camicus, while you helped them to avenge the stealing of that woman from Sparta by a barbarian?” When this was brought to the ears of the Cretans, they would have nothing to do with aiding the Greeks.

Chapter 170

1Now Minos, it is said, went to Sicania, which is now called Sicily, in search for Daedalus, and perished there by a violent death. Presently all the Cretans except the men of Polichne and Praesus were bidden by a god to go with a great host to Sicania. Here they besieged the town of Camicus, where in my day the men of Acragas dwelt, for five years.

2Presently, since they could neither take it nor remain there because of the famine which afflicted them, they departed. However, when they were at sea off Iapygia, a great storm caught and drove them ashore. Because their ships had been wrecked and there was no way left of returning to Crete, they founded there the town of Hyria, and made this their dwelling place, accordingly changing from Cretans to Messapians of Iapygia, and from islanders to dwellers on the mainland.

3From Hyria they made settlements in those other towns which a very long time afterwards the Tarentines attempted to destroy, thereby suffering great disaster. The result was that no one has ever heard of so great a slaughter of Greeks as that of the Tarentines and Rhegians; three thousand townsmen of the latter, men who had been coerced by Micythus son of Choerus to come and help the Tarentines, were killed, and no count was kept of the Tarentine slain.

4Micythus was a servant of Anaxilaus and had been left in charge of Rhegium; it was he who was banished from Rhegium and settled in Tegea of Arcadia, and who set up those many statues at Olympia.

Chapter 171

1In relating the matter of the Rhegians and Tarentines, however, I digress from the main thread of my history. The Praesians say that when Crete was left desolate, it was populated especially by Greeks, among other peoples. Then, in the third generation after Minos, the events surrounding the Trojan War, in which the Cretans bore themselves as bravely as any in the cause of Menelaus, took place.

2After this, when they returned from Troy, they and their flocks and herds were afflicted by famine and pestilence, until Crete was once more left desolate. Then came a third influx of Cretans, and it is they who, with those that were left, now dwell there. It was this that the priestess bade them remember, and so prevented them from aiding the Greeks as they were previously inclined.

Chapter 172

1The Thessalians had at first sided with the Persians, not willingly but of necessity. This their acts revealed, because they disliked the plans of the Aleuadae; as soon as they heard that the Persian was about to cross over into Europe, they sent messengers to the Isthmus, where men chosen from the cities which were best disposed towards Hellas were assembled in council for the Greek cause.

2To these the Thessalian messengers came and said, “Men of Hellas, the pass of Olympus must be guarded so that Thessaly and all Hellas may be sheltered from the war. Now we are ready to guard it with you, but you too must send a great force. If you will not send it, be assured that we will make terms with the Persian, for it is not right that we should be left to stand guard alone and so perish for your sakes.

3If you will not send help, there is nothing you can do to constrain us, for no necessity can prevail over lack of ability. As for us, we will attempt to find some means of deliverance for ourselves.” These are the words of the men of Thessaly.

Chapter 173

1Thereupon the Greeks resolved that they would send a land army to Thessaly by sea to guard the pass. When the forces had assembled, they passed through the Euripus and came to Alus in Achaea, where they disembarked and took the road for Thessaly, leaving their ships where they were. They then came to the pass of Tempe, which runs from the lower Macedonia into Thessaly along the river Peneus, between the mountains Olympus and Ossa.

2There the Greeks were encamped, about ten thousand men-at-arms altogether, and the cavalry was there as well. The general of the Lacedaemonians was Euaenetus son of Carenus, chosen from among the Polemarchs, yet not of the royal house, and Themistocles son of Neocles was the general of the Athenians.

3They remained there for only a few days, for messengers came from Alexander son of Amyntas, the Macedonian. These, pointing out the size of the army and the great number of ships, advised them to depart and not remain there to be trodden under foot by the invading host. When they had received this advice from the messengers (as they thought their advice was sound and that the Macedonian meant well by them), the Greeks followed their counsel.

4To my thinking, however, what persuaded them was fear, since they had found out that there was another pass leading into Thessaly by the hill country of Macedonia through the country of the Perrhaebi, near the town of Gonnus; this was indeed the way by which Xerxes' army descended on Thessaly. The Greeks accordingly went down to their ships and made their way back to the Isthmus.

Chapter 174

1This was the course of their expedition into Thessaly, while the king was planning to cross into Europe from Asia and was already at Abydos. The Thessalians, now bereft of their allies, sided with the Persian wholeheartedly and unequivocally. As a result of this they, in their acts, proved themselves to be most useful to the king.

Chapter 175

1When they had come to the Isthmus, the Greeks, taking into account what was said by Alexander, deliberated as a body how and where they should stand to fight. It was decided that they should guard the pass of Thermopylae, for they saw that it was narrower than the pass into Thessaly and nearer home.

2The pass, then, which brought about the fall of those Greeks who fell at Thermopylae, was unknown to them until they came to Thermopylae and learned of it from the men of Trachis. This pass they were resolved to guard and so stay the barbarian's passage into Hellas, while their fleet should sail to Artemisium in the territory of Histiaea. These places are near to each other, and each force could therefore be informed of the other's doings. As for the places themselves, their nature is as follows.

Chapter 176

1Artemisium is where the wide Thracian sea contracts until the passage between the island of Sciathus and the mainland of Magnesia is but narrow. This strait leads next to Artemisium, which is a beach on the coast of Euboea, on which stands a temple of Artemis.

2The pass through Trachis into Hellas is fifty feet wide at its narrowest point. It is not here, however, but elsewhere that the way is narrowest, namely, in front of Thermopylae and behind it; at Alpeni, which lies behind, it is only the breadth of a cart-way, and it is the same at the Phoenix stream, near the town of Anthele.

3To the west of Thermopylae rises a high mountain, inaccessible and precipitous, a spur of Oeta; to the east of the road there is nothing but marshes and sea. In this pass are warm springs for bathing, called the Basins by the people of the country, and an altar of Heracles stands nearby. Across this entry a wall had been built, and formerly there was a gate in it.

4It was the Phocians who built it for fear of the Thessalians when these came from Thesprotia to dwell in the Aeolian land, the region which they now possess. Since the Thessalians were trying to subdue them, the Phocians made this their protection, and in their search for every means to keep the Thessalians from invading their country, they then turned the stream from the hot springs into the pass, so that it might be a watercourse.

5The ancient wall had been built long ago and most of it lay in ruins; those who built it up again thought that they would in this way bar the foreigner's way into Hellas. Very near the road is a village called Alpeni, and it is from here that the Greeks expected to obtain provisions.

Chapter 177

1These places, then, were thought by the Greeks to suit their purpose. After making a thorough survey, they concluded that the barbarians could not make use of their entire army, nor of their horsemen. They therefore resolved, that they would meet the invader of Hellas here. Then, when they heard that the Persian was in Pieria, they broke up from the Isthmus and set out with their army to Thermopylae and with their fleet to Artemisium.

Chapter 178

1So with all speed the Greeks went their several ways to meet the enemy. In the meantime, the Delphians, who were afraid for themselves and for Hellas, consulted the god. They were advised to pray to the winds, for these would be potent allies for Hellas.

2When they had received the oracle, the Delphians first sent word of it to those Greeks who desired to be free; because of their dread of the barbarian, they were forever grateful. Subsequently they erected an altar to the winds at Thyia, the present location of the precinct of Thyia the daughter of Cephisus, and they offered sacrifices to them. This, then, is the reason why the Delphians to this day offer the winds sacrifice of propitiation.

Chapter 179

1Xerxes' fleet, however, set forth from the city of Therma, and the ten swiftest of the ships laid their course straight for Sciathus, where there lay an advance guard of three Greek ships, a Troezenian, an Aeginetan, and an Attic. These, when they sighted the foreigners ships, took to flight.

Chapter 180

1The ship of Troezen, of which Prexinus was captain, was pursued and straightway captured by the foreigners, who brought the best of its fighting men and cut his throat on the ship's prow, thinking that the sacrifice of the foremost and fairest of their Greek captives would be auspicious. The name of the sacrificed man was Leon, and it was perhaps his name that he had to thank for it.

Chapter 181

1The Aeginetan trireme, of which Asonides was captain, did however give them some trouble. On board this ship was Pytheas son of Ischenous, who acted heroically on that day. When his ship had been taken, he would not stop fighting until he had been entirely hacked to mincemeat.

2When he finally did fall, he still had life in him, and the Persian soldiers on the ships took great pains to keep him alive for his valor, tending his wounds with ointments and wrapping him in bandages of linen cloth.

3Upon returning to their own station, they showed him to the whole host, and made much of him and treated him with kindness. The rest of those whom they took in that ship, however, they used as slaves.

Chapter 182

1Two of the ships, then, were made captive, and the third trireme, of which Phormus an Athenian was captain, ran aground in her flight at the mouth of the Peneus; the barbarians took her hull but not the crew, for the Athenians, as soon as they had run their craft aground, leapt out and made their way through Thessaly to Athens.

Chapter 183

1The Greeks who were stationed at Artemisium were informed of these matters by beacons from Sciathus. They were frightened by this and accordingly changed their anchorage from Artemisium to Chalcis, proposing to guard the Euripus and leaving watchmen on the heights of Euboea.

2Three of the ten barbarian ships ran aground on the reef called the Ant, which lies between Sciathus and Magnesia. The barbarians then brought a pillar of stone and set it on the reef, and when their course was plain before them, the whole fleet set forth and sailed from Therma, eleven days after the king had marched from there.

3It was Pammon of Scyros who showed them where in the strait the reef lay. After sailing along all day, the foreign fleet reached Sepias in Magnesia and the beach between the town of Casthanaea and the Sepiad headland.

Chapter 184

1Until the whole host reached this place and Thermopylae it suffered no hurt, and calculation proves to me that its numbers were still such as I will now show. The ships from Asia were twelve hundred and seven in number, and including the entire host of nations involved, there were a total of two hundred and forty-one thousand and four hundred men, two hundred being reckoned for each ship.

2On board all these ships were thirty fighting men of the Persians and Medes and Sacae in addition to the company which each had of native fighters; the number of this added contingent is thirty-six thousand, two hundred and ten.

3To this and to the first number I add the crews of the ships of fifty oars, calculating eighty men for each, whether there were actually more or fewer. Now seeing that, as has already been said, three thousand of these vessels were assembled, the number of men in them must have been two hundred and forty thousand.

4These, then, were the ships' companies from Asia, and the total number of them was five hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten. There were seven hundred thousand and one hundred footsoldiers and eighty thousand cavalrymen; to these I add the Arabian camel-riders and Libyan charioteers, estimating them to have been twenty thousand in number.

5The forces of sea and land added together would consist of two million, three hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten men. So far I have spoken of the force which came from Asia itself, without the train of servants which followed it and the companies of the grain-bearing craft.

Chapter 185

1I must, however, also take into account the force brought from Europe, and I will rely on my best judgment in doing so. The Greeks of Thrace and the islands off Thrace furnished one hundred and twenty ships, and the companies of these ships must then have consisted of twenty-four thousand men.

2As regards the land army supplied by all the nations—Thracians, Paeonians, Eordi, Bottiaei, Chalcidians, Brygi, Pierians, Macedonians, Perrhaebi, Enienes, Dolopes, Magnesians, Achaeans, dwellers on the coast of Thrace—of all these I suppose the number to have been three hundred thousand.

3When these numbers are added to the numbers from Asia, the sum total of fighting men is two million, six hundred and forty-one thousand, six hundred and ten.

Chapter 186

1This then is the number of soldiers. As for the service-train which followed them and the crews of the light corn-bearing vessels and all the other vessels besides which came by sea with the force, these I believe to have been not fewer but more than the fighting men.

2Suppose, however, that they were equal in number, neither more nor fewer. If they were equal to the fighting contingent, they made up as many tens of thousands as the others. The number, then, of those whom Xerxes son of Darius led as far as the Sepiad headland and Thermopylae was five million, two hundred and eighty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty.

Chapter 187

1That is the number of Xerxes' whole force. No one, however, can say what the exact number of cooking women, and concubines, and eunuchs was, nor can one determine the number of the beasts of draught and burden, and the Indian dogs which accompanied the host; so many of them were there. It is accordingly not surprising to me that some of the streams of water ran dry. I do, however, wonder how there were provisions sufficient for so many tens of thousands,

2for calculation shows me, that if each man received one choenix of wheat a day and no more, eleven hundred thousand and three hundred and forty bushels would be required every day. In this calculation I take no account of the provisions for the women, eunuchs, beasts of burden and dogs. Of all those tens of thousands of men, there was not one, as regards looks and grandeur, worthier than Xerxes himself to hold that command.

Chapter 188

1The Persian fleet put to sea and reached the beach of the Magnesian land, between the city of Casthanaea and the headland of Sepia. The first ships to arrive moored close to land, with the others after them at anchor; since the beach was not large, they lay at anchor in rows eight ships deep out into the sea.

2They spent the night in this way, but at dawn a storm descended upon them out of a clear and windless sky, and the sea began to boil. A strong east wind blew, which the people living in those parts call Hellespontian.

3Those who felt the wind rising or had proper mooring dragged their ships up on shore ahead of the storm and so survived with their ships. The wind did, however, carry those ships caught out in the open sea against the rocks called the Ovens at Pelion or onto the beach. Some ships were wrecked on the Sepian headland, others were cast ashore at the city of Meliboea or at Casthanaea. The storm was indeed unbearable.

Chapter 189

1The story is told that because of an oracle the Athenians invoked Boreas, the north wind, to help them, since another oracle told them to summon their son-in-law as an ally. According to the Hellenic story, Boreas had an Attic wife, Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, ancient king of Athens.

2Because of this connection, so the tale goes, the Athenians considered Boreas to be their son-in-law. They were stationed off Chalcis in Euboea, and when they saw the storm rising, they then, if they had not already, sacrificed to and called upon Boreas and Orithyia to help them by destroying the barbarian fleet, just as before at Athos.

3I cannot say whether this was the cause of Boreas falling upon the barbarians as they lay at anchor, but the Athenians say that he had come to their aid before and that he was the agent this time. When they went home, they founded a sacred precinct of Boreas beside the Ilissus river.

Chapter 190

1They say that at the very least no fewer than 400 ships were destroyed in this labor, along with innumerable men and abundant wealth. This shipwreck proved useful to Ameinocles son of Cretines, a man of Magnesia who owned land around Sepia, for he later picked up many gold and silver cups cast up on shore, found the Persian treasures, and acquired other untold riches. Although he became very rich from his findings, he did not enjoy luck in everything, for he suffered greatly when his son was murdered.

Chapter 191

1There was no counting how many grain-ships and other vessels were destroyed. The generals of the fleet were afraid that the Thessalians might attack them now that they had been defeated, so they built a high palisade out of the wreckage.

2The storm lasted three days. Finally the Magi made offerings and cast spells upon the wind, sacrificing also to Thetis and the Nereids. In this way they made the wind stop on the fourth day—or perhaps it died down on its own. They sacrificed to Thetis after hearing from the Ionians the story that it was from this place that Peleus had carried her off and that all the headland of Sepia belonged to her and to the other Nereids.

Chapter 192

1The storm, then, ceased on the fourth day. Now the scouts stationed on the headlands of Euboea ran down and told the Hellenes all about the shipwreck on the second day after the storm began.

2After hearing this they prayed to Poseidon as their savior and poured libations. Then they hurried to Artemisium hoping to find few ships opposing them. So they came to Artemisium a second time and made their station there. From that time on they call Poseidon their savior.

Chapter 193

1The barbarians, when the wind ceased and the waves no longer ran high, put to sea and coasted along the mainland; they sailed around the headland of Magnesia and sailed straight into the gulf which stretches toward Pagasae.

2There is a place on this gulf in Magnesia, where, it is said, Heracles was sent for water and was left behind by Jason and his comrades of the Argo, when they were sailing to Aea in Colchis for the fleece; their purpose was to draw water from there and then to put out to sea. This is the reason why that place has been called Aphetae. Here Xerxes' men made their anchorage.

Chapter 194

1Fifteen of those ships had put to sea a long time after all the rest, and it chanced that they sighted the Greek ships off Artemisium. Supposing these to be their own fleet, the barbarians proceeded into the midst of their enemies. Their captain was the viceroy from Cyme in Aeolia, Sandoces son of Thamasius. This man, who was one of the king's judges, had once before been taken and crucified by Darius because he had given unjust judgment for a bribe.

2When Sandoces had been hung on the cross, Darius found on consideration that his good services to the royal house outweighed his offenses. The king then perceived that he had acted with more haste than wisdom and set Sandoces free.

3In this way he escaped from being put to death by Darius. Now that he was taken into the midst of the Greeks, however, he was not to escape a second time, for when the Greeks saw the Persians bearing down on them, they perceived their mistake and putting to sea, easily took them captive.

Chapter 195

1In one of these ships they took Aridolis, the tyrant of Alabanda in Caria, and in another the Paphian captain Penthylus, son of Demonous; of the twelve ships which he had brought from Paphos he had lost eleven in the storm off the Sepiad headland and was in the one which remained when he was taken as he headed down on Artemisium. Having questioned these men and learned what they desired to know of Xerxes' force, the Greeks sent them away to the isthmus of Corinth in bonds.

Chapter 196

1So the foreign fleet, of which, with the exception of fifteen ships Sandoces was captain, came to Aphetae. Xerxes and his land army marched through Thessaly and Achaea, and it was three days since he had entered Malis. In Thessaly he held a race for his own cavalry; this was also a test of the Thessalian horsemen, whom he had heard were the best in Hellas. The Greek horses were far outpaced in this contest. Of the Thessalian rivers, the Onochonus was the only one which could not provide enough water for his army to drink. In Achaea, however, even the greatest river there, the Apidanus, gave out, remaining but a sorry trickle.

Chapter 197

1When Xerxes had come to Alus in Achaea, his guides, desiring to inform him of all they knew, told him the story which is related in that country concerning the worship of Laphystian Zeus, namely how Athamas son of Aeolus plotted Phrixus' death with Ino, and further, how the Achaeans by an oracle's bidding compel Phrixus descendants to certain tasks.

2They order the eldest of that family not to enter their town-hall (which the Achaeans call the People's House) and themselves keep watch there. If he should enter, he may not come out, save only to be sacrificed. They say as well that many of those who were to be sacrificed had fled in fear to another country, and that if they returned at a later day and were taken, they were brought into the town-hall. The guides showed Xerxes how the man is sacrificed, namely with fillets covering him all over and a procession to lead him forth.

3It is the descendants of Phrixus' son Cytissorus who are treated in this way, because when the Achaeans by an oracle's bidding made Athamas son of Aeolus a scapegoat for their country and were about to sacrifice him, this Cytissorus came from Aea in Colchis and delivered him, thereby bringing the god's wrath on his own descendants.

4Hearing all this, Xerxes, when he came to the temple grove, refrained from entering it himself and bade all his army do likewise, holding the house and the precinct of Athamas' descendants alike in reverence.

Chapter 198

1These were Xerxes' actions in Thessaly and Achaea. From here he came into Malis along a gulf of the sea, in which the tide ebbs and flows daily. There is low-lying ground about this gulf, sometimes wide and sometimes very narrow, and around it stand high and inaccessible mountains which enclose the whole of Malis and are called the Rocks of Trachis.

2Now the first town by the gulf on the way from Achaea is Anticyra, near to which the river Spercheus flows from the country of the Enieni and issues into the sea. About twenty furlongs from that river is another named Dyras, which is said to have risen from the ground to aid Heracles against the fire that consumed him and twenty furlongs again from that there is another river called the Black river.

Chapter 199

1The town of Trachis is five furlongs away from this Black river. Here is the greatest distance in all this region between the sea and the hills on which Trachis stands, for the plain is twenty-two thousand plethra in extent. In the mountains which hem in the Trachinian land there is a ravine to the south of Trachis, through which the river Asopus flows past the lower slopes of the mountains.

Chapter 200

1There is another river south of the Asopus, the Phoenix, a little stream which flows from those mountains into the Asopus. Near this stream is the narrowest place; there is only space for a single cart-way. Thermopylae is fifteen furlongs away from the river Phoenix.

2Between the river and Thermopylae there is a village named Anthele, past which the Asopus flows out into the sea, and there is a wide space around it in which stand a temple of Amphictyonid Demeter, seats for the Amphictyons, and a temple of Amphictyon himself

Chapter 201

1King Xerxes lay encamped in Trachis in Malis and the Hellenes in the pass. This place is called Thermopylae by most of the Hellenes, but by the natives and their neighbors Pylae. Each lay encamped in these places. Xerxes was master of everything to the north from Trachis, and the Hellenes of all that lay toward the south on the mainland.

Chapter 202

1The Hellenes who awaited the Persians in that place were these: three hundred Spartan armed men; one thousand from Tegea and Mantinea, half from each place; one hundred and twenty from Orchomenus in Arcadia and one thousand from the rest of Arcadia; that many Arcadians, four hundred from Corinth, two hundred from Phlius, and eighty Mycenaeans. These were the Peloponnesians present; from Boeotia there were seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans.

Chapter 203

1In addition, the Opuntian Locrians in full force and one thousand Phocians came at the summons. The Hellenes had called upon them through messengers who told them that this was only the advance guard, that the rest of the allies were expected any day now, and that the sea was being watched, with the Athenians and Aeginetans and all those enrolled in the fleet on guard. There was nothing for them to be afraid of.

2The invader of Hellas was not a god but a human being, and there was not, and never would be, any mortal on whom some amount of evil was not bestowed at birth, with the greatest men receiving the largest share. The one marching against them was certain to fall from pride, since he was a mortal. When they heard this, the Locrians and Phocians marched to Trachis to help.

Chapter 204

1Each city had its own general, but the one most admired and the leader of the whole army was a Lacedaemonian, Leonidas, son of Anaxandrides, son of Leon, son of Eurycratides, son of Anaxandrus, son of Eurycrates, son of Polydorus, son of Alcamenes, son of Teleclus, son of Archelaus, son of Hegesilaus, son of Doryssus, son of Leobotes, son of Echestratus, son of Agis, son of Eurysthenes, son of Aristodemus, son of Aristomachus, son of Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, son of Heracles. Leonidas had gained the kingship at Sparta unexpectedly.

Chapter 205

1Since he had two older brothers, Cleomenes and Dorieus, he had renounced all thought of the kingship. Cleomenes, however, died without male offspring, and Dorieus, who had met his end in Sicily, was also no longer alive. The succession therefore fell to Leonidas since he was older than Anaxandrides' youngest son Cleombrotus and had married Cleomenes' daughter.

2He now came to Thermopylae with the appointed three hundred he had selected, all of whom had sons. He also brought those Thebans whom I counted among the number and whose general was Leontiades son of Eurymachus.

3Leonidas took pains to bring only the Thebans among the Hellenes, because they were accused of medizing; he summoned them to the war wishing to know whether they would send their men with him or openly refuse the Hellenic alliance. They sent the men but intended something quite different

Chapter 206

1The Spartans sent the men with Leonidas on ahead so that the rest of the allies would see them and march, instead of medizing like the others if they learned that the Spartans were delaying. At present the Carneia was in their way, but once they had completed the festival, they intended to leave a garrison at Sparta and march out in full force with all speed.

2The rest of the allies planned to do likewise, for the Olympiad coincided with these events. They accordingly sent their advance guard, not expecting the war at Thermopylae to be decided so quickly.

Chapter 207

1This is what they intended, but the Hellenes at Thermopylae, when the Persians drew near the pass, fearfully took counsel whether to depart. The rest of the Peloponnesians were for returning to the Peloponnese and guarding the isthmus, but the Phocians and Locrians were greatly angered by this counsel. Leonidas voted to remain where they were and send messengers to the cities bidding them to send help, since they were too few to ward off the army of the Medes.

Chapter 208

1While they debated in this way, Xerxes sent a mounted scout to see how many there were and what they were doing. While he was still in Thessaly, he had heard that a small army was gathered there and that its leaders were Lacedaemonians, including Leonidas, who was of the Heracleid clan.

2Riding up to the camp, the horseman watched and spied out the place. He could, however, not see the whole camp, for it was impossible to see those posted inside the wall which they had rebuilt and were guarding. He did take note of those outside, whose arms lay in front of the wall, and it chanced that at that time the Lacedaemonians were posted there.

3He saw some of the men exercising naked and others combing their hair. He marvelled at the sight and took note of their numbers. When he had observed it all carefully, he rode back in leisure, since no one pursued him or paid him any attention at all. So he returned and told Xerxes all that he had seen.

Chapter 209

1When Xerxes heard that, he could not comprehend the fact that the Lacedaemonians were actually, to the best of their ability, preparing to kill or be killed. What they did appeared laughable to him, so he sent for Demaratus the son of Ariston, who was in his camp.

2When this man arrived, he asked him about each of these matters, wanting to understand what it was that the Lacedaemonians were doing. Demaratus said, “You have already heard about these men from me, when we were setting out for Hellas, but when you heard, you mocked me, although I told you how I expected things to turn out. It is my greatest aim, O King, to be truthful in your presence.

3So hear me now. These men have come to fight us for the pass, and it for this that they are preparing. This is their custom: when they are about to risk their lives, they arrange their hair.

4Rest assured that if you overcome these men and those remaining behind at Sparta, there is no one else on earth who will raise his hands to withstand you, my King. You are now attacking the fairest kingdom in Hellas and men who are the very best.”

5What he said seemed completely incredible to Xerxes, so he then asked how they, who were so few in number, would fight against his army. Demaratus answered, “My King, take me for a liar if this does not turn out as I say.” So he spoke, but he did not persuade Xerxes.

Chapter 210

1He let four days go by, expecting them to run away at any minute. They did not leave, and it seemed to him that they stayed out of folly and lack of due respect. On the fifth day he became angry and sent the Medes and Cissians against them, bidding them take them prisoner and bring them into his presence.

2The Medes bore down upon the Hellenes and attacked. Many fell, but others attacked in turn, and they made it clear to everyone, especially to the king himself, that among so many people there were few real men. The battle lasted all day.

Chapter 211

1When the Medes had been roughly handled, they retired, and the Persians whom the king called Immortals, led by Hydarnes, attacked in turn. It was thought that they would easily accomplish the task.

2When they joined battle with the Hellenes, they fared neither better nor worse than the Median army, since they used shorter spears than the Hellenes and could not use their numbers fighting in a narrow space.

3The Lacedaemonians fought memorably, showing themselves skilled fighters amidst unskilled on many occasions, as when they would turn their backs and feign flight. The barbarians would see them fleeing and give chase with shouting and noise, but when the Lacedaemonians were overtaken, they would turn to face the barbarians and overthrow innumerable Persians. A few of the Spartans themselves were also slain. When the Persians could gain no inch of the pass, attacking by companies and in every other fashion, they withdrew.

Chapter 212

1It is said that during these assaults in the battle the king, as he watched, jumped up three times from the throne in fear for his army. This, then, is how the fighting progressed, and on the next day the barbarians fought no better. They joined battle supposing that their enemies, being so few, were now disabled by wounds and could no longer resist.

2The Hellenes, however, stood ordered in ranks by nation, and each of them fought in turn, except the Phocians, who were posted on the mountain to guard the path. When the Persians found nothing different from what they saw the day before, they withdrew.

Chapter 213

1The king was at a loss as to how to deal with the present difficulty. Epialtes son of Eurydemus, a Malian, thinking he would get a great reward from the king, came to speak with him and told him of the path leading over the mountain to Thermopylae. In so doing he caused the destruction of the Hellenes remaining there.

2Later he fled into Thessaly in fear of the Lacedaemonians, and while he was in exile, a price was put on his head by the Pylagori when the Amphictyons assembled at Pylae. Still later he returned from exile to Anticyra and was killed by Athenades, a Trachinian.

3Athenades slew Epialtes for a different reason, which I will tell later in my history, but he was given no less honor by the Lacedaemonians. It was in this way, then, that Epialtes was later killed.

Chapter 214

1There is another story told, namely that Onetes son of Phanagoras, a Carystian, and Corydallus of Anticyra are the ones who gave the king this information and guided the Persians around the mountain, but I find it totally incredible.

2One must judge by the fact that the Pylagori set a price not on Onetes and Corydallus but on Epialtes the Trachinian, and I suppose they had exact knowledge; furthermore, we know that Epialtes was banished on this charge.

3Onetes might have known the path, although he was not a Malian, if he had often come to that country, but Epialtes was the one who guided them along the path around the mountain. It is he whom I put on record as guilty.

Chapter 215

1Xerxes was pleased by what Epialtes promised to accomplish. He immediately became overjoyed and sent out Hydarnes and the men under Hydarnes command, who set forth from the camp at about lamp-lighting time. This path had been discovered by the native Malians, who used it to guide the Thessalians into Phocis when the Phocians had fenced off the pass with a wall and were sheltered from the war. So long ago the Malians had discovered that the pass was in no way a good thing.

Chapter 216

1The course of the path is as follows: it begins at the river Asopus as it flows through the ravine, and this mountain and the path have the same name, Anopaea. This Anopaea stretches along the ridge of the mountain and ends at Alpenus, the Locrian city nearest to Malis, near the rock called Blackbuttock and the seats of the Cercopes, where it is narrowest.

Chapter 217

1This, then, was the nature of the pass. The Persians crossed the Asopus and travelled all night along this path, with the Oetaean mountains on their right and the Trachinian on their left. At dawn they came to the summit of the pass.

2In this part of the mountain one thousand armed men of the Phocians were on watch, as I have already shown, defending their own country and guarding the path. The lower pass was held by those I have mentioned, but the Phocians had voluntarily promised Leonidas to guard the path over the mountain.

Chapter 218

1The Phocians learned in the following way that the Persians had climbed up: they had ascended without the Phocians' notice because the mountain was entirely covered with oak trees. Although there was no wind, a great noise arose like leaves being trodden underfoot. The Phocians jumped up and began to put on their weapons, and in a moment the barbarians were there.

2When they saw the men arming themselves, they were amazed, for they had supposed that no opposition would appear, but they had now met with an army. Hydarnes feared that the Phocians might be Lacedaemonians and asked Epialtes what country the army was from. When he had established what he wanted to know with certainty, he arrayed the Persians for battle.

3The Phocians, assailed by thick showers of arrows and supposing that the Persians had set out against them from the start, fled to the top of the mountain and prepared to meet their destruction. This is what they intended, but the Persians with Epialtes and Hydarnes paid no attention to the Phocians and went down the mountain as fast as possible.

Chapter 219

1The seer Megistias, examining the sacrifices, first told the Hellenes at Thermopylae that death was coming to them with the dawn. Then deserters came who announced the circuit made by the Persians. These gave their signals while it was still night; a third report came from the watchers running down from the heights at dawn.

2The Hellenes then took counsel, but their opinions were divided. Some advised not to leave their post, but others spoke against them. They eventually parted, some departing and dispersing each to their own cities, others preparing to remain there with Leonidas.

Chapter 220

1It is said that Leonidas himself sent them away because he was concerned that they would be killed, but felt it not fitting for himself and the Spartans to desert that post which they had come to defend at the beginning.

2I, however, tend to believe that when Leonidas perceived that the allies were dispirited and unwilling to run all risks with him, he told then to depart. For himself, however, it was not good to leave; if he remained, he would leave a name of great fame, and the prosperity of Sparta would not be blotted out.

3When the Spartans asked the oracle about this war when it broke out, the Pythia had foretold that either Lacedaemon would be destroyed by the barbarians or their king would be killed. She gave them this answer in hexameter verses running as follows:

4For you, inhabitants of wide-wayed Sparta, Either your great and glorious city must be wasted by Persian men, Or if not that, then the bound of Lacedaemon must mourn a dead king, from Heracles' line. The might of bulls or lions will not restrain him with opposing strength; for he has the might of Zeus. I declare that he will not be restrained until he utterly tears apart one of these. Considering this and wishing to win distinction for the Spartans alone, he sent away the allies rather than have them leave in disorder because of a difference of opinion.

Chapter 221

1Not the least proof I have of this is the fact that Leonidas publicly dismissed the seer who attended the expedition, for fear that he might die with them. This was Megistias the Acarnanian, said to be descended from Melampus, the one who told from the sacrifices what was going to happen to them. He was dismissed but did not leave; instead he sent away his only son who was also with the army.

Chapter 222

1Those allies who were dismissed went off in obedience to Leonidas, only the Thespians and Thebans remaining with the Lacedaemonians. The Thebans remained against their will and desire, for Leonidas kept them as hostages. The Thespians very gladly remained, saying they would not abandon Leonidas and those with him by leaving; instead they would stay and die with them. Their general was Demophilus son of Diadromes.

Chapter 223

1Xerxes made libations at sunrise and waiting till about mid-morning, made his assault. Epialtes had advised this, for the descent from the mountain is more direct, and the way is much shorter than the circuit and ascent.

2Xerxes and his barbarians attacked, but Leonidas and his Hellenes, knowing they were going to their deaths, advanced now much farther than before into the wider part of the pass. In all the previous days they had sallied out into the narrow way and fought there, guarding the defensive wall.

3Now, however, they joined battle outside the narrows and many of the barbarians fell, for the leaders of the companies beat everyone with whips from behind, urging them ever forward. Many of them were pushed into the sea and drowned; far more were trampled alive by each other, with no regard for who perished.

4Since the Hellenes knew that they must die at the hands of those who had come around the mountain, they displayed the greatest strength they had against the barbarians, fighting recklessly and desperately.

Chapter 224

1By this time most of them had had their spears broken and were killing the Persians with swords. Leonidas, proving himself extremely valiant, fell in that struggle and with him other famous Spartans, whose names I have learned by inquiry since they were worthy men. Indeed, I have learned by inquiry the names of all three hundred.

2Many famous Persians also fell there, including two sons of Darius, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, born to Darius by Phratagune daughter of Artanes. Artanes was the brother of king Darius and son of Hystaspes son of Arsames. When he gave his daughter in marriage to Darius, he gave his whole house as dowry, since she was his only child.

Chapter 225

1Two brothers of Xerxes accordingly fought and fell there. There was a great struggle between the Persians and Lacedaemonians over Leonidas' body, until the Hellenes by their courageous prowess dragged it away and routed their enemies four times. The battle went on until the men with Epialtes arrived.

2When the Hellenes saw that they had come, the contest turned, for they retired to the narrow part of the way, passed behind the wall, and took their position crowded together on the hill, all except the Thebans. This hill is at the mouth of the pass, where the stone lion in honor of Leonidas now stands.

3In that place they defended themselves with swords, if they still had them, and with hands and teeth. The barbarians buried them with missiles, some attacking from the front and throwing down the defensive wall, others surrounding them on all sides.

Chapter 226

1This then is how the Lacedaemonians and Thespians conducted themselves, but the Spartan Dieneces is said to have exhibited the greatest courage of all. They say that he made the following speech before they joined battle with the Medes: he had learned from a Trachinian that there were so many of the barbarians that when they shot their missiles, the sun was hidden by the multitude of their arrows.

2He was not at all disturbed by this and made light of the multitude of the Medes, saying that their Trachinian foreigner brought them good news. If the Medes hid the sun, they could fight them in the shade instead of in the sun. This saying and others like it, they claim, Dieneces the Lacedaemonian left behind as a memorial.

Chapter 227

1Next after him two Lacedaemonian brothers, Alpheus and Maron, sons of Orsiphantus, are said to have been most courageous. The Thespian who gained most renown was one whose name was Dithyrambus son of Harmatides.

Chapter 228

1There is an inscription written over these men, who were buried where they fell, and over those who died before the others went away, dismissed by Leonidas. It reads as follows: Here four thousand from the Peloponnese once fought three million.

2That inscription is for them all, but the Spartans have their own: Foreigner, go tell the Spartans that we lie here obedient to their commands.

3That one is to the Lacedaemonians, this one to the seer: This is a monument to the renowned Megistias, Slain by the Medes who crossed the Spercheius river. The seer knew well his coming doom, But endured not to abandon the leaders of Sparta.

4Except for the seer's inscription, the Amphictyons are the ones who honored them by erecting inscriptions and pillars. That of the seer Megistias was inscribed by Simonides son of Leoprepes because of his tie of guest-friendship with the man.

Chapter 229

1It is said that two of these three hundred, Eurytus and Aristodemus, could have agreed with each other either to come home safely together to Sparta, since Leonidas had dismissed them from the camp and they were lying at Alpeni very sick of ophthalmia, or to die with the others, if they were unwilling to return home. They could have done either of these things, but they could not agree and had different intentions. When Eurytus learned of the Persians circuit, he demanded his armor and put it on, bidding his helot to lead him to the fighting. The helot led him there and fled, but he rushed into the fray and was killed. Aristodemus, however, lost his strength and stayed behind.

2Now if Aristodemus alone had been sick and returned to Sparta, or if they had both made the trip, I think the Spartans would not have been angry with them. When, however, one of them died, and the other had the same excuse but was unwilling to die, the Spartans had no choice but to display great anger towards Aristodemus.

Chapter 230

1Some say that Aristodemus came home safely to Sparta in this way and by this excuse. Others say that he had been sent out of the camp as a messenger and could have gotten back in time for the battle but chose not to, staying behind on the road and so surviving, while his fellow-messenger arrived at the battle and was killed.

Chapter 231

1When Aristodemus returned to Lacedaemon, he was disgraced and without honor. He was deprived of his honor in this way: no Spartan would give him fire or speak with him, and they taunted him by calling him Aristodemus the Trembler. In the battle at Plataea, however, he made up for all the blame brought against him.

Chapter 232

1It is said that another of the three hundred survived because he was sent as a messenger to Thessaly. His name was Pantites. When he returned to Sparta, he was dishonored and hanged himself.

Chapter 233

1The Thebans, whose general was Leontiades, fought against the king's army as long as they were with the Hellenes and under compulsion. When, however, they saw the Persian side prevailing and the Hellenes with Leonidas hurrying toward the hill, they split off and approached the barbarians, holding out their hands. With the most truthful words ever spoken, they explained that they were Medizers, had been among the first to give earth and water to the king, had come to Thermopylae under constraint, and were guiltless of the harm done to the king.

2By this plea they saved their lives, and the Thessalians bore witness to their words. They were not, however, completely lucky. When the barbarians took hold of them as they approached, they killed some of them even as they drew near. Most of them were branded by Xerxes command with the kings marks, starting with the general Leontiades. His son Eurymachus long afterwards was murdered by the Plataeans when, as general of four hundred Thebans, he seized the town of Plataea.

Chapter 234

1This, then, is how the Greeks fought at Thermopylae. Xerxes then sent for Demaratus and questioned him, saying first, “Demaratus you are a good man. I hold that proven by the plain truth, for things have turned out no differently than you foretold. Now, tell me this: how many Lacedaemonians are left, and how many of them are warriors like these? or is it so with them all?”

2“My king,” said Demaratus, “the number of the Lacedaemonians is great, and so too the number of their cities. But what you would like to know, I will tell you: there is in Lacedaemon a city called Sparta, a city of about eight thousand men, all of them equal to those who have fought here; the rest of the Lacedaemonians are not equal to these, yet they are valiant men.”

3“And how, Demaratus,” answered Xerxes, “can we overcome those men with the least trouble to ourselves? Come, disclose that to me, for you have been their king and know the plan and order of their counsels.”

Chapter 235

1“My king,” Demaratus replied, “if you in sincerity ask my counsel, it is but right that I should point out to you the best way. It is this, namely that you should send three hundred ships of your fleet to the Laconian land.

2There is an island lying off their coasts called Cythera. Chilon, a man of much wisdom among us, says about it that it would be better for the Spartans if Cythera were beneath the sea rather than above it. This he said because he expected that it would provide an opportunity for attack just as I am suggesting—not that he had any foreknowledge of your force, but he dreaded all men's forces alike.

3Let them then make that island their station and set out from there to strike fear into the Lacedaemonians. If these have a war of their own on their borders, you will have no cause to fear that they will send men to save the rest of Hellas from being overrun by your armies; furthermore, the enslavement of the rest of Hellas must weaken Laconia if it is left to stand alone.

4If, however, you do not do this, then expect what I will now tell you: a narrow isthmus leads to the Peloponnese; all the Peloponnesians will be banded together there against you, and you may expect battles more stubborn than those that you have fought already. But if you do as I have said, then you may have that isthmus and all their cities without striking a blow.”

Chapter 236

1Next spoke Achaemenes, Xerxes' brother and admiral of the fleet; it chanced that he was present during their conversation, and he feared that Xerxes would be persuaded to follow Demaratus' counsel. “O king,” he said, “I see that you are listening to a man who is jealous of your good fortune or is perhaps even a traitor to your cause. These are the ways that are dear to the hearts of all Greeks: they are jealous of success and they hate power.

2No, if after the recent calamity which has wrecked four hundred of your ships you send away three hundred more from your fleet to sail round the Peloponnese, your enemies will be enough to do battle with you; while your fleet is united, however, it is invincible, and your enemies will not be so many as to be enough to fight; moreover, all your navy will be a help to your army and your army to your navy, both moving together. If you separate some of your fleet from yourself, you will be of no use to them, nor they to you.

3My counsel is rather that you make your own plans well, and take no account of the business of your adversaries, what battlefields they will choose, what they will do, and how many they are. They are able enough to think for themselves, and we similarly for ourselves. As for the Lacedaemonians, if they meet the Persians in the field, they will in no way repair their most recent losses.”

Chapter 237

1“Achaemenes,” Xerxes answered, “I think that you speak well, and I will do as you counsel. Despite the fact that your advice is better than his, Demaratus does say what he supposes to be most serviceable to me,

2for assuredly I will never believe that he is no friend to my cause. I believe this of him because of all that he has already said and by what is the truth, namely, that if one citizen prospers, another citizen is jealous of him and shows his enmity by silence, and no one, (except if he has attained the height of excellence; and such are seldom seen) if his own townsman asks for counsel, will give him what he thinks to be the best advice.

3If one stranger prospers, however, another stranger is beyond all men his well-wisher and will, if he is asked, impart to him the best counsel he has. It is for this reason that I bid you all to refrain from maligning Demaratus, seeing that he is a stranger and a friend.”

Chapter 238

1Having spoken in this way, Xerxes passed over the place where the dead lay and hearing that Leonidas had been king and general of the Lacedaemonians, he gave orders to cut off his head and impale it.

2It is plain to me by this piece of evidence among many others, that while Leonidas lived, king Xerxes was more incensed against him than against all others; otherwise he would never have dealt so outrageously with his dead body, for the Persians are beyond all men known in the habit of honoring valiant warriors. They, then, who received these orders did as I have said.

Chapter 239

1I return now to that place in my history where it earlier left off. The Lacedaemonians were the first to be informed that the king was equipping himself to attack Hellas; with this knowledge it was that they sent to the oracle at Delphi, where they received the answer about which I spoke a little while ago. Now the way in which they were informed of this was strange.

2Demaratus son of Ariston, an exile among the Medes, was, as I suppose (reason being also my ally), no friend to the Lacedaemonians, and I leave it to be imagined whether what he did was done out of goodwill or spiteful triumph. When Xerxes was resolved to march against Hellas, Demaratus, who was then at Susa and had knowledge of this, desired to send word of it to the Lacedaemonians.

3He, however, feared detection and had no other way of informing them than this trick:—taking a double tablet, he scraped away the wax from it, and then wrote the king's plan on the wood. Next he melted the wax back again over the writing, so that the bearer of this seemingly blank tablet might not be troubled by the way-wardens.

4When the tablet came to Lacedaemon, the Lacedaemonians could not guess its meaning, until at last (as I have been told) Gorgo, Cleomenes' daughter and Leonidas' wife, discovered the trick herself and advised them to scrape the wax away so that they would find writing on the wood. When they did so, they found and read the message, and presently sent it to the rest of the Greeks. This is the story, as it is told.