DEBATE ON THE PROPOSED INVASION OF GREECE.
B.C. 481
Counselors of Xerxes.--Age and character of Mardonius.--The avenues to
renown.--Blood inherited and blood shed.--Character of Artabanus.--His
advice to Xerxes.--The Ionian rebellion.--First invasion of
Greece.--Xerxes convenes a public council.--His speech.--Xerxes recounts
the aggressions of the Athenians.--Xerxes proposes to build a bridge
over the Hellespont.--Excitement of Mardonius.--His speech.--Mardonius
expresses his contempt of the Greeks.--Predictions of Mardonius.--Pause
in the assembly.--Speech of Artabanus.--His apologies.--Artabanus
opposes the war.--Repulse of Datis.--Artabanus warns Xerxes of the
danger of the expedition.--Artabanus vindicates the character of the
Greeks.--Xerxes's displeasure.--His angry reply to Artabanus.--Xerxes's
anxiety.--He determines to abandon his project.--Xerxes sees a vision in
the night.--The spirit appears a second time to Xerxes.--Xerxes relates
his dreams to Artabanus.--Opinion of the latter.--Artabanus takes
Xerxes's place.--The spirit appears a third time.--Artabanus is
convinced.--The invasion decided upon.--Mardonius probably the ghost.
The two great counselors on whose judgment Xerxes mainly relied, so far
as he looked to any other judgment than his own in the formation of his
plans, were Artabanus, the uncle by whose decision the throne had been
awarded to him, and Mardonius, the commander-in-chief of his armies.
Xerxes himself was quite a young man, of a proud and lofty, yet generous
character, and full of self-confidence and hope. Mardonius was much
older, but he was a soldier by profession, and was eager to distinguish
himself in some great military campaign. It has always been unfortunate
for the peace and happiness of mankind, under all monarchical and
despotic governments, in every age of the world, that, through some
depraved and unaccountable perversion of public sentiment, those who are
not born to greatness have had no means of attaining to it except as
heroes in war. Many men have, indeed, by their mental powers or their
moral excellences, acquired an extended and lasting _posthumous_ fame;
but in respect to all immediate and exalted distinction and honor, it
will be found, on reviewing the history of the human race, that there
have generally been but two possible avenues to them: on the one hand,
high birth, and on the other, the performance of great deeds of carnage
and destruction. There must be, it seems, as the only valid claim to
renown, either blood inherited or blood shed. The glory of the latter is
second, indeed, to that of the former, but it is _only_ second. He who
has sacked a city stands very high in the estimation of his fellows. He
yields precedence only to him whose grandfather sacked one.
This state of things is now, it is true, rapidly undergoing a change.
The age of chivalry, of military murder and robbery, and of the glory of
great deeds of carnage and blood, is passing away, and that of peace, of
industry, and of achievements for promoting the comfort and happiness of
mankind is coming. The men who are now advancing to the notice of the
world are those who, through their commerce or their manufactures, feed
and clothe their fellow-men by millions, or, by opening new channels or
new means for international intercourse, civilize savages, and people
deserts; while the glory of killing and destroying is less and less
regarded, and more and more readily forgotten.
In the days of Xerxes, however, there was no road to honor but by war,
and Mardonius found that his only hope of rising to distinction was by
conducting a vast torrent of military devastation over some portion of
the globe; and the fairer, the richer, the happier the scene which he
was thus to inundate and overwhelm, the greater would be the glory. He
was very much disposed, therefore, to urge on the invasion of Greece by
every means in his power.
Artabanus, on the other hand, the uncle of Xerxes, was a man advanced in
years, and of a calm and cautious disposition. He was better aware than
younger men of the vicissitudes and hazards of war, and was much more
inclined to restrain than to urge on the youthful ambition of his
nephew. Xerxes had been able to present some show of reason for his
campaign in Egypt, by calling the resistance which that country offered
to his power a rebellion. There was, however, no such reason in the case
of Greece. There had been two wars between Persia and the Athenians
already, it is true. In the first, the Athenians had aided their
countrymen in Asia Minor in a fruitless attempt to recover their
independence. This the Persian government considered as aiding and
abetting a rebellion. In the second, the Persians under Datis, one of
Darius's generals, had undertaken a grand invasion of Greece, and, after
landing in the neighborhood of Athens, were beaten, with immense
slaughter, at the great battle of Marathon, near that city. The former
of these wars is known in history as the Ionian rebellion; the latter as
the first Persian invasion of Greece. They had both occurred during the
reign of Darius, and the invasion under Datis had taken place not many
years before the accession of Xerxes, so that a great number of the
officers who had served in that campaign were still remaining in the
court and army of Xerxes at Susa. These wars had, however, both been
terminated, and Artabanus was very little inclined to have the contests
renewed.
Xerxes, however, was bent upon making one more attempt to conquer
Greece, and when the time arrived for commencing his preparations, he
called a grand council of the generals, the nobles, and the potentates
of the realm, to lay his plans before them. The historian who narrated
these proceedings recorded the debate that ensued in the following
manner.
Xerxes himself first addressed the assembly, to announce and explain his
designs.
"The enterprise, my friends," said he, "in which I propose now to
engage, and in which I am about to ask your co-operation, is no new
scheme of my own devising. What I design to do is, on the other hand,
only the carrying forward of the grand course of measures marked out by
my predecessors, and pursued by them with steadiness and energy, so long
as the power remained in their hands. That power has now descended to
me, and with it has devolved the responsibility of finishing the work
which they so successfully began.
"It is the manifest destiny of Persia to rule the world. From the time
that Cyrus first commenced the work of conquest by subduing Media, to
the present day, the extent of our empire has been continually widening,
until now it covers all of Asia and Africa, with the exception of the
remote and barbarous tribes, that, like the wild beasts which share
their forests with them, are not worth the trouble of subduing. These
vast conquests have been made by the courage, the energy, and the
military power of Cyrus, Darius, and Cambyses, my renowned
predecessors. They, on their part, have subdued Asia and Africa; Europe
remains. It devolves on me to finish what they have begun. Had my father
lived, he would, himself, have completed the work. He had already made
great preparations for the undertaking; but he died, leaving the task to
me, and it is plain that I can not hesitate to undertake it without a
manifest dereliction of duty.
"You all remember the unprovoked and wanton aggressions which the
Athenians committed against us in the time of the Ionian rebellion,
taking part against us with rebels and enemies. They crossed the AEgean
Sea on that occasion, invaded our territories, and at last captured and
burned the city of Sardis, the principal capital of our Western empire.
I will never rest until I have had my revenge by burning Athens. Many of
you, too, who are here present, remember the fate of the expedition
under Datis. Those of you who were attached to that expedition will have
no need that I should urge you to seek revenge for your own wrongs. I am
sure that you will all second my undertaking with the utmost fidelity
and zeal.
"My plan for gaining access to the Grecian territories is not, as
before, to convey the troops by a fleet of galleys over the AEgean Sea,
but to build a bridge across the Hellespont, and march the army to
Greece by land. This course, which I am well convinced is practicable,
will be more safe than the other, and the bridging of the Hellespont
will be of itself a glorious deed. The Greeks will be utterly unable to
resist the enormous force which we shall be able to pour upon them. We
can not but conquer; and inasmuch as beyond the Greek territories there
is, as I am informed, no other power at all able to cope with us, we
shall easily extend our empire on every side to the sea, and thus the
Persian dominion will cover the whole habitable world.
"I am sure that I can rely on your cordial and faithful co-operation in
these plans, and that each one of you will bring me, from his own
province or territories, as large a quota of men, and of supplies for
the war, as is in his power. They who contribute thus most liberally I
shall consider as entitled to the highest honors and rewards."
Such was, in substance, the address of Xerxes to his council. He
concluded by saying that it was not his wish to act in the affair in an
arbitrary or absolute manner, and he invited all present to express,
with perfect freedom, any opinions or views which they entertained in
respect to the enterprise.
While Xerxes had been speaking, the soul of Mardonius had been on fire
with excitement and enthusiasm, and every word which the king had
uttered only fanned the flame. He rose immediately when the king gave
permission to the counselors to speak, and earnestly seconded the
monarch's proposals in the following words:
"For my part, sire, I can not refrain from expressing my high admiration
of the lofty spirit and purpose on your part, which leads you to propose
to us an enterprise so worthy of your illustrious station and exalted
personal renown. Your position and power at the present time are higher
than those ever attained by any human sovereign that has ever lived; and
it is easy to foresee that there is a career of glory before you which
no future monarch can ever surpass. You are about to complete the
conquest of the world! That exploit can, of course, never be exceeded.
We all admire the proud spirit on your part which will not submit tamely
to the aggressions and insults which we have received from the Greeks.
We have conquered the people of India, of Egypt, of Ethiopia, and of
Assyria, and that, too, without having previously suffered any injury
from them, but solely from a noble love of dominion; and shall we tamely
stop in our career when we see nations opposed to us from whom we have
received so many insults, and endured so many wrongs? Every
consideration of honor and manliness forbids it.
"We have nothing to fear in respect to the success of the enterprise in
which you invite us to engage. I know the Greeks, and I know that they
can not stand against our arms. I have encountered them many times and
in various ways. I met them in the provinces of Asia Minor, and you all
know the result. I met them during the reign of Darius your father, in
Macedon and Thrace--or, rather, sought to meet them; for, though I
marched through the country, the enemy always avoided me. They could not
be found. They have a great name, it is true; but, in fact, all their
plans and arrangements are governed by imbecility and folly. They are
not ever united among themselves. As they speak one common language, any
ordinary prudence and sagacity would lead them to combine together, and
make common cause against the nations that surround them. Instead of
this, they are divided into a multitude of petty states and kingdoms,
and all their resources and power are exhausted in fruitless contentions
with each other. I am convinced that, once across the Hellespont, we can
march to Athens without finding any enemy to oppose our progress; or, if
we should encounter any resisting force, it will be so small and
insignificant as to be instantly overwhelmed."
In one point Mardonius was nearly right in his predictions, since it
proved subsequently, as will hereafter be seen, that when the Persian
army reached the pass of Thermopylae, which was the great avenue of
entrance, on the north, into the territories of the Greeks, they found
only three hundred men ready there to oppose their passage!
When Mardonius had concluded his speech, he sat down, and quite a solemn
pause ensued. The nobles and chieftains generally were less ready than
he to encounter the hazards and uncertainties of so distant a campaign.
Xerxes would acquire, by the success of the enterprise, a great
accession to his wealth and to his dominion, and Mardonius, too, might
expect to reap very rich rewards; but what were they themselves to
gain? They did not dare, however, to seem to oppose the wishes of the
king, and, notwithstanding the invitation which he had given them to
speak, they remained silent, not knowing, in fact, exactly what to say.
All this time Artabanus, the venerable uncle of Xerxes, sat silent like
the rest, hesitating whether his years, his rank, and the relation which
he sustained to the young monarch would justify his interposing, and
make it prudent and safe for him to attempt to warn his nephew of the
consequences which he would hazard by indulging his dangerous ambition.
At length he determined to speak.
"I hope," said he, addressing the king, "that it will not displease you
to have other views presented in addition to those which have already
been expressed. It is better that all opinions should be heard; the just
and the true will then appear the more just and true by comparison with
others. It seems to me that the enterprise which you contemplate is full
of danger, and should be well considered before it is undertaken. When
Darius, your father, conceived of the plan of his invasion of the
country of the Scythians beyond the Danube, I counseled him against the
attempt. The benefits to be secured by such an undertaking seemed to me
wholly insufficient to compensate for the expense, the difficulties, and
the dangers of it. My counsels were, however, overruled. Your father
proceeded on the enterprise. He crossed the Bosporus, traversed Thrace,
and then crossed the Danube; but, after a long and weary contest with
the hordes of savages which he found in those trackless wilds, he was
forced to abandon the undertaking, and return, with the loss of half his
army. The plan which you propose seems to me to be liable to the same
dangers, and I fear very much that it will lead to the same results.
"The Greeks have the name of being a valiant and formidable foe. It may
prove in the end that they are so. They certainly repulsed Datis and all
his forces, vast as they were, and compelled them to retire with an
enormous loss. Your invasion, I grant, will be more formidable than his.
You will throw a bridge across the Hellespont, so as to take your troops
round through the northern parts of Europe into Greece, and you will
also, at the same time, have a powerful fleet in the AEgean Sea. But it
must be remembered that the naval armaments of the Greeks in all those
waters are very formidable. They may attack and destroy your fleet.
Suppose that they should do so, and that then, proceeding to the
northward in triumph, they should enter the Hellespont and destroy your
bridge? Your retreat would be cut off, and, in case of a reverse of
fortune, your army would be exposed to total ruin.
"Your father, in fact, very narrowly escaped precisely this fate. The
Scythians came to destroy his bridge across the Danube while his forces
were still beyond the river, and, had it not been for the very
extraordinary fidelity and zeal of Histiaeus, who had been left to guard
the post, they would have succeeded in doing it. It is frightful to
think that the whole Persian army, with the sovereign of the empire at
their head, were placed in a position where their being saved from
overwhelming and total destruction depended solely on the fidelity and
firmness of a single man! Should you place your forces and your own
person in the same danger, can you safely calculate upon the same
fortunate escape?
"Even the very vastness of your force may be the means of insuring and
accelerating its destruction, since whatever rises to extraordinary
elevation and greatness is always exposed to dangers correspondingly
extraordinary and great. Thus tall trees and lofty towers seem always
specially to invite the thunderbolts of Heaven.
"Mardonius charges the Greeks with a want of sagacity, efficiency, and
valor, and speaks contemptuously of them, as soldiers, in every respect.
I do not think that such imputations are just to the people against whom
they are directed, or honorable to him who makes them. To disparage the
absent, especially an absent enemy, is not magnanimous or wise; and I
very much fear that it will be found in the end that the conduct of the
Greeks will evince very different military qualities from those which
Mardonius has assigned them. They are represented by common fame as
sagacious, hardy, efficient, and brave, and it may prove that these
representations are true.
"My counsel therefore is, that you dismiss this assembly, and take
further time to consider this subject before coming to a final decision.
Perhaps, on more mature reflection, you will conclude to abandon the
project altogether. If you should not conclude to abandon it, but should
decide, on the other hand, that it must be prosecuted, let me entreat
you not to go yourself in company with the expedition. Let Mardonius
take the charge and the responsibility. If he does so, I predict that he
will leave the dead bodies of the soldiers that you intrust to him, to
be devoured by dogs on the plains of Athens or Lacedaemon."
Xerxes was exceedingly displeased at hearing such a speech as this from
his uncle, and he made a very angry reply. He accused Artabanus of
meanness of spirit, and of a cowardice disgraceful to his rank and
station, in thus advocating a tame submission to the arrogant
pretensions of the Greeks. Were it not, he said, for the respect which
he felt for Artabanus, as his father's brother, he would punish him
severely for his presumption in thus basely opposing his sovereign's
plans. "As it is," continued he, "I will carry my plans into effect, but
you shall not have the honor of accompanying me. You shall remain at
Susa with the women and children of the palace, and spend your time in
the effeminate and ignoble pleasures suited to a spirit so mean. As for
myself, I must and will carry my designs into execution. I could not, in
fact, long avoid a contest with the Greeks, even if I were to adopt the
cowardly and degrading policy which you recommend; for I am confident
that they will very soon invade my dominions, if I do not anticipate
them by invading theirs."
So saying, Xerxes dismissed the assembly.
His mind, however, was not at ease. Though he had so indignantly
rejected the counsel which Artabanus had offered him, yet the impressive
words in which it had been uttered, and the arguments with which it had
been enforced, weighed upon his spirit, and oppressed and dejected him.
The longer he considered the subject, the more serious his doubts and
fears became, until at length, as the night approached, he became
convinced that Artabanus was right, and that he himself was wrong. His
mind found no rest until he came to the determination to abandon the
project after all. He resolved to make this change in his resolution
known to Artabanus and his nobles in the morning, and to countermand the
orders which he had given for the assembling of the troops. Having by
this decision restored something like repose to his agitated mind, he
laid himself down upon his couch and went to sleep.
In the night he saw a vision. It seemed to him that a resplendent and
beautiful form appeared before him, and after regarding him a moment
with an earnest look, addressed him as follows:
"And do you really intend to abandon your deliberate design of leading
an array into Greece, after having formally announced it to the realm
and issued your orders? Such fickleness is absurd, and will greatly
dishonor you. Resume your plan, and go on boldly and perseveringly to
the execution of it."
So saying, the vision disappeared.
When Xerxes awoke in the morning, and the remembrance of the events of
the preceding day returned, mingling itself with the new impressions
which had been made by the dream, he was again agitated and perplexed.
As, however, the various influences which pressed upon him settled to
their final equilibrium, the fears produced by Artabanus's substantial
arguments and warnings on the preceding day proved to be of greater
weight than the empty appeal to his pride which had been made by the
phantom of the night. He resolved to persist in the abandonment of his
scheme. He called his council, accordingly, together again, and told
them that, on more mature reflection, he had become convinced that his
uncle was right and that he himself had been wrong. The project,
therefore, was for the present suspended, and the orders for the
assembling of the forces were revoked. The announcement was received by
the members of the council with the most tumultuous joy.
That night Xerxes had another dream. The same spirit appeared to him
again, his countenance, however, bearing now, instead of the friendly
look of the preceding night, a new and stern expression of displeasure.
Pointing menacingly at the frightened monarch with his finger, he
exclaimed, "You have rejected my advice; you have abandoned your plan;
and now I declare to you that, unless you immediately resume your
enterprise and carry it forward to the end, short as has been the time
since you were raised to your present elevation, a still shorter period
shall elapse before your downfall and destruction."
The spirit then disappeared as suddenly as it came, leaving Xerxes to
awake in an agony of terror.
As soon as it was day, Xerxes sent for Artabanus, and related to him his
dreams. "I was willing," said he, "after hearing what you said, and
maturely considering the subject, to give up my plan; but these dreams,
I can not but think, are intimations from Heaven that I ought to
proceed."
Artabanus attempted to combat this idea by representing to Xerxes that
dreams were not to be regarded as indications of the will of Heaven, but
only as a vague and disordered reproduction of the waking thoughts,
while the regular action of the reason and the judgment by which they
were ordinarily controlled was suspended or disturbed by the influence
of slumber. Xerxes maintained, on the other hand, that, though this view
of the case might explain his first vision, the solemn repetition of the
warning proved that it was supernatural and divine. He proposed that, to
put the reality of the apparition still further to the test, Artabanus
should take his place on the royal couch the next night, to see if the
specter would not appear to him. "You shall clothe yourself," said he,
"in my robes, put the crown upon your head, and take your seat upon the
throne. After that, you shall retire to my apartment, lie down upon the
couch, and go to sleep. If the vision is supernatural, it will
undoubtedly appear to you. If it does not so appear, I will admit that
it was nothing but a dream."
Artabanus made some objection, at first, to the details of the
arrangement which Xerxes proposed, as he did not see, he said, of what
advantage it could be for him to assume the guise and habiliments of the
king. If the vision was divine, it could not be deceived by such
artifices as those. Xerxes, however, insisted on his proposition, and
Artabanus yielded. He assumed for an hour the dress and the station of
the king, and then retired to the king's apartment, and laid himself
down upon the couch under the royal pavilion. As he had no faith in the
reality of the vision, his mind was quiet and composed, and he soon fell
asleep.
At midnight, Xerxes, who was lying in an adjoining apartment, was
suddenly aroused by a loud and piercing cry from the room where
Artabanus was sleeping, and in a moment afterward Artabanus himself
rushed in, perfectly wild with terror. He had seen the vision. It had
appeared before him with a countenance and gestures expressive of great
displeasure, and after loading him with reproaches for having attempted
to keep Xerxes back from his proposed expedition into Greece, it
attempted to bore out his eyes with a red-hot iron with which it was
armed. Artabanus had barely succeeded in escaping by leaping from his
couch and rushing precipitately out of the room.[D]
[Footnote D: See Frontispiece.]
Artabanus said that he was now convinced and satisfied. It was plainly
the divine will that Xerxes should undertake his projected invasion, and
he would himself, thenceforth, aid the enterprise by every means in his
power. The council was, accordingly, once more convened. The story of
the three apparitions was related to them, and the final decision
announced that the armies were to be assembled for the march without any
further delay.
* * * * *
It is proper here to repeat, once for all in this volume, a remark which
has elsewhere often been made in the various works of this series, that
in studying ancient history at the present day, it is less important now
to know, in regard to transactions so remote, what the facts actually
were which really occurred, than it is to know the story respecting
them, which, for the last two thousand years, has been in circulation
among mankind. It is now, for example, of very little consequence
whether there ever was or never was such a personage as Hercules, but it
is essential that every educated man should know the story which
ancient writers tell in relating his doings. In this view of the case,
our object, in this volume, is simply to give the history of Xerxes just
as it stands, without stopping to separate the false from the true. In
relating the occurrences, therefore, which have been described in this
chapter, we simply give the alleged facts to our readers precisely as
the ancient historians give them to us, leaving each reader to decide
for himself how far he will believe the narrative. In respect to this
particular story, we will add, that some people think that Mardonius was
really the ghost by whose appearance Artabanus and Xerxes were so
dreadfully frightened.