PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF GREECE.
B.C. 481
Orders to the provinces.--Mode of raising money.--Modern mode of
securing supplies of arms and money.--Xerxes's preparations.--Four years
allotted to them.--Arms.--Provisions.--Building of ships.--Persian
possessions on the north of the AEgean Sea.--Promontory of Mount
Athos.--Dangerous navigation.--Plan of Xerxes for the march of his
expedition.--Former shipwreck of Mardonius.--Terrible gale.--Destruction
of Mardonius's fleet at Mount Athos.--Plan of a canal.--The Greeks do
not interfere.--Plans of the engineers.--Prosecution of the work.--The
Strymon bridged.--Granaries and store-houses.--Xerxes leaves Susa, and
begins his march.--The Meander.--Celaenae.--Pythius.--The wealth of
Pythius.--His interview with Xerxes.--The amount of Pythius's
wealth.--His offer to Xerxes.--Gratification of Xerxes.--His reply to
Pythius's offer.--Real character of Pythius.--The entertainment of
silver and gold.--Xerxes's gratitude put to the test.--He murders
Pythius's son.--Various objects of interest observed by the army.--The
plane-tree.--Artificial honey.--Salt lake.--Gold and silver
mines.--Xerxes summons the Greeks to surrender.--They indignantly
refuse.
As soon as the invasion of Greece was finally decided upon, the orders
were transmitted to all the provinces of the empire, requiring the
various authorities and powers to make the necessary preparations. There
were men to be levied, arms to be manufactured, ships to be built, and
stores of food to be provided. The expenditures, too, of so vast an
armament as Xerxes was intending to organize, would require a large
supply of money. For all these things Xerxes relied on the revenues and
the contributions of the provinces, and orders, very full and very
imperative, were transmitted, accordingly, to all the governors and
satraps of Asia, and especially to those who ruled over the countries
which lay near the western confines of the empire, and consequently near
the Greek frontiers.
In modern times it is the practice of powerful nations to accumulate
arms and munitions of war on storage in arsenals and naval depots, so
that the necessary supplies for very extended operations, whether of
attack or defense, can be procured in a very short period of time. In
respect to funds, too, modern nations have a great advantage over those
of former days, in case of any sudden emergency arising to call for
great and unusual expenditures. In consequence of the vast accumulation
of capital in the hands of private individuals, and the confidence which
is felt in the mercantile honor and good faith of most established
governments at the present day, these governments can procure indefinite
supplies of gold and silver at any time, by promising to pay an annual
interest in lieu of the principal borrowed. It is true that, in these
cases, a stipulation is made, by which the government may, at a certain
specified period, pay back the principal, and so extinguish the annuity;
but in respect to a vast portion of the amount so borrowed, it is not
expected that this repayment will ever be made. The creditors, in fact,
do not desire that it should be, as owners of property always prefer a
safe annual income from it to the custody of the principal; and thus
governments in good credit have sometimes induced their creditors to
abate the rate of interest which they were receiving, by threatening
otherwise to pay the debt in full.
These inventions, however, by which a government in one generation may
enjoy the pleasure and reap the glory of waging war, and throw the
burden of the expense on another, were not known in ancient times.
Xerxes did not understand the art of funding a national debt, and there
would, besides, have probably been very little confidence in Persian
stocks, if any had been issued. He had to raise all his funds by actual
taxation, and to have his arms, and his ships and chariots of war,
manufactured express. The food, too, to sustain the immense army which
he was to raise, was all to be produced, and store-houses were to be
built for the accumulation and custody of it. All this, as might
naturally be expected, would require time; and the vastness of the scale
on which these immense preparations were made is evinced by the fact
that _four years_ were the time allotted for completing them. This
period includes, however, a considerable time before the great debate on
the subject described in the last chapter.
The chief scene of activity, during all this time, was the tract of
country in the western part of Asia Minor, and along the shores of the
AEgean Sea. Taxes and contributions were raised from all parts of the
empire, but the actual material of war was furnished mainly from those
provinces which were nearest to the future scene of it. Each district
provided such things as it naturally and most easily produced. One
contributed horses, another arms and ammunition, another ships, and
another provisions. The ships which were built were of various forms and
modes of construction, according to the purposes which they were
respectively intended to serve. Some were strictly ships of war,
intended for actual combat; others were transports, their destination
being simply the conveyance of troops or of military stores. There were
also a large number of vessels, which were built on a peculiar model,
prescribed by the engineers, being very long and straight-sided, and
smooth and flat upon their decks. These were intended for the bridge
across the Hellespont. They were made long, so that, when placed side by
side across the stream, a greater breadth might be given to the platform
of the bridge. All these things were very deliberately and carefully
planned.
Although it was generally on the Asiatic side of the AEgean Sea that
these vast works of preparation were going on, and the crossing of the
Hellespont was to be the first great movement of the Persian army, the
reader must not suppose that, even at this time, the European shores
were wholly in the hands of the Greeks. The Persians had, long before,
conquered Thrace and a part of Macedon; and thus the northern shores of
the AEgean Sea, and many of the islands, were already in Xerxes's hands.
The Greek dominions lay further south, and Xerxes did not anticipate any
opposition from the enemy, until his army, after crossing the strait,
should have advanced to the neighborhood of Athens. In fact, all the
northern country through which his route would lie was already in his
hands, and in passing through it he anticipated no difficulties except
such as should arise from the elements themselves, and the physical
obstacles of the way. The Hellespont itself was, of course, one
principal point of danger. The difficulty here was to be surmounted by
the bridge of boats. There was, however, another point, which was, in
some respects, still more formidable: it was the promontory of Mount
Athos.
By looking at the map of Greece, placed at the commencement of the next
chapter, the reader will see that there are two or three singular
promontories jutting out from the main land in the northwestern part of
the AEgean Sea. The most northerly and the largest of these was formed by
an immense mountainous mass rising out of the water, and connected by a
narrow isthmus with the main land. The highest summit of this rocky pile
was called Mount Athos in ancient times, and is so marked upon the map.
In modern days it is called Monte Santo, or Holy Mountain, being covered
with monasteries, and convents, and other ecclesiastical establishments
built in the Middle Ages.
Mount Athos is very celebrated in ancient history. It extended along the
promontory for many miles, and terminated abruptly in lofty cliffs and
precipices toward the sea, where it was so high that its shadow, as was
said, was thrown, at sunset, across the water to the island of Lemnos, a
distance of twenty leagues. It was a frightful specter in the eyes of
the ancient navigators, when, as they came coasting along from the north
in their frail galleys, on their voyages to Greece and Italy, they saw
it frowning defiance to them as they came, with threatening clouds
hanging upon its summit, and the surges and surf of the AEgean
perpetually thundering upon its base below. To make this stormy
promontory the more terrible, it was believed to be the haunt of
innumerable uncouth and misshapen monsters of the sea, that lived by
devouring the hapless seamen who were thrown upon the rocks from their
wrecked vessels by the merciless tumult of the waves.
The plan which Xerxes had formed for the advance of his expedition was,
that the army which was to cross the Hellespont by the bridge should
advance thence through Macedonia and Thessaly, by land, attended by a
squadron of ships, transports, and galleys, which was to accompany the
expedition along the coast by sea. The _men_ could be marched more
conveniently to their place of destination by land. The stores, on the
other hand, the arms, the supplies, and the baggage of every
description, could be transported more easily by sea. Mardonius was
somewhat solicitous in respect to the safety of the great squadron which
would be required for this latter service, in doubling the promontory of
Mount Athos.
In fact, he had special and personal reason for his solicitude, for he
had himself, some years before, met with a terrible disaster at this
very spot. It was during the reign of Darius that this disaster
occurred. On one of the expeditions which Darius had intrusted to his
charge, he was conducting a very large fleet along the coast, when a
sudden storm arose just as he was approaching this terrible promontory.
He was on the northern side of the promontory when the storm came on,
and as the wind was from the north, it blew directly upon the shore. For
the fleet to make its escape from the impending danger, it seemed
necessary, therefore, to turn the course of the ships back against the
wind; but this, on account of the sudden and terrific violence of the
gale, it was impossible to do. The sails, when they attempted to use
them, were blown away by the howling gusts, and the oars were broken to
pieces by the tremendous dashing of the sea. It soon appeared that the
only hope of escape for the squadron was to press on in the desperate
attempt to double the promontory, and thus gain, if possible, the
sheltered water under its lee. The galleys, accordingly, went on, the
pilots and the seamen exerting their utmost to keep them away from the
shore.
All their efforts, however, to do this, were vain. The merciless gales
drove the vessels, one after another, upon the rocks, and dashed them to
pieces, while the raging sea wrenched the wretched mariners from the
wrecks to which they attempted to cling, and tossed them out into the
boiling whirlpools around, to the monsters that were ready there to
devour them, as if she were herself some ferocious monster, feeding her
offspring with their proper prey. A few, it is true, of the hapless
wretches succeeded in extricating themselves from the surf, by crawling
up upon the rocks, through the tangled sea-weed, until they were above
the reach of the surges; but when they had done so, they found
themselves hopelessly imprisoned between the impending precipices which
frowned above them and the frantic billows which were raging and roaring
below. They gained, of course, by their apparent escape, only a brief
prolongation of suffering, for they all soon miserably perished from
exhaustion, exposure, and cold.
Mardonius had no desire to encounter this danger again. Now the
promontory of Mount Athos, though high and rocky itself, was connected
with the main land by an isthmus level and low, and not very broad.
Xerxes determined on cutting a canal through this isthmus, so as to take
his fleet of galleys across the neck, and thus avoid the stormy
navigation of the outward passage. Such a canal would be of service not
merely for the passage of the great fleet, but for the constant
communication which it would be necessary for Xerxes to maintain with
his own dominions during the whole period of the invasion.
It might have been expected that the Greeks would have interfered to
prevent the execution of such a work as this; but it seems that they did
not, and yet there was a considerable Greek population in that vicinity.
The promontory of Athos itself was quite extensive, being about thirty
miles long and four or five wide, and it had several towns upon it. The
canal which Xerxes was to cut across the neck of this peninsula was to
be wide enough for two triremes to pass each other. Triremes were
galleys propelled by three banks of oars, and were vessels of the
largest class ordinarily employed; and as the oars by which they were
impelled required almost as great a breadth of water as the vessels
themselves, the canal was, consequently, to be very wide.
The engineers, accordingly, laid out the ground, and, marking the
boundaries by stakes and lines, as guides to the workmen, the excavation
was commenced. Immense numbers of men were set at work, arranged
regularly in gangs, according to the various nations which furnished
them. As the excavation gradually proceeded, and the trench began to
grow deep, they placed ladders against the sides, and stationed a series
of men upon them; then the earth dug from the bottom was hauled up from
one to another, in a sort of basket or hod, until it reached the top,
where it was taken by other men and conveyed away.
The work was very much interrupted and impeded, in many parts of the
line, by the continual caving in of the banks, on account of the workmen
attempting to dig perpendicularly down. In one section--the one which
had been assigned to the Phoenicians--this difficulty did not occur; for
the Phoenicians, more considerate than the rest, had taken the
precaution to make the breadth of their part of the trench twice as
great at the top as it was below. By this means the banks on each side
were formed to a gradual slope, and consequently stood firm. The canal
was at length completed, and the water was let in.
North of the promontory of Mount Athos the reader will find upon the map
the River Strymon, flowing south, not far from the boundary between
Macedon and Thrace, into the AEgean Sea. The army of Xerxes, in its march
from the Hellespont, would, of course, have to cross this river; and
Xerxes having, by cutting the canal across the isthmus of Mount Athos,
removed an obstacle in the way of his fleet, resolved next to facilitate
the progress of his army by bridging the Strymon.
The king also ordered a great number of granaries and store-houses to be
built at various points along the route which it was intended that his
army should pursue. Some of these were on the coasts of Macedonia and
Thrace, and some on the banks of the Strymon. To these magazines the
corn raised in Asia for the use of the expedition was conveyed, from
time to time, in transport ships, as fast as it was ready, and, being
safely deposited, was protected by a guard. No very extraordinary means
of defense seems to have been thought necessary at these points, for,
although the scene of all these preliminary arrangements was on the
European side of the line, and in what was called Greek territory, still
this part of the country had been long under Persian dominion. The
independent states and cities of Greece were all further south, and the
people who inhabited them did not seem disposed to interrupt these
preparations. Perhaps they were not aware to what object and end all
these formidable movements on their northern frontier were tending.
Xerxes, during all this time, had remained in Persia. The period at
length arrived when, his preparations on the frontiers being far
advanced toward completion, he concluded to move forward at the head of
his forces to Sardis. Sardis was the great capital of the western part
of his dominions, and was situated not far from the frontier. He
accordingly assembled his forces, and, taking leave of his capital of
Susa with much parade and many ceremonies, he advanced toward Asia
Minor. Entering and traversing Asia Minor, he crossed the Halys, which
had been, in former times, the western boundary of the empire, though
its limits had now been extended very far beyond. Having crossed the
Halys, the immense procession advanced into Phrygia.
A very romantic tale is told of an interview between Xerxes and a
certain nobleman named Pythius, who resided in one of the Phrygian
towns. The circumstances were these: After crossing the Halys, which
river flows north into the Euxine Sea, the army went on to the westward
through nearly the whole extent of Phrygia, until at length they came to
the sources of the streams which flowed west into the AEgean Sea. One of
the most remarkable of these rivers was the Meander. There was a town
built exactly at the source of the Meander--so exactly, in fact, that
the fountain from which the stream took its rise was situated in the
public square of the town, walled in and ornamented like an artificial
fountain in a modern city. The name of this town was Celaenae.
When the army reached Celaenae and encamped there, Pythius made a great
entertainment for the officers, which, as the number was very large, was
of course attended with an enormous expense. Not satisfied with this,
Pythius sent word to the king that if he was, in any respect, in want of
funds for his approaching campaign, he, Pythius, would take great
pleasure in supplying him.
Xerxes was surprised at such proofs of wealth and munificence from a
man in comparatively a private station. He inquired of his attendants
who Pythius was. They replied that, next to Xerxes himself, he was the
richest man in the world. They said, moreover, that he was as generous
as he was rich. He had made Darius a present of a beautiful model of a
fruit-tree and of a vine, of solid gold. He was by birth, they added, a
Lydian.
Lydia was west of Phrygia, and was famous for its wealth. The River
Pactolus, which was so celebrated for its golden sands, flowed through
the country, and as the princes and nobles contrived to monopolize the
treasures which were found, both in the river itself and in the
mountains from which it flowed, some of them became immensely wealthy.
Xerxes was astonished at the accounts which he heard of Pythius's
fortune. He sent for him, and asked him what was the amount of his
treasures. This was rather an ominous question; for, under such despotic
governments as those of the Persian kings, the only real safeguard of
wealth was, often, the concealment of it. Inquiry on the part of a
government, in respect to treasures accumulated by a subject, was,
often, only a preliminary to the seizure and confiscation of them.
Pythius, however, in reply to the king's question, said that he had no
hesitation in giving his majesty full information in respect to his
fortune. He had been making, he said, a careful calculation of the
amount of it, with a view of determining how much he could offer to
contribute in aid of the Persian campaign. He found, he said, that he
had two thousand talents of silver, and four millions, wanting seven
thousand, of _staters_ of gold.
The stater was a Persian coin. Even if we knew, at the present day, its
exact value, we could not determine the precise amount denoted by the
sum which Pythius named, the value of money being subject to such vast
fluctuations in different ages of the world. Scholars who have taken an
interest in inquiring into such points as these, have come to the
conclusion that the amount of gold and silver coin which Pythius thus
reported to Xerxes was equal to about thirty millions of dollars.
Pythius added, after stating the amount of the gold and silver which he
had at command, that it was all at the service of the king for the
purpose of carrying on the war. He had, he said, besides his money,
slaves and farms enough for his own maintenance.
Xerxes was extremely gratified at this generosity, and at the proof
which it afforded of the interest which Pythius felt in the cause of the
king. "You are the only man," said he, "who has offered hospitality to
me or to my army since I set out upon this march, and, in addition to
your hospitality, you tender me your whole fortune. I will not, however,
deprive you of your treasure. I will, on the contrary, order my
treasurer to pay to you the seven thousand staters necessary to make
your four millions complete. I offer you also my friendship, and will do
any thing in my power, now and hereafter, to serve you. Continue to live
in the enjoyment of your fortune. If you always act under the influence
of the noble and generous impulses which govern you now, you will never
cease to be prosperous and happy."
If we could end the account of Pythius and Xerxes here, what generous
and noble-minded men we might suppose them to be! But alas! how large a
portion of the apparent generosity and nobleness which shows itself
among potentates and kings, turns into selfishness and hypocrisy when
closely examined. Pythius was one of the most merciless tyrants that
ever lived. He held all the people that lived upon his vast estates in
a condition of abject slavery, compelling them to toil continually in
his mines, in destitution and wretchedness, in order to add more and
more to his treasures. The people came to his wife with their bitter
complaints. She pitied them, but could not relieve them. One day, it is
said that, in order to show her husband the vanity and folly of living
only to amass silver and gold, and to convince him how little real power
such treasures have to satisfy the wants of the human soul, she made him
a great entertainment, in which there was a boundless profusion of
wealth in the way of vessels and furniture of silver and gold, but
scarcely any food. There was every thing to satisfy the eye with the
sight of magnificence, but nothing to satisfy hunger. The noble guest
sat starving in the midst of a scene of unexampled riches and splendor,
because it was not possible to _eat_ silver and gold.
And as for Xerxes's professions of gratitude and friendship for Pythius,
they were put to the test, a short time after the transactions which we
have above described, in a remarkable manner. Pythius had five sons.
They were all in Xerxes's army. By their departure on the distant and
dangerous expedition on which Xerxes was to lead them, their father
would be left alone. Pythius, under these circumstances, resolved to
venture so far on the sincerity of his sovereign's professions of regard
as to request permission to retain one of his sons at home with his
father, on condition of freely giving up the rest.
Xerxes, on hearing this proposal, was greatly enraged. "How dare you,"
said he, "come to me with such a demand? You and all that pertain to you
are my slaves, and are bound to do my bidding without a murmur. You
deserve the severest punishment for such an insolent request. In
consideration, however, of your past good behavior, I will not inflict
upon you what you deserve. I will only kill one of your sons--the one
that you seem to cling to so fondly. I will spare the rest." So saying,
the enraged king ordered the son whom Pythius had endeavored to retain
to be slain before his eyes, and then directed that the dead body should
be split in two, and the two halves thrown, the one on the right side of
the road and the other on the left, that his army, as he said, might
"march between them."
On leaving Phrygia, the army moved on toward the west. Their immediate
destination as has already been said, was Sardis, where they were to
remain until the ensuing spring. The historian mentions a number of
objects of interest which attracted the attention of Xerxes and his
officers on this march, which mark the geographical peculiarities of the
country, or illustrate, in some degree, the ideas and manners of the
times.
There was one town, for example, situated, not like Celaenae, where a
river had its origin, but where one disappeared. The stream was a branch
of the Meander. It came down from the mountains like any other mountain
torrent, and then, at the town in question, it plunged suddenly down
into a gulf or chasm and disappeared. It rose again at a considerable
distance below, and thence flowed on, without any further evasions, to
the Meander.
On the confines between Phrygia and Lydia the army came to a place where
the road divided. One branch turned toward the north, and led to Lydia;
the other inclined to the south, and conducted to Caria. Here, too, on
the frontier, was a monument which had been erected by Croesus, the
great king of Lydia, who lived in Cyrus's day, to mark the eastern
boundaries of his kingdom. The Persians were, of course, much
interested in looking upon this ancient landmark, which designated not
only the eastern limit of Croesus's empire, but also what was, in
ancient times, the western limit of their own.
There was a certain species of tree which grew in these countries called
the plane-tree. Xerxes found one of these trees so large and beautiful
that it attracted his special admiration. He took possession of it in
his own name, and adorned it with golden chains, and set a guard over
it. This idolization of a tree was a striking instance of the childish
caprice and folly by which the actions of the ancient despots were so
often governed.
As the army advanced, they came to other places of interest and objects
of curiosity and wonder. There was a district where the people made a
sort of artificial honey from grain, and a lake from which the
inhabitants procured salt by evaporation, and mines, too, of silver and
of gold. These objects interested and amused the minds of the Persians
as they moved along, without, however, at all retarding or interrupting
their progress. In due time they reached the great city of Sardis in
safety, and here Xerxes established his head-quarters, and awaited the
coming of spring.
In the mean time, however, he sent heralds into Greece to summon the
country to surrender to him. This is a common formality when an army is
about to attack either a town, a castle, or a kingdom. Xerxes's heralds
crossed the AEgean Sea, and made their demands, in Xerxes's name, upon
the Greek authorities. As might have been expected, the embassage was
fruitless; and the heralds returned, bringing with them, from the
Greeks, not acts or proffers of submission, but stern expressions of
hostility and defiance. Nothing, of course, now remained, but that both
parties should prepare for the impending crisis.