XERXES ORDERS THE HELLESPONT TO BE SCOURGED
In the autumn of 481 B.C. Xerxes led his vast hosts to Sardis. His
warriors were of many different races, and each was clad in the dress
of the country from which he came. Each, too, was armed with his
own weapon, and each talked his own language. So you can picture to
yourself with what a strange army Xerxes set out to conquer Greece.
From Sardis he sent heralds, with an interpreter, into Greece, to
demand from the people earth and water, the signs of their subjection
to the great king of Persia.
Themistocles was so angry with the interpreter, who was a barbarian,
for daring to utter the demands of Xerxes in the Greek language, that
he ordered him to be put to death.
Another messenger was then sent by Xerxes, and he brought with him gold
to bribe the Athenians to join the Persians. Him also Themistocles
punished.
Now that danger was near, the Athenians recalled Aristides from exile.
They were afraid lest he should join the Persians, for they knew that
if he did so, many of his friends would go over to the enemy with him.
But it was a needless fear, and the citizens might well have trusted
the exile not to betray his country. Even before he knew that his
banishment was over, Aristides had begun to stir up the Greeks that
were with him to fight against the Persians.
Themistocles, too, was using all his influence to persuade the
different States to lay aside the quarrels they had with one another
and to fight together against the force that was coming to invade their
land.
Meanwhile Xerxes, to avoid sailing across the Hellespont with his vast
army, ordered a bridge to be built across it. But soon after the bridge
was finished, a violent storm dashed it into fragments.
When Xerxes heard of the disaster, his cruel and childish temper
was roused. He ordered the engineers who had planned the bridge to
be beheaded, and that was a cruel act. He also commanded that the
Hellespont should be scourged with three hundred stripes and that a
pair of fetters should be cast into the sea, and these were foolish
acts. ‘He sent branders, too, as some say, to brand the Hellespont; and
he charged them to rebuke the water and cry unto it, “O bitter water,
thus doth the king punish thee, because without wrong from him thou
hast done him harm.”’
Before long a new bridge was built, with hedges planted on either side,
so that the horses as they passed across might not be frightened by
seeing the water.
First of the great host came a thousand gallant Persian troops,
followed by a thousand spearmen. The points of their lances were
turned downward; on the handles, which were held aloft, shone golden
pomegranates.
Ten sacred horses, with splendid trappings, stepped behind the
spearmen, while after the horses came a chariot, dedicated to Zeus, and
drawn by eight white horses. No driver was allowed to mount the sacred
chariot, he might only walk behind, holding the reins in his hands.
Xerxes himself was in another chariot, surrounded by a thousand guards,
bearing spears, upon which glistened apples of gold. Ten thousand of
the king’s own bodyguard were named the Immortals, for, if one of their
number was slain or if one died, his place was at once filled, so that
the number of the Immortals might never become less.
As I told you, the Persian army was made up of many different tribes.
‘Æthiopians from beyond Egypt were there, clad in leopard skins, and
carrying bows made of the central rib of the palm leaf, while their
arrows were reeds tipped with sharp fragments of stone. They carried as
well spears, pointed with gazelles’ horns or knotted clubs. Half their
body they painted white and half red before going into battle.’ Some
had no arms but only a lasso and a long knife; others bore staves that
had had their points hardened in the fire.
From Caucasus came wild tribes that had no armour to protect their
bodies, and only wooden hats to guard their heads.
Xerxes’s army was indeed vast, but with so many half-clad and but
poorly armed barbarians in his ranks, he would, had he been wise, have
feared to face the small but well-armed and well-trained forces of the
Greeks.
On the shore of the Hellespont a throne of white stone or marble was
placed, and here Xerxes took his seat to watch his army cross the
bridge which led from Asia into Europe.
But before the vast host began to move ‘Xerxes poured wine from a
golden cup into the sea and prayed to the Sun that no harm might happen
to him, which might prevent him from conquering all Europe. Then he
threw the cup into the Hellespont with a golden goblet and a Persian
dagger.’
It is said that the king called himself a happy man as he watched the
countless numbers of his troops crossing the bridge. But soon after
Artabanus was amazed to see him burst into tears.
‘O king,’ he said, ‘thou doest strange things; even now thou didst call
thyself happy and yet thou weepest.’
‘Thought came upon me and sorrow for the shortness of the life of man,’
answered Xerxes, ‘because after a hundred years, of all this great host
not one shall remain alive.’
When the army had crossed the bridge, it marched on toward the plain of
Thessaly, while the fleet, sailing round the south-east point of the
same country, anchored near the promontory of Magnesia. Here it was as
near to the army as it was possible for it to be. Not long after the
fleet had anchored, a sudden storm arose, and for three days did much
damage to the ships.
The Greeks meanwhile had been preparing to fight the invaders. They had
sent spies to Sardis to find out, not only the numbers of the Persian
host, but its mettle.
As it chanced, the spies were captured and were on the point of being
put to death, when Xerxes ordered them to be brought before him.
When they stood in his presence, he demanded why they had ventured into
the camp of the enemy. On hearing the reason he bade an officer show
them the strength of his army and then send them back unharmed to their
own country, ‘For,’ said the king, ‘if the spies had been killed, the
Greeks could not have heard beforehand of all my great might, yet it
would do them but little hurt to slay three men. But now will I have no
trouble by marching against them, when the spies have already told of
my mighty army.’
So confident was the king that he would conquer the enemy without
difficulty, that when vessels filled with corn sailed past his fleet on
the way to Athens, he would not allow any of his ships to pursue them.
‘Whither are they sailing?’ asked Xerxes when the corn ships were
pointed out to him.
‘To thy enemies, O king, laden with corn,’ answered his anxious
councillors.
‘Why, we are going thither also,’ said the king. ‘What harm do they do
by taking corn for me?’
Now that the Persians were actually at hand the Spartans and Athenians
summoned the Greek states to a council of war to be held at the
Isthmus of Corinth. But some of the states were afraid, and instead of
attending the council they sent earth and water to Xerxes.
Thessaly, in the north, would be the first to suffer from the invading
army. So a Greek force was sent to the Pass of Tempe, between Mount
Olympus and Mount Ossa, to try to stop the advance of the Persians.
But there were other ways by which the enemy could slip past the
Greeks, so after a time they determined to withdraw from Thessaly. The
northern people, being thus left defenceless, hastened to submit to
Xerxes while there was still time.