would ever be attempted; and that if his predecessors had observed so scrupulous and timorous a rule of policy, the Persian empire would never have attained its present height of greatness and glory.

Artabanes gave the king another piece of very prudent advice, which he thought fit to follow no more than he had done the former. This advice was, not to employ the Ionians in his service against the Grecians, from whom they were orignally descended, and on which account he ought to suspect their fidelity. Xerxes, however, after these conversations with his uncle, treated him with great friendship, paid him the highest marks of honour and respect, sent him back to Susa to take the care and administration of the empire upon him during his own absence, and to that end vested him with his whole authority.

Xerxes, at a vast expense, had caused a bridge of boats to be built upon the sea, for the passage of his forces from Asia into Europe. The space that separ ates the two continents, formerly called the Hellespont, and now called the straits of the Dardanelles, or of Gallipoli, is seven stadias in breadth, which is near an English mile. A violent storm rising on a sudden, soon after broke down the bridge. Xerxes hearing this news on his arrival, fell into a transport of passion; and in order to avenge himself of so cruel an affront, commanded two pair of chains to be thrown into the sea, as if he meant to shackle and confine it, and that his men should give it three hundred strokes of a whip, and speak to it in this manner: "Thou troublesome and unhappy element, thus does thy master

✔ Herod. l. vii. c. 33-36.

chastise thee for having affronted him without reason. Know, that Xerxes will easily find means to pass over thy waters in spite of all thy billows and resistance.” The extravagance of this prince did not stop here : but making the undertakers of the work answerable for events, which do not in the least depend upon the power of man, he ordered all the persons to have their heads struck off, that had been charged with the direction and management of that undertaking.

Xerxes commanded two other bridges to be built, one for the army to pass over, and the other for the baggage and beasts of burden. He appointed workmen more able and expert than the former, who went about it in this manner: they placed they placed three hundred and sixty vessels across, some of them having three banks of oars, and others fifty oars a piece, with their sides turned towards the Euxine sea; and on the side that faced the Egean sea, they put three hundred and fourteen. They then cast large anchors into the water on both sides, in order to fix and secure all these vessels against the violence of the winds, and against the current 1 of the water. On the east side they left three passages or vacant spaces between the vessels, that there might be room for small boats to go and come easily, as there was occasion, to and from the Euxine sea. After this, upon the land on both sides, they drove large piles into the earth, with huge rings fastened to them, to which were tied six vast cables, which went over each of the two bridges; two of which cables were made of hemp, and four of a sort of reeds call

h Herod. 1. vii. c. 33-36.

Polybius remarks, that there is a current of water from the lake Mæotis and the Euxine sea into the Egean sea, occasioned by the rivers which empty themselves into those two seas. Pol. 1. iv. p. 307, 308.

ed biblos, which were made use of in those times for the making of cordage. Those that were made of hemp must have been of an extraordinary strength and thickness, since every cubit of those cables weighed a talent. The cables laid over the whole extent of the vessels lengthways, reached from one side to the other of the sea. When this part of the work was finished, quite over the vessels lengthways, and over the cables we have been speaking of, they laid the trunks of trees, cut purposely for that use, and flat boats again over them, fastened and joined together, to serve as a kind of floor or solid bottom: all which they covered over with earth, and added rails or battlements on each side, that the horses and cattle might not be frightened with seeing the sea in their passage. This was the form of those famous bridges built by Xerxes.

When the whole work was completed, a day was appointed for their passing over; and as soon as the first rays of the sun began to appear, sweet odours of all kinds were abundantly spread over both the bridges, and the way was strewed with myrtle. At the same time, Xerxes poured out libations into the sea, and turning his face towards the sun, the principal object of the Persian worship, he implored the assistance of that god in the enterprise he had undertaken, and desired the continuance of his protection till he had made the entire conquest of Europe, and had brought it into subjection to his power. This done, he threw the vessel, which he used in making his

1A talent in weight consisted of 80 minæ, that is to say, of 42 pounds of our weight; and the minæ consisted of 100 drachms.

libations, together with a golden cup, and a Persian scymitar, into the sea. The army was seven days and seven nights in passing over these straits; those who were appointed to conduct the march, lashing the poor soldiers all the while with whips, in order to quicken their speed, according to the custom of that nation, which, properly speaking, was only an huge assemblage of slaves.

SECTION III.

THE NUMBER OF XERXES'S FORCES, &c. &c.

XERXES," directing his march across the Thracian Chersonesus, arrived at Dor, a city standing at the mouth of the Hebrus in Thrace, where, having encamped his army, and given orders for his fleet to follow him along the shore, he reviewed them both.

He found the land army, which he had brought out of Asia, consisted of one million seven hundred thousand foot, and of eighty thousand horse, which, with twenty thousand men that were absolutely necessary at least for conducting and taking care of the carriages and camels, made in all one million eight hundred thousand men. When he had passed the Hellespont, the other nations that submitted to him, made an addition to his army of three hundred thousand men, which made all his land forces together amount to two millions one hundred thousand men.

His fleet, as it was when it set out from Asia, consisted of one thousand two hundred and seven vessels, or galleys, all of three banks of oars, and intended for

Herod. 1. vii. c. 56-99, et 184-187.

fighting. Each vessel carried two hundred men, natives of the country that fitted them out, besides thirty more, that were either Persians or Medes, or of the Sacæ, which made in all two hundred and seventy seven thousand six hundred and ten men. The European nations augmented his fleet with one hundred and twenty vessels, each of which carried two hundred men, in all twenty four thousand; these added to the other, amount together to three hundred and one thousand six hundred and ten men.

Besides this fleet, which consisted all of large vessels, the small galleys of thirty five oars, the transport ships, the vessels that carried the provisions, and that were employed in other uses, amounted to three thousand. If we reckon but eighty men in each of these vessels, one with another, that made in the whole two hundred and forty thousand men.

Thus, when Xerxes arrived at Thermopyla, his land and sea forces together made up the number of two millions six hundred and forty one thousand six hundred and ten men, without including servants, eunuchs, women, sutlers, and other people of that sort, who usually follow an army, and of which the number at this time was equal to that of the forces; so that the whole number of souls that followed Xerxes in this expedition, amounted to five millions two hundred and eighty three thousand two hundred and twenty. This is the computation which Herodotus makes of them, and in which Plutarch and Isocrates agree with him. "Diodorus Siculos, Pliny, Elian, and others, fall very short of this number in their calculation; but their accounts of the matter appear to be less authentic than

» Died. l. xi. p. 3. Plin. I. xxxiii. c. 10. Elian. L xiii. c. 3.