PART I. him pleasure, in this maritime review, the commanders had put to sea, before Xerxes went on board his galley; and having drawn their ships into a line abreast, at a moderate distance from the land, with their heads pointing in that direction, they armed their men as for fight; so that the king, sailing between the fleet and the shore, saw the whole naval armament distinctly12 126 Xerxes having thus satisfied himself in regard to the number, and the state of his forces, called into his presence Demaratus, the degraded Spartan king, who accompanied him in his expedition, and asked, in a tone of exultation, " If he thought the Greeks "would venture to resist so formidable an arma"ment?"-Demaratus hesitated in his answer, until the Persian monarch desired him to declare the truth without reserve. "Hear then, great king!" said he, "the truth from my lips." "Greece, who had for her nurse Poverty, the guest of Virtue, was by them, in old times, taught wisdom, and inured to discipline; which have en"abled her to conquer Want, and expel Tyranny. "Hence all the Greeks," observed Demaratus, "are 66 brave, and bold in the cause of freedom. But "dauntless courage is more peculiar to those of Do"rian origin; and among the Dorian race, the Lace"dæmonians are eminently distinguished. Of this people, therefore," continued he, with pious pre"deliction," it will be sufficient to speak; as they "will never tamely suffer you to subject Greece to the "yoke of servitude, but intrepidly meet you in the "field, should all the other Greeks acknowledge your "sway. I need not mention their number; for if they "amount only to a thousand, or even consist of a still 126. Herodot. ubi sup. "smaller "smaller body of men they will not hesitate to give LETTER "battle to your immense army127. The Persian monarch affected to laugh at the folly of Demaratus, in supposing that a free people would voluntarily expose themselves to certain destruction. "The Lacedæmonians," replied the Spartan prince, (( are politically free, but the law is their master; "and that sovereign they honour with more implicit "obedience, than your subjects do the lord of Asia. "They cheerfully submit to whatever it enjoins: "and it rigorously commands them to stand firm "in battle, nor to fly from an enemy how superior "soever in force; but to keep their ranks, and to conquer or fall 28 Neither offended at the freedom, nor discouraged by the information of Demaratus, Xerxes ordered his troops to be put in motion, and throwing the Hebrus behind him, began his march from Doriscus to Acanthus 29; a sea-port town in Lower Macedonia, toward which the fleet was directed to sail. In the prosecution of this march, the Persian army, by the advice of the king, was divided into three great bodies; which, according to their instructions, took different routes. One division, under Mardonius and Masistes, proceeded along the sea-coast, and in a manner kept company with the fleet; another, under Trintatachines and Gergis, advanced by the upper countries; and the third, commanded by Xerxes in person, attended by Smerdomenes and Megabyzus, held a midland route between the other two bodies. 127. Id. Historiar. lib. vii. cap. cii. 128. Herodotus, lib. vii. cap. ciii. civ. 129. Id. Historiar. lib. vii. cap. cviii. 130. Herodot. lib. vii. cap. cxxi. XII. When PART I. When Xerxes had reached Acanthus, where, and in the neighbouring towns, he and his officers were sumptuously entertained, at the expense of the inhabitants, he called a council of his naval commanders, and instructed them to pass through the canal of mount Athos; and, holding their course westward, to assemble the fleet in the gulf of Therma, now called Gulfo di Salonichi; while he marched with his land forces to the city of Therma, afterward known by the name of Thessalonica, toward the bottom of that gulf13. At Therma both the fleet and army arrived safe. And there Xerxes halted, and encamped his troops along the whole sweep of the Macedonian shore, from Therma and the territory of Mygdonia, to the river Haliacmon, on the frontiers of Thessaly132. The Persian monarch, who had attentively examined in his march, every curious work of nature or art, as well as the manners of several nations he had seen, having from Therma a prospect of the lofty and celebrated Thessalian mountains, Olympus, Ossa, Pelion, and Pindus, was desirous to view the mouth of the river Peneus, and the famous valley of Tempe, between Ossa and Olympus, through which the Peneus enters the sea'33. He accordingly left his camp, and went on board a Sidonian galley, which he always used on such occasions. And having gratified his curiosity, and expressed his surprise at the singular boldness of the channel of that river considered by the Greeks as the work of Neptune134: (or, in other words, as the effect of an earthquake; and which, if shut up by a dyke, as the king sagaciously remarked, would lay all Thessaly, except the tops of the mountains, under water); he 131. Id. ibid. et seq. 132. Herodot. lib. vii. cap. cxxxvii. 133. Id. Historiar. lib. vii. cap. cxxviii. returned XII. returned by sea to Therma135. Thence Xerxes went LETTER to Piera, where he spent some days; part of his troops being employed in opening a passage for the whole army through Upper Macedonia, which had been recommended to him as the safest route into Greece136 Meantime the Persian heralds, who had been sent to the Grecian states, returned to the royal pavilion, with an account of their success137. The people of several of those states, made the required submission,by the delivery of earth and water. Among these were included (as I have already had occasion to remark) the Thessalians, the Locrains, and the Thebans, with all the other Baotians, except the Thespians and Platæans138. For the honour of the Thessalians, however, it must be observed, that they did not offer to make their peace with the Persian monarch, until the defence of their country was abandoned by the Grecian confederacy13. This reflection naturally leads us to take a view of the interior state of Greece, when the Persian forces approached its frontiers; and also to consider the measures taken by the confederated Greeks, for their common defence, from the time that Xerxes left Susa, and began his march toward Sardis. On the first intimation of the danger, with which Greece was threatened, the Amphictyonic council, as we have seen, assembled at the Corinthian isthmus; instead of Thermopyla or Delphos, its usual places of meeting. And there it was resolved, that all hostilities between the citizens of the Grecian states 135. Id. Historiar. lib. vii. cap. xxx. 136. Herodot. lib. vii. cap. xxxi. 137. Id. ibid. should PART I. should cease, and vigorous exertions be made for opposing the barbarian enemy; that spies should be sent to Sardis, to view the strength of the Persian army; while envoys were dispatched to the Grecian colony of Syracuse, already formidable both by sea and land, and to the islands of Crete and Corcyra, requesting assistance; and representing, that as they all bore the name of Greeks, they all ought to embrace one common cause with the confederates, and act as if the dangers hanging over Greece were common to all the Grecian people 40. Messengers were, at the same time, dispatched to Argos (which seems, on this occasion, to have sent no delegate to the diet of Greece); soliciting that ancient state to take part in the general war141. Before the return of those envoys, and when the issue of their negociation was unknown, the Thessalians, having received information that Xerxes was preparing to pass the Hellespont, deputed an embassy to the Amphictyonic council, still assembled at the Corinthian isthmus; in order to represent, that as their country lay on the Grecian frontier, they would be under the necessity of providing for their own safety, by submitting to the Persian monarch, unless an army was sent by the confederates, to enable them to defend the entrance into Greece'42. In consequence of this remonstrance, a detachment of Athenian and Lacedæmonian infantry was embarked for the support of the Thessalians; under the conduct of the renowned Themistocles, and Evenetus, a Spartan general 43. These commanders sailed through the Euripus, or strait between the 140. Herodotus, lib. vii. cap. cxlv. 141. Id. ibid. 142. Herodǝt. lib. vii. cap. clxxii 143. Id. Historiar. lib. vii. cap. clxxiii. |