03 - Xerxes, Makers of History by Jacob Abbott

Dive into the fascinating history of Xerxes, the formidable ruler of the Persian Empire, as he leads his forces in the dramatic invasion of Greece. Join Deon Gines as he unravels the intricate tapestry of power, conflict, and legacy during this pivotal era.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three of Xerxes by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain recording by dion jians Cet
Lake City, Utah Debate on the proposed invasion of Greece b. C.
Four eighty one. The two great counselors on whose judgment

(00:23):
Xerxes mainly relied so far as he looked to any
other judgment than his own, in the formation of his plans,
were Ardebanis, 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,

(00:48):
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

(01:12):
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 it, except as heroes in war. Many men have, indeed,

(01:35):
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

(01:59):
the world 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

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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

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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

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or their manufactures, feed and clothe their fellow men by millions,
or by opening new channels or new means for international intercourse.
Civilized savages and people deserts, while the glory of killing
and destroying is less and less regarded, and more and

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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

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happier this 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. Ardebanis, on the other hand, the uncle
of Xerxes, was a man advanced in years and of

(04:20):
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

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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 Athenian already, it is true. In
the first, the Athenians had aided their countrymen in Asia

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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 Dadis, one of Darius's generals,
had undertaken a grand invasion of Greece, and, after landing

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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

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the invasion under Dadis had taken place not many years
before the accession of Xerxes. A great number of the
officers who had served in that campaign were still remaining
in the court an army of Xerxes at Susa. These
wars had, however, both been terminated, and Ardebanis was very

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little inclined to have the contests renewed. Serxes, 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.

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The historian who narrated these proceedings recorded the debate that
ensued in the following manner. Serxes himself first addressed the
assembly to announce and explain his designs. The enterprise, my friends,
said he, in which I preparese now to engage, and

(07:02):
in which I am about to ask your cooperation, is
no new scheme of my own devising. What I designed
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,

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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

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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

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the trouble of subduing. These vast conquests have been made
by the courage, the energy, and the military power of Cyrus, Darius,
and Canvases, my renowned predecessors. They, on their part, have
subdued Asia and Africa. Europe remains. It devolves on me

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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
cannot hesitate to undertake it without a manifest dereliction of duty.

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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

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at last captured and burned the city of Stardus, the
principal capital of our western Empire. I will never rest
until I have had my revenge by burning Athens. Many
of you two who are here present, remember the fate
of the expedition under dadis. Those of you who were

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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. A plan for gaining
access to the Grecian territories is not, as before, to

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convey the troops by a fleet of galleys over the Aegeanc,
but to build a bridge across the Heal's Pont 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 Heal's Pont

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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 cannot but conquer,
And in as much as beyond the Greek territories there is,
as I am informed, no other power at all able

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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 cooperation
in these plans, and that each one of you will

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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

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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,

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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 councilors to speak, and earnestly seconded
the monarch's proposals in the following words. For my part, sire,

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I cannot refrain from expressing my high admiration of the
lofty spirit and purpose on your part which leads you
to propose to us and enterprise so worthy of your
illustrious station and exalted personal renown. Your position and power

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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

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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

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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

(13:58):
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 cannot
stand against our arms. I have encountered them many times

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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.

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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

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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

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convinced that once across the hellspont 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

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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

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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.

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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

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notwithstanding the invitation which he had given them to speak,
they remained silent, not knowing, in fact exactly what to say.
All this time, ardebanis, the venerable uncle of Xerxes, sat
silent like the rest, hesitating whether his years, his rank,

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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,

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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

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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

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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,

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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 plant which you propose seems to me to be

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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 Daddis and all his forces, vast as

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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 hillspont so as
to take your troops round through the northern parts of
Europe into Greece. And you will also at the same

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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

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should enter the Hell's Pond 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

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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, the sovereign of

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the Empire at their head were placed in a position
where they're 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 this same

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fortunate escape? Even the very vastness of your force may
be the means of ensuring 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

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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 contentemptuously of them as soldiers. In
every respect. I do not think that such imputations are

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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

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very different military qualities from those which Mardonius has assigned them.
They are represented by common fame as sagacious, hearty, efficient,
and brave, and it may prove that these representations are true.
My counsel, therefore, is that you dismiss this assembly and

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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

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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 entrust to him to be devoured
by dogs on the planes of Athens or lacedaemon. Xerxes

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was exceedingly displeased at hearing such a speech as this
from his uncle, and he made a very angry reply.
He accused Ardebonus 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.

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Were it not, he said, for the respect which he
felt for Ardebanis 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

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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,

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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.

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So saying, Xerxes dismissed the assembly. His mind, however, was
not at ease though he had so indignantly rejected the
council which Ardebonis 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

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oppressed and dejected him. The longer he considered the subject,
the more serious his doubts and fears became, until at length,
as the knight approached, he became convinced that Ardebanus was
right and that he himself was wrong. His mind found
no rest until he came to the determination to abandon

(25:57):
the project after all. He resolved to make this change
in his resolution known to Ardebanis 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

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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

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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

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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

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produced by Ardebanus'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

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again and told them that, on more mature reflection, he
had been 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

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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

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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

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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 Ardebonus and related

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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 cannot but
think are intimations from Heaven that I ought to proceed.
Ardebanus attempted to combat this idea by presenting to Xerxes

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that dreams were not to be regarded as indications of
the will of heaven, but only as a vague and
disordered rep production 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

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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, Ardebanis should

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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,

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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. Ardebonus made some objection
at first to the details of the arrangement which Xerxes proposed,

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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 Ardebonus yielded. He assumed for

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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.

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At midnight, Xerxes, who was lying in an adjoining apartment,
was suddenly aroused by a loud and piercing cry from
the room where Ardebanis was sleeping, and in a moment afterward,
Ardebanus himself rushed in perfectly wild with terror. He had
seen the vision. It had appeared before him with a

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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 Ardebanus had barely succeeded in escaping, by

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leaping from his couch and rushing precipitately out of the room.
Ardabanis said that he was now convey and satisfied. It
was plainly the divine will that Cerxes should undertake his
projected invasion, and he would himself thenceforth aid the enterprise

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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

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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

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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.

(34:18):
But it is essential that every educated man should know
this 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 faults from

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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

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particular story, we will add that some people think that
Mardonius was really the ghost by whose appearance Ardebonis and
Xerxes were so dreadfully frightened. End of Chapter three.