04 - 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 four of Xerxes by Jacob Abbot. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain. Recording by Dion John's set
Lake City, Utah Preparations for the Invasion of Greece b c.
Four eighty one. As soon as the invasion of Greece

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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,

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and stores of food to be provided. The expenditures two
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,

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and orders very full and very imperative were transmitted accordingly
to all the governors and sat traps 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

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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.

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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

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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 principle borrowed.
It is true that in these cases a stipulation is

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made by which the government may, at a certain specified
period pay back the principle 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 maid. The creditors, in fact, do not desire

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that it should be, as owners of property always prefer
a safe annual income from it to the custody of
the principle, 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

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in full. These inventions, however, by which a government in
one generation may enjoy the pleasure and reap the glory
of waging war and through the burden of the expense
on another, were not known in ancient times. Cerxes did
not understand the art of funding a national debt, and

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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 to sustain the immense army which he

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was to raise was all to be produced, and storehouses
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

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years were the time allotted for completing them. This period includes, however,
a considerable time before the Great Debate on this subject
described in the last chapter. The chief scene of activity
during all this time was the tract of country in

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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

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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

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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

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and straight sided, and smooth and flat upon their decks.
These were intended for the bridge across the hellspont 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

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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
Hell's Pont was to be the first great movement of
the Persian army. The reader must not suppose that even

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at this time the European shores were wholly in the
hands of the Greeks 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' hands. The Greek dominions lay further south, and

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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

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as should arise from the elements themselves and the physical
obstacles of the way. The hellspond 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.

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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

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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

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modern days it is called Mont 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

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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

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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

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its base below. To make this stormy promontory the more terrible.
It was believed to be the haunt of innumerable uncouth
and misshaped and monsters of the sea that lived by
devouring the helpless seamen who were thrown upon the rocks
from their wrecked vessels by the merciless tumult of the waves.

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The plan which Xerxes had formed for the advance of
his expedition was that the army which was to cross
the Hellspond 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

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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 supported more easily by sea.
Mardonius was somewhat solicitous in respect to the safety of

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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

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of Darius that this disaster occurred. On one of the
expeditions which Darius had entrusted 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

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this 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

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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

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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 gale drove the vessels

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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

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herself some ferocious monster feeding her offspring with their proper prey.
A few, it is true of the helpless wretches succeeded
in extricating themselves from the surf by crawling up upon
the rocks through the tangled seaweed until they were above
the reach of the surges. But when they had done so,

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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

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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 mainland by an isthmus, level and low and not

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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

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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

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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

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enough for two trirems to pass each other. Trirems 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 themsels, the canal was

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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 Streiman flowing south, not
far from the boundary between Macedon and Thrace into the

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Aegean Sea. The army of Xerxes, in its march from
the hellspont 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

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army by bridging the Strymon. The king also ordered a
great number of granaries and storehouses 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

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of the Streiman. 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

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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,

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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

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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

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the frontier. He accordingly assembled his forces, and, taking leave
of his capital of Suza, with much parade and many ceremonies,
he advanced toward Asia Minor. Entering and traversing Asia Minor,
he crossed the Hellas, which had been in former times

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the western boundary of the Empire, though its limits had
now been extended very far beyond. Having crossed the Hellas,
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.

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The circumstances were these. After crossing the Hellas, 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

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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

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fountain in a modern city. The name of this town
was Selenae. When the army reached Selene and encamped there,
Pitheus 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, Pithius sent word

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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

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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.

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He was by birth, they added, a Lydian. Lydia was
west of Phrygia, and was famous for its wealth. The
river Pectulus, which was so celebrated for its gold and sands,
flowed through the country, and as the princes and nobles
contrived to monopolize the treasures which were found both in

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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

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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

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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

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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

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denoted by the sum which pitheas 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 to
the conclusion that the amount of gold and silver coin

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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,

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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

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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. 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

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to make your four millions complete. I offer you also
my friendship, and will do anything 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,

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you will never cease to be prosperous and happy. If
we could end the account of Patheius 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

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kings turns into selfishness and hypocrisy when closely examined. Pytheus
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

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toil continually in his minds, 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

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vanity and folly of living only to a mass 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

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and furniture of silver and gold, but scarcely any food.
There was everything 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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so fondly. I will spare the rest. So saying, the
enraged king ordered the son whom Pitheus had endeavor 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

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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

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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 Selenae, where a river had

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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,

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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 Karia. Hereto on the

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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,

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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

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in his own name, and adorned it with golden chains,
and set a guard over it. This idealization 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

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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 minds too of
silver and of gold. These objects interested and amused the

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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 headquarters and awaited the coming of spring.
In the meantime, however, he sent heralds into Greece to

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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. Zirqu Seeses Heralds
crossed the Aegean Sea and made their demands in Zurbi
Sea's name upon the Greek authorities. As might have been expected,

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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

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impending crisis. End of Chapter four