08 - 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 eight of Xerxes by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain recording by Dion Jane's set
Lake City, Utah The advance of Xerxes into Greece BC.
Four eighty from Therma, the last of the great stations

(00:23):
at which the Persian army halted before its final descent
upon Greece, the army commenced its march and the fleet
set sail nearly at the same time, which was early
in the summer. The army advanced slowly, meeting with the
usual difficulties and delays, but without encountering any special or

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extraordinary occurrences, until after having passed through Macedon into Thessaly,
and through Thessaly to the northern frontier of focus, they
began to approach the straits of Thermopylai. What took place
at Thermopylae will be made the subject of the next chapter.

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The movements of the fleet are to be narrated in
this In order distinctly to understand these movements, it is
necessary that the reader should first have a clear conception
of the geographical conformation of the coasts and seas along
which the path of the expedition lay. By referring to

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the map of Greece, we shall see that the course
which the fleet would naturally take from Therma to the
southeastward along the coast was unobstructed and clear for about
one hundred miles. We then come to a group of
four islands extending in a range at right angles to

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the coast. The only one of these islands with which
we have particularly to do in this history is the
innermost of them, which was named Sciathus. Opposite to these islands,
the line of the coast, having passed around the point
of a mountainous and rocky promontory called Magnesia, turns suddenly

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to the westward and runs in that direction for about
thirty miles, when it again turns to the southward and
eastward as before. In the sort of corner thus cut
off by the deflection of the coast lies the long
island of Euboah, which may be considered in fact as

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almost a continuation of the continent, as it is a
part of the same conformation of country, and is separated
from the main land only by submerged valleys on the
north and on the east. Into these sunk valleys, the
sea of course flows forming straits or channels. The one

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on the north was in ancient times called Artemisium, and
the one on the west at its narrowest point, Europus.
All these islands and coasts were high and picturesque. They
were also, in the days of Xerxes, densely populated and
adorned profusely with temples, citadels, and towns. On passing the

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southernmost extremity of the island of Euboah, and turning to
the westward, we come to a promontory of the main land,
which constituted Attica and in the middle of which the
city of Athens was situated. Beyond this is a capacious
gulf called the Seronian Gulf. It lies between Attica and

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the Peloponnesus. In the middle of the Seronian Gulf lies
the island of Aegina, and in the northern part of
it the island of Solamis. The progress of the Persian
fleet was from Therma down the coast to Sithus, thence
along the shores of Euboah to its southern point, and

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so round into the Serhonian Gulf to the island of Solamus.
The distance of this voyage was perhaps two hundred and
fifty miles. In accomplishing it, the fleet encountered many dangers
and met with a variety of incidents and events, which
we shall now proceed to describe. The country, of course,

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was everywhere in a state of the greatest excitement and terror.
The immense army was slowly coming down by land, and
the fleet, scarcely less terrible, since its descents upon the
coast would be so fearfully sudden and overwhelming when they
were made, was advancing by sea. The inhabitants of the

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country were consequently in a state of extreme agitation. The
sick and the infirm, who were of course utterly helpless
in such a danger, exhibited everywhere the spectacle of silent dismay. Mothers, wives, maidens,
and children, on the other hand, were wild with excitement

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and terror. The men, too full of passion to fear,
or too full of pride to allow their fears to
be seen, were gathering in arms, or hurrying to and
fro with intelligence, or making hasty arrangements to remove their
wives and children from the scenes of cruel suffering which

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were to ensue. They stationed watchmen on the hills to
give warning of the approach of the enemy. They agreed
upon signals and raised piles of wood for beacon fires
on every commanding elevation along the coast, while all the
roads leading from the threatened provinces to other regions more

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remote from the danger were covered with flying parties, endeavoring
to make their escape, and carrying wearily and in sorrow
whatever they valued most and were most anxious to save.
Mothers bore their children, men their gold and silver, and
sisters aided their sick or feeble brothers to sustain the

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toil and terror of the flight. All this time, Xerxes
was sitting in his war chariot in the midst of
his advancing army, full of exultation, happiness, and pride at
the thoughts of the vast harvest of glory which all
this panic and suffering were bringing him in. The fleet

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at length, which was under the command of xerxes brothers
and cousins, whom he had appointed the admirals of it,
began to move down the coast from Therma, with the
intention of first sweeping the seas clear of any naval
force which the Greeks might have sent forward there to

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act against them, and then of landing upon some point
on the coast, wherever they could do so most advantageously
for cooperation with the army on the land. The advance
of the ships was necessarily slow, so immense a flotilla
could not have been otherwise kept together. The admirals, however,

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selected ten of the swiftest of the galleys, and, after
manning and arming them in the most perfect manner, sent
them forward to reconnoiter. The ten galleys were ordered to
advance rapidly, but with the greatest circumspection. They were not
to incur any needless danger. But if they met with

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any detached ships of the enemy, they were to capture
them if possible. They were moreover to be constantly on
the alert, to observe everything, and to send back to
the fleet all important intelligence which they could obtain. The
ten galleys went on without observing anything remarkable until they

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reached the island of Xiathus. Here they came in sight
of three Greek ships, a sort of advanced guard, which
had been stationed there to watch the movements of the enemy.
The Greek galleys immediately hoisted their anchors and fled The
Persian galleys manned their oars and pressed on after them.

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They overtook one of the guard ships very soon, and
after a short conflict, they succeeded in capturing it. The
Persians made prisoners of the officers and crew, and then,
selecting from among them the fairest and most noble looking man,
just as they would have selected a bullock from a herd,

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they sacrificed him to one of their deities on the
prow of the captured ship. This was a religious ceremony
intended to signalize and sanctify their victory. The second vessel
they also overtook and captured. The crew of this ship
were easily subdued, as the overwhelming superiority of their enemies

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appeared to convince them that all resistance was hopeless and
to plunge them into despair. There was one man, however,
who it seems, could not be conquered. He fought like
a tiger to the last, and only ceased to deal
his furious thrusts and blows at the enemies that surrounded

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him when, after being entirely covered with wounds, he fell
faint and nearly lifeless upon the bloody deck. When the
conflict with him was thus ended. The murderous hostility of
his enemies seemed suddenly to be changed into pity for
his sufferings and admiration of his velor. They gathered around him,

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bathed and bound up his wounds, gave him cordials, and
at length restored him to life. Finally, when the detachment
returned to the fleet some days afterward, they carried this
man with them and presented him to their commanders as
a hero worthy of the highest admiration and honor. The

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rest of the crew were made slaves. The third of
the Greek guardships contrived to escape, or rather the crew escaped,
while the vessel itself was taken. This ship, in its flight,
had gone toward the north, and the crew at last
succeeded in running it on shore on the coast of Thessaly,

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so as to escape themselves by abandoning the vessel to
the enemy. The officers and crew, thus escaping to the shore,
went through Thessaly into Greece, spreading the tidings everywhere that
the Persians were at hand. This intelligence was communicated also
along the coast by beacon fires, which the people of

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Sciathus built upon the heights of the island as a
signal to give the alarm to the country southward of them.
According to the preconcerted plan, the alarm was communicated by
other fires built on other heights, and sentinels were stationed
on every commanding eminence on the highlands of Yuboa toward

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the south to watch for the first appearance of the enemy.
The Persian galleys that had been sent forward, having taken
the three Greek guardships, and finding the sea before them
now clear of all appearances of an enemy, concluded to
return to the fleet with their prices and their report.

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They had been directed when they were dispatched from the
fleet to lay up a monument of stones at the
furthest point which they should reach in their crews, a
measure often resorted to in similar cases by way of
furnishing proof that a party thus sent forward have really

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advanced as far as they pretend on their return. The
Persian detachment had actually brought the stones for the erection
of their landmark with them in one of their galleys.
The galley containing the stones and two other to aid it,
pushed on beyond Xiathus to a small rocky islet standing

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in a conspicuous position in the sea, and there they
built their monument or cairn. The detachment then returned to
meet the fleet. The time occupied by this whole expedition
was eleven days. The fleet was, in the meantime coming
down along the coast of Magnesia. The whole company of

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ships had advanced safely and prosperously thus far, but now
a great calamity was about to befall them, the first
of the series of disasters by which the expedition was
ultimately ruined. It was a storm at sea. The fleet
had drawn up for the night in a long and

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shallow bay on the coast. There was a rocky promontory
at one end of this bay and a cape on
the other, with a long beach between them. It was
a very good place of refuge and rust for the
night in calm weather, but such a bay afforded very
little shelter against a tempestuous wind, or even against the

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surf and swell of the sea, which were sometimes produced
by a distant storm. When the fleet entered this bay
in the evening, the sea was calm and the sky serene.
The commanders expected to remain there for the night and
to proceed on the voyage on the following day. The

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bay was not sufficiently extensive to allow of the drawing
up of so large a fleet in a single line
along the shore. The ships were accordingly arranged in several lines,
eight in all. The innermost of these lines was close
to the shore, The others were at different distances from it,

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and every separate ship was held to the place assigned
it by its anchors. In this position, the fleet passed
the night in safety. But before morning there were indications
of a storm. The sky looked wild and lurid. A
heavy swell came rolling in from the offing. The wind

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began to rise and to blow in fitful gusts. Its
direction was from the eastward, so that its tendency was
to drive the fleet upon the shore. The seamen were
anxious and afraid, and the commanders of the several ships
began to devise, each for his own vessel the best

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means of safety. Some whose vessels were small, drew them
up upon the sand above the reach of the swell.
Others strengthened the anchoring tackle, or added new anchors to
those already down. Others raised their anchors altogether, and attempted
to row their galleys away way up or down the coast,

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in hope of finding some better place of shelter. Thus
all was excitement and confusion in the fleet through the
eager efforts made by every separate crew to escape the
impending danger. In the meantime, the storm came on apace.
The rising and roughening sea made the oars useless, and

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the wind howled frightfully through the cordage and the rigging.
The galleys soon began to be forced away from their moorings.
Some were driven upon the beach and dashed to pieces
by the waves. Some were wrecked on the rocks at
one or the other of the projecting points which bounded

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the bay. On either hand, some foundered at their place
of anchorage. Vast numbers of men were drowned. Those who
escaped to the shore were in hourly dread of an
attack from the inhabitants of the country. To save themselves,
if possible, from this danger, they dragged up the fragments

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of the wrecked vessels upon the beach and built a
fort with them on the shore. Here they entrenched themselves,
and then prepared to defend their lives armed with the weapons, which,
like the materials for their fort were washed up from
time to time by the sea. The storm continued for

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three days. It destroyed about three hundred galleys, besides an
immense number of provision transports and other smaller vessels. Great
numbers of seamen also were drowned. The inhabitants of the
country along the coast enriched themselves with the plunder which
they obtained from the wrecks, and from the treasures and

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the gold and silver vessels, which continued for some time
to be driven up upon the beach by the waves.
The Persians themselves recovered, it was said, a great deal
of valuable treasure by employing a certain Greek diver, whom
they had in their fleet, to dive for it after

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the storm was over. This diver, whose name was Phileas,
was famed far and wide for his power of remaining underwater.
As an instance of what they believed him capable of performing,
they said that when at a certain period subsequent to
these transactions he determined to desert to the Greeks, he

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accomplished his design by diving into the sea from the
deck of a Persian galley and coming up again in
the midst of the Greek fleet, ten miles distant. After
three days, the storm subsided. The Persians then repaired the
damages which had been sustained so far as it was

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now possible to repair them, collected what remains of the fleet,
took the shipwrecked mariners from their rude fortification on the beach,
and set sail again on their voyage to the southward.
In the meantime, the Greek fleet had assembled in the
arm of the Sea, lying north of Euboa and between

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Euboa and the mainland. It was an allied fleet, made
up of contributions from various states that had finally agreed
to come into the confederacy. As is usually the case, however,
with allied or confederate forces, they were not well agreed
among themselves. The Athenians had furnished far the greater number

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of ships, and they considered themselves therefore entitled to the command.
But the other allies were envious and jealous of them,
on account of that very superiority of wealth and power,
which enabled them to supply a greater portion of the
naval force than the rest. They were willing that one

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of the Spartans should command, but they would not consent
to put themselves under an Athenian. If an Athenian leader
were chosen, they would disperse, they said, and the various
portions of the fleet returned to their respective homes. The Athenians,
though burning with resentment at this unjust declaration, were compelled

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to submit to the necessity of the case. They could
not take the confederates at their word and allow the
fleet to be broken up, for the defense of Athens
was the great object for which it was assembled. The
other states might make their peace with the conqueror by submission,
but the Athenians could not do so. In respect to

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the rest of Greece, Xerxes wished only for dominion. Respect
to Athens, he wished for vengeance. The Athenians had burned
the Persian city of Sardis, and he had determined to
give himself no rest until he had burned Athens in return.
It was well understood therefore, that the assembling of the

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fleet and giving battle to the Persians where they now
were was a plan adopted mainly for the defense and
benefit of the Athenians. The Athenians accordingly waived their claim
to command secretly resolving that when the war was over,
they would have their revenge for the insult and injury.

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As Spartan was accordingly appointed commander of the fleet. His
name was Eurybiadus. Things were in this state when the
two fleets came in sight of each other in the
strait between the northern end of Euboah and the mainland
of the Persian galleys, advancing incautiously some miles in front

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of the rest, came suddenly upon the Greek fleet, and
all were captured. The crews were made prisoners and sent
into Greece. The remainder of the fleet entered the strait
and anchored at the eastern extremity of it, sheltered by
the promontory of Magnesia, which now lay to the north

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of them. The Greeks were amazed at the immense magnitude
of the Persian fleet, and the first opinion of the
commanders was that it was wholly useless for them to
attempt to engage them. A council was convened, and after
a long and anxious debate, they decided that it was

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best to retire to the southward. The inhabitants of Euboah,
who had been already in a state of great excitement
and terror at the near approach of so formidable an enemy.
By this decision of the allies into a state of
absolute dismay, it was abandoning them to irremediable and hopeless destruction.

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The government of the island immediately raised a very large
sum of money and went with it to the Mystocles,
one of the most influential of the Athenian leaders, and
offered it to him if he would contrive anyway to
persuade the commanders of the fleet to remain and give

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the Persians battle where they were. The Mystocles took the
money and agreed to the condition. He went with a
small part of it, though this part was a very
considerable sum, to Eurybiads, the commander in chief, and offered
it to him if he would retain the fleet in

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its present position. There were some other similar offerings made
to other inflace cential men judiciously selected. All this was
done in a very private manner, and of course the
Mystoicles took care to reserve to himself the lion's share
of the Euboean contribution. The effect of this money in

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altering the opinions of the naval officers was marvelous. A
new council was called, the former decision was annulled, and
the Greeks determined to give their enemies battle where they were.
The Persians had not been unmindful of the danger that
the Greeks might retreat by retiring through the Europus and

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so escape them. In order to prevent this, they secretly
sent off a fleet of two hundred of their strongest
and fleetest galleys with orders to sail round Euboa and
enter the Europus from the south, so as to cut
off the retreat of the Greeks in that quarter. They

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thought that by this plan the Greek fleet would be
surrounded and could have no possible mode of escape. They remained, therefore,
with the principal fleet at the outer entrance of the
Northern Strait for some days before attacking the Greeks. In
order to give time for the detachment to pass round

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the island. The Persians sent off the two hundred galleys
with great secrecy, not desiring that the Greeks should discover
their design of thus intercepting their retreat. They did discover it, however,
for this was the occasion on which the great diver
Cilius made his escape from one fleet to the other

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by swimming under water ten miles, and he brought the
Greeks the tidings. The Greeks dispatched a small squadron of
ships with orders to proceed southward into the Europe to
meet this detachment, which the Persians sent round, and in
the meantime they determined themselves to attack the main Persian

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fleet without any delay. Notwithstanding their absurd dissensions and jealousies,
and the extent to which the leaders were influenced by
intrigues and bribes, the Greeks always evinced an undaunted and
indomitable spirit when the day of battle came. It was, moreover,

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in this case exceedingly important to defend the position which
they had taken. By referring to the map once more,
it will be seen that the Europus was the great
highway to Athens by sea, as the pass of Thermopylai
was by land. Thermopylae was west of Artemisium, where the

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fleet was now stationed, and not many miles from it.
The Greek army had made its great stand at Thermopylai,
and Xerxes was fast coming down the country with all
his forces to endeavor to force a passage there. The
Persian fleet, in entering Artemisium, was making the same attempt

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by sea in respect to the narrow passage of Europus.
And for either of the two forces, the fleet or
the army, to fail of making good the defense of
its position without a desperate effort to do so, would
justly be considered a base betrayal and abandonment of the other.

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The Greeks therefore advanced one morning to the attack of
the Persians, to the utter astonishment of the latter, who
believed that their enemies were insane when they thus saw
them coming into the jaws, as they thought of certain
destruction before night, however, they were to change their opinions

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in respect to the insanity of their The Greeks pushed
boldly on into the myths of the Persian fleet, where
they were soon surrounded. They then formed themselves into a circle,
with the prows of the vessels outward and the sterns
toward the center within, and fought in this manner with

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the utmost desperation all day, With the night a storm
came on, or rather a series of thunder showers and
gusts of wind so severe that both fleets were glad
to retire from the scene of contest. The Persians went
back toward the east, the Greeks to the westward toward Thermopylae,

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each party busy in repairing their wrecks, taking care of
their wounded, and saving their vessels from the tempest. It
was a dreadful night. The Persians particularly spent it in
the myths of scenes of horror. The wind and the current,
it seems, set out toward the sea and carried the

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masses and fragments of the wrecked vessels, and the swollen
and ghastly bodies of the dead in among the Persian fleet,
and so choked up the surface of the water that
the oars became entangled and useless. The whole mass of
seamen in the Persian fleet during this terrible night were

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panic stricken and filled with horror. The wind, the perpetual thunder,
the concussions of the vessels with the wrecks and with
one another, and the heavy shocks of the seas kept
them in continual alarm, and the black and inscrutable darkness
was rendered the more dreadful while it prevailed by the

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hideous spectacle, which, at every flash of lightning glared brilliantly
upon every eye from the wide surface of the sea.
The shouts and cries of officers, vocifer rating orders of
wounded men, writhing in agony, of watchmen and sentinels in
fear of collisions, mingled with the howling wind and roaring seas,

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created a scene of indescribable terror and confusion. The violence
of the sudden gale was still greater further out at sea,
and the detachment of ships which had been sent around
Euboah was wholly dispersed and destroyed by it. The storm was, however,

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after all, only a series of summer evening showers, such
as to the inhabitants of peaceful dwellings on the land
have no terror, but only come to clear the sultry
atmosphere in the night and in the morning are gone.
When the sun rose accordingly upon the Greeks and Persians

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on the morning after their conflict, the air was calm,
the sky serene, and the sea as blue and pure
as ever. The bodies and the wrecks had been floated
away into the offing the courage or the ferocity, whichever
we choose to call it of the combatants returned, and

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they renewed the conflict. It continued with varying success, for
two more days. During all this time, the inhabitants of
the island of Euboah were in the greatest distress and terror.
They watched these dreadful conflicts from the heights, uncertain how
the struggle would end, but fearing lest their defenders should

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be beaten, in which case the whole force of the
Persian fleet would be landed on their island to sweep
it with pillage and destruction. They soon began to anticipate
the worst, and in preparation for it, they removed their
goods all that could be removed, and drove their cattle

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down to the southern part of the island, so as
to be ready to escape to the mainland. The Greek commanders,
finding that the fleet would probably be compelled to retreat
in the end, sent to them here, recommending that they
should kill their cattle and eat them, roasting the flesh

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at fires which they should kindle on the plain. The
cattle could not be transported, they said, across the channel,
and it was better that the flying population should be
fed than that the food should fall into Persian hands.
If they would dispose of their cattle in this manner,
Eurybiades would endeavor, he said, to transport the people themselves

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and their valuable goods across into Attica. How many thousand
peaceful and happy homes were broken up and destroyed forever
by this ruthless invasion. In the meantime, the Persians, irritated
by the obstinate resistance of the Greeks, were on the
fourth day preparing for some more vigorous measures when they

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saw a small boat coming toward the fleet from down
the channel. It proved to contain a countryman who came
to tell them that the Greeks had gone away. The
whole fleet, he said, had sailed off to the southward
and abandoned those seas altogether. The Persians did not at

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first believe this intelligence. They suspected some ambuscade or stratagem.
They advanced slowly and cautiously down the channel. When they
had gone half down to Thermopylae, they stopped at a
place called Histiaea, where upon the rocks on the shore
they found an inscription addressed to the Ionians, who it

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will be recollected, had been brought by Xerxes as auxiliaries,
contrary to the advice of Artabas in treating them not
to fight against their countrymen. This inscription was written in
large and conspicuous characters on the face of the cliff,
so that it could be read by the Ionian seamen

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as they passed in their galleys. The fleet anchored at Histiaea.
The commanders being somewhat uncertain in respect to what it
was best to do. Their suspense was very soon relieved
by a messenger from Xerxes, who came in a galley
up the channel from Thermopylae with the news that Xerxes

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had arrived at Thermopylae, had fought a great battle there,
defeated the Greeks and obtained possession of the past, and
that any of the officers of the fleet who chose
to do so might come and view the battleground. This
intelligence and invitation produced throughout the fleet a scene of

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the wildest excitement, enthusiasm, and joy. All the boats and
smaller vessels of the fleet were put into requisition to
carry the officers down when they arrived at Thermopylae. The
tidings all proved true. Serxes was in possession of the pass,
and the Greek fleet was gone. End of Chapter eight.