10 - 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 ten of Xerxes by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain recording by Dion Jins Salt
Lake City, Utah. The Burning of Athens b. C. Four eighty.
When the officers of the Persian fleet had satisfied themselves

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with examining the battlefield at Thermopylae, and had heard the
narrations given by the soldiers of the terrible combats that
had been fought with the desperate garrison which had been
stationed to defend the pass, they went back to their
vessels and prepared to make sail to the southward in

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pursuit of the Greek fleet. The Greek fleet had gone
to Solemnus. The Persians in due time overtook them there,
and a great naval conflict occurred, which is known in
history as the Battle of Solamus, and was one of
the most celebrated naval battles of ancient times. An account

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of this battle will form the subject of the next chapter.
In this we are to follow the operations of the
army on the land. As the pass of Thermopyla was
now in Xerxes's possession, the way was open before him
to all that portion of the great territory which lay

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north of the Peloponnesus. Of course, before he could enter
the peninsula itself, he must pass the Isthmus of Corinth,
where he might perhaps encounter some concentrated resistance. North of
the Isthmus, however, there was no place where the Greeks
could make a stand. The country was all open, or

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rather there were a thousand ways open through the various
valleys and glens and along the banks of the rivers.
All that was necessary was to procure guides and proceed.
The Thessalian were very ready to furnish guides. They had
submitted to Xerxes before the Battle of Thermopylae, and they

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considered themselves accordingly as his allies. They had, besides, a
special interest in conducting the Persian army, on account of
the hostile feelings which they entertained toward the people immediately
south of the pass into whose territories Xerxes would first

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carry his ravages. This people were the Phocaeans. Their country,
as has already been stated, was separated from Thessaly by
impassable mountains, except where the straits of Thermopylae opened a passage,
and through this pass both nations had been continually making

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hostile in Persians into the territory of the other for
many years. Before the Persian invasion. The Thessalians had surrendered
readily to the summons of Xerxes, while the Phocaeans had
determined to resist him and adhere to the cause of
the Greeks in the struggle. They were suspected of having

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been influenced in a great measure in their determination to
resist by the fact that the Thessalians had decided to surrender,
They were resolved that they would not, on any account
be upon the same side with their ancient and inveterate foes.
The hostility of the Thessalians to the Phocaeans was equally implacable.

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At the last incursion which they had made into the
Focaean territory, they had been defeated by means of stratagems
in a manner which tended greatly to and irritate them.
There were two of these stratagems, which were both completely successful,
and both of a very extraordinary character. The first was

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this the Thessalians were in the Phocaean country in great force,
and the Phocaeans had found themselves utterly unable to expel them.
Under these circumstances. A body of the Phocaeans, six hundred
in number, one day whitened their faces, their arms and hands,

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their clothes, and all their weapons with chalk, and then,
at the dead of night, perhaps, however, when the moon
was shining, made an onset upon the camp of the enemy.
The Thessalian sentinels were terrified and ran away, and the soldiers,
awakened from their slumbers by these unearthly looking troops screamed

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with fright and fled in all direct in utter confusion
and dismay. A night attack is usually a dangerous attempt,
even if the assaulting party is the strongest, as in
the darkness and confusion which then prevail, the assailants cannot
ordinarily distinguish friends from foes, and so are in great

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danger amid the tumult and obscurity of slaying one another.
That difficulty was obviated in this case by the strange
disguise which the Focaeans had assumed. They knew that all
were Thessalians who were not whitened like themselves. The Thessalians

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were totally discomfited and dispersed by this encounter. The other
stratagem was of a different character and was directed against
a troop of cavalry. The Thessalian cavalry were renowned throughout
the world. The broad planes extending through the heart of
their country contained excellent fields for training and exercising such troops,

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and the mountains which surrounded it furnished grassy slopes and
verdant valleys that supplied excellent pasturage for the rearing of horses.
The nation was very strong therefore in this species of force,
and many of the states and kingdoms of Greece, when
planning their means of internal defense, and potentates and conquerors,

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when going forth on great campaigns, often considered their armies
incomplete unless there was included in them a core of
Thessalian cavalry. A troop of this cavalry had invaded Focus,
and the Phocaeans, conscious of their inability to resist them
in open war, contrived to entrap them in the following manner.

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They dug along trench in the ground, and then putting
in baskets or casks sufficient nearly to fill the space,
they spread over the top a thin layer of soil.
They then concealed all indications that the ground had been
disturbed by spreading leaves over the surface the trap. Being

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thus prepared, they contrived to entice the Thessalians to the
spot by a series of retreats, and at length led
them into the pitfall that's provided for them. The substructure
of casks was strong enough to sustain the Phocaeans, who
went over it as footmen, but was too fragile to

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bear the weight of the mounted troops. The horses broke through,
and the squadron was thrown into such confusion by so
unexpected a disaster that when the Phocaeans turned and fell
upon them, they were easily overcome. These things had irritated
and vexed the Thessalians very much. They were eager for revenge,

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and they were very ready to guide the armies of
Xerxes into the country of their enemies in order to
obtain it. The troops advanced accordingly, awakening everywhere as they
came on the greatest consternation and terror among the inhabitants,
and producing on all sides scenes of indescribable anguish and suffering.

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They came into the valley of these cephesis a beautiful
river flowing through a delightful and fertile region which contained
many cities and towns, and was filled everywhere with an
industrious rural population. Through this scene of peace and happiness
and plenty, the vast horde of invaders swept on with

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the destructive force of a tornado. They plundered the towns
of everything which could be carried away, and destroyed what
they were compelled to leave behind them. There is a
catalog of twelve cities in this valley which they burned.
The inhabitants, too, were treated with the utmost cruelty. Some

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were seized and compelled to follow the army as slaves,
others were slain, and others still were subjected to nameless
cruelties and atrocities worse sometimes than death. Many of the women,
both mothers and maidens, died in consequence of the brutal
violence with which the soldiers treated them. The most remarkable

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of the transactions connected with xerxes advance through the country
of Focus on his way to Athens, where those connected
with his attack upon Delphi. Delphi was a sacred town,
the seat of the oracle. It was in the vicinity
of Mount Parnassus and of the Castalian spring, places of

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very great renown. In the Greek mythology, Parnassus was the
name of a short mountainous range, rather than of a
single peak, though the loftiest summit of the range was
called Parnassus two. This summit is found by modern measurement
to be about eight thousand feet high, and it is

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covered with snow nearly all the year. When bare, it
consists only of a desolate range of rocks, with mosses
and a few alpine plants growing on the sheltered and
sunny sides of them. From the top of Parnassus, travelers
who now visit it look down upon almost all of

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Greece as upon a map. The Gulf of Corinth is
a silver lake at their feet, and the plains of
Thessaly are seen extending far and wide to the northward,
with Olympus, Pelion and Osa blue and distant peaks bounding
the view. Parnassus has in fact a double summit between

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the peaks, of which a sort of ravine commences, which,
as it extends down the mountain, becomes a beautiful valley
shaded with rows, of trees and adorned with slopes of
verdere and banks of flowers. In a glen connected with
this valley, there is a fountain of water springing copiously

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from among the rocks in a grove of laurels. This
fountain gives rise to a stream, which, after bounding over
the rocks and meandering between mossy banks for a long
distance down the mountain glens, becomes a quiet, lowland stream
and flows gently through a fertile and undulating country to

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the sea. This fountain was the famous Castellian. It was,
as the ancient Greek legends said, the favorite resort and
residents of Apollo and the Muses, and its waters became
accordingly the symbol and the emblem of poetical inspiration. The

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city of Delphi was built upon the lower declivities of
the Parnassian Ranges, and yet high above the surrounding country.
It was built in the form of an amphitheater, in
a sort of lap in the hill where it stood,
with steep precipices descending to a great depth on either side.

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It was thus a position of difficult access, and was
considered almost impregnable in respect to its military strength. Besides
its natural defenses. It was considered as under the special
protection of Apollo. Delphi was celebrated throughout the world in
ancient times, not only the oracle itself, but for the

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magnificence of the architectural structures, the boundless profusion of the
works of art, and the immense value of the treasures which,
in process of time had been accumulated there. The various
powers and potentates that had resorted to it to obtain
the response of the Oracle, had brought rich presents or

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made costly contributions in some way to the service of
the shrine. Some had built temples, others had constructed porches
or colonnades. Some had adorned the streets of the city
with architectural embellishments. Others had caused statues to be erected,
and others had made splendid donations of vessels of gold

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and silver. Until at length the wealth and magnificence of
Delphi was the wonder of the world. All nations resorted
to it, some to see its splendors, and others to
obtain the council and direction of the Oracle. And emergencies
of difficulty or danger in the time of Xerxes. Delphi

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had been for several hundred years in the enjoyment of
its fame as a place of divine inspiration. It was
said to have been originally discovered in the following manner.
Some herdsmen on the mountains, watching their flocks, observed one
day a number of goats performing very strange and unaccountable

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antics among some crevices in the rocks, and going to
the place, they found that a mysterious wind was issuing
from the crevices, which produced an extraordinary exhilaration on all
who breathed it. Everything extraordinary was thought in those days

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to be supernatural and divine, and the fame of this
discovery was spread everywhere the people, supposing that the effect
produced upon the men and animals by breathing the mysterious
air was a divine inspiration. A temple was built over
the spot, priests and priestesses were installed, a city began

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to rise, and in process of time Delphi became the
most celebrated oracle in the world. And as the vast
treasures which had been accumulated there consisted mainly of gifts
and offerings consecrated to a divine and sacred service, they
were all understood to be under divine protection. They were defended,

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it is true, in part by the inaccessibleness of the
position of Delphi, and by the artificial fortifications which had
been added from time to time to increase the security,
but still more by the feeling which every where prevailed
that any violence offered to such a shrine would be

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punished by the gods as sacrilege. The account of the
manner in which Xerxes was repulsed, as related by the
ancient historians, is somewhat marvelous. We, however, in this case,
as in all others, transmit the story to our readers
as the ancient historians give it to us. The main

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body of the army pursued its way directly southward toward
the city of Athens, which was now the great object
at which Xerxes aimed. A large detachment, however, separating from
the main body, moved more to the westward toward Delphi.
Their plan was to plunder the temples and the city

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and send the treasures to the king. The Delphians, on
hearing this, were seized with consternation. They made application themselves
to the oracle to know what they were to do
in respect to the sacred treasures. They could not defend them,
they said, against such a host, And they inquired whether

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they should bury them in the earth, or attempt to
remove them to some distant place of safety. The oracle
replied that they were to do nothing at all in
respect to the sacred treasures. The divinity, it said, was
able to protect what was its own. They, on their part,

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had only to provide for themselves, their wives, and their children.
On hearing this response, the people dismissed all care in
respect to the treasures of the temple and of the shrine,
and made arrangements for removing their families and their own
effects to some place of safety toward the southward. The

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military force of the city and a small number of
the inhabitants alone remained. When the Persians began to draw near,
a prodigy occurred in the temple, which seemed intended to
warn the profane invaders away. It seems that there was
a suit of arms of a costly character, doubtless and

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highly decorated with gold and gems, the present probably of
some Grecian state or king, which were hung in an
inner and sacred apartment of the temple. And which it
was sacrilegious for any human hand to touch. These arms
were found on the day when the Persians were approaching

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removed to the outward front of the temple. The priest
who first observed them, was struck with amazement and awe
He spread the intelligence among the soldiers and the people
that remained, and the circumstance awakened in them great animation
and courage. Nor were the hopes of divine interposition which

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this wonder awakened disappointed in the end, For as soon
as the detachment of Persians came near the hill on
which Delphi was situated, loud thunder burst from the sky,
and a bolt, descending upon the precipices near the town,
detached two enormous masses of rock, which rolled down upon

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the ranks of the invaders. The Delphian soldiers, taking advantage
of the scene of panic and confusion which this awful
visitation produced, rushed down upon their enemies and completed their discomfiture.
They were led on and assisted in this attack by
the spirits of two ancient heroes, who had been natives

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of the country, and to whom two of the temples
of Delphi had been consecrated. These spirits appeared in the
form of tall and full armed warriors, who led the
attack and performed prodigies of strength and valor in the
onset upon the Persians, and then, when the battle was over,

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disappeared as mysteriously as they came. In the meantime, the
great body of the army of Xerxes, with the monarch
at their head, was advancing on Athens. During his advance,
the city had been in a continual state of panic
and confusion. In the first place, when the Greek fleet

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had concluded to give up the contest in the Artemisian
Channel before the Battle of Thermopylae and had passed around
to Solamus, the commanders in the city of Athens had
given up the hope of making any effectual defense, and
had given orders that the inhabitants should save themselves by

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seeking a refuge wherever they could find it. This annunciation,
of course, filled the city with dismay, and the preparations
for a general flight opened everywhere scenes of terror and distress,
of which those who have never witnessed the evacuation of

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a city by its inhabitants can scarcely conceive. The immediate
object of the general terror was at this time the
Persian fleet. For the Greek fleet having determined to abandon
the waters on that side of Attica, left the whole
coast exposed, and the Persians might be expected at any

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hour to make a landing within a few miles of
the city. Scarcely, however, had the impending of this danger
been made known to the city before the tidings of
one still more eminent reached it in the news that
the pass of Thermopylae had been carried, and that, in

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addition to the peril with which the Athenians were threatened
by the fleet on the side of the sea, the
whole Persian army was coming down upon them by land.
This fresh alarm greatly increased, of course, the general consternation.
All the roads leading from the city toward the south

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and west were soon covered with parties of wretched fugitives,
exhibiting as they pressed forward, weary and wayworn on their
toilsome and almost hopeless flight, every possible phase of misery, destitution,
and despair. The army fell back to the Isthmus, intending

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to make a stand impossible there to defend the Peloponnesus.
The fugitives made the best of their way to the
sea coast, where they were received on board transport ships
sent thither from the fleet, and conveyed some to Aegina,
some to Solamus, and others to points on the coasts

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and islands to the south, wherever the terrified exiles thought
there was the best prospect of safety. Some, however, remained
at Athens. There was a part of the population who
believed that the phrase wooden walls used by the oracle
referred not to the ships of the fleet, but to

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the wooden palisade around the citadel. They accordingly repaired and
strengthened the palisade, and established themselves in the fortress, with
a small garrison, which undertook to defend it. The Citadel
of Athens, or the Acropolis, as it was called, was
the richest and most splendid and magnificent fortress in the world.

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It was built upon an oblong rocky hill, the sides
of which were perpendicular cliffs, except at one end, where
alone the summit was accessible. This presented an area of
an oval form about one thousand feet in length and
five hundred broad, thus containing a space of about ten acres.

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This area upon the summit, and also the approaches at
the western end, were covered with the most grand, imposing
and costly architectural structures that then existed in the whole
European world. There were temples, colonnades, gateways, stairways, porticos, towers

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and walls, which, viewed as a whole, presented a most
magnificent spectacle that excited universal admiration, and which, when examined
in detail, awakened a greater degree of wonder still by
the costliness of the materials, the beauty and perfection of

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the workmanship, and the richness and profusion of the decorations
which were seen on every hand. The number and variety
of statues of bronze and of marble which had been
erected in the various temples and upon the different platforms
were very great. There was one a statue of Minerva,

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which was executed by Phidias, the Great Athenian sculptor after
the celebrated Battle of Marathon in the days of Darius,
which with its pedestal, was sixty feet high. It stood
on the left of the Grand Entrance, towering above the buildings,
in full view from the country below, and leaning upon

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its long sphere, like a colossal sentinel on guard. In
the distance on the right, from the same point of view,
the great temple called the Parthenon was to be seen,
a temple which was, in some respects the most celebrated
in the world. The ruins of these edifices remained to

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the present day, standing in desolate and solitary grandeur on
the rocky hill which they once so richly adorned. When
Xerxes arrived at Athens, he found, of course no difficulty
in obtaining possession of the city itself, since it had
been deserted by its inhabitants and left defenseless. The people

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that remained had all crowded into the citadel. They had
built the wooden palisade across the only approach by which
it was possible to get near the gates, and they
had collected large stones on the tops of the rocks
to roll down upon their assailants if they should attempt

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to ascend. Xerxes, after ravaging and burning the town, took
up a position upon a hill opposite to the citadel,
and there he had engines constructed to throw enormous arrows,
on which toe that had been dipped in pitch was wound.
This combustible envelopment of the arrows was set on fire

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before the weapon was discharged, and a shower of the
burning missiles thus formed was directed toward the palisade. The
wooden walls were soon set on fire by them and
totally consumed. The access to the acropolis was, however, still difficult,
being by a steep acclivity, up which it was very

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dangerous to ascend, so long as the besiegers were ready
to roll down rocks upon their assailants from above. At last, however,
after a long conflict and much slaughter, Xerxes succeeded in
forcing his way into the citadel. Some of his troops
contrived to find a path by which they could climb

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up to the walls. Here. After a desperate combat with
those who were stationed to guard the place, they succeeded
in gaining admission, and then opened the gates to their
comrades below. The Persian soldiers, exasperated with the resistance which
they had encountered, slew The soldiers of the garrison perpetrated

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every imaginable violence on the wretched inhabitants who had fled
there for shelter. And then plundered the citadel and set
it on fire. The heart of Xerxes was filled with
exaltation and joy as he thus arrived at the attainment
of what had been the chief and prominent object of

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his campaign. To plunder and destroy the city of Athens.
Had been the great pleasure that he had promised himself
in all the mighty preparations that he had made. This
result was now realized, and he dispatched a special messenger
immediately to Susa with the triumphant tidings end of Chapter

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ten