The Good Book

by A. C. Grayling

  12. The Greeks who were loyal to the Grecian cause assembled in one place, and there consulted, and exchanged pledges with each other.

  13. They agreed that, before any other step was taken, the feuds and enmities between the different states should first be appeased.

  14. There were many such; but one was of more importance than the rest, namely, the war then still continuing between the Athenians and Eginetans.

  15. When this business was concluded, the Greeks sent spies into Asia to take note of Xerxes’ affairs.

  16. At the same time they resolved to send ambassadors to the Argives, and conclude a league with them against the Persians;

  17. And likewise they dispatched messengers to the people of Corcyra, and to those of Crete, exhorting them to send help to Greece.

  18. Their wish was to unite the entire Greek name in one, and so to bring all to join in the same plan of defence, because the approaching dangers threatened all alike.

  19. And they sent also to Gelo, the son of Deinomenes, in Sicily.

  20. Now the power and wealth of Gelo, as king of Syracuse, was very great, far greater than that of any other single Grecian state.

  21. The spies who went to Sardis before Xerxes set forth to the Hellespont were caught while noting the Persian strength,

  22. And were just about to be put to death when Xerxes reprieved them, gave them free access to everything in his army,

  23. And then sent them home, saying that he would prefer the Greeks to know his great strength than to be ignorant of it.

  24. This was like his decision when, at the Hellespont, some Greek ships carrying corn from the Euxine to the Peloponnese were stopped, and the Persians made to capture them.

  25. But Xerxes, on hearing what they carried and wither they were bound, said, ‘We too are going there; let them carry our corn for us.’

  26. And the seamen were able to report on the great armament of the Persians when they reached home, instilling fear.

  27. Among those who chose not to aid their fellow-Greeks in opposing Xerxes were the Argives.

  28. They had received a message from Xerxes when he first planned his invasion, saying that the Persians regarded themselves as springing from Perseus, founder also of Argos, and that they were therefore kin;

  29. And that it was wrong for kin to war on each other, or for the Argives to join the Greeks in opposing Xerxes.

  30. Having lately lost many citizens in fighting with Sparta, the Argives were only too happy to find an excuse to stand aside from the war;

  31. And used a stratagem to deny the call for aid from their fellow-Greeks. This was to ask for equal generalship of the army, which they knew the Spartans, with their two kings, could not accept.

  Chapter 63

  1. Of greater moment was the embassy to Gelo, who had made Syracuse great and wealthy.

  2. When the Greek envoys reached Syracuse, they said, ‘We have been sent to you by the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, with their respective allies, to ask your help against the barbarian.

  3. ‘Doubtless you have heard of his invasion, bringing out of Asia all the forces of the East, to carry war into Europe, claiming that he only intends to attack Athens, but really bent on subjecting all the Greeks.

  4. ‘Help us maintain the freedom of Greece; your power is great, and your portion in Greece, as lord of Sicily, is no small one.

  5. ‘If all Greece join together in one, we will be a mighty host, and we shall be a match for our assailants;

  6. ‘But if some turn traitors, and others refuse aid, and only a small part of the whole body remains sound, all Greece may perish.

  7. ‘For do not hope that the Persian, when he has conquered our country, will be content and not advance against you next.

  8. ‘Take your measures beforehand, and consider that you defend yourself when you aid us.’

  9. Gelo replied, ‘You have the face to ask this when you refused to aid me against the Carthaginians.

  10. ‘Now that I am powerful, however, you come to me! But I will not treat you as you treated me.

  11. ‘I am ready to help, and to furnish as my contribution two hundred triremes, twenty thousand soldiers, two thousand cavalry, and an equal number of archers, slingers and light horsemen,

  12. ‘Together with corn for the whole Grecian army as long as the war lasts.

  13. ‘These services, however, I promise on one condition – that you appoint me commander of all the Grecian forces during the war with the barbarian.

  14. ‘Unless you agree to this, I will neither send aid, nor come myself.’

  15. To this neither the Spartans could agree as regards the land forces, nor the Athenians as regards the sea forces.

  16. The envoys said, ‘We came here in search of an army, not a general! The Spartans are undisputed for their excellence at arms,

  17. ‘And the Athenians, the most ancient nation in Greece, the only Greeks who have never changed their abode,

  18. ‘The people who are said by the poet Homer to have sent to Troy the man best able of all the Greeks to array and marshal an army – may be allowed to boast somewhat of themselves.’

  19. Gelo replied: ‘Strangers, you have, it seems to me, no lack of commanders, but you are likely to lack men to receive their orders.

  20. ‘As you are resolved to yield nothing and claim everything, you had best make haste back to Greece, and say that the best hope of succour has been lost to her.’

  21. Nevertheless Gelo anxiously kept watch on matters in Greece, to see how affairs stood;

  22. And was ready to send earth and water to Xerxes if, as he feared would indeed happen, the Greeks were overcome.

  Chapter 64

  1. As for the Corcyraeans, whom the envoys visited on their way to Sicily, and gave the same message as to Gelo,

  2. They readily promised their help, declaring that the ruin of Greece was a thing which they could not tamely stand by to see;

  3. For should she fall, they themselves must submit to slavery the very next day; so they were bound to help to the uttermost of their power.

  4. But though they answered so smoothly, when the time came for their aid to be sent, they were of quite a different mind.

  5. They manned sixty ships, but it was long before they put to sea with them;

  6. And when they had so done, they went no further than the Peloponnese, where they lay to with their fleet off the Lacedaemonian coast, about Pylos and Taenarum;

  7. Like Gelo, watching to see what turn the war would take. For they did not believe the Greeks could win, and expected that the Persians would become master of the whole of Greece.

  8. They acted as they did in order that they might be able to say to Xerxes: ‘O king! though the Greeks sought to obtain our aid in their war with you,

  9. ‘And though we had a force of no small size, and could have furnished a greater number of ships than any Greek state except Athens,

  10. ‘Yet we refused, since we would not fight against you, nor do anything to cause you annoyance.’

  11. The Corcyraeans hoped that a speech like this would gain them better treatment from the Persians than the rest of the Greeks.

  12. At the same time, they had an excuse ready to give their countrymen, which they used when the time came;

  13. For when reproached, they replied that they had fitted out a fleet of sixty triremes, but the Etesian winds did not allow them to double Cape Malea,

  14. And this hindered them from reaching Salamis – it was not from any bad motive that they missed the sea fight.

  15. The Thessalians, however, did not submit to Persia until they were forced to do so; they gave plain proof that they preferred to ally with their fellow-Greeks.

  16. No sooner did they hear that Xerxes was about to invade Europe than they dispatched envoys to meet with all the states inclined to the Grecian cause.

  17. These envoys addressed their countrymen as follows: ‘Fellow Greeks, it behoves you to guard the pass o
f Olympus;

  18. ‘For thus will Thessaly be kept safe, as well as the rest of Greece. We are quite ready to take our share in this work;

  19. ‘But you must send us a strong force: otherwise we will have to make terms with the Persians.

  20. ‘We ought not to be left, exposed as we are in front of all the rest of Greece, to die in your defence alone and unassisted.

  21. ‘If you do not choose to send us aid, you cannot force us to resist the enemy;

  22. ‘For there is no force so strong as inability. We shall therefore do our best to secure our own safety.’

  23. Seeing the force of this argument, the Greeks resolved to send a body of infantry to Thessaly by sea, to defend the pass of Olympus.

  24. Accordingly a force was collected, which passed up the Euripus, and disembarked at Alus, on the coast of Achaea.

  25. They occupied the defile of Tempe, which leads from Lower Macedonia into Thessaly along the course of the Peneus, having the range of Olympus on the one hand and Ossa on the other.

  26. The Greek force amounted to ten thousand heavy-armed men, who were joined by the Thessalian cavalry.

  27. The commanders were, for the Lacedaemonians, Evaenetus, the son of Carenus, who had been chosen out of the Polemarchs;

  28. And for the Athenians, Themistocles, the son of Neocles.

  29. The force did not however maintain its station for more than a few days, because envoys came from Alexander, the son of Amyntas, the Macedonian,

  30. And counselled them to leave Tempe, telling them that if they remained in the pass they would be trodden underfoot by the invading army,

  31. Whose numbers they recounted, and likewise the multitude of their ships.

  32. Also they warned that the Persians might enter by another pass, leading from Upper Macedonia into Thessaly through the territory of the Perrhaebi, and by the town of Gonnus;

  33. The pass by which soon afterwards the army of Xerxes indeed made its entrance. The Greeks therefore went back to their ships and sailed away to the Isthmus of Corinth.

  Chapter 65

  1. On their return to the Isthmus the Greeks considered where they should take their stand.

  2. The opinion that prevailed was that they should guard the pass of Thermopylae,

  3. For Thermopylae was narrower than the Thessalian defile, and at the same time nearer to them.

  4. Of the hidden pathway over the mountain, by which the Greeks who later fell at Thermopylae were intercepted, they had no knowledge,

  5. Until, on their arrival there, it was shown to them by the Trachinians.

  6. At the same time it was resolved that the fleet should proceed to Artemisium, in the region of Histiaeotis,

  7. For, as those places are near to one another, it would be easy for the fleet and army to hold communication.

  8. These places seemed to the Greeks fit for their purpose, because in the narrow pass of Thermopylae the barbarians could make no use of their vast numbers, nor of their cavalry.

  9. And when news reached them of the Persians being in Pieria, immediately they left the Isthmus,

  10. And proceeded, some on foot to Thermopylae, others by sea to Artemisium, making all speed.

  11. The fleet of Xerxes now departed from Therma; and ten of the swiftest ships ventured to stretch across directly for Sciathus,

  12. At which place there were three Greek ships keeping a lookout, one a ship of Troezen, another of Egina, and the third from Athens.

  13. The Greek sailors no sooner saw the barbarians approaching in the distance than they all hurriedly took to sail.

  14. The barbarians at once pursued, and the Troezenian ship, which was commanded by Prexinus, fell into their hands.

  15. The Eginetan trireme, under its captain Asonides, gave the Persians much trouble,

  16. One of the marines, Pythes, the son of Ischenous, distinguishing himself beyond all the others who fought that day.

  17. After the ship was taken this man continued to resist, and did not cease fighting till he fell quite covered with wounds.

  18. The Persians who served as men-at-arms in the squadron, finding that he was not dead, but still breathed,

  19. And being anxious to save his life because he had behaved so valiantly, dressed his wounds with myrrh, and bound them with cotton bandages.

  20. Then, when they had returned to their own station, they displayed their prisoner admiringly to the whole host,

  21. And behaved towards him with much kindness; but all the rest of the Eginetan ship’s crew were treated merely as slaves.

  22. The third, a trireme commanded by Phormus of Athens, took to flight and ran aground at the mouth of the River Peneus.

  23. The barbarians got possession of the ship but not of the men. For the Athenians had no sooner run their vessel aground than they leapt out, and made their way through Thessaly back to Athens.

  24. When the Greeks stationed at Artemisium learnt what had happened by fire-signals from Sciathus,

  25. So terrified were they that, quitting their anchorage-ground at Artemisium, and leaving scouts to watch the foe on the highlands of Euboea,

  26. They removed to Chalcis, intending to guard the Euripus.

  27. Meantime three of the ten vessels sent by the Persians advanced as far as the sunken rock called ‘The Ant’ between Sciathus and Magnesia, and there set up a stone pillar brought for that purpose.

  28. After this, the course now being clear, the main Persian fleet set sail from Therma, eleven days from the time that the king left it with the army.

  29. A day’s voyage without a stop brought them to Sepias in Magnesia, and to the strip of coast which lies between the town of Casthanaea and the promontory of Sepias.

  Chapter 66

  1. As far as this point then, and on land as far as Thermopylae, the armament of Xerxes had been free from mischance;

  2. And its numbers were still very great. First there was the original complement of twelve hundred and seven ships which came with the king from Asia,

  3. The contingents of the nations severally amounting, if we allow to each ship a crew of two hundred men, to two hundred and forty-one thousand, four hundred.

  4. Each of these vessels had on board, besides native soldiers, thirty fighting men, who were either Persians, Medes or Sacans; which gives an addition of thirty-six thousand, two hundred and ten.

  5. To these numbers can be added the crews of the penteconters; which may be reckoned, one with another, at eighty men each.

  6. There were three thousand such vessels, the men on board accordingly numbering two hundred and forty thousand. This was the sea force brought by the king from Asia; and it amounted in all to five hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten men.

  7. The number of foot soldiers was one million, seven hundred thousand; that of the horsemen eighty thousand;

  8. To which must be added the Arabs who rode on camels, and the Libyans who fought in chariots, about twenty thousand.

  9. The whole number of the land and sea forces added together amounts to two million, three hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and ten men.

  10. Such was the force brought from Asia, without including the camp followers, or taking any account of the provision-ships and their crews.

  11. To the amount thus reached we have still to add the forces gathered in Europe.

  12. The Greeks dwelling in Thrace and in the islands off its coast gave to Xerxes’ fleet one hundred and twenty ships; the crews of which amounted to twenty-four thousand men.

  13. Besides these, footmen were provided by the Thracians, the Paeonians, the Eordians, the Bottiaeans, by the Chalcidean tribes,

  14. By the Brygians, the Pierians, the Macedonians, the Perrhaebians, the Enianians, the Dolopians, the Magnesians, the Achaeans and by all the dwellers upon the Thracian seaboard;

  15. And the forces of these nations amounted to three hundred thousand men. Adding these numbers to the force out of Asia brings the sum
of Xerxes’ fighting men to two million, six hundred and forty-one thousand, six hundred and ten.

  16. Estimating very conservatively the camp attendants and the corn-bark and other freight-ship crews at an equal number, yields a figure of five million, two hundred and eighty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty as the total number of men brought by Xerxes, the son of Darius, as far as Sepias and Thermopylae.

  17. And to this still must be added the vast number of women who followed the camp to grind the corn, and also the many concubines, and the eunuchs;

  18. Nor can the baggage horses and other sumpter beasts, nor the Indian hounds which followed the army, be calculated, by reason of their multitude.

  19. It is no surprise that the water of the rivers was found too scant for the army in some instances;

  20. Rather it is a marvel how the provisions did not fail, when the numbers were so great.

  21. For if each man consumed no more than a choenix of corn a day, there must have been used daily by the army one hundred and ten thousand, three hundred and forty medimni,

  22. And this without counting what was eaten by the women, the eunuchs, the sumpter beasts and the hounds.

  23. Among all this multitude of men there was not one who deserved more than Xerxes himself to wield so vast a power.

  Chapter 67

  1. When Xerxes’ fleet reached the strip of coast between the city of Casthanaea and Cape Sepias, the ships of the first row were moored to the land, while the remainder swung at anchor further off.

  2. The beach extended only a little way, so that the majority of ships had to anchor offshore, row upon row, eight deep.

  3. In this manner they passed the night. But at dawn calm and stillness gave place to a raging sea,

  4. And a violent storm, driven by a strong gale from the east – a wind which the people in those parts call Hellespontias.

  5. Those who perceived the wind rising, and were so moored as to allow of it, forestalled the tempest by dragging their ships up the beach, thereby saving themselves and their vessels.

  6. But the ships which the storm caught out at sea were driven ashore, some near the place called Ipni, at the foot of Pelion; others on the beach itself;