by Tom Holland
11Plutarch, Artaxerxes, 3.
12Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPh).
13Ibid. (XPf).
14Herodotus, 7.6.
15Herodotus, as ever our principal source, gives us a detailed account of the debate, complete with speeches from Xerxes, Mardonius and Xerxes' uncle Artabanus, a prominent dove — all of which he claims to have derived directly from Persian sources (7.12). Even if the speeches are not the verbatim transcripts that Herodotus implies, the division of opinion which they reflect does seem authentic. The characterisation of Mardonius,
bearing in mind what would subsequently happen, appears particularly suggestive.
16 Such, at any rate, is the implication of the comments that Herodotus gives Mardonius after the Battle of Salamis (7.100).
17 To be specific, the southern end of the so-called Apadana Staircase, the sculptures of which have been dated to the beginning of Xerxes' reign.
18 Xenophon, Household Management, 4.8.
19 Aelian, 1.33.
20 Strabo, 25.3.18.
21 Herodotus, 7.5.
22 'Paradaida' is a reconstruction, based on the evidence of the Greek loanword. An exact synonym, the Elamite word 'partetash', has been found in the Persepolis tablets. See Briant (2002), pp. 442-3.
23 Xenophon, Household Management, 4.21.
24 Athenaeus, 9.51. The assertion was originally made by Charon of Lampsacus, a contemporary of Herodotus.
25 An anonymous philosopher of the fifth century - perhaps Democritus. Quoted by Cartledge (1997), p. 12.
26 Plutarch, Themistodes, 2.
27 Aristotle, Politics, 1302bl5.
28 Aristotle (The Constitution of the Athenians, 22.1 and 4) specifically states that it was Cleisthenes who was responsible for the law on ostracism. Historians have sometimes doubted whether it would have remained unused for twenty years, but scepticism on the matter ignores the peculiar circumstances of Miltiades' trial, and its aftermath.
29 A title not semi-formalised until 478 bc, a year after the end of the Persian Wars, but evidently in the air long before that (cf. Plutarch, Aristeides, 7).
30 Plutarch, Aristeides, 2.
31 Pausanias, 1.26.5.
32 The earliest reference to the contest between Athena and Poseidon occurs in Herodotus (8.55), and this has led some scholars (most notably Shapiro) to suggest that it is a fifth-century invention. Certainty on the matter is impossible, but the confusions and inconsistencies in the various versions of the myth suggest a much older origin.
33 Homer, Odyssey, 3.278.
34 Aeschylus, Persians, 238.
35 Plutarch, Themistodes, 4.
36 Plutarch, Aristeides, 1.
37 Plutarch, Cimon, 12.
38 Xenophon, Household Management, 8.8.
39 Thucydides, 142.
40 Plato, laws, 4.706.
41 Herodotus, 7.239.
42 For this explanation of the contradictory stories about Demaratus' paternity found in Herodotus, see Burkert (1965).
43 Pausanias, 3.12.6. It has generally been assumed that the meeting took place at Corinth, where all subsequent meetings were held, but since the earliest source for this is a historian of the first century bc, Diodorus Siculus (9.3), who in turn used Herodotus as his ultimate source of information, I see no reason to dismiss the evidence of Pausanias, as most scholars do; indeed, it makes perfect sense, for the reason I give.
44 Plutarch, Themistocles, 6.
45 Herodotus, 7.132.
46 Ezekiel, 27.4.
47 Plato, The Republic, 4.436a.
48 77k Odyssey, 15.416-17.
49 Herodotus, 1.1.
50 Ibid., 3.19.
51 The figure comes from Herodotus (7.89), and is echoed - with some ambiguity — in Aeschylus' play The Persians (341—3). The earliness and consistency of the tradition suggest that the Greeks themselves believed it was accurate; but that in itself, of course, is not proof. All the historian can say with any certainty is that the Persian fleet was on a mammoth scale; and that probably - at the outset of its voyage, at any rate - it outnumbered the Greeks by as much as four to one. For the best discussion, see Lazenby (1993), pp. 92-4.
52 Quintus Curtius, 3.3.8. The description is of the banner of Darius III, the last King of Persia, who was overthrown by Alexander the Great. Veneration of the sun, however, was a constant throughout Persian history, and it seems reasonable to suppose that the Great Kings would have preserved it as an emblem of their might. Xenophon (Anabasis 1.10) records that the imperial battle-standards bore eagles. See also Nylander.
53 Herodotus, 7.83.
54 See, for instance, Cook (1983, pp. 113-15), who settles on a figure of 300,000 for Xerxes' land forces; Hammond (Cambridge Ancient History, 1988, p. 534), who goes for 242,000; Green (pp. 58-9), who opts for 210,000; and Lazenby (1993, pp. 90-2), who havers between 210,000 and 360,000, before finally plumping for 90,000. In short, as this range of opinions eloquently suggests, we will never know. The best discussion, although not necessarily the most convincing conclusion, is in Lazenby.
55 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPh).
56 Herodotus, 7.40.
57 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 8.2.8.
58 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XP1).
59 Herodotus, 7.38.
60 Ibid., 7.39.
61 Ibid., 7.40.
62 Ibid., 7.44-5.
63 Ibid., 7.56.
64 Ibid., 9.37.
65 Ibid., 7.149.
66 Ibid., 7.148.
67 Ibid., 7.220. It is conceivable, of course, that the priests at Delphi and the Spartans might have put their heads together after the war and faked this prophecy, but most improbable. Herodotus quotes it from well within living memory; and it might have been expected, had the Spartans faked it, that they would have hyped their own role in the war a good deal more. As Burn puts it, referring not merely to this, but to all the prophecies recorded by Herodotus: 'That the oracular responses, and the stories attached to them, may have been "improved" in transmission certainly cannot be excluded; that they were asked for and given, it seems unreasonable to disbelieve.' (pp. 347-8).
68 Herodotus, 7.162.
69 The date of late May presumes that Xerxes left Sardis in mid-April: it would have taken him a month to reach the Hellespont.
70 Herodotus, to whom we owe the two oracular responses given to the Athenians, gives no indication as to when the fateful consultation may have occurred. Since he does tell us that the Spartans obtained their prophecy the previous year (7.220), some scholars have dated the Athenian prophecies to the same period; but this seems improbable. True, the Athenians almost certainly would have visited Delphi in 481 bc; but the record of any early consultations would have been blotted out by the later, and infinitely more sensational, oracles. So explosive was their message and so transformative their influence that it makes most sense to explain the relationship between them and Athenian policy in the summer of 480 bc as one of instantaneous cause and effect. In which case, the Athenian embassy to Delphi in the early summer of 480 bc is most likely to have been prompted by the news of Xerxes' crossing of the Hellespont - which, as we know from Herodotus (7.147), reached Athens shortly after the return of the expedition to Tempe.
71 Herodotus, 7.140.
72 Ibid., 7.141.
73 From lines 4 and 5 of the so-called 'Troezen decree', a stone stele found in 1959, which appears to provide a third-century bc copy of the motion put forward by Themistocles. Its authenticity has been much debated ever since its discovery. Lazenby, cussedly sceptical as ever, dismisses it as 'a patriotic fabrication', but most other scholars of the Persian Wars — Green, Frost and Podlecki, inter alios — accept that it does indeed, in Green's words, 'give us something very close to Themistocles' actual proposals, though it may
possibly run together several motions passed on different days' (p. 98). The best and most nuanced discussion is in Podlecki, pp. 147-67.
74 Thucydides, 1.138.
75 The Troezen decree, 44—5.
76 Plutarch, Cimon, 5.
77 Herodotus, 7.178.
78 Ibid., 8.1.
79 Ibid., 7.205.
VII At Bay
1 Tyrtaeus, 12.
2 The Iliad,!.59-62.
3 Herodotus, 7.176.
4 For the implication that each Spartan brought a single helot with him, see ibid., 7.229.
5 Diodorus Siculus, 11.4.7.
6 The Iliad, 8.553-6.
7 Such, at any rate, seems the only plausible explanation for the fact that the Greek patrol on Sciathos was so comprehensively ambushed. That their assailants were Sidonian is deducible from Herodotus' description of them as being 'the fastest ships' (7.179) in Xerxes' fleet.
8 Plutarch, Themistocles, 7.
9 The Odyssey, 13.296-9.
10 Quoted by Burkert (1985), p. 141.
11 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 22.
12 Diodorus Siculus, 11.5.4.
13 Plutarch, Spartan Sayings, Leonidas 11.
14 Herodotus, 7.226.
15 For this last meteorological detail, see the admittedly contested reference in Polyaenus, 1.32.2.
16 Herodotus, 7.188.
17 Ibid., 7.192.
18 Plutarch, Moralia, 217 E.
19 Herodotus, 7.211.
20 The chronology here follows that of Lazenby, whose squaring ot the numerous circles in Herodotus' account of the twin battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium is by far the most cogent of the many attempts that have been made. See The Defence of Greece, pp. 119—23.
21 Herodotus, 8.9.
22 Ibid., 8.12.
23 Ibid., 8.13. The precise location of the shipwreck has resulted in many a
scholarly headache. Herodotus says that it took place off the 'Hollows', which later geographers — although not Herodotus himself — place in the south of Euboea. Yet this seems impossible: no fleet setting off from Sciathos in the afternoon could possibly have reached so far before midnight. As Lazenby has pointed out, there is a small island still called 'Hollow' ('Koile') to this day: since it is only halfway down Euboea, this seems by far the likeliest site for the disaster.
24 Plutarch, Themistocles, 8.
25 Herodotus, 8.15.
26 Athenaeus, 2.48d.
27 Quintus Curtius, 3.4.2.
28 Herodotus, 7.104.
29 Ibid., 7.105.
30 Ibid., 7.236.
31 Ibid., 7.119.
32 Ibid., 7.120.
33 Athenaeus, 14.652b.
34 Ibid.,4.145e.
35 Herodotus, 7.213.
36 Presuming, as most historians now do, that the path taken by the Immortals began at the modern-day village of Ayios Vardates. For the best analysis of the various alternative routes, and the one that I certainly found most helpful during the course of my own walking of them, see Paul Wallace (1980).
37 Herodotus (7.222) claims that Leonidas kept the Thebans against their will, as hostages, but this is one of those occasions where the bias of his — almost certainly Athenian — sources is palpable. As Plutarch, a proud Boeotian, indignantly pointed out, why, if Leonidas regarded the Thebans as hostages, did he not hand them over to the retreating Peloponnesians? The astounding courage and principle shown by the loyalist Thebans at Thermopylae deserved a better memorial than Athenian calumny.
38 Three hundred Spartans marched to Thermopylae, along with perhaps 300 helots, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans, making a total of 1700 men. Casualties over the previous two days' fighting must have reduced the total to nearer 1500.
39 Diodorus Siculus, 11.9.4.
40 The Iliad, 4A50.
41 Herodotus, 8.24.
42 Ibid., 7.238.
43 Aristophanes, Acharnians, 1090—3.
44 SeeBurkert(1983),p. 226.
45 Herodotus, 7.99.
46 Xenophon, Economics, 7.5.
47 Demosthenes, Against Neaera, 67.
48 Herodotus, 8.71.
49 Plutarch, Themistodes, 10.
50 Plutarch, Themistodes, 10. Pet-lovers may be relieved to know that Xanthippus' dog was reported by Aelian (12.35) to have survived the crossing.
51 Plutarch, Themistodes, 11.
52 Herodotus, 8.49.
53 The figure is Aeschylus' (Persians, 339-40). Herodotus (8.48) puts the total of the Greek fleet at 380. On this occasion, Aeschylus is almost certainly more accurate. After all, he fought in the Battle of Salamis.
54 Herodotus, 8.60.
55 Ibid. As they appear in Herodotus, these words were spoken in the debate that followed the burning of the Acropolis. They are not, however, a verbatim record of what Themistocles said, but rather expressive of the gist of his general argument, which he pressed from the beginning.
56 Ibid., 8.50.
57 Ibid., 8.61.
58 TheTroezen decree, 11—12.
59 Herodotus, 8.52.
60 Ibid., 8.54.
VIII Nemesis
1 From the letter of Darius to Gadatas. See Meiggs and Lewis, p. 20.
2 Herodotus, 7.235.
3 Ibid.,8.68B.
4 Ibid., 8.59.
5 Ibid., 8.70.
6 Ibid., 8.70-1.
7 We know from Herodotus (8.70) that the Persian fleet had put to sea in the late afternoon; we know from Aeschylus (374—6) that it was back in port in time for supper.
8 Darius, inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam (Dnb 8c).
9 Ibid.
10According to Plutarch, he was actually a Persian prisoner-of-war.
11Herodotus, 8.75.
12Aeschylus, 380-1.
13Herodotus, 8.76.
14This, at any rate, seems the only explanation for Sicinnus' release that makes sense. Some historians have proposed that he yelled his message from his boat without ever leaving it, but this is not only inherently implausible surely the Persians could easily have sent a vessel to capture him - but directly contradicts what Herodotus (8.75) says.
15 Herodotus, 8.78.
16 Ibid., 8.80.
17 Ibid., 8.83.
18 Ibid., 8.65.
19 Aeschylus, 369-71.
20 Since Salamis was not merely the most momentous battle ever fought, but also one perilously difficult to reconstruct from the existing sources, the literature on it is unsurprisingly vast. Indeed, there are almost as many interpretations of what happened as there are historians who have written about it. For the best defence of the orthodoxy that the Persian fleet entered the straits by night, see Lazenby (1993), and his typically trenchant chapter, 'Divine Salamis'. The most convincing counter-argument can be found in Green's chapter, 'The Wooden Wall', in The Greco-Persian Wars. The killer detail that surely disproves the theory that the Persians entered the straits by night is the fact that the imperial battle fleet, if it had indeed lined up directly opposite the allied triremes before dawn, would have swooped down on their positions the moment that the light permitted, giving the Greek oarsmen little time to get to their benches, let alone allowing Themistocles to indulge in an oration, as Herodotus clearly tells us he did. The theory also makes a nonsense of the Persians' attempt to keep their manoeuvres a secret.
21 Aeschylus, 367.
22 Ibid., 388-90.
23 Herodotus, 8.84.
24 Aeschylus, 399-400.
25 Herodotus, 8.88.
26 Aeschylus, 415-16.
27 Ibid., 426-8.
28 Ibid., 462-4.
29 Herodotus, 8.100.
30 Herodotus, 8.100. Literally '300,000 men whom I will personally choose to finish off the job', but the figure is an obvious exaggeration.
31 In forty-five days, according to Herodotus (8.115) — although not from Athens, as is generally assumed, but almost certainly from Thessaly.
32 Ibid., 8.110.
33 Ibid., 8.114.
34 Ibid., 8.109.
35 Ibid., 8.124.
36 Ibid., 9.12.
37 It is hard to believe that Themistocles was removed entirely from the board of ten generals, but definite eviden
ce is lacking.
38 Herodotus, 8.HI.
39 Ibid., 8.142.
40 Ibid., 8.143.
41 Ibid., 8.144. That it was Aristeides who spoke this parting injunction is a detail recorded by Plutarch.
42 Again, according to Plutarch, this embassy was led by Aristeides. Bearing in mind that he was the commander-in-chief of his city's land forces, however, and that the Persians were occupying Attica at the time, this seems improbable. Even Plutarch himself admits that his information was dubious.
43 Herodotus, 9.12.
44 Ibid., 9.13.
45 Herodotus (9.29) says that there were seven helots for every Spartan - 35,000 in all. This seems excessive.
46 Xenophon, The Constitution of the Spartans, 9.6
47 Herodotus, 9.16.
48 If Herodotus' figures (9.29) are to be trusted, there were precisely 38,100 hoplites in the allied army. This is certainly more convincing than the total of 69,500 lightly armed troops which he also gives, and which he appears to have arrived at by a series of random calculations. If there were lightly armed troops at Plataea, then their impact on the battle was negligible.
49 Herodotus (9.32) claims that Mardonius' army included 300,000 infantry and 50,000 Boeotian and Thessalian hoplites, to say nothing of cavalry. Since these figures are clearly an exaggeration, the only way to estimate the true size of the Persian forces at Plataea is to calculate how many men might have fitted into the stockade, which, Herodotus tells us, was 2000 square metres. Anything between 70,000 and 120,000 might have been possible. See Lazenby(1993), p. 228.
50 Plutarch, Aristeides, 13. The story is often dismissed as a fabrication, partly because it does not appear in Herodotus, and partly because Plutarch's chronology is undoubtedly muddled. Yet it is, as one of the rare glimpses we have been afforded into the Persians' espionage war, an invaluable piece of evidence, and seems convincing when placed in context.