Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/136

108 new invasion of Greece with still more formidable numbers. But in B.C. 486 a revolt in Egypt distracted the attention of the king, and before it was put down Darius died (B.C. 485). His successor, Xerxes, was engaged for the first two years in Egypt in necessary preparations for the suppression of the revolt there. But even when he returned from his successful campaign he seems, in spite of grandiloquent language, to have hesitated as to renewing the invasion of Greece, which was not desired by a large number of his Council and of his subjects. Yet when he finally resolved upon it preparations on a vast scale were at once begun and continued for more than three years (B.C. 484-481). More than half a million of fighting men, drawn from innumerable tribes, were mustered in Cappadocia, and in the autumn of B.C. 481 marched to Sardis, where the King himself met and wintered with them. At the same time a fleet of twelve hundred triremes, besides a vast number of smaller vessels, from Phoenicia, Egypt, Cyprus, Cilicia, and many other places, was ordered to proceed to the Hellespont, and thence to coast along as nearly as possible parallel with the land forces. To facilitate the passage of this great army a bridge composed of vessels lashed together was constructed across the Hellespont, and Herodotus delights to tell, as an illustration of Persian insolence, how, when the first bridge was broken up by a storm, the king ordered the waves to be scourged and fetters thrown into the sea. A second and stronger bridge was then constructed. The Strymon was also bridged near the site of what was afterwards Amphipolis;