Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/38

 14 mSTORY OF GREECE. the Cyclades. There existed Persian forts and garrisons at Do- riskus, Eion, and other places on the coast of Thrace, while Abdera, with the other Grecian settlements on that coast were numbered among the tributaries of Susa.' It is necessary to bear in mind these boundaries of the empire, at the time when Xerxes mounted the throne, as compared with its reduced limits at the later time of the Peloponnesian war, — partly that we may understand the apparent chances of success to his expedi- tion, as they presented themselves both to the Persians and to the medizing Greeks, — partly that we may appreciate the after- circumstances connected with the formation of the Athenian maritime empire. In the autumn of the year 481 B.C., the vast army thus raised by Xerxes arrived, from all quarters of the empire, at or near to Sardis ; a large portion of it having been directed to assemble dt Kritala in Kappadokia, on the eastern side of the Halys, where it was joined by Xerxes himself on the road from Susa.2 From thence he crossed the Halys, and marched through Phry- gia and Lydia, passing through the Phrygian towns of Kelaenae, Anaua, and Koloss£e, and the Lydian town of Kallatebus, until he reached Sardis, where winter-quarters were prepared for him. But this land force, vast as it was (respecting its numbers, I shall speak farther presently), was not all that the empire had been required to furnish. Xerxes had determined to attack Greece, not by traversing the ^gean, as Datis had passed to Eretria and Marathon, but by a land force and fleet at once : the former cross- ing the Hellespont, and marching through Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly ; while the latter was intended to accompany and codperate. A fleet of one thousand two hundred and seven ships of war, besides numerous vessels of service and burden, had been assembled on the Hellespont and on the coasts of Thrace ' Herodot. vii, 106. KarecTaaav yap In nporepov ravrrig ri]g k^e'kaaiog [i. e. the invasion by Xerxes) tnrapxoc ev ry QpTjiKij koI tov 'EXkrjaiTovTov navTaxTj. vii, 108. idedovXuTO yap, ug Kal Trporepov /lOt SeSTjluTai, v fiexP'' QEacaXiTjg Tzaaa, koI i]v vnb ^aackfja daa/iocpopog, MeyafSu^ov te Karaarfjeipa- uivov Kal varepov MapSoviov ; also vii, 59, and Xenophon, Memorab. iii, 5, 11. Compare JEschylus Pers. 871-896, and the vision ascribed to Cyrus in reference to his successor Darius, covering with his wings both Europe and Asia (Herodot. i, 209). * Herodot. vii, 2iV31.