Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/54

 30 HISTORY OF GREECE. which the Phenicians of Sidon surpassed the Greeks and all the other contingents), but also superadding to this real fact a dia- logue with Artabanus, intended to set forth the internal mind of Xerxes. He farther quotes certain supposed exclamations of the Abjdenes at the sight of his superhuman power. " Why (said one of these terror-stricken spectators^), why dost thou, O Zeus, under the shape of a Persian man and the name of Xerxes, thus bring together the whole human race for the ruin of Greece ? It would have been easy for thee to accomplish that without so much ado." Such emphatic ejaculations exhibit the strong feel- ing which Herodotus or his informants throw into the scene, though we cannot venture to apply to them the scrutiny of his- torical criticism. At the first moment of sunrise, so sacred in the mind of Ori- entals,2 the passage was ordered to begin: the bridges being perfumed with frankincense and strewed with myrtle boughs, while Xerxes himself made libations into the sea with a golden censer, and offered up prayers to Helios, that he might effect without hindrance his design of conquering Europe even to its farthest extremity. Along with his libation he cast into the Hel- lespont the censer itself, with a golden bowl and a Persian cim- eter; — "I do not exactly know^ (adds the historian) whether he threw them in as a gift to Helios, or as a mark of repentance and atonement to the Hellespont for the stripes which he had in- flicted upon it." Of the two bridges, that nearest to the Euxine was devoted to the military force, — the other, to the attendants, the baggage, and the beasts of burden. The ten thousand Per- sians, called Immortals, all wearing garlands on their heads, were ' Herodot. vii, 45, 53, 56. '2 Zev, ri 6tj uvSpl el66/ievoc Hep^v, Kal ovvojia uvtI Aide Zip^ECL -d-e/ievoc, avaaraTov ttjv 'EAAada k-&tkELQ ■jroi^aai, uyuv nuvrag uv&pCnrovg ; Kal yap uvev tovteuv b^rjv toi tcoieelv ravra. 2 TacitTis, Histor. iii, 24. " Undique clamor, et orientem solem, ita in Syria mos est, consalutavere," — in his striking description of the night battle near Cremona, between the Roman troops of Vitellius and Vespa- sian, and the rise of the sun while the combat was yet unfinished : compare also Quintus Curtius (iii, 3, 8, p. 41, ed. Mutzel). ' Herodot. vii, 54. ravra ovk exu urpEKEUc 6iaKpTvai, ovrs eI ru 'HX/u avarii^etf KarrjKE kg ro nD.ayoc, ovrs eI jierEHEATice oi rd-» 'El'X^cnovrov fiaa- Ttyaaavri, Kat uvrlrovTEuvrTjv ■&ukaaaav kSupEero.