Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/56

 32 fflSTOPvY OF GREECE. brought together a body of men from regions so remote and sc widely diverse, for one purpose and under one command, as those which were now assembled in Thrace near the mouth of the Hebrus. About the numerical total we cannot pretend to form any definite idea ; about the variety of contingents there is no room for doubt. " What Asiatic nation was there (asks Herod- otus,i whose conceptions of this expedition seem to outstrip his powers of language) that Xerxes did not bring against Greece ? " Nor was it Asiatic nations alone, comprised within the Oxus, the Indus, the Persian gulf, the Red Sea, the Levant, the JEgean and the Euxine : we must add to these also the Egyptians, the Ethiopi- ans on the Nile south of Egypt, and the Libyans from the desert near Kyrene. Not all the expeditions, fabulous or historical, of which Herodotus had ever heard, appeared to him compar- able to this of Xerxes, even for total number; much more in respect of variety of component elements. Forty-six different nations,^ each with its distinct national costume, mode of armingii and local leaders, formed the vast land-force ; eight other nations furnished the fleet, on board of which Persians, Medes, and Sakae served as armed soldiers or marines ; and the real lead- ers, both of the entire army and of all its various divisions, were - See the enumeration in Herodotus, ^'u, 61-96. In chapter 76, one name has dropped out of the text (see the note of "Wesseling and Schweigh- hauser,) which, in addition to those specified under the head of the land- force, makes up exactly forty-six. It is from this som-ce that Herodotus derives the boast which he puts into the mouth of the Athenians (ix, 27) respecting the battle of Marathon, in which they pretend to have van- quished forty-six nations, — kvLKTjaafiEv e^vea e^ koI TeacapuKovra : though there is no reason for believing that so great a number of contingents were engaged with Datis at Marathon. Compare the boasts of Antiochus king of Syria (b.c. 192) about his im- mense Asiatic host brought across into Greece, as well as the contemptuoti? comments of the Roman consul Quinctius (Livy, xxxv, 48-49). " Varia enim genera armonim, et multa nomina gentium inauditarum, Dahas, et Medos, et Cadusios, et Elymseos — Syros omnes esse : baud paulo man- cjpionxm melius, propter servilia ingenia, quam militum genus :" and the sharp remark of the Arcadian envoy Antiochus (Xenophon, Hellen. vii, 1, 33). Quintus Curtius also has some rhetorical turns about the number of nations, whose names even were hardly known, tributary to the Persian empire (iii, 4, 29 ; iv, 45, 9), " ignota etiam ipsi Dario gentium nomina," etc.
 * Herodot. vii, 20-21.