7.51 Artabanus advised Xerxes to at least leave the Ionians home: if they went on the campaign they might elect to help their fellow Greeks. | |
Posted on 12-26-17 | |
7.52 No way, Xerxes said: their families back home are hostages to their good behavior. BTW, you're in charge of Persia while I'm gone. | |
Posted on 12-27-17 | |
7.53 So Xerxes sent his uncle off to Susa to run things in his absence. Then he called his nobles in and gave them a pep talk. | |
Posted on 12-28-17 | |
7.54 A couple days later they were ready to start crossing the Hellespont. Xerxes poured a libation and prayed to the sun. | |
Posted on 12-29-17 | |
7.55 Then the crossing started--baggage animals, the 10,000, the cavalry, Xerxes, and everybody else. The fleet crossed over to Europe too. | |
Posted on 12-30-17 | |
7.56 After Xerxes crossed, he watched the rest of his army do so. The crossing took seven days and seven nights, without a break. | |
Posted on 12-31-17 | |
7.57 Afterwards X ignored an omen--a horse birthed a hare. It seemed to mean the Persians would run like rabbits on their way out of Greece. | |
Posted on 01-01-18 | |
7.58 The fleet sailed west out of the Hellespont, and the army marched east out of the Chersonese, then west to meet up with the ships. | |
Posted on 01-02-18 | |
7.59 They met at Doriscus in Thrace. The ships were hauled ashore to dry, and Xerxes decided it was a good place to number his army. | |
Posted on 01-03-18 | |
7.60 There were 1,700,000 in the land army. They counted them by herding men into a walled area they built that could hold 10,000 at a time. | |
Posted on 01-04-18 | |
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