ATTICA. 
506 
and was fo much the more dangerous by being very elo¬ 
quent. Ariftides, on the contrary, was of a referved, mo- 
deft, fteady, difpolition; governed all his aitions by the 
moft fcrupiilous rules of juftice; and regarded the lofty 
projects of Themiilocles as fo many fteps to fovereign 
power. Themiftocles, impatient of being continually 
thwarted in his ambitious fchemes by fo rigid a cenfor as 
Ariftides, refolved to free his hands of him at once. For 
that purpofe he applied himfelf privately to form a party 
againft him; and at laft got him banifhed by the fentence 
of oftracifm. It is faid, that on this occafion a peafant, 
who did not know Ariftides, and could not write, having 
by accident applied to him to write his own name on his 
fliell, was alked by Ariftides, Whether he had ever re¬ 
ceived any provocation from the perfon he wanted to ba- 
nifti ? “ None at all, fir,” anfwered the peafant, “ but I 
cannot bear to hear him always called thejujl.'' Ariftides, 
without faying a word, took the lhell, wrote his own name 
upon it, and returned it to the man. When going out of 
the city, he begged of the gods, that no misfortune might 
happen to his countrymen which might oblige them to re- 
cal him from baniftunent. Themiftocles, in the mean time, 
forefeeing an approaching ftorm from the quarter of Per- 
fia, perfuaded the Athenians to employ all the wealth 
they drew from their filver-mines in fitting out a power¬ 
ful fleet for the protection of their country. 
Darius, more exafperated than ever againft the Athe¬ 
nians, by the defeat of his army at Marathon, refolved to 
exert his utmoft efforts to wipe away that difgrace, and to 
reftore the glory of his.arms. He gave orders, therefore, 
to make new levies of troops through all his provinces; 
and confumed no lefs than three years in preparing for 
this third expedition; which, though then pretty far ad¬ 
vanced in years, he intended to conduct in perfon. But 
death difappointed all his projefts. His fon Xerxes fuc- 
ceeded him in the kingdom of Perfia, and profecuted the 
warlike preparations begun by his father. Xerxes, there¬ 
fore, aflembling his council, informed them, that he was 
refolved to undertake this expedition, in order to punifh 
the Athenians for having been acceftory to the burning of 
Sardis, to wipe away the difgrace of the defeat at Mara¬ 
thon, and to execute the other intentions of his father. 
Mardonius, brother-in-law to Xerxes, behaved on this oc- 
cafton with all the bafenefs of a fervile flatterer. He af¬ 
fined him, that no nation in the world would dare to op- 
pofe his power; and he affected to vilify and to defpife 
extremely the courage of the Athenians. Before fetting 
out for Greece, he made an alliance with the Carthagi¬ 
nians, and fer.t money to their general, Hamilcar, to in¬ 
duce him to make war on the Greek dates in Sicily, in 
order to prevent them from fending afliftance to their 
countrymen on the continent. With this money Hamil¬ 
car, having levied in Spain and Gaul an army of 300,000 
men, invaded Sicily accordingly. 
Xerxes departed from Sufa in the fifth year of his reign, 
for Sardis, the place of rendezvous of his army ; and, ha¬ 
ving palled through Cappadocia, he halted at Cylene, a 
town of Phrygia. He then proceeded, and patted the 
winter at Sardis. From this place he fent deputies to de¬ 
mand earth and water of all the cities of Greece, except 
Athens and Sparta, whom he afte&ed thus tacitly to Angle 
out for vengeance. In the fpring he advanced towards 
the Hellefpont; where he enjoyed the pleafure of feeing 
the fea covered with his fleet, and the land with his army. 
Artabantis took this opportunity to make fome reflections, 
in the prefence of the king, on the many miferies incident 
to mankind, which it is the firft duty of foveveigns to alle¬ 
viate as much as poffible. He infilled, at the fame time, 
on the great uncertainty of human affairs; and could not 
help applying his obfervation to the prefent enterprife of 
Xerxes, whole army was fo numerous, that no country 
could for any confiderable time furnifh it with fubfiftence, 
and whofe fleet was too large for any harbour to contain. 
To tranfport his troops from Afia into Europe, Xerxes 
ordered a bridge to be thrown over a fira.it of the Helle¬ 
fpont, about a quarter of a league broad, known at pre¬ 
fent by the name of Gallipoli. But the work was destroyed 
by a ftorin. Xerxes, enraged at this accident, vented his 
refentment upon the fea. Herodotus fays, he ordered it 
to be chaftifed with 300 ladies, and chains to be thrown 
into it, as if to bind it. Then he commanded two new 
bridges to be conftrudied, one for the army, and the other 
for the baggage. One of thefe bridges confided of 360, 
and the other of 314, (hips, moored end-ways acrofs the 
ftrait. They were fecured by large anchors againft the 
violence of the winds and waves ; and were joined toge¬ 
ther by fix large cables, reaching from one fide of the 
ftrait to the other, and fattened on both (ides to large 
wooden flakes fixed in the ground. The fhips were co¬ 
vered with a fort of deck, and the army was feven dayf' 
in patting. When the army arrived at Dorifca in Thrace, 
Xerxes defired to review it ; and, for that purpofe, or¬ 
dered it to be drawn up in the plains in the neighbour¬ 
hood. By Herodotus’s account it was found to amount 
to 1,800,000 foot, and 80,000 liorfe, which, joined with 
the forces furnifhed him by the nations whom he had ftub- 
dued after palling the Hellefpont, formed, all together, a 
multitude of 2,100,000 men. His fleet confided of 1207 
galleys of three benches of oars, each carrying 200 men; 
which, when reinforced by 120 more of the fame lize fur¬ 
nifhed by the European ftates, formed a fleet of 1327 vef- 
fels, carrying 301,606 men, exclufive of 3000 tranfports. 
The army was commanded by fix generals, of whom Mar¬ 
donius was the chief. Datis was general of the cavalry ; 
and Hydarnes of the immortal troop, compofed of 6000 
chofen men. Herodotus, who gives this account of Xerxes’s 
armament, lived at the time ; and further informs us, that 
thefe vaft forces were fupplied with provifions by a great 
number of fhips, foleiy employed for that purpofe, which 
attended the army along the coaft, and continually brought 
them frelli fupplies of all kinds of provifions. He like- 
wife tells 11s, that, belides the preparations for this expe¬ 
dition made by Darius, no lefs than four years were em¬ 
ployed for the fame purpofe by Xerxes. 
The Greeks, feeing the ftorm ready to fall upon them, 
were fomewhat alarmed at firft, but by no means difcou- 
raged. They held an afteinbly in the Ifthmus, where it 
was agreed to fufpend all private contefts, and to unite 
their whole forces againft the common enemy. But the 
Boeotians, Thelfalians, and feveral other ftates, who were 
more immediately expofed to the impending danger, ha¬ 
ving declared for the Perfians, the whole burden of the 
war devolved on the Athenians and Lacedemonians. The 
The former applied for afliftance to their allies, to the 
Argives, to the Sicilians, and to the inhabitants of the 
iflands of Corcyra and Crete ; moft of whom declined to 
join them, under the attested pretence, that they could 
not be admitted to an equal fhare in the command ; the 
Sicilians even infilled for the chief command. Moft of 
them therefore fubmitted to Xerxes. The ftates of Thef- 
pia and Platea alone took part with the Athenians and 
Spartans. But this general defertion of the other ftates 
ferved only to make thofe of Athens and Sparta prepare 
for their defence with greater vigour and circumfpeiflion. 
Themiftocles, who had on former occafions difphtyed a 
fingular fagacity in feizing the decifive moment of action, 
was unanimoufly chofen commander in chief of the Athe¬ 
nian forces. Ariftides was recalled, after a three-years 
ban'.fhment, together with all the other banifhed citizens; 
no oppofition having been made to the return of his rival 
by Themiftocles, who, on this occafion, fet an example 
highly worthy the imitation of all men of influence in a 
ftate, by whom jealoufy and rivalfhip ought to be facri- 
ficed to the interefts of their country. 
Themiftocles was confident in his own mind, from the 
time of the battle of Marathon, that the war would not 
be finiftied by that engagement; and being fenlible that 
Athens, pofteffing fuch a barren and narrow territory, was 
much too weak to make head againft the powerful forces 
of the Perfians by land ; had from that moment applied 
