The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [184]
14. The Lacedaemonians decided to seek satisfaction at the hands of Xerxes for the death of Leonidas, and take whatever he chose to give them.
15. So the Spartans sent a herald with all speed into Thessaly, who arrived while the entire Persian army was still there.
16. He said, ‘King of the Persians, the Lacedaemonians and the Heracleids of Sparta require satisfaction due for bloodshed, because you slew their king, who fell fighting for Greece.’
17. Xerxes laughed, and for a long time said nothing. At last, however, he pointed to Mardonius, who was standing by him, and said,
18. ‘Mardonius here shall give Sparta the satisfaction they deserve.’ And the herald accepted the answer, and went his way.
19. After this Xerxes left Mardonius in Thessaly, and marched away himself, at his best speed, towards the Hellespont.
20. In forty-five days he reached the place of passage, with scarcely a fraction of his former vast army left.
21. All along their line of march, in every country where they chanced to be, his soldiers seized and devoured whatever corn they could find belonging to the inhabitants;
22. While, if no corn was to be found, they gathered the grass that grew in the fields, and stripped the trees, whether cultivated or wild, alike of their bark and their leaves, and so fed themselves.
23. They left nothing anywhere, so hard were they pressed by hunger. Plague and dysentery attacked the troops while still on their march, and greatly thinned their ranks.
24. Many died; others fell sick and were left behind in the different cities that lay along the route, the inhabitants being strictly charged by Xerxes to tend and feed them.
25. Of these some remained in Thessaly, others in Siris of Paeonia, others again in Macedonia.
Chapter 89
1. The Persians, having journeyed through Thrace and reached the passage, found that the bridges had been broken and dispersed by storms.
2. They therefore entered the ships of the fleet that awaited them, and crossed the Hellespont to Abydos.
3. At Abydos the troops halted, and, obtaining more abundant provision than they had on their march, fed without stint;
4. From which cause, added to the change in their water, great numbers of those who had hitherto escaped perished.
5. The remainder, together with Xerxes himself, came safe to Sardis.
6. Another story is told of the return of the king. It is said that when Xerxes on his way from Athens arrived at Eion on the Strymon, he gave up travelling by land,
7. And, entrusting Hydarnes with the conduct of his forces to the Hellespont, embarked himself on board a Phoenician ship, and so crossed into Asia.
8. On his voyage the ship was assailed by a strong wind blowing from the mouth of the Strymon, which caused the sea to run high.
9. As the storm increased, and the ship laboured heavily, because of the number of the Persians who had come in the king’s train, and now crowded the deck,
10. Xerxes was seized with fear, and called out to the helmsman in a loud voice, asking him if there were any means whereby they might escape the danger.
11. ‘No means, master,’ the helmsman answered, ‘unless we could be quit of these too numerous passengers.’
12. Xerxes, they say, on hearing this, addressed the Persians as follows: ‘Men of Persia,’ he said, ‘now is the time for you to show what love you bear your king.
13. ‘My safety, as it seems, depends wholly on you.’ So spoke the king; and the Persians instantly made obeisance, and then leapt into the sea.
14. Thus was the ship lightened, and Xerxes got safely to Asia.
15. As soon as he reached the shore he sent for the helmsman, and gave him a golden crown because he had preserved the life of the king;
16. But because he had caused the death of a number of Persians, he ordered his head to be struck from his shoulders.
17. Such is the other account given of the return of Xerxes; but it seems unworthy of belief, alike in other respects, and in what relates to the Persians.
18. For had the helmsman made any such speech