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Updated: May 1, 2025
The ideas which Demaratus thus appeared to entertain of danger to the countless and formidable hosts of Xerxes's army, from so small and insignificant a power as that of Sparta, seemed to Xerxes too absurd to awaken any serious displeasure in his mind. He only smiled, therefore, at Demaratus's fears, and dismissed him.
After having rewarded him with a present of money, as soon as he received some from his friends at Athens and from his secret hoards at Argos, Themistocles started inland with one of the coast Persians, and sent a letter to King Artaxerxes, Xerxes's son, who had just come to the throne.
The fleet, at length which was under the command of Xerxes's brothers and cousins, whom he had appointed the admirals of it began to move down the coast from Therma, with the intention of first sweeping the seas clear of any naval force which the Greeks might have sent forward there to act against them, and then of landing upon some point on the coast, wherever they could do so most advantageously for co-operation with the army on the land.
The record which was thus to be kept, under the personal supervision of the sovereign, was with a view to punishments too, as well as to honors and rewards; and it happened in many instances during the battle that ensued, that commanders, who, after losing their ships, escaped to the shore, were brought up before Xerxes's throne, and there expiated their fault or their misfortune, whichever it might have been, by being beheaded on the spot, without mercy.
Friendly offices. Xerxes's throne. His scribes. Summary punishment. Speech of Themistocles. He embarks his men. Excitement and confusion. Commencement of the battle. Fury of the conflict. Modern naval battles. Observations of Xerxes. Artemisia. Enemies of Artemisia. Her quarrel with Damasithymus. Stratagem of Artemisia. She attacks Damasithymus. Artemisia kills Damasithymus.
Artabanus takes Xerxes's place. The spirit appears a third time. Artabanus is convinced. The invasion decided upon. Mardonius probably the ghost.
He would consider the subject, she said, with fairness and impartiality, and decide it right. She had no doubt that he would decide it in Xerxes's favor; "and if he does not," she added, "and you lose your cause, you only become the second man in the kingdom instead of the first, and the difference is not so very great, after all."
Another stratagem of Themistocles. His message to Xerxes. Duplicity of Themistocles. Retreat of Xerxes. Horrors of the retreat. Sufferings from hunger. Famine and disease. Xerxes crosses the Hellespont. Fate of Mardonius. Xerxes arrives at Susa. Xerxes's dissolute life. His three sons. Artabanus, captain of the guard. He assassinates Xerxes. Artaxerxes kills his brother. He succeeds to the throne.
The Persians had, long before, conquered Thrace and a part of Macedon; and thus the northern shores of the Ægean Sea, and many of the islands, were already in Xerxes's hands. The Greek dominions lay further south, and Xerxes did not anticipate any opposition from the enemy, until his army, after crossing the strait, should have advanced to the neighborhood of Athens.
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