infantry and cavalry, to join the army
on its march.

The soldiers that were enlisted to go on this remote and dangerous
expedition joined the army, as is usual in such cases, some willingly,
from love of adventure, or the hope of opportunities for plunder, and
for that unbridled indulgence of appetite and passion which soldiers
so often look forward to as a part of their reward; others from hard
compulsion, being required to leave friends and home, and all that
they held dear, under the terror of a stern and despotic edict which
they dared not disobey. It was even dangerous to ask for exemption.

As an instance of this, it is said that there was a Persian named
Oebazus, who had three sons that had been drafted into the army.
Oebazus, desirous of not being left wholly alone in his old age,
made a request to the king that he would allow one of the sons to
remain at home with his father. Darius appeared to receive this
petition favorably. He told Oebazus that the request was so very
modest and considerate that he would grant more than he asked. He
would allow all three of his sons to remain with him. Oebazus
retired from the king's presence overjoyed at the thought that his
family was not to be separated at all. Darius ordered his guards to
kill the three young men, and to send the dead bodies home, with a
message to their father that his sons were restored to him, released
forever from all obligation to serve the king.

The place of general rendezvous for the various forces which were to
join in the expedition, consisting of the army which marched with
Darius from Susa, and also of the troops and ships which the maritime
provinces of Asia Minor were to supply on the way, was on the shores
of the Bosporus, at the point where Mandrocles had constructed the
bridge.[G] The people of Ionia, a region situated in Asia Minor, on
the shores of the AEgean Sea, had been ordered to furnish a fleet of
galleys, which they were to build and equip, and then send to the
bridge. The destination of this fleet was to the Danube. It was to
pass up the Bosporus into the Euxine Sea, now called the Black Sea,
and thence into the mouth of the river. After ascending the Danube to
a certain point, the men were to land and build a bridge across that
river, using, very probably, their galleys for this purpose. In the
mean time, the army was to cross the Bosporus by the bridge which had
been erected there by Mandrocles, and pursue their way toward