d hence Xerxes
obtained the throne.

If we may trust the informants of Herodotus, it was the wish of Xerxes
on his accession to discontinue the preparations against Greece, and
confine his efforts to the re-conquest of Egypt. Though not devoid of
ambition, he may well have been distrustful of his own powers; and,
having been nurtured in luxury, he may have shrunk from the perils of a
campaign in unknown regions. But he was surrounded by advisers who had
interests opposed to his inclinations, and who worked on his facile
temper till they prevailed on him to take that course which seemed best
calculated to promote their designs. Mardonius was anxious to retrieve
his former failure, and expected, if Greece were conquered, that the
rich prize would become his own satrapy. The refugee princes of the
family of Pisistratus hoped to be reinstated under Persian influence as
dependent despots of Athens. Demaratus of Sparta probably cherished
a similar expectation with regard to that capital. The Persian nobles
generally, who profited by the spoils of war, and who were still full of
the military spirit, looked forward with pleasure to an expedition
from which they anticipated victory, plunder, and thousands of valuable
captives. The youthful king was soon persuaded that the example of his
predecessors required him to undertake some fresh conquest, while the
honor of Persia absolutely demanded that the wrongs inflicted upon her
by Athens should be avenged. Before, however, turning his arms against
Greece, two revolts required his attention. In the year B.C. 485--the
second of his reign--he marched into Egypt, which he rapidly reduced to
obedience and punished by increasing its burthens. Soon afterwards he
seems to have provoked a rebellion of the Babylonians by acts which they
regarded as impious, and avenged by killing their satrap, Zopyrus, and
proclaiming their independence. Megabyzus, the son of Zopyrus, recovered
the city, which was punished by the plunder and ruin of its famous
temple and the desolation of many of its shrines.

Xerxes was now free to bend all his efforts against Greece, and,
appreciating apparently to the full the magnitude and difficulty of the
task, resolved that nothing should be left undone which could possibly
be done in order to render success certain. The experience of former
years had taught some important lessons. The failure of Datis had proved
that such an expedition as could be conveyed by sea ac