ross the Egean
would be insufficient to secure the object sought, and that the only
safe road for a conqueror whose land force constituted his real strength
was along the shores of the European continent. But if a large army
took this long and circuitous route, it must be supported by a powerful
fleet; and this involved a new danger. The losses of Mardonius off Athos
had shown the perils of Egean navigation, and taught the lesson that the
naval force must be at first far more than proportionate to the needs
of the army, in order that it might still be sufficient notwithstanding
some considerable disasters. At the same time they had indicated one
special place of danger, which might be avoided, if proper measures
were taken. Xerxes, in the four years which followed on the reduction of
Egypt, continued incessantly to make the most gigantic preparations
for his intended attack upon Greece, and among them included all the
precautions which a wise foresight could devise in order to ward off
every conceivable peril. A general order was issued to all the satraps
throughout the Empire, calling on them to levy the utmost force of their
province for the new war; while, as the equipment of Oriental troops
depends greatly on the purchase and distribution of arms by their
commander, a rich reward was promised to the satrap whose contingent
should appear at the appointed place and time in the most gallant array.
Orders for ships and transports of different kinds were given to the
maritime states, with such effect that above 1200 triremes and 3000
vessels of an inferior description were collected together. Magazines
of corn were formed at various points along the intended line of route.
Above all, it was determined to bridge the Hellespont by a firm and
compact structure, which it was thought would secure the communication
of the army from interruption by the elements; and at the same time it
was resolved to cut through the isthmus which joined Mount Athos to the
continent, in order to preserve the fleet from disaster at that most
perilous part of the proposed voyage. These remarkable works, which made
a deep impression on the minds of the Greeks, have been ascribed to
a mere spirit of ostentation on the part of Xerxes; the vain-glorious
monarch wished, it is supposed, to parade his power, and made a useless
bridge and an absurd cutting merely for the purpose of exhibiting to
the world the grandeur of his ideas and the extent of his res