those from Asia Minor bore such arms as the Greeks
were used to fight with. Most of the others were armed with javelins or
other light weapons, and bore slight shields or none at all. Some came
armed only with daggers and a lasso like that used on the American
plains. The Ethiopians from the Upper Nile had their bodies painted half
red and half white, wore lion-and panther-skins, and carried javelins
and bows. Few of the whole army bore the heavy weapons or displayed the
solid fighting phalanx of those whom they had come to meet in war.

As to the number of men thus brought together from half the continent of
Asia we cannot be sure. Xerxes, after reaching Europe, took an odd way
of counting his army. Ten thousand men were counted and packed close
together. Then a line was drawn around them, and a wall built about the
space. The whole army was then marched in successive detachments into
this walled enclosure. Herodotus tells us that there were one hundred
and seventy of these divisions, which would make the whole army one
million seven hundred thousand foot. In addition there were eighty
thousand horse, many war-chariots, and a fleet of twelve hundred and
seven triremes and three thousand smaller vessels. According to
Herodotus, the whole host, soldiers and sailors, numbered two million
six hundred and forty thousand men, and there were as many or more
camp-followers, so that the whole number present, according to this
estimate, was over five million men. It is not easy to believe that such
a marching host as this could be fed, and it has probably been much
exaggerated; yet there is no doubt that the host was vast enough almost
to blow away all the armies of Greece with the wind of its coming.

On leaving Sardis a frightful spectacle was provided by Xerxes: the army
found itself marching between two halves of a slaughtered man. Pythius,
an old Phrygian of great riches, had entertained Xerxes with much
hospitality, and offered him all his wealth, amounting to two thousand
talents of silver and nearly four million darics of gold. This generous
offer Xerxes declined, and gave Pythius enough gold to make up his
darics to an even four millions. Then, when the army was about to march,
the old man told Xerxes that he had five sons in the army, and begged
that one of them, the eldest, might be left with him as a stay to his
declining years. Instantly the despot burst into a rage. The request of
exemption from military service wa