abit the maritime parts of
Thrace--of these nations I suppose that there were three hundred
thousand men, so that these _myriads_, added to those from Asia, make a
total of two millions six hundred and forty one thousand six hundred and
ten fighting men!

I think that the servants who followed them, and with those on board the
provision ships and other vessels that sailed with the fleet, were not
fewer than the fighting men, but more numerous; but supposing them to be
equal in number to the fighting men, they make up the former number of
_myriads_.[52] Thus Xerxes, son of Darius, led five millions two hundred
and eighty-three thousand two hundred and twenty men to Sepias and
Thermopylae!

[Footnote 52: In Greek numeration, ten thousand.]

This, then, was the number of the whole force of Xerxes. But of women
who made bread, and concubines, and eunuchs, no one could mention the
number with accuracy; nor of draught-cattle and other beasts of burden;
nor of Indian dogs that followed could any one mention the number, they
were so many; therefore I am not astonished that the streams of some
rivers failed, but rather it is a wonder to me how provisions held out
for so many _myriads_; for I find by calculation, if each man had a
_choenix_ of wheat daily, and no more, one hundred and ten thousand
three hundred and forty _medimni_ must have been consumed every day; and
I have not reckoned the food for the women, eunuchs, beasts of burden,
and dogs. But of these _myriads_ of men, not one of them, for beauty and
stature, was more entitled than Xerxes himself to possess the supreme
command.

When the fleet, having set out, sailed and reached the shore of Magnesia
that lies between the city of Casthanaea and the coast of Sepias, the
foremost of the ships took up their station close to land, others behind
rode at anchor--the beach not being extensive enough--with their prows
toward the sea, and eight deep. Thus they passed the night; but at
daybreak, after serene and tranquil weather, the sea began to swell, and
a heavy storm with a violent gale from the east--which those who inhabit
these parts call a "Hellespontine"--burst upon them; as many of them
then as perceived the gale increasing, and who were able to do so from
their position, anticipated the storm by hauling their ships on shore,
and both they and their ships escaped. But such of the ships as the
storm caught at sea it carried away, some to the parts called Ipni, near