Darius had already given three years of time, were actively
continued. Horsemen and foot-soldiers, ships of war, transports,
provisions, and supplies of all kinds were collected far and near, the
vanity of Xerxes probably inciting him to astonish the world by the
greatness of his army.

In the autumn of the year 481 B.C. this vast army, marching from all
parts of the mighty empire, reached Lydia and gathered in and around the
city of Sardis, the old capital of Croesus. Besides the land army, a
fleet of twelve hundred and seven ships of war, and numerous other
vessels, were collected, and large magazines of provisions were formed
at points along the whole line of march. For years flour and other food,
from Asia and Egypt, had been stored in cities on the route, that the
fatal enemy starvation might not attack the mighty host.

Two important questions occupied the mind of Xerxes. How was he to get
his vast army on European soil, and how escape those dangers from storm
which had wrecked his father's fleet? He might cross the sea in ships,
as Datis had done,--and be like him defeated. Xerxes thought it safest
to keep on solid land, and decided to build a bridge of boats across the
Hellespont, that ocean river now known as the Dardanelles, the first of
the two straits which connect the Mediterranean with the Black Sea. As
for the other trouble, that of storms at sea, he remembered the great
gale which had wrecked the fleet of Mardonius off the stormy cape of
Mount Athos, and determined to avoid this danger. A narrow neck of land
connects Mount Athos with the mainland. Xerxes ordered that a ship-canal
should be cut through this isthmus, wide and deep enough to allow two
triremes--war-ships with three ranks of oars--to sail abreast.

This work was done by the Phoenicians, the ablest engineers at that
time in the world. A canal was made through which his whole fleet could
sail, and thus the stormy winds and waves which hovered about Mount
Athos be avoided.

This work was successfully done, but not so the bridge of boats. Hardly
had the latter been completed, when there came so violent a storm that
the cables were snapped like pack-thread and the bridge swept away. With
the weakness of a man of small mind, on hearing of this disaster Xerxes
burst into a fit of insane rage. He ordered that the heads of the chief
engineers should be cut off, but this was far from satisfying his anger.
The elements had risen against his might, a