de of securing the boats.--The
bridge finished.--Eclipse of the sun.--March from Sardis.--Order of
march.--Car of Jupiter.--Chariot of Xerxes.--Camp followers.--Arrival at
the plain of Troy.--The grand sacrifice.--Dejection of the army.--Mode
of enlistment.--Condition of the soldiers.--Privations and
hardships.--Storm on Mount Ida.--Abydos.--Parade of the troops.--Xerxes
weeps.--The reason of it.--Comments of writers.--Remarks of
Artabanus.--Conversation with Artabanus.--He renews his
warnings.--Anxiety of Artabanus.--Xerxes is not convinced.--Advice of
Artabanus in respect to employing the Ionians.--Xerxes's opinion of the
Ionians.--Artabanus is permitted to return.--Sham sea fight.--Xerxes's
address.--Crossing the bridge.--Preliminary ceremonies.--The order of
march.--Movement of the fleet.--Time occupied in the passage.--Scene of
confusion.

Although the ancient Asia Minor was in the same latitude as New York,
there was yet very little winter there. Snows fell, indeed, upon the
summits of the mountains, and ice formed occasionally upon quiet
streams, and yet, in general, the imaginations of the inhabitants, in
forming mental images of frost and snow, sought them not in their own
winters, but in the cold and icy regions of the north, of which,
however, scarcely any thing was known to them except what was disclosed
by wild and exaggerated rumors and legends.

[Illustration: MAP OF GREECE.]

There was, however, a period of blustering winds and chilly rains which
was called winter, and Xerxes was compelled to wait, before commencing
his invasion, until the inclement season had passed. As it was, he did
not wholly escape the disastrous effects of the wintery gales. A violent
storm arose while he was at Sardis, and broke up the bridge which he had
built across the Hellespont. When the tidings of this disaster were
brought to Xerxes at his winter quarters, he was very much enraged.
He was angry both with the sea for having destroyed the structure, and
with the architects who had built it for not having made it strong
enough to stand against its fury. He determined to punish both the waves
and the workmen. He ordered the sea to be scourged with a monstrous
whip, and directed that heavy chains should be thrown into it, as
symbols of his defiance of its power, and of his determination to
subject it to his control. The men who administered this senseless
discipline cried out to the sea, as they did it, in the following wor