once in furnishing the vast amount of food
which was required for this feast, and the gold and silver plate which
was to be used in the pavilion. During the entertainment, the
inhabitants of the country waited upon their exacting and insatiable
guests until they were utterly exhausted by the fatigues of the service.
When, at length, the feast was ended, and Xerxes and his company left
the pavilion, the vast assembly outside broke up in disorder, pulled the
pavilion to pieces, plundered the tables of the gold and silver plate,
and departed to their several encampments, leaving nothing behind them.

The inhabitants of the country were so completely impoverished and
ruined by these exactions, that those who were not impressed into
Xerxes's service and compelled to follow his army, abandoned their
homes, and roamed away in the hope of finding elsewhere the means of
subsistence which it was no longer possible to obtain on their own
lands; and thus, when Xerxes at last gave orders to the fleet to pass
through the canal, and to his army to resume its march, he left the
whole region utterly depopulated and desolate.

He went on to Therma, a port situated on the northwestern corner of the
AEgean Sea, which was the last of his places of rendezvous before his
actual advance into Greece.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PREPARATIONS OF THE GREEKS FOR DEFENSE.

B.C. 480

The Greeks.--The two prominent states of Greece.--Greek kings.--The two
kings of Sparta.--Origin of the custom of two kings.--The twins.--The
Delphic oracle consulted.--Plan for ascertaining the eldest.--Civil
dissensions.--Two lines established.--Character of the Spartans.--Their
lofty spirit.--The Athenians.--The city of Athens.--Sparta and Athens
defy the Persians.--Earth and water.--Spirit of the Spartans.--The blank
tablets.--Leonidas.--His wife discovers the writing on the tablets.--The
three spies.--Alarm at Athens.--The Greeks consult the Delphic
oracle.--The responses.--Various interpretations of the oracle.--The
Athenian fleet.--Themistocles.--Proposed confederation.--Council of
Spartans and Athenians.--The Argives reject the propositions of the
Spartans.--Embassy to Sicily.--Demands of Gelon.--The embassadors go to
Corcyra.--The River Peneus.--The Vale of Tempe.--Straits of
Thermopylae.--Question to be decided.--Messengers from
Thessaly.--Negotiations.--Decision to defend the Olympic
Straits.--Sailing of the fleet.--Advice of the King of Macedon.--The
Gre