o his power a rebellion. There was, however, no such reason in the case
of Greece. There had been two wars between Persia and the Athenians
already, it is true. In the first, the Athenians had aided their
countrymen in Asia Minor in a fruitless attempt to recover their
independence. This the Persian government considered as aiding and
abetting a rebellion. In the second, the Persians under Datis, one of
Darius's generals, had undertaken a grand invasion of Greece, and, after
landing in the neighborhood of Athens, were beaten, with immense
slaughter, at the great battle of Marathon, near that city. The former
of these wars is known in history as the Ionian rebellion; the latter as
the first Persian invasion of Greece. They had both occurred during the
reign of Darius, and the invasion under Datis had taken place not many
years before the accession of Xerxes, so that a great number of the
officers who had served in that campaign were still remaining in the
court and army of Xerxes at Susa. These wars had, however, both been
terminated, and Artabanus was very little inclined to have the contests
renewed.

Xerxes, however, was bent upon making one more attempt to conquer
Greece, and when the time arrived for commencing his preparations, he
called a grand council of the generals, the nobles, and the potentates
of the realm, to lay his plans before them. The historian who narrated
these proceedings recorded the debate that ensued in the following
manner.

Xerxes himself first addressed the assembly, to announce and explain his
designs.

"The enterprise, my friends," said he, "in which I propose now to
engage, and in which I am about to ask your co-operation, is no new
scheme of my own devising. What I design to do is, on the other hand,
only the carrying forward of the grand course of measures marked out by
my predecessors, and pursued by them with steadiness and energy, so long
as the power remained in their hands. That power has now descended to
me, and with it has devolved the responsibility of finishing the work
which they so successfully began.

"It is the manifest destiny of Persia to rule the world. From the time
that Cyrus first commenced the work of conquest by subduing Media, to
the present day, the extent of our empire has been continually widening,
until now it covers all of Asia and Africa, with the exception of the
remote and barbarous tribes, that, like the wild beasts which share
their forests with them,