this
particular story, we will add, that some people think that Mardonius was
really the ghost by whose appearance Artabanus and Xerxes were so
dreadfully frightened.

CHAPTER IV.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF GREECE.

B.C. 481

Orders to the provinces.--Mode of raising money.--Modern mode of
securing supplies of arms and money.--Xerxes's preparations.--Four years
allotted to them.--Arms.--Provisions.--Building of ships.--Persian
possessions on the north of the AEgean Sea.--Promontory of Mount
Athos.--Dangerous navigation.--Plan of Xerxes for the march of his
expedition.--Former shipwreck of Mardonius.--Terrible gale.--Destruction
of Mardonius's fleet at Mount Athos.--Plan of a canal.--The Greeks do
not interfere.--Plans of the engineers.--Prosecution of the work.--The
Strymon bridged.--Granaries and store-houses.--Xerxes leaves Susa, and
begins his march.--The Meander.--Celaenae.--Pythius.--The wealth of
Pythius.--His interview with Xerxes.--The amount of Pythius's
wealth.--His offer to Xerxes.--Gratification of Xerxes.--His reply to
Pythius's offer.--Real character of Pythius.--The entertainment of
silver and gold.--Xerxes's gratitude put to the test.--He murders
Pythius's son.--Various objects of interest observed by the army.--The
plane-tree.--Artificial honey.--Salt lake.--Gold and silver
mines.--Xerxes summons the Greeks to surrender.--They indignantly
refuse.

As soon as the invasion of Greece was finally decided upon, the orders
were transmitted to all the provinces of the empire, requiring the
various authorities and powers to make the necessary preparations. There
were men to be levied, arms to be manufactured, ships to be built, and
stores of food to be provided. The expenditures, too, of so vast an
armament as Xerxes was intending to organize, would require a large
supply of money. For all these things Xerxes relied on the revenues and
the contributions of the provinces, and orders, very full and very
imperative, were transmitted, accordingly, to all the governors and
satraps of Asia, and especially to those who ruled over the countries
which lay near the western confines of the empire, and consequently near
the Greek frontiers.

In modern times it is the practice of powerful nations to accumulate
arms and munitions of war on storage in arsenals and naval depots, so
that the necessary supplies for very extended operations, whether of
attack or defense, can be procured in a very short pe