mainly from those
provinces which were nearest to the future scene of it. Each district
provided such things as it naturally and most easily produced. One
contributed horses, another arms and ammunition, another ships, and
another provisions. The ships which were built were of various forms and
modes of construction, according to the purposes which they were
respectively intended to serve. Some were strictly ships of war,
intended for actual combat; others were transports, their destination
being simply the conveyance of troops or of military stores. There were
also a large number of vessels, which were built on a peculiar model,
prescribed by the engineers, being very long and straight-sided, and
smooth and flat upon their decks. These were intended for the bridge
across the Hellespont. They were made long, so that, when placed side by
side across the stream, a greater breadth might be given to the platform
of the bridge. All these things were very deliberately and carefully
planned.

Although it was generally on the Asiatic side of the AEgean Sea that
these vast works of preparation were going on, and the crossing of the
Hellespont was to be the first great movement of the Persian army, the
reader must not suppose that, even at this time, the European shores
were wholly in the hands of the Greeks. The Persians had, long before,
conquered Thrace and a part of Macedon; and thus the northern shores of
the AEgean Sea, and many of the islands, were already in Xerxes's hands.
The Greek dominions lay further south, and Xerxes did not anticipate any
opposition from the enemy, until his army, after crossing the strait,
should have advanced to the neighborhood of Athens. In fact, all the
northern country through which his route would lie was already in his
hands, and in passing through it he anticipated no difficulties except
such as should arise from the elements themselves, and the physical
obstacles of the way. The Hellespont itself was, of course, one
principal point of danger. The difficulty here was to be surmounted by
the bridge of boats. There was, however, another point, which was, in
some respects, still more formidable: it was the promontory of Mount
Athos.

By looking at the map of Greece, placed at the commencement of the next
chapter, the reader will see that there are two or three singular
promontories jutting out from the main land in the northwestern part of
the AEgean Sea. The most northerly and the largest