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 Ægean 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.--Celænæ.--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 depôts, so that the necessary supplies for very extended operations, whether of attack or defense, can be procured in a very short period of time. In respect to funds, too, modern nations have a great advantage over those of former days, in case of any sudden emergency arising to call for great and unusual expenditures. In consequence of the vast accumulation of capital in the hands of private individuals, and the confidence which is felt in the mercantile honor and good faith of most established governments at the present day, these governments can procure indefinite supplies of gold and silver at any time, by promising to pay an annual interest in lieu of the principal borrowed. It is true that, in these cases, a stipulation is made, by which the government may, at a certain specified period, pay back the principal, and so extinguish the annuity; but in respect to a vast portion of the amount so borrowed, it is not expected that this repayment will ever be made. The creditors, in fact, do not desire that it should be, as owners of property always prefer a safe annual income from it to the custody of the principal; and thus governments in good credit have sometimes induced their creditors to abate the rate of interest which they were receiving, by threatening otherwise to pay the debt in full.