Xerxes I is one of the greatest Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty. Ruled the Persian Empire from 486 to 465. BC e. The Persian king Xerxes was called "the king of all kings." He ascended the royal throne at the age of 35.
The character and appearance of Xerxes
Historians of the East considered the Persian king an experienced warrior and a just statesman. The tsar himself called himself wise, protecting the law and just in punishment, protecting the oppressed, never drawing hasty conclusions or making hasty decisions, carefully considering all matters. He also considered himself cruel when he punished for wrongdoing, and very generous when he encouraged achievements before the empire.
Xerxes himself considered himself well-built physically, which made him a good warrior. Herodotus confirmed the fact that King Xerxes was a tall and stately warrior, handsome in the prime of his youth.
Xerxes' reign
At the beginning of his reign, King Xerxes had to face a series of uprisings that needed to be filed. During the life of his father Darius, a major uprising began in Egypt. The young tsar managed to suppress the uprising a year after his accession. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and Egypt was subjected to further infringement.
In the same year, the Babylonians revolted, but the rebellion was soon suppressed. In 482, the uprising began again, but already in 481 the city was recaptured, and a trial would be held over the rebels. The city itself was plundered by Xerxes, and most of it became uninhabited.
Wars with the Greeks
When the uprisings ended, the king urgently began to prepare for a new campaign against the Greeks. Several Greek states expressed their support for Persia (Argos, Thessaly), the rest were preparing for defense. Sparta led an alliance against the Persians in 481.
In the summer of 480, the Persian army entered the territory of Greece with an army of two hundred thousand.
Battle of Thermopylae
To conquer Athens and Sparta, the Persians had to pass through the Thermopylae gorge. To his surprise, King Xerxes there met with resistance from the Spartans. Several hundred Spartan warriors and several thousand warriors from other city-states settled in a phalanx in the narrow Thermopylae Gorge.
The defense was led by the king of Sparta Leonid himself. The Greeks fought off the attacks of the Persians for two days, while having an army ten times smaller than that of the Persians. On the third day, the Persians bypassed the gorge from the rear, and the defenses were broken. However, the losses were colossal, killing several hundred Greeks, the Persians losing tens of thousands.
Sack of Athens
After Xerxes passed through Thermopylae, he began to besiege Athens, which were eventually plundered, several hundred soldiers were taken prisoner. The Persian army did not meet significant resistance.
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis became almost decisive in the Greco-Persian wars, since in cases of defeat, many Greeks faced captivity and death. The Persians had a huge advantage in the number of ships, although they could not use this advantage. A strong wind began and the Persian ships were thrown one on one. The weather helped the Greeks gain victory.
Decisive Battle - Plataea
In 479, the Battle of Plataea took place. The Greeks had at their disposal 30 thousand soldiers, and the Persians about 70 thousand. But despite the numerical advantage, the Persians were defeated and were forced to retreat.
After the defeat in Plataea, Xerxes decided to end the war with Greece and took up state affairs.
State of affairs in the country
Many satraps were dissatisfied with the fact that Xerxes had lost the war to the Greeks and many thought about an uprising. But, despite the unrest, King Xerxes began an active construction policy, and also carried out a religious reform.
Murder
Around 467, famine broke out in the country, and grain prices increased by about 7 times. Xerxes removed high-ranking officials from their posts, for which, according to historians, he was killed in his bedroom in 465. Perhaps, his son Artaxerxes I had a hand in his murder, who after the death of his father became king.
Persian king Xerxes I (born about 519 BC - death 465 BC) King of the Achaemenid state (486 BC). He headed the Persian campaign to Greece (480–479 BC), which ended in defeat and marked the end of the first stage.
After the death of Darius I Hystaspes, his son, Xerxes I, ascended the throne of the Achaemenids. The new king of kings immediately faced military problems. The huge state was restless. Some of the provinces were out of control. 484 BC e. the Persian king Xerxes was forced to go to pacify the rebellious Egypt. Then came the news of the rebellion in Babylon. The Persian army invaded Mesopotamia, destroyed fortifications, plundered temples and destroyed the main shrine of the Babylonians - the statue of the god Marduk.
The successful pacification of the rebellious, perhaps, turned Xerxes' head, and he began to think about the seizure of new territories. Xerxes fully inherited his father's hatred of the Greeks. But, remembering the failures of Darius and being very circumspect, he did not rush. The king of kings pondered for a long time, and his entourage were perplexed: they were convinced that little Hellas, on whose territory there were many city-states, would not be able to withstand the might of a huge Persian army.
In the end, the king called those close to him for advice. He told them his plans to build a huge pontoon bridge across the Hellespont (present-day Dardanelles). The Persian king Xerxes was determined not only to fulfill his father's behest and capture Greece. He intended to turn all states into one, that is, to come to world domination. The military leaders could not help but support the idea of \u200b\u200bXerxes. In the eastern despotism, which was the Achaemenid state, it was not customary to contradict the lord. Those who had their own opinion could easily say goodbye not only to the situation, but also to the head.
Preparations for the campaign continued for four years. Finally, the titanic work on the construction of the bridge was completed. The Persian troops were already ready to cross over to Europe. However, a terrible storm destroyed the gigantic structure. Then the king ordered to cut off the heads of the builders, among whom the overwhelming majority were the Phoenicians and Egyptians subject to the Persians. In addition, by order of the formidable ruler, the strait was carved with a whip, and the fetters were thrown into the sea. At that distant time, people were still animating natural objects, and the king sincerely believed that the rebellious strait, after punishment, would feel the full force of the anger of the great Xerxes.
The bridge was rebuilt. In addition to the fact that the ships could now safely bypass the dangerous place in the strait, a channel was dug. For this they dug up a whole mountain. The Persian king Xerxes had as many human resources as he wanted: 20 satrapy provinces regularly supplied labor.
480 BC e., August - the troops safely crossed to Europe. For 7 days and nights, the troops marched across the bridge without stopping. Persians, Assyrians, Parthians, Khorezmians, Sogdians, Bactrians, Indians, Arabs, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Thracians, Libyans, Phrygians, Cappadocians, the inhabitants of the Caucasus - this is an incomplete list of the peoples who were part of the army of Xerxes.
According to Herodotus, in the army of Xerxes there were 1 million 700 thousand infantry, 80 thousand riders on horseback and 20 thousand on camels, auxiliary troops. The total number of soldiers, in his opinion, reached more than five million people. In fact, according to scientists, the number of troops did not exceed 100 thousand, but even this figure at that time can be considered huge. In addition, the ground forces were supported by a fleet of 700-800 ships.
Xerxes had no doubt of victory. Well, what could the Greeks oppose to his military power? Smiling smugly, he declared: “In my army, everyone is under the control of one person. The whip will drive them into battle, fear of me will make them brave. If I order, everyone will do the impossible. Are the Greeks who talk about freedom capable of this? " However, it was precisely this desire for freedom that helped the Hellenes to survive in a fierce struggle with the most powerful empire of that time.
Having entered the land of Hellas, the king first of all tried to let the news of his advance reach the Greek cities as quickly as possible. For this, the first captured Greek scouts were not executed, but released, showing the army and fleet. Ambassadors were sent to the policies demanding "land and water." But to the hated Athens and Sparta, the Persian king did not send anyone, making it clear to their inhabitants that there would be no mercy for them. But Xerxes' expectations did not come true: only Thessaly and Boeotia agreed to recognize his power. The rest began to prepare for a rebuff.
The Athenian strategist Themistocles, elected in 482 BC. e., in a short time was able to create a powerful fleet. He, as Plutarch wrote, "put an end to the internecine wars in Hellas and reconciled individual states among themselves, convincing them to postpone enmity in view of the war with Persia."
According to the plan of the allies, they decided to give battle to the enemy on land and at sea. To Cape Artemisia on the coast of Euboea, 300 ships-triremes were sent, and the army, led by it, moved to Thessaly. Here, in the Thermopylae gorge, the Greeks expected a formidable enemy.
Xerxes waited four days for news of the naval battle. When it became known that half of his fleet was scattered by the storm, and the rest suffered heavy losses and could not break through to the coast, the king sent scouts to find out what the Greeks were doing. He hoped that, seeing the superiority of the enemy, they would retreat. However, the Greeks stubbornly remained in place. Then Xerxes moved the army. Sitting in a chair, he watched the progress from the top of the mountain. The Greeks continued to stand. The "immortals" were thrown into battle, but they could not achieve success either.
It became clear that the position of the Greeks was extremely beneficial, and their courage had no boundaries. Perhaps the king of the Persians, Xerxes, would have had to look for another way, but among the local residents there was a traitor who, for a reward, showed the Persians a detour path. The defenders of the gorge noticed that they were surrounded. The commander of the Greeks, Tsar Leonidas, released the allies. With him remained 300 Spartans, 400 Thebans and 700 Thespians. After a fierce battle, they all died. The furious Xerxes ordered to find the body of Leonidas. He was beheaded, and his head was planted on a spear.
The army of the Persians advanced to Athens. Themistocles persuaded his fellow citizens to leave the city. He was confident that the Athenians would take revenge not on land, but at sea. But not all allies agreed with the opinion of their commander. Endless bickering began. Then the strategist sent his slave to Xerxes, who again waited, hoping for disagreements in the enemy camp. The slave told Xerxes that the Greeks were going to retreat at night, and Themistocles wants to go over to the side of the Persians and advises to start an offensive at night.
Xerxes showed unforgivable credulity. Apparently, he was so confident in his own strength that he did not even think about a possible trap. the Persian king ordered the fleet to close all exits from the Strait of Salam so that not a single enemy ship could escape from him. Themistocles wanted to achieve this: now the ships of the Spartans and Corinthians could not leave the Athenians. It was decided to fight.
(480 BC) was attended by 1000 Persian ships and 180 Greek ships. On the shore, under a gilded canopy, the Persian king Xerxes sat on a throne, watching the battle. Nearby were courtiers and scribes who were supposed to describe the great victory of the Persians. But the clumsy Persian ships, forced to operate in a narrow strait, were much inferior to the high-speed Greek triremes. The latter went to the ram and easily dodged the enemy.
As a result, most of Xerxes' fleet was sunk. The bulk of the Persians who did not know how to swim drowned. Those who reached the coast were exterminated by the Greek infantry. Finally the Persians fled. The surviving ships were destroyed by the inhabitants of Aegina, who set up an ambush.
The remnants of the Persian army moved towards the bridge over the Hellespont. Themistocles wanted to destroy it, but heeded the advice of the former strategist of Athens Aristides. He believed that the trapped Persian warriors would fight desperately and many Greeks would die.
They say that the king of kings returned home on a ship that was extremely crowded. During a heavy storm, the helmsman addressed him: “Master! We must lighten the ship! " - and the king ordered his subjects to leave the ship. Those themselves began to throw themselves overboard, where they, who did not know how to swim, were inevitable death. Having safely reached the coast, Xerxes presented the helmsman with a golden ring for saving his life and immediately ... ordered to cut off the head of the savior because he had killed so many Persians.
But not all of the Persian army left Hellas. By order of Xerxes, troops were left in Thessaly, which were supposed to spend the winter and continue the war in the spring. 479 BC e. - a major battle took place near the town of Plateia in Boeotia. The famous Persian commander Mardonius fell in it, with the death of which the Persians were finally broken and left the Peloponnesian peninsula. The first stage of the Greco-Persian wars was finally completed.
Xerxes had to part with dreams of world domination forever. His destiny was the exaltation of the capital of Persepolis. The construction of the palace, begun under Darius, was completed, and a new one was built, the construction of the throne room of a hundred columns began.
Meanwhile, there was a relentless struggle for influence at court. The courtiers and even members of the Xerxes family never ceased to intrigue. Xerxes grew more and more suspicious. Once, when the queen reported that his brother was preparing an assassination attempt, the king ordered the destruction of his entire family.
The courtiers, all the more, could not count on the pity of the king. Apparently, because in the summer of 465 BC. e. Xerxes and his eldest son were killed by conspirators led by Minister Artaban. Another son of the king, Artaxerxes I, ascended the throne, but the golden age of the Achaemenid dynasty went into the past along with the warlike Persian king Xerxes I, who had become firmly established in history.
The Persian king Xerxes I is one of the most famous characters in the ancient history of mankind. Actually, it was this ruler who led his troops to Greece in the first half of the 5th century. It was he who fought with the Athenian hoplites in the Battle of Marathon and with the Spartans in the very battle of Thermopylae, widely promoted today in popular literature and cinema.
Marathon battle
The first general battle of the Persian landing and the Greek troops was the Battle of Marathon, which took place in 490 BC. Thanks to the talent of the Greek general Miltiades, who competently used the hoplite formation, their long spears, and the sloping terrain, the Athenians won a victory, stopping the first Persian invasion of their country. It is interesting that this battle is associated with the modern sports discipline of marathon running, which is a distance of 42 km. That is how much the ancient messenger ran from the battlefield to Athens to announce the victory of his compatriots and fall dead. Preparations for a more massive invasion were thwarted by the death of Darius. The new Persian king Xerxes I ascended the throne, continuing his father's work.
The second invasion began in 480 BC. King Xerxes led a large army of 200 thousand people. Macedonia and Thrace were conquered very quickly, after which the invasion of Boeotia, Attica and Peloponnese began from the north. Even the coalition forces of the Greek city-states could not withstand such numerous forces assembled from the many peoples of the Persian Empire. A faint hope for the Greeks was the opportunity to take the battle in a narrow place through which the Persian army passed on its way to the south of Thermopylae. The enemy's numerical advantage here would not be so noticeable at all, which left hopes for victory. The legend that the Persian king Xerxes was almost beaten here by three hundred Spartan warriors is somewhat exaggerated. In fact, from 5 to 7 thousand Greek soldiers from different policies, not only Spartan, took part in this battle. And for the width of the gorge, this amount was more than enough to successfully hold back the enemy for two days. The disciplined Greek phalanx kept the line evenly, really stopping the hordes of the Persians. No one knows how the battle would have ended, but the Greeks were betrayed by one of the inhabitants of the local village of Ephialtes. A man who showed the Persians a workaround. When King Leonidas learned of the betrayal, he sent troops to the poleis to regroup his forces, remaining on the defensive and holding back the Persians with a small detachment. Now there really were very few of them, about 500 souls. However, no miracle happened, almost all the defenders were killed on the same day.
In the early years of his reign, Xerxes was forced to start strengthening his power, but above all he declared his loyalty to the moral and ethical principles previously formulated by his father. In 484 BC. the king ruthlessly suppressed the uprising in Egypt and subsequently treated the country as a conquered province. The next mutiny in the summer of 484 BC. was the rebellion of Babylon, which was suppressed only by March 481 BC. After the city was taken by storm, the city walls and fortifications of Babylon were torn down, the main sanctuaries of the city were damaged, some of the priests were executed, and most importantly the golden statue of the supreme god Marduk was taken to Persepolis and probably melted down. This reduced Babylon to the position of a lower satrapy, and the capital of the Babylonian kingdom, which was formally considered separate and part of the Achaemenid Empire, lost its political significance.
Preparation and hike to Greece
In 483 BC. Xerxes formally ordered to begin all the necessary preparations for the expedition against the Greeks. To prevent the fleet from falling victim to the storm, as happened in 492 BC. at Cape Athos, it was decided to dig a canal across the sandy isthmus in the eastern part of the Halkidika peninsula. On the Hellespont, near Abydos, 2 pontoon bridges were built with a length of about 1300 m. All these works took about 3 years. In addition, food was procured and warehouses were set up along the coast of Macedonia and Thrace. The military expedition began in 481 BC. when a huge Persian army, led by the great king, left Cappadocia and, having crossed Galis, arrived through Phrygia and Lydia to the Hellespont. However, another storm destroyed both bridges, and an angry Xerxes ordered to scourge the recalcitrant sea, and then immerse the fetters in its waters. In the spring of 480 BC. the army of the Persians, crossing the strait, without encountering any resistance, moved through Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly. At Thermopylae on 11 August 480 BC Greeks and Persians first faced off on land, while several battles also took place at sea. These battles showed Xerxes that it would not be so easy to conquer the Greeks. The following battles at Salamis, Plataea and Mikale forced the Persians to abandon the idea of \u200b\u200bconquering Greece. Xerxes himself, after the Battle of Salamis, was forced to urgently go to the east, because a new uprising began in Babylon.
According to the testimony of Ctesias, by the end of his life, Xerxes was under the strong influence of the head of the royal guard Artaban and the eunuch Aspamitra. Probably, the position of Xerxes at this time was not very strong. In any case, we know from the Persepolian documents that in 467, that is, 2 years before the assassination of Xerxes, famine reigned in Persia, the royal barns were empty and the price of grain rose seven times compared to ordinary ones. In order to somehow calm the disaffected, Xerxes dismissed about a hundred government officials within a year, starting with the most senior ones. In August 465 Artaban and Aspamitra, apparently not without the intrigues of Artaxerxes, Xerxes' youngest son, killed the king at night in his bedroom. Xerxes' eldest son Darius was killed at the same time.
Sources: fb.ru, www.vokrugsveta.ru, otvet.mail.ru, 900igr.net, istoria.kak-zachem.ru
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I. Even before accession, the latter had three sons from the daughter of one of his associates (during the coup of 522 BC) Gaubaruva. Then, after Daryavakhush ascended the throne, the daughter of Kurush II Atoss bore him four more sons. Reflecting on which of them will inherit the royal power after him, Dariavakhush finally opted for Hshayarsha.
When he became king in December 486 BC, he was faced with two difficult tasks: to suppress the rebellions in the satrapies and to carry out the conquest of Greece (preparations for this war were intensively conducted during all the last years of Daryavakhush's rule). By 484 BC Khshayarsha managed to put an end to the uprising in Egypt that had begun during his father's lifetime. But immediately after this, in the summer of 484 BC, the Babylonians rebelled. The performance was led by a certain Belshimanni, who managed to capture Babylon, Borsippa and Dilbat. It was soon defeated, but in 482 BC the revolt was repeated under the leadership of Shamashriva. The tsarist commander Bagabukhsha managed to take the city only in March 481 BC. The Persians robbed the Babylonian temples and destroyed the fortifications that were still preserved. The golden statue of the god Marduk was taken to Persepolis and probably melted down. The Babylonian kingdom, which formally continued to exist up to this time (all the Persian kings, including Hshayarsha himself, were crowned as the kings of Babylon upon accession to the Persian throne), was abolished, and Babylonia was reduced to the position of an ordinary satrapy.
Only having accomplished all this, Hshayarsha was able to start a long-prepared campaign against Hellas. In the spring of 480 BC, a huge Persian army set out from Cappadocia. In terms of its scale, this enterprise had no equal in the history of the Achaemenid state. All 46 peoples subject to the Persians took part in the campaign, putting up a large number of foot and mounted soldiers, as well as many ships. (The total number of Persian troops, according to Herodotus, exceeded 5 million people. Modern historians consider this figure to be many times exaggerated and believe that there could not be more than 100 thousand people in the Persian land army. about 1400) There were hardly more than 700 of them, and only 200 were high-speed.) Having crossed to Europe on the pontoon bridge built over the Hellespont, Hshayarsha easily passed Thrace and Macedonia. The Thessalians - inhabitants of Northern Greece - also expressed obedience to the king. But when the Persian army approached the Thermopylae pass (through which the path from Thessaly to Central Greece lay), it was blocked by a small Greek detachment (6500 people) led by the Spartan king Leonidas I. Hshayarsha did not start the battle for four days, expecting that Leonidas would be afraid numerous Persian troops and himself retreat from the passage. When this did not happen, he began one after another to send his troops into a frontal attack. On the first day, the Medes and Kissians fought with the Greeks. However, they were unable to dislodge the Greeks from the narrowest point of Thermopylae and retreated with heavy losses. Then the king threw his Persian guard against Leonidas - a detachment of immortals. They were brave warriors, but it was very difficult for them to fight in the gorge. The Greek hoplites, despite the fact that there were much less of them, managed to repel all the desperate attacks of the enemy. On the third day of the fighting, the Persians managed to find out about a secret path that, bypassing the mountain, led the Greek soldiers to the rear. Moving along it, the Persians surrounded the army of Leonidas (having released the allies, he remained to defend their withdrawal with some Spartans and Thespians) and killed them all to the last man.
At the same time, a struggle at sea unfolded. Here the Persians, as in the days of Daryavakhush, were in a lot of trouble due to bad weather. Off the coast of Magnesia, near Cape Artemisium, their fleet was caught in a severe storm. The storm raged for three days, and during this time several hundred Persian ships sank. Then, in August 480 BC, a great naval battle took place at Cape Artemisium. It lasted three days. Both sides suffered heavy losses, but failed to achieve a decisive advantage. Finally, having learned about the capture of Thermopylae by the enemy, the Greeks retreated. Hshayarsha captured Doris, Phocis, Lokris and other regions of Central Greece without a fight. The Boeotians themselves went over to his side, and the Athenians, unable to defend their city, left it without a fight and crossed with all their household and property to the island of Salamis. The Persians took possession of empty Athens and burned them to the ground.
The outcome of the war was decided in the Salamis naval battle, in which more than 800 ships participated from both sides. It took place on September 28, 480 BC in the Gulf of Salam near Athens. From the very beginning, the Persians occupied a very uncomfortable position - their large and heavy ships huddled in a narrow place and were deprived of freedom of maneuver. Therefore, despite their great courage and numerical superiority, the battle ended with a heavy defeat for them. Most of the Persian fleet was destroyed. The domination of the sea passed to the Greeks, however, with significant land forces, Hshayarsha still hoped to win the war. He himself went to Asia, but left in Greece a significant part of his army (40-50 thousand soldiers), led by Mardonius. In 479 BC there was a great land battle at Plataea. In it, the Persians were finally defeated, and Mardonius died. In the same year, the Greeks landed in Asia Minor and again defeated the Persians at Mikale in Ionia. This victory was the signal for the revolt of the Ionians. All the islands of the Aegean Sea soon drove out the Persian garrisons and joined the anti-Persian naval alliance led by the Athenians. The war continued in subsequent years. In 466 BC, the Greeks at Eurymedon (in southern Asia Minor) won a double victory over a large Persian army - at sea and on land. After her, the Aegean Sea finally came under their control.
The inner life of Persian society at this time can be learned from the works of Greek historians. So, Herodotus gives an interesting cut of the mores that prevail at the Persian court. In the ninth book of his work, he tells how Hshayarsha was inflamed with passion for the wife of his brother Masist. However, no matter how hard he tried, he failed to persuade her to have a love affair. In order to somehow get closer to this woman, the king arranged the marriage of her daughter Artainta with his son Daryavakhush. But, having accepted this young girl into his house, the king suddenly lost interest in the wife of the Masist and fell in love with Artaina, who soon gave herself up to him. Hshayarsha's wife Amestrid found out about this relationship and was furious with jealousy. However, she turned her anger not to her husband's mistress, but to her mother, since she was considered the culprit of this relationship. On the king's birthday, when Hshayarsha, according to Persian custom, had to fulfill any desire of his wife, Amestrida asked him for a gift from his brother's wife. Hshayarsha involuntarily had to fulfill this desire. Having got the unfortunate, the queen ordered the bodyguards to cut off her breasts, as well as her nose, ears and lips, cut out her tongue and send her home in this form. The masist, seeing his wife so terribly mutilated, immediately fled. He hoped to get to Bactria (where he was a satrap) and raise a rebellion there, but Hshayarsha sent a detachment of loyal people in pursuit of him. They overtook the king's brother on the way and killed along with all his sons. Hshayarsha himself did not die a natural death either - he was killed by the conspirators - the chief of the guard Artaban, with the assistance of the eunuch Aspamitra, in August 465 BC right in his bedroom while sleeping.
Having decided to go to Greece, Xerxes actively set about preparations for the campaign. They were produced on an enormous scale throughout the Persian kingdom. For two whole years (483–481 BC) Xerxes gathered an army. The news of Herodotus about this is probably borrowed from the folk Greek traditions and Persian legends, like his stories about the mercy of Cyrus; but, even though we greatly reduced the figures he cites as exaggerated by popular fantasy, nevertheless we must say that Xerxes' preparations for the conquest of Greece were colossal. The coastal peoples: the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cilicians, Cypriots, and especially the Greeks of the Anatolian coast and the islands of the Aegean Sea, prepared warships and transport ships for the army of Xerxes; and experienced craftsmen of peoples skilled in engineering, the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Greeks, were sent to dig an 80-foot canal across the isthmus of the Cape Athos near the city of Sana'a so that the fleet could pass here without having to go around the cape, at the end of which storms constantly raged. and the ships of the previous expedition were lost; other craftsmen, meanwhile, were building two bridges across the Hellespont (Dardanelles) at the narrowest point of the strait, near the city of Sista; there, from the rocky outcropping at Madith to Abydos, the strait is only 5,000 feet wide. Ships were placed across the strait on strong ropes, a platform of logs was laid on the ships, enclosing it with railings. On the "White Coast" near the Hellespont and in all Greek cities along the Thracian coast as far as Macedonia, huge reserves of provisions for soldiers and feed for horses and for livestock were prepared, huge herds of which were to follow the army for its food. Xerxes issued a command that all the peoples of all regions of his kingdom should send troops to march on Greece.
“There was not a single people in Asia that Xerxes would not have led to this war,” says Herodotus. "He ordered some peoples to prepare warships, others to send infantry, or cavalry, or ships to transport horses, or long ships to build bridges, or ships with provisions." Xerxes was so sure of victory that when the Greek scouts were captured in Sardis, tortured by the chief of the troops of that region and condemned to death, he ordered them to be released and to show them all the army. The ships sailing from Pontus (Black Sea) to Greece with cargoes of bread, he allowed to continue sailing freely, saying that the Persians would use the bread they would bring to Greece.
1. The channel across the Athos isthmus was dug for three years. Herodotus tells about it this way (VII, 22 et seq.): “The ships stopped at the Chersonesus city of Eleunt; they brought many soldiers of all kinds of tribes; these warriors, forced to work with whips, dug the canal in turn. The inhabitants of Athos also dug. The work was watched by the Persians Bubar and Artakhei. Where the cape adjoins the mainland, its isthmus is 12 stadia (about 2 versts) wide; it is a plain with small hills. The barbarians divided the work among different nations and drew the canal line quite directly across the isthmus from the city of Sana'a. When the canal was dug, almost all the peoples of the kingdom of Xerxes dug it of the same width both above and below; because its walls were constantly collapsing, and those people did a double job for themselves! Only the Phoenicians showed here, as elsewhere, intelligence and art. They dug the width of the channel at the top twice as much as it should have been the width of the bottom of it and made its walls sloping, digging it the lower, the narrower. There is also a meadow there; there they had a market, and they received flour from Asia in large quantities. " The channel had such a width that two triremes could run side by side; the entrance and exit from it were reinforced with dams. The workers who dug the canal also built a bridge over the Strimon.
2. The bridges for the passage of Xerxes' troops across the Hellespont were built in this way: they put fifty-oared ships and triremes in a row; the bridge that was closer to Pontus had 360 of them, and the other bridge - 314, fifty-oared ships were placed obliquely, and triremes along the stream. After setting up the ship, they dropped large anchors, because there is a strong wind. For the passage of small ships of Xerxes, passages were left in three places. Having set the ships at anchor, they pulled strong ropes through them and pulled them with wooden capstans; the Phoenician ropes were of linen, while the Egyptian ropes were made of biblos. The linen ropes were so thick that an elbow weighed a pound. Pulling the ropes, they made the bridge deck from logs as long as the bridge should have been; the logs were laid tightly to one another and tied with ropes. Planks were laid on the logs, earth was poured onto the plank platform and trampled down firmly. At the bridge that was to the west, a fence was made on both sides so that the one for which this bridge was assigned would not see the sea and would not be afraid. The bridge that was closer to Pontus was intended for the passage of the troops of Xerxes.
In the fall (481), the troops of the eastern and northeastern mountain regions gathered in the Cappadocian city of Kritalla, where Xerxes came to them and led them on the royal road through Comana, Ankira, Pessinunt, Colossus, Colossus, Collateb to the main city of Lydia, Sardis.
In Keleni lived Pythias, the richest man in the world; he made a fine feast for the whole army and placed all his treasures at the disposal of the king; Xerxes richly rewarded him and gave him the title of his friend. On a sycamore of extraordinary beauty, Xerxes hung a gold ornament and left a warrior from the squad of immortals as the guardian of this tree. - Followers of the teachings of Zarathustra had a religious respect for tall and beautiful trees.
In Sardis, Xerxes heard that a storm had broken the bridges on the Hellespont; he ordered the heads of the builders to be cut off because they did not know how to do the job firmly. According to the stories of the Greeks, Xerxes ordered to whip the sea: to give the recalcitrant elements 300 blows with a whip and throw shackles into it. Troop bridges were rebuilt and held together with thicker ropes; the sea submitted to the yoke imposed on it.
In the spring of 480, Xerxes' army marched from Sardis to the Hellespont. Then again messengers were sent to Greece to demand that land and water be given to the king. Xerxes told them not to travel to Athens and Sparta. The army marched along the coast, through Atarney and Adramitti. In front of Sardis, two halves of a dissected human body lay on the sides of the road. This was the eldest son of a Kelenian rich man: Pythias, in the hope of the favor shown to him by Xerxes, asked that one of his five sons, who were in the army, be left for him to supervise the household. Indignant at this request, Xerxes acted as his father Darius at a similar request from Eobaz: ordered to kill the eldest son of the petitioner and put the severed body on the road as a warning to everyone. When Xerxes' army marched across the land where Troy used to stand, Scamander's water was not enough for this multitude of people and animals to drink. The magicians and the king made a sacrifice of 1000 bulls on the Pergamon hill. According to Herodotus, Xerxes visited the place where Priam's palace stood and listened to stories about the Trojan War. On the Abydos plain, a high stage was built of white stone; Xerxes looked from her at his enormous army and navy. He took it into his head to look at an approximate battle of ships. It was arranged; the victory was won by the Sidonians. Looking out over the Hellespont, covered with ships, the coastal area and the Abydos fields covered with an army, Xerxes, according to Herodotus, said that he was happy, and then wept at the thought of the brevity of human life. Artaban, taking advantage of this mood, repeated to him his objections to the campaign against Greece; but even now they were in vain, Xerxes appointed him the ruler of the state during his absence, and he returned to Susa.
On the day from which the crossing of Xerxes' troops began, the magicians early in the morning performed prayers at the bridges, burning incense on the altars, and strewn the road with myrtle branches. When the sun appeared, Xerxes took a golden sacrificial bowl, raised it with a prayer to the sun god that the conquest of Europe would not meet obstacles, and threw, according to the story of Herodotus, this bowl, a golden goblet and a Persian sword into the waves of the Hellespont.
The first to cross the bridge was a detachment of 10,000 immortals with wreaths on their heads. Troops of different nations followed them. On the second day, Xerxes himself went with the army. Ahead were 1000 horse and 1000 foot bodyguards, selected warriors, also decorated with wreaths; then they led ten sacred horses, splendidly decorated; behind them rode the sacred chariot of Mithra; she was carried by eight white horses. Xerxes followed her, surrounded by his relatives, companions and friends: there were both Pisistratus and Demarat. The royal retinue was again followed by detachments of horse and foot bodyguards. Stopping on the European coast, Xerxes watched the rest of the army cross the bridge; the troops marched across the bridge for seven days and seven nights between the ranks of people stationed on either side with whips in hand to maintain order.
Having crossed the bridges, the army of Xerxes went along the Thracian Chersonesos past the cities of Kardia and Agora, then turned west to Dorisk; there, on the plain of Gebra, a review was appointed. The fleet, consisting of 1200 triremes, entered the Enos harbor, at the mouth of the Gebra; transport ships were pulled ashore between the Zone and Salo; there were 3000; most of them were sea boats with 30 rowers each. The bridges were ordered to be left intact; their protection was entrusted to the inhabitants of Abydos.
Xerxes' army: Persian standard bearer, Armenian and Cappadocian soldiers (from left to right)
On the plain near the city of Dorisk, Xerxes' troops were enumerated and divided into detachments. To find out the number of all people who participated in the campaign - cavalry, infantry, sailors and servants - they counted 10,000 people, put them close to each other, outlined this place and surrounded by a fence. After that, they began to introduce other people into this fence, as much as fit, and noted how many times this was repeated; the fence was filled 170 times. Thus, according to the story of Herodotus about this account, the number of all the soldiers who went to Greece, together with the huge number of people who were on warships and transport ships or went with the train, reached an unheard of 1,700,000 people. And then the troops of the Thracians and Macedonians joined them. True, the number of servants was enormous and these people were not warriors; however, the counting method was not accurate; and, of course, his figure was greatly exaggerated by tradition; nevertheless, it must be considered reliable that Xerxes led an army of more than 800,000 men to Greece, and a fleet of 1,200 warships with a crew of up to 250,000 men.
After listing the army, distributing it according to tribes and by the type of weapon, appointing reliable commanders over the detachments from among his relatives and companions, Xerxes made a big review of the entire land army; he rode on a war chariot along the front of infantry and cavalry; the scribe sitting next to him wrote down the names of the tribes; then Xerxes inspected the fleet; he circled it in a fast Sidon ship. No other conqueror, either earlier or later, led so many different peoples to war as was in the army that Xerxes surveyed on the plain of Gebra. The warriors of each nation were in their own national dress and with their own national weapons.
Xerxes' army: Chaldean foot soldiers, Babylonian archer, Assyrian foot soldier (from left to right)
The Persian and Median infantry of Xerxes' troops wore colorful caftans, shalwar and tiaras; her weapons were: a large bow with reed arrows, a short spear and a dagger at the belt. In addition to the Persians and Medes, there were warriors from the tribes that lived in the steppes of Oxus and Yaxartes, the Scythian people of the Saki, armed with a bow and a battle ax; the troops of eastern Iran: Bactrians, Aryans, Hyrcanians, Parthians, etc. Xerxes also had troops from the banks of the Indus; their clothes were white, of paper fabric; they had bows and reed arrows; there were smooth-haired Ethiopians, who instead of helmets had the skins of horse heads with ears and manes; their shields were covered with a crane skin. There were the warlike highlanders of the southern and western shores of the Caspian Sea, in wooden helmets, with shields of ox hide. The warriors of the Euphrates and Tigris peoples wore brass helmets with elaborate decorations and linen shells; they were armed with iron-studded clubs. There were also the peoples of the south in the army of Xerxes: Arabs in white clothes with long bows, skillful arrows, Ethiopians in leopard and lion skins, with spears at the end of which instead of iron there was a sharpened gazelle horn, Libyans in leather shells. Xerxes also had the peoples of Asia Minor, long familiar to the Greeks, the Paphlagonians, the Cappadocians, the Phrygians, in boots with short tops, in woven helmets, with small shields and darts, the tip of which was simply burnt wood; the Lydians, whose weapons were almost the same as those of the Greek; Vithinians in colorful clothes, in boots made of reindeer skin, in fox hats. No less varied was the cavalry of Xerxes' army, which numbered 80,000 men. There were Medes and Persians in heavy armor on hot war horses; there were light horsemen of the nomadic Sagardians, who had a leather rope with a noose (lasso) as their only weapon; there is a life of war chariots, drawn by horses and onagra, there were half-naked Arabs on high dromedaries. Xerxes' army was followed by a myriad of carts and beasts of burden with provisions, many carriages with the concubines of the king and nobles, and many servants.
Xerxes' army: hoplite from Greek Ionia ruled by the Persians, Lydian hoplite (from left to right)
Such was the army, which now went in three divisions to Strimon through the land of the Thracian tribes and the area of \u200b\u200bthe Greek cities of Messembria, Maronea and Abdera, forcing the tribes that lived far from the sea to go with it, and the seaside cities to join their ships to the fleet. Only the warlike Bisalts, who lived in the forests of snow-covered mountains, dared to defend their independence. The population of the Greek cities, forced not only to provide ships and troops, but also to treat Xerxes with his companions, to feed the entire army during the campaign through their lands, was so devastated that they fled, abandoning their homes. The meal was all the more unprofitable because the Persians had the custom of taking all the dishes served on the table. A fleet approached the army of Xerxes in Akane; he was now even more numerous than before, since the ships of the Greek cities of the Thracian coast joined him; it now counted 1327 triremes.
The sailors and naval soldiers of Xerxes' troops were also very diverse in clothing and weapons. The Phoenicians wore linen shells; the number of Phoenician ships was 300; the number of Egyptian 200; the Egyptians wore braided helmets and armor; they were armed with iron hooks. The Cypriot kings brought 150 triremes to the aid of Xerxes' army; the kings had bandages on their heads. The number of Cilician ships was 100; the sailors were wearing helmets and woolen clothes; the weapons of the Cilicians were small round shields of cowhide, darts and swords. The Lycians sent 50 ships; their warriors had goat skins on their shoulders; Their caps were with feathers: their weapon was a bow with unfeathered reed arrows. The Carians, who had 70 triremes, were armed in almost the same way as the Greeks, and differed from them only in that they had sickles and daggers. All the Greek cities of the Asian coast and islands were also forced to send their ships; the number of their triremes extended to 427; the entire fleet of European Greece did not have such a number of ships.
Xerxes' army: Ethiopian archer, infantryman from Khorezm, infantryman from Bactria, horseman from Ariana (from left to right)
Xerxes showed great mercy to the people of Akanth for their hard work in digging the canal. From Akanthus, the army of Xerxes went through the mountainous peninsula of Halkidiki to the city of Terma. On this path, lions disturbed him: fleeing from the mountains at night, they attacked camels. The fleet, crossing the canal dug through the Isthmus of Athos, rounded the capes of Sithonia and Pallene and joined the army in the Termeisky Gulf; the army, having safely crossed the mountains, settled along the coast to the mouth of Galiakmon (5 geographical miles from Therma). The Macedonian Tsar Alexander joined with his army to the Persians and began to serve as their guide. Two routes led from Macedonia to Thessaly: one along the coast of Pieria to the mouth of the Peneus and from there along the Tempey valley; the other went through the mountains of Olympus, overgrown with forests and in many places very steep. Both routes presented such difficulties that would be almost completely insurmountable if troops were deployed in places convenient for defense. But not only the Macedonians submitted to Xerxes, the Thessalians submitted, after some hesitation. An army, consisting of the Peloponnesians and Athenians, was sent across the Strait of Euboea to the Tempe Valley. The command over him was entrusted to the Spartan Evenet and Themistocles... It consisted of 10,000 hoplites and was intended to protect, with the help of the Thessalians, the passages through the gorges of Olympus. When the Thessalians sent land and water to the Persian king, he was forced to retreat. - The coastal road turned out to be inconvenient for the Persians: in some places the rocks approached so close to the river that there was barely room for a cart to pass; Xerxes had just rode up in a Sidonian ship to look at the mouth of the Peneus. The warriors sent ahead made convenient roads through the mountains and marshes at a distance from the sea; the army passed there through the land of the Perrebes to Lapaph and Gonnes and descended from the mountains into the Peneus valley.
And here stood at the gates of Greece those innumerable troops, about which the Persian old men at Aeschylus say: they went from Susa, went from Ecbatana, from the city of the Kissians, came the horse host; others sailed on ships; the infantry, a select army, also went: cavalry armed with a bow, terrible in appearance, brave in battle, went. Like a swarm of bees, the army of Xerxes went along a rope-fortified bridge across the Gella Strait, daughter of the Atamant, laying a yoke on the sea; - arrows from Mizia, inhabitants of Saint Tmol, warriors of Babylon rich in gold in colorful clothes; the rowers from the Nile Delta, all went to enslave Greece. A strong ruler of a populous kingdom, a god-like descendant of the golden family, led the immortal warriors to the Greek land. Xerxes sat on an Assyrian war chariot, like a bloodthirsty dragon, and encouraged the troops, skillful in fighting with spears, skillful in archery, with fiery eyes of black eyes. Who can resist this multitude of people, what bulwark will hold this flood? The Persian people are courageous, the army of Xerxes is irresistible, and it is given to them to win victories and take cities.