Polymnia   

"Master, it is not fitting that they of Athens escape scot-free,
after doing the Persians such great injury. Complete the work which
thou hast now in hand, and then, when the pride of Egypt is brought
low, lead an army against Athens. So shalt thou thyself have good
report among men, and others shall fear hereafter to attack thy
country."
Thus far it was of vengeance that he spoke; but sometimes he would
vary the theme, and observe by the way, "that Europe was a wondrous
beautiful region, rich in all kinds of cultivated trees, and the
soil excellent: no one, save the king, was worthy to own such a land."
All this he said, because he longed for adventures, and hoped to
become satrap of Greece under the king; and after a while he had his
way, and persuaded Xerxes to do according to his desires. Other
things, however, occurring about the same time, helped his
persuasions. For, in the first place, it chanced that messengers
arrived from Thessaly, sent by the Aleuadae, Thessalian kings, to
invite Xerxes into Greece, and to promise him all the assistance which
it was in their power to give. And further, the Pisistratidae, who had
come up to Susa, held the same language as the Aleuadae, and worked
upon him even more than they, by means of Onomacritus of Athens, an
oracle-monger, and the same who set forth the prophecies of Musaeus in
their order. The Pisistratidae had previously been at enmity with this
man, but made up the quarrel before they removed to Susa. He was
banished from Athens by Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus, because he
foisted into the writings of Musaeus a prophecy that the islands which
lie off Lemnos would one day disappear in the sea. Lasus of Hermione
caught him in the act of so doing. For this cause Hipparchus
banished him, though till then they had been the closest of friends.
Now, however, he went up to Susa with the sons of Pisistratus, and
they talked very grandly of him to the king; while he, for his part,
whenever he was in the king's company, repeated to him certain of
the oracles; and while he took care to pass over all that spoke of
disaster to the barbarians, brought forward the passages which
promised them the greatest success. "'Twas fated," he told Xerxes,
"that a Persian should bridge the Hellespont, and march an army from
Asia into Greece." While Onomacritus thus plied Xerxes with his
oracles, the Pisistratidae and Aleuadae did not cease to press on
him their advice, till at last the king yielded, and agreed to lead
forth an expedition.
First, however, in the year following the death of Darius, he
marched against those who had revolted from him; and having reduced
them, and laid all Egypt under a far harder yoke than ever his
father had put upon it, he gave the government to Achaeamenes, who was
his own brother, and son to Darius. This Achaeamenes was afterwards
slain in his government by Inaros, the son of Psammetichus, a Libyan.
(SS 1.) After Egypt was subdued, Xerxes, being about to take in
hand the expedition against Athens, called together an assembly of the
noblest Persians to learn their opinions, and to lay before them his
own designs. So, when the men were met, the king spake thus to them:-
"Persians, I shall not be the first to bring in among you a new
custom- I shall but follow one which has come down to us from our
forefathers. Never yet, as our old men assure me, has our race reposed
itself, since the time when Cyrus overcame Astyages, and so we
Persians wrested the sceptre from the Medes. Now in all this God
guides us; and we, obeying his guidance, prosper greatly. What need
have I to tell you of the deeds of Cyrus and Cambyses, and my own
father Darius, how many nations they conquered, and added to our
dominions? Ye know right well what great things they achieved. But for
myself, I will say that, from the day on which I mounted the throne, I
have not ceased to consider by what means I may rival those who have
preceded me in this post of honour, and increase the power of Persia
as much as any of them. And truly I have pondered upon this, until
at last I have found out a way whereby we may at once win glory, and
likewise get possession of a land which is as large and as rich as our