Polymnia   

own nay, which is even more varied in the fruits it bears- while at
the same time we obtain satisfaction and revenge. For this cause I
have now called you together, that I may make known to you what I
design to do. (SS 2.) My intent is to throw a bridge over the
Hellespont and march an army through Europe against Greece, that
thereby I may obtain vengeance from the Athenians for the wrongs
committed by them against the Persians and against my father. Your own
eyes saw the preparations of Darius against these men; but death
came upon him, and balked his hopes of revenge. In his behalf,
therefore, and in behalf of all the Persians, I undertake the war, and
pledge myself not to rest till I have taken and burnt Athens, which
has dared, unprovoked, to injure me and my father. Long since they
came to Asia with Aristagoras of Miletus, who was one of our slaves,
and, entering Sardis, burnt its temples and its sacred groves;
again, more lately, when we made a landing upon their coast under
Datis and Artaphernes, how roughly they handled us ye do not need to
be told. (SS 3.) For these reasons, therefore, I am bent upon this
war; and I see likewise therewith united no few advantages. Once let
us subdue this people, and those neighbours of theirs who hold the
land of Pelops the Phrygian, and we shall extend the Persian territory
as far as God's heaven reaches. The sun will then shine on no land
beyond our borders; for I will pass through Europe from one end to the
other, and with your aid make of all the lands which it contains one
country. For thus, if what I hear be true, affairs stand: the
nations whereof I have spoken, once swept away, there is no city, no
country left in all the world, which will venture so much as to
withstand us in arms. By this course then we shall bring all mankind
under our yoke, alike those who are guilty and those who are
innocent of doing us wrong. (SS 4.) For yourselves, if you wish to
please me, do as follows: when I announce the time for the army to
meet together, hasten to the muster with a good will, every one of
you; and know that to the man who brings with him the most gallant
array I will give the gifts which our people consider the most
honourable. This then is what ye have to do. But to show that I am not
self-willed in this matter, I lay the business before you, and give
you full leave to speak your minds upon it openly."
Xerxes, having so spoken, held his peace.
(SS 1.) Whereupon Mardonius took the word, and said: "Of a
truth, my lord, thou dost surpass, not only all living Persians, but
likewise those yet unborn. Most true and right is each word that
thou hast now uttered; but best of all thy resolve not to let the
Ionians who live in Europe- a worthless crew- mock us any more. It
were indeed a monstrous thing if, after conquering and enslaving the
Sacae, the Indians, the Ethiopians, the Assyrians, and many other
mighty nations, not for any wrong that they had done us, but only to
increase our empire, we should then allow the Greeks, who have done us
such wanton injury, to escape our vengeance. What is it that we fear
in them?- not surely their numbers?- not the greatness of their
wealth? We know the manner of their battle- we know how weak their
power is; already have we subdued their children who dwell in our
country, the Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians. I myself have had
experience of these men when I marched against them by the orders of
thy father; and though I went as far as Macedonia, and came but a
little short of reaching Athens itself, yet not a soul ventured to
come out against me to battle. (SS 2.) And yet, I am told, these
very Greeks are wont to wage wars against one another in the most
foolish way, through sheer perversity and doltishness. For no sooner
is war proclaimed than they search out the smoothest and fairest plain
that is to be found in all the land, and there they assemble and
fight; whence it comes to pass that even the conquerors depart with
great loss: I say nothing of the conquered, for they are destroyed
altogether. Now surely, as they are all of one speech, they ought to
interchange heralds and messengers, and make up their differences by
any means rather than battle; or, at the worst, if they must needs