Polymnia   

earth, and that all mankind would become his servants. Now the
vision which the king saw was this: he dreamt that he was crowned with
a branch of an olive tree, and that boughs spread out from the olive
branch and covered the whole earth; then suddenly the garland, as it
lay upon his brow, vanished. So when the Magi had thus interpreted the
vision, straightway all the Persians who were come together departed
to their several governments, where each displayed the greatest
zeal, on the faith of the king's offers. For all hoped to obtain for
themselves the gifts which had been promised. And so Xerxes gathered
together his host, ransacking every corner of the continent.
Reckoning from the recovery of Egypt, Xerxes spent four full years
in collecting his host and making ready all things that were needful
for his soldiers. It was not till the close of the fifth year that
he set forth on his march, accompanied by a mighty multitude. For of
all the armaments whereof any mention has reached us, this was by
far the greatest; insomuch that no other expedition compared to this
seems of any account, neither that which Darius undertook against
the Scythians, nor the expedition of the Scythians (which the attack
of Darius was designed to avenge), when they, being in pursuit of
the Cimmerians, fell upon the Median territory, and subdued and held
for a time almost the whole of Upper Asia; nor, again, that of the
Atridae against Troy, of which we hear in story; nor that of the
Mysians and Teucrians, which was still earlier, wherein these
nations crossed the Bosphorus into Europe, and, after conquering all
Thrace, pressed forward till they came to the Ionian Sea, while
southward they reached as far as the river Peneus.
All these expeditions, and others, if such there were, are as
nothing compared with this. For was there a nation in all Asia which
Xerxes did not bring with him against Greece? Or was there a river,
except those of unusual size, which sufficed for his troops to
drink? One nation furnished ships; another was arrayed among the
foot-soldiers; a third had to supply horses; a fourth, transports
for the horse and men likewise for the transport service; a fifth,
ships of war towards the bridges; a sixth, ships and provisions.
And in the first place, because the former fleet had met with so
great a disaster about Athos, preparations were made, by the space
of about three years, in that quarter. A fleet of triremes lay at
Elaeus in the Chersonese; and from this station detachments were
sent by the various nations whereof the army was composed, which
relieved one another at intervals, and worked at a trench beneath
the lash of taskmasters; while the people dwelling about Athos bore
likewise a part in the labour. Two Persians, Bubares, the son of
Megabazus, and Artachaees, the son of Artaeus, superintended the
undertaking.
Athos is a great and famous mountain, inhabited by men, and
stretching far out into the sea. Where the mountain ends towards the
mainland it forms a peninsula; and in this place there is a neck of
land about twelve furlongs across, the whole extent whereof, from
the sea of the Acanthians to that over against Torone, is a level
plain, broken only by a few low hills. Here, upon this isthmus where
Athos ends, is Sand, a Greek city. Inside of Sand, and upon Athos
itself, are a number of towns, which Xerxes was now employed in
disjoining from the continent: these are Dium, Olophyxus, Acrothoum,
Thyssus, and Cleonae. Among these cities Athos was divided.
Now the manner in which they dug was the following: a line was
drawn across by the city of Sand; and along this the various nations
parcelled out among themselves the work to be done. When the trench
grew deep, the workmen at the bottom continued to dig, while others
handed the earth, as it was dug out, to labourers placed higher up
upon ladders, and these taking it, passed it on farther, till it
came at last to those at the top, who carried it off and emptied it
away. All the other nations, therefore, except the Phoenicians, had
double labour; for the sides of the trench fell in continually, as
could not but happen, since they made the width no greater at the