Polymnia   

the army, but as mere slaves, like the rest of the host. For I have
already mentioned the Persian generals who had the actual command, and
were at the head of the several nations which composed the army.
The fleet was commanded by the following- Ariabignes, the son of
Darius, Prexaspes, the son of Aspathines, Megabazus, the son of
Megabates, and Achaemenes, the son of Darius. Ariabignes, who was
the child of Darius by a daughter of Gobryas, was leader of the Ionian
and Carian ships; Achaemenes, who was own brother to Xerxes, of the
Egyptian; the rest of the fleet was commanded by the other two.
Besides the triremes, there was an assemblage of thirty-oared and
fifty-oared galleys, of cercuri, and transports for conveying
horses, amounting in all to three thousand.
Next to the commanders, the following were the most renowned of
those who sailed aboard the fleet:- Tetramnestus, the son of Anysus,
the Sidonian; Mapen, the son of Sirom, the Tyrian; Merbal, the son
of Agbal, the Aradian; Syennesis, the son of Oromedon, the Cilician;
Cyberniscus, the son of Sicas, the Lycian; Gorgus, the son of Chersis,
and Timonax, the son of Timagoras, the Cyprians; and Histiaeus, the
son of Timnes, Pigres, the son of Seldomus, and Damasithymus, the
son of Candaules, the Carians.
Of the other lower officers I shall make no mention, since no
necessity is laid on me; but I must speak of a certain leader named
Artemisia, whose participation in the attack upon Greece,
notwithstanding that she was a woman, moves my special wonder. She had
obtained the sovereign power after the death of her husband; and,
though she had now a son grown up, yet her brave spirit and manly
daring sent her forth to the war, when no need required her to
adventure. Her name, as I said, was Artemisia, and she was the
daughter of Lygdamis; by race she was on his side a Halicarnassian,
though by her mother a Cretan. She ruled over the Halicarnassians, the
men of Cos, of Nisyrus, and of Calydna; and the five triremes which
she furnished to the Persians were, next to the Sidonian, the most
famous ships in the fleet. She likewise gave to Xerxes sounder counsel
than any of his other allies. Now the cities over which I have
mentioned that she bore sway were one and all Dorian; for the
Halicarnassians were colonists from Troezen, while the remainder
were from Epidaurus. Thus much concerning the sea-force.
Now when the numbering and marshalling of the host was ended,
Xerxes conceived a wish to go himself throughout the forces, and
with his own eyes behold everything. Accordingly he traversed the
ranks seated in his chariot, and, going from nation to nation, made
manifold inquiries, while his scribes wrote down the answers; till
at last he had passed from end to end of the whole land army, both the
horsemen and likewise the foot. This done, he exchanged his chariot
for a Sidonian galley, and, seated beneath a golden awning, sailed
along the prows of all his vessels (the vessels having now been hauled
down and launched into the sea), while he made inquiries again, as
he had done when he reviewed the land-force, and caused the answers to
be recorded by his scribes. The captains took their ships to the
distance of about four hundred feet from the shore, and there lay
to, with their vessels in a single row, the prows facing the land, and
with the fighting-men upon the decks accoutred as if for war, while
the king sailed along in the open space between the ships and the
shore, and so reviewed the fleet.
Now after Xerxes had sailed down the whole line and was gone
ashore, he sent for Demaratus the son of Ariston, who had
accompanied him in his march upon Greece, and bespake him thus:-
"Demaratus, it is my pleasure at this time to ask thee certain
things which I wish to know. Thou art a Greek, and, as I hear from the
other Greeks with whom I converse, no less than from thine own lips,
thou art a native of a city which is not the meanest or the weakest in
their land. Tell me, therefore, what thinkest thou? Will the Greeks
lift a hand against us? Mine own judgment is, that even if all the
Greeks and all the barbarians of the West were gathered together in