Polymnia   

plough nor sow it, but hold it in great honour.
On reaching Acanthus, the Persian king, seeing the great zeal of
the Acanthians for his service, and hearing what had been done about
the cutting, took them into the number of his sworn friends, sent them
as a present a Median dress, and besides commended them highly.
It was while he remained here that Artachaees, who presided over
the canal, a man in high repute with Xerxes, and by birth an
Achaemenid, who was moreover the tallest of all the Persians, being
only four fingers short of five cubits, royal measure, and who had a
stronger voice than any other man in the world, fell sick and died.
Xerxes therefore, who was greatly afflicted at the mischance,
carried him to the tomb and buried him with all magnificence; while
the whole army helped to raise a mound over his grave. The Acanthians,
in obedience to an oracle, offer sacrifice to this Artachaees as a
hero, invoking him in their prayers by name. But King Xerxes
sorrowed greatly over his death.
Now the Greeks who had to feed the army, and to entertain
Xerxes, were brought thereby to the very extremity of distress,
insomuch that some of them were forced even to forsake house and home.
When the Thasians received and feasted the host, on account of their
possessions upon the mainland, Antipater, the son of Orges, one of the
citizens of best repute, and the man to whom the business was
assigned, proved that the cost of the meal was four hundred talents of
silver.
And estimates almost to the same amount were made by the
superintendents in other cities. For the entertainment, which had been
ordered long beforehand and was reckoned to be of much consequence,
was, in the manner of it, such as I will now describe. No sooner did
the heralds who brought the orders give their message, than in every
city the inhabitants made a division of their stores of corn, and
proceeded to grind flour of wheat and of barley for many months
together. Besides this, they purchased the best cattle that they could
find, and fattened them; and fed poultry and water-fowl in ponds and
buildings, to be in readiness for the army; while they likewise
prepared gold and silver vases and drinking-cups, and whatsoever
else is needed for the service of the table. These last preparations
were made for the king only, and those who sat at meat with him; for
the rest of the army nothing was made ready beyond the food for
which orders had been given. On the arrival of the Persians, a tent
ready pitched for the purpose received Xerxes, who took his rest
therein, while the soldiers remained under the open heaven. When the
dinner hour came, great was the toil of those who entertained the
army; while the guests ate their fill, and then, after passing the
night at the place, tore down the royal tent next morning, and seizing
its contents, carried them all off, leaving nothing behind.
On one of these occasions Megacreon of Abdera wittily
recommended his countrymen "to go to the temples in a body, men and
women alike, and there take their station as suppliants, and beseech
the gods that they would in future always spare them one-half of the
woes which might threaten their peace- thanking them at the same
time very warmly for their past goodness in that they had caused
Xerxes to be content with one meal in the day." For had the order been
to provide breakfast for the king as well as dinner, the Abderites
must either have fled before Xerxes came, or, if they awaited his
coming, have been brought to absolute ruin. As it was, the nations,
though suffering heavy pressure, complied nevertheless with the
directions that had been given.
At Acanthus, Xerxes separated from his fleet, bidding the captains
sail on ahead and await his coming at Therma, on the Thermaic Gulf,
the place from which the bay takes its name. Through this town lay, he
understood, his shortest road. Previously, his order of march had been
the following:- from Doriscus to Acanthus his land force had proceeded
in three bodies, one of which took the way along the sea-shore in
company with the fleet, and was commanded by Mardonius and Masistes,