vehemently to go both against the Egyptians and against the Greeks. So
he named Xerxes, his son, to be king over the Persians after himself,
and made ready to march. But in the year after the revolt of Egypt,
Darius himself died; nor was he suffered to punish the Athenians or
the Egyptians who had rebelled against him."

17. The death of Darius gave Greece a respite, but the final conflict
was only postponed. Xerxes was weak, obstinate, and vain-glorious, but
he inherited all his father's hatred of the Greeks, and he resolved
upon one supreme effort to reduce them to subjection. For seven years
more the whole vast Persian empire resounded with the notes of
preparation. In 480 B.C., ten years after the battle of Marathon,
everything was in readiness. A formidable fleet had been built and
equipped, corn and military stores had been collected to a vast
amount, and an army had gathered which, including camp followers, was
variously estimated at from three to five millions. A bridge of boats
was built across the Hellespont, and the Oriental horde was prepared
to ravage the Grecian valleys like a swarm of devouring locusts. A
great storm arose and destroyed the bridge, and the Persian despot
ordered the Hellespont scourged with whips in token of his
displeasure. When the bridge was rebuilt, Xerxes, from a throne
erected upon the shore, for seven days and nights, watched his mighty
host pass over from Asia into Europe.

18. In the mean time the Greeks were preparing for the onset. Sparta,
true to her military organization, did little but to bring her army to
the perfection of discipline, and many of the weaker cities resolved
to quietly submit to the invaders. The Athenians alone seemed to have
fully understood the gravity of the situation. To them the rage of the
Persian king was particularly directed, for the crushing defeat at