Transcript Herodotus and His History

The Persian Wars
Lecturer: Wu Shiyu
When the vast empire of Persia,set itself upon the
course of conquering the small independent citystates of Greece, only 31 of them stood together, led
by Athens and Sparta.
These two great city-states would be the key of
Greek resistance to Persia in that most critical single
moment in the history of Greece.
Had Greece been defeated:
• The idea of freedom that as we know it, would have
vanished from history.
• Our art and architecture as we understand it would not
have been developed,
• The richness of Greek tragedy, the whole legacy of
Roman empire, none of these might have come into being.
Herodotus and His History
The importance of the struggle against Persia was
captured in the first true work of history, Herodotus
(希罗多德）and his Histories of Persian Wars
A work written in the fifth century, a work born amid
the political innovation of the Athenian democracy;
the innovation of learning in the 6th century
B.C.( Pythagoras, and Solon)
Herodotus and His History
Herodotus (484 BC – 425 BC) has been called "The Father of
History" (Cicero) and "The Father of Lies”.
A political exile, who had been driven from Caria, Halicarnassus
(modern day Bodrum, Turkey), in Ionia and in Asia Minor,
Traveled widely and then cames to Athens, where he read his
history before the Athenian audience near 445 B.C.,
A narration before the entire assembly of Athenian citizens,
And so pleased were they with his history, that they gave them
ten talents as a reward.
Herodotus (484 BC – 425 BC)
Herodotus and His History
He went off to south Italy, lived out his life, but left
behind the history, which was so important to the
Greeks as a whole, that it was read on a regular
basis, at the Olympic Games.
Herodotus and His History
What Herodotus set out to do:
Why do the great nations rise and fall?
Herodotus and His History
Herodotus searches for moral truth, and for him
that was the ultimate purpose of history,
The reader will be instructed and made better, better
as an individual, better as a citizen.
He believes that we could learn as much perhaps
more from others than from ourselves, and that is
why his history has its true protagonist, not the
Greeks, but the Persians,
They are the ones who were most instructive, and he
doesn’t begin his history with the outbreak of the
Persian Wars, he begins it much earlier,
And he roams widely, through Egypt, to the culture
of Babylonia, far off to the step of Russia, to Sythia,
searching for lessons, yes there are a lot of
anecdotes and stories,
In order to instruct, you must first entertain, and the
stories of Herodotus are woven tightly, like a
necklace, from the beginning to the end, bring us
back to the central truth.
And for Herodotus, the ultimate truth of history, is found in
the concept of Hybris, outrageous arrogance,
In Athenian law, hybris is also the word to describe rape, that
worst crime against the innocence.
And hybris is the abuse of power, often inflicted upon the
innocent, which brings in its trend consequences of
destruction, for the guilty and innocent alike.
Ate is another theme for Herodotus, moral blindness, and
those who possessed the great power become blind to truth,
they can not be instructed and so they themselves become the
instrument of instruction through their fall from power.
And Herodotus introduces us to this theme in the
very beginning of his history, starting the tale of
Persian Wars, with Croesus, the king of Lydia.
The Story of Croesus
The Story of Croesus
Croesus reign from 560 to 546 B.C. King over one
of the four powers of his world, Lydia, Egypt,
Babylon, and to the north, what is today Iran, the
kingdom of the Medes, Media.
All of these were great powers, believing that they
would rule the world forever, dividing the world
between themselves, engaged in a balance of power.
And Croesus sat at the heart of this world, his very
name would become proverbial, “ riches of Croesus”.
The land of Lydia was filled with natural alloys of
gold and silver, it was there where coinage was first
strike.
And Croesus believed, Herodotus tells us, that he is
the happiest man of the world.
Croesus Receiving Tribute from a Lydian Peasant,
Herodotus starts his tale by explaining how Croesus
came to be king.
Five generations before Croesus, was king
Candaules(Lydian name).
He had a beautiful wife, and he was enormously
proud of the beauty of his wife, and he never stopped
talking, never stopped talking about how lovely his
wife was,
One day he was telling one of his bodyguard Gyges:
“My wife was the most beautiful woman in the
world, dadadada.”
Gyges’ eyes just for a moment glares over, he had
heard the story so many times.
Candaules: “You don’t believe it, do you?”
Gyges: “ Yes, I do, Sire, I do believe this.”
No, you don’t. And I am going to prove it to you. I
want you to see my wife in the nude.
Gyges, “No, I don’t want to do this, you know, off
the woman’s clothes, off the shame.
“No, you gonna to see her, I gonaa worked out she
won’t even know it.”
“Please, Sire, do not ask me to do this.”
Nothing would turn King Candaules, so that night he
arranged Gyges to stay behind the screen.
His wife came into the bedroom and took off her
clothes.
Gyges saw it and slipped out.
But the queen had caught a glimpse of him in the
corner of her eye. She said nothing to her husband.
But next day she sent for Gyges.
She said, “All right, I am giving you a choice, head of
the bodyguards, either you kill my husband and marry
me, or I will tell him you come here trying to seduce me
and he will kill you. What is it going to be?”
Gyges said, “don’t make it either one, Let us just forget
what has happened.”
Gyges made his choice.
“I go along with you and will kill your husband, and
but I will become king in his place?”
And so they do. Candaules was murdered by his
own wife, and head of his bodyguards.
And Gyges now rules the land of Lydia. And from
Gyges, five generations later comes Croesus.
Candaules committed an act of Hybris. He shamed
his wife.
His wife had committed Hybris, she had acted in
excess, don’t you see? Why didn’t she just go to her
husband and say, “you should not have done that!?”
She had responded in an excessive fashion.
That, too, is the part of the less of Herodotus woven
through history: nothing in excess, even punishment
can be excessive.
Croesus now is king of Lydia. And one day comes to
his court a stranger, Solon, the Athenian. An old man,
presents himself at the court.
King Croesus says, “I have heard of you. You are
one the wisest men of Greece, I have a question for
you. First of all, I would like to have you escorted
around my palace on my errands.”
The vast wealth is laid out before Solon, the power
admired from the mightiest men of his day,
He says, when Solon comes back, “Tell me
something, Athenian, who was the happiest man in
the world?”
Solons thinks a minute and says, “It was Tellus.”
“ Who? Tellus? Who is that?”
Well, he is an Athenian,. Well, so what?
Well, he was a brave man, he had sufficient money
by our standard, he raised up his family, so they were
all grown up, children of their own, and then he died
fighting for his country, was killed in battle and got a
public funeral.
“All right, I will tell you, who is the second
happiest?”
“Cleobis and Biton.”
“Who were Cleobis and Biton?”
“Well, they were two young men of Argos, and their mother
was the priestess of the god Hera. And one day, she was going
to give sacrifice, there were no ox to drive her wagon, so her
two sons yoke themselves to the wagon, drew it into town,
she offered up her sacrifice, every body crowed around and
says, “how lucky you are to have these two fine, brave sons.”
And she, their mother prays to the god Hera to give them the
greatest gift. And that night, they went into the temple,
Cleobis and Biton, the two sons, fell asleep, did not wake up.
Let’s see what had given to him:
First of all, this man, Tellus, he had what he should
want: a nice family, a good public reputation, and
died with that reputation.
And these two young men, those whom the gods
love, they take back early. They died when they were
at the height of their pride and fame before life could
pull them down.
While Croesus thought that Solon was the most
overrated intellect he’d ever met. He dismissed him
as a fool. But before the dismiss he said: What about
me? Who am I? Not the happiest man?
Sire, right now, I will call you a lucky man, but have
you ever thought of this? There are 365 days in the
year. Each day brings something new. Right now you
are just lucky, no one is happy until the end is known.
Look to the end and when at the end of your days,
you still enjoy this fame and reputation, then am I
call you happy.
Solon went away, Croesus continued, but had a dream one
night and in the dream the god sent him a message that his
favorite son, the heir to the throne, would be killed by an iron
weapon. (dreams)
He had two sons in fact, but one wasn’t able to speak or hear,
never would be suited for the kingship, but the other, was the
one Croesus doted upon.
And so in order to make sure the son was never killed by iron
weapons, Croesus had all iron weapons removed from the
boy’s room, took him out of army where he’d been a captain,
and had him get married.
So this son settled down and live a quiet life where
led him keep out of any military and expeditions any
more.
The boy grieved under this
And one day a group of villagers came in and
brought this message to Croesus that a savage boar
was ravaging their territory and would he send
hunters to kill the boar.
And the boy was there and said, let me go there, I
want to go and hunt this boar.
His father said, no, no, not today.
And he said, what have I done to anger you, father?
Why do you treat me this way? I was a soldier, now
you strip me of my honor.
And his father said, it’s not that, but I had a dream.
You will be killed by an iron weapon.
He said, father, I appreciate that you love me so
much, but let me go out, let me go out and fight this
boar, because, does the boar carry a sword? Does a
boar carry a spear? No, sounds good. Alright.
So, there it is, out chase the boar, and he’d got
guards with him to protect him. And the boar
suddenly turns its tract, and races toward the young
prince. One of the guards hurls the spear and threw
at the boar, misses it, kills the boy. Oh, the word is
brought back to Croesus.
And maybe, Herodotus suggests, Croesus ought to
have stopped right then, and reexamined. But he
didn’t. He continued on, ‘cause he has more
problems, political problems and a great power was
arising on the border of his country to the east, the
new empire of Persia.
And Croesus was concerned that, it might lead to a
change in the balance of power.
And so he sought to get the best information through
the oracle. Greeks took oracles very seriously. These
were ways with which gods made their will known.
And there were a number of them in the Greek world.
And so Croesus sent off messengers to the oracle of
Apollo at Delphi.
He gave enormous gifts to the oracle. Vast sums of
money. 117 ingots of gold. Huge gold and silver
mixing bowls.
Is that not Hubris? But he went on his way.
He asked the god one question: Will my other son,
the surviving son ever speak? And the answer came
back, you will ruin the day when that son speaks.
Next question: should I march against the Persian
Empire? (The Empire of Persia has grown so large
under a vigorous king Cyrus)
And the answer came back, if you march against the
Persian Empire, a great kingdom will be destroyed.
Ambiguous, wouldn’t you say?
But Croesus is a prudent man, and he writes back
again and says, “well how long will I be the king
over Lydia? ”
And the answer comes back, “until a mule sits upon
the throne of Persia.”
How could a mule be the king of Persia? So I am
going to march against them. And off he goes, taking
with him his army.
And Cyrus responds and the two meet in the eastern
part of Lydia across the frontiers and it is a drawn
battle. Neither side wins.
And Croesus then withdraws, comes back to his
capital of Sardis, and assumes the campaign is over
for the year.
This is thought to be the fall in the year 547. Because
in those days it was very difficult to campaign during
the winter, the rain made the roads impossible.
Croesus comes back, begins to look for allies among
the other powers.
But suddenly Cyrus moves his army out from the
winter rains and appears before the gate of Sardis.
And there is nothing that Croesus can do but to fight.
And most of his army has been dismissed.
He brings out his cavalry and Lydian won fame
through the courage of cavalry, but the army of
Cyrus has with them the camels. Horses will never
go up against the camels.
It goes around and so the victory is won by the
Persians.
Well still Croesus is safe within his city walls. He
waits up the siege.
But a Persian soldier going around look up at the
walls, notices a Lydian standing on top of the walls
whose helmet falls off and rolls down the hill.
Sardis is situated on the great heights of the hill and
he comes down for the helmet and could easily go up.
So that must be the path and so the Persians assault
that citadel and capture it, and Sardis is in their
hands.
And up and down the streets of Sardis, they plunder
and burn and destroy. And Croesus is running for his
life, holding back the hand of the remaining son, the
one who cannot speak or hear.
And Cyrus the king of Persia has given the order that
his troops can kill any Lydian they want except
Croesus. He wants him alive, and so they race him
along,
And suddenly a Persian soldier raises spear in the
sky to kill him and the little boy speaks up,
Remember, you will ruin the day that son speaks.
And the little boy shouts, do not kill him. For this is
Croesus, king of the Lydians. And so Croesus is
brought before the conquering Cyrus.
And Cyrus asked him, why did you invade my
country? Why did you invade my territory, ravage
my lands?
And Croesus said, “Well, the god told me to do this,
it’s not my responsibility.”
Cyrus said, “You can’t shirk you responsibility. You
are going to pay for it. I am going to burn you alive.”
And so Croesus’ funeral pier is built.
Croesus is on top of the funeral pier and the Persian
is watching this and flames begin to go up and licks
the logs and get closer and closer, closer and closer
And Croesus shouts up, “What did I do to deserve
this? Oh Solon, Solon, Solon!”
Croesus on the pyre
Cyrus said, “What is that? You, Lydian, what did you
say? Solon, Solon, solon. What does that mean? “
Well I’d like to tell you, but I catch on fire here.”
Put the fire out! But it’d gone too far.
And Croesus says, “God Apollo, if anything I have
ever done pleases you, put this fire out, put an end to
it!”
And suddenly out of the blue sky, the rain comes
down, and fire is put out.
“All right, come down, talk to me, Croesus! Says
Cyrus, “What is this, Solon, Solon, Solon?”
“Well, Solon was a wise man who visited me and I
wish he could talk with every king in the world, for
he gave me such wisdom and I spurned it. He said no
one is really happy until the end is known.”
“Oh, I tell you what”, says Cyrus, “You seem as though you
have learned a great deal, you have learned wisdom through
your defeat and suffering. Croesus, I’m not going to burn you
alive. I am going to make you my honored adviser.”
“ I can’t Sire, what are those men doing?”
“ Haha they are burning your Sardis to the ground.”
“No, king Cyrus, they are burning your city of Sardis to the
ground ‘cause it is yours now. ”
Oh, that is wisdom. Such a good advice deserves good return.
What would you like to do?
“I tell you what I’d like to do”, says Croesus, “I
would like to rise to the god of Apollo why he
betrayed me.”
“Do it.”
So the question went off and Apollo wrote back and said,
“First of all, I did not betray you. You asked me if you should
march against the Persian Empire, and I wrote back, if you
did, a great kingdom will be destroyed. Your were the one
who was so swollen with hybris. Thinking you are wise, when
you are not wise. So you went ahead and acted. I’m going to
tell you something else. You thought you could buy with
money and gifts the favor of the gods. That can never be.
Only one thing that is very important step of morality and
ethics. Only one thing wins the favor of the gods, that is a
righteous and just life, a life that is not marked by the sin of
hybris. Now think, I paid you back well. Even after you have
lost your kingdom through your own folly, I sent the rain and
saved your life.
“Your told me I would rule until a mule sat upon the
throne of Persia.”
The oracle wrote back, “You didn’t follow that,
either. You must pursue wisdom but within limits.”
Had Cyrus acted towards Croesus, an excessive man?
No. He started to burn him alive, but then learned
and practiced moderation. And for that reason, in the
pages of Herodotus, Cyrus is the model of a good
king.
How did a mule get to be the king of Persia?
The Story of Cyrus and The Rise of Persia
King Astyages was master of the Median Kingdom
(Egypt, Babylon, Lydia, and Media).
Media, with its capital of Botona, near the modern
city of Teheran, and the Medes are direct ancestors
of the Iranian people of today.
And Aystyage was a mighty ruler, but he was
troubled.
He had a strange dream. (His daughter Mandana
urinating. Urinated so much that the entire town of
Botana was filled up and the urine poured over the
walls.)
He called his priests, the Mejis, the learned men of
Persia and they came in and said, “your daughter will
give birth to a child who will overthrow the Medes
and destroy them. ”
“Well, what can I do about this?” “I think what you
must do is to marry her to someone who so low born
that the child given birth by the two of them, would
never become a ruler.” “All right, I will marry her to
the Persians. These men were the most despised
people in my realm, but I will find her a nice
husband. So he marries her off.”
But not long after that, the King Aystyage has
another dream,
These great plants are growing out of his daughter.
They grow and grow and circle the whole town.
And he calls his mejis again. What is this? And they
say, “Oh, she’s going to have a child.”
“Oh, I thought you told me it would work out fine,”
“Yes, sire, I think you need to have the little child put
to death if it is a boy.” “Well, hard to do, but it’s for
my country and I’ll do it.”
So Mandana delivered the boy child. Now, the King,
calls his chief adviser, Herpagus.
He said to Herpagus, “I want you to take this little
child, my own grandson, and expose it, have him put
to death. ”.
While Herpagus takes this little baby, crying, and looking into
his eyes, and he has a little uncertainty in his mind. I mean,
yes, the king has told him to do this, the king’s order must be
obeyed. But, what if a few years later, the king does not have
any children, any more grandchildren, then he’s going to be
mad at me.
So what I have to do is to find a fault guy, somebody I can
blame all of this on. So he takes it to one of his shepherds,
gives him the little boy, says, “Won’t you, shepherd, to take
this little baby out and expose it?”
But the shepherd dutifully takes it, goes out, goes home first,
but does not expose the child and raised the child with his
wife at their own.
Years go by, the little boy goes up to about 12 or so,
thinking that he is the son of a shepherd.
And one day, he is playing with some of his little
friends, and he beats one savagely. The boy he beats
up is a nobleman’s son, and he runs to his father,
says, “Father, the shepherd’s son beats me up!”
The father goes to the king and says, “King, why do
you let shepherd’s son beat up the sons of noblemen?”
And the king says, “I’m going to look at this.” So he
has the shepherd’s boy brought in and he says, “All
right, son, now tell me something. Why did you beat
up this little boy?” “We were playing king, and I was
the king. He didn’t obey me, so I thrashed him.”
“What an excellent answer! Turn to the side a little
bit, and let me look at you.”
Oh, let me have a mirror. That’s amazing resemblance.
Something is not right here. Send for Herpagus.
Come here, Herpagus, now. Do you remember about 12
years ago, I gave my grandson to expose?” “Yes.” “Did you
do it?” “Er, well, er, actually, I…I did not. I gave it to a
shepherd to do so.” “I see, bring the shepherd to me.” The
shepherd comes in, tells the whole story. “You’re not to blame,
shepherd. And Herpagus, my grand---,old friend, you are not
to blame, either. Wasn’t it a good thoughtful deed to allow
this child to alive? Now he will be the company of my old
age.”
I tell you what, don’t you have a boy about his age?”
“Yes,” says Herpagus, “I do.” “Why don’t you have
them come up tonight, play with my little boy, my
new grandson, so to speak, and after which we’ll
have a nice banquet.” “All right.”
Herpagus send his little boy out, and king Astyages takes the
son of Herpagus and butchers him. Skins him, pulls out his
angles, and the rest he cooks up into a stun, each does
wonderful set of meat dishes.
The king asks him, “How do you like this?” “It’s wonderful
food.” “Well, now look what we have got for dessert.” And in
brought the platter. Herpagus picks up the lid, and there’s the
little boy’s head, hand.
We don’t know what Herpagus said. He can’t be angry at the
king, but whatever it’s done. He goes away.
Moral instruction: king Astyages has committed
hybris, the son of Herpagus is the innocent victim.
King Astyages goes on. And he goes nothing more to
Herpagus. He leaves him in his position as grand
vizir.
He sends off his grandson to be raised up with
mother end, the son in law in Persian.
And one day that boy has grown up into a man of 22.
He wants to lead the Persians to independence. And
he starts the great revolve in Persia against Median
rule.
Ate: moral blindness, king Astyages gave the
command of none other than Herpagus.
And Herpagus leads the army over the other decide
of Cyrus.
And now Cyrus becomes king, king over Persians
and Medes,
Cyrus, to the Greeks, to the page of Herodotus, will
become a marvel of a good king, with how he
avoided the crime of hybris, of excessive outrageous
arrogance when he attack Croesus,
He will join together the people of the nearest into a
unified, multicultural, diverse kingdom.
His son Cambyses be a assassinated before
conquering Egypt.
And then Darius, descended by a collateral branch
from Cyrus, will bring the empire to the its very
height, creating a centralized power, stretching from
the Indus river all the way to the First Cataract of
the Nile.
27 great provinces, satrapies. Its wealth was enormous 14,600
talents every year.
The king himself has almost no expenses, because the
provinces pay for the upkeep of the army stationed in them,
and it is a superb army. Mercenary soldiers for the call of the
Persians in needs. Jewish soldiers mercenary serve in the
army of the Persian king.
The Jews have their temple rebuilt for them, by Cyrus. It is an
empire which believes and respecting local traditions, local
cultures. It has a magnificent infrastructure.
Caravans travel safely from the Indus River all the
way out to the Mediterranean Sea, and swift riding
couriers (信使 ) can take a message from Sardis to
one of their capitals like Babylon in a matter of two
weeks, changing horses at every way stations.
Their motto is that “neither rain, nor snow, nor
gloom of night can keep couriers from their
appointed routes.”
Darius believed that he has been chosen by god to
rule this empire. There’s only one god, Darius
believed
To rebel against the power of the Darius was to rebel
against god himself.
And the Greek city Ionians in 498BC, rose up
against Persian rule. Darius crushed them. And so as
what when Athens without any provocation by
Darius, set a small force to aid their brothers in Asia
Minor.
Darius determined to crush Athens and he sent his
mighty Armada, 26,000 men on ships to crush
Athens.
There’s Battle of Marathon in 490BC, the Persians
suffered their first check.
Darius was determined to avenge this, but before he
could he died in 486, and the throne and power
passed to his son, Xerxes.
And this Xerxes, who is a central figure in
Herodotus story of the Persian Wars.
Inherited this empire at its height.
For Herodotus, Xerxes is the prototype of the despot,
of the tyrant.
Well, whenever a despot ask you what going to, you
should already know and one of his advisers rises his
hand,
“Sire, what we need to do is to march against
Athens. Nothing can stand before you, you’re the
mighty as war you of your day and you’ll crush
everything in your path. What I see is our expansion,
first to Greece and then further to the west so that the
very rays of the sun will aluminates every potion
about the mighty empire in that.” which was the
despot wants to hear. ”
Herodotus will give us numbers that call us to ponder, he will
tell us that more than 1,700,000 infantry were there. The
warship number 1,207 is actually testified by Aeschylus.
1,700,000 maybe too much for us, but other sources suggest
that the infantry force of king Xerxes numbered around
500,000. So it’s the power for army that is gather there, and
they spend the winter at Sardis. And here again, Herodotus’
interrupt seems narrow, gave us the story that again we might
at first impression, simply want to dismiss, somehow the
story teller having the way everything into his tell.
And the story of Pythius.
He is the richest in the Persian empire, and he comes
to Xerxes, and Xerxes says, “I’ve heard of your
wealth, did you not give presents to my father?”
“Yes, I gave him a wonderful gold tree.” “Well, what
can I do for you?” Pythius says, “With our dully
guard for every person in the prison in the empire, is
the slave of the king. And even the greatest
nobleman must approach the king by crawling before
him”
“I would like to do something for you, what can you
do for me?”
“What I would like to do, Sire, is to give you all of
my ready cash to you for you expedition.” “So how
much money do you have?”
“Oh, I have 4 million gold coins, short of only
8,000.”
And so the army is ready to march, Xerxes is in his
mighty chariot, and Pythius comes and says to him,
“Sire, do you remember I could ask for any favor?”
“ Yes.” “ well, may I ask my favor now?” “Of course
you may, what is it?” “ I have several sons. They
serve in the army. What I would ask is that my oldest
son be left behind and take care of my when I am
old.”
And suddenly, Xerxes roars out, ‘How dare you
make such a request like this? Here I am, leading the
army myself, and you are asking your son to stay
behind. Alright, I grant it. Let him stay behind.
With a great sword, the executioner splits the son
right down the middle, and one side of the body was
placed at one side of the gate, and the other side, the
other part of the gate, and through the sliced body of
the son of Pythius, the mighty army marches out.
Now again, the lesson from Herodotus: What is it
like to live under a despot, even the highest and
richest man who the king might behold for favors,
has no security of life or property.
And Pythius is not only a symbol of what it is under
a tyrant, but also hybris.
Don’t you think it’s rather an excessive response?
Why not just say no, the boy must march with me.
Instead, he splits him apart. Morevover, has the son
done anything to outrage King Xerxes? No! He is
utterly innocent. This is a work of hybris.
Xerxes is marching his army along the land and keeping close
contact with his fleet. He strategy is well conceived. He even
dug a canal through Athos, 1.5 miles through stone, so that
his fleet can stay as close to his army. He is bending nature to
himself, to his will.
And so Xerxes as his army reaches Hellespont, has his
engineers lay a bridge over boats to cross it. One boat lashed
to another, planking it down over them so the army can cross
from Asia into Europe. Suddenly, a storm comes up, but he
still wants to cross. Xerxes now is rolled out into the
Hellespont, and lashes the waters with his whip, “You briny
stream, how dare you stand before me? And he beat the water
over and over and over again, and of course executed the
engineers. And another bridge is laid down. And he crosses.
The superb cavalry, men and horse wrapped in armor,
his immortals, ten thousand Persians carrying their
spears, golden and silver pomegranate at the end,
marching across, his body guards, and then the
troops of the far ranging empire. His Arabs on
horseback, Sythians with their bows and savage
spears. Ethiopians, their bodies painted half white,
half red, carrying spears all crossing in majesty. And
it seems nothing can stop this expedition.
All the cities on the Greek mainland, only 31 have
resisted him. All the rest have sent him the sign of
submission. He sent diplomats demanding earth and
water.
And he sees before him spears glittering in the sun,
7000 warriors from the Peloponnese with the core of
300 Spartans. What means this, says the Persian king.
An exile from Sparta is called and Xerxes asked,
“Who are these people?”
The exile says, “Sire, these are not just the bravest
warriors in Greece, they are the bravest warriors in
the world.” Xerxes says, “Are you telling me that
300 Spartans can resist my hundreds of thousands?
Why don’t you, you are from Sparta, fight a dozen of
my men and see who wins?
That’s not it, Sire, it is the fact that these men fight
signally brave, but fighting together, they are
invincible, for they fear only the laws of Sparta and
for that they will pay any price.
But Xerxes in his ate of moral blindness, will sweep
on, to the battle of 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.
谢 谢！