Winter in Asia Minor.--Destruction of the bridge.--Indignation of Xerxes.--His ridiculous punishment of the sea.--Xerxes orders a new bridge to be made.--Its construction.--Mode of securing the boats.--The bridge finished.--Eclipse of the sun.--March from Sardis.--Order of march.--Car of Jupiter.--Chariot of Xerxes.--Camp followers.--Arrival at the plain of Troy.--The grand sacrifice.--Dejection of the army.--Mode of enlistment.--Condition of the soldiers.--Privations and hardships.--Storm on Mount Ida.--Abydos.--Parade of the troops.--Xerxes weeps.--The reason of it.--Comments of writers.--Remarks of Artabanus.--Conversation with Artabanus.--He renews his warnings.--Anxiety of Artabanus.--Xerxes is not convinced.--Advice of Artabanus in respect to employing the Ionians.--Xerxes's opinion of the Ionians.--Artabanus is permitted to return.--Sham sea fight.--Xerxes's address.--Crossing the bridge.--Preliminary ceremonies.--The order of march.--Movement of the fleet.--Time occupied in the passage.--Scene of confusion.
Although the ancient Asia Minor was in the same latitude as New York, there was yet very little winter there. Snows fell, indeed, upon the summits of the mountains, and ice formed occasionally upon quiet streams, and yet, in general, the imaginations of the inhabitants, in forming mental images of frost and snow, sought them not in their own winters, but in the cold and icy regions of the north, of which, however, scarcely any thing was known to them except what was disclosed by wild and exaggerated rumors and legends.
There was, however, a period of blustering winds and chilly rains which was called winter, and Xerxes was compelled to wait, before commencing his invasion, until the inclement season had passed. As it was, he did not wholly escape the disastrous effects of the wintery gales. A violent storm arose while he was at Sardis, and broke up the bridge which he had built across the Hellespont. When the tidings of this disaster were brought to Xerxes at his winter quarters, he was very much enraged. He was angry both with the sea for having destroyed the structure, and with the architects who had built it for not having made it strong enough to stand against its fury. He determined to punish both the waves and the workmen. He ordered the sea to be scourged with a monstrous whip, and directed that heavy chains should be thrown into it, as symbols of his defiance of its power, and of his determination to subject it to his control. The men who administered this senseless discipline cried out to the sea, as they did it, in the following words, which Xerxes had dictated to them: "Miserable monster! this is the punishment which Xerxes your master inflicts upon you, on account of the unprovoked and wanton injury you have done him. Be assured that he will pass over you, whether you will or no. He hates and defies you, object as you are, through your insatiable cruelty, and the nauseous bitterness of your waters, of the common abomination of mankind."