Straightway he sent heralds to all the cities, and bade them
make ready an army, and to furnish much more than they had done
before, both ships, and horses, and corn; and while the heralds were
going round, all Asia was shaken for three years; but in the fourth
year the Egyptians, who had been made slaves by Cambyses, rebelled
against the Persians, and then the king sought only the more
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.
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