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
Marathon, and Athens was more exposed than any other of the Greek
cities. During the ten years Athens raised and equipped as large an
army as her population would warrant. Every able-bodied man was
enrolled in the ranks. Food and military stores were collected, but
the chief means of defense was a novel one, and showed the desperate
nature of the conflict in which they were about to engage. Under the
wise direction of Themistocles they built a formidable fleet, so large
that in case of emergency the whole population of the city could
embark, and either remain afloat or take refuge on the neighboring
islands.
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