136 HISTORICAL TALES.

Xerxes succeeded not only to the throne of Persia,
but also to the vast army which his father had
brought together. He succeeded, moreover, to a
war, for Egypt was in revolt. But this did not last
long; the army was at once set in motion, Egypt
was quickly subdued, and the Egyptians found
themselves under a worse tyranny than before.

Greece remained to conquer, and for that enter-
prise the timid Persian king was not eager. Mara-
thon could not be forgotten. Those fierce Athe-
nians who had defeated his father’s great host were
not to be dealt with so easily as the unwarlike
Egyptians. He held back irresolute, now persuaded
to war by one councillor, now to peace by another,
and finally—so we are told—driven to war by a
dream, in which a tall, stately man appeared to him
and with angry countenance commanded him not
to abandon the enterprise which his father had de-
signed. This dream came to him again the succeed-
ing night, and when Artabanus, his uncle, and the
advocate of peace, was made to sit on his throne
and sleep in his bed, the same figure appeared to
him, and threatened to burn out his eyes if he still
opposed the war. Artabanus, stricken with terror,
now counselled war, and Xerxes determined on the
invasion of Greece.

This story we are told by Herodotus, who told
many things which it is not very safe to believe.
What we really know is that Xerxes began the
most stupendous preparations for war that had ever
been known, and added to the army left by his
father until he had got together the greatest host