140 HISTORICAL TALES.

who marched in front and rear and on the sides, and
bore pomegranates of gold. After these household
troops followed the vast remaining host.

The army of Xerxes was, as we have said, superior
in numbers to any the world had ever seen. Forty-
six nations had sent their quotas to the host, each
with its different costume, arms, mode of march, and
system of fighting. Only those from Asia Minor
bore such arms as the Greeks were used to fight
with. Most of the others were armed with javelins
or other light weapons, and bore slight shields or
none at all. Some came armed only with daggers
and a lasso like that used on the American plains.
The Ethiopians from the Upper Nile had their
bodies painted half red and half white, wore lion-
and panther-skins, and carried javelins and bows.
Few of the whole army bore the heavy weapons or
displayed the solid fighting phalanx of those whom
they had come to meet in war.

As to the number of men thus brought together
from half the continent of Asia we cannot be sure.
Xerxes, after reaching Hurope, took an odd way of
counting his army. Ten thousand men were counted
and packed close together. Then a line was drawn
around them, and a wall built about the space. The
whole army was then marched in successive detach-
ments into this walled enclosure. Herodotus tells
us that there were one hundred and seventy of these
divisions, which would make the whole army one
million seven hundred thousand foot. In addition
there were eighty thousand horse, many war-chariots,
and a fleet of twelve hundred and seven triremes