XERXES AND HIS ARMY. 141

and three thousand smaller vessels. According to
Herodotus, the whole host, soldiers and sailors, num-
bered two million six hundred and forty thousand
men, and there were as many or more camp-followers,
so that the whole number present, according to this
estimate, was over five million men. It is not easy
to believe that such a marching host as this could be
fed, and it has probably been much exaggerated ; yet
there is no doubt that the host was vast enough
almost to blow away all the armies of Greece with
the wind of its coming.

On leaving Sardis a frightful spectacle was pro-
vided by Xerxes: the army found itself marching
between two halves of aslaughtered man. Pythius,
an old Phrygian of great riches, had entertained
Xerxes with much hospitality, and offered him all
his wealth, amounting to two thousands talents of
silver and nearly four million darics of gold. This
generous offer Xerxes declined, and gave Pythius
enough gold to make up his darics to an even four
millions. Then, when the army was about to march,
the old man told Xerxes that he had five sons in the
army, and begged that one of them, the eldest, might
be left with him as a stay to his declining years.
Instantly the despot burst into a rage. The request
of exemption from military service was in Persia an
unpardonable offence. The hospitality of Pythius
was forgotten, and Xerxes ordered that his son
should be slain, and half the body hung on each side
of the army, probably as a salutary warning to all
who should have the temerity to question the des-
pot’s arbitrary will.