The Histories by Herodotus - 8 - Xerxes Swears Vengeance on Athens
Book Seven (part one)
Quote
Xerxes: "When I became the king of Persia, I began to wonder how to avoid being left behind by those who preceded me in this position of honour, and how I might increase the Persian empire just as much as they did. And after a lot of thought I found a way for us not only to win glory and gain land ... but also to exact retribution and compensation from our enemies."
Notes
- Darius is mad about losing to Athens at the Battle of Marathon and he starts preparing for another, longer campaign. But then he dies and his son, Xerxes, becomes the king.
- Xerxes is intent on carrying out his father's war on Athens and gives a speech to the Persian commanders to that effect. Once he finishes, he opens it up to debate and asks others what they think. A few speak up in agreement and express confidence that Persia can win against Athens.
- But then Artabanus, uncle to Xerxes, speaks up to voice opposition: "Unless opposing views are heard, it is impossible to pick and choose between various plans and decide which one is best." He warns against hubris. Persia is not indestructible, and the Athenians are tough fighters and they're very strong at sea. Plus, the gods are against pride and excess. They'll strike down a prideful empire the same way that lightning strikes against the tallest trees.
- This speech makes Xerxes angry and he says Artabanus is being a coward. But later on Xerxes finds Artabanus's arguments are making him think again, and he decides to cancel the war. Then a figure starts appearing to Xerxes in a dream telling him he must go to war against Athens. At first he dismisses it, but it keeps coming to him every night.
- Xerxes tells Artabanus about the dream and comes up with a test to see if it's real. He tells Artabanus to dress up in his clothes and sleep in his bed. If the dream appears to Artabanus, too, then they'll know it's real. Artabanus is dubious but he does it anyway, and sure enough the dream figure comes to him and threatens to punish him if Persia doesn't fight Athens. He concedes Persia must go to war.
- They spend five years gathering a massive army from all across the empire (Herodotus gives his estimate of 1,700,000 men) and they set out. Xerxes also sends messengers throughout Greece demanding tribute and subservience.
- Xerxes surveys his army with pride, but then he finds himself overcome with sadness about how short life is and that no one in his massive army will even be alive within a hundred years. Artabanus builds on this discussion about the tragedy of life saying that not only is life short but it's also full of misery: "We are so overwhelmed by tragic accidents and illness that, however short life actually is, it seems long. So people look forward to dying, as an excellent way to escape from life with all its troubles."
- After this discussion, Xerxes looks his army over again, and this time he asks Demaratus (recently exiled king of Sparta) what he thinks. Demaratus says the Spartans will fight no matter how big Persia's army is, or how small theirs is by comparison. Sparta is fully dedicated to their freedom and will fight to the death to protect it.
Key Takeaways
Xerxes is an indecisive king. He opens up debate about going to war on Athens, but he gets mad at Artabanus for airing an opposing view. He changes his mind about the war multiple times, and his mood about the war — and about life — changes dramatically as he surveys his army. At one minute he's proud and confident, and the next he's somber and downcast about how short life is. He's just taken on being ruler of the biggest empire on earth at the time, and maybe that's too much to handle for anyone.
Herodotus is not writing pro-democracy propaganda, or is he? The Greco-Persian wars are commonly remembered as a triumph of democracy over dictatorship and monarchy. Is that the story Herodotus intended to transmit to the future? Or is this just his objective report on what happened?