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DARIUS was now angrier than ever, and still more determined to whip those stubborn Greeks, who dared to defy him and his enormous power; and he began to get ready for one more attempt. This time, however, he made up his mind that he would get together such an army and navy that there would be no chance in the world against it, and he made a solemn oath to destroy the Greeks. So for several years he gathered troops and supplies, but something happened, and in spite of his oath he did not carry out his plan. Why? You guessed it. He died.
But Darius had a son named Xerxes—pronounced as if it began with a Z.
When I was a boy, there was an alphabet rhyme that began, “A is for Apple,” and went on down to “X is for Xerxes, a great Persian king.” I learned the rhyme, though I did not know at that time anything about either Xerxes or Persia.
Xerxes was just as determined as his father had been that the Greeks must be beaten, so he went on getting ready.
However, the Greeks also were just as determined that they must notbe beaten, so they, too, went on getting ready, for they knew the Persians would sooner or later come back and try again.
At this time there were two chief men in Athens, and each was trying to be leader. One was named Themistocles—pronounced The MIS to kleez—and the other Aristides—pronounced Ar is TI deez. Notice how many Greek names seem to end in the letters es.
Themistocles urged the Athenians to get ready for what he knew was coming,the next war with Persia. Especially did he urge the Athenians to build a fleet of boats, for they had no boats and the Persians had a great many.
Aristides, on the other hand, didn't believe in Themistocles's scheme to build boats. He thought it a foolish expense and talked against it.
Aristides had always been so wise and fair that people called him Aristides the Just. Even so, some people wanted to get rid of him, because they thought he was wrong about building a fleet of boats and Themistocles was right. They waited till the time came to vote, when they could ostracize anyone they wanted to get rid of. Do you remember who started this custom? Cleisthenes—about 500 B.C..
When the day for voting came, a man who could not write and did not know Aristides by sight happened to ask his help in voting. Aristides inquired what name he should write, and the man replied, “Aristides.”
Aristides did not tell who he was, but merely said:
“Why do you want to get rid of this man? Has he done anything wrong?”
“Oh, no,” the voter replied, “He hasn't done anything wrong,” but with a long sigh he said, “I'm so tired of hearing him always called The Just.”
Aristides must have been surprised by this unreasonable answer, but nevertheless he wrote his own name for the voter, and when the votes were counted, there were so many that he was ostracized.
Though it did not seem quite fair that Aristides should be ostracized, it was fortunate, as it turned out, that Themistocles had his way, and it was fortunate the Athenians went on preparing for war.
They built a fleet of triremes. Then they got all the cities and towns in Greece to agree to join forces in case of war. Sparta, on account of its fame as a city of soldiers, was made the leader of all the others in case war should come.
And then, just ten years after the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. the great Persian army was again ready to attack Greece. It had been brought together from all parts of the vast Persian Empire and was far bigger than the former army with its 120,000 men, although that was a large army for those days.
This time the army is supposed to have consisted of over two million soldiers—two million; just think of that! The question then was how to get so many soldiers over to Greece. Such a multitude could not be carried across to Greece in boats, for even the largest triremes only held a few hundred men, and it would have taken—well, can you tell how many boats, to carry over two million? Probably many more triremes than there were in the whole world at that time. Xerxes decided to have his army march to Greece, the long way but the only way round. So they started.
Now, there is a strip of water called a strait, something like a wide river, right across the path the Persian army had to take. This strait was then called the Hellespont. It is, of course still there, but if you look on the map you will find it is now called the Dardanelles. There was no bridge across the Hellespont, for it was almost a mile wide, and they didn't have bridges as long as that in those days. Xerxes fastened boats together in a line that stretched from one shore to the other shore, and over these boats he built a floor to form a bridge so that his army could cross upon it.
Hardly had he finished building the bridge, however, when a storm arose and destroyed it. Xerxes, in anger at the waves, ordered that the water of the Hellespont be whipped as if it were an enemy or a slave he were punishing. Then he built another bridge, and this time the water behaved itself, and his soldiers were able to cross over safely.
So vast was Xerxes's army that it is said to have taken it seven days and seven nights marching continuously all the time in two long unbroken lines to get over to the opposite shore. Xerxes's fleet followed the army as closely as they could along the shore, and at last they reached the top of Greece. Down through the north of Greece the army came, overrunning everything before it, and it seemed as though nothing on earth could stop such numbers of men.
在这场战争后，大流士愈发恼羞成怒，更加决心要把这群顽固的希腊人彻底打垮，谁让他们竟敢公然反抗他和他无上的权力呢！于是，他开始为又一次的侵略作准备。不过，这次他下定决心组建一支世上无敌的陆军和海军，而且他庄严发誓要灭掉希腊人。于是几年来他都在组建军队和筹集粮草，但是突然发生了一件事，因此，尽管他发了誓，却没有实施他的计划。为什么？你们猜出来了吧。他死了。
但是大流士有个儿子名叫薛西斯（Xerxes）——英文名字读起来好像是从Z开始，如[zurksez]。
我小时候，有一首字母押韵诗，开头为“A表示Apple（苹果）”，继续念下去就到了“X表示Xerxes（薛西斯），一位伟大的波斯国王。”尽管当时我对薛西斯或波斯一无所知，但是却记住了这首押韵诗。
薛西斯想要打垮希腊人的决心和他父亲一样坚定，因此他继续备战。
然而，希腊人也同样下决心一定不能被波斯打败，因此，他们也继续备战，因为他们知道波斯人迟早会卷土重来再次攻打他们。
当时，雅典有两个最重要的人物，他们都想成为领袖。一个名叫“泰米斯托克利”，另一个是“亚里斯泰迪斯”。你注意到没有，希腊人名字里叫“斯”的非常多啊。
泰米斯托克利督促雅典人为下一场和波斯人的战争做好准备，他知道这场战争即将到来。他特别督促雅典人组建了一支舰队，因为他们没有舰船，而波斯人却有很多。
另一方面，亚里斯泰迪斯却认为泰米斯托克利建造舰船的主张毫无意义。他认为这笔支出十分荒唐，所以对此大加抨击。
亚里斯泰迪斯一向都是睿智公正的，所以人们都喊他“公正的亚里斯泰迪斯”。即使如此，有些人还是想撵走他，因为他们认为他对组建舰队的看法是错误的，而泰米斯托克利才是正确的。他们等待陶片放逐投票日的到来，此时他们可以放逐任何他们想撵走的人。你们还记得谁开创了这个习俗吗？克里斯提尼——大约公元前500年的时候。
当投票日到来的时候，一个不会写字，也不认得亚里斯泰迪斯的人碰巧请他帮自己投票。亚里斯泰迪斯问，他要写谁的名字，那人回答道：“亚里斯泰迪斯。”
亚里斯泰迪斯没有告诉他自己是谁，只不过问：
“你为什么想撵走这个人呢？他做了什么错事吗？”
“噢，没有，”投票人回答道，“他没做什么错事，”不过，他长叹一声说：“老是听到别人喊他‘公正'、‘公正'的，我烦透了。”
听到这种不可理喻的回答，亚里斯泰迪斯一定很吃惊，不过，他还是为投票人写下了自己的名字。统计完票数，想要放逐他的人数很多，结果他被驱逐出境了。
虽然放逐亚里斯泰迪斯似乎很不公平，不过这样做却是幸运的，因为泰米斯托克利可以按自己的主张行事了，雅典人也可以继续为战争做准备了。结果证明这的确是幸运的。
他们建造了一支由三列桨战船组成的舰队。然后，他们动员了希腊所有城邦，大家同意，一旦战争爆发，就合力抵抗。斯巴达因为是以战士之城而闻名，所以被推举为战争时的联军领袖。
接着，在公元前490年的马拉松战役之后的第十年，强大的波斯军队再次准备攻打希腊。这支军队集结了来自庞大波斯帝国各地的人员，人数比上一次十二万人的军队还要多得多，尽管十二万人的军队在那个时代已经是相当大规模的了。
据推测，这一次波斯军队由二百万名以上的士兵组成——二百万呀，想想看这是多大的数字啊！当时的问题是怎样把这么多的士兵运到希腊去呢。如此多的人用船运是不行的，因为即便是最大的三列桨战船也只能装下几百个人，如果要用船运——嗯，你能算出要多少艘船才能运走这二百万人吗？也许那时世界上所有的三列桨战船加起来都不够用。薛西斯决定全军步行到希腊，虽然路途遥远，但那却是唯一可以绕过大海的一条路。他们就这样出发了。
波斯军队行军路上遇到一个狭长的水域，叫做“海峡”，有点像宽阔的河流。那条海峡在那时叫赫勒斯滂海峡。当然，它现在还在那儿，但是，如果你看一看地图，就会发现它现在叫达达尼尔海峡。赫勒斯滂海峡上面没有桥梁，因为它几乎有1英里宽，那时他们可没有那么长的桥。薛西斯让士兵把船绑在一起连成一行，一直延伸到海峡对岸，又在船上铺上了木板形成一座桥，军队就能从上面穿过海峡了。
但是，他刚刚搭好桥，就来了一场暴风雨，把桥毁了。薛西斯对这场风浪怒不可遏，下令鞭打赫勒斯滂海峡的水，就像惩罚一个敌人或奴隶那样。随后，他建了另一座桥，这次海水很平静，他的士兵平安地渡过了海峡。
薛西斯的军队实在太庞大了，据说，士兵分成长长的两行不间断的队伍，连续走了七天七夜才到了对岸。薛西斯的舰队沿着海岸紧跟着部队前进，最后他们都到达了希腊最北端。大军从希腊的北部向下俯冲，横扫一切，势如破竹，好像世界上没有任何东西能够阻挡这么庞大的队伍了。