Xerxes by Jacob Abbott

Xerxes by Jacob Abbott 1803-1879


PREFACE.


One special object which the author of this series has had in view, in
the plan and method which he has followed in the preparation of the
successive volumes, has been to adapt them to the purposes of text-books
in schools. The study of a _general compend_ of history, such as is
frequently used as a text-book, is highly useful, if it comes in at the
right stage of education, when the mind is sufficiently matured, and has
acquired sufficient preliminary knowledge to understand and appreciate
so condensed a generalization as a summary of the whole history of a
nation contained in an ordinary volume must necessarily be. Without this
degree of maturity of mind, and this preparation, the study of such a
work will be, as it too frequently is, a mere mechanical committing to
memory of names, and dates, and phrases, which awaken no interest,
communicate no ideas, and impart no useful knowledge to the mind.

A class of ordinary pupils, who have not yet become much acquainted with
history, would, accordingly, be more benefited by having their attention
concentrated, at first, on detached and separate topics, such as those
which form the subjects, respectively, of these volumes. By studying
thus fully the history of individual monarchs, or the narratives of
single events, they can go more fully into detail; they conceive of the
transactions described as realities; their reflecting and reasoning
powers are occupied on what they read; they take notice of the motives
of conduct, of the gradual development of character, the good or ill
desert of actions, and of the connection of causes and consequences,
both in respect to the influence of wisdom and virtue on the one hand,
and, on the other, of folly and crime. In a word, their _minds_ and
_hearts_ are occupied instead of merely their memories. They reason,
they sympathize, they pity, they approve, and they condemn. They enjoy
the real and true pleasure which constitutes the charm of historical
study for minds that are mature; and they acquire a taste for truth
instead of fiction, which will tend to direct their reading into proper
channels in all future years.

The use of these works, therefore, as text-books in classes, has been
kept continually in mind in the preparation of them. The running index
on the tops of the pages is intended to serve instead of questions.
These captions can be used in their present form as _topics_, in respect
to which, when announced in the class, the pupils are to repeat
substantially what is said on the page; or, on the other hand, questions
in form, if that mode is preferred, can be readily framed from them by
the teacher. In all the volumes, a very regular system of division is
observed, which will greatly facilitate the assignment of lessons.




CONTENTS.


Chapter

I. THE MOTHER OF XERXES

II. EGYPT AND GREECE

III. DEBATE ON THE PROPOSED INVASION OF GREECE

IV. PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF GREECE

V. THE CROSSING OF THE HELLESPONT

VI. THE REVIEW OF THE ARMY AT DORISCUS

VII. PREPARATIONS OF THE GREEKS FOR DEFENSE

VIII. THE ADVANCE OF XERXES INTO GREECE

IX. THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE

X. THE BURNING OF ATHENS

XI. THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS

XII. THE RETURN TO PERSIA


XERXES.




CHAPTER I.

THE MOTHER OF XERXES.

B.C. 522-484

Persian magnificence.--The mother of Xerxes.--Cambyses.--Ambition and
selfishness of kings.--General influence exerted by great sovereigns
upon the community.--Labors of great
conquerors.--Caesar.--Darius.--William the Conqueror.--Napoleon.--Heroes
and conquerors.--The main spring of their actions.--Cyrus.--Character
and career of Cambyses.--Wives of Cambyses.--He marries his
sister.--Death of Cambyses.--Smerdis the magian.--Cunning of
Smerdis.--His feeling of insecurity.--Smerdis suspected.--His imposture
discovered.--Death of Smerdis.--Succession of Darius.--Atossa's
sickness.--The Greek physician.--Atossa's promise.--Atossa's
conversation with Darius.--Success of her plans.--The expedition to
Greece.--Escape of the physician.--Atossa's four
sons.--Artobazanes.--Dispute about the succession.--Xerxes and
Artobazanes.--The arguments.--Influence of Atossa.--The Spartan
fugitive.--His views of the succession.--The decision.--Death of Darius.


The name of Xerxes is associated in the minds of men with the idea of
the highest attainable elevation of human magnificence and grandeur.
This monarch was the sovereign of the ancient Persian empire when it was
at the height of its prosperity and power. It is probable, however, that
his greatness and fame lose nothing by the manner in which his story
comes down to us through the Greek historians. The Greeks conquered
Xerxes, and, in relating his history, they magnify the wealth, the
power, and the resources of his empire, by way of exalting the greatness
and renown of their own exploits in subduing him.

The mother of Xerxes was Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great, who was
the founder of the Persian empire. Cyrus was killed in Scythia, a wild
and barbarous region lying north of the Black and Caspian Seas. His son
Cambyses succeeded him.

A kingdom, or an empire, was regarded, in ancient days, much in the
light of an estate, which the sovereign held as a species of property,
and which he was to manage mainly with a view to the promotion of his
own personal aggrandizement and pleasure. A king or an emperor could
have more palaces, more money, and more wives than other men; and if he
was of an overbearing or ambitious spirit, he could march into his
neighbors' territories, and after gratifying his love of adventure with
various romantic exploits, and gaining great renown by his ferocious
impetuosity in battle, he could end his expedition, perhaps, by adding
his neighbors' palaces, and treasures, and wives to his own.

Divine Providence, however, the mysterious power that overrules all the
passions and impulses of men, and brings extended and general good out
of local and particular evil, has made the ambition and the selfishness
of princes the great means of preserving order and government among men.
These great ancient despots, for example, would not have been able to
collect their revenues, or enlist their armies, or procure supplies for
their campaigns, unless their dominions were under a regular and
complete system of social organization, such as should allow all the
industrial pursuits of commerce and of agriculture, throughout the mass
of the community, to go regularly on. Thus absolute monarchs, however
ambitious, and selfish, and domineering in their characters, have a
strong personal interest in the establishment of order and of justice
between man and man throughout all the regions which are under their
sway. In fact, the greater their ambition, their selfishness, and their
pride, the stronger will this interest be; for, just in proportion as
order, industry, and internal tranquillity prevail in a country, just in
that proportion can revenues be collected from it, and armies raised and
maintained.

It is a mistake, therefore, to suppose of the great heroes, and
sovereigns, and conquerors that have appeared from time to time among
mankind, that the usual and ordinary result of their influence and
action has been that of disturbance and disorganization. It is true that
a vast amount of disturbance and disorganization has often followed from
the march of their armies, their sieges, their invasions, and the other
local and temporary acts of violence which they commit; but these are
the exceptions, not the rule. It must be that such things are
exceptions, since, in any extended and general view of the subject, a
much greater amount of social organization, industry, and peace is
necessary to raise and maintain an army, than that army can itself
destroy. The deeds of destruction which great conquerors perform attract
more attention and make a greater impression upon mankind than the
quiet, patient, and long-continued labors by which they perfect and
extend the general organization of the social state. But these labors,
though less noticed by men, have really employed the energies of great
sovereigns in a far greater degree than mankind have generally imagined.
Thus we should describe the work of Caesar's life in a single word more
truly by saying that he _organized_ Europe, than that he conquered it.
His bridges, his roads, his systems of jurisprudence, his coinage, his
calendar, and other similar means and instruments of social arrangement,
and facilities for promoting the pursuits of industry and peace, mark,
far more properly, the real work which that great conqueror performed
among mankind, than his battles and his victories. Darius was, in the
same way, the organizer of Asia. William the Conqueror completed, or,
rather, advanced very far toward completing, the social organization of
England; and even in respect to Napoleon, the true and proper memorial
of his career is the successful working of the institutions, the
systems, and the codes which he perfected and introduced into the social
state, and not the brazen column, formed from captured cannon, which
stands in the Place Vendome.

These considerations, obviously true, though not always borne in mind,
are, however, to be considered as making the characters of the great
sovereigns, in a moral point of view, neither the worse nor the better.
In all that they did, whether in arranging and systematizing the
functions of social life, or in ruthless deeds of conquest and
destruction, they were actuated, in a great measure, by selfish
ambition. They arranged and organized the social state in order to form
a more compact and solid pedestal for the foundation of their power.
They maintained peace and order among their people, just as a master
would suppress quarrels among his slaves, because peace among laborers
is essential to productive results. They fixed and defined legal
rights, and established courts to determine and enforce them; they
protected property; they counted and classified men; they opened roads;
they built bridges; they encouraged commerce; they hung robbers, and
exterminated pirates--all, that the collection of their revenues and the
enlistment of their armies might go on without hinderance or
restriction. Many of them, indeed, may have been animated, in some
degree, by a higher and nobler sentiment than this. Some may have felt a
sort of pride in the contemplation of a great, and prosperous, and
wealthy empire, analogous to that which a proprietor feels in surveying
a well-conditioned, successful, and productive estate. Others, like
Alfred, may have felt a sincere and honest interest in the welfare of
their fellow-men, and the promotion of human happiness may have been, in
a greater or less degree, the direct object of their aim. Still, it can
not be denied that a selfish and reckless ambition has been, in general,
the main spring of action with heroes and conquerors, which, while it
aimed only at personal aggrandizement, has been made to operate, through
the peculiar mechanism of the social state which the Divine wisdom has
contrived, as a means, in the main of preserving and extending peace
and order among mankind, and not of destroying them.

But to return to Atossa. Her father Cyrus, who laid the foundation of
the great Persian empire, was, for a hero and conqueror, tolerably
considerate and just, and he desired, probably, to promote the welfare
and happiness of his millions of subjects; but his son Cambyses,
Atossa's brother, having been brought up in expectation of succeeding to
vast wealth and power, and having been, as the sons of the wealthy and
the powerful often are in all ages of the world, wholly neglected by his
father during the early part of his life, and entirely unaccustomed to
control, became a wild, reckless, proud, selfish, and ungovernable young
man. His father was killed suddenly in battle, as has already been
stated, and Cambyses succeeded him. Cambyses's career was short,
desperate, and most tragical in its end.[A] In fact, he was one of the
most savage, reckless, and abominable monsters that have ever lived.

[Footnote A: His history in given in the first chapter of DARIUS THE
GREAT.]

It was the custom in those days for the Persian monarchs to have many
wives, and, what is still more remarkable, whenever any monarch died,
his successor inherited his predecessor's family as well as his throne.
Cyrus had several children by his various wives. Cambyses and Smerdis
were the only sons, but there were daughters, among whom Atossa was the
most distinguished. The ladies of the court were accustomed to reside in
different palaces, or in different suites of apartments in the same
palace, so that they lived in a great measure isolated from each other.
When Cambyses came to the throne, and thus entered into possession of
his father's palaces, he saw and fell in love with one of his father's
daughters. He wished to make her one of his wives. He was accustomed to
the unrestricted indulgence of every appetite and passion, but he seems
to have had some slight misgivings in regard to such a step as this. He
consulted the Persian judges. They conferred upon the subject, and then
replied that they had searched among the laws of the realm, and though
they found no law allowing a man to marry his sister, they found many
which authorized a Persian king to do whatever he pleased.


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