ROUTE FROM SARDES TO HELLESPONT.
Six cables, two of white flax and four of papyrus, held each bridge in place, and on these trunks of trees were placed. A roadway was formed on this foundation, composed of brushwood with earth laid upon it, and each bridge was fenced in throughout its whole length.
H. vii. 37.
After spending the winter of 481–480 at Sardes, Xerxes started on his march at the beginning of spring. Herodotus asserts that his departure was signalized by an eclipse of the sun. He is certainly mistaken in attributing an eclipse to this date;[97] but popular tradition was but too apt to mis-date such phenomena in order to make them coincide with some momentous event in history.
H. vii. 40, 41.
The Persian household troops, gorgeously caparisoned, formed the body-guard of the king on his march. The total number of this corps d’élite amounts to 24,000 in Herodotus’ enumeration.
Herodotus, writing for an audience that wished above all to be amused, tells many a tale of the incidents of the march. They are pleasant reading enough, but they are not history. They had, however, a serious as well as a lighter side. He wished to bring before his countrymen a picture of that life of the East which few of them, perhaps, could realize; of the illogical decrees of absolutism; of anything and everything which could display to them the contrast between a splendid liberty and a splendid servitude.
H. vii. 42.
The route followed by the army in its march from Sardes to the Hellespont led it over the river Kaïkos into Mysia. Then leaving Mount Kane on the left, it passed through Atarneus to Karine. Thence it marched through the plain of Thebe, and passing Adramyttion and Antandros, and, keeping Mount Ida on the right,[98] it entered the territory of Ilium. From there it passed near Rhoetion, Ophrynion and Dardanos to Abydos.
H. vii. 44.