The invasion of Greece was a huge effort, involving a military force of between 150,000 and 200,000 men. Herodotus wrote of the varied Persian army, which combined forty-six different nationalities from around the Persian Empire. Besides the Medes and Persians, there were Assyrians in brass helmets, Indians carrying bows made out of cane, Scythians armed with battle axes, and Thracians wearing coats
Xerxes watching ships battle. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Of bright colors. Most magnificent of all, however, was the group called the Immortals, or the Ten Thousand, so named because whenever one of them fell in battle, he would be replaced by another to maintain their numbers. Along with this army was a navy of some 4,000 ships.
Though he was a Zoroastrian, Xerxes made a sacrifice to the Greek goddess Athena near the site of Troy. Perhaps he was hedging his bets; certainly there were a number of bad signs on the horizon. Twice the Persians tried to make a bridge of boats across the more than 2-mile-wide (3.2-kilometerwide) Hellespont, and twice storms destroyed these bridges. On the third try, the army made it, but in all the crossing took a week. Another bad omen came in the form of a rumor, which spread throughout the army, that a mare had given birth to a hare—a sign, the Persians believed, that they would march into Greece like horses and run out like rabbits. It was around this time that Xerxes watched his troops march by and, according to Herodotus, began to weep. Artabanus asked him why he was crying, and Xerxes is said to have replied, “It came to my mind how pitifully short human life is—for all these thousands of men, not one will be alive in a hundred years' time.”
World History
