Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/27

ACCESSION OF XERXES. 8 Eomesti and most stately man amid the immense ci'owd which he led against Greece, was in character timid and faint-hearted, over and above those defects of vanity, childish self-conceit, and blindness of appreciation, which he shared more or less with all the Persian kings. Yet we shall see that, even under his con- duct, the invasion of Greece was very near proving successful : and it well might have succeeded altogether, had he been either endued with the courageous temperament, or inflamed with the fierce animosity, of his father. On succeeding to the throne, Xerxes found the forces of the empire in active preparation, pursuant to the orders of Darius ; except Egypt, which was in a state of revolt. His first necessity was to reconquer this country ; a purpose for which the great military power now in readiness was found amply sufficient. Egypt was subdued and reduced to a state of much harder de- pendence than before : we may presume that the tribute was in- creased, as well as the numbers of the Persian occupying force maintained, by contributions levied on the natives. Achsemenes, brother of Xerxes, was installed there as satrap. But Xerxes was not at first equally willing to prosecute the schemes of his deceased father against Greece. At least such is the statement of Herodotus ; who represents Mardonius as the grand instigator of the invasion, partly through thirst for war- like enterprise, partly from a desire to obtain the intended con- quest as a satrapy for himself. Nor were there wanting Grecian counsellors to enforce his recommendation, both by the promise of help and by the color of religion. The great family of the Aleuadae, belonging to Larissa, and perhaps to other towns in Thessaly, were so eager in the cause, that their principal mem- bers came to Susa to offer an easy occupation of that frontier territory of Hellas : while the exiled Peisistratids from Athens Btill persevered in striving to procure their own restoration at the tail of a Persian army. On the present occasion, they brought with them to Susa a new instrument, the holy mystic Onomakritus, — a man who had acquired much reputation, not by prophesying himself, but by collecting, arranging, interpret- ' Herod, vii, 187. The like personal beauty is ascribed to Darius (^ iomaonufl, the last of the Persian kings (Plutarch, Alexand. c. 21 ).