Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/50

26 fflSTORY OF GREECE. another was misinterpreted into a favorable omen by the compb- ant answer of the Magian priests. On quitting Sardis, the vast host was divided into two nearly equal columns : a spacious interval being left between the two for the king himself, with his guards and select Persians. First of all' came the baggage, carried by beasts of burden, immediately followed by one half of the entire body of infantry, without any distinction of nations : next, the select troops, one thousand Persian cavalry, with one thousand Persian spearmen, the latter being distinguished by carrying their spears with the point downwards, as well as by the spear itself, which had a golden pomegranate at its other extremity, in place of the ordinary spike or point whereby the weapon was planted in the ground when the soldier was not on duty. Behind these troops walked ten sacred horses, of vast power and splendidly caparisoned, bred on the Nisaean plains in Media : next, the sacred chariot of Zeus, drawn by eight white horses, — wherein no man was ever allowed to mount, not even the charioteer, who walked on foot behind with the reins in his hand. Next after the sacred chariot came that of Xerxes himself, drawn by Nisaean horses ; the charioteer, a noble Persian, named Patiramphes, being seated in it by the side of the monarch, — who was often accustomed to alight from the chariot and to enter a litter. Immediately about his person were a chosen body of one thousand horse-guards, the best troops and of the highest breed among the Persians, having golden apples at the reverse extremity of their spears, and followed by other detachments of one thousand horse, ten thousand foot, and ten thousand horse, all native Persians. Of these ten thousand Per- sian infantry, called the Immortals, because their number was always exactly maintained, nine thousand carried spears with pomegranates of silver at the reverse extremity, while the re- maining one thousand distributed in front, rear, and on each side of this detachment, were marked by pomegranates of gold on their spears. With them ended what we may call the household bear ont the witness asserting it ; while departure from the established analogies of nature affords no motive for disbelief to a man who iuimit8 that the gods occasionally send special signs and warnings. ' Compare the description of the processional march of Cyrus, as given in the Cyropaedih, of Xenophon, viii, 2, 1-20.