No. 9.
MY DEAR CRILDREN. ― During the ten years which elapsed between the battle of Marathan and the expedition of Xerxes into Greece, all Asia resounded with the din of arms. Xerxes in the second year of his reign, having put down the revolt of Egypt, had time to organize his forces. They were immense; but before I relate the story it is well that we should know what Scripture says about him. “And now I will show thee the truth. Behold there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.” Those were Cambyses, Smerdis, the magian, Darius, and the fourth Xerxes. If Darius accumulated riches, Xerxes had the benefit of them. In both these reigns, but especially in the latter, the energies of the whole civilized world were stirred up against Greece. It is supposed also, that the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, was Xerxes at in the cuneiform writing, the names, by leaving out the initial letter A, answer very well. The splendor of his court is attested by the description of the feast, and of the “white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble,” &c. These were probably the curtains drawn over the otherwise unroofed great ball of the palace. It does not appear that Xerxes was particularly anxious to invade Greece, but he was surrounded by those whose ambition and interest it was to go on with it. Mardonius, hit brother-in-law, hoped to retrieve his character after the failure of his former expedition into Thrace, and to become satrap of the conquered country. Accordingly everything being complete, Xerxes left Susa for Sardis, in which last city he spent the winter of 481 B.C. In the spring of the ensuing year, the mighty host of 1,700,000 foot, and 80,000 horse, were put in motion. But these are not supposed to number the whole army, for he received accessions after he crossed into Europe; and we have to take into consideration the number of men on board a fleet which consisted of 1200 tireremes, and 3000 smaller vessels, so that altogether the numbers are said to have exceeded five millions, according to the calculation of Herodotus. Later writers have greatly diminished these figures. They are probably overstated; for on the one hand, the vanity of Xerxes before his defeat would be fed by the exaggeration of his numbers; and on the other, after that event, the vanity of the Greeks would be fed by a like exaggeration. We may, however, safely infer, that it was the largest armament ever called into existence, if only by the fact that Herodotus insists that the rivers and streams were exhausted in supplying this host. I will only add, that if any of you were to see 5000 men in array in this country, you would think the number immense. Very rarely are 10,000 men mustered in one field in England, and an European army of 100,000 men is a very large force. Great difficulty would be found in the feeding of such a multitude, but notice was given long beforehand to the towns the army was to pass through, that each was to be prepared with one day’s provision for the whole force, and large collections were made at various depots on the route. Besides which, it is not likely that any of the troops tasted meat. Their food was probably beans or wheat, which, stowed in sacks, could easily accompany the march. There is also one principal item in favor of the advance of large armies in ancient times. There was no sea or land artillery, the weight of which with their shot is the heaviest part of the armament; nor muskets to be carried by the soldiers, which is the heaviest part of their equipment’s; so that not only might each soldier carry a considerable quantity of provision; but the great artillery wagons of our modern armies, in which the powder and shot are conveyed, and for which the most horses are needed, would in ancient times have been employed for provisions, and the transports accompanying the expedition likewise. We must remember too that the word of the great king was law, so that the entire resources of the countries he passed through were at his command; and since, as I told you in a former letter, the Eastern mind partakes largely of magnificence and grandeur, we may be sure that there were not wanting men in these large assemblages, with powers of organization, whose lives would have answered for any failure in their departments. In fact, the expedition would have been impossible, without good arrange means as to food. Xerxes assembled his host in Cappadocia; thence they were marched to Sardis, whence he met them, and his route is, along the western borders of Asia Minor, near the sea, till he reached the coast near Abydos where he found a double bridge of boats, to the opposite shore, with two passages or lines of causeway, one for the men, the other for the baggage. These straits are with us called the passage of the Dardanelles, and are considerably more than a mile across, being now protected by heavy forts on either side. His vast host occupied seven days in passing this bridge. As to the ships which accompanied the expedition they were tireremes, or vessels having three rowers at each oar, and carried, besides the crews, about thirty soldiers. They attended the land force as near the coast as they could get.
Before I briefly describe the disastrous results of the expedition, let me remind you of a remarkable passage in the book of Daniel. Thrice in the book (chapter 8:21, 10:20, 11:3) is Greece mentioned as in antagonism with and to succeed Persia. In chapter 9 Daniel had been praying and confessing the transgressions of all Israel in departing from Moses’ law. In chapter 10 he had been mourning and fasting for three weeks. In consequence of this (10:12) he sees a vision one whose “body was like the beryl, and hi face as the appearance of lightning,” &c. He was sent on the behalf of Daniel. In verse 13 he says, “The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but, lo, Michael one of the chief princes, came to help me.” Here, then, was a kind of angelic interference, both to hinder and to help the development of the counsels of God, as in favor of the Jews. This mysterious person seen in the vision (verse 20) “was to return to fight with the prince of Persia,” &c. We thus see how these mighty armaments, and these ambitious rulers, could not hinder the bringing about of God’s purposes and these all connected with Daniel’s people, the Jews.
Bear in mind, my dear children, that these Persians and Greeks knew nothing about the true God. The Greeks at this time were votaries at the shrine of the Oracle at Delphi, or Pytho, which means serpent. Thence they drew all their inspirations. They loaded the temple of Apollo placed there with gifts. The Persians were not, as I told you before, idolaters, ―they were worshippers of one God; but still they were ignorant of the true one.
I now return to the history of Xerxes. Having crossed the Hellespont, he numbered his army at Doriscus, in Thrace. This he did by drawing up ten thousand men in a square, in close array; he then built a wall round them, and by packing successive ten thousands into this enclosure he found his fighting infantry to consist of 1,700,000. The invading army passed uninterrupted through Thrace and Macedonia till the pass of Thermopylæ, south of Thessaly, was reached, off which lies the island of Eubœa. This pass being defended by Leonidas, king of Sparta, with a few hundred Spartans and other Greek troops, offered a resistance of several days to Xerxes’ choicest troops; but Leonidas being at length taken in reverse by the Persians, the whole number perished, and Xerxes continued his advance to Athens, which he took and burned. Off the island of Salamis his fleet, however, was signally defeated. Xerxes now became fully aware of the prowess of the Greeks, and fearing that the bridge across the Hellespont might he destroyed by their fleet, decided on a retreat, which he ignominiously effected, and returned to Sardis, leaving Mardonius with 300,000 men to pursue his conquests. But the next year he was killed, at the battle of Platœa, and with his life all hopes of the conquest of Europe by the Persians vanished. Xerxes, it is said, became a mere voluptuary, and perished by a conspiracy, after reigning twenty-one years. He died 464 B.C. Thus ended the man whose insane pride and ambition Scripture notices, as the one to “stir up all against the realm of Grecia.”
The latter half of the duration of the Persian monarchy does not need much notice. Xerxes was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes Longimanus. He befriended the Jews, and, in the seventh year of his reign, allowed Ezra (Ezra 7) to return from Babylon to Jerusalem, with any of the Jews who chose to accompany him. Nehemiah was his cup-bearer, and he too, in the twentieth year of this reign, was permitted to return and rebuild the city. It is this latter decree from which the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years (Daniel 9:2525Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. (Daniel 9:25)), are undoubtedly to be computed. He is said to have been a mild, if not a great prince, and we may fairly suppose that the comparative tranquility of his reign, and its length of forty-one years (he died B.C. 423,) was owing to his recognizing Jehovah the God of Israel as the God of heaven, to whom he and his councilors made offerings. (Ezra 7:15-2115And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, 16And all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem: 17That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. 18And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God. 19The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem. 20And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house. 21And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily, (Ezra 7:15‑21).) The other kings need only a passing notice. Darius Nothus reigned nineteen years (he died B.C. 404), and had two sons― Artaxerxes the Second and Cyrus. By this time the superiority of the Greeks over the Persians as soldiers was universally admitted, and henceforth it was the custom to employ them in large numbers as mercenaries. Cyrus, wishing to overthrow his brother Artaxerxes, employed 13,000 of them. He was, however, defeated, and these Greeks, being abandoned by invaders and invaded, had to make their way from the heart of Asia―for Cunaxa, where the battle was fought, is not far from Babylon―to the nearest Greek maritime colony in Asia Minor, a distance of not much less than two thousand miles. They succeeded in avoiding or fighting their way through all opposition; and it was this retreat, the account of which was written by Xenophon, the general, and a subsequent warlike visit on the part of Agesilaus, a Spartan king, that satisfied the Greeks as to the internal weakness of the Persian empire, and the possibility of conquering it. After a few imbecile kings and bloody revolutions in the Royal family, the last occupant of the throne was Darius Codomanus, mentioned perhaps in Nehemiah 12:2222The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, were recorded chief of the fathers: also the priests, to the reign of Darius the Persian. (Nehemiah 12:22). He had distinguished himself by his valor in the reign of a former king; but his star waned before that of Alexander the Great. If we search out the causes of the weakness and fall of the Persian monarchy, we shall find them distinct from those of the fall of Babylon. There it was idolatry, gross and without excuse; for Jehovah had revealed Himself to Nebuchadnezzar in a marked and public way. (chapter 2, 3, 4) Yet Bel and Nebo still held their places in the capital. (verse 4.) With Persia it was different; for, save Daniel in the den of lions, that notable miracle done in the presence of Darius the Mede; and save the proclamation of Cyrus (Ezra 1), we have no knowledge of any absolute public communication from the Lord to the monarchs of Persia; and how He revealed Himself to Cyrus is not recorded. The failure in this second monarchy, is rather to be found in its setting aside the natural relationships between man and his fellow, established by God for the welfare of His creature man, ant the safeguards of society, and specially laid down in the Jewish law. Thus almost all the later kings married their own sisters, or even their own daughters; whilst publicly their government was a mixture of intrigue and cruelty. The fruits of such misconduct were terrible. Poison and the sword were habitually used within the palace to get rid of any obnoxious members of the Royal family. There were civil wars, incorrections, and rebellions, until at last the whole kingdom fell into disorder and confusion―a shapeless mass without a proper head. Mankind at large, and those high in station in particular cannot relax the wholesome bonds establishes by the Creator without suffering for it, even in this life, and it is of the ways of God to man it this life that I am writing to you. ―Your affectionate Father.