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50 Pausanias, 1.32.6.
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51 Herodotus claims that a shield was used, but since the shields used by the Greeks were convex, and a flat surface is needed to catch the sun, this seems improbable. That the signal was sent from Mount Pentelikon is an assumption based on the local topography.
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52 Herodotus, 6.116.
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53 Ibid., 6.109.
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54 Ibid., 8.105.
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55 Pausanias, 1.29.4.
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VI The Gathering Storm
1 From Plato’s epigram “On the Eretrian Exiles in Persia.”
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2 The exact date of Demaratus’ flight from Sparta is uncertain. It was most likely some time between September 490 BC and the following September, although it could have been later.
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3 Herodotus, 1.136.
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4 Plato, Alcibiades, 121d. Herodotus (1.136) and Strabo (15.3.18) claim that Persian boys began their full-time education at the age of five; Plato, immediately after the passage quoted, says seven.
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5 Ctesias, 54.
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6 Although Herodotus (7.2–5) claims that Xerxes was not proclaimed heir until Darius was preparing to depart for Egypt, a frieze dating from much earlier in his reign (at least before 490 BC) shows Darius with Xerxes as crown prince standing behind him.
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7 Cicero, 1.41.90.
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8 Strabo, 15.3.21.
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9 Herodotus, 7.187.
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10 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPf).
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11 Plutarch, Artaxerxes, 3.
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12 Xerxes, inscription at Persepolis (XPh).
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13 Ibid. (XPf).
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14 Herodotus, 7.6.
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15 Herodotus, as ever our principal source, gives us a detailed account of the debate, complete with speeches from Xerxes, Mardonius and Xerxes’ uncle Artabanus, a prominent dove—all of which he claims to have derived directly from Persian sources (7.12). Even if the speeches are not the verbatim transcripts that Herodotus implies, the division of opinion which they reflect does seem authentic. The characterization of Mardonius, bearing in mind what would subsequently happen, appears particularly suggestive.
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16 Such, at any rate, is the implication of the comments that Herodotus gives Mardonius after the Battle of Salamis (7.100).
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17 To be specific, the southern end of the so-called Apadana Staircase, the sculptures of which have been dated to the beginning of Xerxes’ reign.
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18 Xenophon, Economics, 4.8.
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19 Aelian, 1.33.
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20 Strabo, 25.3.18.
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21 Herodotus, 7.5.
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22 “Paradaida” is a reconstruction, based on the evidence of the Greek loanword. An exact synonym, the Elamite word “partetash,” has been found in the Persepolis tablets. See Briant (2002), pp. 442–3.
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23 Xenophon, Household Management, 4.21.
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24 Athenaeus, 9.51. The assertion was originally made by Charon of Lampsacus, a contemporary of Herodotus.
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25 An anonymous philosopher of the fifth century—perhaps Democritus. Quoted by Cartledge (1997), p. 12.
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26 Plutarch, Themistocles, 2.
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27 Aristotle, Politics, 1302b15.
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28 Aristotle (The Constitution of the Athenians, 22.1 and 4) specifically states that it was Cleisthenes who was responsible for the law on ostracism. Historians have sometimes doubted whether it would have remained unused for twenty years, but skepticism on the matter ignores the peculiar circumstances of Miltiades’ trial, and its aftermath.
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29 A title not semi-formalized until 478 BC, a year after the end of the Persian Wars, but evidently in the air long before that (cf. Plutarch, Aristeides, 7).
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30 Plutarch, Aristeides, 2.
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31 Pausanias, 1.26.5.
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32 The earliest reference to the contest between Athena and Poseidon occurs in Herodotus (8.55), and this has led some scholars (most notably Shapiro) to suggest that it is a fifth-century invention. Certainty on the matter is impossible, but the confusions and inconsistencies in the various versions of the myth suggest a much older origin.
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33 Homer, Odyssey, 3.278.
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34 Aeschylus, Persians, 238.
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35 Plutarch, Themistocles, 4.
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36 Plutarch, Aristeides, 7.
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37 Plutarch, Cimon, 12.
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38 Xenophon, Household Management, 8.8.
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39 Thucydides, 142.
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40 Plato, Laws, 4.706.
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41 Herodotus, 7.239.
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42 For this explanation of the contradictory stories about Demaratus’ paternity found in Herodotus, see Burkert (1965).
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43 Pausanias, 3.12.6. It has generally been assumed that the meeting took place at Corinth, where all subsequent meetings were held, but since the earliest source for this is a historian of the first century BC, Diodorus Siculus (9.3), who in turn used Herodotus as his ultimate source of information, I see no reason to dismiss the evidence of Pausanias, as most scholars do; indeed, it makes perfect sense, for the reason I give.
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44 Plutarch, Themistocles, 6.
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45 Herodotus, 7.132.
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46 Ezekiel, 27.4.
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47 Plato, The Republic, 4.436a.
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48 The Odyssey, 15.416–17.