The Athenians thought they had driven the Persians away forever, but there was one wise man in Greece—Themistocles—who did not think so. He thought that they would come again, so he urged the Athenians to build a great many new ships by taxing themselves and from the money of their gold mines, for there were excellent gold mines near Athens. Another wise and good man, called Aristides, thought they did not need any more ships and that it would be better to give the money to the people. Some of the people thought as Aristides, and others wanted to have the ships built. At last they saw that one of the men, in order to keep peace in the little Athenian state, must be sent away; so all the people gathered in Athens one day, and each wrote on a shell the name of the man he wished to send away. When they counted the names, it was found that there were six thousand shells for Aristides, which meant that he must leave his home and go into another country. This was called ostracism.  It took this name from the name of the shell, or tablet, upon which the vote was written. Themistocles then went on building the ships until the Greeks had a large fleet.

While the Greeks were building their ships, Darius was getting another army ready to come back to Greece. He was so certain he could conquer the Greeks that he was going to try again.

You see he did not know that, even if there were not many Greeks, they were very brave and had been well trained for war. He did not know what excellent training the Greeks obtained in their gymnasiums at Athens and how the Spartan boys by severe training, gathering reeds for their own rough beds, hunting on the mountains, eating coarse food and having to go barefoot winter and summer, became the best soldiers of the world in their time. The Spartan women, too, were often as brave as the men. They said to their sons, "Bring home your shield or come home on it," which meant that they must never give up to the enemy. They must either conquer him or die fighting him. The Athenians did not train their children to fight quite so well as Sparta did, but they knew how to make good plans to capture the enemy. Would these Grecians who ruled themselves and loved their homes and children, their little farms and gods, fight better than the Persian soldiers, who were hired to fight, and fought only for the king?

Darius had gathered together only part of the second army with which he meant to conquer Greece when he died, and his son Xerxes took his place. Xerxes did not want to fight the Greeks, but his nobles wished him to do so; so, after great preparations, he concluded to lead the army himself.

In gathering together his army he sent heralds all over his vast country to tell the people to make ready for war. For eight long years he gathered together his soldiers, made armor and collected food, built roads and trained his men. Would not you think he could bring together a large army in eight years? When they were all gathered, they spent the winter in and about the city of Sardis in Asia Minor, which the Persians had built up again after the Greeks had burnt it.

Early in the spring 480 years before Christ, Xerxes started toward Greece with his great army, but it was a motley looking mass of men. The king rode in his chariot, which was drawn by eight white horses. In his gorgeous dress and chariot it must have been a beautiful sight. On either side of Xerxes were his best soldiers, the Immortals. Those who fought on foot wore coats of mail made of metal or quilted linen, which covered all the body except the head. They had also shields made of wicker-work, which were set in front of them, from behind which they shot with bow and arrow. Those who rode on horseback had coats of mail to cover the entire body, and these men carried a sword and knife for weapons. But besides the Immortals there were many who could not fight so well. Some were dressed in leopard skins and carried bows made of the ribs of palm leaves. Their arrows were reeds tipped with small, sharp stones, and some had only clubs with which to fight. Others had a lasso and long knife, while still others had short darts and knives. Some of the wilder tribes tried to protect their heads with wooden hats, but had no protection whatever for their bodies.

Xerxes, with his mighty army, marched westward across the country to the Hellespont, where he had had a bridge of boats built for his army to cross on. It took a long time for all the soldiers to cross, but at last they were all over and marched toward Greece.

While Xerxes was leading this part of his army around to the north, the Persian fleet had crossed the Ægean Sea to help him capture the Grecians.

When the Athenians heard that Xerxes was coming, they were filled with fear. Miltiades, who had led them at Marathon, was dead, and they did not know who could lead them to victory now. Finally they sent for Aristides, who, you remember, had been sent away by ostracism. Runners were sent from Athens all over Greece to ask aid of the different states, but nearly all the people were at the Olympic games. Finally the Spartans promised to send some soldiers to the narrow pass of Thermopylæ, which was a narrow road, just wide enough for a chariot to creep between the mountains and the sea, leading into central Greece. So Leonidas, with three hundred of the bravest Spartans and seven hundred Thespians, stationed himself there to meet the Persians.

Leonidas had not been at the pass long before Xerxes came. When Xerxes saw so few men, he sent a messenger to ask the Spartans to give up their arms. Leonidas sent him word to "come and take them." Then Leonidas and his men put on their finest armor, combed their long hair, and played at games in the sunshine. Xerxes thought the Greeks were crazy when he saw them combing their long hair, but a traitor Spartan in Xerxes' camp told him they always did so before a dangerous battle, and it did not mean they were careless but determined to fight to the last. Xerxes then sent some of his troops against them, but they had to fall back; this happened again and again, and perhaps Leonidas could have kept the Persians back until the rest of the Greeks returned from the games, had not a traitor gone to Xerxes and for money offered to show him a path which led over the mountains and behind Leonidas, who had placed only a few men to guard it.

Led by the traitor, the Persians came to the guards of the path, whom they soon killed, and then they marched down the mountain side toward Leonidas. It was yet early morning, and there was still time for all the Greeks to escape. Leonidas told his men that all might go except the Spartans. "We," said he, "must stay." Yet he knew that all who remained would be killed. The Thespians, who lived in a little city not far away, however, refused to go. They were brave, too. All day long this handful of men, clothed in brass from head to foot, and armed with spears, fought against the mighty Persian hosts, and at night not one of Leonidas' brave men was left. This, as I have told you, was just ten years after the battle of Marathon and four hundred and eighty years before the birth of Christ. It looked discouraging when the mighty Persian host marched through the pass and came on toward Athens. Do you think the Persians will now conquer Greece?

When the Persians had gained the victory at Thermopylæ, Xerxes, as I said, marched on toward Athens. The people of that city fled, and not knowing what to do they asked advice of their god, Apollo, at Delphi. The answer was, "The wooden walls will defend you and your children." The Greeks were not sure what this meant, but Themistocles said it meant for them to go into their ships, which you remember he had already persuaded the Athenians to build.

All the women and children were put on ships and sent away from Athens to the southern part of Greece; then the warriors made the rest of the ships ready to fight in the bay of Salamis. The people had just left the city when Xerxes marched into Athens and burned it. His ships had not helped him much yet, but he thought they could surely defeat the little Greek fleet which he saw in the bay of Salamis, west of Athens, so he had a throne built on a mountain, not far from Salamis, that he might watch the battle.

The Greeks fought so bravely and so well that they cut the Persian fleet all to pieces. Xerxes became frightened, and taking most of his army, fled to Persia. He left quite a large number, however, in Greece, under his general, Mardonius; and not very long after, the Greeks fought another battle with him at Platæa. In this battle the Greeks were completely successful; and when Mardonius saw that he was defeated, he ran away with the men he had left, leaving great riches on the battlefield. The Greeks were glad to see him leave for Persia, for they thought that the Persians would never come again.

Thus, you see, this brave little country had defeated a country forty times as large, and by doing so prevented a king who cared nothing for common people from crushing out the liberty-loving Greeks. It made them very proud of themselves, and made them feel as if they could do great deeds. If the little city-states of Greece could now have been less selfish, and had all worked together, they might have done even more than they did. It was a pity they never could learn to work together. But even as it was, Athens now grew rapidly and did wonderful things, and of these things we will next study.