way, persuading Xerxes to take the matter in hand. There were other things that helped him persuading Xerxes to this act. First there came envoys from the house of Aleuas, that was King in Thessaly, who would fain have the King come against the land of Greece, and showed all zeal in his cause. Also certain of the house of Pisistratus that had come up to Susa held the same language. These had with them one Onomacritus, a man of Athens, that was a soothsayer, and one that had set in order the prophecies of Musæus. Once, indeed, there had been enmity between the son of Pisistratus and this Onomacritus; for Hipparchus had banished him from Athens, having found that he had added to the prophecies of Musæus a certain prophecy how that an island which lies near unto Lemnos should one day be swallowed up in the sea. A certain Leros had found him out in this, and Hipparchus banished him, having been wont to consult him continually. But now the sons of Pisistratus were reconciled to him, and took him in their company to Susa, and talked much of him and of his wisdom. And so soon as he was brought before the King, he repeated to him certain of the prophecies. If there were any prophecy that spake of disaster to the Persians, of this he would make no mention, but such as seemed to promise them success he would set forth, how that it was in the fates that a Persian should bridge over the Hellespont. Thus did Onomacritus make much of his prophecies, and the sons of Pisistratus and the sons of Aleuas set forth their opinions to the same purpose.
So King Xerxes was persuaded to make war upon the Greeks. And first, in the second year after the death of Darius, he marched into the land of Egypt, and having enslaved it more than it had been enslaved before, he gave it over to Achæmenes his brother, and son to Darius. (This Achæmenes was afterward slain by Inaros, the son of Psammeticus, a Nubian.) And after this, being now about to lead his army against Athens, he called an assembly of the noblest of the Persians, that he might hear what they thought, and might himself say what he would have them hear. And when they were gathered together he spake, saying,