When the vision had thus spoken it seemed to Artabanus to make as if it were about to burn out his eyes with hot irons. Then he cried aloud, and leaped up from the bed, and sat him down by Xerxes and told him all that he had seen. And afterward he said to the King, “I am one, O King, that has seen strong things overthrown by the weak, and so I would not have thee yield to thy desires, knowing that it was an evil thing to covet great possessions, and remembering how ill Cyrus fared when he made war against the Massagetæ, and Cambyses against the Ethiopians, and having myself gone with Darius against the Scythians. But now since this inspiration comes from God, who is preparing, it seems, utter destruction against the Greeks, I change my counsel. Do thou therefore declare to the Persians the purpose of God, and take good care that if God give thee this opportunity, thou shalt not fail any thing on thy part.”
So soon therefore as it was day Xerxes told the whole matter to the Persians, and Artabanus, who had been the only one to speak against the war, was now the foremost in urging it.