For the space of four years from the subduing of Egypt did the servants of King Xerxes gather together the host and all such things as were needful for it. And in the beginning of the fifth year the King set out upon his march, having such an army as had never before been seen. For indeed that which Darius led against the Scythians was as nothing in comparison of this, neither was that wherewith the Scythians invaded the land of Asia, and subdued the northern parts thereof (this was the cause why Darius invaded the land of the Scythians), nor that which the sons of Atreus led against Troy, nor that of the Mysians and Teucrians, who, in the days before the Trojan war, conquered the land of Thrace, and came as far as the river Peneus that is in the land of Thessaly. Not one of these armies is worthy to be compared with the army of Xerxes. For what people of Asia did he not lead against Greece? And what stream, saving only the great rivers, was not drunk up by his armies? Some were bidden to furnish foot soldiers, and some horsemen, and some ships for carrying of horses and men at arms, and some ships of war for the bridges, and others food and ships. First of all, seeing that they who had first sailed against Greece had suffered great loss at Mount Athos, Xerxes caused that there should be a fleet of ships of war at Elæus, and that men from the ships, taking turn by turn, should dig a great trench, digging under the lash of taskmasters, in which work the people of the country also took their part.
Now this Athos is a great and famous mountain, that stretches out into the sea, and the land by which it is joined to the continent is narrow,