valiant was she and of so manlike a spirit. She furnished five ships to the King, and in all the fleet there were none better, save only those of the Sidonians; nor was there one of the allies that gave better counsel to the King than did this Artemisia.
When Xerxes had numbered the host and the fleet, and had set them in order, it seemed good to him to go through them and see them for himself. This therefore he did. First he rode on a chariot, driving from nation to nation, and inquiring about each many things; and there followed scribes, who wrote down that which was answered. This he did till he came to the very end of the footmen and of the horsemen. After this he left his chariot and embarked on a ship of Sidon, and sitting under a tent of gold sailed along by the prows of the ships, these all having been launched and being drawn up about four hundred feet from the shore, and the fighting men upon them, some ready armed as for battle. The King sailed between the ships and the shore; and the scribes followed him and wrote as before.
When he had ended these things he sent for Demaratus, the son of Ariston, that had been King in Sparta, and had been banished thence, and asked him, saying, “Demaratus, it is my pleasure to ask thee a certain question. Thou art a Greek; and as I hear from thee and from other of thy people, thou comest of a city that is by no means the least or weakest in the land of Greece. Tell me, then, will the Greeks abide our coming, and lift a hand against us? For, as it seems to me, not all the Greeks, nor all the barbarians of the west, if they were gathered together, could stand up against me when I come against them, if they were not of one mind. But tell me, what thinkest thou?”
Then said Demaratus, “Shall I answer thee that which is true or that which is pleasant?”
The King said, “Speak that which is true. It shall not be the worse for thee.”