Then said Xerxes, “The men of Thessaly are wise. Good reason had they to change their minds in time and to make provision for their safety. For, not to speak of other things, they knew that they dwelt in a land which it was easy to subdue. For nothing was needed save to turn the river upon their lands, building up a mound in this channel, and so turning the stream from its course. So would all Thessaly be changed into a lake.”
When the King said this he thought of the sons of Aleuas, who had made their submission to him first of all the Greeks, being Thessalians. And he thought that they had done this in the name of the whole people. After this the King went back to Therma. And here there came to him the heralds whom he had sent to the Greek cities demanding earth and water, some being empty-handed and some carrying that for which they had been sent. Many nations gave earth and water, as the Thessalians and the Locrians and the Bœotians; only the men of Platæa and Thespiæ, that are towns of the Bœotians, gave them not. Against all such the Greeks that stood up against the barbarians sware this oath: “From all people who being Greeks have given themselves up to the Persians, without necessity compelling, we will take a tithe of their goods, and offer it to the god at Delphi.”
Now it must be remembered that Xerxes, though he said that he was marching against Athens, had it in his mind to subdue all Greece. And this the Greeks knew beforehand, though indeed they did not all regard the matter in the same way. For some had no fear of the barbarians, as having given them earth and water, and thinking therefore that they should receive from them no harm; but others, having not given these things, were in great fear. For whereas they thought that all the ships in Greece were not enough to meet the Persians, so also they knew that the greater part of the cities would take no part in the war, but greatly favored the enemy.