herodotus

and also he was making preparations to store provisions for his armyon the way, that neither the army itself nor the baggage animals mightsuffer from scarcity, as they made their march against Hellas.Accordingly, when he had learnt by inquiry of the various places, hebade them make stores where it was most convenient, carrying suppliesto different parts by merchant ships and ferry-boats from all thecountries of Asia. So they conveyed the greater part of the corn[27]to the place which is called Leuke Acte in Thrace, while othersconveyed stores to Tyrodiza of the Perinthians, others to Doriscos,others to Eïon on the Strymon, and others to Macedonia, the work beingdistributed between them.26. During the time that these were working at the task which had beenproposed to them, the whole land-army had been assembled together andwas marching with Xerxes to Sardis, setting forth from Critalla inCappadokia; for there it had been ordered that the whole army shouldassemble, which was to go with Xerxes himself by the land: but whichof the governors of provinces brought the best equipped force andreceived from the king the gifts proposed, I am not able to say, for Ido not know that they even came to a competition in this matter. Thenafter they had crossed the river Halys and had entered Phrygia,marching through this land they came to Kelainai, where the springs ofthe river Maiander come up, and also those of another river not lessthan the Maiander, whose name is Catarractes;[28] this rises in themarket-place itself of Kelainai and runs into the Maiander: and herealso is hanging up in the city the skin of Marsyas the Silenos, whichis said by the Phrygians to have been flayed off and hung up byApollo. 27. In this city Pythios the son of Atys, a Lydian, waswaiting for the king and entertained his whole army, as well as Xerxeshimself, with the most magnificent hospitality: moreover he professedhimself ready to supply money for the war. So when Pythios offeredmoney, Xerxes asked those of the Persians who were present, whoPythios was and how much money he possessed, that he made this offer.They said: "O king, this is he who presented thy father Dareios withthe golden plane-tree and the golden vine; and even now he is inwealth the first of all men of whom we know, excepting thee only." 28.Marvelling at the conclusion of these words Xerxes himself asked ofPythios then, how much money he had; and he said: "O king, I will notconceal the truth from thee, nor will I allege as an excuse that I donot know my own substance, but I will enumerate it to thee exactly,since I know the truth: for as soon as I heard that thou wert comingdown to the Sea of Hellas, desiring to give thee money for the war Iascertained the truth, and calculating I found that I had of silvertwo thousand talents, and of gold four hundred myriads[29] of daricstaters[30] all but seven thousand: and with this money I presentthee. For myself I have sufficient livelihood from my slaves and from