herodotus

the tomb of Helle the daughter of Athamas, and on its left the city ofCardia, and marching through the midst of a town the name of which isAgora.[52] Thence bending round the gulf called Melas and havingcrossed over the river Melas, the stream of which did not suffice atthis time for the army but failed,--having crossed, I say, this river,from which the gulf also has its name, it went on Westwards, passingby Ainos a city of the Aiolians, and by the lake Stentoris, until atlast it came to Doriscos. [59] Now Doriscos is a sea-beach and plainof great extent in Thrace, and through it flows the great riverHebros: here a royal fortress had been built, the same which is nowcalled Doriscos, and a garrison of Persians had been established in itby Dareios, ever since the time when he went on his march against theScythians. It seemed then to Xerxes that the place was convenient toorder his army and to number it throughout, and so he proceeded to do.The commanders of the ships at the bidding of Xerxes had brought alltheir ships, when they arrived at Doriscos, up to the sea-beach whichadjoins Doriscos, on which there is situated both Sale a city of theSamothrakians, and also Zone, and of which the extreme point is thepromontory of Serreion, which is well known; and the region belongedin ancient time to the Kikonians. To this beach then they had broughtin their ships, and having drawn them up on land they were lettingthem get dry: and during this time he proceeded to number the army atDoriscos.60. Now of the number which each separate nation supplied I am notable to give certain information, for this is not reported by anypersons; but of the whole land-army taken together the number provedto be one hundred and seventy myriads:[53] and they numbered themthroughout in the following manner:--they gathered together in oneplace a body of ten thousand men, and packing them together[54] asclosely as they could, they drew a circle round outside: and thushaving drawn a circle round and having let the ten thousand men gofrom it, they built a wall of rough stones round the circumference ofthe circle, rising to the height of a man's navel. Having made this,they caused others to go into the space which had been built round,until they had in this manner numbered them all throughout: and afterthey had numbered them, they ordered them separately by nations.61. Now those who served were as follows:--The Persians with thisequipment:--about their heads they had soft[55] felt caps called/tiaras/, and about their body tunics of various colours with sleeves,presenting the appearance of iron scales like those of a fish,[56] andabout the legs trousers; and instead of the ordinary shields they hadshields of wicker-work,[57] under which hung quivers; and they hadshort spears and large bows and arrows of reed, and moreover daggershanging by the right thigh from the girdle: and they acknowledged as