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Now when the numbering and marshalling of the host was ended, Xerxes
conceived a wish to go himself throughout the forces, and with his own
eyes behold everything. Accordingly he traversed the ranks seated in
his chariot, and, going from nation to nation, made manifold
inquiries, while his scribes wrote down the answers; till at last he
had passed from end to end of the whole land army, both the horsemen
and likewise the foot. This done, he exchanged his chariot for a
Sidonian galley, and, seated beneath a golden awning, sailed along
the prows of all his vessels (the vessels having now been hauled down
and launched into the sea), while he made inquiries again, as he had
done when he reviewed the land-force, and caused the answers to be
recorded by his scribes. The captains took their ships to the distance
of about four hundred feet from the shore, and there lay to, with
their vessels in a single row, the prows facing the land, and with the
fighting-men upon the decks accoutred as if for war, while the king
sailed along in the open space between the ships and the shore, and so
reviewed the fleet.
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