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Reckoning from the recovery of Egypt, Xerxes spent four full years
in collecting his host and making ready all things that were needful for
his soldiers. It was not till the close of the fifth year that he set
forth on his march, accompanied by a mighty multitude. For of all the
armaments whereof any mention has reached us, this was by far the
greatest; insomuch that no other expedition compared to this seems of
any account, neither that which Darius undertook against the
Scythians, nor the expedition of the Scythians (which the attack of
Darius was designed to avenge), when they, being in pursuit of the
Cimmerians, fell upon the Median territory, and subdued and held for
a time almost the whole of Upper Asia; nor, again, that of the
Atridae against Troy, of which we hear in story; nor that of the
Mysians and Teucrians, which was still earlier, wherein these
nations crossed the Bosphorus into Europe, and, after conquering all
Thrace, pressed forward till they came to the Ionian Sea, while
southward they reached as far as the river Peneus.
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