164 THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS.

ferrying across the miserable remnant in boats. At Abydos they came on supplies, and many who had survived starvation on grass and tree-bark died of sur- feit. One version of the account makes Xerxes leave his army on the Strymon, and take ship himself for Asia. A storm coming on, the ship was in such danger that the pilot declared that there was no chance of safety unless some of those on board would sacrifice themselves to lighten it, and appealed to the loyalty of the Persians, who accordingly leapt over- board. It is added that, on coming safely to land, the king presented the pilot with a golden crown for saving his own life, and then had him beheaded for caus- ing the death of so many of his gallant servants. The latter part looks like the repetition of an anecdote of Cambyses ; and indeed Herodotus scarcely believes the story, as he observes that the Persians might have been sent below, and the Phoenician crew sacrificed. It did not seem to strike him that sailors are of more use in a storm than the best soldiers, and the self- devoting loyalty of the Persians to their monarch's person is well known. The Greeks passed an anxious winter, for Mardonius remained in Thessaly, making his preparations for action in the spring. Their allied fleet, a hundred and ten strong, was persuaded to come as far as Delos by an embassy from Asia (one of whom was an Herodotus, possibly a relative of our author), who re- presented that the Greek 1 colonies there were ripe for revolt. They were, however, deterred for the present from proceeding farther ; possibly because a Lacedae- monian, naturally a landsman, was first in command. Mardonius in the mean time spent the winter in con-