Mark Gagnon

Xerxes presents himself as a very pious and deliberate ruler who's acting under the guidance of Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism.

He doesn't describe himself as a raging tyrant.

Now, of course, what tyrant would describe himself that way?

But he goes on to describe himself as righteous and maintains the cosmic order.

And of course, these inscriptions are propaganda on the other side.

They never mentioned the defeats and they present the king as literally a servant of God.

So in a way, they're kind of a counterweight to the Greek version and the records that we have from Herodotus.

The truth is probably in between.

So fast forward, Xerxes is getting ready for his invasion of Greece.

Now, by ancient standards, what he puts together is incomprehensible.

All right.

So once again, Herodotus claims that Xerxes marched with 1.7 million soldiers.

plus cavalry, plus a massive naval fleet.

Now, virtually no modern historian takes that number seriously.

They look at it and they're like, all right, it probably wasn't 1.7.

I mean, logistics alone make it impossible.

You can't feed 1.7 million people while on campaign.

And you can't supply them with...

I mean, it's just impossible.

Modern estimates will range from like 100,000, maybe 300,000, which is still crazy, and roughly a fleet of like 600 to 1,200 warships.