Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

And Themistocles convinces them to say, OK, well, let's double down on that and become the greatest naval power in the Greek world. That's what happens around 4832, just in time, essentially, for that fleet to become an important factor in their resistance to Persia.

And Themistocles convinces them to say, OK, well, let's double down on that and become the greatest naval power in the Greek world. That's what happens around 4832, just in time, essentially, for that fleet to become an important factor in their resistance to Persia.

And Themistocles convinces them to say, OK, well, let's double down on that and become the greatest naval power in the Greek world. That's what happens around 4832, just in time, essentially, for that fleet to become an important factor in their resistance to Persia.

For Herodotus, this is a huge thing, right? Because one of the main impulses of his writing, as he says at the beginning, is to figure out why the Greeks and barbarians went to war with each other. That is how he phrases it. That is why he wrote this.

For Herodotus, this is a huge thing, right? Because one of the main impulses of his writing, as he says at the beginning, is to figure out why the Greeks and barbarians went to war with each other. That is how he phrases it. That is why he wrote this.

For Herodotus, this is a huge thing, right? Because one of the main impulses of his writing, as he says at the beginning, is to figure out why the Greeks and barbarians went to war with each other. That is how he phrases it. That is why he wrote this.

And so when Xerxes decides to put the full might of the Persian Empire across and try and subdue the Greek mainland, that is for him this big moment where he has to try and sketch the causality. So he puts out this huge imagined council scene in which Xerxes consults with his closest ones, mostly relatives, essentially, uncles and cousins and brothers-in-law and whatnot.

And so when Xerxes decides to put the full might of the Persian Empire across and try and subdue the Greek mainland, that is for him this big moment where he has to try and sketch the causality. So he puts out this huge imagined council scene in which Xerxes consults with his closest ones, mostly relatives, essentially, uncles and cousins and brothers-in-law and whatnot.

And so when Xerxes decides to put the full might of the Persian Empire across and try and subdue the Greek mainland, that is for him this big moment where he has to try and sketch the causality. So he puts out this huge imagined council scene in which Xerxes consults with his closest ones, mostly relatives, essentially, uncles and cousins and brothers-in-law and whatnot.

to ask them, okay, should I evade Greece? And in that scene, essentially, there is a very sort of schematic thing where he has an uncle, Artabanus, who says, no, you shouldn't. This will end badly. You've already attacked the Scythians and it didn't go well. And so there's definitely motivation for him to say, maybe stop it with the adventures and just consolidate.

to ask them, okay, should I evade Greece? And in that scene, essentially, there is a very sort of schematic thing where he has an uncle, Artabanus, who says, no, you shouldn't. This will end badly. You've already attacked the Scythians and it didn't go well. And so there's definitely motivation for him to say, maybe stop it with the adventures and just consolidate.

to ask them, okay, should I evade Greece? And in that scene, essentially, there is a very sort of schematic thing where he has an uncle, Artabanus, who says, no, you shouldn't. This will end badly. You've already attacked the Scythians and it didn't go well. And so there's definitely motivation for him to say, maybe stop it with the adventures and just consolidate.

But he has an ambitious cousin called Mardonius, who immediately says, no, you should absolutely do this and it's going to be easy and it's going to be great. And we're going to just take, you know, conquer the place and take all its riches and it's going to be fantastic.

But he has an ambitious cousin called Mardonius, who immediately says, no, you should absolutely do this and it's going to be easy and it's going to be great. And we're going to just take, you know, conquer the place and take all its riches and it's going to be fantastic.

But he has an ambitious cousin called Mardonius, who immediately says, no, you should absolutely do this and it's going to be easy and it's going to be great. And we're going to just take, you know, conquer the place and take all its riches and it's going to be fantastic.

And in that scene, it's made very clear, both by what Mardonius says and by what Artabanus, the uncle, says in response, that we are supposed to think that Mardonius is wrong. Like he's lying about how easy this would be. He's just telling, he's spinning fables that are going to be favorable to Xerxes. They're going to sound tempting to him. This is the archetype of the bad advisor.

And in that scene, it's made very clear, both by what Mardonius says and by what Artabanus, the uncle, says in response, that we are supposed to think that Mardonius is wrong. Like he's lying about how easy this would be. He's just telling, he's spinning fables that are going to be favorable to Xerxes. They're going to sound tempting to him. This is the archetype of the bad advisor.

And in that scene, it's made very clear, both by what Mardonius says and by what Artabanus, the uncle, says in response, that we are supposed to think that Mardonius is wrong. Like he's lying about how easy this would be. He's just telling, he's spinning fables that are going to be favorable to Xerxes. They're going to sound tempting to him. This is the archetype of the bad advisor.

He is basically trying to seduce him into bad decisions, presumably because of his own ambitions. In this story, he wants to become satrap of Greece. And so he says, okay, that's what we got to do. And this is all very literary. This is all very schematic, right? We don't need to take this seriously as historians.

He is basically trying to seduce him into bad decisions, presumably because of his own ambitions. In this story, he wants to become satrap of Greece. And so he says, okay, that's what we got to do. And this is all very literary. This is all very schematic, right? We don't need to take this seriously as historians.