DARIUS was nw angrier than ever， and still mre determined t whip thse stubbrn Greeks， wh dared t defy him and his enrmus pwer； and he began t get ready frne mre attempt. This time， hwever， he made up his mind that he wuld get tgether such an army and navy that there wuld be n chance in the wrld against it， and he made a slemnath t destry the Greeks. S fr several years he gathered trps and supplies， but smething happened， and in spitef hisath he did nt carryut his plan. Why？ Yu guessed it. He died.
But Darius had a sn named Xerxes-prnunced as if it began with a Z. When I was a by， there was an alphabet rhyme that began， "A is fr Apple，"and wentn dwn t "X is fr Xerxes， a great Persian king." I learned the rhyme， thugh I did nt knw at that time anything abut either Xerxesr Persia.
Xerxes was just as determined as his father had been that the Greeks must be beaten， s he wentn getting ready.
Hwever， the Greeks als were just as determined that they must nt be beaten， s they， t， wentn getting ready， fr they knew the Persians wuld snerr later cme back and try again.
At this time there were tw chief men in Athens， and each was trying t be leader.ne was named Themistcles-prnunced The MIS t kleez-and thether Aristides-prnunced Ar is TI deez. Ntice hw many Greek names seem t end in the letters es.
Themistcles urged the Athenians t get ready fr what he knew was cming， the next war with Persia. Especially did he urge the Athenians t build a fleetf bats， fr they had n bats and the Persians had a great many.
Aristides，n thether hand， didn"t believe in Themistcles"s scheme t build bats. He thught it a flish expense and talked against it.
Aristides had always been s wise and fair that peple called him Aristides the Just. Even s， sme peple wanted t get ridf him， because they thught he was wrng abut building a fleetf bats and Themistcles was right. They waited till the time came t vte， when they culdstracize anyne they wanted t get ridf. D yu remember wh started this custm？ Cleisthenes-abut500 B.C. .
When the day fr vting came， a man wh culd nt write and did nt knw Aristides by sight happened t ask his help in vting. Aristides inquired what name he shuld write， and the man replied， "Aristides."Aristides did nt tell wh he was， but merely said：
"Why d yu want t get ridf this man？ Has he dne anything wrng？" "h， n，" the vter replied， "He hasn"t dne anything wrng，" but with alng sigh he said， "I"m s tiredf hearing him always called The Just."Aristides must have been surprised by this unreasnable answer， but nevertheless he wrte hiswn name fr the vter， and when the vtes were cunted， there were s many that he wasstracized.
Thugh it did nt seem quite fair that Aristides shuld bestracized， it was frtunate， as it turnedut， that Themistcles had his way， and it was frtunate the Athenians wentn preparing fr war.
They built a fleetf triremes. Then they gt all the cities and twns in Greece t agree t jin frces in casef war. Sparta，n accuntf its fame as a cityf sldiers， was made the leaderf all thethers in case war shuld cme.
And then， just ten years after the battlef Marathn in 490 B.C. the great Persian army was again ready t attack Greece. It had been brught tgether frm all partsf the vast Persian Empire and was far bigger than the frmer army with its 120，000 men， althugh that was a large army fr thse days.
This time the army is suppsed t have cnsistedfver tw millin sldiers-tw millin； just thinkf that！ The questin then was hw t get s many sldiersver t Greece. Such a multitude culd nt be carried acrss t Greece in bats， fr even the largest triremesnly held a few hundred men， and it wuld have taken-well， can yu tell hw many bats， t carryver tw millin？ Prbably many mre triremes than there were in the whle wrld at that time. Xerxes decided t have his army march t Greece， the lng way but thenly way rund. S they started.
Nw， there is a stripf water called a strait， smething like a wide river， right acrss the path the Persian army had t take. This strait was then called the Hellespnt. It is，f curse still there， but if yu lkn the map yu will find it is nw called the Dardanelles. There was n bridge acrss the Hellespnt， fr it was almst a mile wide， and they didn"t have bridges as lng as that in thse days. Xerxes fastened bats tgether in a line that stretched frmne shre t thether shre， andver these bats he built a flr t frm a bridge s that his army culd crss upn it.
Hardly had he finished building the bridge， hwever， when a strm arse and destryed it. Xerxes， in anger at the waves，rdered that the waterf the120 美国学生世界历史 · A Child"s Histryf the wrldHellespnt be whipped as if it were an enemyr a slave he were punishing. Then he built anther bridge， and this time the water behaved itself， and his sldiers were able t crssver safely.
S vast was Xerxes"s army that it is said t have taken it seven days and seven nights marching cntinuusly all the time in tw lng unbrken lines t getver t theppsite shre. Xerxes"s fleet fllwed the army as clsely as they culd alng the shre， and at last they reached the tpf Greece. Dwn thrugh the nrthf Greece the army came，verrunning everything befre it， and it seemed as thugh nthingn earth culd stp such numbersf men.
【中文阅读】
在这场战争后，大流士愈发恼羞成怒，更加决心要把这群顽固的希腊人彻底打 垮，谁让他们竟敢公然反抗他和他无上的权力呢！于是，他开始为又一次的侵略作 准备。不过，这次他下定决心组建一支世上无敌的陆军和海军，而且他庄严发誓要 灭掉希腊人。于是几年来他都在组建军队和筹集粮草，但是突然发生了一件事，因 此，尽管他发了誓，却没有实施他的计划。为什么？你们猜出来了吧。他死了。
但是大流士有个儿子名叫薛西斯（Xerxes）--英文名字读起来好像是从 Z 开 始，如 [zurksez]。
我小时候，有一首字母押韵诗，开头为"A 表示 Apple（苹果）"，继续念下去就 到了"X 表示 Xerxes（薛西斯），一位伟大的波斯国王。"尽管当时我对薛西斯或波 斯一无所知，但是却记住了这首押韵诗。
薛西斯想要打垮希腊人的决心和他父亲一样坚定，因此他继续备战。 然而，希腊人也同样下决心一定不能被波斯打败，因此，他们也继续备战，因为他们知道波斯人迟早会卷土重来再次攻打他们。 当时，雅典有两个最重要的人物，他们都想成为领袖。一个名叫"泰米斯托克利"，另一个是"亚里斯泰迪斯"。你注意到没有，希腊人名字里叫"斯"的非常 多啊。
泰米斯托克利督促雅典人为下一场和波斯人的战争做好准备，他知道这场战争 即将到来。他特别督促雅典人组建了一支舰队，因为他们没有舰船，而波斯人却有 很多。
另一方面，亚里斯泰迪斯却认为泰米斯托克利建造舰船的主张毫无意义。他认 为这笔支出十分荒唐，所以对此大加抨击。
亚里斯泰迪斯一向都是睿智公正的，所以人们都喊他"公正的亚里斯泰迪斯"。 即使如此，有些人还是想撵走他，因为他们认为他对组建舰队的看法是错误的，而 泰米斯托克利才是正确的。他们等待陶片放逐投票日的到来，此时他们可以放逐任 何他们想撵走的人。你们还记得谁开创了这个习俗吗？克里斯提尼--大约公元前500 年的时候。
当投票日到来的时候，一个不会写字，也不认得亚里斯泰迪斯的人碰巧请他帮 自己投票。亚里斯泰迪斯问，他要写谁的名字，那人回答道："亚里斯泰迪斯。"亚里斯泰迪斯没有告诉他自己是谁，只不过问： "你为什么想撵走这个人呢？他做了什么错事吗？" "噢，没有，"投票人回答道，"他没做什么错事，"不过，他长叹一声说："老是听到别人喊他"公正"、"公正"的，我烦透了。" 听到这种不可理喻的回答，亚里斯泰迪斯一定很吃惊，不过，他还是为投票人写下了自己的名字。统计完票数，想要放逐他的人数很多，结果他被驱逐出境了。 虽然放逐亚里斯泰迪斯似乎很不公平，不过这样做却是幸运的，因为泰米斯托克利可以按自己的主张行事了，雅典人也可以继续为战争做准备了。结果证明这的 确是幸运的。
他们建造了一支由三列桨战船组成的舰队。然后，他们动员了希腊所有城邦， 大家同意，一旦战争爆发，就合力抵抗。斯巴达因为是以战士之城而闻名，所以被 推举为战争时的联军领袖。
接着，在公元前 490 年的马拉松战役之后的第十年，强大的波斯军队再次准备 攻打希腊。这支军队集结了来自庞大波斯帝国各地的人员，人数比上一次十二万人 的军队还要多得多，尽管十二万人的军队在那个时代已经是相当大规模的了。
据推测，这一次波斯军队由二百万名以上的士兵组成--二百万呀，想想看 这是多大的数字啊！当时的问题是怎样把这么多的士兵运到希腊去呢。如此多的人 用船运是不行的，因为即便是最大的三列桨战船也只能装下几百个人，如果要用船 运--嗯，你能算出要多少艘船才能运走这二百万人吗？也许那时世界上所有的三 列桨战船加起来都不够用。薛西斯决定全军步行到希腊，虽然路途遥远，但那却是 唯一可以绕过大海的一条路。他们就这样出发了。
波斯军队行军路上遇到一个狭长的水域，叫做"海峡"，有点像宽阔的河流。那 条海峡在那时叫赫勒斯滂海峡。当然，它现在还在那儿，但是，如果你看一看地图， 就会发现它现在叫达达尼尔海峡。赫勒斯滂海峡上面没有桥梁，因为它几乎有 1 英 里宽，那时他们可没有那么长的桥。薛西斯让士兵把船绑在一起连成一行，一直延 伸到海峡对岸，又在船上铺上了木板形成一座桥，军队就能从上面穿过海峡了。
但是，他刚刚搭好桥，就来了一场暴风雨，把桥毁了。薛西斯对这场风浪怒不 可遏，下令鞭打赫勒斯滂海峡的水，就像惩罚一个敌人或奴隶那样。随后，他建了 另一座桥，这次海水很平静，他的士兵平安地渡过了海峡。
薛西斯的军队实在太庞大了，据说，士兵分成长长的两行不间断的队伍，连续 走了七天七夜才到了对岸。薛西斯的舰队沿着海岸紧跟着部队前进，最后他们都到 达了希腊最北端。大军从希腊的北部向下俯冲，横扫一切，势如破竹，好像世界上 没有任何东西能够阻挡这么庞大的队伍了。
