MUSTER OF THE AEMY OF XERXES. 37 would have none at all. Indeed, it appears that the only way in which we can render the military total, which must at all events have been very great, consistent with the conditions of possible subsistence, is by supposing a comparative absence of attendants, and by adverting to the fact of the small consumption, and habit- ual patience as to hardship of Orientals in all ages. An Asiatic soldier will at this day make his campaign upon scanty fare, and under privations which would be intolerable to an European.' And while we thus diminish the probable consumption, we have to consider that never in any case of ancient history had so much previous pains been taken to accumulate supplies on the line of march : in addition to which the cities in Thrace were required to furnish such an amount of provisions, when the army passed by, as almost brought them to ruin. Herodotus himself expresses his surprise how provisions could have been provided for so vast a multitude ; and were we to admit his estimate literally, the diffi- culty would be magnified into an impossibility. "Weighing the circumstances of the case well, and considering that this army was the result of a maximum of effort throughout the vast em- pire, that a great numerical total was the thing chiefly demand- ed, and that prayers for exemption were regarded by the Great King as a capital offence, and that provisions had been col- lected for three years before along the line of march, — we may ' See on this point Volney, Travels in Egypt and Syria, ch. xxiv, vol. ii, pp. 70, 71 ; ch. sxxii, p. 367 ; and ch. xxxix, p. 435, (Engl, transl.) Kinneir, Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, pp. 22-23. Ber- nier, who followed the march of Aurungzcbe from Delhi, in 1665, says that some estimated the number of persons in the camp at three hundred thou- sand, others at dififerent totals, but that no one knew, nor had they ever been counted. He says : " You are, no doubt, at a loss to conceive how so vast a number both of men and animals can be maintained in the field. The best solution of the difficulty will be found in the temperance and simple diet of the Indians." (Bemier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, translated by Brock, vol. ii, App. p. 118.) So also Petit de la Croix says, about the enormous host of Genghis- Khan : '• Les hommes sont si sobres, qu'ils s'accommodent de toutes sortes d'alimens." That author seems to estimate the largest anny of Genghis at seven hundred thousand men (Histoire de Genghis, liv. ii, ch. vi, p. 193).
