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[2] But when Xerxes arrived at the Gulf of Melis,1 he learned that the enemy had already seized the passes. Consequently, having joined to his forces the armament there, he summoned his allies from Europe, a little less than two hundred thousand men; so that he now possessed in all not less than one million soldiers exclusive of the naval contingent.2

1 Diodorus, in his eagerness to recount the safe passage of the fleet through the canal, has anticipated. He now returns to the march from the European side of the Hellespont.

2 The size of Xerxes' army has been often discussed. Munro (Camb. Anc. Hist. 4, pp. 271 ff.) concludes that Xerxes had one hundred and eighty thousand combatants and a fleet of some seven hundred and thirty warships.

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