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[2] At sunrise Xerxes poured a libation from a golden phial into the sea, praying to the sun that no accident might befall him which would keep him from subduing Europe before he reached its farthest borders. After the prayer, he cast the phial into the Hellespont, and along with it a golden bowl, and a Persian sword which they call “acinaces.”1

1 Sometimes translated “scimitar”; but that is, I believe, a curved weapon, whereas the ἀκινάκης appears to have been a short, straight dagger.

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