But Xerxes, and I surely know, had a thousand ships1 The Attic ships were one hundred and eighty in number, and each had eighteen men to fight upon the decks, of whom four were archers and the rest men-at-arms.
In number under him; those of surpassing speed
Were twice five score beside and seven; so stands the count.
As regards the number of the Barbarian ships, Aeschylus the poet, in his tragedy of
‘The Persians,’ as though from personal and positive knowledge, says this:—
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