Note 36 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
The epitaph is simple, and therefore in good taste; but we are bound to expose the braggart spirit which takes no notice of the Thespians and Locrians, who joined the Peloponnesians, not with a paltry quota, but with their whole force. We may also observe that national vanity has been further tampering with the numbers. Herodotus reckons Xerxes’ land force to consist of 2,100,000 men, and adds 541,610 for the fleet, making a total of 2,641,610 combatants. The camp-followers of various sorts he supposes may have amounted to an equal number. Incredible as it appears, his account is so particular that it has evidently been founded upon numerical data of some sort: it is hardly possible to estimate the amount of exaggeration and misstatement.