After Miltiades death there was lots of political activity in Athens. Themistokles took over after Miltiades death. He increased his power at the expense of his opponents.
Militiades policies called for preparation against another Persian invasion. This made him very unpopular with the rich. The rich tended to pay for most of it.
Once a large mineral deposit was found and Themistokles used all of it up to buy new war ships to battle the Persians with.
Many preperations were taking place. Xerxes, son of Darius had taken over in 486 B.C. Cables were ordered to hold together pontoon bridges across several Greek areas. A canal was dug through the peninsula north of Mount Athos to avoid a repetition of shipwrecks which had happened in 492 B.C. previously.
In May of 480 B.C. Xerxes set his army after the Greeks. It was said that his army was so large that it took weesk to cross the pontoon bridges the Greeks had tried to block.
When the ones found of building the bridges were captured, their heads were instantly chopped off.
The Persians outnumbered the Greeks enormously. There possibly could have been 3 million Persians, however close to 180,000 is more accurate.
Much of the Persian's fleet was made up of subject-peoples. These included the Indians, Ethiopians, and Arab camel-riders. The fleet of ships consisted of near 1200.
They did not literally drink whole rivers but they did have problems supplying food and water to each of the soilders.
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