Polymnia   

while another pursued an inland track under Tritantaechmes and Gergis;
the third, with which was Xerxes himself marching midway between the
other two, and having for its leaders Smerdomenes and Megabyzus.
The fleet, therefore, after leaving the king, sailed through the
channel which had been cut for it by Mount Athos, and came into the
bay whereon lie the cities of Assa, Pilorus, Singus, and Sarta; from
all which it received contingents. Thence it stood on for the Thermaic
Gulf, and rounding Cape Ampelus, the promontory of the Toronaeans,
passed the Grecian cities Torone, Galepsus, Sermyla, Mecyberna, and
Olynthus, receiving from each a number of ships and men. This region
is called Sithonia.
From Cape Ampelus the fleet stretched across by a short course
to Cape Canastraeum, which is the point of the peninsula of Palline
that runs out farthest into the sea, and gathered fresh supplies of
ships and men from Potidaea, Aphytis, Neapolis, Aega, Therambus,
Scione, Mende, and Sane. These are the cities of the tract called
anciently Phlegra, but now Palline. Hence they again followed the
coast, still advancing towards the place appointed by the king, and
had accessions from all the cities that lie near Pallene, and border
on the Thermaic Gulf, whereof the names are Lipaxus, Combreia,
Lisae, Gigonus, Campsa, Smila, and Aenea. The tract where these
towns lie still retains its old name of Crossaea. After passing Aenea,
the city which I last named, the fleet found itself arrived in the
Thermaic Gulf, off the land of Mygdonia. And so at length they reached
Therma, the appointed place, and came likewise to Sindus and Chalestra
upon the river Axius, which separates Bottiaea from Mygdonia. Bottiaea
has a scanty sea-board, which is occupied by the two cities Ichnae and
Pella.
So the fleet anchored off the Axius, and off Therma, and the towns
that lay between, waiting the king's coming. Xerxes meanwhile with his
land force left Acanthus, and started for Therma, taking his way
across the land. This road led him through Paeonia and Crestonia to
the river Echeidorus, which rising in the country of the
Crestonians, flows through Mygdonia, and reaches the sea near the
marsh upon the Axius.
Upon this march the camels that carried the provisions of the army
were set upon by lions, which left their lairs and came down by night,
but spared the men and the sumpter-beasts, while they made the
camels their prey. I marvel what may have been the cause which
compelled the lions to leave the other animals untouched and attack
the camels, when they had never seen that beast before, nor had any
experience of it.
That whole region is full of lions and wild bulls, with gigantic
horns, which are brought into Greece. The lions are confined within
the tract lying between the river Nestus (which flows through
Abdera) on the one side, and the Achelous (which waters Acarnania)
on the other. No one ever sees a lion in the fore part of Europe
east of the Nestus, nor through the entire continent west of the
Achelous; but in the space between these bounds lions are found.
On reaching Therma Xerxes halted his army, which encamped along
the coast, beginning at the city of Therma in Mygdonia, and stretching
out as far as the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon, two streams which,
mingling their waters in one, form the boundary between Bottiaea and
Macedonia. Such was the extent of country through which the barbarians
encamped. The rivers here mentioned were all of them sufficient to
supply the troops, except the Echeidorus, which was drunk dry.
From Therma Xerxes beheld the Thessalian mountains, Olympus and
Ossa, which are of a wonderful height. Here, learning that there lay
between these mountains a narrow gorge through which the river
Peneus ran, and where there was a road that gave an entrance into
Thessaly, he formed the wish to go by sea himself, and examine the
mouth of the river. His design was to lead his army by the upper
road through the country of the inland Macedonians, and so to enter
Perrhaebia, and come down by the city of Gonnus; for he was told