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At Acanthus, Xerxes separated from his fleet, bidding the captains
sail on ahead and await his coming at Therma, on the Thermaic Gulf,
the place from which the bay takes its name. Through this town lay,
he understood, his shortest road. Previously, his order of march had
been the following: from Doriscus to Acanthus his land force had
proceeded in three bodies, one of which took the way along the
sea-shore in company with the fleet, and was commanded by Mardonius
and Masistes, 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.
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