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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
that that way was the most secure. No sooner therefore had he formed
this wish than he acted accordingly. Embarking, as was his wont on
all such occasions, aboard a Sidonian vessel, he gave the signal to
the rest of the fleet to get under weigh, and quitting his land army,
set sail and proceeded to the Peneus. Here the view of the mouth
caused him to wonder greatly; and sending for his guides, he asked
them whether it were possible to turn the course of the stream, and
make it reach the sea at any other point.
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