Xerxes was pleased by what Epialtes promised to accomplish. He immediately became overjoyed and sent out Hydarnes and the men under Hydarnes command, who set forth from the camp at about lamp-lighting time. This pathPlutarch in his life of Cato (13) describes the difficulty which troops under Cato's command encountered in trying to follow it. had been discovered by the native Malians, who used it to guide the Thessalians into +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis when the Phocians had fenced off the pass with a wall and were sheltered from the war. So long ago the Malians had discovered that the pass was in no way a good thing.This is Steins interpretation; others make ou)de\n xrhsth\ refer to the a)trapo/s, meaning there “pernicious.”