So the herald took that response and departed, but Xerxes left Mardonius in +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly. He himself journeyed with all speed to the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont and came in forty-five days to the passage for crossing, bringing back with him as good as none (if one may say so) of his host.

Wherever and to whatever people they came, they seized and devoured its produce. If they found none, they would eat the grass of the field and strip the bark and pluck the leaves of the trees, garden and wild alike, leaving nothing—such was the degree of their starvation.

Moreover, pestilence and dysentery broke out among them on their way, from which they died. Some who were sick Xerxes left behind, charging the cities to which he came in his march to care for them and nourish them, some in +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly and some in +Siris [15.6333,40.0667] (Perseus) Siris of Paeonia and in Macedonia (region (general)), EuropeMacedonia.

In +Siris [15.6333,40.0667] (Perseus) Siris he had left the sacred chariot of Zeus when he was marching to Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, but on his return he did not get it back again. The Paeonians had given it to the Thracians, and when Xerxes demanded it back, they said that the horses had been carried off from pasture by the Thracians of the hills who dwelt about the headwaters of the Strymon.