Histories

From Aenea, the last-named in my list of the towns, the course of the fleet lay from the Thermaic gulf itself and the Mygdonian territory until its voyage ended at +Thessaloniki [22.933,40.633] (inhabited place), Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece, Europe Therma, the place appointed, and the towns of Sindus and Chalestra, where it came to the river +Vardar [22.833,40.583] (river), Europe Axius; this is the boundary, between the Mygdonian and the Bottiaean territory, in which are located the towns of Ichnae and +Pella [22.5333,40.7583] (Perseus) Pella on the narrow strip of coast.

So the fleet lay there off the river +Vardar [22.833,40.583] (river), Europe Axius and the city of +Thessaloniki [22.933,40.633] (inhabited place), Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece, Europe Therma and the towns between them, awaiting the king. But Xerxes and his land army marched from Acanthus by the straightest inland course, making for +Thessaloniki [22.933,40.633] (inhabited place), Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece, Europe Therma. Their way lay through the Paeonian and the Crestonaean country to the river Cheidorus, which, rising in the Crestonaean land, flows through the Mygdonian country and issues by the marshes of the +Vardar [22.833,40.583] (river), Europe Axius.

As Xerxes marched by this route, lions attacked the camels which carried his provisions; nightly they would come down out of their lairs and made havoc of the camels alone, seizing nothing else, man or beast of burden. I wonder what prevented the lions from touching anything but the camels, creatures which they had not seen and had no knowledge of until then.