Histories

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.