The Twitter Herodotus

7.121 Xerxes sent his ships ahead to wait for him at Therme, then he and the army marched on from Acanthus.

7.122 The fleet sailed through the canal at Athos, then sailed directly toward Therme, adding forces from the places they passed en route.

7.123 They added ships and forces from Potidaea and Aphytis, for example, and from Mende, Scione, Sane, Lipaxus, and many others.

7.124 The fleet arrived at Therme and waited for the king. Xerxes, meanwhile, was marching west from Acanthus through Paeonia and Crestonia.

7.125 On the way, lions continually attacked Xerxes' camels at night. Strangely, the camels were the only creatures that the lions attacked.

7.126 There are lots of lions and wild oxen in these parts. The lions are found only west of the Nestus River and east of the Achelous.

7.127 When Xerxes arrived at Therme his army encamped there. They occupied all the land from Therme to the Lydias and Haliacmon Rivers.

7.128 Xerxes sailed off to see the mouth of the Peneus River. He asked his peeps if its course could be altered so it met the sea elsewhere.

7.129 People say that Thessaly was once a lake, hemmed in by mountains before Poseidon made the channel through which the Peneus now flows.

7.130 When told the Peneus couldn't change course, Xerxes knew why Thessaly had capitulated: one could easily flood it by damming the river.