t is said that in
ancient time, there not being yet this channel and outflow between the
mountains, these rivers, and besides these rivers the lake Boibeis also,
had no names as they have now, but by their waters they made Thessaly
to be all sea. The Thessalians themselves say that Poseidon made the
channel through which the Peneios flows; and reasonably they report
it thus, because whosoever believes that it is Poseidon who shakes the
Earth and that the partings asunder produced by earthquake are the work
of this god, would say, if he saw this, that it was made by Poseidon;
for the parting asunder of the mountains is the work of an earthquake,
as is evident to me.

130. So the guides, when Xerxes asked whether there was any other
possible outlet to the sea for the Peneios, said with exact knowledge
of the truth: "O king, for this river there is no other outgoing which
extends to the sea, but this alone; for all Thessaly is circled about
with mountains as with a crown." To this Xerxes is said to have replied:
"The Thessalians then are prudent men. This it appears was that which
they desired to guard against in good time 111 when they changed their
counsel, 112 reflecting on this especially besides other things, namely
that they had a country which, it appears, is easy to conquer and may
quickly be taken: for it would have been necessary only to let the
river flow over their land by making an embankment to keep it from going
through the narrow channel and so diverting the course by which now it
flows, in order to put all Thessaly under water except the mountains."
This he said in reference to the sons of Aleuas, because they, being
Thessalians, were the first of the Hellenes who gave themselves over to
the king; for Xerxes thought that they offered him friendship on behalf
of their whole nation. Having said thus and having looked at the place,
he sailed back to Therma.

131. He then was staying in the region of Pieria many days, for the road
over the mountains of Macedonia was being cut meanwhile by a third part
of his army, that all the host might pass over by this way into the land
of the Perraibians: and now the heralds returned who had been sent to
Hellas to demand the gift of earth, some empty-handed and others bearing
earth and water.

132. And among those who gave that which was demanded were the
following, namely the Thessalians, Dolopians, Enianians, 113
Perraibians, Locrians, Megnesians, Malians, Achaians of