STRAITS OF THERMOPYL^. 319 
and it thereby marks exactly the line of march chap. 
. . VIII. 
observed by Leonidas and the Greelis, in their ■ 
daring attack upon the Persian camp, in the 
night before their defeat, when they ventured 
out of the dejile. But we found it impossible 
to ascertain precisely where HeracUa stood, 
distinctly as it is mentioned by Livy'^, or to 
mark the course of the Asopus river. Several 
streams may irrigate this plain ; which, at the 
time of our passing, were all combined into one 
flood, by the inundation of the Sperchius towards 
its mouth. This last is the main river, and 
indeed the only one to be noticed : it comes 
from a plain which extends round Mount (Eta 
towards the nest. It was upon our left as we 
passed from the hot springs to go to Zeitiin ; and 
it joins the marshy plain of Thermopylae 
towards the Sinus Maliacus. We looked back 
towards the whole of this defile with regret ; 
marvelling, at the same time, that we should 
quit with reluctance a place, which, without the 
interest thrown over it by antient history, would 
be one of the most disagreeable upon earth. 
Unwholesome air, mephitic exhalations bursting 
(2) " Sita est Heraclea in radicibus CEt« montis : ipsa in campo, 
arcem imminentemloco alto et undique praecipiti hahet." Livii Hist, 
lib. xxxvi. c. 22. torn. III. p. 273. Crevier. 
