372 VALE OF TEMPE. 
CHAP, author was beginning to scale the height.* 
* -,.' ..I towards the right, with a view to examine the 
in^Hp. ruins more narrowly, his attention was caught 
tion -• ^^ |.|^g appearance of some Roman letters in the 
face of the rock, which had been purposely 
planed for their reception. He found that they 
belonged to an inscription, which has preserved, 
in legible characters, the whole history of these 
fortifications. This inscription is upon the right 
hand, about twelve feet above that part of the 
antient way where the rocks have been cut to 
leave a passage for the road ; and it contains 
the name of the Roman General by whom the 
defile had been fortified. As this name has been 
Its date since found by Mr. IValpole, in the third book of 
ascertained. _ _ _ 
Ccesars History of the Civil War, with the time 
of this officer's mission into Thessaly, the date 
of the inscription is accurately ascertained. The 
reader will also remark the very curious writing 
of the v/ord Tempe ; / being substituted for E : 
d'Ossa, separecs par une petite vallec oii plaine raboteuse longue environ 
de quarante stades, et large en quelques endroits de cent pieds, en d'autres 
inoins ; au milieu de laquelle Ic Jleuve de Penei descendant des rochers 
ftvec bruit et impetuosite prend son cours, puis s« decbarge dans le Goffe 
Th'ermaique, en sorte qu'en cette plaine il n'y a passage au plus que pour 
qudtre ou cinq hommes de front. Alexis et Sgtcre logerent quelquss 
troupes au haut de cette montagne pour garder les pas," Ilisl. de Comi • 
Jiv. i. c. 30. p. 23. Paris, 1631. 
