here divides Greece in the same manner as Italy is divided by the ridge of the Apennines.  Outside the strait of Thermopylae, towards the north, lie Epirus, Perrhaebia, Magnesia, Thessaly, the Achaean Phthiotis, and the Malian bay; on the inside, towards the south, the greater part of Aetolia, Acarnania, Phocis, Locris, Boeotia, and the adjacent island of Euboea, the territory of Attica, which stretches out like a promontory into the sea, and, behind that, the Peloponnesus.  This range of mountains, which extends from Leucas and the sea on the west, through Aetolia to the opposite sea on the east, is so closely covered with thickets and craggy rocks, that, not to speak of an army, even persons lightly equipped for travelling can with difficulty find paths through which they can pass.  The hills at the eastern extremity are called Oeta, and the highest of them Callidromus; in a valley, at the foot of which, reaching to the Malian bay, is a passage not broader than sixty paces.  This is the only military road by which an army can be led, even if it should not be opposed.  The place is therefore called Pylae, the gate; and by some, on account of a warm spring, rising just at the entrance of it, Thermopylae.  It is rendered famous by the memorable battle of the Lacedaemonians against the Persians, and by their still more glorious death.

16.  With a very inferior portion of spirit, Antiochus now pitched his camp within the enclosures of this pass, the difficulties of which he increased by raising fortifications; and when he had completely strengthened every part with a double rampart and trench, and, wherever it seemed requisite, with a wall formed of the stones which lay scattered about in abundance, being very confident that the Roman army would never attempt to force a passage there, he sent away one half of the four thousand Aetolians, the number that had joined him, to garrison Heraclea, which stood opposite the entrance of the defile, and the other half to Hypata; for he concluded, that the consul would undoubtedly attack Heraclea, and he received accounts from many hands, that all the districts round Hypata were being laid waste.  The consul, after ravaging the lands of Hypata first, and then those of Heraclea, in both which places the Aetolian detachments proved useless, encamped opposite to the king, in the very entrance of the pass, near the warm springs; both parties of the Aetolians shutting themselves up in Heraclea.  Antiochus, who, before he saw the enemy, thought every spot perfectly well fortified, and secured by guards, now began to apprehend, that the Romans might discover some paths among the hills above, through which they could make their way; for he had heard that the Lacedaemonians formerly had been surrounded in that manner by the Persians, and Philip, lately, by the Romans themselves.  He therefore despatched a messenger to the Aetolians at Heraclea, desiring them to afford him so much assistance, at least in the war, as to seize and secure the tops of the hills,