orces
who survived, to take refuge in the fortified cities. During six
months they ravaged with fire and sword the open country, and
destroyed the unfortified towns of Macedonia and Thessaly. At the
approach of winter, the Brenn collected his forces and established
his camp in Thessaly, at a position near Mount Olympus. Thessaly is
separated from Epirus and AEtolia by the chain of Pindus; and on the
south, the almost impenetrable range of Mount Oeta divides it
from the provinces of Hellas. The only pass by which an army can
march into Greece is that of Thermopylae, which is a long narrow
defile, overhung on the right by the rocks of Mount Oeta, and
flanked on the left by impassable morasses, which finally lose
themselves in the waters of the gulf of Mulia. A few narrow and
difficult tracts traverse the ridge of Oeta; but these, though
passable to a small body of infantry, present insurmountable
obstacles to the advance of an army. To the pass of Thermopylae, in
the spring of the year 280 B.C., the Brenn directed his march.
Aware of its vital importance, the Athenians, Boeotians,
Locrians, Phocians, and Megarians, who had formed a league against
the northern invaders, collected a force of about 26,000 men, who,
under the orders of Calippus, advanced to and occupied the strait,
whilst 305 Athenian galleys, anchored in the bay of Mulia, were
ready to operate upon the flank of the enemy. In his approach to
this position, the Brenn had to pass the river Sperchius, to defend
which Calippus had detached a small force: the Brenn, by a
stratagem, directed their attention from the real point of attack,
and crossed the river without loss. He then advanced to Heraclea,
and laid waste the surrounding country. The day after his arrival
at this place, he marched upon Thermopylae. Hardly had the Gauls
begun to involve themselves in the pass, when they were encountered
by the Greeks in its classic defile. With loud cries, and in one
enormous mass, the Gauls rushed impetuously on; in silence, and in
perfect order, the Greeks advanced to the charge. The phalanx of
the south proved impenetrable to the sabre of the north; the pass
was soon covered with their dead bodies; the Gallic standards were
unable to advance. Meanwhile the Athenian galleys, forcing their
way