170 ^.MI LILTS PAULUS.

to him, Fabius Maximum, eldest son of -^milius, although yet very young, offered himself with great zeal, ^mil- ius, rejoicing, gave them, not so many as Polybius states, but, as Nasica himself tells us in a brief letter which he wrote to one of the kings with an account of the expedition, three thousand Italians that were not Ro- mans, and his left wing consisting of five thousand. Ta- king with him, besides these, one hundred and twenty horsemen, and two hundred Thracians and Cretans inter- mixed that Harpalus had sent, he began his journey towards the sea, and encamped near the temple of Her- cules, as if he designed to embark, and so to sail round and environ the enemy. But wlien the soldiers had supped and it was dark, he made the captains acquainted with his real intentions, and marching all night in the opposite direction, away from the sea, till he came under the temple of Ajiollo, there rested his army. At this place Mount Olympus rises in height more than ten fur- longs,* as appears by the epigram made by the man that measured it; The summit of Olympus, at the site Where stands Apollo's temple, has a height Of full teu furlongs by the line, and more, Ten furlongs, and one hundred feet, less four. Eumelus' son, Xenagoras, reached the place. Adieu, king, and do thy pilgrim grace. It is allowed, say the geometricians, that no mountain in height or sea in depth exceeds ten furlongs, and yet it seems probable that Xenagoras did not take his ad- ' measurement carelessly, but according to the rules of art, and with instruments for the purpose. Here it was that Nasica passed the night. A Cretan deserter, who fled to the enemy during the • The Greek furlong, or stadium, English ; about nine to the En containing 600 Greek feet, or 606| glish mile.