A Good Works Translation from Description of Greece 10.20.6-9

After describing Brennus' invasion force, Pausanias turns to the Greek defense at Thermopylae. This passage follows the first attempt to block the Galatians at the Spercheios, Brennus' night crossing through marsh water, the forced bridging of the river, and the Galatian move toward Heraclea and the narrow pass.

Translation

Section 6

When the Greeks gathered at Thermopylae learned that the army of the Galatians was already around Magnesia and the land of Phthiotis, they decided at once to select about a thousand light-armed troops and cavalry and send them to the Spercheios, so that the barbarians would not be able to cross the river without battle and danger. When they arrived, they broke down the bridges and camped beside the bank. Brennus, however, was neither wholly without sense nor, barbarian though he was, inexperienced in devising stratagems against enemies.

Section 7

Immediately on the following night, not where the old bridges over the river were, but lower down, so that the Greeks would not notice the crossing, and where the Spercheios spread out most widely into the plain and made marsh and lake instead of a violent and narrow current, Brennus sent about ten thousand of the Galatians: those among them who knew how to swim, and anyone whose body happened to be longer than most. The Celts are in any case far above all other people in bodily height.

Section 8

So these men crossed in the night, swimming through the marshy part of the river. Each man made his arms, the native shields, serve as a raft; the tallest among them were able to pass through the water on foot. When the Greeks at the Spercheios learned that a part of the barbarians had crossed through the marsh, they immediately withdrew to the main army. Brennus then ordered those who lived around the Maliac Gulf to bridge the Spercheios. They carried out the work with eagerness, both from fear of him and because they wanted the barbarians to depart from their country and not remain there doing more harm.

Section 9

When Brennus had brought the army across by the bridges, he moved toward Heraclea. The Galatians plundered what lay in the countryside and killed the people who had been caught in the fields, but they did not take the city. For a year before these events, the Aetolians had compelled the people of Heraclea to join the Aetolian League; therefore they defended the city as one belonging no less to themselves than to the Heracleans. Brennus himself cared less about the affairs of Heraclea; his struggle was to drive out those who sat against him in the narrows and to pass into Greece inside Thermopylae.

Colophon

This page translates Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.20.6-9 from Greek for the Celtic continental expansion of the Good Work Library. It is a Greek account of Galatian movement and tactical adaptation before Thermopylae, framed by Pausanias' Delphic narrative of Greek resistance.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

🌲

Source Text: Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.20.6-9

Greek source text from Perseus Digital Library's text of Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 10. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Section 6

τοῖς δὲ ἐς Θερμοπύλας ἀθροισθεῖσιν Ἑλλήνων, ὡς ἐπύθοντο περί τε Μαγνησίαν καὶ γῆν τὴν Φθιῶτιν ὄντα ἤδη τῶν Γαλατῶν τὸν στρατόν, ἔδοξεν ἤδη ψιλούς τε ἐς χιλίους καὶ ἐς τὴν ἵππον ἀπολέξαντας ἀποστεῖλαι σφᾶς ἐπὶ τὸν Σπερχειόν, ἵνα μηδὲ τὸν ποταμὸν διαβῆναι τοῖς βαρβάροις ἄνευ ἀγῶνός τε καὶ κινδύνων ἐγγένηται. οἱ δὲ ἐλθόντες τὰς γεφύρας τε καταλύουσι καὶ αὐτοὶ παρὰ τὴν ὄχθην ἐστρατοπεδεύσαντο. ἦν δὲ οὐδὲ ὁ Βρέννος οὔτε πάντα ἀσύνετος οὔτε ἀπείρως εἶχεν ὡς ἄν τις βάρβαρος σοφίσματα ἐς πολεμίους ἐξευρεῖν.

Section 7

εὐθὺς οὖν τῇ ἐπιούσῃ νυκτί, οὐ καθότι ἦν τὰ ἀρχαῖα τῷ ποταμῷ ζεύγματα ἀλλὰ ἐς τὸ κάτω, ὡς μή τις τοῖς Ἕλλησι διαβαινόντων γένοιτο αἴσθησις, καὶ ᾗ μάλιστα ὁ Σπερχειὸς διεχεῖτο ἐς πλέον τοῦ πεδίου καὶ ἕλος τε ἐποίει καὶ λίμνην ἀντὶ βιαίου καὶ στενοῦ ῥεύματος, κατὰ τοῦτο ὁ Βρέννος ὅσον μυρίους τῶν Γαλατῶν ἀπέστειλεν, ὁπόσοι τε νεῖν ἠπίσταντο ἐξ αὐτῶν καὶ ὅστις τῷ μήκει τοῦ σώματος ἐτύγχανεν ὢν ὑπὲρ τοὺς πολλούς: εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ἄλλως οἱ Κελτοὶ μακρῷ πάντας ὑπερηρκότες μήκει τοὺς ἀνθρώπους.

Section 8

οὗτοι οὖν διαβαίνουσιν ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ διανηχόμενοι ὧδε τὸ λιμνῶδες τοῦ ποταμοῦ: καὶ τὰ ὅπλα, τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους θυρεούς, ἐποιεῖτο ἕκαστος ἀντὶ σχεδίας, οἱ δὲ αὐτῶν μήκιστοι διελθεῖν ἐμβαδὸν τὸ ὕδωρ ἐδυνήθησαν. οἱ δὲ Ἕλληνες οἱ ἐπὶ τῷ Σπερχειῷ —πυνθάνονται γὰρ ὅτι κατὰ τὸ ἕλος διέβη μοῖρα τῶν βαρβάρων—αὐτίκα ἐς τὸ στράτευμα ἀναχωροῦσι, Βρέννος δὲ τοῖς περὶ τὸν Μαλιακὸν κόλπον οἰκοῦσι ζευγνύναι τὸν Σπερχειὸν ἐπέτασσεν: οἱ δὲ ἤνυον τὸ ἔργον σπουδῇ, τῷ τε ἐκείνου δέει καὶ ἀπελθεῖν ἐκ τῆς χώρας σφίσιν ἐπιθυμοῦντες τοὺς βαρβάρους μηδὲ ἐπὶ πλέον κακουργεῖν μένοντας.

Section 9

ὁ δὲ ὡς κατὰ τὰς γεφύρας διεβίβασε τὴν στρατιάν, ἐχώρει πρὸς τὴν Ἡράκλειαν: καὶ διήρπασαν μὲν τὰ ἐκ τῆς χώρας οἱ Γαλάται καὶ ἀνθρώπους τοὺς ἐπὶ τῶν ἀγρῶν ἐγκαταληφθέντας ἐφόνευσαν, τὴν πόλιν δὲ οὐχ εἷλον. ἔτει γὰρ πρότερον τούτων οἱ Αἰτωλοὶ συντελεῖν τοὺς Ἡρακλεώτας ἠνάγκασαν ἐς τὸ Αἰτωλικόν: τότε οὖν ἠμύνοντο ὡς περὶ πόλεως οὐδέν τι Ἡρακλεώταις μᾶλλον ἢ καὶ αὑτοῖς προσηκούσης. ἦν δὲ καὶ τῷ Βρέννῳ τὰ μὲν Ἡρακλεωτῶν ἐλάσσονος φροντίδος, ἀγώνισμα δὲ ἐποιεῖτο ἐξελάσαι τε ἐκ τῶν στενῶν τοὺς ἀντικαθημένους καὶ παρελθεῖν ἐς τὴν ἐντὸς Θερμοπυλῶν Ἑλλάδα.

Source Colophon

The Greek source was captured from Perseus Digital Library on 2026-05-13 and inspected on disk at Tulku/Tools/celtic/sources/continental_batch_2026-05-13/pausanias_10_20_greek_perseus.html. The source page identifies the Greek edition as Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio, Teubner, 1903. The English translation is a New Tianmu Anglican Church Good Works Translation made from the Greek source.

🌲