Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/45

 PREPARATIONS AND MARCH OF XERXES. 21 Over or through each of the two lines of ships, across from shore to shore, were stretched six vast cables, which discharged the double function of holding the ships together, and of supportinof the bridge-way to be laid upon them. They were tightened by means of capstans on each shore : in three different places along the- line, a gap was left between the ships for the purpose of enabling trading vessels, in voyage to or from the Euxine, to pass and repass beneath the cables. Out of the six cables assigned to each bridge, two were of flax and four of papyrus, combined for the sake of increased strength ; for it seems that in the bridges first made, which proved too weak to resist the winds, the Phenicians had employed cables of flax for one bridge, the Egyptians those of papyrus for the other.i Over these again were laid planks of wood, sawn to the appropriate width, secured by ropes to keep them in their places : and lastly, upon this foundation the cause- way itself was formed, out of earth and wood, with a palisade on each side high enough to prevent the cattle which passed over from seeing the water. T!ie other great work which Xerxes caused to be performed, for facilitating his march, was, the cutting through of the isth- mus which connects the stormy promontory of Mount Athos without leaving any gaps between : we only know, that there were no gaps left large enough for a vessel in voyage to sail through, except in three specified places. ' For the long celebrity of these cables, see the epigi-am of Archimelus, composed two centuries and a half aftenvards, in the time of Hiero the Second, of Syracuse, ap. Athenaeum, v, 209. Herodotus states that in thickness and compact make {naxvr^c koI Ka2,- Aovrj) the cables of flax were equal to those of papjTus ; but that in weight the former were superior ; for each cubit in length of the flaxen cable weighed a talent : we can hardly reason upon this, because we do not know whether he means an Attic, an Euboic, or an ^ginsean talent : nor, if he means an Attic talent, whether it be an Attic talent of commerce, or of the monetary itandard. The cables contained in the Athenian dockyard are distinguished as axoivia oKTuduKTv/.a, i^6aKrv}.a, — in which expressions, however, M. Boeckh cannot ceitainly determine whether circumference or diameter be meant : he thinks probably the fonner. See his learned book. Das Seewesen der Athener, ch, x, p. 165.