Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/46

22 fflSTORY OF GREECE. with the main land.' That isthmus, near the point where it joins the main land, was about twelve stadia or furlongs across, from the Strymonic to the Toronaic gulf: and the canal dug by order of Xerxes was broad and deep enough for two triremes to sail abreast. In this work too, as well as in the bridge across the Hellespont, the Phenicians were found the ablest and most efficient among all the subjects of the Persian monarch ; but the other tributaries, espec- ially the Greeks from the neighboring town of Akanthus, and indeed the entire maritime forces of the empire,^ were brought together to assist. The head-quarters of the fleet were first at Kyme and Phoktea, next at Elseus in the southern extremity of the Thracian Chersonese, from which point it could protect and second at once the two enterprises going forward at the Helle- spont and at Mount Athos. The canal-cutting at the latter was placed under the general directions of two noble Persians, — Bubares and Artachseus, and distributed under their measure- ment as task-work among the contingents of the various nations ; an ample supply of flour and other provisions being brought for sale in the neighboring plain from various parts of Asia and Egypt- Three circumstances in the narrative of Herodotus, respecting this work, deserve special notice. First, the superior intelli- gence of the Phenicians, who, within sight of that lofty island of Thasos which had been occupied three centuries before by their free ancestors, were now laboring as instruments to the ambition of a foreign conqueror. Amidst all the people en- gaged, they alone took the precaution of beginning the excava- tion at a breadth far greater than the canal was finally destined to occupy, so as gradually to narrow it, and leave a convenient slope for the sides : the others dug straight down, so that the time as well as the toil of their work was doubled by the con- tinual falling in of the sides, — a remarkable illustration of the degree of practical intelligence then prevalent, since the nations assembled were many and diverse. Secondly, Herodotus re- marks that Xerxes must have performed this laborious work ' For a specimen of the destructive storms near the promontory of Athos, •ee EphoiTis, Fragment. 121, ed. Didot; Diodor. xiii, 41. ' Herodot. vii, 22, 23 116 ; Diodor. xi, 2,