Book 7
23.1
These are the towns situated on +Mount Athos [24.316,40.166] (inhabited place), Pangaion Oros, Macedonia, Greece, Europe Athos. The foreigners dug as follows,In spite of the incredulity of antiquity the canal was no doubt actually made and used. Traces of it are said to exist. See, e.g. How and Wells, ad loc. dividing up the ground by nation: they made a straight line near the town of Sane; when the channel had been dug to some depth, some men stood at the bottom of it and dug, others took the dirt as it was dug out and delivered it to yet others that stood higher on stages, and they again to others as they received it, until they came to those that were highest; these carried it out and threw it away.
23.2
For all except the Phoenicians, the steep sides of the canal caved in, doubling their labor; since they made the span the same breadth at its mouth and at the bottom, this was bound to happen.
23.3
But the Phoenicians showed the same skill in this as in all else they do; taking in hand the portion that fell to them, they dug by making the topmost span of the canal as wide again as the canal was to be, and narrowed it as they worked lower, until at the bottom their work was of the same span as that of the others.
23.4
There is a meadow there, where they made a place for buying and marketing; much ground grain frequently came to them from Asia (continent)Asia.
24.1
As far as I can judge by conjecture, Xerxes gave the command for this digging out of pride, wishing to display his power and leave a memorial; with no trouble they could have drawn their ships across the isthmus, yet he ordered them to dig a canal from sea to sea, wide enough to float two triremes rowed abreast. The same men who were assigned the digging were also assigned to join the banks of the river Strymon by a bridge.
