Histories

Then the Samians took from the men of +Hermione [23.2583,37.3833] (Perseus) Hermione, instead of money, the island Hydrea which is near to the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnesus, and gave it to men of Troizen [23.375,37.5] (Perseus)Troezen for safekeeping; they themselves settled at +Khania [24.33,35.516] (inhabited place), Canea, Crete, Greece, Europe Cydonia in +Crete [25,35.166] (region), Greece, Europe Crete, though their voyage had been made with no such intent, but rather to drive Zacynthians out of the island.

Here they stayed and prospered for five years; indeed, the temples now at +Khania [24.33,35.516] (inhabited place), Canea, Crete, Greece, Europe Cydonia and the shrine of Dictyna are the Samians' work;

but in the sixth year Aeginetans and Cretans came and defeated them in a sea-fight and made slaves of them; moreover they cut off the ships' prows, that were shaped like boars' heads, and dedicated them in the temple of Athena in +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina.

The Aeginetans did this out of a grudge against the Samians; for previously the Samians, in the days when Amphicrates was king of +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos, sailing in force against +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, had hurt the Aeginetans and been hurt by them. This was the cause.

I have written at such length of the Samians, because the three greatest works of all the Greeks were engineered by them. The first of these is the tunnel with a mouth at either end driven through the base of a hill nine hundred feet high;

the whole tunnel is forty-two hundred feet long,[*](Remains of this work show that the tunnel was only 1100 feet long.) eight feet high and eight feet wide; and throughout the whole of its length there runs a channel thirty feet deep and three feet wide, through which the water coming from an abundant spring is carried by pipes to the city of +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos.

The designer of this work was Eupalinus son of Naustrophus, a Megarian. This is one of the three works; the second is a breakwater in the sea enclosing the harbor, sunk one hundred and twenty feet, and more than twelve hundred feet in length.