Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

After having viewed the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus, Darius sailed back to the bridge, whose architect was Mandrocles of +Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Samos; and when he had viewed the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus also, he set up two pillars of white marble by it, engraving on the one in Assyrian and on the other in Greek characters the names of all the nations that were in his army: all the nations subject to him. The full census of these, over and above the fleet, was seven hundred thousand men, including horsemen, and the number of ships assembled was six hundred.

These pillars were afterward carried by the Byzantines into their city and there used to build the altar of Orthosian [*](A deity worshipped especially at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta; the meaning of the epithet is uncertain.) Artemis, except for one column covered with Assyrian writing that was left beside the temple of Dionysus at +Byzantium [28.95,41.0333] (Perseus) Byzantium. Now if my reckoning is correct, the place where king Darius bridged the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus was midway between +Byzantium [28.95,41.0333] (Perseus) Byzantium and the temple at the entrance of the sea.

After this, being pleased with his bridge of boats, Darius made a gift of ten of everything[*](Apparently a proverbial expression for great abundance; cp. a similar phrase in Hdt. 9.81.) to Mandrocles the Samian, the architect of it; Mandrocles took the first-fruits of these and had a picture made with them, showing the whole bridge of the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus, and Darius sitting aloft on his throne and his army crossing; he set this up in the temple of Hera, with this inscription:

  1. “After bridging the Karadeniz Bogazi (strait), Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaBosporus that teems with fish,
  2. Mandrocles dedicated a memorial of the floating bridge to Hera,
  3. Having won a crown for himself, and fame for the Samians,
  4. Doing the will of King Darius.”
This memorialized the builder of the bridge.