Histories

So this was done by those who were appointed to the thankless honor, and new engineers set about making the bridges. They made the bridges as follows: in order to lighten the strain of the cables, they placed fifty-oared ships and triremes alongside each other, three hundred and sixty to bear the bridge nearest the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Euxine sea, and three hundred and fourteen to bear the other; all lay obliquely to the line of the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Pontus and parallel with the current of the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont.[*](Or it may mean, as Stein thinks, that the ships of the upper or N.E. bridge were e)pikarsi/ai, and those of the lower or S.W. one were kata\ r(o/on. For a discussion of the various difficulties and interpretations of the whole passage, see How and Wells' notes, ad loc.)

After putting the ships together they let down very great anchors, both from the end of the ships on the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Pontus side to hold fast against the winds blowing from within that sea, and from the other end, towards the west and the Aegean Sea [25,38.5] (sea)Aegean, to hold against the west and south winds. They left a narrow opening to sail through in the line of fifty-oared ships and triremes, that so whoever wanted to could sail by small craft to the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Pontus or out of it.

After doing this, they stretched the cables from the land, twisting them taut with wooden windlasses; they did not as before keep the two kinds apart, but assigned for each bridge two cables of flax and four of papyrus.

All these had the same thickness and fine appearance, but the flaxen were heavier in proportion, for a cubit of them weighed a talent.[*](About 80 lbs.)

When the strait was thus bridged, they sawed logs of wood to a length equal to the breadth of the floating supports,[*](i.e. the line of ships supporting the cables.) and laid them in order on the taut cables; after placing them together they then made them fast. After doing this, they carried brushwood onto the bridge; when this was all laid in order they heaped earth on it and stamped it down; then they made a fence on either side, so that the beasts of burden and horses not be frightened by the sight of the sea below them.