The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [157]
4. Meanwhile the satraps of the provinces of the empire had vied with each other in fitting out in brilliant array the armies they levied.
5. When these came together, a vast host, Xerxes led them across the River Halys, and marched through Phrygia to the city of Celaenae.
6. Here Xerxes and his army were magnificently entertained by Pythius, a citizen so wealthy that in the time of Darius he had sent the king a golden plane tree, and was reputed to be second in wealth only to Xerxes himself.
7. So pleased was Xerxes by Pythius’ generosity that he promised him lifelong friendship, and added to this store of wealth with further gifts.
8. When the army crossed the Maeander they passed by the city of Callatebus, where the men make honey and harvest wheat and the fruit of the tamarisk.
9. Xerxes there found a plane tree so beautiful that he presented it with golden ornaments, and put it under the care of one of his favourite guards.
10. When he reached Sardis, the capital of Lydia, Xerxes sent heralds to all Greece demanding gifts of earth and water as tokens of submission, and asking them to prepare feasts to welcome him.
11. To two cities only he did not send these demands: Athens and Sparta.
12. Then Xerxes set forward to Abydos, where the bridge across the Hellespont had just been finished by his engineers.
13. It was a double bridge, one half built by Phoenicians and the other by Egyptians.
14. The former had used cables of white flax, the latter ropes of papyrus. It is seven furlongs from Abydos to the European coast.
15. The bridge was fine to see, and ready for use; but before Xerxes could cross with his host, a violent storm arose, and the bridge was broken to pieces, all the work destroyed and submerged in the raging water.
16. Xerxes was extremely angry at this, and ordered the Hellespont to be given three hundred lashes as punishment, and a pair of fetters thrown into it.
17. It is even said that he ordered his branders to heat their branding irons and brand the Hellespont.
18. It is certain that he commanded those who scourged the waters to utter, as they lashed them, these words:
19. ‘You bitter water, your lord punishes you because you have wronged him without cause. King Xerxes will cross you, whether you will or no.
20. ‘You deserve this punishment as a treacherous and unsavoury river.’
21. When this absurd task had been completed, other master builders were brought to the Hellespont, and fashioned a new bridge.
22. They joined together triremes and penteconters, three hundred and sixty to support the bridge on the side of the Euxine Sea, and three hundred and fourteen to sustain the other;
23. And these they placed at right angles to the sea, and in the direction of the current of the Hellespont, thus relieving the tension of the shore cables.
24. Having joined the vessels, they moored them with anchors of great size,
25. So that the vessels towards the Euxine could resist the winds which blow from the straits,
26. And those of the more western bridge facing the Aegean might withstand the southerly and south-easterly winds.
27. A gap was left in the penteconters in no fewer than three places, to afford a passage for such light craft as chose to enter or leave the Euxine.
28. When all this was done, they made the cables taut from the shore by the help of wooden capstans.
29. This time, instead of using the two materials separately, they assigned to each bridge six cables, two of white flax, four of papyrus.
30. Both cables were of the same size and quality; but the flaxen were the heavier, weighing more than a talent the cubit.
31. When the bridge was complete, tree trunks were sawn into planks to match the width of the bridge,
32. And these were fastened side by side on the tightened cables. Brushwood was arranged on the planks, after which earth was heaped on the brushwood, and trodden into a solid mass.
33. Lastly a bulwark was set up on either side of the causeway, high enough to prevent the sumpter beasts and horses from