uring the whole period of the invasion.

It might have been expected that the Greeks would have interfered to
prevent the execution of such a work as this; but it seems that they did
not, and yet there was a considerable Greek population in that vicinity.
The promontory of Athos itself was quite extensive, being about thirty
miles long and four or five wide, and it had several towns upon it. The
canal which Xerxes was to cut across the neck of this peninsula was to
be wide enough for two triremes to pass each other. Triremes were
galleys propelled by three banks of oars, and were vessels of the
largest class ordinarily employed; and as the oars by which they were
impelled required almost as great a breadth of water as the vessels
themselves, the canal was, consequently, to be very wide.

The engineers, accordingly, laid out the ground, and, marking the
boundaries by stakes and lines, as guides to the workmen, the excavation
was commenced. Immense numbers of men were set at work, arranged
regularly in gangs, according to the various nations which furnished
them. As the excavation gradually proceeded, and the trench began to
grow deep, they placed ladders against the sides, and stationed a series
of men upon them; then the earth dug from the bottom was hauled up from
one to another, in a sort of basket or hod, until it reached the top,
where it was taken by other men and conveyed away.

The work was very much interrupted and impeded, in many parts of the
line, by the continual caving in of the banks, on account of the workmen
attempting to dig perpendicularly down. In one section--the one which
had been assigned to the Phoenicians--this difficulty did not occur; for
the Phoenicians, more considerate than the rest, had taken the
precaution to make the breadth of their part of the trench twice as
great at the top as it was below. By this means the banks on each side
were formed to a gradual slope, and consequently stood firm. The canal
was at length completed, and the water was let in.

North of the promontory of Mount Athos the reader will find upon the map
the River Strymon, flowing south, not far from the boundary between
Macedon and Thrace, into the AEgean Sea. The army of Xerxes, in its march
from the Hellespont, would, of course, have to cross this river; and
Xerxes having, by cutting the canal across the isthmus of Mount Athos,
removed an obstacle in the way of his fleet, resolved next to facilitate
the progress o