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Now the manner in which they dug was the following: a line was drawn
across by the city of Sand; and along this the various nations
parcelled out among themselves the work to be done. When the trench
grew deep, the workmen at the bottom continued to dig, while others
handed the earth, as it was dug out, to labourers placed higher up
upon ladders, and these taking it, passed it on farther, till it came
at last to those at the top, who carried it off and emptied it away.
All the other nations, therefore, except the Phoenicians, had
double labour; for the sides of the trench fell in continually, as
could not but happen, since they made the width no greater at the top
than it was required to be at the bottom. But the Phoenicians showed
in this the skill which they are wont to exhibit in all their
undertakings. For in the portion of the work which was allotted to
them they began by making the trench at the top twice as wide as the
prescribed measure, and then as they dug downwards approached the sides
nearer and nearer together, so that when they reached the bottom their
part of the work was of the same width as the rest. In a meadow near,
there was a place of assembly and a market; and hither great quantities
of corn, ready ground, were brought from Asia.
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