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And in the first place, because the former fleet had met with so great
a disaster about Athos, preparations were made, by the space of about
three years, in that quarter. A fleet of triremes lay at Elaeus in
the Chersonese; and from this station detachments were sent by the
various nations whereof the army was composed, which relieved one
another at intervals, and worked at a trench beneath the lash of
taskmasters; while the people dwelling about Athos bore likewise a
part in the labour. Two Persians, Bubares, the son of Megabazus,
and Artachaees, the son of Artaeus, superintended the undertaking.
Athos is a great and famous mountain, inhabited by men, and
stretching far out into the sea. Where the mountain ends towards the
mainland it forms a peninsula; and in this place there is a neck of
land about twelve furlongs across, the whole extent whereof, from the
sea of the Acanthians to that over against Torone, is a level plain,
broken only by a few low hills. Here, upon this isthmus where Athos
ends, is Sand, a Greek city. Inside of Sand, and upon Athos
itself, are a number of towns, which Xerxes was now employed in
disjoining from the continent: these are Dium, Olophyxus,
Acrothoum, Thyssus, and Cleonae. Among these cities Athos was divided.
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