Herodotus’ history of the Median wars is interesting for its representation of the first confrontation between the classical Greek world and the Orient. Certain elements of Herodotus’ writings show the technical and cultural abyss that separated the two civilizations, both in their relationships to the sea and their practice of fluvial engineering.
During the first Median war, the Persian fleet suffered major losses during its passage around Mount Athos, a cape that extends quite far into the northern portion of the Aegean Sea (see Figure 4.6). Anticipating the second war, king Xerxes spent three years, according to Herodotus, digging a canal to get around the mountain on the land side of the isthmus. Here is how the historian describes the organization of the project: “(…) a line was drawn across by the city of Sand; and along this the various nations parceled 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. J
The Greeks, given their familiarity with the sea, would never have built such a canal to avoid sailing around a dangerous cape.
During the military campaign that ensued, king Xerxes had reason to be astonished at the Greeks’ lack of experience in large hydraulic works. To Xerxes, relocation of a river for military purposes is a classic maneuver, as seen in his analysis of the vulnerability of Thessaly, in the north of Greece:
“When Xerxes came and saw the mouth of the Peneus, he was in great amazement, and, summoning his guides, he asked them whether it was possible to turn the river aside from its course and lead it into the sea somewhere else.
“’They are clever men, the Thessalians (said the King). This is why they took their precautions long ago and conceded victory to me; it was especially because they have a country that is easy and quick to capture. It would only be a matter of letting the river in upon their country by shifting it out of that channel and turning it from the course in which it travels with a dam, and all of Thessaly, except the mountains, would be beneath the waves’.”
The floating bridge that Xerxes cast across the Hellespont for passage of his immense army must also be included among the many great hydraulic works of the Persians during the second Median war. [159] [160]
