114 MELPOMENE.

considered his three sons as exempted from the ser- •
vice: but the king commanded his guards to put the
three young men to death; and thus were the three
sons of CEbazus left, deprived of life.

LXXXV. Darius marched from Susa to where the
bridge had been thrown over the Bosphorus at Chal-
cedon. Here he embarked and set sail for the Cy anean
islands, which, if the Greeks may be believed, for­
merly floated. Here, sitting in the temple, he cast
his eyes over the Euxine, which of all seas most de­
serves admiration. Its length is eleven thousand one
hundred stadia; its breadth, where it is greatest, is
three thousand two hundred. The breadth of the en­
trance is four stadia ; the length of the neck, which is
called the Bosphorus, where the bridge had been
erected, is about one hundred and twenty stadia. The
Bosphorus is connected with the Propontis, which
flowing into the Hellespont, is five hundred stadia in
breadth, and four hundred in length. The Helles­
pont itself, in its narrowest part, where it enters the
jEgean sea, is forty stadia long, and seven wide.

LXXXVI. The exact mensuration of these seas is
thus determined; in a long day, a ship will sail the
space of seventy thousand orgyse, and sixty thousand
by night. From the entrance of the Euxine to Phasis,
which is the extreme length of this sea, is a voyage of
nine days and eight nights, which is-equal to eleven
hundred and ten thousand orgyse, or eleven thousand
one hundred stadia, The broadest part of this sea,
which is from Sindica to Themiscyra, on the river
Thermodon, is a voyage of three days and two nights,
which is equivalent to three thousand three hundred
stadia, or three hundred and thirty thousand orgyae.
The Pontus, the Bosphorus, and the Hellespont, were
thus severally measured by me; and circumstanced as
I have already described. The Palus Mseotis flows
into the Euxine, which in extent almost equals it, and
which is justly called tho mother of the Euxine.

LXXXVII. When Darius had taken a survey of
the Euxine, he sailed back again to the bridge con­
structed l>y Mandrocles the Samian. He then examin­
ed the Bosphorus, near which he ordered two columns