MELFOMENE. 115

if white marble to be erected ; upon one were inscribed
n Assyrian, on the other in Greek characters, the
lames of the different nations which followed him. In
his expedition he was accompanied by all the nations

.vhich acknowledged his authority, amounting, cav-
ilry included, to seventy thousand men, independent
>f his fleet, which consisted of six hundred ships.
These columns the Byzantines afterwards removed to
their city, and placed before the altar of the Orthosian
Diana, excepting only one stone, which they deposit­
ed in their city before the temple of Bacchus, and
which was covered with Assyrian characters. That
part of the Bosphorus where Darius ordered the
iiridge to be erected, is, as I conjecture, nearly at the
point of middle distance between Byzantium and the
temple at the entrance of the Euxine.

LXXXVIII. With this bridge Darius was so much
flighted, that he made many valuable presents to
Mandrocles the Samian, who constructed it: with the
produce of these the artist caused a representation to
be made of the Bosphorus, with the bridge thrown
over it, and the king seated on a throne, reviewing his
troops as they passed. This he afterwards conse­
crated in the temple of Juno, with this inscription:

Thus was the fishy Bosphorus inclos'd,
When Samian Mandrocles his bridge impos'd:
Who ehere, obedient to Darius' will,
Approv'd his country's fame, and private skill.

LXXXIX. Darius, having rewarded the artist,
passed over into Europe: he had previously ordered
the Ionians to pass over the Euxine to the Ister, where
hiving erected a bridge, they were to wait his arrival.
To assist this expedition, the Ionians and .rEolians,
with the inhabitants of the Hellespont, had assem­
bled a fleet; accordingly, having passed the Cyanean
islands, they sailed directly to the Ister; and arriving,
after a passage of two days from the sea, at that
part of the river where it begins to branch off, they
constructed a bridge. Darius crossed the Bosphorus,
md marched through Thrace, and arriving at the
sources of the river Tearus, he encamped for the space
of three days.