Histories

After putting the ships together they let down very great anchors, both from the end of the ships on the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Pontus side to hold fast against the winds blowing from within that sea, and from the other end, towards the west and the Aegean Sea [25,38.5] (sea)Aegean, to hold against the west and south winds. They left a narrow opening to sail through in the line of fifty-oared ships and triremes, that so whoever wanted to could sail by small craft to the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Pontus or out of it.

After doing this, they stretched the cables from the land, twisting them taut with wooden windlasses; they did not as before keep the two kinds apart, but assigned for each bridge two cables of flax and four of papyrus.