Histories

All these had the same thickness and fine appearance, but the flaxen were heavier in proportion, for a cubit of them weighed a talent.[*](About 80 lbs.)

When the strait was thus bridged, they sawed logs of wood to a length equal to the breadth of the floating supports,[*](i.e. the line of ships supporting the cables.) and laid them in order on the taut cables; after placing them together they then made them fast. After doing this, they carried brushwood onto the bridge; when this was all laid in order they heaped earth on it and stamped it down; then they made a fence on either side, so that the beasts of burden and horses not be frightened by the sight of the sea below them.