4.87.1
After having viewed the Pontus, Darius sailed back to the bridge, whose architect was Mandrocles of Samos; and when he had viewed the Bosporus also, he set up two pillars of white marble by it, engraving on the one in Assyrian and on the other in Greek characters the names of all the nations that were in his army: all the nations subject to him. The full census of these, over and above the fleet, was seven hundred thousand men, including horsemen, and the number of ships assembled was six hundred.
4.87.2
These pillars were afterward carried by the Byzantines into their city and there used to build the altar of Orthosian note Artemis, except for one column covered with Assyrian writing that was left beside the temple of Dionysus at Byzantium. Now if my reckoning is correct, the place where king Darius bridged the Bosporus was midway between Byzantium and the temple at the entrance of the sea.
ch. 88
4.88.1
After this, being pleased with his bridge of boats, Darius made a gift of ten of everything note to Mandrocles the Samian, the architect of it; Mandrocles took the first-fruits of these and had a picture made with them, showing the whole bridge of the Bosporus, and Darius sitting aloft on his throne and his army crossing; he set this up in the temple of Hera, with this inscription:
4.88.2
“After bridging the Bosporus that teems with fish,
Mandrocles dedicated a memorial of the floating bridge to Hera,
Having won a crown for himself, and fame for the Samians,
Doing the will of King Darius.”
This memorialized the builder of the bridge.
ch. 89
4.89.1
Darius, after rewarding Mandrocles, crossed over to Europe; he had told the Ionians to sail into the Pontus as far as the Ister river, and when they got to the Ister, to wait there for him, bridging the river meanwhile; for the fleet was led by Ionians and Aeolians and men of the Hellespont.
4.89.2
So the fleet passed between the Dark Rocks and sailed straight for the Ister and, after a two days' voyage up the river from the sea, set about bridging the narrow channel of the river where its various mouths separate.
4.89.3
But Darius, passing over the Bosporus on the floating bridge of ships, journeyed through Thrace to the sources of the Tearus river, where he camped for three days.
ch. 90
4.90.1
The Tearus is said by those living on it to be the best river of all for purposes of healing, especially for healing mange in men and horses. Its springs are thirty-eight in number, some cold and some hot, all flowing from the same rock.
4.90.2
There are two roads to the place, one from the town of Heraeum near Perinthus, one from Apollonia on the Euxine sea; each is a two days' journey. This Tearus is a tributary of the Contadesdus river, and that of the Agrianes, and that of the Hebrus, which empties into the sea near the city of Aenus.
