Alexander resolved the situation by surrendering a large sum of money and marrying his sister Gygaia to Bubares: This was the fate whereby they perished, they and all their retinue; for carriages too had come with them, and servants, and all the great train they had; the Macedonians made away with all that, as well as with all the envoys themselves.
No long time afterwards the Persians made a great search for these men; but Alexander had cunning enough to put an end to it by the gift of a great sum and his own sister Gygaea to Bubares, a Persian, the general of those who sought for the slain men; by this gift he made an end of the search.
There, almost ten years before, the great Persian fleet of Mardonius had been shattered amidst the uneven waves off Mount Athos.
The construction of the canal was one of the most elaborate projects of antiquity and lasted three years, as workers were forcibly recruited from various peoples including the inhabitants of Athos.
Triremes were anchored off Elaeus in the Chersonese; with these for their headquarters, all sorts and conditions of men in the army were made to dig a canal under the lash, coming by turns to the work; and they that dwelt about Athos dug likewise.