Editing Portage (section)

====Greco-Roman world====
[[File:Diolkos, Western End. Pic 04.jpg|thumb|upright|Paved section of the ''[[Diolkos]]'']]

The ''[[Diolkos]]'' was a paved trackway in [[Ancient Greece]] which enabled boats to be moved overland across the [[Isthmus of Corinth]] between the [[Gulf of Corinth]] and the [[Saronic Gulf]]. It was constructed to transport high ranking [[Despotism|Despots]] to conduct business in the justice system. The {{convert|6|to(-)|8.5|km|mi|frac=2|adj=mid|-long}} roadway was a rudimentary form of [[railway]],<ref name="lewis">{{citation
 |last          = Lewis
 |first         = M. j. t.
 |contribution  = Railways in the Greek and Roman world
 |title         = Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference
 |editor-last   = Guy
 |editor-first  = A.
 |editor2-last  = Rees
 |editor2-first = J.
 |pages         = 8–19 (10–15)
 |year          = 2001
 |url           = http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf
 |url-status       = dead
 |archive-url    = https://web.archive.org/web/20091007111319/http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf
 |archive-date   = 2009-10-07
}}</ref> and operated from around 600 BC until the middle of the 1st century AD.<ref name="raepsaet">{{citation
 | last1 = Raepsaet
 | first1 = G.
 | last2 = Tolley
 | first2 = M.
 | title = Le Diolkos de l'Isthme à Corinthe: son tracé, son fonctionnement
 | journal = Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique
|language=fr
 | volume = 117
 | pages = 233–261
 | year = 1993
 | doi=10.3406/bch.1993.1679}}
</ref>
<ref name=verdelis>{{citation
 | last = Verdelis
 | first = N. M.
 | title = Le diolkos de L'Isthme
 | journal = Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique
|language=fr
 | volume = 81
 | pages = 526&ndash;529
 | year = 1957
 | doi=10.3406/bch.1957.2388| url = http://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/bch_0007-4217_1957_num_81_1_2388.pdf
 }}</ref>
<ref name="cook">{{citation
 | last = Cook
 | first = R. M.
 |author-link = Robert Manuel Cook
 | title = Archaic Greek Trade: Three Conjectures 1. The Diolkos
 | journal = [[Journal of Hellenic Studies|The Journal of Hellenic Studies]]
 | volume = 99
 | pages = 152–155
 | year = 1979
 | doi=10.2307/630641| jstor = 630641
 }}</ref>
<ref name="drijvers">{{citation
 | last = Drijvers
 | first = J. W.
 | title = Strabo VIII 2,1 (C335): Porthmeia and the Diolkos
 | journal = Mnemosyne
 | volume = 45
 | pages = 75–78
 | year = 1992}}
</ref>
The scale on which the Diolkos combined the two principles of the railway and the overland transport of ships was unique in [[ancient history|antiquity]].<ref name=lewis/>

There is scant literary evidence for two more ship trackways referred to as diolkoi in antiquity, both located in [[Roman Egypt]]: The physician [[Oribasius]]<ref>Coll. Med II, 58, 54-55 (CMG VI, 1, 1)</ref> ({{circa|320–400&nbsp;CE}}) records two passages from his first-century colleague [[Xenocrates of Aphrodisias|Xenocrates]], in which the latter casually refers to a diolkos close to the harbor of [[Alexandria]], which may have been located at the southern tip of the island of Pharos.<ref name="fraser"/> Another diolkos is mentioned by [[Ptolemy]] (90–168&nbsp;CE) in his book on geography (IV, 5, 10) as connecting a false mouth of a partly silted up [[Nile]] branch with the [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref name="fraser"/>

Writing in the first half of the eighth century, [[Cosmas of Jerusalem]] describes the portage of boats across the narrowest part of the [[Thracian Chersonese]] (Gallipoli Peninsula) between the [[Aegean Sea]] and the [[Sea of Marmara]]. The peninsula there is six miles wide. Cosmas describes the dragging of small boats as common in his day for local trade between [[Thrace]] and [[Gothograecia]]. The motivation for this practice was to avoid the long detour around the peninsula and through the [[Dardanelles]], but also to avoid the customs house at [[Abydos (Hellespont)|Abydos]]. It would have been too costly to regularly move large ships across the peninsula, but Cosmas says that [[Constantine IV]] did it, presumably during the [[Siege of Constantinople (674–678)|blockade of Constantinople]] (670/1–676/7) when the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles were controlled by the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyads]]. Constantine is said to have "driven" the ships rather than dragged them, probably indicating the use of wheels.<ref>{{citation |author=[[Constantin Zuckerman]] |year=1995 |title=A Gothia in the Hellespont in the Early Eighth Century |journal=Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=234–241 |doi=10.1179/030701395790836649|s2cid=162205022 }}.</ref> Archaeological evidence for a portage across the Thracian Chersonese is lacking, but it is possible that traces of it have been confused with traces of the [[Long Wall (Thracian Chersonese)|Long Wall]], which was restored by [[Justinian I]] in the 6th century. The region also saw extensive damage during the [[Gallipoli Campaign]] of 1915.<ref>{{citation |author=John F. Haldon |title=Kosmas of Jerusalem and the Gotthograikoi |journal=Byzantinoslavica |volume=56 |issue=1 |year=1995 |pages=45–54 |url=https://www.academia.edu/33042336}}.</ref>