The Geography of Strabo, Volume 1 (of 3) / Literally Translated, with Notes

by Strabo

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The chapters and sectional divisions of Kramer’s edition of the Greek text have been generally followed in this translation.

[2] τὰ θεία καὶ ἀνθρώπεια, “the productions of nature and art.”

[3] Africa.

[4] Then indeed the sun freshly struck the fields [with its rays], ascending heaven from the calmly-flowing, deep-moving ocean. Iliad vii. 421; Odyssey xix. 433. These references relate to the Greek text; any one wishing to verify the poetic translation will find the place in Cowper, by adding a few lines to the number adapted to the Greek. The prose version is taken from Bohn’s edition.

[5] And the bright light of the sun fell into the ocean, drawing dark night over the fruitful earth. Iliad viii. 485.

[6]

“Bright and steady as the star

Autumnal, which in ocean newly bathed,

Assumes fresh beauty.”

Iliad v. 6.

[7] Gosselin remarks that in his opinion Strabo frequently attributes to Homer much information of which the great poet was entirely ignorant: the present is an instance, for Spain was to Homer a perfect terra incognita.

[8] The Phœnician Hercules, anterior to the Grecian hero by two or three centuries. The date of his expedition, supposing it to have actually occurred, was about sixteen or seventeen hundred years before the Christian era.

[9] “But the immortals will send you to the Elysian plain, and the boundaries of the Earth, where is auburn-haired Rhadamanthus; there of a truth is the most easy life for men. There is nor snow, nor long winter, nor even a shower, but every day the ocean sends forth the gently blowing breezes of the west wind to refresh men.” Odyssey iv. 563.

[10] The Isles of the Blest are the same as the Fortunate Isles of other geographers. It is clear from Strabo’s description that he alludes to the Canary Islands; but as it is certain that Homer had never heard of these, it is probable that the passages adduced by Strabo have reference to the Elysian Fields of Baïa in Campania.

[11] The Maurusia of the Greeks (the Mauritania of the Latins) is now known as Algiers and Fez in Africa.

[12] The Ethiopians, who are divided into two divisions, the most distant of men. Odyssey i. 23.

[13] For yesterday Jove went to Oceanus, to the blameless Ethiopians, to a banquet. Iliad i. 423. The ancients gave the name of Ethiopians, generally, to the inhabitants of Interior Africa, the people who occupied the sea-coast of the Atlantic, and the shores of the Arabian Gulf. It is with this view of the name that Strabo explains the passage of Homer; but the Mediterranean was the boundary of the poet’s geographical knowledge; and the people he speaks of were doubtless the inhabitants of the southern parts of Phœnicia, who at one time were called Ethiopians. We may here remark too, that Homer’s ocean frequently means the Mediterranean, sometimes probably the Nile. See also p. 48, n. 2.

[14] But it alone is free from the baths of the ocean. Iliad xviii. 489; Odyssey v. 275.

[15] We are informed by Diogenes Laertius, that Thales was the first to make known to the Greeks the constellation of the Lesser Bear. Now this philosopher flourished 600 years before the Christian era, and consequently some centuries after Homer’s death. The name of Φοινίκη which it received from the Greeks, is proof that Thales owed his knowledge of it to the Phœnicians. Conf. Humboldt’s Cosmos, vol. iii. p. 160, Bohn’s edition.

[16] Iliad xiii. 5. Gosselin says, Thrace (the present Roumelia) was indisputably the most northern nation known to Homer. He names the people Ἱππημόλγοι, or living on mares’ milk, because in his time they were a nomade race. Strabo evidently gives a forced meaning to the words of the poet, when he attempts to prove his acquaintance with the Scythians and Sarmatians.

[17] For I go to visit the limits of the fertile earth, and Oceanus, the parent of the gods. Iliad xiv. 200.

[18] The eighteenth book of the Iliad.

[19] Iliad xviii. 399; Odyss. xx. 65.

[20] Thrice indeed each day it lets loose its waves, and thrice it ebbs them back. Odyss. xii. 105.

Gosselin remarks, “I do not find any thing in these different passages of Homer to warrant the conclusion that he was aware of the ebb and flow of the tide; every one knows that the movement is hardly perceptible in the Mediterranean. In the Euripus, which divides the Isle of Negropont from Bœotia, the waters are observed to flow in opposite directions several times a day. It was from this that Homer probably drew his ideas; and the regular current of the Hellespont, which carries the waters of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean, led him to think that the whole ocean, or Mediterranean, had one continued flow like the current of a river.”

[21] Iliad vii. 422.

[22] But when the ship left the stream of the river-ocean, and entered on the wave of the wide-wayed sea. Odyssey xii. 1.

[23] This direction would indicate a gulf, the sea-ward side of which should be opposite the Libo-notus of the ancients. Now the mutilated passage of Crates has reference to the opening of the twelfth book of the Odyssey, descriptive of Ulysses’ departure from Cimmeria, after his visit to the infernal regions. Those Cimmerians were the people who inhabited Campania, and the land round Baia, near to lake Avernus, and the entrance into Hades. As these places are situated close to the bay of Naples, which occupies the exact position described by Crates, it is probable this was the bay he intended.

[24] What Strabo calls the eastern side of the continent, comprises that portion of India between Cape Comorin and Tana-serim, to the west of the kingdom of Siam: further than which he was not acquainted.

[25] Strabo’s acquaintance with Western Africa did not go further than Cape Nun, 214 leagues distant from the Strait of Gibraltar.

[26] By the south is intended the whole land from the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea to Cape Comorin.

[27] From Cape Finisterre to the mouth of the Elbe.

[28] The rocks of Gibraltar and Ceuta.

[29] The mountaineers of the Taurus, between Lycia and Pisidia.

[30] A mountain of Ionia near to the Meander, and opposite the Isle of Samos.

[31] The Sea of Marmora.

[32] The Strait of Caffa, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof.

[33] The Cimmerians, spoken of in Homer, were undoubtedly the inhabitants of Campania, not those of the Bosphorus.

[34] They are covered with shadows and darkness, nor does the shining sun behold them with his beams, ... but pernicious night is spread over hapless mortals. Odyssey xi. 15 and 19.

[35] The Danube.

[36] Ancient Thrace consisted of the modern provinces of Bulgaria and Roumelia.

[37] A river of Thessaly, named at present Salampria.

[38] Now the river Vardari.

[39] Thesprotis, in Epirus, opposite Corfu.

[40] Afterwards named Temsa. This town was in Citerior Calabria. Some think Torre de Nocera stands on the ancient site.

[41] This is a misstatement, as before remarked.

[42] This writer occupies so prominent a position in Strabo’s work, that no apology I think will be needed for the following extract from Smith’s dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

“Eratosthenes of Cyrene was, according to Suidas, the son of Aglaus, according to others, the son of Ambrosius, and was born B. C. 276. He was taught by Ariston of Chius, the philosopher, Lysanias of Cyrene, the grammarian, and Callimachus, the poet. He left Athens at the invitation of Ptolemy Euergetes, who placed him over the library at Alexandria. Here he continued till the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes. He died at the age of eighty, about B. C. 196, of voluntary starvation, having lost his sight, and being tired of life. He was a man of very extensive learning: we shall first speak of him as a geometer and astronomer.

“It is supposed that Eratosthenes suggested to Ptolemy Euergetes the construction of the large armillæ, or fixed circular instruments, which were long in use at Alexandria; but only because it is difficult to imagine to whom else they are to be assigned, for Ptolemy the astronomer, though he mentions them, and incidentally their antiquity, does not state to whom they were due. In these circles each degree was divided into six parts. We know of no observations of Eratosthenes in which they were probably employed, except those which led him to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which he must have made to be 23° 51′ 20″, for he states the distance of the tropics to be eleven times the eighty-third part of the circumference. This was a good observation for the times. Ptolemy the astronomer was content with it, and according to him Hipparchus used no other. Of his measure of the earth we shall presently speak. According to Nicomachus, he was the inventor of the κόσκινον, or Cribrum Arithmeticum, as it has since been called, being the well-known method of detecting the prime numbers by writing down all odd numbers which do not end with 5, and striking out successively the multiples of each, one after the other, so that only prime numbers remain.

“We still possess under the name of Eratosthenes a work, entitled Καταστερισμοί, giving a slight account of the constellations, their fabulous history, and the stars in them. It is however acknowledged on all hands that this is not a work of Eratosthenes.... The only other writing of Eratosthenes which remains, is a letter to Ptolemy on the duplication of the cube, for the mechanical performance of which he had contrived an instrument, of which he seems to contemplate actual use in measuring the contents of vessels, &c. He seems to say that he has had his method engraved in some temple or public building, with some verses, which he adds. Eutocius has preserved this letter in his comment on book ii. prop. 2, of the sphere and cylinder of Archimedes.

“The greatest work of Eratosthenes, and that which must always make his name conspicuous in scientific history, is the attempt which he made to measure the magnitude of the earth, in which he brought forward and used the method which is employed to this day. Whether or no he was successful cannot be told, as we shall see; but it is not the less true that he was the originator of the process by which we now know, very nearly indeed, the magnitude of our own planet. Delambre says that if it were he who advised the erection of the circular instruments above alluded to, he must be considered as the founder of astronomy: to which it may be added, that he was the founder of geodesy without any if in the case. The number of ancient writers who have alluded to this remarkable operation (which seems to have obtained its full measure of fame) is very great, and we shall not attempt to combine their remarks or surmises: it is enough to say that the most distinct account, and one of the earliest, is found in the remaining work of Cleomedes.

“At Syene in Upper Egypt, which is supposed to be the same as, or near to, the town of Assouan, (Lat. 24° 10′ N., Long. 32° 59′ E. of Greenwich,) Eratosthenes was told (that he observed is very doubtful) that deep wells were enlightened to the bottom on the day of the summer solstice, and that vertical objects cast no shadows. He concluded therefore, that Syene was on the tropic, and its latitude equal to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which, as we have seen, he had determined: he presumed that it was in the same longitude as Alexandria, in which he was out about 3°, which is not enough to produce what would at that time have been a sensible error. By observations made at Alexandria, he determined the zenith of that place to be distant by the fiftieth part of the circumference from the solstice, which was equivalent to saying that the arc of the meridian between the two places is 7° 12´. Cleomedes says that he used the σκάφη, or hemispherical dial of Berosus, in the determination of this latitude. Delambre rejects the idea with infinite scorn, and pronounces Cleomedes unworthy of credit; and indeed it is not easy to see why Eratosthenes should have rejected the gnomon and the large circular instruments, unless, perhaps, for the following reason. There is a sentiment of Cleomedes which seems to imply that the disappearance of the shadows at Syene on the day of the summer solstice was noticed to take place for 300 stadia every way round Syene. If Eratosthenes took his report about the phenomenon (and we have no evidence that he went to Syene himself) from those who could give no better account than this, we may easily understand why he would think the σκάφη quite accurate enough to observe with at his own end of the arc, since the other end of it was uncertain by as much as 300 stadia. He gives 500 stadia for the distance from Alexandria to Syene, and this round number seems further to justify us in concluding that he thought the process to be as rough as in truth it was. Martianus Capella states that he obtained this distance from the measures made by order of the Ptolemies (which had been commenced by Alexander): this writer then implies that Eratosthenes did not go to Syene himself.

“The result is 250,000 stadia for the circumference of the earth, which Eratosthenes altered into 252,000, that his result might give an exact number of stadia for the degree, namely, 700; this of course should have been 694-4/9. Pliny calls this 31,500 Roman miles, and therefore supposes the stadium to be the eighth part of a Roman mile, or takes for granted that Eratosthenes used the Olympic stadium. It is likely enough that the Ptolemies naturalized this stadium in Egypt; but nevertheless, it is not unlikely that an Egyptian stadium was employed. If we assume the Olympic stadium, (202¼ yards,) the degree of Eratosthenes is more than 79 miles, upwards of 10 miles too great. Nothing is known of any Egyptian stadium. Pliny asserts that Hipparchus, but for what reason he does not say, wanted to add 25,000 stadia to the circumference as found by Eratosthenes. According to Plutarch, Eratosthenes made the sun to be 804 millions of stadia from the earth, and the moon 780,000. According to Macrobius, he made the diameter of the sun to be 27 times that of the earth. With regard to the other merits of Eratosthenes, we must first of all mention what he did for geography, which was closely connected with his mathematical pursuits. It was Eratosthenes who raised geography to the rank of a science; for previous to his time it seems to have consisted, more or less, of a mass of information scattered in books of travel, descriptions of particular countries, and the like. All these treasures were accessible to Eratosthenes in the libraries of Alexandria; and he made the most profitable use of them, by collecting the scattered materials, and uniting them into an organic system of geography, in his comprehensive work entitled Γεωγραφικά, or as it is sometimes but erroneously called, γεωγραφούμενα or γεωγραφία. It consisted of three books, the first of which, forming a sort of Introduction, contained a critical review of the labours of his predecessors from the earliest to his own times, and investigations concerning the form and nature of the earth, which, according to him, was an immoveable globe, on the surface of which traces of a series of great revolutions were still visible. He conceived that in one of these revolutions the Mediterranean had acquired its present form; for according to him it was at one time a large lake covering portions of the adjacent countries of Asia and Libya, until a passage was forced open by which it entered into communication with the ocean in the west. The second book contained what is now called mathematical geography. His attempt to measure the magnitude of the earth has been spoken of above. The third book contained the political geography, and gave descriptions of the various countries, derived from the works of earlier travellers and geographers. In order to be able to determine the accurate site of each place, he drew a line parallel with the equator, running from the Pillars of Hercules to the extreme east of Asia, and dividing the whole of the inhabited earth into two halves. Connected with this work was a new map of the earth, in which towns, mountains, rivers, lakes, and climates were marked according to his own improved measurements. This important work of Eratosthenes forms an epoch in the history of ancient geography; but unfortunately it is lost, and all that has survived consists in fragments quoted by later geographers and historians, such as Polybius, Strabo, Marcianus, Pliny, and others, who often judge of him unfavourably, and controvert his statements; while it can be proved that in a great many passages they adopt his opinions without mentioning his name. Marcianus charges Eratosthenes with having copied the substance of the work of Timosthenes on Ports, (περὶ λιμένων,) to which he added but very little of his own. This charge may be well-founded, but cannot have diminished the value of the work of Eratosthenes, in which that of Timosthenes can have formed only a very small portion. It seems to have been the very overwhelming importance of the geography of Eratosthenes, that called forth a number of opponents, among whom we meet with the names of Polemon, Hipparchus, Polybius, Serapion, and Marcianus of Heracleia.... Another work of a somewhat similar nature, entitled Ἑρμῆς, was written in verse, and treated of the form of the earth, its temperature, the different zones, the constellations, and the like.... Eratosthenes distinguished himself also as a philosopher, historian, grammarian, &c.”

[43] The ancients portioned out the globe by bands or zones parallel to the equator, which they named κλίματα. The extent of each zone was determined by the length of the solstitial day, and thus each diminished in extent according as it became more distant from the equator. The moderns have substituted a mode of reckoning the degrees by the elevation of the pole, which gives the latitudes with much greater accuracy.

[44] Literally, the heat, cold, and temperature of the atmosphere.

[45] Tartary.

[46] France.

[47] Xylander and Casaubon remark that Strabo here makes an improper use of the term antipodes; the antipodes of Spain and India being in the southern hemisphere.

[48] Meteorology, from μετέωρος, aloft, is the science which describes and explains the various phenomena which occur in the region of the atmosphere.

[49] Homer, Iliad viii. 16.

[50] A people of Thessaly, on the banks of the Peneus.

[51] The former name of the Morea, and more ancient than Peloponnesus. Iliad i. 270.

[52] Having wandered to Cyprus, and Phœnice, and the Egyptians, I came to the Ethiopians, and Sidonians, and Erembi, and Libya, where the lambs immediately become horned. Odyssey iv. 83.

[53] Odyssey iv. 86.

[54] Homer says,

——τῇ πλεῖστα φέρει ζείδωρος ἄρουρα

Φάρμακα.

Odyssey iv. 229.

Which Cowper properly renders:—

“Egypt teems

with drugs of various powers.”

Strabo, by omitting the word φάρμακα from his citation, alters to a certain degree the meaning of the sentence.

[55] Iliad ix. 383, et seq.

[56] Odyssey xxi. 26.

[57] Chorography, a term used by Greek writers, meaning the description of particular districts.

[58] Iliad ii. 496. Four cities of Bœotia. The present name of Aulis is Vathi, situated on the Strait of Negropont. The modern names of the other three cities are unknown.

[59] By Libyans are here intended Carthaginians. The events alluded to by Strabo may be found in Pomponius Mela and Valerius Maximus, whose accounts however do not entirely accord. That of Valerius Maximus, who is followed by Servius, tells us that Hannibal, on his return to Africa, observed his pilot Pelorus was taking the ships by the coast of Italy, and suspecting him therefore of treachery, caused him to be executed. He did not know at the time the intention of Pelorus to take him through the Strait of Messina, but afterwards, when aware of the excellence of the passage, caused a monument to be raised to the memory of the unfortunate pilot. Strabo, in his ninth book, gives us the history of Salganeus, and the monument erected to him on the shores of Negropont.

[60] The Gulf of Zeitun.

[61] Vide preceding note on this word p. 13, n. 1.

[62] Odyssey v. 393.

[63] Allusion is here made to the theory of Xenophanes of Colophon and Anaximenes his disciple, who imagined the earth bore the form of a vast mountain, inhabited at the summit, but whose roots stretched into infinity. The Siamese at the present day hold a similar idea.

[64] See note ¹, p. 13.

[65] Περὶ τῶν οἰκήσεων.

[66] Meaning, the different appearances of the heavenly bodies at various parts of the earth.

[67] Odyssey x. 190.

[68] This sentence has been restored to what was evidently its original position. In the Greek text it appears immediately before section 23, commencing, “Having already compiled,” &c. The alteration is borne out by the French and German translators.

[69] Strabo here alludes to his Ἱστορικὰ Ὑπομνήματα, cited by Plutarch (Lucullus, 28, Sulla, 26). This work, in forty-three books, began where the History of Polybius ended, and was probably continued to the battle of Actium. Smith, Gr. and Rom. Biog.

[70] The Sea of Azof.

[71] Mingrelia; east of the Euxine.

[72] A large country of Asia to the south of the eastern part of the Caspian Sea. It became much restricted during the Parthian rule, containing only the north of Comis, east of Masanderan, the country near Corcan or Jorjan, (Dshiordshian.) and the west of the province of Khorassan.

[73] A country of Asia, on the west bounded by Aria, south by the mountains of Paropamisus, east by the Emodi montes, north by Sogdiana, now belongs to the kingdom of Afghanistan. Bactriana was anciently the centre of Asiatic commerce.

[74] A general name given by the Greeks and Romans to a large portion of Asia, and divided by them into Scythia intra et extra Imaum, that is, on either side of Mount Imaus. This mountain is generally thought to answer to the Himalaya mountains of Thibet.

[75] This seems to be a paraphrase of Homer’s verse on Ulysses, Odyssey xviii. 74.

Οἵην ἐκ ῥακέων ὁ γέρων ἐπιγουνίδα φαίνει.

What thews

And what a haunch the senior’s tatters hide.

Cowper.

[76] Zeno, of Citium, a city in the island of Cyprus, founded by Phœnician settlers, was the son of Mnaseas.

[77] Περὶ τῶν 'Αγαθῶν is the title given by Strabo, but we find from Harpocrates and Clemens Alexandrinus, that properly it was Περὶ 'Αγαθῶν καὶ Κακῶν, or “Concerning Good and Evil Things,” which we have rendered in the text “Moral Philosophy.”

[78] Odyssey iii. 267.

[79] Ib. iii. 270.

[80] Ib. iii. 272.

[81] Thisbe, Haliartus, Anthedon, cities of Bœotia; Litæa, a city of Phocis. The Cephissus, a large river, rising in the west of Phocis.

[82] A harvest-wreath of laurel or olive wound round with wool, and adorned with fruits, borne about by singing-boys at the Πυανέψια and Θαργήλια, while offerings were made to Helios and the Hours: it was afterwards hung up at the house-door. The song was likewise called eiresionè, which became the general name for all begging-songs.

[83] Auditors, ἀκροωμένοις. In Greece there was a class of lectures where the only duty of the professors was to explain the works of the poets, and point out the beauties which they contained. The students who attended these lectures were styled ἀκροάται, or auditors, and the method of instruction ἀκρόασις.

[84] Odyssey i. 3.

[85] Iliad iii. 202.

[86] Ib. x. 246.

[87] Odyssey xviii. 367.

[88] Ib. xviii. 374.

[89] The second book of the Iliad.

[90] The ninth book of the Iliad.

[91] The deputation of Menelaus and Ulysses to demand back Helen, alluded to by Antenor, in the third book of the Iliad.

[92] But when he did send forth the mighty voice from his breast, and words like unto wintry flakes of snow, no longer then would another mortal contend with Ulysses. Iliad iii. 221.

[93] So much of the meaning of this sentence depends upon the orthography, that its force is not fully perceptible in English; the Greek is as follows: τοῦτο δ’ ἦν ἡ ᾠδὴ λόγος μεμελισμένος· ἀφ' οὗ δὴ ῥαψῳδίαν τ’ ἔλεγον καὶ τραγῳδίαν καὶ κωμῳδίαν.

[94] This last sentence can convey little or no meaning to the English reader; its whole force in the original depending on verbal association. Its general scope however will be evident, when it is stated that in Greek, the same word, πεζὸς, which means a “foot-soldier,” signifies also “prose composition.” Hence Strabo’s allusion to the chariot. The Latins borrowed the expression, and used sermo pedestris in the same sense.

[95] A female phantom said to devour children, used by nurses as a bug-bear to intimidate their refractory charges.

[96] In later times there were three Gorgons, Stheino, Euryale, and Medusa, but Homer seems to have known but one.

[97] One of the giants, who in the war against the gods was deprived of his left eye by Apollo, and of the right by Hercules.

[98] The same phantom as Mormo, with which the Greeks used to frighten little children.

[99] Odyssey vi. 232.

[100] Odyssey xix. 203.

[101] The mountains of Chimera in Albania.

[102] The Gulf of Venice.

[103] The Gulf of Salerno.

[104] The Grecian name for Tuscany.

[105] Several small islands, or rather reefs, at the entrance of the Strait of Constantinople. They took their name of Symplegades from the varying positions they assumed to the eyes of the voyager, owing to the sinuosities of the Strait.

[106] Unfortunately for Strabo’s illustration, no Grecian navigator had ever passed the Strait of Gibraltar in Homer’s time.

[107] The powerful Shaker of the Earth, as he was returning from the Ethiopians, beheld him from a distance, from the mountains of the Solymi. Odyssey v. 282.

[108] There is some doubt as to the modern name of the island of Ithaca. D’Anville supposes it to be the island of Thiaki, between the island of Cephalonia and Acarnania, while Wheeler and others, who object to this island as being too large to answer the description of Ithaca given by Strabo, identify it with the little isle of Ithaco, between Thiaki and the mainland.

[109] A name of the city of Troy, from Ilus, son of Tros.

[110] A mountain of Magnesia in Thessaly.

[111] A mountain in the Troad.

[112] Cape Faro in Sicily.

[113] The stadia here mentioned are 700 to a degree; thus 2000 stadia amount to rather more than 57 marine leagues, which is the distance in a direct line from Capo Faro to the Capo della Minerva.

[114] The Sirenussæ are the rocks which form the southern cape of the Gulf of Naples, and at the same time separate it from the Gulf of Salerno. This cape, which was also called the promontory of Minerva, from the Athenæum which stood there, preserves to this day the name of Capo della Minerva.

[115] Now Surrento.

[116] The island of Capri is opposite to the Capo della Minerva.

[117] Now the Island of St. Marcian.

[118] Monte Circello, near to Terracina.

[119] The Iliad.

[120] Sword-fish.

[121] And fishes there, watching about the rock for dolphins and dogs, and if she can any where take a larger whale. Odyssey xii. 95.

[122] There is a very fine medallion in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, portraying Scylla as half woman, half dolphin, with a trident in her left hand, and seizing a fish with her right. From her middle protrude two half-bodied dogs, who assist the monster in swimming.

[123] Odyssey xii. 105.

[124] At this place there was an altar consecrated to Ulysses. Meninx is now known as the island of Zerbi, on the side of the Bay of Cabus, on the coast of Africa.

[125] The second book of the Iliad.

[126] And from thence I was carried for nine days over the fishy sea by baleful winds. Odyssey ix. 82.

[127] Cape Maleo off the Morea. The distance from this point to Gibraltar is now estimated at 28° 34′. The 22,500 stadia of Polybius would equal 32° 8′ 34″. He was therefore out in his calculation by 3°34′ 34″.

[128] But when the ship left the stream of the river ocean. Odyss. xii. 1.

[129] Vide Odyssey i. 50.

[130] Calypso.

[131] And we dwell at a distance, the farthest in the sea of many waves, nor does any other of mortals mingle with us. Odyssey vi. 204.

[132] Gosselin has satisfactorily demonstrated that Strabo is wrong in supposing that these passages relate to the Atlantic Ocean, and most of our readers will come at once themselves to the same conclusion. Those, however, who wish for proofs, may refer to the French translation, vol. i. p. 51, n.

[133] The ancient name of the city of Naples.

[134] Puteoli, now Pozzuolo, in Campania.

[135] Mare Morto, south of Baia, and near to the ruins of Mycene.

[136] Aornus or Avernus: this lake, which lies about one mile north of Baia, still retains its ancient appellation.

[137] Vide Virgil, Æneid vi. 162.

[138] Cythæron and Helicon, two mountains of Bœotia, the latter of which is now named Zagaro Voreni.

[139] Parnassus, a mountain of Phocis, near Delphi.

[140] Pelion, a mountain of Magnesia, in Thessaly.

[141] They attempted to place Ossa upon Olympus, and upon Ossa leafy Pelion. Odyssey xi. 314. The mountains Pelion, Ossa, and Olympus, bounded the eastern coasts of Thessaly.

[142] Pieria and Emathia, two countries of Macedonia.

[143] The mountains of Macedonia; this latter name was unknown to Homer, who consequently describes as Thracian, the whole of the people north of Thessaly.

[144] The Mount Santo of the moderns.

[145] Juno, hastening, quitted the summit of Olympus, and having passed over Pieria, and fertile Emathia, she hastened over the snowy mountains of equestrian Thrace, most lofty summits.... From Athos she descended to the foaming deep. Iliad xiv. 225.

[146] Odyssey iv. 83.

[147] Euripides, Bacchæ, towards commencement.

[148] Sophocles.

[149] The inaccuracy of the description consists in this; that Bacchus leaving Lydia and Phrygia should have taken his course by Media into Bactriana, and returned by Persia into Arabia Felix. Perhaps too, for greater exactness, Strabo would have had the god mention particularly the intermediate countries through which he necessarily passed, as Cappadocia, Armenia, Syria, &c.

[150] But it lies low, the highest in the sea towards the west, but those that are separated from it [lie] towards the east and the sun. Odyssey ix. 25.

[151] Vide Odyssey xiii. 109, 111.

[152] Which I very little regard, nor do I care for them whether they fly to the right, towards the morn and the sun, or to the left, towards the darkening west. Iliad xii. 239.

[153] O my friends, since we know not where is the west, nor where the morning, nor where the sun. Odyssey x. 190.

[154] The north and west winds, which both blow from Thrace. Iliad ix. 5.

[155] Now the Bay of Saros.

[156] These two provinces are comprised in the modern division of Roumelia. A portion of Macedonia still maintains its ancient name Makidunia.

[157] The modern names of these places are Thaso, Stalimene, Imbro, and Samothraki.

[158] Strabo, as well as Casaubon in his notes on this passage, seems to have made an imperfect defence of Homer. The difficulty experienced, as well by them as Eratosthenes, arose from their overlooking the fact that Macedonia was a part of Thrace in Homer’s time, and that the name of Macedon did not exist.

[159] These rocks were situated between the city of Megara and the isthmus of Corinth.

[160] And the south-east and the south rushed together, and the hard-blowing west, and the cold-producing north. Odyssey v. 295.

[161] The western part of Thrace, afterwards named Macedonia; having Pæonia on the north, and Thessaly on the south.

[162] The Magnetæ dwelt near to Mount Pelion and the Pelasgic Gulf, now the Bay of Volo.

[163] These people dwelt between Mount Othrys, and the Maliac Gulf, now the Gulf of Zeitun.

[164] The maritime portion of Epirus opposite Corfu.

[165] In the time of Homer the Dolopes were the neighbours of the Pæonians, and dwelt in the north of that part of Thrace which afterwards formed Macedonia. Later, however, they descended into Thessaly, and established themselves around Pindus.

[166] Dodona was in Epirus, but its exact position is not known.

[167] Now Aspro-potamo, or the White River; this river flows into the sea at the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth.

[168] And the assembly was moved, as the great waves of the Icarian sea. Iliad ii. 144.

[169] Ἀργέσταο Νότοιο, Iliad xi. 306, xxi. 334. Ἀργέστης strictly speaking means the north-west, and although, to an English ear, the north-west south seems at first absurd, yet in following up the argument which Strabo is engaged in, it is impossible to make use of any other terms than those which he has brought forward, and merely to have translated ἀργέσταο Νότοιο by Argest-south, would have mystified the passage without cause. We do not here attempt to reconcile the various renderings of ἀργέσταο Νότοιο by Homeric critics, as Strabo’s sense alone concerns us.

[170] The north and west winds, which both blow from Thrace. Iliad ix. 5.

[171] Ἀργέστης Νότος, the clearing south wind, Horace’s Notus Albus;—in the improved compass of Aristotle, ἀργέστης was the north-west wind, the Athenian σκείρων.

[172] Τοῦ λοιποῦ Νότου ὅλου Εὔρου πως ὄντος. MSS. i.e. all the other southern winds having an easterly direction. We have adopted the suggestion of Kramer, and translated the passage as if it stood thus, τοῦ λοιποῦ Νότου ὀλεροῦ πως ὄντος.

[173] As when the west wind agitates the light clouds of the clearing south, striking them with a dreadful gale. Iliad xi. 305.

[174] Gosselin observes that Hesiod lived about forty years after Homer, and he mentions not only the Nile, but also the Po, with which certainly Homer was unacquainted. He speaks too of the Western Ocean, where he places the Gorgons, and the garden of the Hesperides. It is very likely that these various points of information were brought into Greece by the Carthaginians. The name Nile seems to be merely a descriptive title; it is still in use in many countries of India, where it signifies water. The river known subsequently as the Nile, was, in Homer’s time, called the River of Egypt, or the River Egyptus; by the latter of which titles he was acquainted with it. See Odyssey xvii. 448.

[175] By this expression is intended the Atlantic.

[176] Gosselin remarks that the arguments made use of by Strabo are not sufficiently conclusive. The country with which the Greeks were best acquainted was Greece, undoubtedly, and it is this land which Homer has described with the greatest exactness of detail.

[177] An island opposite to Alexandria, and seven stadia distant therefrom. The Ptolemies united it to the mainland by means of a pier, named Hepta-stadium, in allusion to its length. The sands which accumulated against the pier became the site of the present city of Alexandria. It was not on this island that the celebrated Pharos of Alexandria was erected, but on a desolate rock a little to the N.E. It received the same name as the island, to which it was joined by another pier. As to the passage of Homer, (Odyssey iv. 354-357,) where he says that Pharos is one day’s sail from the Egyptus, he does not mean Egypt, as Strabo fancies, but the mouth of the Nile, which river in his time was called the Egyptus, and probably fell into the sea about one day’s sail from Pharos.

[178] We have before remarked that the Ethiopia visited by Menelaus was not the country above Egypt, generally known by that name, but an Ethiopia lying round Jaffa, the ancient Joppa.

[179] “The priests stated also that Menes was the first of mortals that ever ruled over Egypt; to this they added that in the days of that king, all Egypt, with the exception of the Thebaic nome, was but a morass; and that none of the lands now seen below Lake Mœris, then existed; from the sea up to this place is a voyage by the river of seven days. I myself am perfectly convinced the account of the priests in this particular is correct; for the thing is evident to every one who sees and has common sense, although he may not have heard the fact, that the Egypt to which the Hellenes navigate, is a land annexed to the Egyptians, and a gift from the river; and that even in the parts above the lake just mentioned, for three days’ sail, concerning which the priests relate nothing, the country is just of the same description.” Herod. ii. § 5.

[180] The Ethiopians, who are divided into two parts, the most distant of men, some at the setting of the sun, others at the rising. Odyssey i. 23.

[181] Odyssey i. 23.

[182] Many ancient writers entertained the opinion that the regions surrounding the terrestrial equator were occupied by the ocean, which formed a circular zone, separating our continent from that which they supposed to exist in the southern hemisphere. To the inhabitants of this second continent they gave the name of Antichthones.

[183] The Southern Ocean.

[184] Or nearest to the equator.

[185] The isthmus of Suez.

[186] Odyssey i. 23.

[187] This explanation falls to the ground when we remember, that prior to the reign of Psammeticus no stranger had ever succeeded in penetrating into the interior of Egypt. This was the statement of the Greeks themselves. Now as Psammeticus did not flourish till two and a half centuries after Homer, that poet could not possibly have been aware of the circumstances which Strabo brings forward to justify his interpretation of this passage which he has undertaken to defend.

[188] Africa.

[189] The Red Sea.

[190] The Strait of Gibraltar.

[191] The Tartessians were the inhabitants of the island of Tartessus, formed by the two arms of the Bætis, (the present Guadalquiver,) near the mouth of this river. One of these arms being now dried up, the island is reunited to the mainland. It forms part of the present district of Andalusia. The tradition, says Gosselin, reported by Ephorus, seems to me to resemble that still preserved at Tingis, a city of Mauritania, so late as the sixth century. Procopius (Vandalicor. ii. 10) relates that there were two columns at Tingis bearing the following inscription in the Phœnician language, “We are they who fled before the brigand Joshua, the son of Naue (Nun).” It does not concern us to inquire whether these columns actually existed in the time of Procopius, but merely to remark two independent facts. The first is the tradition generally received for more than twenty centuries, that the coming of the Israelites into Palestine drove one body of Canaanites, its ancient inhabitants, to the extremities of the Mediterranean, while another party went to establish, among the savage tribes of the Peloponnesus and Attica, the earliest kingdoms known in Europe. The second observation has reference to the name of Ethiopians given by Ephorus to this fugitive people, as confirming what we have before stated, that the environs of Jaffa, and possibly the entire of Palestine, anciently bore the name of Ethiopia: and it is here we must seek for the Ethiopians of Homer, and not in the interior of Africa.

[192] Africa.

[193] This piece is now lost.

[194] τὸ μεσημβρινὸν κλίμα.

[195] Æschylus.

[196] This piece is now lost.

[197] Odyssey ix. 26.

[198] Strabo is mistaken in interpreting πρὸς ζόφον towards the north. It means here, as every where else, “towards the west,” and allusion in the passage is made to Ithaca as lying west of Greece.

[199] Whether they fly to the right towards the morn and the sun, or to the left towards the darkening west. Iliad xii. 239.

[200] O my friends! since we know not where is the west, nor where the morning, nor where the sun that gives light to mortals descends beneath the earth, nor where he rises up again. Odyssey x. 190.

[201] In Book x.

[202] For yesterday Jove went to Oceanus to the blameless Ethiopians, to a banquet. Iliad i. 423.

[203] The powerful shaker of the earth, as he was returning from the Ethiopians, beheld him from a distance, from the mountains of the Solymi. Odyssey v. 282.

[204] This would be true if Homer had lived two or three centuries later, when the Greeks became acquainted with the Ethiopians on the eastern and western coasts of Africa. But as the poet was only familiar with the Mediterranean, there is no question that the Ethiopians mentioned in this passage are those of Phœnicia and Palestine.

[205] Which, after they have escaped the winter and immeasurable shower, with a clamour wing their way towards the streams of the ocean, bearing slaughter and fate to the Pygmæan men. Iliad iii. 3.

[206] Gosselin is of opinion that this Iberia has no reference to Spain, but is a country situated between the Euxine and Caspian Seas, and forms part of the present Georgia. He assigns as his reason, that if Strabo had meant to refer to Spain, he would have mentioned it before Italy, so as not to interrupt the geographical order, which he is always careful to observe.

[207] Pygmy, (πυγμαῖος,) a being whose length is a πυγμὴ, that is, from the elbow to the hand. The Pygmæi were a fabulous nation of dwarfs, the Lilliputians of antiquity, who, according to Homer, had every spring to sustain a war against the cranes on the banks of Oceanus. They were believed to have been descended from Pygmæus, a son of Dorus and grandson of Epaphus. Later writers usually place them near the sources of the Nile, whither the cranes are said to have migrated every year to take possession of the field of the Pygmies. The reports of them have been embellished in a variety of ways by the ancients. Hecatæus, for example, related that they cut down every corn-ear with an axe, for they were conceived to be an agricultural people. When Hercules came into their country, they climbed with ladders to the edge of his goblet to drink from it; and when they attacked the hero, a whole army of them made an assault upon his left hand, while two made the attack on his right. Aristotle did not believe that the accounts of the Pygmies were altogether fabulous, but thought that they were a tribe in Upper Egypt, who had exceedingly small horses, and lived in caves. In later times we also hear of Northern Pygmies, who lived in the neighbourhood of Thule: they are described as very short-lived, small, and armed with spears like needles. Lastly, we also have mention of Indian Pygmies, who lived under the earth on the east of the river Ganges. Smith, Dict. Biog. and Mythol. Various attempts have been made to account for this singular belief, which however seems to have its only origin in the love of the marvellous.

[208] It must be observed that the Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea, does not run parallel to the equator, consequently it could not form any considerable part of a meridian circle; thus Strabo is wrong even as to the physical position of the Gulf, but this is not much to be wondered at, as he supposed an equatorial division of the earth into two hemispheres by the ocean.

[209] 15,000 of the stadia employed by Strabo were equivalent to 21° 25′ 43″ The distance from the Isthmus of Suez to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, following our better charts, is 20° 15´. Strabo says nearly 15,000 stadia; and this length may be considered just equal to that of the Arabian Gulf. Its breadth, so far as we know, is in some places equal to 1800 stadia.

[210] The Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea.

[211] The Mediterranean.

[212] Aristotle accounts for Homer’s mentioning Thebes rather than Memphis, by saying that, at the time of the poet, the formation of that part of Egypt by alluvial deposit was very recent. So that Memphis either did not then exist, or at all events had not then obtained its after celebrity. Aristotle likewise seems to say that anciently Egypt consisted only of the territory of the Thebaid, καὶ τὸ ἀρχαῖονἡ Αἴγυπτος, Θῆβαι καλούμεναι.

[213] The Mediterranean.

[214] Gosselin says, “Read 4000, as in lib. xvii. This correction is indicated by the following measure given by Herodotus:

From the sea to Heliopolis	1500 stadia
From Heliopolis to Thebes	4860
	——
	6300

The stadium made use of in Egypt at the time of Herodotus consisted of 1111-1/9 to a degree on the grand circle, as may be seen by comparing the measure of the coasts of the Delta furnished by that historian with our actual information. The length of this stadium may likewise be ascertained by reference to Aristotle. In the time of Eratosthenes and Strabo, the stadium of 700 to a degree was employed in Egypt. Now 6360 stadia of 1111-1/9 to a degree make just 4006 stadia of 700: consequently these two measures are identical, their apparent inconsistency merely resulting from the different scales by which preceding authors had expressed them.” This reasoning seems very plausible, but we must remark that Col. Leake, in a valuable paper “On the Stade as a Linear Measure,” published in vol. ix. of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, is of opinion that Gosselin’s system of stadia of different lengths cannot be maintained.

[215] Namely Crates and Aristarchus. The last was of Alexandria, and consequently an Egyptian. Crates was of Cilicia, which was regarded as a part of Syria.

[216] This is a very favourite axiom with Strabo, notwithstanding he too often forgets it himself.

[217] The Phrygians were considered to be more timid than any other people, and consequently the hares of their country more timid than those of any other. We see then a two-fold hyperbole in the expression that a man is more timid than a Phrygian hare.

[218] Alcæus of Mitylene in the island of Lesbos, the earliest of the Æolian lyric poets, began to flourish in the forty-second Olympiad (B. C. 610). In the second year of this Olympiad we find Cicis and Antimenidas, the brothers of Alcæus, fighting under Pittacus against Melanchrus, who is described as the tyrant of Lesbos, and who fell in the conflict. Alcæus does not appear to have taken part with his brothers on this occasion; on the contrary, he speaks of Melanchrus in terms of high praise. Alcæus is mentioned in connexion with the war in Troas, between the Athenians and Mitylenæans, for the possession of Sigæum. During the period which followed this war, the contest between the nobles and the people of Mitylene was brought to a crisis. The party of Alcæus engaged actively on the side of the nobles, and was defeated. When he and his brother Antimenidas perceived that all hope of their restoration to Mitylene was gone, they travelled over different countries. Alcæus visited Egypt, and appears to have written poems in which his adventures by sea were described. Horace, Carm. ii. 13. 26. See Smith’s Dict. of Biog. and Mythol.

[219] But in it there is a haven with good mooring, from whence they take equal ships into the sea, having drawn black water. Odyssey iv. 358.

[220] Certainly having suffered many things, and having wandered much, I was brought in my ships, and I returned in the eighth year; having wandered to Cyprus, and Phœnice, and the Egyptians, I came to the Ethiopians and Sidonians, and Erembians, and Libya. Odyssey iv. 81.

[221] On the coasts of the Mediterranean.

[222] Strabo intends to say that the ships of Menelaus were not constructed so as to be capable of being taken to pieces, and carried on the backs of the sailors, as those of the Ethiopians were.

[223] Having mentioned the Phœnicians, amongst whom the Sidonians are comprised, he certainly would not have enumerated these latter as a separate people.

[224] That is to say, that he made the entire circuit of Africa, starting from Cadiz, and doubling the Cape of Good Hope. Such was the opinion of Crates, who endeavoured to explain all the expressions of Homer after mathematical hypotheses. If any one were to inquire how Menelaus, who was wandering about the Mediterranean, could have come into Ethiopia, Crates would answer, that Menelaus left the Mediterranean and entered the Atlantic, whence he could easily travel by sea into Ethiopia. In this he merely followed the hypothesis of the mathematicians, who said that the inhabited earth in all its southern portion was traversed by the Atlantic Ocean, and the other seas contiguous thereto.

[225] The Isthmus of Suez. This isthmus they supposed to be covered by the sea, as Strabo explains further on.

[226] Thus far he, collecting much property and gold, wandered with his ships. Odyssey iii. 301.

[227] Odyssey iv. 83.

[228] Strabo here appears to have followed Aristotle, who attributes to Sesostris the construction of the first canal connecting the Mediterranean, or rather the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, with the Red Sea. Pliny has followed the same tradition. Strabo, Book xvii., informs us, that other authors attribute the canal to Necho the son of Psammeticus; and this is the opinion of Herodotus and Diodorus. It is possible these authors may be speaking of two different attempts to cut this canal. Sesostris flourished about 1356 years before Christ, Necho 615 years before the same era. About a century after Necho, Darius the son of Hystaspes made the undertaking, but desisted under the false impression that the level of the Red Sea was higher than that of the Mediterranean. Ptolemy Philadelphus proved this to be an error, by uniting the Red Sea to the Nile without causing any inundation. At the time of Trajan and Hadrian the communication was still in existence, though subsequently it became choked up by an accumulation of sand. It will be remembered that a recent proposition for opening the canal was opposed in Egypt on similar grounds.

[229] Mount El Kas.

[230] Tineh.

[231] But the immortals will send you to the Elysian plain, and the boundaries of the earth. Odyssey iv. 563.

[232] But ever does the ocean send forth the gently blowing breezes of the west wind. Odyssey iv. 567.

[233] Odyssey iv. 73. See Strabo’s description of electrum, Book iii. c. ii. § 8.

[234] Blessed.

[235] The name of Arabia Felix is now confined to Yemen. A much larger territory was anciently comprehended under this designation, containing the whole of Hedjaz, and even Nedjed-el-Ared. It is probable that Strabo here speaks of Hedjaz, situated about two days’ journey south of Mecca.

[236] Iliad xi. 20.

[237] Of the Mediterranean.

[238] Philæ was built on a little island formed by the Nile, now called El-Heif.

[239] This is evidently Strabo’s meaning; but the text, as it now stands, is manifestly corrupt.

[240] El-Baretun. A description of this place will be found in the 17th book.

[241] At this port it was that Agesilaus terminated his glorious career.

[242] Iliad xiii. 1. Strabo means that Homer, after having spoken of the Trojans in general, mentions Hector in particular.

[243] Iliad ii. 641. Having mentioned the sons of Œneus collectively, he afterwards distinguishes one of them by name.

[244] Iliad viii. 47. Gargarus was one of the highest peaks of Ida.

[245] Iliad ii. 536. Chalcis and Eretria were two cities of Eubœa.

[246] We have here taken advantage of Casaubon’s suggestion to read ἡ πάνορμος instead of ἢ Πάνορμος, the Greek name for Palermo in Sicily, which was not founded in the time of Sappho.

[247] Odyssey iv. 83.

[248] Paris.

[249] Where were her variously embroidered robes, the works of Sidonian females, which godlike Alexander himself had brought from Sidon, sailing over the broad ocean, in that voyage in which he carried off Helen, sprung from a noble sire. Iliad vi. 289.

[250] I will give thee a wrought bowl: it is all silver, and the lips are bound with gold; it is the work of Vulcan: the hero Phædimus, king of the Sidonians, gave it [to me], when his home sheltered me, as I was returning from thence. I wish to give this to thee. Odyssey xv. 115.

[251] But in beauty it much excelled [all] upon the whole earth, for the ingenious Sidonians had wrought it cunningly, and Phœnician men had carried it. Iliad xxiii. 742.

[252] The Armenians.

[253] The Arabs.

[254] The Syrians.

[255] Dwelling in caverns.

[256] He saw the cities of many men, and learned their manners. Odyssey i. 3.

[257] Having suffered many things, and having wandered much, I was brought. Odyssey iv. 81.

[258] See Hesiod, Fragments, ed. Loesner, p. 434.

[259] This derivation of Arabia is as problematical as the existence of the hero from whom it is said to have received its name; a far more probable etymology is derived from ereb, signifying the west, a name supposed to have been conferred upon it at a very early period by a people inhabiting Persia.

[260] That is, that the Phœnicians and Sidonians dwelling around the Persian Gulf are colonies from those inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean.

[261] As to this fact, upon which almost all geographers are agreed, it is only rejected by Strabo because it stands in the way of his hypothesis.

[262] Half men, half dogs.

[263] Long-headed men.

[264] A celebrated poet who flourished about seven centuries before the Christian era, said to have been a native of Sardis in Lydia. Only three short fragments of his writings are known to be in existence.

[265] Men who covered themselves with their feet.

[266] Dog-headed men.

[267] People having their eyes in their breasts.

[268] One-eyed.

[269] The Strait of Messina.

[270] For thrice in a day she sends it out, and thrice she sucks it in. Odyssey xii. 105.

[271] For thrice in a day she sends it out, and thrice she sucks it in terribly. Mayest thou not come hither when she is gulping it; for not even Neptune could free thee from ill. Odyssey xii. 105.

[272] She gulped up the briny water of the sea; but I, raised on high to the lofty fig-tree, held clinging to it, as a bat. Odyssey xii. 431.

[273] Odyssey v. 306.

[274] Iliad viii. 488.

[275] Iliad iii. 363.

[276] But I held without ceasing, until she vomited out again the mast and keel; and it came late to me wishing for it: as late as a man has risen from the forum to go to supper, adjudging many contests of disputing youths, so late these planks appeared from Charybdis. Odyssey xii. 437.

[277] Gaudus, the little island of Gozo near Malta, supposed by Callimachus to have been the Isle of Calypso.

[278] It seems more probable that Callimachus intended the island of Corsura, now Pantalaria, a small island between Africa and Sicily.

[279] The Atlantic.

[280] A river of Colchis, hodie Fasz or Rion.

[281] Cybele, so named because she had a temple on Mount Ida.

[282] An island in the Ægæan, now Meteline.

[283] Hodie Lemno or Stalimene.

[284] Euneos was the eldest of the children which Hypsipyle, daughter of Thoas, king of Lemnos, had by Jason during his stay in that island.

[285] A town situated at the bottom of the Pelasgic Gulf, hodie Volo.

[286] A country of Thessaly, which received its designation of Achæan, from the same sovereign who left his name to Achaia in Peloponnesus.

[287] Eumelus, whom Alcestis, divine amongst women, most beautiful in form of the daughters of Pelias, brought forth to Admetus. Iliad ii. 714.

[288] Named Ideessa in the time of Strabo. Strabo, book xi. c. ii. § 18.

[289] Sinub.

[290] Candia.

[291] Hodie The Isle of Nanfio.

[292] Now the Island of Callistè, founded by Theras the Lacedæmonian more than ten centuries before the Christian era.

[293] A name of Thessaly.

[294] The Gulf of Venice.

[295] The erroneous opinion that one of the mouths of the Danube emptied itself into the Adriatic is very ancient, being spoken of by Aristotle as a well-known fact, and likewise supported by Theopompus, Hipparchus, and many other writers.

[296] Odyssey x. 137.

[297] Odyssey xii. 70.

[298] Antiphanes of Berga, a city of Thrace. This writer was so noted for his falsehoods, that βεργαίζειν came to be a proverbial term for designating that vice.

[299] Thirty years before the time of this Damastes, Herodotus had demonstrated to the Greeks the real nature of the Arabian Gulf.

[300] This river, called by the Turks Karasu, rises somewhere in Mount Taurus, and before emptying itself into the sea, runs through Tarsus.

[301] The Ab-Zal of oriental writers.

[302] The ancient capital of the kings of Persia, now Schuss.

[303] The very idea that Diotimus could sail from the Cydnus into the Euphrates is most absurd, since, besides the distance between the two rivers, they are separated by lofty mountain-ridges.

[304] Now the Bay of Ajazzo.

[305] Iskuriah.

[306] Gosselin justly remarks that this is a mere disputing about terms, since, though it is true the Mediterranean and Euxine flow into each other, it is fully admissible to describe them as separate. The same authority proves that we ought to read 3600 and not 3000 stadia, which he supposes to be a transcriber’s error.

[307] Castor and Pollux.

[308] Castor and Pollux were amongst the number of the Argonauts. On their return they destroyed the pirates who infested the seas of Greece and the Archipelago, and were in consequence worshipped by sailors as tutelary deities.

[309] The Phœnicians or Carthaginians despatched Hanno to found certain colonies on the western coast of Africa, about a thousand years before the Christian era.

[310] Strabo here follows the general belief that Æneas escaped to Italy after the sack of Troy, a fact clearly disproved by Homer, Iliad xx. 307, who states that the posterity of Æneas were in his time reigning at Troy. To this passage Strabo alludes in his 13th book, and, contrary to his general custom, hesitates whether to follow Homer’s authority or that of certain grammarians who had mutilated the passage in order to flatter the vanity of the Romans, who took pride in looking up to Æneas and the Trojans as their ancestors.

[311] Antenor having betrayed his Trojan countrymen was forced to fly. It is generally stated that, taking with him a party of the Heneti, (a people of Asia Minor close to the Euxine,) who had come to the assistance of Priam, he founded the city of Padua in Italy. From this people the district in which Padua is situated received the name of Henetia, afterwards Venetia or Venice.

[312] The coasts of Italy.

[313] It is generally admitted that the events of the Trojan war gave rise to numerous colonies.

[314] The word λιμνοθάλασσα frequently signifies a salt marsh. The French editors remark that it was a name given by the Greeks to lagoons mostly found in the vicinity of the sea, though entirely separated therefrom. Those which communicated with the sea were termed στομαλίμναι.

[315] See book xvii. c. iii.

[316] A country close upon the Euxine.

[317] The Strait of the Dardanelles.

[318] At the time of Diodorus Siculus, the people of the Isle of Samothracia preserved the tradition of an inundation caused by a sudden rising of the waters of the Mediterranean, which compelled the inhabitants to fly for refuge to the summits of the mountains; and long after, the fishermen’s nets used to be caught by columns, which, prior to the catastrophe, had adorned their edifices. It is said that the inundation originated in a rupture of the chain of mountains which enclosed the valley which has since become the Thracian Bosphorus or Strait of Constantinople, through which the waters of the Black Sea flow into the Mediterranean.

[319] Now Midjeh, in Roumelia, on the borders of the Black Sea. Strabo alludes rather to the banks surrounding Salmydessus than to the town itself.

[320] The part of Bulgaria next the sea, between Varna and the Danube, now Dobrudzie.

[321] Tineh.

[322] El-Kas.

[323] Lake Sebaket-Bardoil.

[324] Probably the present Maseli. Most likely the place was so named from the γέῤῥα, or wattled huts, of the troops stationed there to prevent the ingress of foreign armies into Egypt.

[325] This city of Calpe was near Mount Calpe, one of the Pillars of Hercules.

[326] Sea of Marmora.

[327] The Ægæan.

[328] Danube.

[329] Mingrelia.

[330] The river Fasz.

[331] Now Djanik.

[332] The river Thermeh.

[333] The Jekil-Irmak.

[334] Sidin, or Valisa, is comprised in the territory of Djanik, being part of the ancient kingdom of Pontus.

[335] The river Geihun.

[336] Gosselin remarks that the alluvial deposit of this river is now no nearer to Cyprus than it was at the time of the prediction.

[337] Cilicia and Cataonia are comprised in the modern Aladeuli.

[338] Iliad ix. 7.

[339] Being swollen it rises high around the projecting points, and spits from it the foam of the sea. Iliad iv. 425.

[340] The lofty shores resound, the wave being ejected [upon the beach]. Iliad xvii. 265.

[341] The word ὄργυια, here rendered fathoms, strictly means the length of the outstretched arms. As a measure of length it equals four πήχεις, or six feet one inch. Gosselin seems to doubt with reason whether they ever sounded such a depth as this would give, and proposes to compute it by a smaller stadium in use at the time of Herodotus, which would have the effect of diminishing the depth by almost one half.

[342] A city of Achaia near to the Gulf of Corinth. Pliny tells us it was submerged during an earthquake, about 371 years before the Christian era. According to Pausanias, it was a second time destroyed by the shock of an earthquake, but again rebuilt by the inhabitants who survived.

[343] A city placed by some in Thrace, but by others in Pontus; a more probable opinion seems to be that Bizone was in Lower Mœsia, on the western side of the Euxine. Pomponius Mela asserts that Bizone was entirely destroyed by an earthquake, but according to Strabo, (lib. vii.,) who places it about 40 stadia from the sea, it was only partially demolished.

[344] Ischia.

[345] We have here followed the earlier editions, as preferable to Kramer, who supplies μὴ before μαθηματικὸς.

[346] Demetrius Poliorcetes: the same intention is narrated by Pliny and other historians of Julius Cæsar, Caligula, and Nero.

[347] Kankri.

[348] Strait of Messina.

[349] The sea which washes the shores of Tuscany. Strabo applies the term to the whole sea from the mouth of the Arno to Sicily.

[350] Strait of Messina.

[351] Gosselin observes that Le Père Babin, who had carefully examined the currents of the Euripus of Chalcis, says that they are regular during eighteen or nineteen days of every month, the flux and reflux occurring twice in the twenty-four hours, and following the same laws as in the ocean; but from the ninth to the thirteenth, and from the twenty-first to the twenty-sixth, of each lunar month they become irregular, the flux occurring from twelve to fourteen times in the twenty-four hours, and the reflux as often.

[352] See Plutarch, de Plac. Philos. lib. i. c. 14, and Stobæus, Ecl. Phys. lib. i. c. 18.

[353] El-Kas.

[354] The Arabian Gulf. Mr. Stephenson, while examining the Temsah Lakes, anciently called the Bitter Lakes, discovered recent marine remains similar to those on the shores of the present sea, clearly showing that the basin of the Temsah Lakes was the head of the Arabian Gulf at a period geologically recent.

[355] We have here followed MSS. which all read συνελθούσης δὲ τῆς θαλάττης. The French editors propose συνενδούσης δὲ τῆς θαλάττης, with the sense of “but on the retiring of the Mediterranean,” &c.

[356] This accusation may not seem quite fair to the English reader. Touch is the nearest term in our language by which we can express the Greek συνάπτω, the use of which Strabo objects to in this passage; still the meaning of the English word is much too definite for the Greek.

[357] The Atlantic.

[358] Viz. the Mediterranean.

[359] The western part of the town of Corinth, situated in the sea of Crissa. Its modern name is Pelagio.

[360] Kankri.

[361] Viz. the temple of Jupiter Ammon, mentioned above.

[362] Gosselin remarks, Cyrene was founded 631 years before the Christian era, and at that time the limits of the Mediterranean were the same as they are now. Amongst the Greeks, dolphins were the ordinary symbols of the principal sea-port towns; and if the delegates from Cyrene set up this symbol of their country in the temple of Ammon, I see no reason why Eratosthenes and Strabo should regard the offering as a proof that the temple was on the sea-shore.

[363] We have thought it necessary, with the French translators, to insert these words, since although they are found in no MS. of Strabo, the argument which follows is clearly unintelligible without them.

[364] Hipparchus, believing that the Danube emptied itself by one mouth into the Euxine, and by another into the Adriatic Gulf, imagined that if the waters of the Mediterranean were raised in the manner proposed by Eratosthenes, the valley through which that river flows would have been submerged, and so formed a kind of strait by which the Euxine would have been connected to the Adriatic Gulf.

[365] The Lipari Islands.

[366] There is some mistake here. Strabo himself elsewhere tells us that the islands of Thera and Therasia were situated in the Ægæan Sea, near to the island of Nanfio.

[367] “Defending from danger.” More probably, in this instance, the Securer of Foundations.

[368] Egripo.

[369] This plain was near the city of Chalcis, which at the present day bears the same name as the island itself.

[370] And reached the two fair-flowing springs, where the two springs of the eddying Scamander rise. The one, indeed, flows with tepid water, and a steam arises from it around, as of burning fire; whilst the other flows forth in the summer time, like unto hail, or cold snow, or ice from water. Iliad xxii. 147.

[371] Tantalus lived about 1387, B. C.

[372] Lydia and Ionia form the modern provinces of Aidin and Sarukan in Anadoli. A part of the Troad still preserves the name of Troiaki.

[373] A mountain in Mæonia, close to the city of Magnesia.

[374] Ilus, who ascended the throne about 1400 years before the Christian era, founded the city, to which he gave the name of Ilium. The old city of Troy stood on a hill, and was safe from the inundation.

[375] These two cities were built on little islets adjoining the continent. Alexander connected them with the mainland by means of jetties. Clazomenæ was situated on the Gulf of Smyrna, near to a place now called Vurla or Burla. The present appellation of Tyre, on the coast of Phœnicia, is Sur.

[376] Tineh.

[377] El-Kas.

[378] Of Suez.

[379] That part of the Mediterranean adjoining Egypt.

[380] The Red Sea.

[381] The Red Sea and Mediterranean.

[382] Sta. Maura.

[383] Odyss. xxiv. 376.

[384] The island of Ortygia, now St. Marcian.

[385] Diakopton.

[386] Probably Bulika, according to others Trypia or Niora.

[387] Methone is the same town which Pausanias (l. ii. c. 32) names Methona, it was situated in the Argolis between Trœzene and Epidaurus. The above writer tells us that in the reign of Antigonus, son of Demetrius king of Macedonia, there was a breaking out of subterranean fires close to Methona. This event, which it is probable Strabo alludes to, occurred some where between the years 277 and 244, before the Christian era. The town still exists under its ancient name of Methona.

[388] An error in all the MSS. The Saronic Gulf is intended.

[389] Vide Strabo, b. ix. c. ii. § 34, 35.

[390] In Bœotia.

[391] The Second Iliad, or Catalogue of Ships.

[392] And those who inhabited grape-clustered Arne, and those [who inhabited] Mideia. Iliad ii. 507.

[393] This Thracian lake or lagoon is now called Burum. It is formed by the mouths of several rivers, and lies to the north of the isle of Thaso.

[394] Diaskillo, al. Biga.

[395] These are certain little islands at the mouth of the river Achelous, the modern Aspro-potamo, which formed the boundary between Acarnania and Ætolia. Now Curzolari.

[396] It is supposed we should here read Herodotus. Conf. Herod. ii. 10.

[397] Daskalio.

[398] Now there is a certain rocky island in the middle of the sea, between Ithaca and the rugged Samos, Asteris, not large; and in it there are havens fit for ships, with two entrances. Odyssey iv. 844.

[399] That is to say, the territory opposite Issa; probably the ruins near to Kalas Limenaias.

[400] The present island of Metelino.

[401] Ἡ δὲ Ἄντισσα νῆσος ἦν πρότερον, ὡς Μυρσίλος φησί· τῆς [δὲ] Λέσβου καλουμένης πρότερον Ἴσσης, καὶ τὴν νῆσον Ἄντισσαν καλεῖσθαι συνέβη. Our rendering of this passage, though rather free, seemed necessary to the clear explication of the Greek.

[402] Procita.

[403] Ischia.

[404] Miseno, the northern cape of the Gulf of Naples.

[405] Capri.

[406] Reggio.

[407] These two mountains are separated from each other by the river Penæus.

[408] Ῥαγάς, a rent or chink. This town was sixty miles from Ecbatana; it was named by the Arabs Raï, and is now in ruins. It is the Rhages in Tobias.

[409] Certain mountain defiles, now called Firouz-Koh.

[410] A western promontory of Eubœa, called by the modern Greeks Kabo Lithari. The Lichadian Islands, which now bear the name of Litada, are close by.

[411] A city of Eubœa; hod. Dipso.

[412] In Eubœa, now Orio.

[413] Now Echino; belonged to Thessaly and was near the sea.

[414] Now Stillida; situated on the Bay of Zeitoun.

[415] A little town situated in a plain amongst the mountains. It received its name from a tradition that Hercules abode there during the time that the pyre on Mount Œta was being prepared, into which he cast himself.

[416] Lamia in Thessaly.

[417] A city of the Epi-Cnemidian Locrians in Achaia; its present name is Bondoniza.

[418] A town close to Scarpheia; its ruins are said to be still visible at Palaio Kastro.

[419] Now Agriomela or Ellada, a river descending from Mount Œta, and emptying itself into the Bay of Zeitoun.

[420] A torrent near Thronium; its present name is Boagrio.

[421] Three cities of the Opuntian Locrians; Cynus, the port of Opus, is now called Kyno.

[422] One of the principal cities of Phocis, near the river Cephissus; a little village called Leuta stands on the ancient site.

[423] Probably the Alpene in Locris mentioned by Herodotus.

[424] The modern Talanta.

[425] Egripo.

[426] The Western Iberians are the people who inhabited Spain, and were said to have removed into Eastern Iberia, a country situated in the centre of the isthmus which separates the Euxine from the Caspian Sea. The district is now called Carduel, and is a region of Georgia.

[427] The river Aras.

[428] The river Kur.

[429] The mountains which border Colchis or Mingrelia on the south.

[430] According to Herodotus, Sesostris was the only Egyptian monarch who ever reigned in Ethiopia. Pliny says he penetrated as far as the promontory of Mosylon.

[431] Veneti.

[432] A small people of Thessaly, who latterly dwelt near Mount Œta, which separated them from Ætolia and Phocis.

[433] A city and plain in Thessaly, near to Mount Ossa.

[434] A people of Macedon, at the time of Strabo dwelling north of the river Peneius.

[435] Few nations have wandered so far and wide as the Galatæ. We meet with them in Europe, Asia, and Africa, under the various names of Galatæ, Galatians, Gauls, and Kelts. Galatia, in Asia Minor, was settled by one of these hordes.

[436] There were many kings of Phrygia of this name.

[437] The text of Kramer follows most MSS. in reading “Kimmerians,” but he points it out as a manifest error; and refers to Herodotus i. 103.

[438] By Hyperboreans are meant people who dwelt beyond the point from whence the north wind proceeded: Hypernotii therefore should be those who lived beyond the point of the procession of the south wind. The remark of Herodotus will be found, lib. iv. § 36. It is simply this: Supposing Hyperboreans, there ought likewise to be Hypernotii.

[439] Those who exult over the misfortunes of their neighbours.

[440] Those who rejoice in others’ prosperity.

[441] Gosselin observes, that what Strabo here says, is in accordance with the geographical system of the ancients, who supposed that Africa did not extend as far as the equator. As they distinguished the continent situated in the northern from a continent which they believed to exist in the southern hemisphere, and which they styled the Antichthones, they called the wind, blowing from the neighbourhood of the equator, in the direction of the two poles, a south wind for either hemisphere. For example, if sailors should be brought to the equator by a north wind, and that same wind should continue to waft them on their course after having passed the line, it would no longer be called a north, but a south wind.

[442] According to Gosselin, this does not allude to the size of the whole earth, but merely that part of it which, according to the theory of the ancients, was alone habitable.

[443] Most probably Gherri in Sennaar.

[444] Eratosthenes supposed that Meroe, Alexandria, the Hellespont, and the mouth of the Borysthenes or Dnieper, were all under the same meridian.

[445] The Dardanelles.

[446] Iceland.

[447] This Island of the Egyptians is the same which Strabo elsewhere calls the Island of the Exiles, because it was inhabited by Egyptians who had revolted from Psammeticus, and established themselves in the island. Its exact situation is unknown.

[448] Ceylon.

[449] Ireland.

[450] France.

[451] Between the Rhine and Elbe.

[452] The latitudes of Marseilles and Constantinople differ by 2° 16′ 21″. Gosselin enters into a lengthened explanation on this subject, i. 158.

[453] Ireland.

[454] The eastern mouth of the Ganges.

[455] Cape St. Vincent.

[456] In the opinion of Strabo and Eratosthenes, the narrowest portion of India was measured by a line running direct from the eastern embouchure of the Ganges to the sources of the Indus, that is, the northern side of India bounded by the great chain of the Taurus.

[457] Cape Comorin is the farthest point on the eastern coast. Strabo probably uses the plural to indicate the capes generally, not confining himself to those which project a few leagues farther than the rest.

[458] The Euphrates at Thapsacus, the most frequented passage; hod. El-Der.

[459] The Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, now Thineh or Farameh.

[460] Close by Aboukir.

[461] Cape S. Mahé.

[462] Ushant.

[463] The text has τὸ πλέον, but we have followed the suggestions of the commentators in reading τὸ μὴ πλέον.

[464] It is remarkable that this is the same idea which led Columbus to the discovery of America, and gave to the islands off that continent the name of the West Indies.

[465] We have followed Kramer in reading δι’ Ἄθηνῶν, instead of the διὰ θινῶν of former editions.

[466] The Nile being thought to separate Africa from Asia, and the Tanais, or Don, Europe.

[467] The Red Sea.

[468] The name of the mouth of the lake Sirbonis or Sebaket-Bardoil, which opens into the Mediterranean. A line drawn from this embouchure to the bottom of the Arabian Gulf, would give the boundary between Africa and Asia.

[469] Places in Attica.

[470] Probably Thyros, a place situated close to the sea, just at the boundary of the two countries.

[471] Oropo, on the confines of Attica and Bœotia.

[472] Aristotle was the giver of this sage counsel.

[473] A people of Asia.

[474] The Strait of Messina.

[475] The Gulf of Aïas. The town of Aias has replaced Issus, at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean.

[476] The Mediterranean.

[477] That is, the Mediterranean on the coast of Syria.

[478] Strabo does not here mean the Caucasus or Balkan, but the mountains which stretch from Persia to Cochin China. At a later period the several chains were known to the Greeks by the names of Paropamisus, Emodi Montes, Imaus, &c.

[479] Samsun.

[480] Sinub.

[481] The great chain of the Taurus was supposed to occupy the whole breadth of Asia Minor, a space of 3000 stadia. Eratosthenes is here attempting to prove that these mountains occupy a like space in the north of India.

[482] Lit. to the equinoctial rising.

[483] Another designation of the Caspian.

[484] Balk.

[485] Read 18,100 stadia.

[486] i. e. The breadth of India.

[487] Literally, “estimate at so much,” referring to the estimate at the conclusion of § 2.

[488] Caucasus, in the north of India.

[489] By the term ἑῴα θάλαττα, rendered “eastern ocean,” we must understand Strabo to mean the Bay of Bengal.

[490] The Alexandrian.

[491] Seleucus Nicator and Antiochus Soter.

[492] The length of India is its measurement from west to east.

[493] Not Allahabad, as supposed by D’Anville, but Patelputer, or Pataliputra, near Patna.

[494] There would seem to be some omission here, although none of the MSS. have any blank space left to indicate it. Groskurd has been at considerable pains to supply what he thinks requisite to complete the sense, but in a matter so doubtful we deemed it a surer course to follow the Greek text as it stands.

[495] Thrace, now Roumelia.

[496] The situation of Illyria was on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Venice.

[497] Read 18,100 stadia.

[498] The mouth of the Dnieper.

[499] Hipparchus stated 3800 stadia, not 3700.

[500] Gosselin remarks that these 3700, or rather 3800 stadia, on proceeding from Marseilles, would reach the latitude of Paris, and that of the coasts in the neighbourhood of Tréguier. Eratosthenes and Hipparchus were out but 14′ and some seconds in their calculation of the latitude of Marseilles; but Strabo’s error touching the same amounted to 3° 43′ 28″ he consequently fixed the northern coasts of France at 45° 17′ 18″, which is about the latitude of the mouth of the Garonne.

[501] These 8800 stadia, at 700 to a degree, amount to 12° 34′ 17″ of latitude. This would be about the middle of Abyssinia.

[502] Ireland.

[503] The island of Ceylon.

[504] Viz. between its southern extremity and that of India.

[505] Strabo and Eratosthenes supposed the extremity of India farther south than Meroe; Hipparchus fixes it a little north of that city, at a distance of 12,600 stadia from the equator.

[506] These 30,000 stadia, added to the 12,600 of the preceding note, would place Bactria under 60° 51′ 26″ north latitude, which is more than 24 degrees too far north.

[507] Both Aria and Margiana are in the present Khorasan.

[508] This portion of the Taurus is called by the Indians Hindou Kho.

[509] This was the principal Greek liquid measure, and was 3-4ths of the medimnus, the chief dry measure. The Attic metretes was half as large again as the Roman Amphora quadrantal, and contained a little less than 7 gallons. Smith.

[510] The medimnus contained nearly 12 imperial gallons, or 1½ bushel. This was the Attic medimnus; the Æginetan and Ptolemaic was half as much again, or in the ratio of 3:2 to the Attic. Smith.

[511] Matiana was a province of Media on the frontiers of the present Kurdistan; Sacasena, a country of Armenia on the confines of Albania or Schirvan; Araxena, a province traversed by the river Araxes.

[512] Mount Argæus still preserves the name of Ardgeh. The part of the Taurus here alluded to is called Ardoxt Dag.

[513] Sinub.

[514] Samsoun.

[515] The Gihon of the oriental writers.

[516] The Caspian.

[517] Gosselin says, the Oxus, or Abi-amu, which now discharges itself into Lake Aral, anciently communicated with the Caspian.—The vessels carrying Indian merchandise used to come down the Oxus into the Caspian; they then steered along the southern coasts till they reached the mouth of the Cyrus; up this river they sailed to the sources of the Phasis, (the Fasch,) and so descended into the Black Sea and Mediterranean. About the middle of the 17th century the Russians endeavoured to re-open this ancient route, but this effort was unsuccessful.

[518] The north of France.

[519] At the time of Strabo France was covered with forests and stagnant water, which rendered its temperature damp and cold. It was not until after considerable drainage about the fourth century that the vine began to attain any perfection.

[520] The Crimea.

[521] The Strait of Zabache.

[522] Kertsch in the Crimea.

[523] Strabo is too fond of this kind of special pleading; before, in order to controvert Hipparchus, he estimated this distance at 3000 stadia; now he adds an additional thousand stadia in order to get a latitude which shall be the southern limit of the habitable earth.

[524] The Greek has Κιναμωμοφόρου Ἰνδικῆς. We have omitted the latter word altogether from the translation, as being a slip of the pen. Strabo certainly never supposed the Cinnamon Country to be any where in India.

[525] Ireland.

[526] Perhaps it may aid the reader in realizing these different reasonings if we give a summary of them in figures.

Strabo supposes that Hipparchus, reckoning from the equator to the limits of the inhabited earth,		8,800	stadia
should have fixed the southern extremity of India more to the north by		4,000
and the northern extremity of India, according to the measures of Deimachus, still more to the north by		30,000
		——
	Total	42,800
Now, Strabo adds, following Hipparchus, the northern shores of Keltica and the mouth of the Dnieper, are distant from the equator		34,000
Ierne, in a climate almost uninhabitable, was, according to Strabo’s own impression, situated to the north of Keltica		5,000
		——
		39,000
Then, according to Hipparchus, the habitable latitudes would extend still farther than Ierne by		3,800
		——
	Total	42,800

The great fertility of Bactriana, according to Strabo, appeared to be inconsistent with a position so far towards the north. In this he was correct.

[527] These 4000 stadia do not accord with the distances elsewhere propounded by Strabo. Possibly he had before him various charts constructed on different hypotheses, and made his computations not always from the same.

[528] Viz. 3800.

[529] Ireland.

[530] France.

[531] The astronomical cubit of the ancients equalled 2 degrees. It therefore follows that in the regions alluded to by Hipparchus, the sun at the winter solstice rose no higher than 18 degrees above the horizon. This would give a latitude of a little above 48 degrees. We afterwards find that Hipparchus placed the mouth of the Dnieper, and that part of France here alluded to, under 48° 29′ 19″, and we know that at this latitude, which is only 20′ 56″ different from that of Paris, there is no real night during the longest days of the summer.

[532] Read 7700.

[533] Lit., during the winter days, but the winter solstice is evidently intended.

[534] Read about 10,500. This correction is borne out by the astronomical indications added by Hipparchus.

[535] Strabo supposed the latitude of Ireland to be 52° 25′ 42″. Countries north of this he considered to be altogether uninhabitable on account of their inclemency.

[536] Equinoctial hours.

[537] Read 10,500, as above.

[538] Ireland.

[539] The equinoctial line.

[540] There is no doubt that the expressions which Deimachus appears to have used were correct. It seems that he wished to show that beyond the Indus the coasts of India, instead of running in a direction almost due east, as the Greeks imagined they did, sloped in a direction between the south and the north-east, which is correct enough. As Deimachus had resided at Palibothra, he had had an opportunity of obtaining more exact information relative to the form of India than that which was current at Alexandria. This seems the more certain, as Megasthenes, who had also lived at Palibothra, stated that by measuring India from the Caucasus to the southern extremity of the continent, you would obtain, not its length, as the Greeks imagined, but its breadth. These correct accounts were obstinately rejected by the speculative geographers of Alexandria, because they imagined a certain uninhabitable zone, into which India ought not to penetrate.

[541] The truth of these facts depends on the locality where the observations are made. In the time of Alexander the most southern of the seven principal stars which compose the Greater Bear had a declination of about 61 degrees, so that for all latitudes above 29 degrees, the Wain never set. Consequently if Deimachus were speaking of the aspect of the heavens as seen from the northern provinces of India, the Punjaub for instance, there was truth in his assertion, that the two Bears were never seen to set there, nor the shadows to fall in contrary directions. On the other hand, as Megasthenes appears to be speaking of the south of India, that is, of the peninsula situated entirely south of the tropic, it is certain that he was right in saying that the shadows cast by the sun fell sometimes towards the north, at others towards the south, and that accordingly, as we proceeded towards the south, the Bears would be seen to set. The whole of Ursa Major at that time set at 29 degrees, and our present polar star at 13 degrees. β of the Lesser Bear was at that time the most northern of the seven principal stars of that constellation, and set at 8° 45′. So that both Bears entirely disappeared beneath the horizon of Cape Comorin.

[542] This would be at Syene under the tropic.

[543] Small zones parallel to the equator; they were placed at such a distance from each other, that there might be half an hour’s difference between each on the longest day of summer. So by taking an observation on the longest day, you could determine the clima and consequently the position of a place. This was equivalent to observing the elevation of the pole. At the end of this second book Strabo enters into a long description of the climata.

[544] This observation, taken at the time of Hipparchus, would indicate a latitude of 16° 48′ 34.”

[545] Nearchus in speaking of the southern extremity of India, near Cape Comorin, was correct in the assertion that in his time the two Bears were there seen to set.

[546] Hipparchus fixed the latitude of Meroe at 16° 51′ 25″, and the extremity of India at 18°. In the time of Alexander, the Lesser Bear was not observed to set for either of these latitudes. Strabo therefore drew the conclusion, that if Hipparchus had adopted the opinion of Nearchus, he would have fixed the extremity of India south of Meroe, instead of north of that city.

[547] Now ruins, near Jerobolos, or Jerabees, the ancient Europus; not Decr or Deir.

[548] Probably the present Barena, a branch of the Taurus.

[549] This is rather free, but the text could not well otherwise be rendered intelligibly.

[550] σφραγίδας is the Greek word; for which section is a poor equivalent, but the best we believe the language affords.

[551] The name of a considerable portion of Asia.

[552] From Eratosthenes’ description of India, preserved by our author in his 15th book, we gather that he conceived the country to be something in the form of an irregular quadrilateral, having one right, two obtuse, and one acute angle, consequently none of its sides parallel to each other. On the whole Eratosthenes’ idea of the country was not near so exact as that of Megasthenes.

[553] The Caspian Gates are now known as the Strait of Firouz Koh.

[554] The ruins of Babylon, still called Babil, are on the Euphrates, near Hilleh. Susa is now Suz or Schuss, and not Schoster or Toster. The ruins of Persepolis remain, and may be seen near Istakar, Tchilminar, and Nakchi-Rustan.

[555] Between Thapsacus and Armenia.

[556] Karmelis.

[557] The Altun-Suyi, or River of Gold.

[558] Erbil.

[559] Hamedan.

[560] Viz. at the Gates of the Caspian.

[561] This ancient embouchure of the Euphrates is now known as Khor-Abdillah.

[562] Read 3300.

[563] Thought by Col. Rawlinson to be the Chal-i-Nimrud, usually supposed to mark the site of the Median wall of Xenophon.

[564] Situated on the Tigris.

[565] A line drawn from the frontiers of Carmania to Babylon would form with the meridian an angle of about 50°. One from the Caspian Gates to Thapsacus would form with the parallel merely an angle of about 30°.

[566] Namely, 1000 stadia, by the hypothesis of Hipparchus, or 800 according to Eratosthenes.

[567] Or second side.

[568] Hipparchus found by this operation that the distance from the parallel of Babylon to that of the mountains of Armenia was 6795 stadia.

[569] See Humboldt, Cosmos ii. p. 556, note, Bohn’s edition.

[570] Eratosthenes estimated 252,000 stadia for the circumference of the earth.

[571] Odyssey ix. 291; Iliad xxiv. 409.

[572] Strabo estimated the length of the continent at 70,000 stadia from Cape St. Vincent to Cape Comorin, and 29,300 stadia as its breadth.

[573] The ancient geographers often speak of these kind of resemblances. They have compared the whole habitable earth to a soldier’s cloak or mantle, as also the town of Alexandria, which they styled χλαμυδοειδές. Italy at one time to a leaf of parsley, at another to an oak-leaf. Sardinia to a human foot-print. The isle of Naxos to a vine-leaf. Cyprus to a sheep-skin; and the Black Sea to a Scythian bow, bent. The earliest coins of Peloponnesus, struck about 750 years before the Christian era, bear the impress of a tortoise, because that animal abounded on the shores, and the divisions and height of its shell were thought to offer some likeness to the territorial divisions of the little states of Peloponnesus and the mountain-ridges which run through the middle of that country. The Sicilians took for their symbol three thighs and legs, arranged in such an order that the bended knees might resemble the three capes of that island and its triangular form.

[574] The chain of the Taurus.

[575] The Indus.

[576] The Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.

[577] India.

[578] Viz. Indians.

[579] Ariana, or the nation of the Arians.

[580] By 800 stadia.

[581] Viz. of the Euphrates.

[582] Or Nineveh.

[583] Syria, properly so called, extended from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. Between the Euphrates and the Tigris lay Mesopotamia, and beyond the Tigris, Assyria. The whole of these countries formerly bore the name of Syria. The Hebrews denominated Mesopotamia, Syria of the Rivers. The name Assyria seems to be nothing more than Syria with the article prefixed. Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris.

[584] Mesene comprehends the low and sandy grounds traversed by the Euphrates, immediately before it discharges itself into the Persian Gulf.

[585] Tineh.

[586] Moadieh, near to Aboukir.

[587] Along the coasts of Egypt, past Palestine and Syria, to the recess of the Gulf of Issus, where Cilicia commences.

[588] Canopus, near to Aboukir.

[589] It was a mistake common to Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Strabo, to fancy that Rhodes and Alexandria were under the same meridian. The longitude of the two cities differs by 2° 22′ 45″.

[590] Due east.

[591] The following is a Resumé of the argument of Hipparchus, “The hypotenuse of the supposed triangle, or the line drawn from Babylon to the Caspian Gates being only 6700 stadia, would be necessarily shorter than either of the other sides, since the line from Babylon to the frontiers of Carmania is estimated by Eratosthenes at 9170, and that from the frontiers of Carmania to the Caspian Gates above 9000 stadia. The frontiers of Carmania would thus be east of the Caspian Gates, and Persia would consequently be comprised, not in the third, but in the second section of Eratosthenes, being east of the meridian of the Caspian Gates, which was the boundary of the two sections.” Strabo, in the text, points out the falsity of this argument.

[592] Viz. 6700 stadia.

[593] These two words, continues Hipparchus, are not in the text, but the argument is undoubtedly his.

[594] Cape Comorin.

[595] 400 stadia, allowing 700 to a degree, would give 34′ 17″ latitude. According to present astronomical calculations, the distance between the parallels of Rhodes and Athens is 1° 36′ 30″.

[596] Viz. 400 stadia, or 34′ 17″ of latitude.

[597] The difference of latitude between Thapsacus and Pelusium is about 4° 27′.

[598] The text here is evidently corrupt.

[599] Gosselin makes some sensible remarks on this section; we have endeavoured to render it accurately, but much fear that the true meaning of Strabo is now obscured by corruptions in the text.

[600] Moadieh, the mouth of the river close to Aboukir.

[601] Certain little islets at the mouth of the canal of Constantinople, in the Black Sea. These islands want about a degree and a quarter of being under the same meridian as Moadieh.

[602] Gosselin remarks, that the defile intended by Strabo, was probably the valley of the river Kur, or the ancient Cyrus, in Georgia; and by Mount Caspius we are to understand the high mountains of Georgia, whence the waters, which fall on one side into the Black Sea, and on the other into the Caspian, take their rise.

[603] Gosselin also observes, that on our charts this distance is about 8100 stadia of 700 to a degree. Consequently the difference between the meridian of Thapsacus and that of Mount Caspius is as much as 4° 45′, in place of the 300 stadia, or from 25′ to 26′ supposed by Hipparchus.

[604] On the contrary, Mount Caspius is east of the meridian of Thapsacus by about 2500 stadia, of 700 to a degree.

[605] Now Iskouriah. Dioscurias, however, is 800 stadia from the Phasis, of 700 to a degree.

[606] According to our improved charts, the distance from the meridian of the Cyaneæ to that of the Phasis is 6800 stadia, of 700 to a degree; from the Cyaneæ to Mount Caspius, 8080.

[607] The meridian of Mount Caspius is about 2625 stadia nearer the Caspian Gates than that of Thapsacus.

[608] μετὰ τὸν Πόντον, literally, after the Pontus.

[609] Gosselin observes, that Eratosthenes took a general view of the salient points of land that jutted into the Mediterranean, as some of the learned of our own time have done, when remarking that most of the continents terminated in capes, extending towards the south. The first promontory that Eratosthenes speaks of terminated in Cape Malea of the Peloponnesus, and comprised the whole of Greece; the Italian promontory likewise terminated Italy; the Ligurian promontory was reckoned to include all Spain, it terminated at Cape Tarifa, near to the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. As the Ligurians had obtained possession of a considerable portion of the coasts of France and Spain, that part of the Mediterranean which washes the shores of those countries was named the Ligurian Sea. It extended from the Arno to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is in accordance with this nomenclature that Eratosthenes called Cape Tarifa, which projects farthest into the Strait, the Ligurian promontory.

[610] Cape Colonna.

[611] Cape Malio, or St. Angelo.

[612] Strabo means the Saronic Gulf, now the Bay of Engia.

[613] The peninsula of Gallipoli by the Dardanelles.

[614] πρὸς τὸ Σούνιον. Strabo’s meaning is, that the entire space of sea, bounded on the north by the Thracian Chersonesus, and on the south by Sunium, or Cape Colonna, forms a kind of large gulf.

[615] Or Black Gulf; the Gulf of Saros.

[616] The Gulfs of Contessa, Monte-Santo, Cassandra, and Salonica.

[617] Durazzo, on the coast of Albania.

[618] The Gulf of Salonica.

[619] Read 13,500 stadia.

[620] It was an error alike shared in by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Strabo, that Alexandria and Rhodes were under the same meridian, notwithstanding the former of these cities is 2° 22′ 45″ east of the latter.

[621] This is an error peculiar to Eratosthenes. The meridians of Carthage and the Strait of Messina differ by 5° 45´.

[622] The Strait of Messina.

[623] Spain and France.

[624] The Getæ occupied the east of Moldavia and Bessarabia, between the Danube and the Dniester. The Bastarnæ inhabited the north of Moldavia and a part of the Ukraine.

[625] The Greek has simply, κατὰ τὴν ἠπειρῶτιν, in the continent, but Strabo, by this expression, only meant to designate those parts of the continent best known and nearest to the Greeks. The other countries, in regard to which he pleads for some indulgence to be shown to Eratosthenes, are equally in the same continent. Kramer and other editors suspect an error in the text here.

[626] According to Plutarch, both Thales and Pythagoras had divided the earth into five zones. Since Parmenides lived one hundred and fifty years after the first of these philosophers, he cannot be considered the author of this division. As Posidonius and Strabo estimated the breadth of the torrid zone at 8800 stadia, and Parmenides is said to have nearly doubled it, this would give 17,600 stadia, or 25° 8′ 34″, taking this at 25° it would appear that Parmenides extended the torrid zone one degree beyond the tropics.

[627] The Arctic Circles of the ancients were not the same as ours, but varied for every latitude. Aristotle limited the temperate zone to those countries which had the constellation of the crown in their Arctic Circle, the brilliant star of that constellation in his time had a northern declination of about 36° 30´, consequently he did not reckon that the temperate zone reached farther north or south than 53° and a half. We shall see that Strabo adopted much the same opinion, fixing the northern bounds of the habitable earth at 54° 25′ 42″. Gosselin.

[628] For the circumference.

[629] Viz. none for those who dwell under the equator, or at the poles.

[630] Strabo’s argument seems to be this. It matters but little that there may not be Arctic Circles for every latitude, since for the inhabitants of the temperate zone they do certainly exist, and these are the only people of whom we have any knowledge. But at the same time the objection is unanswerable, that as these circles differ in respect to various countries, it is quite impossible that they can fix uniformly the limits of the temperate zone.

[631] The polar circles, where the shadow, in the summer season, travels all round in the twenty-four hours.

[632] Those who live north and south of the tropics, or in the temperate zones, and at noon have a shadow only falling one way.

[633] Having at mid-day in alternate seasons the shadow falling north and south.

[634] Viz. Posidonius allowed for each of these small zones a breadth of about 30´, or 350 stadia, of 700 to a degree.

[635] A plant, the juice of which was used in food and medicine. Bentley supposes it to be the asa-fœtida, still much eaten as a relish in the East.

[636] Posidonius was here mistaken; witness the Niger, the Senegal, the Gambia, &c.

[637] The expression of Strabo is so concise as to leave it extremely doubtful whether or not he meant to include the human race in his statement. Looking at this passage, however, in connexion with another in the 15th Book, we are inclined to answer the question in the affirmative.

[638] Or living on fish, a name given by the Greek geographers to various tribes of barbarians; but it seems most frequently to a people of Gedrosia on the coast of the Arabian Gulf. It is probably to these that Strabo refers.

[639] Viz. the Heteroscii, or inhabitants of the temperate zones.

[640] The ancients named the people of southern Africa, Ethiopians; those of the north of Asia and Europe, Scythians; and those of the north-west of Europe, Kelts.

[641] That is, by arctic circles which differed in respect to various latitudes. See Book ii. chap. ii. § 2, p. 144.

[642] Viz. the partition of the earth into two hemispheres, by means of the equator.

[643] Gosselin concludes from this that Eratosthenes and Polybius gave to the earth the form of a spheroid flattened at the poles. Other philosophers supposed it was elongated at the poles, and flattened at the equator.

[644] Gosselin justly observes that this passage, which is so concise as to appear doubtful to some, is properly explained by a quotation from Geminus, which states the arguments adduced by Polybius for believing that there was a temperate region within the torrid zones.

[645] Strabo seems to confound the account (Herodotus iv. 44) of the expedition sent by Darius round southern Persia and Arabia with the circumnavigation of Libya, (Herod. iv. 42,) which Necho II. confided to the Phœnicians about 600 B. C., commanding them distinctly “to return to Egypt through the passage of the Pillars of Hercules.” See Humboldt’s Cosmos, ii. 488, note, Bohn’s edition.

[646] Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse, flourished towards the end of the fifth century before Christ.

[647] The ruins of this city still preserve the name of Cyzik. It was situated on the peninsula of Artaki, on the south of the Sea of Marmora.

[648] Games in honour of Proserpine, or Cora.

[649] Ptolemy VII., king of Egypt, also styled Euergetes II.; he is more commonly known by the surname of Physcon. His reign commenced B. C.170.

[650] The ancients believed that crystals consisted of water which had been frozen by excessive cold, and remained congealed for centuries. Vide Pliny, lib. xxxvii. c. 9.

[651] Cleopatra, besides being the wife, was also the niece of Ptolemy, being the offspring of his former wife, whom he had divorced, by her former marriage with Philometor.

[652] Ptolemy VIII. was nominally king, but his mother Cleopatra still held most of the real authority in her hands.

[653] Cadiz.

[654] Western Mauritania, the modern kingdom of Fez.

[655] This river is now named Lucos, and its mouth, which is about 30 leagues distant from Cadiz, is called Larais or Larache.

[656] Humboldt, Cosmos ii. 489, note, mentions the remains of a ship of the Red Sea having been brought to the coast of Crete by westerly currents.

[657] Pozzuolo, close by Naples.

[658] Gosselin observes, that this steady westerly wind, so far from carrying him towards India, would be entirely adverse to him in coasting along Africa, and doubling Cape Bojador; and infers from hence that Eudoxus never really went that expedition, and that Strabo himself was ignorant of the true position of Africa.

[659] A name common to many sovereigns of the different parts of Mauritania; the king Bogus, or Bocchus, here spoken of, governed the kingdom of Fez.

[660] Round Africa.

[661] A term by which incredible narrations were designated. It owes its origin to Antiphanes, a writer born at Bergè, a city of Thrace, and famous for trumping up false and auld-world stories. Βεργαΐζειν, was a proverbial and polite term for lying.

[662] The wall mentioned in Iliad, vii. 436, et seq. Gosselin says that in the time of Aristotle the commentators of the Iliad, having vainly sought for the ruins or other traces of the wall, the Philosopher came to the conclusion that the wall was altogether a fiction of Homer’s. Strabo speaks further on this subject in the 13th Book.

[663] As the above assertion is at variance with the statement of Strabo, in his 7th Book, concerning Posidonius’s views on this subject, it seems probable that the passage as it stands is corrupt. It is more likely Strabo wrote, “It is the opinion of Posidonius that the emigration of the Cimbrians and other kindred races from their native territory was not occasioned by an inundation of the sea, since their departure took place at various times.”

[664] Odyssey i. 23.

[665] Aratus, who lived about B. C.270, was the author of two Greek astronomical poems, called Φαινόμενα and Διοσημεία. It is from the former of these that the above quotation is taken. Aratus, Phænom. v. 61.

[666] Evemerus, or Euhemerus, a Sicilian author of the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors, and a native of Messina. He is said to have sailed down the Red Sea and round the southern coasts of Asia to a very great distance, until he came to an island called Panchæa. After his return from this voyage, he wrote a work entitled Ἱερὰ Ἀναγραφή, which consisted of at least nine books. The title of this “Sacred History,” as we may call it, was taken from the ἀναγραφαί, or the inscriptions on columns and walls, which existed in great numbers in the temples of Greece; and Euhemerus chose it, because he pretended to have derived his information from public documents of that kind, which he had discovered in his travels, especially in the island of Panchæa. The work contained accounts of the several gods, whom Euhemerus represented as having originally been men who had distinguished themselves either as warriors, kings, inventors, or benefactors of mankind, and who, after their death, were worshipped as gods by the grateful people. This book, which seems to have been written in a popular style, must have been very attractive; for all the fables of mythology were dressed up in it as so many true narratives; and many of the subsequent historians adopted his mode of dealing with myths, or at least followed in his track, as we find to be the case with Polybius and Dionysius. Vide Smith.

[667] Every one will observe, that this criticism of Strabo is entirely gratuitous and captious. Polybius cites Dicæarchus as a most credulous writer, but states that even he would not believe Pytheas: how then could so distinguished a writer as Eratosthenes put faith in his nonsense?

[668] On the contrary, the distance in a right line from Cape Tenarum, off the Peloponnesus, to the recess of the Adriatic Gulf, is only about half the distance from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars of Hercules. This mistake of Dicæarchus is a proof of the very slight acquaintance the Greeks could have had with the western portions of the Mediterranean in his time, about 320 years before the Christian era.

[669] Literally, “He assigns 3000 to the interval which stretches towards the Pillars as far as the Strait, and 7000 from the Strait to the Pillars.” The distance from Cape Tenarum to the Strait of Messina is in proportion to the distance from the Strait of Messina to Gibraltar, about 3 to 10, not 3 to 7, as given by Dicæarchus.

[670] That part of the Mediterranean which lies on the coast of Italy, from the mouth of the Arno to Naples.

[671] The sea which washes the western coast of Sardinia.

[672] Viz. from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars of Hercules.

[673] Santa Maura, an island in the Ionian Sea.

[674] Corfu.

[675] The mountains of Chimera, forming the Cape della Linguetta on the coast of Albania.

[676] The maritime portion of Liburnia, comprised between the coasts of Dalmatia and Istria. It is now comprehended in the district of Murlaka.

[677] In all 8250 stadia.

[678] Issus, now Aias, a town of Cilicia on the confines of Syria, famous for the battle between Alexander the Great and Darius, in consequence of which it was called Nicopolis.

[679] Salamoni.

[680] Cape Krio.

[681] Cape Passaro.

[682] Cape St. Vincent.

[683] Total 28,500 stadia.

[684] Spoken of by Polybius.

[685] The Gulf of Genoa.

[686] These measures are taken along the coast, in stadia of 700 to a degree. Of these, from Marseilles to Gibraltar there are 9300, and from the ancient promontory of Pyrenæum to Gibraltar 7380. Consequently the corrections of Polybius were neither inaccurate nor uncalled for.

[687] These 6000 stadia, taken in a direct line, are just the distance from Cape St. Vincent to the chain of the Pyrenees.

[688] Kelts.

[689] The rising of the sun in summer.

[690] The east.

[691] This is an error into which Strabo fell with most of the ancient geographers. The course of the Don certainly begins from the north, but afterwards it turns eastward, and then suddenly shifts to the west. So that its entire course as known in the time of Strabo, differed from the Palus Mæotis and Sea of Azof by about 9 degrees of longitude. Polybius is here more exact than Strabo.

[692] Palus Mæotis.

[693] This was the opinion of Theophanes of Mytilene, who followed Pompey in his expeditions to the East. The Caucasus here mentioned is that which bounds Georgia in the north, and from whence the modern river Kuban (the Vardanus of Pompey) takes its rise. This river does incline slightly to the north, and afterwards turns westward in its course to the Palus Mæotis. It is possible that some confusion between this river and the Don gave occasion to the belief that the latter rose in the Caucasus.

[694] Cape Malio, in the Morea. See also Humboldt’s Cosmos ii. 482.

[695] Cape Malio. Gosselin is of opinion that some omission has occurred in this passage, and proposes to substitute the following: “The two former of these Polybius describes in the same manner as Eratosthenes, but he subdivides the third. He comprehends within Cape Malea all the Peloponnesus; within Cape Sunium the whole of Greece, Illyria, and a part of Thrace.”

[696] Cape Colonna.

[697] The Strait of the Dardanelles.

[698] The Rock of Gibraltar.

[699] Cape St. Vincent.

[700] Cadiz.

[701] The Italian Promontory.

[702] The Gulf of Venice.

[703] Capo di Leuca.

[704] ἡ δὲ φυσικὴ ἀρετή τις. We learn from the work entitled De Placitis Philosophorum, commonly attributed to Plutarch, that the Stoics dignified with the name of ἀρεταὶ, the three sciences of Physics, Ethics, and Logic, Φυσικὴ, Ἠθικὴ, Λογικὴ. The exact meaning of ἀρετὴ in these instances it is impossible to give, and Strabo’s own explanation is perhaps the best that can be had; we have here rendered it, “perfect science,” for want of a better phrase.

[705] Φυσικοὶ.

[706] We have followed the suggestion of Gosselin in reading τῷ ὅλῳ, the whole, instead of τῷ πόλῳ, the pole, as in the text. Strabo having just previously stated that the axis of the earth was stationary, it does not seem probable that he would immediately after speak of the motion of the pole.

[707] Odyssey xi. 156, 157.

[708] From this point Strabo, strictly speaking, commences his exposition of the principles of Geography.

[709] Strabo supposed this circle at a distance of 38,100 stadia from the equator, or 54° 25′ 42″ of latitude.

[710] The whole of what follows to the end of the section is extremely embarrassing in the original; we must therefore claim the indulgence of the reader for any obscurity he may find in the translation.

[711] The Greeks, besides the division of the equator into 360 degrees, had also another method of dividing it into sixty portions or degrees.

[712] These 21,800 stadia would give to Alexandria a latitude of 31° 8′ 34″; according to modern calculation it is 31° 11′ 20″ of latitude. The following presents Strabo’s calculations of the latitude of the preceding places in a tabular form.

Names of places.	Particular Distance.	Total Distance.	Latitudes.
	Stadia.	Stadia.
Equator	0	0	0° 0′ 0″
Limits of the habitable earth	8800	8800	12° 34′ 17″
Meroe	3000	11800	16° 51′ 25″
Syene and the Tropic	5000	16800	24° 0′ 0″
Alexandria	5000	21800	31° 8′ 34″

[713] Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Strabo, all believed that the longitude of Rhodes was the same as that of Alexandria, although actually it is 2° 22′ 45″ west of that place. The coasts of Caria, Ionia, and the Troad incline considerably to the west, while Byzantium is about 3° east of the Troad, and the mouth of the Dnieper is above 3° 46′ east of Byzantium.

[714] The Roxolani inhabited the Ukraine. It has been thought that from these people the Russians derived their name.

[715] Strabo here alludes to Ireland, which he placed north of England, and believed to be the most northerly region fitted for the habitation of man. He gave it a latitude of 36,700 stadia, equivalent to 52° 25′ 42″, which answers to the southern portions of that island.

[716] The Sauromatæ, or Sarmatians, occupied the lands north of the sea of Azof on either side of the Don.

[717] The Scythians here spoken of dwelt between the Don and the Wolga; east of this last river were the Eastern Scythians, who were thought to occupy the whole north of Asia.

[718] The tropic being placed at 24° from the equator by Strabo, and most probably by Pytheas also, the latitude of Thule, according to the observation of this traveller, would be fixed at 66°, which corresponds with the north of Iceland.

[719] Hipparchus.

[720] Hipparchus placed Marseilles and Byzantium at 30,142 stadia, or 43° 3′ 38″ of latitude, and estimated the parallel for the centre of Britain at 33,942 stadia, or 48° 29′ 19″. Whereas Strabo only allowed for this latter 32,700 stadia, or 46° 42′ 51″.

[721] Viz. the 36° of latitude. The actual latitudes are as follow:

The Pillars of Hercules, or Strait of Gibraltar, 36°.
The Strait of Messina, 38° 12´.
Athens, 38° 5´.
The middle of the Isle of Rhodes, 36° 18´; and the city, 36° 28′ 30″.

[722] This mistake of Strabo caused the derangement in his chart of the whole contour of this portion of the Mediterranean, and falsifies the position of the surrounding districts.

[723] Strabo having allowed 25,400 stadia, or 36° 17′ 8″, for the latitude of Rhodes and the Strait of Messina, determined the latitude of Marseilles at 27,700 stadia, or 39° 34′ 17″; its real latitude being 43° 17′ 45″, as exactly stated by Pytheas.

[724] Or about 7°. The actual difference in latitude between Rhodes and Byzantium is 4° 32′ 54″.

[725] On the contrary, Marseilles is 2° 16′ 21″ north of Byzantium.

[726] 3800 stadia, or 5° 25′ 43″.

[727] The following is a tabular form of the latitudes as stated by Strabo:

	Stadia.	Latitude.
From the equator to Alexandria	21,800	31° 8′ 34″
From Alexandria to Rhodes, he computes in this instance 3600 stadia	25,400	36° 17′ 8″
From the parallel of Rhodes to Marseilles, about 2300 stadia	27,700	39° 34′ 17″
From the parallel of Rhodes to the bottom of the Galatic Gulf, 2500 stadia	27,700	39° 51′ 25″
From Marseilles to the northern extremity of Gaul, or the southern extremity of Britain, 3800 stadia	31,500	45° 0′ 0″
From Marseilles to the middle of Britain, 5000 stadia	32,700	46° 42′ 51″
From the northern extremity of Gaul to the parallel of the northern extremity of Britain, 2500 stadia	34,000	48° 34′ 17″
From the northern extremity of Gaul to Ierne, 5000 stadia	36,500	52° 8′ 34″
From the northern extremity of Britain to the limits of the habitable earth, 4000 stadia	38,000	54° 17′ 9″

[728] Namely, 29,300.

	Stadia.
From Rhodes to Byzantium Strabo estimated	4900
From Byzantium to the Dnieper	3800
	——
	8700
From the Dnieper to the northern limits of the habitable earth	4000
	——
	12,700
From Rhodes to the southern limits of the habitable earth	16,600
	——
	Total 29,300

[729] The artificial globe of 10 ft. diameter.

[730] Tuscany.

[731] Strabo was of Amasea, a city of Pontus, close to the Euxine. He travelled through Egypt and reached Philæ, which is about 100 stadia above Syene, the commencement of Ethiopia.

[732] The Getæ occupied a portion of present Moldavia; the Tyrigetæ were those of the Getæ who dwelt along the banks of the Tyras or Dniester.

[733] The Bastarnæ occupied the south and eastern portions of Poland.

[734] The Georgians of the present day.

[735] Corcan.

[736] The precise time when this writer lived is unknown. The work here referred to is also mentioned by Athenæus, xv. p. 682.

[737] Prefect of Egypt in the reign of Augustus. This expedition into Arabia completely failed, through the treachery of the guide, a Roman named Syllæus. A long account of it is given by Strabo in the 16th book. “It would be extremely interesting,” says Professor Schmitz, “to trace this expedition of Ælius Gallus into Arabia, but our knowledge of that country is as yet too scanty to enable us to identify the route as described by Strabo, who derived most of his information about Arabia from his friend Ælius Gallus.”

[738] Red Sea.

[739] Myos-hormos, Mouse’s Harbour, a sea-port of Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea. Arrian says that it was one of the most celebrated ports on this sea. It was chosen by Ptolemy Philadelphus for the convenience of commerce, in preference to Arsinoe or Suez, on account of the difficulty of navigating the western extremity of the gulf. It was called also Aphroditis Portus, or the Port of Venus. Its modern name is Suffange-el-Bahri, or “Sponge of the Sea.” Lemprière.

[740] Humboldt commends Strabo’s zeal in prosecuting his gigantic work, Cosmos ii. 557.

[741] The Gulf of Aïas.

[742] The Bay of Bengal.

[743] Strabo seems here to confound the parallel of Ierna with that of the northern limits of the habitable earth, although a little above, as we have seen, he determines these limits at 15,000 stadia north of Ierna.

[744] These narrowed extremities of the continent are, Spain on the west, terminated by Cape St. Vincent, and on the east the peninsula of India, terminated by Cape Comorin. This cape Strabo supposed was continued in an easterly direction, and thus formed the most eastern portion of Asia.

[745] The island of Ceylon.

[746] Strabo supposed the Hyrcanian or Caspian Sea communicated with the northern ocean.

[747] Cape St. Vincent.

[748] Cape St. Vincent is north of Cadiz by 30′ 30″, north of the Strait of Gibraltar, or Pillars of Hercules, by 1° 2′, south of the Strait of Messina by 1° 10′, and north of Rhodes by 33′ 30″.

[749] Casaubon conjectures that the words τὸν Κάνωβον originally occupied the space of the lacuna. The passage would then stand thus—From the coast of Cadiz and Iberia the star Canopus is said to have been formerly observed. Groskurd rejects this, and proposes to read τοὺς πλησιαιτάτους τοῦ Κανώβου ἀστέρας, “the stars nearest to Canopus.” But this too is not certain, and the passage is otherwise evidently corrupt.

[750] The most southern.

[751] Cape St. Vincent.

[752] The Artabri inhabited the country around Cape Finisterre.

[753] Principally contained in the modern kingdom of Portugal.

[754] The Scilly Islands off the Cornwall coast.

[755] We have long had the custom of tracing on every map the parallels of latitude and longitude at every degree, or every five or ten degrees, as the case may be. By means of these lines drawn at equal distances, the eye at once recognises the relative position of any place in the map. This method was not in use when Strabo wrote: at that time it was customary to draw a meridian or longitude, and a parallel of latitude, for every important place of which the position was considered as determined. This was certainly an obscure way of dividing the globe; nevertheless it is requisite to keep it in mind, in order that we may the more readily understand the general language of our geographer, who instead of simply stating the latitude and longitude of places, says such a place is situated under the same latitude, or about the same latitude, as such another place, &c. Ptolemy seems to have been the first who freed the study of geography from the confusion inseparable from the ancient method. He substituted tables easy of construction and amendment; where the position of each place was marked by isolated numbers, which denoted the exact latitude and longitude.

[756] Demosthenes, Philipp. III. edit. Reisk. t. i. p. 117, l. 22.—Demosthenes is here alluding to the cities which different Grecian colonies had founded in the maritime districts of Thrace. The principal of these was the opulent and populous city of Olynthus, which, together with others, was taken, and razed to its foundations, by Philip of Macedon. Olynthus has become famous through the three orations of Demosthenes, urging the Athenians to its succour.

[757] The Mediterranean.

[758] The entrance to the Arabian Gulf is about six or seven marine leagues, that of the Mediterranean two and three-fourths. The entrance to the Persian Gulf is seven or eight leagues in extent; while the Caspian, being a lake, has of course no outlet whatever.

[759] Mediterranean.

[760] Strabo here means the countries bordering the Mediterranean.

[761] Viz. the Mediterranean.

[762] The state of Genoa.

[763] The Gulf of Genoa.

[764] Vide Humboldt’s Cosmos, ii. 480.

[765] Corsica.

[766] Vento Tiene.

[767] Ponza.

[768] Elba.

[769] Saint Honorat.

[770] Ischia.

[771] Procida.

[772] Capri.

[773] A small island off the Capo della Licosa.

[774] The western side.

[775] Majorca and Minorca.

[776] Iviça.

[777] The island of Pantalaria.

[778] Al Djamur, at the entrance of the Gulf of Tunis.

[779] The Strait of Messina, and the strait separating Sicily and Cape Bona on the African coast.

[780] Of which Cyrene, now Curen, was the capital.

[781] The Gulf of Cabes.

[782] The Island of Gerbi.

[783] The Island of Kerkeni.

[784] Sidra, or Zalscho.

[785] Hesperides is the same city which the sovereigns of Alexandria afterwards called Berenice. It is the modern Bernic or Bengazi.

[786] Automala appears to have been situated on the most northern point of the Greater Syrtes, on the confines of a small gulf, near to a place called Tine, or the Marsh.

[787] Now Reggio, on the Strait of Messina, which was also sometimes called the Strait of Rhegium.

[788] These were the Epizephyrian Locrians, or dwellers near the promontory of Zephyrium. They were situated towards the extremity of Italy, near Rhegium. Traces of their city are seen at Motta di Bourzano on the eastern coast of Ulterior Calabria.

[789] Messina.

[790] Syragusa.

[791] Cape Passaro.

[792] The Gulf of Lepanto.

[793] Cape Leuca or Finisterre.

[794] The lower part of the Adriatic was designated the Ionian Gulf.

[795] The portion of Greece opposite Corfu.

[796] The Gulf of Arta.

[797] The Gulf of Venice.

[798] The Islands of Cherso and Ossero.

[799] Apparently the Curicta of Pliny and Ptolemy, corresponding to the island of Veglia.

[800] The Libyrnides are the islands of Arbo, Pago, Isola Longa, Coronata, &c., which border the coasts of ancient Liburnia, now Murlaka.

[801] Lissa.

[802] The Island of Traw.

[803] Curzola.

[804] Lesina.

[805] The Islands of Tremiti.

[806] From Cape Pachynus or Passaro to Cape Krio, the ancient Criu-metopon, on the western extremity of the Island of Crete, measures 4516 stadia of 700 to a degree.

[807] Corfu.

[808] Sibota, Sajades; certain small islands between Epirus and Corcyra.

[809] Cefalonia.

[810] Zante.

[811] The Curzolari Islands at the mouth of the Aspro-Potamo.

[812] The Gulf of Engia.

[813] A district of the Peloponnesus.

[814] A part of the modern Livadia.

[815] Cerigo.

[816] Poro, or Poros, near the little Island of Damala, and connected to it by a sand-bank.

[817] Egina or Engia.

[818] Koluri.

[819] Islands surrounding Delos.

[820] Egio-Pelago.

[821] The Gulf of Saros.

[822] The Dardanelles.

[823] The sea surrounding the Islands of Icaria and Carpathos, now Nikaria and Scarpanto.

[824] Stanko.

[825] Samo.

[826] Skio.

[827] Mytileni.

[828] Tenedo.

[829] Egripo, or Negropont.

[830] Skyro.

[831] Probably Piperi; others suppose it to be Skopelo or Pelagonesi.

[832] Stalimene.

[833] Thaso.

[834] Imbro.

[835] Samothraki.

[836] The distance from the southern coast of Crete to the northern shores of the Ægæan is just 4200 stadia, or 120 marine leagues.

[837] This is just the distance from Cape Colonna to Rhodes.

[838] Cape Colonna.

[839] The Gulf of Saloniki.

[840] Those of Kassandra, Monte-Santo, and Contessa.

[841] The peninsula of Gallipoli.

[842] Semenik, or according to others, Jalowa.

[843] Maïto, or according to others, Avido.

[844] Sea of Marmora.

[845] Karadje-Burun, the southern point of the Crimea.

[846] Kerempi-Burun.

[847] We should here read 1500 stadia. See French Translation, vol. i. p. 344, n. 3.

[848] The Euxine.

[849] Also called the Island of Achilles, and the Island of the Blessed, now Ilan-Adassi.

[850] The Strait of Zabache.

[851] The Sea of Marmora.

[852] The Island of Cyzicus was joined to the mainland by Alexander, and thus formed a peninsula, notwithstanding Strabo describes it as an island. Its present name is Artaki.

[853] The extent of the Ægæan amongst the ancients was the same as the Egio-Pelago, or Archipelago, with us. It was comprehended between the southern coasts of Crete, the western coasts of Peloponnesus, the southern coasts of Macedonia and Thrace, and the western borders of Asia Minor. Strabo however, in his description, seems to comprise under the name of the Ægæan not only those parts of the Mediterranean south of the meridian of Cape Matapan, but also the Propontis and the Euxine, as far as the mouth of the river Halys, now Kizil-Irmak. In this however he seems to be unique.

[854] This is just the distance, says Gosselin, from the northern part of Rhodes to Alexandria, but the route, instead of being from north to south, as supposed by the ancients, is S. S. W.

[855] Tarsous.

[856] Samsoun.

[857] Themiscyra, a town of Cappadocia at the mouth of the Thermodon, (now the Termeh,) belonging to the kingdom of the Amazons. The territories around it bore the same name. The plain is now comprehended in the modern Djanik.

[858] Kizil-Irmak.

[859] Lit. the before-mentioned parts of the sea on either side.

[860] Asia Minor, or Anadoli.

[861] The Sidra of the moderns.

[862] Iskouriah.

[863] The Gulf of Aïas.

[864] Samsoun.

[865] The ruins of this city are said to be called by the modern Greeks Φερνάκη or Πλατένα indiscriminately.

[866] Dwellers in waggons, or huts fixed on wheels for the purpose of transportation from one pasturage to another, as necessity might require.

[867] From Cape Gata in Granada to the borders of Asturias the distance is about 5000 stadia. But the greatest breadth of Spain is from Cape Gata to Cape Belem in Gallicia, which equals 5890 stadia of 700 to a degree.

[868] The Gulf of Lyon.

[869] The Gulf of Aquitaine or Gascony.

[870] The Cevennes.

[871] This ridge commences at the eastern part of the Pyrenees. Its ramifications extend to about Dijon.

[872] Genoa.

[873] The Romans gave to the whole of this country, which was peopled by a race of Keltic extraction, the name of Cisalpine Gaul, because situated on this side the Alps, with respect to them. France was designated Transalpine Gaul.

[874] The Tyrrhenian or Tuscan Sea commenced about the mouth of the Arno, and extended as far as Naples. The Ligurian Sea is the Gulf of Genoa. The Ausonian Sea, afterwards called the Sea of Sicily, washes the southern parts of Italy. The Adriatic Gulf, is the Gulf of Venice.

[875] The Getæ inhabited Moldavia. The Tyrigetæ, or Getæ of Tyras or the Dniester, dwelt on the banks of that river. The Bastarnæ inhabited the Ukraine. The Sarmatians, or Sauromatians, extended along either bank of the Don and the environs of the Sea of Azof, the ancient Palus Mæotis.

[876] Thrace and Macedonia form part of the modern Roumelia: Illyria comprehended Dalmatia, Bosnia, Croatia, &c.

[877] Cadiz.

[878] The Scilly Isles.

[879] Majorca and Minorca.

[880] Iviça, Formentera, Spalmador, &c. They were called Phœnician Islands, because the Carthaginians had sent out a colony thither 160 years after the founding of their city.

[881] Namely all the islands of the Ionian and Ægæan Seas, from Corfu to the Dardanelles.

[882] The Sea of Azof.

[883] The Bay of Bengal.

[884] The North.

[885] The Northern Ocean.

[886] The south.

[887] The Bay of Bengal.

[888] Sarmatian Mæotæ in the Greek text, but apparently incorrect.

[889] Inhabitants of Georgia.

[890] Inhabitants of Shirvan.

[891] The Scythians here alluded to are the Tartars of Kuban; the Achæans and Zygi are the modern Ziketi; the Heniochi are the Abkazeti.

[892] East of the Caspian.

[893] These Scythians are the Tartars of the Kharasm. The Hyrcanians are the inhabitants of Daghistan and the Corcan. The Parthians occupied the north of Khorasan; the Bactrians the country of Balk. The Sogdians inhabited Bukaria, where are Samarcand and the valley of Al-Sogd.

[894] Mingrelia.

[895] Cappadocia comprehended a portion of the modern Roum and Karamania between the Euphrates and the river Halys.

[896] Under this name Strabo included a portion of the kingdom of Pontus and other small tribes as far as Colchis.

[897] Now the Kizil-Irmak.

[898] The northern and western portions of Phrygia.

[899] Probably an interpolation.

[900] The mountaineers of Paropamisus were those who inhabited the mountains which separate Bactriana from India. The Parthians occupied the mountains north of the modern Khorasan. Under the name of Medians Strabo comprehends the various nations who inhabited the mountainous country between Parthia and Armenia. The Cilicians inhabited Aladeuli; the Lycaonian mountaineers the mountains which separate Karaman from Itch-iili; and the Pisidians the country of Hamid.

[901] The Bay of Bengal.

[902] Ceylon.

[903] The Arians inhabited Sigistan and a part of modern Persia. Strabo gave the name of Arians to all the people who occupied the portions of Asia comprised between the Indus and Persia, and between the chain of the Taurus and Gedrosia and Carmania. In after-times the designation of Arians was restricted to the inhabitants of the modern Khorasan. Gedrosia is Mekran; Carmania yet preserves the name of Kerman.

[904] Ancient Persia is the modern province of Fars, Pars, or Paras; our Persia being much more extensive than the ancient country designated by the same name.

[905] The Susians inhabited the modern Khosistan.

[906] The Babylonians occupied the present Irak-Arabi.

[907] Now al-Djezira.

[908] Viz. the Ethiopians occupying the territory from Syene to Abyssinia.

[909] The Troglodyte Arabians.

[910] The Cilicians occupied the modern Itch-iili and Aladeuli; the Trachiotæ or mountaineers, the former of these countries.

[911] Pamphylia is the modern Tekieh.

[912] Or Oases, according to the common spelling.

[913] That is to say, from Tunis to Gibraltar. The Maurusians, called by the Latins Mauritanians, occupied the present Algiers and Fez.

[914] Probably asa-fœtida.

[915] The Troglodytic extended along the western coast of the Arabian Gulf.

[916] The Ichthyophagi of Gedrosia inhabited the barren coasts of Mekran.

[917] The term of Ethiopians was a generic name given by the Greeks and Romans to the most southern inhabitants of Africa they at any time happened to be acquainted with; consequently the position of this country frequently shifted.

[918] The Garamantæ inhabited the Kawan; Garama, their capital, is now named Gherma. The Pharusians and Nigritæ dwelt south of the present kingdom of Morocco.

[919] The Marmaridæ extended west from Egypt, as far as Catabathmus, near the present Cape Luco.

[920] Viz. to the south and west.

[921] The Gulfs of Sydra and Cabes.

[922] The Psylli and Nasamones inhabited the eastern parts of the present kingdom of Tripoli, above the Greater Syrtes and the desert of Barca.

[923] The Asbystæ were a people of Libya above Cyrene, where the temple of Ammon stood; Jupiter is sometimes called on that account Asbysteus.

[924] The Byzacii occupied the southern parts of the kingdom of Tunis.

[925] Greek, Nomades, or wandering shepherds, from which the Latins formed the name Numidæ. These people inhabited Algiers.

[926] Carthage extended as far west as the promontory of Tretum, now Sebta-Ras or the Seven Heads. From thence the Masylies inhabited as far as Cape Carbon; and from thence the Masæsylii possessed the country as far as the river Molochath, now the Maluia, beyond which were the Maurusians extending to the Atlantic.

[927] Numidae.

[928] The climata are zones parallel to the equator. The ancients generally reckoned seven climata, which in the time of Hipparchus terminated at 48° 30′ 35″, where the longest day consisted of sixteen hours. He however multiplied these divisions and extended them farther towards the poles. It is a great pity that Strabo has not noted all of them.

[929] According to Strabo, 12° 34′ 17″.

[930] According to Strabo, 52° 25′ 42″.

[931] Now Gherri, on the banks of the Nile.

[932] i. e. they are the most southern of those for whom, &c.

[933] Bab-el-Mandeb, The Gate of Tears.

[934] The east.

[935] The west.

[936] This passage proves that in Strabo’s opinion the continent of Africa did not extend so far south as the equator.

[937] This town was sometimes called Ptolemais Epitheras, having been built by Eumedes in the reign of Philadelphus for the chase of elephants and other wild animals.

[938] On the west.

[939] The east.

[940] About Cape Comorin.

[941] The east.

[942] The west.

[943] Kramer follows Gosselin in proposing to substitute τρία in place of ἑπτά.

[944] The west side.

[945] Algiers and Fez.

[946] The eastern side.

[947] Lower Egypt is intended.

[948] Khosistan.

[949] The modern province of Fars.

[950] Kerman.

[951] Upper Mekran.

[952] S. Jean d’Acre.

[953] Seide.

[954] Tsur.

[955] Eksenide.

[956] Siragusa.

[957] Caria occupied the southern and western parts of Anadoli, near the Island of Rhodes. Lycaonia formed a part of the modern Karaman. Cataonia was comprised in Aladeuli. Media is now Irak-Adjami. The Caspian Gates are the defiles of Firouz-Koh.

[958] Eski-Stambul.

[959] Emboli or Jamboli.

[960] Polina.

[961] Isnik.

[962] Eksemil.

[963] Karasi in Anadoli.

[964] Sinoub.

[965] Corcan and Daghistan.

[966] Balk.

[967] To the north.

[968] Or 17° 30´. This would indicate a latitude of 48° 38′ 40″.

[969] The astronomical cubit was equal to two degrees.

[970] Read 23,100.

[971] The northern extremity of the Hellespont.

[972] Κόσμος, the universe.

[973] The pole of the ecliptic.

[974] The neck, &c.

[975] The Pyrenees, on the contrary, range from east to west, with a slight inclination towards the north. This error gives occasion to several of the mistakes made by Strabo respecting the course of certain of the rivers in France.

[976] France.

[977] The Gulfs of Lyons and Gascony.

[978] Gosselin remarks that the distance between S. Jean de Luz and Tarragona, is rather less than that between Bayonne and Narbonne.

[979] The Atlantic.

[980] Cape St. Vincent.

[981] Cape Finisterre.

[982] Africa.

[983] The Mauritanians.

[984] Cape St. Vincent.

[985] Cape St. Vincent is about 1600 stadia west of Cape Spartel in Africa. Strabo imagined that beyond this cape the African coast inclined to the south-east. In reality it advances eleven degrees and a half farther west to Cape Verd, which is 8° 29′ west of Cape St. Vincent.

[986] Herodotus is the first who speaks of a people of Iberia, to whom he gives the name of Κυνήσιοι or Κύνητες: he describes them as inhabiting the most western part of Europe, beyond the Pillars of Hercules.

[987] This passage of Strabo relative to the rocking-stones has occasioned much perplexity to the critics. We have attempted to render the Greek words as near as possible. Many curious facts relative to rocking and amber stones have been collected, by Jabez Allies, F. S. A., in his work on the Antiquities of Worcestershire, now in the press.

[988] We extract the following notice on this passage from Humboldt (Cosmos, vol. iii. 54, Bohn’s edition). “This passage has recently been pronounced corrupt, (Kramer i. 211,) and δι’ ὑάλων (through glass spheres) substituted for δι’ αὐλῶν (Schneider, Eclog. Phys. ii. 273). The magnifying power of hollow glass spheres, filled with water, (Seneca i. 6,) was, indeed, as familiar to the ancients as the action of burning glasses or crystals, (Aristoph. Nub. v. 765,) and that of Nero’s emerald (Plin. xxxvii. 5); but these spheres most assuredly could not have been employed as astronomical measuring instruments. (Compare Cosmos i. p. 619.) Solar altitudes taken through thin light clouds, or through volcanic vapours, exhibit no trace of the influence of refraction.”

[989] Cadiz.

[990] Cape St. Vincent.

[991] Ἄνας.

[992] The Tagus, the Guadiana, and the Guadalquiver, pursue a course nearly parallel to each other, and all incline towards the south before discharging themselves into the sea; the inclination of the Tagus is not equal to that of the other rivers.

[993] Lusitania occupied the greater part of the present kingdom of Portugal. It was from the countries north of the Tagus that the Romans caused certain of the inhabitants to emigrate to the south side of that river.

[994] The Carpetani occupied a portion of New Castile, where the cities of Madrid, Toledo, &c. are now situated.

[995] These people inhabited the southern portions of New Castile, now occupied by the cities of Calatrava, Ciudad-real, Alcaraz, &c. They also possessed a part of the Sierra-Morena.

[996] The Vettones inhabited that part of Estremadura, where the cities of Alcantara, Truxillo, &c. are now situated.

[997] Bætis.

[998] Anas.

[999] The course of the Guadiana is longer than that of the Guadalquiver.

[1000] Viz. Turdetania.

[1001] The mountainous country in which the Guadalquiver takes its source.

[1002] The rock of Gibraltar.

[1003] This Timosthenes was the admiral of Ptolemy II. Strabo mentions him repeatedly.

[1004] The place on which this town formerly stood is now designated Val de Vacca.

[1005] Rio Barbate.

[1006] Now Azzila.

[1007] Called by Pliny and Ptolemy Julia Transducta. It appears to have been situated at the western entrance of the Bay of Gibraltar, at the place now called Al-Gesira.

[1008] Cadiz.

[1009] An Athenian king, who led the Athenians against Troy. The port of Menestheus is now Puerto Sta. Maria.

[1010] Hodie Lebrixa.

[1011] Bætis.

[1012] At or near the port of Menestheus, just mentioned.

[1013] Quintus Servilius Cæpio, a famous Roman general. Vide lib. iv. c. i. § 13.

[1014] This city is not to be confounded with others of the same name in Spain.

[1015] Strabo is the only writer who speaks of this temple of Phosphorus. It was no doubt a temple to Diana, who was named Ἄρτεμις Φωσφόρος. This temple, according to the Spanish authors quoted by Lopez in his translation of Strabo, corresponds to the present San-Lucar de Barrameda.

[1016] Strabo here gives the Latin Lucem dubiam in Greek characters, Λοῦκεμ δουβίαν.

[1017] The Guadiana at the present day has but one mouth.

[1018] Cape St. Vincent.

[1019] Cadiz.

[1020] Anas.

[1021] Bætis.

[1022] Cordova, situated on the Guadalquiver in Andalusia. We do not know whether it were founded by the Marcellus who was prætor in Thither Iberia, and created consul in the year of Rome 601, or Marcellus who joined Pompey’s party against Cæsar. This city served for the winter quarters of the Romans, who during summer made war on the inhabitants of the western and northern parts of Spain. It was the native place of the two Senecas and Lucan, and the chief emporium of Iberia. We may form some idea of the amount of its population from the number of those who perished when taken by Cæsar, as narrated by Hirtius, Spanish War, § 34. But the period in which Cordova’s glory was at its zenith was during the empire of the Moors, in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, when it numbered 300,000 inhabitants.

[1023] Cadiz.

[1024] Seville. This city was surnamed Julia Romulensis. It was founded by Cæsar, and regarded as the second city of the province, although, as we see, in the time of Strabo it was only third-rate.

[1025] Strabo is the only writer who mentions this city of Bætis. Casaubon and others are inclined to the opinion that the MSS. are corrupted, and that formerly another name stood here.

[1026] This city, the native place of the emperors Trajan and Adrian, and the poet Silius Italicus, was founded by Publius Scipio in the second Punic war, who placed here the soldiers incapacitated from the performance of military service. It is supposed to correspond to Sevilla la Vieja, about a league distant from Seville.

[1027] The Ilipa Ilia of Pliny and Illipula Magna of Ptolemy. Its exact position is not determined.

[1028] Hodie Ecija on the Xenil.

[1029] Carmona.

[1030] Monda, seven leagues west of Malaga.

[1031] Osuna.

[1032] Hodie Martos, Pliny gave it the surname of Augusta Gemella.

[1033] The Itucci of Pliny, to which he gives the surname Virtus Julia.

[1034] We should probably read 430.

[1035] Kramer, using the criticism of Lachmann, observes that this is a misreading for Midaium, and that a like mistake occurs in Appian.

[1036] Furnius and Titius.

[1037] In Lusitania.

[1038] About the spot where this city is supposed to have stood, between Xerez and Tribugena, there is still a place called Mesa de Asta.

[1039] Strabo uses ὁλκάσιν ἀξιολόγοις, but the English hulk would not bear the same import in this place as the Greek.

[1040] Bætis.

[1041] Cotillas, or perhaps Constantina near Almaden.

[1042] Anas.

[1043] Experience does not seem to warrant this conclusion.

[1044] Cape St. Vincent.

[1045] Of Gibraltar.

[1046] Cape St. Vincent.

[1047] The text here is evidently corrupt, but it is not easy to determine to what extent the overflow reached at the time Strabo wrote.

[1048] Lebrixa.

[1049] Gibraleon.

[1050] Spain.

[1051] οἱ Εὖροι.

[1052] Majorca and Minorca.

[1053] In his third book, Strabo, speaking of Campania, regards the oil of Venafrum as superior to any other. In this he agrees with Pliny, who places in the second class the oils of Bætica and Istria. Pausanias considers these two oils, both for beauty of colour and excellence of flavour, inferior to that produced at Tithorea in Phocis, and which was sent to Rome for the service of the emperor’s table.

[1054] Coccus tinctorius, used to dye scarlet.

[1055] Sinoub, still a Turkish city of importance.

[1056] A people inhabiting the western parts of the Caucasus.

[1057] This name occurs only in Strabo: of the various conjectures which have been hazarded on the subject, one of the most probable seems to be that we should read Saltigetæ, a people of Bastetania, mentioned by Ptolemy.

[1058] These were evidently rabbits.

[1059] Spain.

[1060] Majorca and Minorca.

[1061] According to Pliny, (lib. viii. c. 55,) this deputation was sent to Augustus to demand of him a military force, apparently for the purpose of assisting the inhabitants in destroying the rabbits. The same writer has brought together a variety of instances in which cities have been abandoned or destroyed through similar causes. Vide lib. viii. c. 29. The inhabitants of Abdera in Thrace were forced to quit their city on account of the rats and frogs, and settled on the frontiers of Macedonia. (Justin. lib. xv. c. 2.)

[1062] Ferrets.

[1063] Pozzuolo.

[1064] We have here followed Gosselin’s suggestion of λιμνασίαν instead of γυμνασίαν, the reading of MSS.

[1065] A kind of whale, mentioned also by Aristotle, but which does not seem to have been identified.

[1066] The Mediterranean.

[1067] A kind of shell-fish with a wreathed shell, which might be used as a sort of trumpet. It is mentioned by Aristotle.

[1068] The cotyla held about three-fourths of a pint.

[1069] This weight equalled 15 oz. 83-3/4 grs.

[1070] The Euboic or Attic talent, which is here meant, equalled almost 57 lb.

[1071] A kind of cuttle-fish or squid.

[1072] Sardinia.

[1073] Turdetania.

[1074] The mineral riches of Spain are lauded in equal terms by Herodotus, Aristotle, Pliny, and many other writers. We can only remark, that at the present day the mineral wealth of that country scarcely justifies such descriptions.

[1075] The Cevennes.

[1076] Pliny, (lib. xxxiii. c. 4,) writing on the same subject, says, “Inveniuntur ita massæ; necnon in puteis etiam denas excedentes libras. Palacras Hispani, alii palacranas, iidem quod minutum est balucem vocant.”

[1077] This passage is evidently corrupt, nor do any of the readings which have been proposed seem to clear up the difficulties which it presents.

[1078] Archimedes’ Screw. It was called the Egyptian screw because invented by Archimedes when in Egypt, and also because it was much employed by the Egyptians in raising water from the Nile for the irrigation of their lands.

[1079] We read τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν, according to Kramer’s suggestion.

[1080] The following is the enigma alluded to. We have extracted it from Mackenzie’s Translation of the Life of Homer, attributed to Herodotus of Halicarnassius. While the sailors and the towns-people of the Isle of Ios (Nio) were speaking with Homer, some fishermen’s children ran their vessel on shore, and descending to the sands, addressed these words to the assembled persons: “Hear us, strangers, explain our riddle if ye can.” Then some of those who were present ordered them to speak. “We leave,” say they, “what we take, and we carry with us that we cannot take.” No one being able to solve the enigma, they thus expounded it. “Having had an unproductive fishery,” say they in explanation, “we sat down on the sand, and being annoyed by the vermin, left the fish we had taken on the shore, taking with us the vermin we could not catch.”

[1081] These people inhabited the province of Gallicia in Spain.

[1082] Carthagena.

[1083] Caslona.

[1084] Bætis.

[1085] The Sierra Cazorla.

[1086] Anas.

[1087] These 900 stadia are equal to from 25 to 26 leagues, which is exactly the distance from the sources of the Guadalquiver near to Cazorla to the lagoons named Ojos de Guadiana, adjacent to Villa-Harta.

[1088] Cadiz.

[1089] A Greek poet born at Himera in Sicily, and who flourished about B. C.570: he lived in the time of Phalaris, and was contemporary with Sappho, Alcæus, and Pittacus.

[1090] The rock of Gibraltar.

[1091] Cape St. Vincent.

[1092] Cadiz.

[1093] This is exactly the distance from Cadiz to Cape St. Vincent, following the coasts. It is from 48 to 49 leagues.

[1094] Gaul.

[1095] The bright light of the sun fell into the ocean, drawing dark night over the fruitful earth. Iliad viii. 485.

[1096] Wandering rocks.

[1097] Entwining or conflicting rocks. Euripides, Medea, verse 2, gives them the title of Symplegades.

[1098] Gibraltar.

[1099] The Strait of Messina.

[1100] Ulisipo or Lisbon.

[1101] A proverbial expression by which the Greeks described a victory equally prejudicial to the victors and the vanquished.

[1102] But still it would be disgraceful to remain here so long, and to return home without fitting booty. Iliad ii. 298.

[1103] We should probably here read Menestheus.

[1104] But the immortals will send you to the Elysian plain, and the boundaries of the earth, where is auburn-haired Rhadamanthus; there of a truth is the most easy life for men. There is nor snow nor long winter, nor ever a shower, but ever does the ocean send forth the gently blowing breezes of the west wind to refresh men. Odyssey iv. 563.

[1105] There then I beheld Minos, the illustrious son of Jove, having a golden sceptre, giving laws to the dead. Odyssey xi. 567. Bohn’s edition.

[1106] The Canary Islands.

[1107] Hamilcar, the father of Hannibal.

[1108] We have preferred, in common with the French translation, and the manuscript cited by Xylander, to read φιάλαις, instead of φάτναις, thinking it probable that Strabo referred in the first instance to the drinking vessels, and afterwards to the wine barrels, as being made of silver.

[1109] Herodotus, who wrote about a century after the time of Anacreon, expressly tells us that Arganthonius reigned during eighty years, and lived one hundred and twenty (l. i. c. 163). Cicero, Valerius Maximus, and Pliny report the same, apparently on the testimony of Herodotus. Lucian, Phlegon, and Appian however state the life of Arganthonius at one hundred and fifty years; and what is remarkable, the two former, Lucian and Phlegon, cite as their authority Anacreon and Herodotus. Pliny, citing Anacreon, has taken the reign of one hundred and fifty years, mentioned by the poet, as a life of that duration. The passage of Strabo is evidently changed from its original form.

[1110] Of the number are Pomponius Mela and Pliny.

[1111] Bætis.

[1112] That is, been admitted to all the privileges of Roman citizenship. Pliny tells us that in Bætica alone there were thirty cities enjoying this distinction.

[1113] Beja in Alentejo: others, with less show of probability, say Badajoz the capital of Estremadura.

[1114] Merida.

[1115] Saragossa.

[1116] Cape St. Vincent.

[1117] Cape Espichel.

[1118] Coray reads two hundred and ten stadia, Groskurd and the French translators adopt 200; but the whole passage is so manifestly corrupt, that it scarcely seemed safe to hazard the correction.

[1119] The text is here very corrupt, and the explanations of the editors and translators unsatisfactory.

[1120] A city of Lusitania, hod. Al-Merim.

[1121] Literally towards the sunset at the equinox.

[1122] Anas.

[1123] Bætis.

[1124] Durius.

[1125] This city is not mentioned elsewhere in Strabo.

[1126] Caslona.

[1127] Oreto.

[1128] μυρίων καὶ τρισχιλίων, in text, but plainly the result of some error.

[1129] We have followed the suggestion of Kramer in the rendering of this passage, the Greek text being evidently corrupt.

[1130] Munda.

[1131] Vacua.

[1132] Durius.

[1133] A city situated near Soria in Old Castile.

[1134] Now the Lima.

[1135] Xylander and many of the commentators propose to read Ὀβλιουιῶνα, or Oblivion, in place of Βελιῶνα. The conjecture seems extremely probable.

[1136] The Minho of the present day.

[1137] The Minho is far surpassed in size, both by the Duero and the Tagus.

[1138] The text here is evidently incorrect. In the first place, the καὶ αὐτὸν, which we have rendered this too, evidently sustained some relation, no longer subsisting, to what preceded; and in the second, the sources of the Minho were not in Cantabria, but Gallicia.

[1139] Strabo here appears to confound the mouth of the Minho with a small bay about five leagues distant, near to the city of Bayona in Gallicia, and before which there is still the small island of Bayona.

[1140] Cape Finisterre.

[1141] Anas.

[1142] Limæa.

[1143] Or the river of Oblivion, apparently because they forgot to return to their own country.

[1144] A few of the MSS. read fifty, which number seems to be countenanced by the statement of Pliny, that forty-six nations inhabited Lusitania: but then the limits he set to the country were more extended than those allowed by Strabo.

[1145] The κούφος of the text signifies also a volatile disposition.

[1146] Some part of the sentence seems here to be wanting. It probably contained a description of the kind of sword made use of.

[1147] Durius.

[1148] This reminds one of the glibs the Irish used to wear down to a recent period.

[1149] This passage is not found in any of the odes of Pindar now remaining.

[1150] The French translators observe, that we should probably understand this passage as follows, They exercise themselves as light-armed infantry, heavy-armed infantry, cavalry, &c.

[1151] Xenophon describes this, or one very similar, as the Persian dance: Τέλος δὲ τὸ Περσικὸν ὠρχεῖτο, κροτῶν τὰς πέλτας· καὶ ὤκλαζε, καὶ ἐξανίστατο. “Last of all he danced the Persian dance, clashing his bucklers, and in dancing fell on his knees, then sprang up again.” Xen. Anab. b. vi. c. 1, 10.

[1152] This is said to distinguish them from their neighbours, the inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca, whose peculiar marriage ceremonies are thus described by Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. c. 18: Παράδοξον δέ τι καὶ κατὰ τοὺς γάμους νόμιμον παρ’ αὐτοῖς ἐστιν· ἐν γὰρ ταῖς κατὰ τοὺς γάμους εὐωχίαις, οἰκείων τε καὶ φίλων κατὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν ὁ πρῶτος ἀεὶ καὶ ὁ δεύτερος, καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ κατὰ τὸ ἑξῆς, μίσγονται ταῖς νύμφαις ἀνὰ μέρος, ἐσχάτου τοῦ νυμφίου τυγχάνοντος ταύτης τῆς τιμῆς.

[1153] The mention of Egyptians here seems surprising, inasmuch as no writer appears to have recorded this as one of their customs. Of the Assyrians it is stated, both by Herodotus, i. 197, and also by Strabo himself, xvi. cap. i. 746. It seems therefore most probable that Assyrians are intended, Egyptians being merely an error of the transcriber.

[1154] Inhabitants of Biscay.

[1155] People of Navarre.

[1156] Who the Pleutauri were, we do not know. The Bardyetæ appear to be the same people whom Strabo afterwards speaks of as Bardyiti, or Bardyali, who occupied a narrow slip of land between the east of Alava and the west of Navarre. The Allotriges Casaubon supposes to be the same as the Autrigones, who occupied the coast from Laredo to the Gulf of Bilboa.

[1157] Inhabitants of Biscay.

[1158] Iberus.

[1159] πλὴν Τουίσοι: these words are manifestly corrupt, but none of the various conjectural readings seem at all probable.

[1160] From the Pillars to the Sacred Promontory, or Cape St. Vincent.

[1161] The rock of Gibraltar.

[1162] Carthagena.

[1163] Viz. from Carthagena.

[1164] Malaga.

[1165] Cadiz.

[1166] Pomponius Mela gives this city the name of Hexi, or Ex, according to another reading; Pliny names it Sexi, with the surname of Firmum Julium; and Ptolemy, Sex. This is merely a difference relative to the aspiration of the word, which was sometimes omitted, at other times expressed by the letters H or S indifferently.

[1167] Mentioned by Pliny, Athenæus, Galen, and also by Martial, lib. vii. Epigramm. 78,

Cum Saxetani ponatur cauda lacerti;

Et bene si cœnas, conchis inuncta tibi est;

Sumen, aprum, leporem, boletos, ostrea, mullos,

Mittis: habes nec cor, Papile, nec genium.

[1168] Adra.

[1169] Lisbon.

[1170] Asclepiades of Myrlea, a city of Bithynia, was a grammarian, and disciple of the celebrated grammarian, Apollonius. According to Suidas he taught literature at Rome, under Pompey the Great. And it is probable that it was with Pompey he afterwards passed into Spain.

[1171] Teucer, the son of Telamon, king of the island of Salamis, being driven out of the country by his father, founded in Cyprus the city of Salamis. Justin adds, that after the death of his father he returned to the island of Salamis; but being prevented by the son of Ajax, his brother, from debarking, he went into Iberia, and took up his abode on the spot where Carthagena was afterwards built: that subsequently he removed into the country of the Gallicians, and settled amongst them.

[1172] The Hellenes derived their name from Hellen the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. This name, which at first designated only a small people of Thessaly, became afterwards the general appellation of the inhabitants of the whole of Greece.

[1173] Amphilochus, on his return from Troy, founded with Mopsus the city of Mallos in Cilicia. He afterwards retired to Argos, but not being contented there he rejoined Mopsus, who however would no longer divide with him the government of their common colony. This dispute resulted in a remarkable combat, which cost the life of both. (Compare Strabo. l. xiv. c. 4.) Sophocles and other tragic poets have taken advantage of this tradition. Herodotus likewise speaks of the voyages of Amphilochus into Cilicia, and of the city of Posideium which he founded there, but he tells us nothing of his death. Thucydides merely says that Amphilochus on his return home after the Trojan war, being discontented with his compatriots, founded in the Gulf of Ambracia a city which he named after his fatherland, Argos. None of these traditions mention a voyage to Iberia.

[1174] Siebenkees suspects that this name should be read Ocella. The Ocelenses in Lusitania are commended by Pliny.

[1175] Some MSS. read Opsicella.

[1176] Strabo, or rather Artemidorus, seems to have confused the two kinds of lotus mentioned by the ancients. That whereof they ate the roots and the grain is the lotus of the Nile, and a plant of the species nymphæa. The lotus alluded to in this instance is a shrub, (the rhamnus lotus of Linnæus,) named seedra by the inhabitants of Barbary, with whom the fruit is an article of food. Herodotus mentions both kinds, (lib. ii. c. 92, and iv. c. 177,) and Polybius describes the second, as an eye-witness.

[1177] The Island of Zerbi.

[1178] The Gulf of Cabes.

[1179] A celebrated stoic philosopher and grammarian contemporary with Aristarchus. He was of Mallos, a city of Cilicia, and surnamed the Critic and the Homeric, on account of the corrections, explanations, and remarks which he composed in nine books on the poems of Homer.

[1180] Sertorius, on the return of Sylla to Rome, took refuge in Spain, where he put himself at the head of the Romans who had revolted against the republic; he was assassinated by one of his officers.

[1181] Adra.

[1182] Carthagena.

[1183] Sucro.

[1184] That is, the ancient name, Sucro.

[1185] Malaga.

[1186] Denia or Artemus.

[1187] Denia.

[1188] Isola Plana.

[1189] S. Pola.

[1190] Islote.

[1191] A sauce so named from the garus, a small fish, from which originally it was prepared. Afterwards it was made with mackerel and other fish. Vide Pliny l. xxxi. c. 7, 8.

[1192] Peniscola.

[1193] Tortosa.

[1194] Tarragona.

[1195] New Carthage, or Carthagena, is intended.

[1196] Sent from Rome.

[1197] Majorca and Minorca.

[1198] Iviça.

[1199] Ampurias.

[1200] The text is here manifestly corrupt. Various other numbers, from 4 to 400, have been conjectured as the true reading. Gosselin and Groskurd are in favour of 200.

[1201] Sic text. Siebenkees and Coray propose to read Ῥόδος, and Casaubon also Ῥόδη, now Rosas.

[1202] Marseilles.

[1203] Probably the river Fluvia, the Alba of the ancients.

[1204] Iberia, or Spain, was anciently divided into two grand divisions, to which the Romans gave the names of Citerior and Ulterior Iberia. Augustus subdivided this latter into the two provinces of Bætica and Lusitania, giving the name of Tarraco to Citerior Iberia. Nevertheless the ancient names of Citerior and Ulterior continued in use long after this division.

[1205] Tarragona.

[1206] We are not exactly acquainted with this place, it is probably Vidreras; though others suppose it to be Colonia Sagerra.

[1207] Tortosa.

[1208] Murviedro.

[1209] Xativa.

[1210] The cordage of the famous vessel built by Hiero of Syracuse was formed from the spartum of Iberia. Vid. Athenæus, lib. v. p. 206.

[1211] Yniesta.

[1212] Caslona.

[1213] Porcuna.

[1214] Cordova and Cadiz.

[1215] Fought against Pompey.

[1216] The mountains of Burgos and Cuença, the Sierras of Oca, Lorenzo, and Moncayo.

[1217] Carthagena.

[1218] Malaga.

[1219] The Sierra de Toledo.

[1220] Saragossa.

[1221] Xelsa.

[1222] They occupied the northern half of Catalonia.

[1223] Lerida.

[1224] Huesca.

[1225] Calahorra.

[1226] Tarragona.

[1227] Denia.

[1228] ὑπὸ Καίσαρος τοῦ θεοῦ, by the deified Cæsar. We have adopted the Latin divus as the most suitable epithet for the emperor in an English version.

[1229] Gosselin here labours to reconcile these distances with the actual topography of those parts, but it is useless to attempt to make all the loose statements furnished by Strabo tally with the exact distances of the places he mentions by supposing the stadia to be so continually varied.

[1230] Pampeluna.

[1231] Gosselin is of opinion that this Œaso, is not Ojarço near Fontarabia, but thinks it probable that Ea near Cape Machicaco is the site where it stood.

[1232] People of Biscay.

[1233] The ancient Anas.

[1234] The ruins of Numantia are seen a little to the north of Soria.

[1235] Bætis.

[1236] Probably the small village of Varea, about half a league from Logroño; D’Anville supposes it to be Logroño itself.

[1237] Aliter Bardyali.

[1238] Kramer has altered the text into Ἐδητανῶν, all MSS. having διττανῶν. There is little doubt they are the same people mentioned in section 14 as Sidetani.

[1239] Palencia.

[1240] Saragossa.

[1241] Baubola.

[1242] Sasamo, west of Briviesca.

[1243] Allusion is here made to the custom of the Roman generals, who caused to be carried at their triumphs, representations in painting or sculpture, not only of the kings or generals of the enemy, who had been slain, but likewise of the forts, cities, mountains, lakes, rivers, and even seas, conquered from the enemy. This usage explains the words of Cicero, “portari in triumpho Massiliam vidimus.” Appian, on occasion of the triumph of Scipio, says, Πύργοι τε παραφέρονται μιμήματα τῶν εἰλημμένων πόλεων.

[1244] Sucro, now Xucar.

[1245] The same people as the Edetani, mentioned in section 12.

[1246] Carthagena.

[1247] Malaga.

[1248] At the present day the best castor comes from Russia, but the greater part of that found in shops is the produce of Canada. It is denominated a stimulant and antispasmodic. Formerly it was much used in spasmodic diseases, as hysteria and epilepsy. It is now considered almost inert, and is seldom employed. After this description, it is scarcely necessary to warn the reader against the vulgar error of confusing castor with castor oil, which is extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis or castor oil plant, a shrub growing in the West Indies.

[1249] Apuleius, Catullus, and Diodorus Siculus all speak of this singular custom.

[1250] A note in the French edition says, “This surprise of the Vettones is nothing extraordinary. Amongst all barbarous nations, savages especially, the promenade is an unknown exercise. When roused by necessity or passion, they will even kill themselves with fatigue; at other times they remain in the most perfect inaction. The first thing which strikes a Turk on coming to any of the polished nations of Europe, is to see men promenading without any other aim but that of pleasure or health.”

[1251] Head-dress shaped like a drum.

[1252] At the present day in Bilboa, the capital of Biscay, the women work far more than the men; they load and unload vessels, and carry on their heads burdens which require two men to place there.

[1253] We must remark that so far from the dowry given by men to their wives being an evidence of civilization, it is a custom common amongst barbarous people, and indicative of nothing so much as the despotic power of the man over the wife. These dowries were generally a sum of money from the husband to the father of his intended, on the payment of which he acquired the same power over her as over a slave. Aristotle, speaking of the ancient Greeks, tells us expressly that they bought their wives, (Polit. ii. c. 8,) and observing that amongst barbarous nations women were always regarded in the same light as slaves, he cites the example of the Cyclopes, who exercised, according to Homer, sovereign authority over their families (Odyss. l. ix. 114). This custom was so well established amongst the Greeks at the time of the poet, that he does not hesitate to introduce it amongst the gods (Odyss. viii. 318). It was not unknown among the Jews, and Strabo, in his fifteenth book, tells us that the Indians bought their wives.

[1254] Cæsar and Athenæus attribute this custom to the Gauls, and Valerius Maximus to the Keltiberians. Those men who attached themselves to the interests of any prince or famous personage, and who espoused all his quarrels, even devoting themselves to death on his account, are named by Athenæus σιλοδοῦροι, and by Cæsar soldurii. Speaking of 600 soldiers devoted in this manner to a Gaulish prince, named Adcantuannus, Cæsar (l. iii. c. 22) says, “Sibi mortem consciscant; neque adhuc hominum memoriâ repertus est quisquam, qui, eo interfecto cujus se amicitiæ devovisset, mori recusaret.” Plutarch tells us that Sertorius had in his suite many thousand Iberians devoted to him. The following epitaph of these men, who, after the death of Sertorius, sacrificed themselves, being unwilling to survive him, was extracted by Swinburne from the Annals of Catalonia.

Hic multæ quæ se manibus

Q. Sertorii turmæ, et terræ

Mortalium omnium parenti

Devovere, dum, eo sublato,

Superesse tæderet, et fortiter

Pugnando invicem cecidere,

Morte ad præsens optata jacent.

Valete posteri.

[1255] The country between the Ebro and the Pyrenees.

[1256] These Igletes are the same which Stephen of Byzantium names Gletes, and by an error of the copyist Tletes. Herodotus places them between the Cynetæ, and the Tartessians, and Theopompus in the neighbourhood of the Tartessians. The position between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, which Asclepiades the Myrlean thus gives them, supports the opinion of those who reckon that Rosas was founded by the Rhodians, and that the people of Marseilles did not settle there till afterwards; it is more than probable that the Igletes were nothing more than Ignetes or Gnetes of the Isle of Rhodes.

[1257] Caslona.

[1258] Merida.

[1259] Casaubon supposes that this is the river Ptolemy names Merus. Lopez, Geograf. de Estrabon, lib. iii. p. 232, thinks it the Narcea.

[1260] Pomponius Mela and Pliny coincide with Strabo in making this city belong to the Asturians; Ptolemy however describes it under the name of Noega Ucesia as pertaining to the Cantabrians. Some say it corresponds to the present Navia, others to Pravia. Groskurd reckons it Gajon, or Navia, or Santander.

[1261] Carthagena.

[1262] Tarragona.

[1263] Murviedro.

[1264] Iviça.

[1265] Majorca.

[1266] Palma.

[1267] Pollerça.

[1268] Gosselin observes that the greatest length of Majorca is 14 leagues and a half; its breadth at the narrowest part 8 leagues; and adds, that by confounding stadia of unequal value, Strabo makes Majorca a long narrow island, whereas in fact its form approaches nearer to that of a square.

[1269] Minorca.

[1270] Viz. the Phœnicians.

[1271] Immediately after the word μελαγκραΐνας, which we have translated black rush, the text of our geographer runs on as follows: “resembling the schœnus, a species of rush from which cords are made. Philetas in his Mercury [says] ‘he was covered with a vile and filthy tunic, and about his wretched loins was bound a strip of black rush, as if he had been girt with a mere schœnus.’” It is evident that this passage is the scholium of some ancient grammarian, and we have followed the example of the French editors in inserting it in a note, as it is a great impediment in the middle of Strabo’s description of the equipment of the island warriors.

[1272] “Cibum puer a matre non accipit, nisi quem, ipsa monstrante, percussit.” Florus, lib. iii. c. 8. The same thing is stated by Lycophron, v. 637, and Diodorus Siculus, l. v. c. 18.

[1273] Cadiz.

[1274] The rock of Gibraltar.

[1275] This mouth of the Guadalquiver, opposite Cadiz, no longer exists.

[1276] The Mediterranean.

[1277] Padua.

[1278] “The length of the island of Leon, at the extremity of which the city of Cadiz is situated, is about 9500 toises, which are equivalent to 100 Olympic stadia.” Gosselin.

[1279] L. Cornelius Balbus was a native of Cadiz, and descended from an illustrious family in that town. His original name probably bore some resemblance in sound to the Latin Balbus. Cadiz being one of the federate cities, supported the Romans in their war against Sertorius in Spain, and Balbus thus had an opportunity for distinguishing himself. He served under the Roman generals Q. Mettellus Pius, C. Memmius, and Pompey, and was present at the battles of Turia and Sucro. He distinguished himself so much throughout the war, that Pompey conferred the Roman citizenship upon him, his brother, and his brother’s sons and this act of Pompey was ratified by the law of the consuls, Cn. Cornelius Lentulus and L. Gellius, B. C. 72. It was probably in honour of these consuls that Balbus took the Gentile name of the one, and the prænomen of the other. It was for this Balbus that Cicero made the defence which has come down to us. The reason which induced Strabo to notice, as something remarkable, that Balbus had received the honours of a triumph, we learn from Pliny, who, noticing the victories which he had gained over the Garamantes and other nations of Africa, tells us he was the only person of foreign extraction who had ever received the honour of a triumph. “Omnia armis Romanis superata et a Cornelio Balbo triumphata, uni huic omnium externo curru et Quiritium jure donato.” Plin. lib. v. c. 5. Solinus likewise says of him, (cap. xxix. p. 54.) “Primus sane de externis, utpote Gadibus genitus accessit ad gloriam nominis triumphalis.”

[1280] This word signifies “The Twins.”

[1281] Gosselin says, the temple of Saturn appears to have stood on the site of the present church of S. Sebastian, and that of Hercules at the other extremity of the island on the site of St. Peter’s.

[1282] Groskurd supposes that we should here read, “[certain citizens of Cadiz have appropriated to themselves possessions in the interior of the island,] but the whole sea-shore is inhabited in common,” that is, by shepherds who pastured the grounds in common.

[1283] Gosselin shows that we ought to read 500 stadia in this place.

[1284] The rock of Gibraltar.

[1285] The Ape-mountain near Ceuta.

[1286] The text is corrupt, but it is needless to go through all the emendations proposed.

[1287] This passage of Pindar has not come down to us.

[1288] ψεῦσμα Φοινικικόν, a proverbial mode of speaking, having its origin in the bad faith of the Phœnicians [_fides Punica_].

[1289] Regio.

[1290] Strabo, in his 17th book, gives a different locality to these altars.

[1291] These were twelve altars, of fifty cubits each, erected to the twelve gods. _Vide_ Diodorus Siculus, l. XVII. c. 95.

[1292] The text is ἐν τοῖς παραδόξοις, which Gosselin renders, “Les ouvrages qui traitent des choses merveilleuses.”

[1293] Strabo’s argument is here so weak, that one can hardly believe it can have ever been seriously made use of.

[1294] This method of explaining the ebb and flow of the sea, by comparing it to the respiration of animals, is not so extraordinary, when we remember that it was the opinion of many philosophers that the universe was itself an animal. Pomponius Mela, (De Situ Orbis, lib. iii. c. 1,) speaking of the tides, says, “Neque adhuc satis cognitum est, anhelitune suo id mundus efficiat, retractamque cum spiritu regerat undam undique, si, ut doctioribus placet, unum (_lege_ universum) animal est; an sint depressi aliqui specus, quo reciprocata maria residant, atque unde se rursus exuberantia attollant: an luna causas tantis meatibus præbeat.”

[1295] Thirty degrees.

[1296] The Persian Gulf.

[1297] Alcolea.

[1298] Some MSS. read 50 stadia.

[1299] This is the sense of the text, πᾶσαν τὴν κύκλῳ παρωκεανῖτιν.

[1300] We are not aware that the Ebro passes through any lake.

[1301] This is probably a description of the appearance of the Druids. Tacitus, (Ann. lib. xiv. 30,) speaking of the consternation into which the Druids of Anglesey threw the Roman soldiers who had disembarked there, says, “Druidæque circum, preces diras, sublatis ad cœlum manibus, fundentes, novitate adspectus perculere milites, ut, quasi hærentibus membris, immobile corpus vulneribus præberent.” Immediately before these words he thus describes the women, “Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque, intercursantibus feminis in _modum furiarum_, quæ veste ferali, crinibus dejectis, faces præferebant.”

[1302] Viz. that the Cassiterides are farther removed from the coasts of Spain than the rest of the southern coasts of England.

[1303] Transalpine Gaul.

[1304] Gaul is properly divided into the four grand divisions of the Narbonnaise, Aquitaine, Keltica, and Belgica. Strabo has principally copied Cæsar, who appears only to have divided Gaul into Aquitaine, Keltica, and Belgica. Cæsar however only speaks of the provinces he had conquered, and makes no mention of the Narbonnaise, which had submitted to the Romans before his time. Strabo seems to have thought that the Narbonnaise formed part of Keltica.

[1305] Lyons.

[1306] The whole of this passage, says Gosselin, is full of mistakes, and it would seem that Strabo quoted from an inexact copy of Cæsar. To understand his meaning, we must remember that he supposed the Pyrenees extended from north to south, instead of from east to west; and since he adds that these mountains divide the Cevennes at right angles, he must have supposed that this second chain extended from east to west, instead of from north to south. He likewise fancied that the Garonne, the Loire, and the Seine ran from north to south like the Rhine. Starting from such premises, it was impossible he could avoid confusion; thus we find him describing the Aquitani as north of the Cevennes, when in fact they dwelt north of the Pyrenees, between those mountains and the Garonne, and west of the southern portions of the Cevennes. Where he says that the Kelts dwelt on the other side or east of the Garonne, and towards the sea of Narbonne and Marseilles, it is clear that he prolonged Keltica into the Narbonnaise, since this last province extended along the Mediterranean from the frontiers of Spain to the Alps. Cæsar had stated that the Gauls (the Kelts of Strabo) _ipsorum lingua Keltæ, nostri Galli_, dwelt between the Garonne, the Seine, the Marne, and the Rhine. Finally, Strabo appears to have assigned the greater part of Gaul to the Belgæ in making them extend from the ocean, and the mouth of the Rhine, to the Alps. This considerably embarrassed Xylander, but as we have seen that Strabo transported a portion of the Kelts into the Narbonnaise, it is easy to imagine that, in order to make these people border on the Belgæ, he was forced to extend them as far as the Alps, near the sources of the Rhine. Cæsar located the Belgæ between the Seine, the ocean, and the Rhine.

[1307] Liger.

[1308] From the ocean to the Mediterranean, and vice versa.

[1309] Alluding to the superiority of the climate on the shores of the Mediterranean.

[1310] We shall see in the course of this book, that under the name of Alps Strabo includes the different mountain-chains separated from the range of Alps properly so called. This accounts for his extending those mountains on the west as far as Marseilles, and on the east beyond Istria.

[1311] The Marseillese.

[1312] The Salyes inhabited Provence.

[1313] As Strabo has made no previous mention of this river, the words “as we have said before” are evidently interpolated.

[1314] This temple was built on Cape Creus, which on that account received the name of Aphrodisium. Many geographers confound this temple with the _portus Veneris_, the modern Vendres, which is at a short distance from Cape Creus.

[1315] Nîmes.

[1316] Beaucaire.

[1317] Aix.

[1318] Gosselin, who considers that the former numbers were correct, enters at some length on an argument to prove that these 53 miles were 62, and differs also in computing the succeeding numbers.

[1319] The cantons of Vaison and Die.

[1320] Cottius possessed the present Briançonnais. That portion of the Alps next this canton took from this sovereign the name of the Cottian Alps. Cottius bore the title of king; and Augustus recognised his independence; he lived till the time of Nero, when his possessions became a Roman province.

[1321] Nîmes.

[1322] Durance and Cavaillon.

[1323] Embrun.

[1324] Briançon.

[1325] Sezanne, or perhaps Chamlat de Seguin.

[1326] Uxeau.

[1327] About 600 years before the Christian era.

[1328] Ἀφίδρυμά τι τῶν ἱερῶν. Gosselin gives a note on these words, and translates them in his text as follows, “one of the statues consecrated in her temple.”

[1329] τιμοῦχος, literally, one having honour and esteem.

[1330] We have seen no reason to depart from a literal rendering of the Greek in this passage, its meaning, “whose ancestors have not been citizens,” &c., being self-evident.

[1331] This name has evidently been corrupted, but it seems difficult to determine what stood originally in the text; most probably it was Rhodanusia.

[1332] Agde.

[1333] Taurenti.

[1334] Eoube.

[1335] Antibes.

[1336] Nice.

[1337] The people of Marseilles.

[1338] Aquæ Sextiæ, now Aix.

[1339] Solinus tells us that in his day the waters had lost their virtue, and that their fame had declined. “Quarum calor, olim acrior, exhalatus per tempora evaporavit; nec jam par est famæ priori.” _Solin._ cap. 8. The victory of Sextius, mentioned by Strabo, is said to have been gained in the year of Rome 629.

[1340] The Cape de Creus, a promontory on which was the temple of the Pyrenæan Venus.

[1341] The Gulf of Lyons.

[1342] The Cape de Cette.

[1343] Gosselin says, “The Island of Blascon is a rock opposite Agde, on which remains a fortified castle, which preserves the name of Brescon. This rock has been connected with the mainland, to form the port of Agde.”

[1344] Ἄταξ.

[1345] At the present day Narbonne is not situated on the Aude, the course of that river being changed. The lake of Narbonne, mentioned by Strabo, is not the present lake of Narbonne, but the lake of Rubine.

[1346] Arles.

[1347] Ῥoυσκίνων.

[1348] ὁ Ἰλίβιρρις.

[1349] Viz. Ruscino, now superseded by Perpignan on the Tet; and Ilibirris, now Elne on the Tech.

[1350] “This ancient city,” says Gosselin, “no longer exists, with the exception of an old tower, scarcely a league from Perpignan, which still bears the name of the Tower of Roussillon.”

[1351] This river does not rise in the Cevennes, but in the Pyrenees.

[1352] Ὄρβις.

[1353] This name is evidently corrupt; the Arauris of Mela and Ptolemy (the modern Herault) is probably intended.

[1354] The Orbe.

[1355] Beziers.

[1356] Agde.

[1357] The French _bise_.

[1358] βράσται σεισμοί, earthquakes attended with a violent fermentation.

[1359] The text has, “both of their opinions are credible,” (πιθανὸς μὲν οὖν ὁ παρ’ ἀμφοῖν λόγος,) but this is discountenanced by the whole sentence.

[1360] From the “Prometheus Loosed,” which is now lost.

[1361] The historian, son of Andromachus.

[1362] The mouths of the Rhone, like those of other impetuous rivers, are subject to considerable changes, and vary from one age to another. Ptolemy agrees with Polybius in stating that there are but two mouths to the Rhone, and those which he indicates are at the present day almost entirely filled up; the one being at Aigues-Mortes, the other canal now called the Rhône-Mort.

[1363] Two Helvetian tribes who united themselves to the Cimbri to pass into Italy, and were defeated near Aix by Marius.

[1364] Now l’étang de Berre or de Martigues.

[1365] The French editors propose to read here five mouths, thus referring to the opinion of Timæus. This, Kramer observes, Strabo probably intended to do. Still, as there were some who were of opinion the Rhone has seven mouths, as appears from Apoll. Rhod. Argonaut. iv. 634, he did not venture to touch the text.

[1366] Taurenti.

[1367] Eoube.

[1368] Antibes.

[1369] Nice.

[1370] Fréjus.

[1371] Inhabitants of Provence.

[1372] Les Isles d’Hières, a row of islands off Marseilles.

[1373] Isle St. Honorat.

[1374] Isle Ste. Marguerite.

[1375] Fréjus.

[1376] Between the river d’Argents and Antibes.

[1377] Cavaillon.

[1378] From the mouth of the Durance to the mouth of the Isère, following the course of the Rhone, the distance is 24 leagues, or 720 Olympic stadia.

[1379] The Vocontii occupied the territories of Vaison and Die. The Tricorii appear to have inhabited a small district east of Die, on the banks of the Drac. The Iconii were to the east of Gap; and the Medylli in La Maurienne, along the Aar.

[1380] The Sorgue.

[1381] Vedene.

[1382] Avignon.

[1383] Orange.

[1384] Le mont Ventoux.

[1385] Casaubon remarks that Æmilianus is a name more than this Roman general actually possessed.

[1386] Livy states that 120,000 Kelts were slain, and Pliny, 130,000.

[1387] Lyons.

[1388] Ἄραρ.

[1389] The Allobroges and Segusii were separated by the Rhone; the former inhabiting the left bank of the river.

[1390] The Saone rises in the Vosges.

[1391] These people are elsewhere called by Strabo Lingones, the name by which they are designated by other writers.

[1392] The Doubs rises in the Jura, not in the Alps. Ptolemy falls into the same mistake as Strabo.

[1393] We have here followed the proposed correction of Ziegler.

[1394] Nîmes.

[1395] This name is written diversely, Tectosages, Tectosagæ, and Tectosagi. It appears to be composed of the two Latin words, “tectus,” covered, and “sagum,” a species of cassock.

[1396] Viz. between Lodève and Toulouse; we must remember that Strabo supposed the chain of the Cevennes to run west and east.

[1397] Angora.

[1398] These three nations inhabited Galatia, of which Ancyra was the capital.

[1399] 279 years before the Christian era.

[1400] Justin tells us that the Tectosages on returning to Toulouse from the expedition, were attacked with a pestilential malady, from which they could find no relief until they complied with the advice of their augurs, and cast the ill-gotten wealth into a lake. Justin, lib. xxxii. c. 3.

[1401] The Atlantic and Mediterranean.

[1402] Ἄραρ.

[1403] The Lexovii inhabited the southern banks of the Seine, Lizieux was anciently their capital. The Caleti occupied the opposite side of the Seine, and the sea-coast as far as Tréport.

[1404] The inhabitants of Auvergne.

[1405] The ancient Liger.

[1406] Ἄταξ.

[1407] The whole of Gaul bore the name of Keltica long before the Romans had penetrated into that country. After their conquest of the southern provinces, they distinguished them from the rest of Keltica by conferring on them the name of Gallia Narbonensis. Aristotle gave the name of Kelts to the inhabitants of the country near Narbonne. Polybius tells us that the Pyrenees separated the Iberians from the Kelts; while Diodorus Siculus fixed the position of the Kelts between the Alps and the Pyrenees.

[1408] “Strabo,” says Gosselin, “always, argues on the hypothesis that the Pyrenees run from south to north; that the Garonne and the Loire flowed in the same direction; that the Cevennes stretched from west to east; and that the coasts of Gaul, from the Pyrenees, rose gently towards the north, bending considerably east.”

[1409] The Garonne becomes navigable at Cazères near to Rieux, in the ancient Comté de Comminges. From this point to its mouth, following the sinuosities of the river, there are about 68 leagues of 20 to a degree, or 2030 Olympic stadia. The Loire is navigable as far as St. Rambert, about three leagues from St. Etienne-en-Forez, that is to say, double the distance assigned by Strabo. 2000 stadia measured from the mouth of the Loire would extend merely as far as Orleans.

[1410] Probably the Arriége, the Tarn, and the Dordogne.

[1411] Ἰοσκῶν MSS.

[1412] The present Saintes was the capital of this nation.

[1413] Bordeaux.

[1414] Poictiers was the capital of the Pictones or Pictavi, and Nantes of the Namnetæ.

[1415] Scipio Æmilianus.

[1416] Saintes.

[1417] The Gulfs of Gascony and Lyons.

[1418] The Tarbelli occupied the sea-coast from the Pyrenees to the Lake of Arcachon.

[1419] The Canton of Comminges.

[1420] St. Bertrand.

[1421] Xylander thinks that these Onesii may be identical with the Monesi of Pliny. Gosselin says that the hot springs are probably the baths of Bagnières-sur-l’Adour.

[1422] The territory of the city of Auch.

[1423] The inhabitants of Vivarais.

[1424] The inhabitants of Vélai.

[1425] The inhabitants of Auvergne.

[1426] The Limousins.

[1427] The inhabitants of Périgord, Agénois, Querci, and Berri.

[1428] The inhabitants of Saintonge and Poitou.

[1429] The inhabitants of Rouergue and Gévaudan.

[1430] Gosselin supposes that this city is Clermont in Auvergne at some distance from the Allier.

[1431] Orleans.

[1432] The people of the Chartrain.

[1433] Cæsar himself (lib. vii. c. 76) states the number at 248,000 men.

[1434] A city near Clermont.

[1435] Alise. The ruins of Alesia, says Gosselin, still exist near to Flavigni in Burgundy, on Mount Auxois, between two small rivers, the Oze and the Ozerain, which flow into the Brenne.

[1436] The Sorgue.

[1437] In Athenæus, (lib. iv. p. 152,) this name is written Luernius.

[1438] Lyons.

[1439] MSS. read ὑπὸ, “under,” we have not hesitated to translate it ἐπὶ, like the Italian, French, and German versions; although Kramer remarks “paulo audacius,” of Coray’s reading ἐπὶ in the Greek.

[1440] Ἄραρ.

[1441] Kramer says that ἄλλος is manifestly corrupt.—I have ventured to translate it _another altar_.

[1442] Kramer concurs with Falconer and Gosselin in understanding this passage to have been originally between the Rhone and the Loire.

[1443] Σηκοάνας.

[1444] The Sequani.

[1445] Châlons-sur-Saone.

[1446] Autun, according to Gosselin. Beurect, according to Ferrarius.

[1447] Cæsar, Tacitus, and other writers, also speak of this relationship of the Ædui with the Romans.

[1448] _Lit._ “As for the Ædui on these accounts indeed.”

[1449] The sources of the Rhine take their rise in Mount St. Gothard and Mount Bernardin, while the Adda rises in the glaciers of the Valteline. Adula, however, may have been the name of the Rhætian Alps.

[1450] The Lake of Como.

[1451] The Lake of Constance.

[1452] The Rhæti occupied the Tirol; the Vindelici that portion of Bavaria south of the Danube.

[1453] Ptolemy says it has three. It appears that the ancient mouths of this river were not the same as the present.

[1454] Lyons.

[1455] The Swiss.

[1456] Gosselin identifies the Cimbri as the inhabitants of Jutland or Denmark.

[1457] Casaubon remarks that the text must be corrupt, since Strabo’s account of the Helvetii must have been taken from Cæsar, who (lib. i. c. 29) states the number of slain at 258,000, and the survivors at 110,000.

[1458] The Sequani occupied La Franche-Comté.

[1459] Metz was the capital of the Mediomatrici.

[1460] These people dwelt between the Rhine and the Vosges, nearly from Colmar to Hagenau.

[1461] The Allobroges dwelt to the left of the Rhone, between that river and the Isère.

[1462] The Arverni have given their name to Auvergne, and the Carnutes to Chartrain.

[1463] Strabo here copies Cæsar exactly, who, speaking of his second passage into Britain, (lib. v. c. 8,) says: “Ad solis occasum naves solvit ... accessum est ad Britanniam omnibus navibus meridiano fere tempore.”

[1464] The capital of these people is Trèves.

[1465] Viz. to the western bank of the river.

[1466] The Nervii occupied Hainault, and the Comté de Namur.

[1467] The Sicambri occupied the countries of Berg, Mark, and Arensberg. They afterwards formed part of the people included under the name of Franci or Franks.

[1468] Bavai, to the south of Valenciennes, was the capital of the Nervii; Duricortora, now Rheims, of the Remi; Arras of the Atrebates, and Tongres of the Eburones.

[1469] Térouane was the principal city of the Morini, Beauvais of the Bellovaci, Amiens of the Ambiani, Soissons of the Suessiones, and Lilebonne of the Caleti.

[1470] Cæsar (lib. vi. c. 29) describes the forest of Ardennes as 500 miles in extent.

[1471] Ardennes.

[1472] West of the Rhine.

[1473] Ptolemy names it Lucotecia; Cæsar, Lutetia. Julian, who was proclaimed emperor by his army in this city, names it Leucetia.

[1474] The inhabitants of Vannes and the surrounding country.

[1475] Neque enim his nostræ rostro nocere poterant; tanta erat in his firmitudo. Cæsar, lib. iii. c. 13.

[1476] Vide Cæsar, lib. iii. c. 14.

[1477] The Boii, who passed into Italy, established themselves near to Bologna.

[1478] The Senones, or inhabitants of Sens, are thought to have founded Sienna in Italy.

[1479] The promontory of Calbium, the present Cape Saint-Mahé, is here alluded to.

[1480] Gosselin observes, “These people called themselves by the name of Kelts; the Greeks styled them Galatæ, and the Latins Galli or Gauls.”

[1481] The Cimbri inhabited Denmark and the adjacent regions.

[1482] The inhabitants of the Beauvoisis.

[1483] Vide Cæsar, lib. ii. c. 4.

[1484] This slashed garment is the smock frock of the English peasant and the blouse of the continent.

[1485] Conf. Cæsar, lib. vi. c. 13. Plebs pene servorum habetur loco, quæ per se nihil audet, et nulli adhibetur consilio.

[1486] By the others are probably meant the Bards and Vates.

[1487] These opinions are also to be found in the Pythagorean philosophy.

[1488] These particulars are taken from Posidonius. See also Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. c. 29.

[1489] A similar custom existed amongst the Spartans; the young people were obliged to present themselves from time to time before the Ephori, and if of the bulk thought proper for a Spartan, they were praised, if on the contrary they appeared too fat, they were punished. Athen. l. xii. p. 550. Ælian, V. H. l. xiv. c. 7. At Rome likewise it was the duty of the censor to see that the equites did not become too fat; if they did, they were punished with the loss of their horse. Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. l. vii. c. 22.

[1490] Transalpine Gaul.

[1491] The coasts occupied by the Morini extended from la Canche to the Yser.

[1492] The Menapii occupied Brabant.

[1493] General opinion places the port Itius at Wissant, near Cape Grisnez; Professor Airy, however, is of opinion that the portus Itius of Cæsar is the estuary of the Somme. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1852, vol. ii. No. 30, p. 198.

[1494] Cæsar passed twice into Britain: the first time he started about midnight, and arrived at the fourth hour of the day; the second time he started at the commencement of the night, and did not arrive until the following day at noon, the wind having failed about midnight.

[1495] The fleet consisted of 1000 vessels, according to Cotta. (Athen. l. vi. c. 21.) The great loss spoken of by Strabo occurred before the first return of Cæsar into Gaul. (Cæsar, l. iv. c. 28.) As to his second return, it was occasioned, to use his own words, “propter repentinos Galliæ motus.” L. v. c. 22.

[1496] Called by Cæsar, Hibernia; by Mela, Juverna; and by Diodorus Siculus, Iris.

[1497] This custom resembles that related by Herodotus (lib. i. c. 216, and iv. 26) of the Massagetæ and Issedoni. Amongst these latter, when the father of a family died, all the relatives assembled at the house of the deceased, and having slain certain animals, cut them and the body of the deceased into small pieces, and having mixed the morsels together, regaled themselves on the inhuman feast.

[1498] Strabo intends by φανερῶς what Herodotus expresses by μίξιν ἐμφανέα, καθάπερ τοῖσι προβάτοισι (concubitum, sicuti pecoribus, in propatulo esse).

[1499] Herodotus, (l. iv. c. 180,) mentioning a similar practice amongst the inhabitants of Lake Tritonis in Libya, tells us that the men owned the children as they resembled them respectively. Mela asserts the same of the Garamantes. As to the commerce between relations, Strabo in his 16th Book, speaks of it as being usual amongst the Arabs. It was a custom amongst the early Greeks. Homer makes the six sons of Æolus marry their six sisters, and Juno addresses herself to Jupiter as “Et soror et conjux.” Compare also Cæsar, lib. v.

[1500] An extremity to which the Gauls were driven during the war they sustained against the Cimbri and Teutones, (Cæsar, lib. vii. c. 77,) and the inhabitants of Numantia in Iberia, when besieged by Scipio. (Valerius Maximus, lib. vii. c. 6.) The city of Potidæa in Greece experienced a similar calamity. (Thucyd. lib. ii. c. 70.)

[1501] Pytheas placed Thule under the 66th degree of north latitude, which is the latitude of the north of Iceland.

[1502] Transalpine Gaul.

[1503] Port Monaco.

[1504] Vadi.

[1505] Albinga.

[1506] Vintimille.

[1507] Kramer conjectures that instead of Ἀλπιόνια, we should read Ἀλπεινὰ.

[1508] These people occupied the borders of the province of Murlaka, near to Istria, on the Gulf of Venice. Mount Albius is still called Alben.

[1509] Casaubon observes that the Roman writers separated the name Albium Ingaunum, in the same manner as Albium Intemelium.

[1510] These two tribes inhabited the country round Fréjus and Antibes as far as the Var.

[1511] Or amber.

[1512] Μόνοικος, an epithet of Hercules signifying “sole inhabitant.” According to Servius, either because after he had driven out the Ligurians he remained the sole inhabitant of the country; or because it was not usual to associate any other divinities in the temples consecrated to him.

[1513] Λίγυες, or Ligurians.

[1514] Λιγυστικὴ, or Liguria.

[1515] Κελτολίγυες, or Kelto-Ligurians.

[1516] Kramer is of opinion that we should adopt the suggestion of Mannert, to read here Avignon.

[1517] We have adopted the reading of the older editions, which is also that of the French translation. Kramer however reads φόβον, and adds φόρον in a note.

[1518] The Albiœci are named Albici in Cæsar; the capital city is called by Pliny Alebece Reiorum; it is now Riez in Provence.

[1519] Nîmes.

[1520] There are two rivers of this name which descend from the Alps and discharge themselves into the Po. The Durias which rises near the Durance is the _Durias minor_ of the ancients, and the Doria Riparia of the moderns; this river falls into the Po at Turin.

[1521] Gosselin observes:—The Salassi occupied the country about Aouste, or Aoste. The name of this city is a corruption of Augusta Prætoria Salassorum, which it received in the time of Augustus. The Durias which passes by Aouste is the _Durias major_, the modern Doria Baltea. Its sources are between the Great Saint Bernard and Mont Blanc.

[1522] The Ister of the classics.

[1523] _Augusta Taurinorum_, hodie Turin, was the capital of these people.

[1524] Various conjectures have been hazarded concerning this name, of which there appears to be no other mention.

[1525] The Kentrones occupied la Tarentaise; the Catoriges, the territories of Chorges and Embrun; the Veragri, a part of the Valais south of the Rhone; and the Nantuatæ, Le Chablais.

[1526] The Lake of Geneva.

[1527] Saint Gothard.

[1528] The Adda does not flow from the same mountain as the Rhine.

[1529] The Lake of Como.

[1530] The Rhæti are the Grisons; the Vennones, the people of the Val Telline.

[1531] The Lepontii inhabited the Haut Valais, and the valley of Leventina; the Tridentini occupied Trente; the Stoni, Sténéco.

[1532] The valley of Aouste.

[1533] These two routes still exist. The former passes by the Great Saint Bernard, or the Pennine Alps; the latter traverses the Little Saint Bernard, and descends into La Tarentaise, formerly occupied by the Centrones.

[1534] Anciently Durias.

[1535] Modena.

[1536] It does not appear that Julius Cæsar is here intended, for he mentions nothing of it in his Commentaries. It seems more probable that Strabo used the expression of Cæsar in its wider sense of Emperor, and alludes to Augustus, of whom he speaks immediately after.

[1537] Ivrea.

[1538] Aouste.

[1539] The limits of these barbarous nations were continually varying according to their success in war, in general, however, the Rhæti possessed the country of the Grisons, the Tyrol, and the district about Trent. The Lepontii possessed the Val Leventina. The Camuni the Val Camonica. The Vindelici occupied a portion of Bavaria and Suabia; on their west were the Helvetii or Swiss, and on the north the Boii, from whom they were separated by the Danube; these last people have left their name to Bohemia. The Norici possessed Styria, Carinthia, a part of Austria and Bavaria to the south of the Danube. The Breuni have given their name to the Val Braunia north of the Lago Maggiore; and the Genauni appear to have inhabited the Val Agno, between Lake Maggiore and the Lake of Como, although Strabo seems to place these people on the northern side of the Alps, towards the confines of Illyria.

[1540] The people of Franche Comté.

[1541] The Germans of Wirtemberg and Suabia.

[1542] The Licattii appear to have inhabited the country about the Lech, and the Clautinatii that about the Inn; the Vennones the Val Telline.

[1543] This disgusting brutality however is no more barbarous than the intention put by Homer into the mouth of Agamemnon, “the king of men,” which Scholiasts have in vain endeavoured to soften or excuse—

τῶν μήτις ὑπεκφύγοι αἰπὺν ὄλεθρον,

χεῖράς θ’ ἡμετέρας· μηδ’ ὅντινα γαστέρι μήτηρ

κοῦρον ἐόντα φέροι, μηδ’ ὃς φύγοι· ἀλλ’ ἅμα πάντες

Ἰλίου ἐξαπολοίατ’, ἀκήδεστοι καὶ ἄφαντοι.

Iliad vi. 57-60.

[1544] This expedition of Tiberius took place in the eleventh year of the Christian era; Strabo therefore must have written his fourth book in the 44th year.

[1545] The Carnic, or Julian Alps, is intended.

[1546] Ἄταξ.

[1547] There is, remarks Gosselin, a palpable mistake in this passage. We neither know of a river named the Isar nor yet the Atax discharging themselves into the Adriatic. Atesinus or Athesis are the ancient names of the Adige, but this river flows into the Adriatic, and not, as Strabo seems to say, into the Danube. The error of the text appears to result from a transposition of the two names made by the copyists, and to render it intelligible we should read thus:—“There is a lake from which proceeds the Atesinus, (or the Adige,) and which, after having received the Atax, (perhaps the Eisack, or Aicha, which flows by Bolzano,) discharges itself into the Adriatic. The Isar proceeds from the same lake, and [passing by Munich] discharges itself into the Danube.”

[1548] Apparently the lake of Constance.

[1549] The Black Forest.

[1550] These two chains are in Murlaka, they are now named Telez and Fliez.

[1551] The Traun or Würm.

[1552] The Glan in Bavaria.

[1553] The Julian Alps, and Birnbaumerwald.

[1554] Probably Mödling.

[1555] Auersperg, or the Flecken Mungava.

[1556] Möttnig or Mansburg.

[1557] Windisch Grätz, or Brindjel.

[1558] Now Sisseck.

[1559] The text reads Rhine, but we have, in common with Gosselin, followed the correction of Cluvier, Xylander, and Tyrwhitt.

[1560] The Dacians occupied a part of Hungary, Transylvania, Wallachia, and a portion of Moldavia.

[1561] Coray suggests Nauportus, now Ober-Laibach in Krain. This suggestion is extremely probable, however Pamportus occurs twice in the text.

[1562] The river Laibach.

[1563] The Pannonians occupied a portion of Austria and Hungary. The Taurisci, who formed part of the former people, inhabited Styria.

[1564] Segesta.

[1565] The ancient Colapis.

[1566] This is a description of the elk (cervus alces of Linn.). This animal no longer exists either in France or in the Alps.

[1567] Lyons.

[1568] La Saintonge.

[1569] Gascony.

[1570] Beauvoisis.

[1571] Picardie.

[1572] From Lyons this route passed by Vienne, Valence, Orange, and Avignon; here it separated, leading on one side to Tarascon, Nîmes, Beziers, and Narbonne, and on the other to Ailes, Aix, Marseilles, Fréjus, Antibes, &c.

[1573] This other route, says Gosselin, starting from Aouste, traversed the Great Saint Bernard, Valais, the Rhone, a portion of the Vaud, Mount Jura, and so to Besançon and Langres, where it separated, the road to the right passing by Toul, Metz, and Trèves, approached the Rhine at Mayence; while that to the left passed by Troies, Châlons, Rheims, and Bavai, where it again separated and conducted by various points to the sea-coast.

[1574] The Italians also went into Spain, and there engaged in working the mines. Vide Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. c. 36, 38.

[1575] A mountain of Laconia.

[1576] In Arcadia, some suppose it to be the modern Tetragi, others Diaphorti, and others Mintha.

[1577] In Phocis, Iapara, or Liokura.

[1578] Olympus is a mountain range of Thessaly, bordering on Macedonia, its summit is thirty miles north of Larissa, in lat. 40° 4′ 32″ N., long. 22° 25′ E. Its estimated height is 9745 feet.

[1579] Petras or Zagora.

[1580] Now Kissovo; it is situated to the east of the river Peneus, immediately north of Mount Pelion, and bounds the celebrated vale of Tempe on one side.

[1581] Gosselin observes, both Polybius and Strabo extended the Alps from the neighbourhood of Marseilles to beyond the Adriatic Gulf, a distance twice 2200 stadia. It appeals probable from the words of Polybius himself, (lib. ii c. 14,) that he merely intended to state the length of the plains situated at the foot of the mountains, which bound Italy on the north, and in fact the distance in a right line from the foot of the Alps about Rivoli or Pignerol to Rovigo, and the marshes formed at the mouths of the Adige and Po, is 63 leagues, or 2200 stadia of 700 to a degree.

[1582] This route passes from Tortona, by Vadi, Albinga, Vintimille, and Monaco, where it crosses the maritime Alps, and thence to Nice, Antibes, &c. Gosselin.

[1583] This route passes by Briançon, Mont Genèvre, the Col de Sestrière, and the Val Progelas.

[1584] The passage by the Val Aouste.

[1585] This route, starting from Milan, passed east of the lake of Como by Coire, and then by Bregentz to the Lake of Constance.

[1586] The Lago di Garda.

[1587] Lago Maggiore.

[1588] Ticinus. We have followed the example of the French translators in making the Ticino to flow from the Lago Maggiore, and the Adda from the Lake of Como; by some inexplicable process the text of Strabo has been corrupted and these rivers transposed. Kramer notices the inconsistency of the text.

[1589] The Lake of Como.

[1590] The Gulf of Salerno.

[1591] Venetians.

[1592] Rimini.

[1593] Capo di Leuca.

[1594] Venetians.

[1595] The peninsula occupied by the people named Brettii, or Bruttii.

[1596] The peninsula now designated Terra di Lecce, and called by the ancients sometimes Iapygia, at others Messapia, Calabria, and Salentina. The isthmus of this peninsula was supposed to be formed by a line drawn from Brindisi to Taranto.

[1597] The Gulf of Venice.

[1598] The Sea of Tuscany.

[1599] The Gulf of Salerno.

[1600] Capo di Leuca.

[1601] The Mediterranean.

[1602] Capo dell’ Armi.

[1603] Of Vannes.

[1604] From the Heneti, whence is the race of wild mules. Iliad ii. 857.

[1605] Transpadana.

[1606] The Mediterranean.

[1607] The whole of the coast from Ravenna to Aquileia at the bottom of the Gulf of Venice is still covered with marshes and lagoons, as it was in the time of Strabo. The largest of these lagoons are at the mouths of the Po, the others at the mouths of the torrents which descend from the Alps.

[1608] Milan.

[1609] Apparently a mistake for Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus; we are unacquainted with any Caius Scipio.

[1610] The Lake of Como.

[1611] The source of the Adda is at the foot of Mount Braulio; the three sources of the Rhine issue from Mounts St. Bernardin, St. Barnabé, and Crispalt, at a considerable distance from the source of the Adda.

[1612] Padua.

[1613] This appears to have been the last census of the three taken under the reign of Augustus. The first occurred in the year of Rome 726, twenty-eight years before the Christian era; the number of citizens then amounted to 4,064,000, or, according to Eusebius, 4,011,017. The second was in the year of Rome 746, eight years before the Christian era; the number of citizens was then found to be 4,163,000. The third census was in the year of Rome 767, in the fourteenth year of the Christian era; the number of citizens at this time was 4,037,000, according to the monument of Ancyra, but according to Eusebius, 9,070,000.

[1614] Chioggia.

[1615] The Bacchiglione.

[1616] ξυλοπαγὴς ὅλη. We have followed the rendering of the French translators; however, Guarini, Buonaccivoli, Xylander, Siebenkees, and Bréquigny, all understand Strabo to mean that the city was built entirely of wood.

[1617] Altino.

[1618] Butrio.

[1619] Spinazino.

[1620] Oderzo.

[1621] Adria.

[1622] Vicenza.

[1623] About the year 186 before the Christian era.

[1624] Friesach in Steiermark.

[1625] 113 years before the Christian era.

[1626] S. Giovanni del Carso.

[1627] The present Timavo.

[1628] The Adriatic.

[1629] The three islands of Tremiti, namely Domenico, Nicola, and Caprara, opposite Monte Gargano.

[1630] Arpino.

[1631] Phaethusa, Lampetie, and Lampethusa. See Virg. Ecl. vi. 62; Æn. x. 190; Ovid Met. ii.

[1632] Either this passage has undergone alteration, or else Strabo is the only writer who informs us that certain mythological traditions distinguished the Eridanus from the Po, placing the former of these rivers in the vicinity of the latter. The père Bardetti thinks the Greeks originally confounded the Eretenus, a tributary of the Po, with the name Eridanus.

[1633] Probably Guinea-hens.

[1634] Strabo seems here to doubt that the Electrides islands ever existed, but the French translators, in a very judicious note, have explained that the geographical features of the country about the mouths of the Po had undergone very considerable changes on account of the immense alluvial deposit brought down from the mountains by that river, and suggest that these islands had been united to the mainland long before Strabo’s time, for which reason he would not be able to verify the ancient traditions. Even at the present day the Cavalier Negrelli is employing his celebrated engineering science in making the communication between the Po and the Adriatic navigable, and so rendering the countries bordering on the Ticino, Adda, Mincio, Trebbia, Panono, and the adjacent lakes accessible to steam-boats from the Adriatic.

[1635] The Timavum, or temple consecrated to Diomede.

[1636] The Isola di Brioni, Conversara, and S. Nicolo. Pliny calls them Insulæ Pullariæ.

[1637] This name is probably corrupt; Coray proposes to read Insubri.

[1638] Vadi.

[1639] The Umbrians, or Umbri, of Roman History.

[1640] Piacenza.

[1641] Rimini.

[1642] Modena.

[1643] Bologna.

[1644] Probably corrupt.

[1645] Reggio in Modena.

[1646] Between Parma and Modena, the Val di Montirone and Orte Magrada.

[1647] Quaderna.

[1648] Imola.

[1649] Faenza.

[1650] Ancient Sapis.

[1651] Probably Pisatello.

[1652] The Marecchia.

[1653] Pavia.

[1654] The Ticino.

[1655] Castezzio.

[1656] Tortona.

[1657] Acqui, on the left bank of the Bormia.

[1658] Ucello.

[1659] Δουρίας.

[1660] The ancient Druentia.

[1661] Transalpine Gaul.

[1662] From here to the word Derthon the text appears to be corrupt.

[1663] Tuscany.

[1664] Cluvier proposes to read “from Placentia to Parma;” he has been followed throughout the passage by the French translators.

[1665] M. Æmilius Scaurus.

[1666] Strabo here falls into a mistake in attributing to C. Flaminius Nepos, who was consul in the year of Rome 567, 187 years before the Christian era, the construction of the Via Flaminia which led from the Portus Flumentana to the city of Ariminum. According to most Latin authors, this grand route was formed by C. Flaminius Nepos, censor in the year of Rome 534, and 220 years before the Christian era (the same who three years afterwards was slain at the battle of Thrasymenus). Livy, whose authority is certainly of great weight, speaking of the grand road made by C. Flaminius Nepos, consul in the year of Rome 567, states expressly that it led from Bologna to Arezzo. Hist. lib. xxxix. § 2.

[1667] Bologna.

[1668] Maffei proposes to substitute Placentia for Aquileia.

[1669] Cisalpine Gaul.

[1670] The ancient Æsis, now Esino, named also Fiumesino.

[1671] Probably the Pisatello.

[1672] Modena.

[1673] The Scultanna of antiquity.

[1674] Padua.

[1675] A kind of cassock with long hair.

[1676] Probably Victimolo.

[1677] Piacenza.

[1678] Gallia Cispadana.

[1679] Ὀμβρικὴ, now Ombria.

[1680] Or nearest to the Adriatic.

[1681] Rimini.

[1682] Larcher calculates that it was about the year of Rome 91, or 663 years before the Christian era, that Demaratus, flying from the tyranny of Cypselus at Corinth, established himself in Tyrrhenia.

[1683] Strabo here mentions only one son of Demaratus, to whom he gives the name of Lucumo; in this latter statement he is supported by Dionysius Halicarnassius. Livy also mentions a young citizen of Clusium named Lucumo. But there is reason to believe that these three writers were deceived by the writers whom they followed. It seems to be incontestable that Lucumo was the designation of the chief of each of the twelve cities of Etruria.

[1684] Dionysius Halicarnassius relates that after a brisk war the cities of Etruria submitted to Tarquinius Priscus, and that the Romans permitted him to accept this foreign royalty, and still hold the throne of Rome. No historian that we are aware of, with the exception of Strabo, mentions the benefits received by Etruria from that prince.

[1685] Chiusi.

[1686] B. C.508.

[1687] The people of Cerveteri.

[1688] This is also related by Livy and Valerius Maximus.

[1689] A Grecian form of salutation, equivalent to our “good-morning.”

[1690] Cæri, according to Holstenius, the Bagni di Sasso, Cluvier considered it Bagni di Stigliano.

[1691] Odyssey xix. 175. And there is a different language of different men mixed together; there are in it Achaians, and magnanimous Eteocretans, and Cydonians, and crest-shaking Dorians, and divine Pelasgians.

[1692] The Salambria, Costum.

[1693] Iliad xvi. 223.

[1694] Metelino.

[1695] Iliad ii. 840, Hippothous led the tribes of the spear-skilled Pelasgians, of those who inhabited fertile Larissa.

[1696] We have followed the example of the French translators in reading ᾤκησεν with all MSS. Groskurd and Kramer adopt the views of Xylander and Siebenkees in substituting ᾤκισεν.

[1697] Oἱ τὴν Ἀτθίδα συγγράψαντες. Ἀτθὶς was a title given to their works by many authors who wrote on Athenian Antiquities, as Philochorus, Androtion, Amelesagoras, Hellanicus, &c.

[1698] Or Storks.

[1699] Volterra.

[1700] Ruins near Ansedonia.

[1701] Coray here reads οὖν for οὐκ. Kramer considers the passage corrupt.

[1702] The French translation here gives 1460, and a note by Gosselin.

[1703] Σελήνη, the moon.

[1704] The bay of Spezia.

[1705] The mountains of Carrara.

[1706] The Mediterranean.

[1707] Other writers mention a river Macra, but none of them, as it appears, a district in Italy bearing that name. Kramer supposes that Strabo wrote ποτάμιον, and not χωρίον, the reading of all MSS.

[1708] Near the mouth of the river Basiento.

[1709] The ancient Arnus.

[1710] Corresponding to the present Serchio, which discharges itself into the sea, and not into the Arno. The time when this change of direction took place is not recorded, but traces of the ancient name and course of the river remain in the Osari, which, after flowing a short distance through a marshy district, falls into the sea between the Serchio and Arno.

[1711] Arezzo.

[1712] Volterra.

[1713] Eighty-one years B. C.

[1714] This was a regular business. A man was posted on a high place, from which he could see the shoals coming, and make a sign to the fishermen.

[1715] Corsica.

[1716] The island of Elba.

[1717] The French translation has 200 in text, while it states in a note that all manuscripts give 300, and continues to discuss the real distance at some length. Kramer says, in a note, that MS. Vatic. No. 482, has 200.

[1718] Πλαταμῶνας is here adopted in preference to any attempt at translation. It is probable they were quarries of the cream-coloured limestone of the island.

[1719] Porto Ferrajo.

[1720] Gosselin supposes that the crystals of iron, abundant in the island of Elba, are here alluded to.

[1721] The testimony of Diodorus is just to the contrary. The Corsican slaves appear better fitted than any others for performing useful services; their physical constitution being peculiarly adapted thereto. Diodor. Sic. l. v. § 13.

[1722] None of these names are found in Ptolemy’s description of Corsica. Diodorus Siculus has names somewhat similar.

[1723] It is uncertain to whom Strabo here alludes. The French translators are of opinion that he alludes to the chart of Agrippa.

[1724] The French translators read with their manuscript 1394, περὶ τρισχιλίους, κ. τ. λ., about 3200.

[1725] Cagliari.

[1726] Cluvier is of opinion that the modern Palma di Solo corresponds to Sulchi.

[1727] Some manuscripts read Diagebres.

[1728] The nephew of Hercules, being the son of Iphiclus, his brother.

[1729] That is, Corsica and Sardinia run in a line north and south, and Elba lies to one side; the παράλληλοι σχεδὸν αἱ τρεῖς is an example showing how happily a circumstance may be expressed in Greek, while no amount of labour will adapt an English equivalent.

[1730] The real distance, according to Gosselin, is 115 miles.

[1731] Porto Ercole.

[1732] The Stagno d’ Orbitello.

[1733] Situated in the marshy plain commanded by the heights of Corneto, between the Mignone and the Marta.

[1734] This town stood on the site of the present S. Severa, at the mouth of the Rio-Castrica.

[1735] The ancient Alsium occupied the site of the place now called Statua; below it are the vestiges of the Portus Alsiensis, at the embouchure of the Rio-Cupino, a little to the east of Palo.

[1736] Torre Macarese.

[1737] The Roman Lucina, in later times identical with Diana.

[1738] About the year 384 before the Christian era.

[1739] Corsica.

[1740] Arezzo.

[1741] Perugia.

[1742] Bolsena.

[1743] Sutri.

[1744] Bieda.

[1745] The French translation understands this to be the modern Ferenti, near Viterbo.

[1746] Sta. Maria di Falari.

[1747] Probably another name for Falerium.

[1748] Nepi.

[1749] Castro, or Farnese, near Lake Mezzano.

[1750] This ancient city was probably situated near the Isola Farnesia, about the place where Storta now stands.

[1751] Fidenæ was situated on the left bank of the Tiber, near its confluence with the Anio, now the Teverone, 40 stadia from Rome. The ruins are near the villages Giubileo and Serpentina.

[1752] Hodie Otricoli: the ancient town was situated nearer the Tiber than the modern.

[1753] Monte di S. Silvestro.

[1754] Arezzo.

[1755] Chiusi.

[1756] Perugia.

[1757] Tyrrhenia.

[1758] An aquatic plant, perhaps the Typha of Linnæus, used in making lamp-wicks, and for other purposes to which tow was applied.

[1759] The downy substance growing on the flowering reed.

[1760] The Lago di Vico or di Ronciglione.

[1761] Lago di Bolsena.

[1762] Now only marshes.

[1763] Lago di Bracciano.

[1764] All MSS. are corrupt at this word. It is now called Lago di Perugia.

[1765] Rimini.

[1766] Sinigaglia.

[1767] Apparently an interpolation; vide Kramer’s edition, vol. i. p. 358, n.

[1768] The Æsis.

[1769] Sentina.

[1770] Fano.

[1771] Umbria.

[1772] Otricoli.

[1773] No such city as this is mentioned in any other writer; the word as it now stands is evidently corrupt.

[1774] Narni.

[1775] The ancient Nar.

[1776] Bevagna.

[1777] Mevania stood at the junction of the Tinia (now Timia) and the Topino.

[1778] Forfiamma, or Ponte-Centesimo, or the village of Vescia.

[1779] Nocera Camellaria.

[1780] Fossembruno.

[1781] Terni.

[1782] Spoleto.

[1783] Between Spoleto and Camerino.

[1784] The left side of the Via Flaminia.

[1785] Amelia.

[1786] Todi.

[1787] Hispello.

[1788] Eugubbio, or Gubbio, where the celebrated inscriptions were found in 1440.

[1789] Ζειὰ.

[1790] Sabina and Latium.

[1791] Probably Lamentana Vecchia.

[1792] Groskurd considers this to be Amatrice.

[1793] Rieti.

[1794] Interdoco, between Rieti and Aquila.

[1795] Civita Tommassa, or rather Forcella.

[1796] Monte Leone della Sabina.

[1797] Chaupy considers this to be Rimane.

[1798] Rieti.

[1799] He flourished about 216 years before the Christian era.

[1800] Gosselin calls our attention to the difference between Strabo’s relation of these occurrences, and the events as commonly recounted by the Greek and Latin authors.

[1801] Near the spot now called Paterno.

[1802] Cluvier placed the ancient Alba on the east shore of Lake Albano, about Palazzuolo. Holstenius thinks that it was on the southern shore, in the locality of Villa-Domitiana. The Abbé de Chaupy places it farther to the east of Monte Albano.

[1803] Monte Albano.

[1804] The sites of these places are much disputed.

[1805] Kramer considers this 40 an interpolation.

[1806] Usually Ambarvalia, sacrifices performed by the Fratres Arvales, who formed “a college or company of twelve in number, and were so called according to Varro, from offering public sacrifices for the fertility of the fields. That they were of extreme antiquity is proved by the legend which refers their institution to Romulus; of whom it is said, that when his nurse, Acca Laurentia, lost one of her twelve sons, he allowed himself to be adopted by her in his place, and called himself and the remaining eleven—Fratres Arvales. (Gell. vi. 7.) We also find a college called the Sodales Titii, and as the latter were confessedly of Sabine origin, and instituted for the purpose of keeping up the Sabine religious rites, (Tac. Ann. i. 53,) there is some reason for the supposition of Niebuhr, that these colleges corresponded one to the other—the Fratres Arvales being connected with the Latin, and the Sodales Titii with the Sabine element of the Roman state; just as there were two colleges of the Luperci, the Fabii and the Quinctilii, the former of whom seem to have belonged to the Sabines.

The office of the Fratres Arvales was for life, and was not taken away even from an exile or captive. They wore, as a badge of office, a chaplet of ears of corn fastened on their heads with a white band. The number given on inscriptions varies, but it is never more than nine; though, according to the legend and general belief, it amounted to twelve. One of their annual duties was to celebrate a three days’ festival in honour of Dea Dia, supposed to be Ceres.... Of this the master of the college, appointed annually, gave public notice from the temple of Concord on the Capitol. On the first and last of these days, the college met at the house of their president, to make offerings to the Dea Dia; on the second day they assembled in the grove of the same goddess, about five miles south of Rome, and there offered sacrifices for the fertility of the earth. An account of the different ceremonies of this festival is preserved in an inscription, which was written in the first year of the emperor Heliogabalus, (A. D. 218,) who was elected a member of the college under the name of M. Aurelius Antoninus Pius Felix. The same inscription contains a hymn, which appears to have been sung at the festival from the most ancient times.

Besides this festival of the Dea Dia, the Fratres Arvales were required on various occasions under the emperors to make vows and offer up thanksgivings, an enumeration of which is given in Porcellini. Strabo indeed informs us that, in the reign of Tiberius, these priests performed sacrifices called the Ambarvalia at various places on the borders of the Ager Romanus, or original territory of Rome; and amongst others, at Festi. There is no boldness in supposing that this was a custom handed down from time immemorial; and, moreover, that it was a duty of this priesthood to invoke a blessing upon the whole territory of Rome. It is proved by inscriptions that this college existed till the reign of the emperor Gordian, or A. D. 325, and it is probable that it was not abolished till a. a. 400, together with the other colleges of the pagan priesthoods.

The private Ambarvalia were certainly of a different nature to those mentioned by Strabo, and were so called from the victim hostia Ambarvalis that was slain on the occasion, being led three times round the corn-fields, before the sickle was put to the corn. This victim was accompanied by a crowd of merry-makers, (chorus et socii,) the reapers and farm-servants, dancing and singing, as they marched along, the praises of Ceres, and praying for her favour and presence while they offered her the libations of milk, honey, and wine. (Virg. Georg. i. 338.) This ceremony was also called a lustratio, (Virg. Ecl. v. 83,) or purification; and for a beautiful description of the holiday, and the prayers and vows made on the occasion, the reader is referred to Tibullus (ii. 1). It is perhaps worth while to remark that Polybius (iv. 21, § 9) uses language almost applicable to the Roman Ambarvalia in speaking of the Mantineians, who, he says, (specifying the occasion,) made a purification, and carried victims round the city and all the country.

There is, however, a still greater resemblance to the rites we have been describing, in the ceremonies of the Rogation or gang-week of the Latin church. These consisted of processions through the fields, accompanied with prayers (rogationes) for a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and were continued during three days in Whitsun-week. The custom was abolished at the Reformation in consequence of its abuses, and the perambulation of the parish boundaries substituted in its place. (Vide Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 61, 2; Wheatley, Com. Pray. v. 20. Bohn’s Standard Library edition.)

[1807] The Camenæ, says Dr. Smith, were prophetic nymphs, and belonged to the religion of ancient Italy, although later traditions represent them as having been introduced into Italy from Arcadia. Two of the Camenæ were Antevorta and Postvorta; the third was Carmenta or Carmentis, a prophetic and healing divinity, who had a temple at the foot of the Capitoline hill, and altars near the Porta Carmentalis. The traditions which assigned a Greek origin to her worship at Rome, state that her original name was Nicostrata, and that she was called Carmentis fron her prophetic powers. (Serv. ad Æn. viii. 51, 336; Dionys. i. 15, 32.) According to these traditions, she was the mother of Evander, the Arcadian, by Hermes, and after having endeavoured to persuade her son to kill Hermes, she fled with him to Italy, where she gave oracles to the people and to Hercules. She was put to death by her son at the age of 110 years, and then obtained divine honours. Dionys. i. 31, &c.

[1808] This name is written in Strabo sometimes Αἴκοι, sometimes Αἴκουοι; the Latin writers also named them differently, Æqui, Æcani, Æquicoli, &c.

[1809] Privernates of Pliny; the chief city is now called Piperno.

[1810] 604 years B. C.

[1811] Suessa surnamed Pometia, to distinguish it from Suessa Aurunca, is here alluded to. Its exact position does not appear to be known.

[1812] La Riccia.

[1813] Capo d’ Anzo.

[1814] Monte Dragone.

[1815] Monte Circello.

[1816] According to Cluvier, Strabo was mistaken in making Latium extend to the country of the Peligni, as these latter were always separated from Latium by the Marsi.

[1817] Sezza.

[1818] The vine to which the term arbustive or hautain is applied, which the French translators explain as a vine trained from the foot of a tree.

[1819] Castor and Pollux.

[1820] Near Paterno.

[1821] Storas, the Astura of Pliny.

[1822] Libs.

[1823] Hodie, the Porto di Paula, connected with the Lake of S. Maria.

[1824] This does not appear to be in accordance with the statement of Dionysius Halicarnassius and Pliny, that the Ausonians anciently possessed the whole coast, from the Strait of Messina to the entrance of the Adriatic.

[1825] Or mountainous.

[1826] We should doubtless here read the Ufens, the modern Ufente.

[1827] Βρεντέσιον, now Brindes.

[1828] Mola di Gaeta.

[1829] The ruins of this town are extant on either bank of the Garigliano, the ancient Liris.

[1830] Rocca di Monte Dragone.

[1831] Compare Horace, Satir. l. i. sat. 5.

[1832] Tarracina and Formiæ.

[1833] Gaëta.

[1834] At Sperlunga.

[1835] The Garigliano.

[1836] Vestini, MSS.

[1837] Ponza.

[1838] Sezza. The French translators think this should be Vescia.

[1839] Albano.

[1840] Called also the Quirinal, and often Salara, according to Ovid.

[1841] Anio.

[1842] The Nar.

[1843] The Teneas of Strabo.

[1844] ὁ Κλάνις, there were other rivers called Clanis as well as this.

[1845] Chiusi.

[1846] Suetonius likewise mentions this fact. Dion Cassius informs us that Augustus, in the year of Rome 732, and twenty-two years before our era, commanded that the curule ædiles should promptly endeavour to arrest the progress of conflagrations, and for this purpose placed at their disposal 600 guards. Fifteen years afterwards he established a company of seven freedmen, presided over by one of the equestrian order, to see what means could be taken in order to prevent these numerous fires. Augustus, however, was not the first to take precautions of this nature, as we may learn from Livy, l. ix. § 46; l. xxxix. § 14; Tacit. Annal. l. xv. § 43, and various other authorities.

[1847] Subsequent emperors reduced this standard still lower. See what Tacitus says of Nero in regard to this point, Annal. l. xv. § 43. Trajan forbade that any house should be constructed above 60 feet in height. Sextus Aurelius Victor, Epit. § 27.

[1848] There were five modes of playing at ball; 1. Throwing it up and catching it; 2. Foot-ball; 3. A throwing of the ball from one to another in a large party of players; 4. A dashing of the ball to the ground with force enough to rebound, when it was struck down again with the palm of the hand, and a reckoning was kept of the number of times the feat was repeated; and 5. A ball thrown among the players, who all endeavoured to obtain possession of it; this was a game of which we have no accurate account, it was called ἁρπαστὸν, and Galen speaks of it, περὶ μικρᾶς σφαίρας, c. 2, p. 902.

[1849] Coray proposes to read δίσκῳ, at quoits.

[1850] The tomb of Augustus.

[1851] θῆκαι, urns, Greek.

[1852] The Campus Martius.

[1853] The modern Capua.

[1854] S. Maria di Capoa.

[1855] Tuscolo.

[1856] L’Osteria dell’ Aglio.

[1857] Ferentino, near to Vitorchiano.

[1858] Frusinone.

[1859] Falvaterra.

[1860] Trerus.

[1861] Aquino.

[1862] Melpis.

[1863] Teano.

[1864] Calvi.

[1865] Nova Capua.

[1866] Sezza.

[1867] Segni.

[1868] πρὸ δὲ ταύτης. It seems doubtful whether ταύτης refers to Signia, or the Via Appia.

[1869] This city was sacked by the last Tarquin.

[1870] Core.

[1871] Probably Torre Petrara.

[1872] Kramer supposes this name to be an interpolation; the idea of Cluvier, adopted by Siebenkees and Coray, is that we should here read Σουέσσα τῶν Πωμεντίνων, Suessa Pometia.

[1873] Velletri.

[1874] Alatri.

[1875] Ceperano.

[1876] 125, B. C.

[1877] Now called l’Osteria del Pantano, situated very near the Castel dell’ Osa, and close by the lake Pantan de’ Griffi.

[1878] Palestrina.

[1879] Anagni.

[1880] Cerretano.

[1881] Liris.

[1882] Venafro.

[1883] Vulturnus.

[1884] Capua.

[1885] Castel di Volturno.

[1886] Isernia.

[1887] Allife.

[1888] 90 years B. C.

[1889] Tivoli.

[1890] The modern Pentima is supposed to occupy the site where the citadel of Corfinium stood, and the church of S. Pelino, about three miles from Popoli, stands on that of the ancient city of Corfinium.

[1891] We read with all MSS. and editions, Valeria, but Kramer, following the conjectures of Cluvier and others, has adopted Varia in his text.

[1892] Carsoli.

[1893] Albi.

[1894] Groskurd considers this to be Cucullo, alias Scutolo.

[1895] Il Tuscolo, above the modern town of Frascati.

[1896] The classic Anio.

[1897] The waters from the sulphur-lake; named the Solfatara di Tivoli.

[1898] Now the Lago di S. Giovanni, or Bagni di Grotta Marozza.

[1899] Prob. Cretona, not Monte Rotondo.

[1900] The younger Marius being entirely defeated by Sulla in the decisive battle fought near Sacriportus, B. C.82, Marius threw himself into Præneste, where he had deposited the treasures of the Capitoline temple. (Pliny H. N. l. xxxiii. s. 5.) Sulla left Lucretius Opella to prosecute the siege while he hastened on to Rome. Various efforts were made to relieve Præneste, but they all failed; and after Sulla’s great victory at the Colline gate of Rome, in which Pontius Telesinus was defeated and slain, Marius despaired of holding out any longer, and in company with the brother of Telesinus attempted to escape by a subterraneous passage, which led from the town into the open country; but finding that their flight was discovered, they put an end to one another’s lives. According to other accounts, Marius killed himself, or was killed by his slave at his own request. Marius perished in the year of his consulship. Smith, Dict. Biogr. and Myth.

[1901] The Abbé Chaupy is inclined to think that this was a name given to the part nearest the source of the river which Strabo, § 9, calls the Trerus, but Kramer thinks it was originally written ὁ Τρῆρος, and corrupted by the copyists.

[1902] Monte Cavo.

[1903] We have translated literally ἔχει δ’ ὅμως ἐρυμνὴν ἄκραν, but it is possible that Strabo may have meant that the citadel was built on a height above the town; if so the citadel would occupy the site of la Riccia.

[1904] Civita Lavinia, or, Città della Vigna.

[1905] Or Grove of Diana.

[1906] Nemus Ariciæ.

[1907] The text here appears to be mutilated.

[1908] Monte Cavo.

[1909] The Lago d’ Albano.

[1910] Alba Fucensis is here intended: hod. Albi.

[1911] The Judicello.

[1912] Catania, in Sicily.

[1913] See Pliny in reference to the Aqua Marcia, Hist. Nat. l. xxxi. § 24, also l. ii. § 106.

[1914] It served successively as a place of confinement for the kings Syphax, Perseus, and Bituitus.

[1915] Cisalpine Gaul.

[1916] Rimini.

[1917] The Fiumesino.

[1918] Giulia Nova.

[1919] Osimo.

[1920] S. Severino.

[1921] Probably for Pollentia, on the Chiento, opposite Urbisaglia.

[1922] Ruins, on the river Potenza, near to Porto di Recanati.

[1923] Fermo.

[1924] Porto di Fermo.

[1925] Near to the river Monecchia, not far from Marano.

[1926] Truentum.

[1927] The position of this city is still disputed, it has been identified with Porto d’ Ascoli, Torre di Seguro, and other places.

[1928] Giulia Nova.

[1929] Matrinus.

[1930] Atri.

[1931] Ascoli.

[1932] The text is here defective.

[1933] The Vestini appear to have occupied the region where at present Aquila, Ofena, Civita Aquana, Civita di Penna, Civita di St. Angelo, and Pescara are situated.

[1934] They inhabited the canton in which are built Tagliacozzo, Scurcola, Albi, Celano, Pescina, and the environs of Lake Celano.

[1935] Inhabited the territories of Sulmona, Pentima, and Popolo.

[1936] Occupied the district of Tieti or Chieti.

[1937] Inhabited the right bank of the Sangro, the territory of Guasto, the banks of the Trigno and Biferno, the district of Larino, the left bank of the Fortore, and extended north-west towards Pescara.

[1938] 91 B. C.

[1939] Pentima near Popoli.

[1940] The first consuls were Q. Pompædius Silo, and C. Aponius Mutilus; the prætors were Herius Asinius for the Marucini, C. Veltius Cato for the Marsi, M. Lamponius and T. Cleptius for the Leucani, Marius Egnatius Trebatius and Pontius Telesinus for the Samnites, C. Judacilius for the Apuli or Picentini, and A. Cluentius for the Peligni. Many other officers besides these distinguished themselves in the several campaigns of the Marsian war.

[1941] A note in the French translation would make the duration of the Marsian war twelve years.

[1942] Diodorus Siculus agrees with Strabo, in asserting that this war was called Marsian, because it had been commenced by the Marsi, Ὠνομάσθαι δέ φησι Μαρσικὸν [i. e. πόλεμον] ἐκ τῶν ἀρξάντων τῆς ἀποστάσεως, however, Velleius Paterculus asserts that the people of Asculum commenced the war, which was continued by the Marsi; and Livy (Epit. lib. lxxii.) makes the Picentini the first to raise the standard of revolt.

[1943] Quintus Pompædius Silo.

[1944] Now Sulmona, about seven miles south-east of Corfinium. It was the birth-place of Ovid.

Sulmo mihi patria est gelidis uberrimus undis.

Ovid. Trist. iv. El. 9.

[1945]

Marruvium, veteris celebratum nomine Marri,

Urbibus est illis caput.

Sil. Ital. viii. 507.

We must place this city, with Holstenius, at San Benedetto, on the eastern shore of the lake, where inscriptions have been found which leave no doubt on the subject. The coins of Marruvium have MARUB on the reverse and a head of Pluto.

[1946] Now Chieti, on the right bank of the Pescara. The family of Asinius Pollio came originally from this place.

[1947] Pescara.

[1948] Ortona-a-Mare.

[1949] Romanelli, (tom. iii. p. 40,) founding his opinion on ancient ecclesiastical records and the reports of local antiquaries, informs us that the ruins of Buca exist at the present Penna.

[1950] According to Holstenius and Romanelli, Civitate; according to others, Ponte Rotto.

[1951] Kramer is of opinion that this passage, from “Ortonium” to “life,” is an interpolation posterior to the age of Strabo.

[1952] Romanelli affirms that the mountain from which the river Alaro flows is called Sagra, and Cramer considers that river to be the ancient Sagrus.

[1953] The Daunii formed only a portion of the Apuli.

[1954] We have followed Kramer’s reading, τετρακοσίων ἐνενήκοντα.

[1955] The ruins of Monte Dragone.

[1956] Punta di Miseno.

[1957] The bay of Naples.

[1958] Punta della Campanella.

[1959] This passage is not found in the works of Polybius, as handed down to us.

[1960] Sorrento.

[1961] Torre di Patria.

[1962] Liternus.

[1963] Vulturnum.

[1964] Venafro.

[1965] Κύμη. The Greeks gave a singular form to this name of the ancient seat of the Sibyl. Her chamber, which was hewn out of the solid rock, was destroyed when the fortress of Cumæ was besieged by Narses, who undermined it.

[1966] Eusebius states that it was founded 1050 B. C., a few years before the great migration of the Ionians into Asia Minor.

[1967] We may observe that Strabo seems not to have restricted the Φλέγραιον πέδιον to that which modern geographers term the Phlegræan plains, which are contained between Cumæ and the hills bordering the Lake Agnano, a little beyond Pozzuolo, but, like Pliny, to have extended it to the whole region, at present termed Terra di Lavoro.

[1968] A note in the French translation observes, that Diodorus Siculus (lib. xii. § 76) places this event in the fourth year of the 89th Olympiad, 421 B. C.Livy (lib. iv. § 44) seems to place it a year later.

[1969] It is now called Pineta di Castel Volturno.

[1970] Forty years B. C.

[1971] Punta di Miseno.

[1972] Lago di Fusaro.

[1973] Lago Lucrino. This lake has almost disappeared, owing to a subterraneous eruption, which in 1538 displaced the water and raised the hill called Monte Nuovo.

[1974] Lago d’ Averno.

[1975] νέκυια, the title of the 11th book of the Odyssey.

[1976] νεκυομαντεῖον, another title of the same (11th) book.

[1977] Strabo is not the only one who mentions this: Virgil says,

“Spelunca alta fuit, vastoque immanis hiatu,

Scrupea, tuta lacu nigro, nemorumque tenebris;

Quam super haud ullæ poterant impune volantes

Tendere iter pennis; talis sese halitus atris

Faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat;

Unde locum Graii dixerunt nomine Avernum.”

Æneid. vi. 237.

[1978] The Greeks applied the term Plutonian to places where disagreeable and pestilential exhalations arose.

[1979]

“Nor ever does the light-giving Sun shine upon them.”

Odys. xi. 15.

[1980] The text here appears to have been corrupted.

[1981] We agree with Kramer in considering as an interpolation the words, τε καὶ ἐπὶ Νέαν πόλιν ἐκ Δικαιαρχίας ἐπὶ ταῖς Βαΐαις, and likewise another at Neapolis from Dicæarchia to Baiæ. It is generally supposed that the Grotta di Pausilipo, or Crypta Neapolitana, is of much greater antiquity than the Augustan age, when Cocceius flourished. There is good reason to refer that great undertaking to the Cumæi, of whose skill in works of this nature we have so remarkable an instance in the temple of their sibyl.

[1982] Dion Cassius tells us, on the contrary, that owing to the exertions of Agrippa, the gulfs both of Avernus and Lucrinus became excellent ports, λιμένας ναυλοχωτάτους ἀπέδειξεν.

[1983] Pozzuoli.

[1984] La Solfa-terra.

[1985] Naples.

[1986] Innumerable accounts exist relative to the foundation of this city. The most prevalent fiction was that the siren Parthenope was cast upon its shores, and from her it derived the name, by which it was usually designated by the ancient poets.

Sirenum dedit una suum memorabile nomen

Parthenope muris Acheloïas: æquore cujus

Regnavere diu cantus, quum dulce per undas

Exitium miseris caneret non prospera nautis.

Sil. Ital. xii. 33.

Scymnus of Chios mentions both the Phocæi and Cumæi as its founders. Stephanus of Byzantium attributes its foundation to the Rhodians; their proximity is favourable to the claims of the Cumæi, and hence the connexion of Naples with Eubœa, alluded to by Statius, who was born there.

At te nascentem gremio mea prima recepit

Parthenope, dulcisque solo tu gloria nostro

Reptasti; nitidum consurgat ad æthera tellus

Eubois, et pulchra tumeat Sebethos alumna.

Silv. i. 2.

A Greek inscription mentions a hero named Eumelus as having had divine honours paid to him, possibly as founder of the city. [See Capaccio, Hist. Nap. p. 105. Martorelli de’ Fenici primi abitatori di Napoli.

This may illustrate the following lines,—

Di patrii, quos auguriis super æquora magnis

Littus ad Ausonium devexit Abantia classis,

Tu ductor populi longe emigrantis Apollo,

Cujus adhuc volucrem leva cervice sedentem

Respiciens blande felix Eumelis adorat.

Silv. iv. 8, 45.

[1987] Probably those mentioned in a fragment of Timæus, quoted by Tzetzes, (ad Lycophr. v. 732-737,) as having migrated to Italy under the command of Diotimus, who also instituted the λαμπαδηφορία, which was still observed at Naples in the time of Statius:

Tuque Actæa Ceres, cursu cui semper anhelo

Votivam taciti quassamus lampada mystæ.

Silv. iv. 8, 50.

[1988] Neapolis, or Naples, signifying the new city.

[1989] Places of exercise for youth.

[1990] Societies.

[1991] Grotta di Pausilipo.

[1992] Pausilypus mons was the name of the ridge of hills which separates the bay of Naples from that of Pozzuoli. This was probably given to it on account of its delightful situation and aspect, which rendered it the favourite residence of several noble and wealthy Romans.

[1993] Puteoli.

[1994] Seneca, in describing the Crypta Neapolitana, as it was then called, gives an exaggerated account of the sombre horrors of the place. Perhaps in his time the apertures had become obstructed, which was evidently not the case at the time when Strabo, or the authority whom he follows, visited the place.

[1995] Hercolano, or Herculaneum, by Cicero (to Atticus, vii. 3) called Herculanum. It is probable that the subversion of this town was not sudden, but progressive, since Seneca mentions a partial demolition which it sustained from an earthquake. (Nat. Quæst. vi. 1.) So many books have been written on the antiquities and works of art discovered in Herculaneum, that the subject need not be enlarged upon here.

[1996] Several inscriptions in Oscan, and Etruscan, characters have been discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum. Lanzi, (tom. iii.,)—Romanelli Viaggio a Pompei ed Ercolano.

[1997] Pompeii.

[1998] The ancient Sarnus.

[1999] These Pelasgi were established among the Tyrrhenians.

[2000] It is believed that the Samnites possessed both places, 310, B. C.

[2001] The Romans must have been masters of these cities 272, B. C. (Livy, Epit. xiv.)

[2002] Nola resisted, under the able direction of Marcellus, all the efforts of Hannibal after the battle of Cannæ. A remarkable inscription in Oscan characters relative to this town is explained by Lanzi, (tom. iii. 612,) its name is there written NUFLA. See Cramer’s Ancient Italy, vol. ii. p. 211.

[2003] Nocera de’ Pagani.

[2004] Sorrento.

[2005] Punta della Campanella.

[2006] The Sirenusæ were three small rocks detached from the land, and celebrated as the islands of the Sirens; they are now called Galli. See Holsten. Adnot. p. 248; Romanelli, tom. iii. p. 619. Virgil, Æn. v. 864, describes them as,

Jamque adeo scopulos advecta subibat;

Difficiles quondam, multorumque ossibus albos.

It had been decreed that the Sirens should live only till some one hearing their song should pass on unmoved, and Orpheus, who accompanied the Argonauts, having surpassed the Sirens, and led on the ship, they cast themselves into the sea, and were metamorphosed into these rocks.

[2007] The bay of Naples.

[2008] Punta di Miseno.

[2009] Procida.

[2010] Ischia.

[2011] It appears that Hiero the First is here alluded to; he ascended the throne 478 years before the Christian era.

[2012] The volcanos of Sicily, Lipari, Pithecussæ, or Ischia, and Mount Vesuvius. See Humboldt (Cosmos i. 238, note).

[2013] We, in common with the French translators and Siebenkees, have adopted the νήσους found in the MS. of Peter Bembo, and some others cited by Casaubon.

[2014] Pindar Pyth. Od. i. 32; Conf. Pindar. Olymp. Od. iv. 2.

[2015] This writer flourished about 264 years before the Christian era.

[2016] Epopeus mons, now sometimes called Epomeo, but more commonly Monte San Nicolo.

[2017] The waters at the source Olmitello, in the southern part of the island, are the most efficacious for this disease.

[2018] Capri.

[2019] Teano.

[2020] Galazze. We have not hesitated to read Callateria, with all MSS. Kramer has printed Καλατία in text. Numismatic writers ascribe to this, and not the Samnite Calatia, the coins with the head of Jupiter on the obverse, and the legend, KALAT, and KALATI, in retrograde Oscan characters on the reverse. Mionnet. Med. Ant. Suppl. vol. i. p. 232; Sestini, Monet. Vet. p. 13.

[2021] S. Maria di Goti, near to Forchia Caudina.

[2022] Benevento.

[2023] Nova Capua.

[2024] Volturno.

[2025] The text has μεδίμνου; but we adopted μυὸς, the word proposed by most of the Greek editors; Valerius Maximus, Pliny, and Frontinus all agreeing in the statement, that it was a rat which fetched this enormous price.

[2026] Calvi.

[2027] Castel di Sessola, near Maddaloni.

[2028] Holstenius says that the ruins of Atella are still to be seen near S. Arpino, or S. Elpidio, about two miles beyond Aversa.

[2029] Now Nola. It was one of the most ancient and important cities of Campania; though situated in an open plain, it resisted all the efforts of Hannibal after the battle of Cannæ. Here Augustus expired, in the same room in which his father Octavius had breathed his last.

[2030] Nocera.

[2031] Acerra near the source of the Agno, the ancient Clanius.

[2032] Avella Vecchia.

[2033] Such was Nola, which our author in his sixth book evidently places in the territory of the Samnites.

[2034] Bojano.

[2035] Isernia.

[2036] The ruins of Telesia are to be seen about a mile from the modern Telese. Allifæ was between Telesia and Venafrum.

[2037] Benevento.

[2038] Venosa. The coins of Venusia have on the reverse the inscription VE., and an eagle resting on a thunderbolt. On the obverse, a head of Jupiter, and sometimes of Bacchus. Sestini, Monet. Vet. p. 15. The Antiquitates Venusinæ and the Iter Venusinum were published at Naples in the last century.

[2039] Casaubon conjectures that in place of the τῷ ἔτει τούτῳ, we should read τῷ ἔαρι τούτῳ, or, the productions of the spring: and it certainly would seem that Strabo is here describing what the Latins called a ver sacrum. An ancient historian, speaking of the occurrence mentioned by Strabo, says, “Quondam Sabini feruntur vovisse, si res communis melioribus locis constitisset, se ver sacrum facturos.” Sisenn. Hist. lib. iv. ap. Non. Marcell. De doctor. indag. ed. 1683, fol. 2531. Festus, Sext. P. Fest. De verb. sign. F. ed. 1699, p. 478, seems to have mentioned the same thing.

[2040] The animals and fruits are intended.

[2041] Devoted to Mars.

[2042] Or little Sabines.

[2043] From Pitane, a place in Laconia.

[2044] B. C.216.

[2045] 211 B. C.

[2046] B. C.59.

[2047] We concur with Kramer in considering that the words μέχρι Φρεντανῶν, which occur immediately after Σαυνῖτιν, have been interpolated.

[2048] The Gulf of Salerno.

[2049] Pesti.

[2050] This city must have been founded nearly 540 years B. C., for Herodotus says that the Phocæans were chiefly induced to settle on the shores of Œnotria by the advice of a citizen of Posidonia, and they founded Velia in the reign of Cyrus. B. i. 164.

[2051] 442 B. C.

[2052] B. C.274.

[2053] Apparently the Fiume Salso.

[2054] Pesti.

[2055] Vietri.

[2056] Pompeii.

[2057] Nocera.

[2058] The ancient Silaris.

[2059] We are inclined to read Leucania with Du Theil. The Paris manuscript, No. 1393, reads κανίαν.

[2060] Pliny, in his Natural History, (lib. ii. § 106,) has confirmed Strabo’s account. It appears from Cluvier that the people who inhabit the banks of the Silaro are not acquainted with any circumstances which might corroborate the statement. (Cluvier, Ital. Ant. lib. iv. c. 14.)

[2061] About B. C.201.

[2062] The ancient Silaris.

[2063] Pesti.

[2064] It is now called Licosa, and sometimes Isola piana; several vestiges of buildings were discovered on the island in 1696. Antonin. della Lucan. p. ii. disc. 8.

[2065] Capo della Licosa.

[2066] Punta della Campanella.

[2067] Golfo di Salerno.

[2068] Strabo here cites the historian Antiochus, but it is surprising that he does not rather cite the writer from whom Antiochus seems to have borrowed this account, we mean Herodotus, who relates it (lib. i. § 164). But Strabo, probably, looking upon Herodotus as a collector of fables, chose rather to yield to the authority of Antiochus, who had written very accurate memoirs upon Italy, and who was, likewise, himself a very ancient author, (Dion. Halicarn. Antiq. Rom. lib. i. § 12,) and flourished about 420 years before the Christian era.

[2069] Or Velia, founded 532 B. C., mentioned by Horace, Epist. I. xv. 1, “Quæ sit hyems Veliæ, quod cœlum, Vala, Salerni.”

[2070] The modern Alento.

[2071] Now unknown.

[2072] Pliny affirms that these two islands were called, the one Pontia, the other Ischia; “Contra Veliam Pontia et Ischia, utræque uno nomine Œnotrides, argumentum possessæ ab Œnotriis Italiæ.” Hist. Nat. lib. iii. § 13. If this reading be not faulty, Pliny will have placed in the latitude, of which our author is now giving a description, a small island bearing the same name, Pontia, as the island lying off Cape Misenum.

[2073] The Buxentum of the Latins.

[2074] 471 years before the Christian era.

[2075] Gulf of Policastro.

[2076] Now the river Laino.

[2077] Called Laino in the time of Cluverius. Lib. iv. cap. 14.

[2078] Upon this coast.

[2079] Founded about the year 510 B. C.

[2080] About the year 390 before the Christian era.

[2081] i. e. the Gulf of Tarentum.

[2082] Strabo seems here to distinguish the Chones from the Œnotri, and the Œnotri from the Greeks. According to Cluvier (Ital. Antiq. cap. 16, p. 1323) here was a double error: “not only (says he) Aristotle, but Antiochus, according to Strabo’s own testimony, positively affirmed that the Chones and Œnotri were one and the same nation, and Dionysius of Halicarnassius (Antiq. Roman. lib. i. § 11) makes no doubt that the Œnotri were of Greek origin.” But Mazochi justifies the distinction between the Chones and the Œnotri, and shows cause to doubt that the Œnotri were of Greek origin.

[2083] ἐκβεβαρβαρῶσθαι. We think with Mazochi (Prodrom. ad Heracl. pseph. diatrib. 2, cap. 7, sect. 2) that, by the above word, Strabo probably expressed that, at the time when he wrote, Tarentum, Rheggio, and Naples were the only cities founded by the Greeks in Italy, which, although become Roman, retained the language, laws, and usages of their mother country.

[2084] It has been well observed by Cramer in his Ancient Italy, that Strabo confused this Petilia of the Leucani with another better known of the Bruttii, the foundation of which was attributed to Philoctetes. It is observed by Antonini that Strabo contradicts himself, by ascribing to Philoctetes the origin of a town in Leucania, for he states a few lines further on that that hero occupied a part of the coast near Crotona, which was in the territory of the Bruttii. Strabo’s account, however, of the existence of a Leucanian Petilia is confirmed by many inscriptions of early date. The ruins of the town remain on the Monte della Stella. Antonin. della Lucan. p. i. disc. 8. Romanelli, tom. i. p. 350.

[2085] According to some judicious antiquaries, the site of Chone is located at Casabuona, near Strongoli.

[2086] Trapani del Monte.

[2087] The ruins of this city, which was anciently called also Egesta, Acesta, and Segesta, may be seen at Barbara, in the valley of Mazzara.

[2088] Kramer, following the suggestion of Xylander, has printed Γρουμεντὸν. I am inclined, however, to think that Πουμεντὸν, the reading of Manuscripts, is correct. According to Barrio, it occupied the situation of Gerenza, on the right bank of the Nieto.

[2089] Verzine on the Nieto. (Barr. lib. iv. cap. 18. Maraf. lib. iii. c. 18.)

[2090] Calasarna is supposed by the Calabrian topographers to accord with the site of Campania.

[2091] Venosa, situated about 15 miles south of the Aufidus. It was a colony of importance before the war against Pyrrhus. After the disaster at Cannæ, it afforded a retreat to Varro and the few who escaped that signal overthrow. Horace was born there in the year of the city 688. About six miles from Venosa, on the site named Palazzo, was the Fons Bandusiæ. (Chaupy, Des c. de la maison de Camp. d’Horace, tom. iii. p. 538.)

[2092] Cluvier thought that we should read Θουριανὴ instead of Ταυριανὴ.

[2093] Laos, now Lao.

[2094] Torre di Mare.

[2095] Golfo di S. Eufemia.

[2096] Golfo di Squillace. Scylletium was once a Greek city of note, communicating its name to the gulf. Servius observes that the Athenians who founded the colony were returning from Africa. There was a Greek inscription found in 1791 relative to the Λαμπαδηδρομία, which seems to confirm the tradition of the Athenian origin of Scylletium. It was the birth-place of Cassiodorus.

[2097] Σίλαρις. The Silaro, which, divides Lucania from Campania, takes its rise in the Apennines, in a district which formerly belonged to the Hirpini; and after receiving the Tanager, now Negro, and the Calor, now Calore, falls into the Gulf of Salerno. Silius Italicus (viii. 582) states that this river possessed the property of incrusting twigs with a calcareous deposit:

“Nunc Silarus quos nutrit aquis, quo gurgite tradunt

Duritiem lapidum mersis inolescere ramis.”

At its mouth was a haven named Portus Albernus.

[2098] Torre di Mare.

[2099] Cirella.

[2100] This measure, upon our charts, is 330 Olympic stadia. Gosselin.

[2101] Golfo di Squillace.

[2102] The Golfo di S. Eufemia.

[2103] ἐξετάραξεν ἅπαντας πρὸς ἅπαντας. Lit. “He stirred up every body against every body.” It is conceived that the hostilities of the Bruttii were fomented by Dion in order to prevent the tyrant Dionysius from deriving any aid from his Leucanian allies. The advancement of the Bruttii to independence is computed by Diodorus Siculus to have taken place about 397 years after the foundation of Rome, that is, 356 before the Christian era.

[2104] The situation of Temesa has not yet been fully determined. Cluverius fixes it about ten miles south of Amantea, near Torre Loppa. Romanelli observes, however, that Cluverius has not allowed for the difference between the ancient and modern computation of distance. To rectify this oversight, he makes choice of Torre del piano del Casale, nearly two miles north of Torre Loppa, as the locality of this ancient site. The silver coins of Temesa are scarce. They have the Greek epigraph, ΤΕΜ.

[2105] After the second Punic war it was colonized by the Romans, who called it Tempsa, B. C.195.

[2106] We concur with Kramer in approving the proposition of Groskurd to understand the words ἐκεῖνον μὲν οὖν διὰ πολλοῦ as having been originally written in the text immediately before ἐπικεῖσθαι αὐτοῖς.

[2107] They had been compelled to sacrifice a virgin annually in order to appease his disturbed spirit.

[2108] Borgo di Tamasso.

[2109] These words in parenthesis seem to have been interpolated by the transcribers of our author. Both Temesa and Tamassus were rich in metal, but the spelling of the name in Homer is more in accordance with Temesa than Tamassus, and other poets have alluded to it, as Ovid. Met. xv. 706,

“Evincitque fretum, Siculique angusta Pelori,

Hippotadæque domos regis, Temesesque metalla.”

And Fast. v. 441,

“... Temesæaque concrepat æra.”

And Statius, Silv. i. 42,

“Et cui se toties Temese dedit hausta metallis.”

[2110] Odyssey i. 184.

[2111] Nocera.

[2112] Hannibal took refuge in Calabria about 209 years before the Christian era.

[2113] Cosenza, near the source of the Crathis, now Crati, represents Cosentia. It was taken by Hannibal after the surrender of Petilia, but towards the end of the war the Romans regained it.

[2114]

Αἰακίδη, προφύλαξο μολεῖν Ἀχερούσιον ὕδωρ

Πανδοσίην θ’, ὅθι τοι θάνατος πεπρωμένος ἐστί.

Son of Æacus, beware of approaching the Acherusian water and Pandosia, where death is destined for thee.

[2115] About B. C.330.

[2116] Commentators generally agree that this is the Pandosia memorable for the defeat and death of Alexander, king of Epirus. The early Calabrian antiquaries have placed it at Castel Franco. D’Anville, in his map, lays it down near Lao and Cirella. Modern investigators have sought its ruins near Mendocino, between Cosenza and the sea, a hill with three summits having been remarked there, which answers to the fatal height pointed out by the oracle,

Πανδοσία τρικόλωνε, πολύν ποτε λαὸν ὀλέσσεις·

together with a rivulet, Maresanto or Arconti; which last name recalls the Acheron denounced by another prediction, as so inauspicious to the Molossian king. Scylax, in his Periplus, seems to place Pandosia, together with Clampetia and Terina, near the western coast.

[2117] Afterwards Vibo Valentia, now Monte-Leone.

[2118] Surnamed the Epizephyrii. Heyne supposes this took place B. C.388.

[2119] B. C.193.

[2120] There was a temple erected to Proserpine in these meadows, and a building called “Amalthæa’s horn,” raised by Gelon of Syracuse.

[2121] The present harbour of Bivona.

[2122] He reigned from B. C.317 to B. C.289.

[2123] Now Le Formicole. The promontory named Capo Vaticano seems to have been anciently known under the same appellation.

[2124] Medma, or Mesma, was situated on the right bank of the river Mesima, which seems to retain traces of the name of the ancient city. Antiquaries report that its ruins are seen between Nicotera and the river Mesima. The epigraph on the coins of this city is generally ΜΕΣΜΑ, or ΜΕΣΜΑΙΩΝ, and in a single instance ΜΕΔΑΜΑ.

[2125] That is, the Epizephyrian Locrians.

[2126] Cluverius considers this to be the modern Bagnara.

[2127] The ancient river Metaurus is now also called Marro, and sometimes Petrace. It was noted for the excellence of the thunny fish caught at its mouth.

[2128] Metaurum. The site of this place is supposed to accord with that of the town of Gioja.

[2129] Homer, Odyssey, lib. x.

[2130] There have been many suggestions for the correction of this passage. Kramer thinks that Cluverius was happy in proposing Ποταμὸς instead of Μέταυρος, and that then the Cratais, now Solano, or Fiume de’ Pesci, would be the river which Strabo intended.

[2131] According to Pliny, these two promontories were separated by an interval of twelve stadia, or a mile and a half, which accords with the statement of Polybius. Thucydides, however, allows about two miles and a half, which he considers to be the utmost possible distance. Topographers are divided as to the exact point of the Italian coast which answers to Cape Cænys. The Calabrian geographers say the Punta del Pezzo, called also Coda del Volpe, in which opinion Cluverius and D’Anville coincide, but Holstenius contends for the Torre del Cavallo, which the French translators seem to favour. In fact, that may be the narrowest point, still it does not answer so well to Strabo’s description of the figure and bearing of Cape Cænys as the Punta del Pezzo.

[2132] The temple or altar of Neptune.

[2133] The Columna Rhegina, as remarked by Cramer, (vol. ii. p. 427,) was probably a pillar set up to mark the consular road leading to the south of Italy. Strabo speaks of it as a small tower (book iii. c. v. § 5, p. 265). In the Itinerary of Antoninus it is simply termed Columna, but in the inscription relative to the Via Aquilia, it is called Statua. The situation of this tower is generally identified with the site of La Catona.

[2134] Now Reggio, one of the most celebrated and flourishing cities of Magna Grecia, founded about 696 years B. C.Cato affirms that it was once in the possession of the Aurunci. The connexion which subsisted between Rhegium and the Chalcidian colonies in Sicily, induced its inhabitants to take part with the Athenians in their first hostilities against the Syracusans and Locrians. In the great Sicilian expedition, the Rhegians observed a strict neutrality. While the Athenian fleet was moored in their roads, they refused to admit the army within their walls, which therefore encamped near the temple of Diana outside the town. Rhegium subsequently pursued a similar policy, and suffered severely under tyrants, but the Roman senate at length freed the unfortunate citizens.

[2135] Strabo here alludes to the crime which was perpetrated in the reign of Teleclus, about 811 years before the Christian era. The division of the Messenians into two parties, the one wishing and the other refusing to give satisfaction, lasted about 150 years. See book vi. cap. iii. § 3.

[2136] It was taken by the Lacedæmonians about B. C.668.

[2137] It seems probable that Strabo here refers to Morgantium in Sicily, which had disappeared in his days, and which he mentions in b. vi. c. 11. § 4.

[2138] Sextus Pompeius, having received from the senate the command of the fleet, B. C.43, in a short time made himself master of Sicily, which he held till 36.

[2139] This is a quotation from one of the missing works of Æschylus.

[2140] Virgil speaks of this great catastrophe, Æn. iii. 414,

“Hæc loca, vi quondam et vasta convulsa ruina

(Tantum ævi longinqua valet mutare vetustas,)

Dissiluisse ferunt: cum protinus utraque tellus

Una foret, venit medio vi pontus, et undis

Hesperium Siculo latus abscidit: arvaque et urbes

Litore diductas angusto interluit æstu.”

[2141] Procida.

[2142] It appears from the more ancient coins of Rhegium, that the original name was Recion. In these the epigraph is Rec. Reci. Recinos, in characters partaking more of the Oscan than the Greek form; those of more recent date are decidedly Greek, ΡΗΓ. ΡΗΓΙΝΩΝ, being inscribed on them. A note in the French translation shows that the inhabitants of Rhegium did not participate in the rights of Roman citizens till about 90 years before the Christian era.

[2143] Among these were many followers of Pythagoras, also Theagenes, Hippys, Lycus surnamed Butera, and Glaucus, who were historians; Ibycus, Cleomenes, and Lycus the adoptive father of Lycophron, who were poets; Clearchus and Pythagoras, who were sculptors.

[2144] The Rhegians firmly opposed the designs of this tyrant; and when, under pretence of courting their alliance, he sought a consort from their city, they replied with independent feeling that he might have their hangman’s daughter. (See Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 44.) Had the other states of Magna Grecia displayed the same energy, the ambitious views of this artful prince might have been frustrated; but after the defeat of their forces on the Elleporus, now Callipari, they succumbed, and Rhegium, after a gallant defence which lasted nearly a year, was compelled to yield, about the year 398 B. C.The insulting tyrant sentenced the heroic Phyton, who had commanded the town, to a cruel death, and removed the few inhabitants that remained to Sicily.

[2145] B. C.360.

[2146] B. C.280.

[2147] B. C. 91.

[2148] The defeat of Sextus Pompeius is referred to the year 36 B. C., but there is no precise date mentioned for the establishment of the veteran soldiers in Rhegium, which probably took place about the year 31 B. C.

[2149] Pliny computes the distance from Rhegium to Cape Leucopetra at 12 miles; there is probably some error in the text, as there is no cape which corresponds with the distance of 50 stadia from Rhegium. A note in the French translation proposes to read 100 instead of 50 stadia. Topographers are not agreed in fixing the situation of the celebrated Leucopetra. D’Anville places it at Capo Pittaro, Grimaldi at the Punta della Saetta, and Cluverius, Holstenius, and Cellarius at the Capo dell’Armi. This latter opinion seems more compatible with the statement of Pliny, and is also more generally accredited.

[2150] The Herculeum Promontorium is known in modern geography as Capo Spartivento.

[2151] The Promontorium Iapygium, or Sallentinum, as it was sometimes called, formed a remarkable feature in the figure of Italy, while the art of navigation was in its infancy. It was a conspicuous landmark to mariners bound from the ports of Greece to Sicily. The fleets of Athens, after having circumnavigated the Peloponnesus, usually made for Corcyra, whence they steered straight across to the promontory, and then coasted along the south of Italy. It seems from Thucydides (vi. 44) that there was a haven here which afforded a shelter to vessels in tempestuous weather.

[2152] Now Capo di Bruzzano.

[2153] The one 710, the other 734 years B. C.

[2154] The opinion of Ephorus seems to be supported by many other writers, and is generally preferred by modern critics.

[2155] Monte Esope.

[2156] This wicked prince, having been expelled from Syracuse, had found refuge among the Locrians from the storm which threatened his existence; but, depraved as he was degraded, he repaid the kindness of the people, who treated him as their kinsman because his mother Doris had been the daughter of one of their principal citizens, with the basest treachery and ingratitude. He introduced into their city a number of miscreants, and having overpowered the inhabitants, gave loose to all the vicious propensities of his nature.

[2157] Horrid as is the vengeance which the Locri took on these unfortunate victims of a husband’s and a father’s crimes, it serves to confirm the accounts of the iniquity and barbarity of a prince, whose mean and imbecile conduct at other times sanctions the notion that his intellect was disordered.

[2158] We could almost wish to read this passage—“rendered them more plausible, but impaired their utility.”

[2159] The ancient Halex.

[2160] Although Strabo ascribes Mamertium to the Bruttii, it is more probable that it was a colony of Campanian mercenaries, deriving their name from Mamers, the Oscan Mars, who served under Agathocles, and other princes of Sicily. The Mamertini were employed by the Romans against Pyrrhus, whom they attacked in the woods and defiles about Rhegium. Barrio (lib. ii. c. 10) and Maraf. (lib. iii. c. 25, f. 222) have identified the site of this ancient town with Martorano, but it seems too distant from Locri and Rhegium to accord with Strabo’s description. Cluverius, D’Anville, and Romanelli place it at Oppido, a bishop’s see above Reggio, and Gerace, where old coins are said to have been discovered. Cramer (vol. ii. p. 439) thinks that the Melæ mentioned by Thucydides may have been identical with Mamertium. Several remains of antiquity exist on the site called Mela, in the vicinity of Oppido.

[2161] The pix Bruttia is noticed by Pliny, Columella, Dioscorides, and other authorities mentioned by Bochart, Canaan, p. 595. Bochart looks upon the Bruttii as a people known to the Phœnicians at a very remote period.

[2162] Geographers differ much as to the modern river which corresponds to this stream. Romanelli and Swinburne consider it to be the Alaro.

[2163] During the war against Pyrrhus, whose cause was espoused by Caulonia, the city was pillaged by the Mamertini, the allies of the Romans. The town was subsequently occupied by the Bruttii, who defended it against the Romans in the second Punic war. Barrio and other Calabrian topographers have fixed its site at Castro Vetere, but Strabo placed it on the left bank of the Sagras, which is inconsistent with their supposition, and it is still a subject of inquiry.

[2164] Cluvier (Sicil. ant. lib. ii.) reckons this place was situated between Caltanis and Pietrapreccia.

[2165] Now Squillace.

[2166] Servius observes that these Athenians were returning from Africa, Serv. Æn. iii. 552.

[2167] Saumaise (Exercit. Plin. p. 47, 57) thinks the true reading should be Scylaceium, or Virgil could not have made the penultimate long.

... Attollit se diva Lacinia contra

Caulonisque arces, et navifragum Scylaceum.

Æn. iii. 652.

[2168] About B. C.389.

[2169] Book vi. cap. i. § 4.

[2170] Pliny seems to attribute to Dionysius the elder the project of cutting not walling off the isthmus: “Itaque Dionysius major intercisam eo loco adjicere Siciliæ voluit.” Hist. Nat. lib. iii. § 15. Grimaldi also is of opinion that the circumstance mentioned by Strabo should be referred to the first years of Dionysius the younger, about B. C.366-359.

[2171] By those who dwelt without, Strabo doubtless intended the Crotoniatæ, and their allies.

[2172] These three capes are now called Capo delle Castella, Capo Rizzuto, and Capo della Nave.

[2173] Lacinium was about six miles from Crotona. The celebrated temple of Juno derived its name from the promontory. According to Diodorus Siculus, some ascribe its origin to Hercules. (Diod. Sic. iv. 24.) Its ruins are in the early Doric style, with fluted pillars broader at the base than at the capital. It measured about 132 yards in length, and 66 in breadth. Its principal entrance opened to the west.

[2174] Gosselin follows the opinion that Polybius wrote 1300 stadia.

[2175] The Strait of Sicily.

[2176] The modern names of Cape Lacinium, viz. Capo delle Colonne and Capo Nao, are derived from the remains of the temple, which is still visible on its summit.

[2177] The text is here evidently deficient. Groskurd says that Strabo most probably wrote as follows, “As the chorographer says, Artemidorus reckons that [the journey would take 12 days for one travelling on foot], with his girdle on; [but, to one sailing, the distance is 2000 stadia:] leaving at the same time as many [for the mouth, as Polybius has given] for the breadth of the mouth of the gulf.” The French translators, however, have attempted to read the text as follows, “The chorographer makes it 240 miles, and Artemidorus says that it is 380 for a light traveller; a computation in which the breadth of the mouth is not included;” but comment on it in several extensive notes.

[2178] South-east.

[2179] The ancient Æsar.

[2180] Groskurd observes, Im Texte καὶ λιμὴν. Besser also, liest man mit Cluv. λίμνη, and translates it “a salt-marsh;” but Cramer, in his description of ancient Italy, observes that the mouth of the river Esaro formed a haven, which, however incommodious compared with those of Tarentum and Brundusium, was long a source of great wealth to Crotona, as we are assured by Polybius, Frag. x. 1.

[2181] Neæthus. This river was said to derive its name from the circumstance of the captive Trojan women having there set fire to the Grecian fleet.

[2182] Νέαιθος, from νῆας and αἰθεῖν, “to burn the ships.”

[2183] There is much obscurity in this oracular response. The various manuscripts offer many readings.

[2184] A note in the French translation observes that the establishment of Myscellus at Crotona took place about 709 or 703 years B. C., and that Syracuse was founded as early as 735 years B. C.

[2185] According to some traditions, Crotona was very ancient, and derived its name from the hero Croto. Thus Ovid:

“Vixque pererratis quæ spectant littora terris,

Invenit Æsarei fatalia fluminis ora:

Nec procul hinc tumulum, sub quo sacrata Crotonis

Ossa tegebat humus. Jussaque ibi mœnia terra

Condidit; et nomen tumulati traxit in urbem.”

Ovid. Metam. xv. 53.

[2186] Milo is said to have carried off the prize for wrestling from the 62nd Olympiad, B. C.532, and also to have commanded the 100,000 Crotoniatæ who engaged the hostile armies of Sybaris and destroyed their city, about B. C.509. Diod. Sic. xii. 9, &c.

[2187] Sybaris was said to have been founded by the people of Trœzene not long after the siege of Troy. Aristot. Politic. lib. v. cap. 3. Solin. viii. But these were subsequently joined by a more numerous colony of Achæans, about B. C.720. Euseb. Chron. ii.

[2188] ὁ Κρᾶθις. There was a stream of the same name in Achaia, from whence the Italian Crathis, now Crati, derived its name. The Crathis and Sybaris now join about 14 miles from the sea.

[2189] Now Cochile.

[2190] Koray objected to the old reading, ὁ Ἰσελικεὺς, and proposed instead Οἰς.... Ἑλικεὺς; Groskurd thought it better to translate it Ihr Erbauer war Is.... aus Helike; and Kramer has adopted this latter view, which we have followed.

[2191] Helice was mentioned, book i. chap. iii. § 18. Ovid, Metam. xv. 293, also speaks of this city,

“Si quæras Helicen et Buram Achaïdas urbes,

Invenies sub aquis....”

[2192] The Epitome gives nine days.

[2193] The events which led to this catastrophe are thus related by Diodorus Siculus: “A democratical party, at the head of which was Telys, having gained the ascendency, expelled 500 of the principal citizens, who sought refuge at Crotona. This city, upon receiving a summons to give up the fugitives, or prepare for war, by the advice of Pythagoras chose the latter. The armies met near the river Triunti, in the territory of Crotona, where the brave citizens gained a complete victory.”

[2194] At the instigation of Pericles, the Athenians sent out a colony under the command of Lampon and Xenocritus, which arrived about 55 years after the overthrow of Sybaris. Two celebrated characters are named among those who joined this expedition, which was collected from different parts of Greece. These were Herodotus, and Lysias the orator.

[2195] Compare Ælian. Hist. Anim. ii. 36.

[2196] From B. C.390 to 290.

[2197] About B. C.194.

[2198] Cæsar however calls it Thurii, and designates it a municipal town. Civ. Bell. iii. 22.

[2199] Now La Nucara.

[2200] It is not ascertained whether this leader were the architect of the Horse of Troy.

[2201] Antiquaries seem agreed in fixing the site of this town at Policoro, about three miles from the mouth of the Agri, where considerable remains are still visible. The city is famous as the seat of the general council of the Greek states, and the celebrated bronze tables on which the learned Mazzocchi bestowed so much labour were discovered near its site. Its coins represent Hercules contending with the lion, and bear the epigraph ΗΡΑ or ΗΡΑΚΛΗΙΩΝ.

[2202] Ἄκιρις.

[2203] Σῖρις.

[2204] This accords very well with the distance given in the Itinerary of Antoninus.

[2205] About B. C.580.

[2206] Kramer reads χώνων in the text. We have followed the opinion of the French translators, who have rendered it “possédée par des Troyens.” MSS. give various readings.

[2207] Kramer reads ἐπὶ Τεύθραντος, but thinks with Groskurd that ἐπὶ τοῦ Τράεντος, the Traens or modern Trionto, is the true reading.

[2208] About B. C.444.

[2209] About B. C.433.

[2210] In the time of Pausanias, this city was a heap of ruins, and nothing remained standing but the walls and theatre. Considerable vestiges, situated near the station called Torre di Mare, indicate the site it anciently adorned.

[2211] θέρος χρυσοῦν. Xylander and others have thought this was a statue representing Summer; others have reckoned that golden sheaves were intended. The coins of Metapontium, which are greatly admired as works of art, have a head of Ceres, and on the reverse an ear of corn. A large sum of these might be justly called a golden harvest.

[2212] Neleus had twelve sons, eleven of whom were slain by Hercules, while Nestor alone escaped; we must therefore infer from this passage, that rites were celebrated at Metapontium in honour of his brothers.

[2213] The Greek words might either mean that Metapontium was destroyed or that the sacrifices were abolished. From the succeeding sentence it would be most natural to suppose that Strabo meant to say the city was overthrown.

[2214] These words are not in the Greek text, but seem to have been accidentally omitted by the transcriber.

[2215] A city of Phocis, now Krisso.

[2216] The ordinary reading is Trinacis, but Kramer found it given Thrinacia in the Vatican Manuscript, No. 482, which seems to suit the rest of the sentence better. Dionysius Perieg. vers. 467, says,

Τρινακίη δ’ ἐπὶ τῇσιν, ὑπὲρ πέδον Αὐσονιήων

Ἐκτέταται.

And Homer, Strabo’s great geographical authority, in book xi. of the Odyssey, line 106, terms it Θρινακίῃ νήσῳ. Virgil, Æn. iii. 440, says,

“Trinacria fines Italos mittere relicta.”

[2217] Capo Passaro.

[2218] Capo di Marsalla, or Capo Boeo.

[2219] The south-west.

[2220] Milazzo.

[2221] S. Maria di Tindaro.

[2222] The MSS. of Strabo read Agathyrsum, but the town is more commonly called Agathyrnum. Livy, book xxvi. cap. 40, and Silius Italicus, book xiv. ver. 260, call it Agathyrna. Cluverius considers it to have been situated near S. Marco; others would place it nearer to Capo d’ Orlando; while D’Anville is in favour of Agati.

[2223] I Bagni, or S. Maria de’ Palazzi. Groskurd gives it as Torre di Pittineo by Tusa, or Torre di Tusa. Cicero writes the name without a diphthong, “statim Messana litteras Halesam mittit.” Cic. in Verr. ii. c. 7. Diodorus spells it Ἄλεσα. Silius Italicus, lib. xiv. ver. 219, makes the penultimate long:

“Venit ab amne trahens nomen Gela, venit Halæsa.”

And the inscription in Gruter, p. 212, gives the name of the river near it, Αλαισος.

[2224] Cefalù.

[2225] Modern critics consider this to be the Fiume-Grande, which takes its rise near Polizzi and the Fiume Salso, the latter flows from a source within a few miles of the Fiume-Grande, and after a course of about 80 miles, falls into the sea near Alicata. The Fiume Salso was also called Himera, and both rivers taken to be one.

[2226] Palermo.

[2227] Castel-à-Mare.

[2228] Capo Boeo.

[2229] Probably ruins at the embouchure of the Platani. Groskurd also gives for it Bissenza.

[2230] At the mouth of the Fiume di Girgenti. Virgil calls Agrigentum by the Greek name, Æn. iii. 703,

“Arduus inde Acragas ostentat maxima longe

Mœnia, magnanimûm quondam generator equorum.”

[2231] As the distance from Agrigentum to Camarina greatly exceeds another 20 miles, Kramer supposes that the words, “and to Gela, 20,” have been omitted by the copyist.

[2232] Torre di Camarana.

[2233] The Paris MS. No. 1393, used by the French translators, has 33; the Paris MS. 1396, and the Medici plut. 28, No. 5, give 20 miles.

[2234] Taormina.

[2235] Gosselin observes, that the distance from Messina to Cape Pelorias, which would complete the circuit of Sicily, is about 9 miles.

[2236] i. e. by land.

[2237] Messina.

[2238] An intelligent critic has imagined that this road may have been commenced by M. Valerius Maximus Messala, consul in the year 263, and censor in 253, before the Christian era. D’Orvill. Sic. c. ii. p. 12.

[2239] We have followed Kramer, who inserts [διακόσια] before τριάκοντα πέντε.

[2240] i. e. to give its parallels of latitude and longitude.

[2241] i. e. wherein all three sides are unequal.

[2242] i. e. Pelorias.

[2243] Or, lies towards the east, with a northern inclination.

[2244] South-east.

[2245] A river of the Peloponnesus, now called Ruféa.

[2246] Cape Matapan.

[2247] The French translation gives 1160 stadia.

[2248] Gossellin observes, that from Pachynus to Lilybæum the coast runs from the south to the north-west, and looks towards the south-west.

[2249] This person, according to Varro, was named Strabo. See Varr. ap. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vii. § 21, page 386.

[2250] This coast of Sicily rises very little as it advances towards the east, and looks almost continually towards the north, with the exception of a very short space near Lilybæum. The Æolian islands lie to the north.

[2251] Taormina.

[2252] Naxos was not situated between Catana and Syracuse, but was most probably built on the left bank of the Fiume Freddo, the ancient Asines, near Taormina. It is possible that Strabo originally wrote, between Messina and Syracuse. Naxos was founded about 734 B. C., and destroyed by Dionysius the elder about the year 403. Naxos is thought by some to be the modern Schisso.

[2253] Megara was founded on the right of the Cantaro, the ancient Alabus. It was destroyed about 214 years B. C.

[2254] Reggio.

[2255] Thucydides says ζάγκλιον is a Sicilian word.

[2256] B. C.289.

[2257] B. C.264 to 243.

[2258] B. C.44.

[2259] B. C.36.

[2260] Now called Garafalo.

[2261] Taormina.

[2262] κοπρία.

[2263] These wines, although grown in Sicily, were reckoned among the Italian wines. See Athen. Deipnos. lib. i. cap. 21, ed. Schweigh: tom. i. p. 102. And from the time of Julius Cæsar they were classed in the fourth division of the most esteemed wines. See Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xiv. § 8, No. 4 and § 17.

[2264] At the same time as Syracuse.

[2265] A note in the French translation suggests that we should read Sicilians of Hybla. τῶν ἐν Ὕβλῃ Σικελῶν instead of Ζαγκλαίων.

[2266] Hiero in Greek was Hἱέρων. The line of Pindar in Kramer’s edition is,

ξύνες [ὅ] τοι λέγω, ζαθέων ἱερῶν ὁμώνυμε πάτερ,

κτίστορ Αἴτνας.

The words played on are Hἱέρων and hἱερων.

[2267] This occurred in the year 468.

[2268] About 461.

[2269] Cluvier considers that the monastery of Saint Nicolas de Arenis, about 12 modern miles from Catana, is situated about the place to which Strabo here alludes.

[2270] τὴν Καταναίαν. The spelling of this name, like very many in the present work, was by no means uniform in classic authors. Strabo has generally called it Catana (Κατάνη); Ptolemy, Κατάνη κολώνια; Pliny, lib. iii. cap. 8, Colonia Catina; Pomponius Mela, lib. ii. cap. 7, Catina; Cicero, Catina; and on ancient coins we find ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ.

[2271] This feat was recorded by divers works of art set up in different places: it must have taken place in one of the eruptions, 477, 453, or 427, before the Christian era. The place where they lived was called Campus Piorum.

[2272] δι' ἡμερῶν τεσσάρων ἢ πέντε in Kramer’s text; in his notes he particularizes the readings of the different manuscripts and editions, some reading forty or fifty. He also records his sorrow at having preferred the reading of fifty days to thirty, in the passage relating to the fat beasts of Erythia, book iii. cap. 5, § 4, (page 255).

[2273] Literally, changes into coagulation.

[2274] About 758 or 735 B. C.

[2275] Book vi. chap. 1, § 12.

[2276] According to other authorities he was descended from Bacchus.

[2277] At present Corfù.

[2278] Cape Bruzzano.

[2279] Cicero’s Oratio Frumentaria supports this character of the country. Silius Italicus, lib. xiv. vers. 23, thus celebrates the richness of the soil,

“Multa solo virtus: jam reddere fœnus aratris,

Jam montes umbrare olea, dare nomina Baccho;

Nectare Cecropias Hyblæo accendere ceras;”

and Florus terms it Terra frugum ferax.

[2280] Strabo makes a distinct mention of Siculi and Sicani, as if they were different people. Philologists have been much divided as to whether they were not different appellations of the same nation.

[2281] Such as the Elymi, or Helymi, who occupied the districts bordering on the Belici in the western part of the island.

[2282] It is probable that Morgantium was situated on the right bank of the Giaretta, below its confluence with the Dattaino, but at some little distance from the sea; at least such is the opinion of Cluverius, in opposition to the views of Sicilian topographers. Sic. Ant. book ii. cap. 7, pp. 325 and 335.

[2283] The first settlement of the Carthaginians in Sicily was about 560 B. C.

[2284] 212 years B. C.

[2285] 42 years B. C.

[2286] They were called Nesos, [the island Ortygia,] Achradina, Tycha, Neapolis, and Epipolæ. Ausonius applies the epithet fourfold,

“Quis Catinam sileat? quis quadruplices Syracusas?”

Dionysius however fortified Epipolæ with a wall, and joined it to the city.

[2287] Twenty-two miles four perches English. Swinburne spent two days in examining the extent of the ruins, and was satisfied as to the accuracy of Strabo’s statement.

[2288] A river of Elis.

[2289] Virgil thus deals with the subject:

“Sicanio prætenta sinu jacet insula contra

Plemmyrium undosum: nomen dixere priores

Ortygiam. Alpheum fama est huc, Elidis amnem,

Occultas egisse vias subter mare; qui nunc

Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis.”

Æn. iii. 692.

[2290] The words of Pindar are,

ἄμπνευμα σεμνὸν Ἀλφεοῦ,

κλεινᾶν Συρακοσσᾶν θάλος, Ὀρτυγία.

The French translators have rendered them,

“Terme saint du tourment d’Alphée

Bel ornement, de Syracuse Ortygia!”

And Groskurd,

“Ehrwürdige Ruhstatt Alpheos’.

Ruhmzweig Syrakossai’s, o Du Ortygia.”

Liddell and Scott call ἀνάπνευμα a resting-place, referring to this passage, but I can see no reason for not allowing to it the signification most suitable to the passage. ἀναπνέω is, “to breathe again,” and, according to the supposition of the ancients, the Alpheus might justly be said to breathe again on appearing at Arethusa, after its passage beneath the bed of the sea from Greece. ἀναπνοὴ also, means “a recovering of breath.”

[2291] Pindar, Nem. Od. i. vers. 1. See also Bohn’s Classic. Lib. Pindar.

[2292] Conf. Antig. Caryst. Hist. Mir. cap. 155.

[2293] According to Strabo himself, book viii. chap. 3, § 12, the Alpheus flows through a subterraneous course before it comes to Olympia; the objection therefore which he here takes, rests only on the circumstance of the river pursuing a visible course all the way to the sea, from the point where the chalice had fallen into it.

[2294] A river of Elis.

[2295] The play from which this is quoted is not extant.

[2296] A people of Thessaly.

[2297] A people of Argos.

[2298] Aspro-potamo.

[2299] In the Peloponnesus.

[2300] The Lao or the Pollina.

[2301] Pollina.

[2302] The Porto Maggiore of Syracuse is scarcely half so large.

[2303] Centorbe, to the south-west of Ætna. Silius, lib. xiv., mentions it as “Centuripe, largoque virens Entella Lyæo.”

[2304] The ancient Symæthus.

[2305] Now Camarana: it was founded 600 years B. C.

[2306] Girgenti.

[2307] “Apparet Camarina procul, campique Geloi.” Virg. Æn. iii. 701.

[2308] Marsalla.

[2309] I Bagni.

[2310] S. Maria di Tindaro.

[2311] Castel-à-Mare.

[2312] Cefalù.

[2313] Now ruins at Barbara.

[2314] Also called Acestes.

[2315] Castro-Ioanni.

[2316] Ovid, in the fourth book of his Fasti, thus alludes to the temple,

“Grata domus Cereri, multas ea possidet urbes,

In quibus est culto fertilis Enna solo.”

From this place we have the adjective Enneus, and the Ennea virgo of Sil., lib. xiv., for Proserpine,

“Tum rapta præceps Ennea virgine flexit.”

Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. cap. 3, says that there was a fable about the seizure of the virgin [Proserpine] in the meadows near Enna. The locality is very near the town, embellished with violets and all kinds of beautiful flowers. An ancient coin of the place described by Ezech. Spanheim, page 906, is inscribed with the letters M U N. H E N N A E. Pliny, lib. iii. cap. 8, writes, “Municipes Hennenses.”

[2317] About 146 years B. C.

[2318] The sentence from “Eryx” to “notice,” placed between daggers, seems to have been transposed from the end of § 5; it should immediately succeed the words Ægestus the Trojan.

[2319] Diodorus Siculus, lib. iv. § 83, tom. i. p. 326, gives a different account of the state of this place at this time.

[2320] The Carthaginians had destroyed it about 409 years B. C.

[2321] Some colonists from Rhodes made a settlement here 45 years after the foundation of Syracuse. It was overthrown about 279 years B. C.

[2322] Milazzo.

[2323] About 649 B. C.

[2324] It is supposed that Callipolis anciently occupied the site of Mascalis.

[2325] Those who inhabited Hybla Minor. We know that Selinus was in existence 640 B. C., and destroyed 268 B. C.

[2326] Now ruins called di Pollece on the river Madiuni in the Terra de’ Pulci.

[2327] The Leontini arrived in Sicily 728 B. C., and founded Leontini, now Lentini.

[2328] Eubœa was destroyed by the tyrant Gelon, who reigned from 491 to 478 B. C.Eubali, Castellazzio, and a place near the little town of Licodia, not far from the source of the Drillo, have been supposed to be the site of the ancient Eubœa. Siebenkees thinks that the words between daggers at the end of § 7 should follow “Eubœa.”

[2329] Lit. barbarians.

[2330] About 134 B. C.

[2331] Castro-Ioanni.

[2332] Kramer and Siebenkees consider that the sentence between daggers, from “The” to “prosperity,” has been transferred from its proper place. See note (12), page 412.

[2333] The French translators infer from this passage that Strabo had never visited Sicily.

[2334] Sicilian topographers vary exceedingly in defining the position of these mountains. Groskurd makes them Madonia.

[2335] To the south-west.

[2336] See Humboldt, Cosmos, i. 242.

[2337] Book v. chap. iv. § 9.

[2338] I Bagni di Sciacca.

[2339] Now ruins at Barbara, in the valley of Mazzara.

[2340] Girgenti.

[2341] A modern traveller is of opinion that these correspond with certain peculiar marshes near Girgenti, in the midst of the Macaluba mountains, supplied by a spring of salt water. The soil here is chalky, and the mountains abound in a grey and ductile clay. See Monsieur le Commandeur de Dolomieu, Voyage aux îles de Lipari, pp. 165 et seqq.; also Fazell. Decad. i. lib. i. cap. 5, p. 45.

[2342] The place dedicated to these avengers of perjury is frequently located near Mineo and Palagonia; others, thinking to gain the support of Virgil’s testimony, place it near Paterno, much farther north, between Catana and Centorbi, and not far from the banks of the Giaretta, the ancient Symæthus.

[2343] Cluvier supposes this cavern must have been near Mazarum [Mazara]. The river named Mazarus by the ancients, runs through a rocky district, abounding in stone quarries. It is possible that this river, much hemmed in throughout its course, might have anciently flowed beneath some of these massive rocks.

[2344] Orontes.

[2345] According to Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. vi. § 31, tom. i. p. 333, the Tigris is ingulfed on reaching a branch of Mount Taurus, at a place called Zoroanda, which M. D’Anville identifies with the modern Hazour.

[2346] Λιβύη in Strabo.

[2347] Kramer here persists in reading πρὸ, and rejects ἀπὸ: we have endeavoured to translate it with Kramer, but the French translation of 1809 renders it, a little below its sources.

[2348] A river of Argolis: see book viii. Casaub. pp. 371 and 389.

[2349] Argolis.

[2350] This ancient city was found in ruins by Pausanias, who says (Arcadic. or book viii. cap. 44, p. 691) “that at less than 20 stadia distant from the Athenæum are found the ruins of Asea, as well as the hill on which the citadel of the town was built, which was surrounded by walls, the vestiges of which still remain. About 5 stadia from Asea, and not far from the main road, is the source of the Alpheus, and, quite close, even at the edge of the road, that of the Eurotas.... [At a short distance] the two rivers unite and run as one for about 20 stadia; they then both cast themselves into a chasm, and, continuing their under-ground course, they afterwards reappear; one (the Eurotas) in Laconia, the other in the territory of Megalopolis.” Such is what Pausanias relates in one place. But when, in this account, he fixes the source of the Alpheus at about 5 stadia from Asea, we must understand him to allude to a second source of the river; for further on (book viii. cap. 54, p. 709) he says distinctly that the main source of the Alpheus is seen near Phylace in Arcadia; then adds that that river, on coming to the district of Tegea, is absorbed under the ground, to re-issue near Asea.

[2351] See § 4 of this chapter, page 408.

[2352] The ancient Timavus. See book v. chap. i. § 8, page 319.

[2353] The French translation, “en divers endroits de l’Italie.” Some manuscripts read Ἰταλίαν. We have followed Kramer and Groskurd.

[2354] Founded about B. C.580.

[2355] Thermessa, at present called Vulcano, is doubtless the same mentioned in Pliny’s Nat. Hist. lib. iii. § 14, tom. i. p. 164, as Therasia, by the error of the copyist. Paulus Orosius, lib. iv. cap. 20, says that it rose from the bed of the sea, B. C.571. It is however certain that it was in existence B. C.427, confer. Thucyd. lib. iii. § 88, and was for a considerable time called Hiera.

[2356] See Pausan. Phoc. or lib. x. cap. 16, p. 835.

[2357] See Pausan. Phoc. or lib. x. cap. 2, p. 824.

[2358] M. le Comm. de Dolomieu, in his Voyage aux îles de Lipari, ed. 1783, p. 75 et seqq., supports the character here given of the fertility of this island, and praises the abundance of delicious fruits it produces.

[2359] M. le Comm. de Dolomieu considers it probable that the Liparæans obtained this alum by the lixiviation of earths exposed to the acido-sulphurous vapours of their volcanos, pp. 77, 78.

[2360] These hot springs are not much frequented, although they still exist.

[2361] See Humboldt, Cosm. i. 242.

[2362] This is 30 feet in the epitome.

[2363] Odyss. lib. x. 21.

[2364] Here follow some words which convey no intelligible meaning.—They are written in the margin of some of the manuscripts. Kramer inserts them between asterisks as follows: *ἔστιν ἡ ἐπίστασις τῆς ἐναργείας λέγοιτ’ ἄν,... ἐπίσης τε γὰρ ἄμφω πάρεστι, καὶ διαθέσει καὶ τῇ ἐναργείᾳ· ἥ γε hἡδονὴ κοινὸν ἀμφοτέρων* Groskurd thinks the passage might be translated, “[Great, undoubtedly,] is the impression produced by animated energy, [of which] it may be asserted [that it excites in a marked degree both admiration and pleasure]. For both arise equally from graphic representation and animated description. Pleasure at least is common to both.” The following are Groskurd’s own words: Gross allerdings ist der Eindruck kräftiger Lebendigkeit, [von welcher] man behaupten darf, [dass sie vorzüglich sowohl Bewunderung als Vergnügen gewähre]. Denn Beide erfolgen gleichermassen, sowohl durch Darstellung als durch Lebendigkeit; das Vergnügen wenigstens ist Beiden gemein.

[2365] Stromboli.

[2366] στρογγύλος means “round.” M. Dolomieu, p. 113, says that the island of Stromboli, seen from a distance, appears like a cone; when, however, it is more particularly examined, it looks like a mountain terminated by two peaks of different heights, and the sides appear disturbed and torn by craters opened in various parts, and streams of lava which have flowed down. It might be about 12 miles in circumference.

[2367] Most of the ancient authors agree in considering Lipari as the residence of Æolus. See Cluver. Sic. Ant. lib. ii. cap. 14.

[2368] δίδυμος, “double.” Cluverius identifies this with the island now called Salini. M. Dolomieu says that Didyma is situated to the west of Lipari; it is nearly circular, and contains three mountains placed so as to form a triangle. Two of the mountains are connected at their bases, the third is separated from them by a valley which runs right across the island, so that while sailing at some distance in the sea on the south side it has the appearance of two islands, from which circumstance it took its ancient name of Didyma: its present name, Salini, is derived from salt works there.

[2369] Ericussa, now called Alicudi or Alicurim, is covered with trees, it is inhabited, but little cultivated. The pasturage is pretty good.

[2370] Phœnicussa, now Felicudi or Filicurim, abounds in rich pastures; both wheat and the vine are here cultivated.

[2371] Cluverius, Sic. Ant. lib. ii. p. 414, identifies this island with Lisca-Bianca, to the east of Lipari, but M. le commandeur Dolomieu, Voyage pittoresque de Naples et de Sicile, tom. iv. part ii. chap. 14, considers that it corresponded with the present Panaria, which is about eight times the circumference of Lisca-Bianca. He says the neighbouring islets are but the detached portions of a vast crater now submerged; the denomination, Formocoli or the Little Ants, is aptly illustrative of their minuteness and numbers. The most important are Datolo, Lisca-Nera, Lisca-Bianca, and Basiluzzo. M. Gossellin very justly remarks that it is quite possible the volcanos, which continually burn in the islands of Æolus, may have formed some new one, and gives some good reasons for identifying Didyma with Panaria.

[2372] Rich. Pocock, Descr. de l’ Or., &c. vers. Fr. part iii. chap. 24, tom. vi. p. 327, considers that Strabo meant to say that Euonymus lies most to the left hand as you sail from Sicily to the island of Lipari, and proposes Ustica, the westernmost of the Lipari Islands, as its modern representative.

[2373] See Humboldt, Cosmos ii. 557.

[2374] A note in the French translation suggests that, notwithstanding the accord of all manuscripts, we should, doubtless, understand Titus Quinctius Flaminius, prætor in A. U. C.628, and B. C.126.

[2375] πρὸς ἄρκτον, in Kramer’s text. We have followed the example set by the French translators, and approved by Groskurd, who proposes to read πρὸς ἀρκτ[ικὸν ἄκρ]ον. Kramer however justly remarks, that many other things in this passage are exceedingly confused, and remain incapable of conjectural elucidation.

[2376] From Ericodes, now Alicudi, to Phœnicodes, now Felicudi, the distance given by the chorographer is the same as that set down by Ptolemy, and by far too much for that which, according to our charts, separates Felicudi from Salini, but tallies exactly with that to the island Panaria, so that the evidence, both of the chorographer and Ptolemy, seems to point to Panaria, not to Salini, as the ancient Didyma. Further, the 29 miles given in Strabo’s text as the distance from Didyma to Lipari, are reduced to 19 miles in the chart of Ptolemy, and even this last distance would be much too great for the interval which separates Salini from Lipari, but agrees with the distance from Lipari to Panaria, and seems likewise to confirm the identity of Panaria and Didyma. The 19 miles, from Lipari to Sicily, agree with Ptolemy and our charts. Ptolemy gives the equivalent of 44 miles as the distance between Sicily and Strongyle, while our modern maps confirm his computation. M. Gossellin observes that the 16 miles of the existing text of Strabo must be a transcriber’s error; but the construction of the text might very well allow the distance to be from Didyma to Strongyle, which would be nearly correct.

[2377] Malta.

[2378] Towards Africa and the south.

[2379] Μελιταῖα.

[2380] All other classic authors, both Greek and Latin, give the name of Gaulus to this island; it is the modern Gozzo.

[2381] Pantelaria.

[2382] This M. Gossellin very satisfactorily proves to be 88.

[2383] A note in the French translation observes, that the Iapygia of Strabo was confined to the peninsula of Tarentum.

[2384] The Sallentini, or Salentini, cannot be distinguished with accuracy from the Calabri, as the name is used by several writers in a very extensive sense, and applied to the greater part of Iapygia.

[2385] Capo di Leuca.

[2386] The district occupied by the Calabri seems to have been that maritime part of the Iapygian peninsula extending from the ancient Brundusium to the city of Hydruntum, answering nearly to what is now called Terra di Lecce.

[2387] Dionysius of Halicarnassius derives the name of this people from Peucetius, son of Lycaon king of Arcadia, but they are generally spoken of in history as barbarians, differing in no essential respect from the Daunii, Iapyges, and other neighbouring nations.

[2388] A note in the French translation remarks, that Strabo would have done well to add, “and also the Apuli properly so called.” If we follow Strabo’s testimony solely, we may almost describe the bounds of the Peucetii by four lines, viz. 1. From Tarentum to Brindisi. 2. Along the sea-shore from Brindisi to Bari. 3. From Bari to Garagnone or Gorgoglione, the ancient Sylvium, if not even still nearer to Venosa. 4. From Garagnone to Tarentum, constituting what is called in modern geography Terra di Bari—The following are the limits of the Daunii. 1. From Garagnone to Bari. 2. From Bari to Peschici or to Rodi. 3. Thence to Lucera; and, 4. from Lucera to Garagnone. Thus they occupied a great part of La Puglia, with a portion of the Terra di Bari. With regard to those who, according to Strabo, were properly Apuli, they extended from the neighbourhood of Lucera to Rodi or Peschici, thence to the mouth of the river Fortore, thence to Civitate, (the ancient Teanum Apulum,) which was included, and from Civitate to Lucera; this district would answer to the northern portion of La Puglia, which the Fortore separates from La Capitanata.

[2389] The name of Pœdiculi was given to the inhabitants of that portion of Peucetia which was more particularly situated on the coast between the Aufidus and the confines of the Calabri. Pliny (iii. 11) states that this particular tribe derived their origin from Illyria.

[2390] Brindisi.

[2391] Capo di Leuca.

[2392] We have followed Groskurd’s example in introducing this thousand. The French translators thought it too hardy to venture, and Kramer was fearful to insert it in his text, but he approves of it in his notes.

[2393] Manuscripts here have blanks.

[2394] Ruins near Torre a Mare.

[2395] Mare-piccolo.

[2396] Or twelve miles and a half. This computation does not agree with modern measurements, which reckon the circuit at sixteen miles. See Swinburne’s Travels, tom. i. sect. 32. Gagliardi, Topogr. di Taranto.

[2397] In the year 213 or 212 B. C.

[2398] B. C.209.

[2399] It is said the pictures and statues taken on this occasion were nearly as numerous as those found at Syracuse.

[2400] That which commenced about 743 B. C.

[2401] I have here translated τοῖς τοῦ δήμου and οἱ τοῦ δήμου by “free citizens”. Several notes have been written on the exact meaning of the words, but I am not satisfied that we understand it properly. It might perhaps mean those appointed to the chief rule of the state by the constitution.

[2402] There is little doubt that this passage is corrupt.

[2403] κυνέη, a leathern cap or hat, a helmet, &c. See also page 426.

[2404] About eight miles to the east or south-east of Taranto, upon the coast, we find a place named Saturo. In this place the country open to the south presents the most agreeable aspect. Sheltered from the north wind, and watered by numerous running streams, it produces the choicest fruits, oranges, citrons, lemons, pomegranates, figs, and all manner of garden produce, with which Taranto is abundantly supplied. Ant. de Ferrar. Galat. de sit. Iapyg. edit. nell. Raccolt. d’ Opusc. sc. et philol. tom. vii. p. 80.

[2405] Mazoch. Prod. ad Heracl. pseph. diatr. ii. cap. 4, sect. 4, page 96, not. 51, considers that we should not make a distinction between these barbarians and Cretans, but that they were identical.

[2406] According to Sicilian topographers, Camici was the same as the citadel of Acragas [Girgenti].—Cluvier, Sic. Ant. lib. ii. cap. 15, p. 207, is of opinion that Camici occupied the site of Siculiana, on the Fiume delle Canne. D’Anville, Géogr. Anc. tom. i. p. 219, and tom. iii. p. 146, seems to locate Camici at Platanella, on the Fiume di Platani.

[2407] There are various readings of this name.

[2408] There is a tradition that Taras was born to Neptune by Satyræa, daughter of Minos.

[2409] About 745 B. C.

[2410] Statius, lib. 4, Theb., thus mentions Ithome,

“Planaque Messena, montanaque nutrit Ithome.”

[2411] πῖλος Λακωνικός.

[2412] See Heyne, Opusc. Acad. tom. ii. p. 223, not. h.

[2413] He is said to have entertained Plato during his sojourn here. Archytas flourished about the commencement of the fourth century B. C., and was still living in the year 349 B. C.

[2414] About 332 or 339 B. C.See Heyn. Opusc. Acad. tom. ii. p. 141.

[2415] About 338 B. C.

[2416] About 303 B. C.

[2417] About 330 B. C.

[2418] About 281 B. C.

[2419] Cramer, in his Ancient Italy, has very justly remarked that the name of the small river Calandro, which discharges itself into the sea a little below Capo di Roseto, bears some affinity to the river Acalandrus mentioned by Strabo. However, some have thought it identical with the Salandrella and the Fiume di Roseto, while Cluverius was of opinion that we should here read Κυλίσταρνος instead of Ἀκάλανδρος, and identify it with the modern Racanello.

[2420] 326 B. C.

[2421] 209 B. C.

[2422] 124 B. C.

[2423] Some suspect this last sentence to be an interpolation; certain it is that there is great difficulty in finding a time to correspond with all the circumstances contained in it. According to M. Heyne, this war must have taken place 474 B. C., but then Heraclea was not founded till 436 B. C.It seems too that the people of Iapygia had kings as late as 480 B. C.

[2424] Brundusium, now Brindisi.

[2425] Castro. This temple is now changed into the church of Sancta Maria in finibus terræ. See Capmart. de Chaupy, tom. iii. page 529.

[2426] Capo di Leuca. Pliny, lib. iii. cap. 11, says, Inde promontorium quod Acran Iapygian vocant, quo longissime in maria procurrit Italia. The Promontorium Iapygium, or Sallentinum, presented a conspicuous landmark to mariners sailing from Greece to Sicily. The fleets of Athens, after passing the Peloponnesus, are represented on this passage as usually making for Corcyra, from whence they steered straight across to the promontory, and then coasted along the south of Italy for the remainder of the voyage.

[2427] The south-east.

[2428] The Acra Iapygia.

[2429] See notes to page 393 of this translation.

[2430] Cramer remarks that Veretum is still represented by the old church of S. Maria di Vereto.

[2431] That is, on land.

[2432] Scylax, Peripl. p. 5, speaks of the Leuterni as a really existing people.

[2433] Now Otranto. Lucan, book v. verse 374, speaking of the little river Idro which runs close to Otranto, says,

Et cunctas revocare rates, quas avius Hydrûs,

Antiquusque Taras, secretaque litora Leucæ.

Quas recipit Salapina palus, et subdita Sipus

Montibus.

And Cicero, writing of the town to Tyro, book xvi. epistle 9, says of his voyage from Cassiope, Inde Austro lenissimo, cœlo sereno, nocte illa et die postero in Italiam ad Hydruntem ludibundi pervenimus. This place was called Hydruntum by Pliny and other authors.

[2434] Now Saseno, distant 35 minutes from Otranto.

[2435] B. C.239.

[2436] We have followed Kramer’s text in calling this place Aletia, several MSS. read Salepia. Cramer, in his description of Ancient Italy, vol. ii. p. 316, says, Aletium is naturally supposed to have occupied the site of the church of S. Maria della Lizza.—It was called Ἀλήτιον by Ptolemy.

[2437] We have followed Kramer’s reading; some MSS. have Θυρέαι, some Θυραῖαι, &c.

[2438] lit. of a certain one of the nobles.

[2439] Οὐρία, MSS., but a note in the French translation explains that Strabo was quoting Herodotus from memory. We follow Kramer.

[2440] B. C.1353.

[2441] Brindisi.

[2442] About B. C.1323.

[2443] Great changes have taken place in this locality since Strabo’s description was drawn.

[2444] Torre d’ Agnazzo.

[2445] Ceglie, south of Bari.

[2446] Now Noja; but the identity of this place has been much canvassed.

[2447] Canosa.

[2448] Now Ordona, about twelve miles to the east of Æca, now Troja. Livy records the defeat of the Roman forces at this place in two successive years. Hannibal removed the inhabitants and fired the town, (Livy xxvii. 1,) but it was subsequently repaired, and is noticed by Frontinus as Ardona. Ptolemy and Silius Italicus, viii. 568, mention it as Herdonia—

. . . . . . . . . quosque

Obscura inculsis Herdonia misit ab agris.

[2449] Oria.

[2450] Venosa.

[2451] Paolisi.

[2452] Le Galazze.

[2453] S. Maria di Capoa.

[2454] Capoa Nova.

[2455] Monte Dragone, or Mondragone.

[2456] At Capua, now S. Maria di Capua.

[2457] Eustathius explains that those mountains were called Ceraunian from the frequent falling of thunderbolts upon them. Τὰ Κεραύνια ὄρη, οὕτω καλούμενα διὰ τὸ συχνοὺς ἐκεῖ πίπτειν κεραυνούς.

[2458] Durazzo.

[2459] It seems as if some words had been skipped in this place, for we should expect to have the distance of the other passage to the Ceraunian Mountains, but Strabo no where mentions it.

[2460] M. Gossellin seems to think we should here read 800 and not 1800 stadia; but Kramer reckons it improbable. Groskurd concurs essentially with the opinion of M. Gossellin, and translates it something as follows: “for it is 1000, while the former is 800 stadia across.”

[2461] Now Torre d’ Agnazzo.

[2462] Bari.

[2463] Silvium was situated on the Appian Way. Holstenius and Pratilli agree in fixing its position at Garagnone, about 15 miles to the south-west of Venosa. Holsten. Adnot. p. 281. Pratilli, Via Appia, l. iv. c. 7.

[2464] About 310 stadia.

[2465] The Aufidus, celebrated by Horace, Od. iv. 9,

“Ne forte credas interitura, quæ

Longe sonantem natus ad Aufidum,

Non ante vulgatas per artes

Verba loquor socianda chordis.”

[2466] M. Gossellin considers this rather too much, and supposes 315 stadia would be nearer the truth.

[2467] Ruins now called Salpi.

[2468] Now Lucera.

[2469] See book v. c. 1, § 9, p. 320. Ptolemy makes these five, which is the number of the isles of Tremiti at present, if we include in the group three barren rocks, which scarce deserve the name of islands. One was called Diomedea by Pliny, and Tremitus by Tacitus, who states that Augustus appointed it as the prison of his grand-daughter Julia; the second was called Teutria. The largest is at present called Isola San Domino, the other Isola San Nicolo.

[2470] Book v. c. i. § 9, p. 320.

[2471] Siponto, a place in ruins near Manfredonia.

[2472] Sestini describes a gold coin belonging to this city, on which the emblem of a cuttle fish in Greek, σηπία, is apparent. The legend is Σιπο. Sestini descrizione d’ una Med. p. 16.

[2473] Lycophron calls this stream by the name of Althænus.

[2474] Groskurd is of opinion that some words to the following effect have been accidentally lost from this place, viz. “The coast of Daunia forms an extensive bay about these parts.”

[2475] Now Punta di Viesti. Strabo seems to have considered the whole of the extensive neck of land lying between the bay of Rodi and that of Manfredonia, as the Garganum Promontorium. Lucan, v. 380, thus describes its prominence,

Apulus Hadriacas exit Garganus in undas.

[2476] About 37 miles towards the east.

[2477] Rodi.

[2478] See book v. c. i. § 9, p. 320.

[2479] Brindisi.

[2480] M. Gossellin gives a long note to show that the chorographer and Artemidorus were both correct in the distances they gave, but asserts that Strabo was mistaken as to the length of the stadium used by Artemidorus, and consequently thought he saw a discrepancy between their accounts.

[2481] The ancient Æsis.

[2482] We think, with Kramer, that Sena Gallica, now Sinigaglia, was the city Strabo intends.

[2483] From the Capo della Linguetta, on the coast of Albania.

[2484] The town of Aquileia.

[2485] M. Gossellin suggests that Strabo omitted the coast of Istria in his calculations, when he made this observation on the length of the Illyrian shore, and refers to what Strabo will himself state in book vii. chap. v. sections 3, 4, and 9, and to his estimate of 6150 stadia from the Ceraunian Mountains to Iapygia in book ii. chap. iv. § 3, p. 159.

[2486] Doubtless the bight between the shore, adjacent to Peschici, to the north of Viesti, and the Punta d’ Asinella.

[2487] A note in the French translation observes that the Apuli, properly so called, could but have occupied the shore of half this bay, for the Fortore falls into it just about the centre, which river was a common boundary between the Apuli and Frentani.

[2488] B. C.216.

[2489] Cramer says, the lake which Strabo speaks of as being near Teanum, but without mentioning its name, is called by Pliny Lacus Pontanus, (iii. 11,) now Lago di Lesina.

[2490] The city of Teanum stood on the right bank of the Fortore, the ancient Frento; its ruins are stated to exist on the site of Civitate, about a mile from the right bank of the Fortore, and ten miles from the sea. Cramer, vol. ii. p. 273.

[2491] Now Teano, six miles from Sessa, and fifteen from Capua.

[2492] Pozzuolo.

[2493] M. Gossellin observes that from the head of the bay of Naples to the shores bordering the ancient Teanum, there are 80 minutes, or 933 stadia of 700.

[2494] Romanelli is of opinion that the ruins of Buca exist at the present Penna.

[2495] Book v. chap. iv. § 2, p. 359.

[2496] In the year 747 B. C.

[2497] In the year 594 B. C.

[2498] The Latins were first subjected in 499 B. C., but not totally subjugated; the Sabines were almost annihilated in the war which happened about 450 B. C.

[2499] See Polyb. Hist. book i. chap. vi. § 1, edit. Schweigh, tom. i. p. 12.

[2500] This battle was fought in the year 405 B. C.

[2501] Concluded 387 B. C.

[2502] About 338 B. C.

[2503] About 310 B. C.

[2504] About 275 B. C.

[2505] In the year 264 B. C.

[2506] In the year 241 B. C.

[2507] 218 B. C.

[2508] 146 B. C.

[2509] Λιβύη.

[2510] The ancient Halys.

[2511] Antiochus ceded Asia Minor in the year B. C.189.

[2512] Perseus was taken in the year B. C.167.

[2513] Ister.

[2514] In the year B. C.133.

[2515] In the year B. C.140.

[2516] B. C.72.

[2517] The inhabitants of Biscay.

[2518] B. C.19.

[2519] About A. D. 17 or 18.

[2520] From this expression we may gather that Strabo wrote this 6th Book of his Geography during the lifetime of Juba, and, as we shall presently see, about a. a. 18; while he did not compile the 17th Book till after Juba’s death, which must have taken place before A. D. 21. See M. l’Abbé Sevin, Rech. sur la Vie, &c., de Juba, Ac. des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, vol. iv. Mém. p. 462.

[2521] Attalus III., king of Pergamus, died 133 B. C., and constituted the Roman people his heir.

[2522] We may here observe that the Seleucidæ ceased to reign in Syria as early as 83 B. C., when that country, wearied of their sad dissensions, willingly submitted to Tigranes the king of Armenia, but their race was not extinct, and even in the year 64 B. C.when Pompey made the kingdom a Roman province, there were two princes of the Seleucidæ, Antiochus Asiaticus and his brother Seleucus-Cybiosactes, who had an hereditary right to the throne; the latter however died about 54 B. C., and in him terminated the race of the Seleucidæ.

[2523] The race of the kings of Paphlagonia became extinct about 7 B. C. See M. l’Abbé Belley, Diss. sur l’ère de Germanicopolis, &c. Ac. des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, vol. xxx. Mém. p. 331.

[2524] The royal race of Cappadocia failed about 91 B. C.

[2525] The race of the Lagidæ terminated with Ptolemy Auletes, who died 44 B. C., leaving two daughters, Cleopatra and Arsinoë. Ptolemy Apion died 96 B. C.; he left Cyrene, whereof he was king, to the Roman people.

[2526] Now the Fasz or Rion.

[2527] The Forat, Ferat, or Frat.

[2528] The ancient Ister.

[2529] Strabo will relate in book vii. chap. iv. § 4, that after the defeat of Mithridates Eupator they became subject to the Romans.

[2530] See more as to these people in book vii. chap. iii. § 17.

[2531] Inhabitants of tents.

[2532] In the year 20 B. C.See book xvi. chap. i. § 28.

[2533] Compare Tacitus, Annales, lib. ii. § 1.

[2534] As Vonones, mentioned by Tacitus in his second book.

[2535] Compare the words of Tacitus, Annal. lib. i. § 9, Non aliud discordantis patriæ remedium fuisse, quàm ut ab uno regeretur.

[2536] Germanicus was appointed to take charge of the East in A. D. 17, in 18 he took possession of his government, and died in 19. Drusus was in command of the armies of Germany in A. D. 17. Thus we may safely conclude this 6th book of Strabo’s Geography to have been written in A. D. 18.

[2537] The ancient Tanais.

[2538] Palus Mæotis.

[2539] The ancient Ister.

[2540] The ancient Propontis.

[2541] Strabo, in a subsequent passage, states that the distance from the Danube to the city Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic, is about 1200 stadia.

[2542] The ancient Tyras.

[2543] The Borysthenes.

[2544] The Bastarnæ were a people occupying portions of the modern Moldavia, Podolia, and the Ukraine.

[2545] The Tyregetæ, or the Getæ of the river Tyras, were a people dwelling on the Dniester, to the south of the Bastarnæ.

[2546] The ancient geographers supposed that the Northern Ocean extended to the 56° of north latitude. Their notions of the existence of the Baltic were vague. They therefore confounded it with the Northern Ocean, thus making the continent of Europe to extend only to the 56° of north latitude.

[2547] See book iv. chap. iv. § 2, pp. 291, 292.

[2548] Strabo’s words are, γνήσιοι γὰρ oἱ Γερμανοὶ κατὰ τὴν Ῥωμαίων διάλεκτον. It is possible he may be endeavouring to explain that the γερ in Germani is equivalent to the Latin verus, “true,” the wahr of modern German, and that Germani signifies the true men of the country, the undoubted autochthones of Galatia or Gaul.

[2549] The Marsi were a people dwelling on the banks of the Ems, near Munster.

[2550] The Sicambri were located near the Menapii. See above, p. 289.

[2551] The Albis.

[2552] Amasias.

[2553] The name of this tribe is written variously by different authors. They are supposed to have occupied the lands between the Rhine, the Ems, and the Lippe, but their boundaries were very uncertain, on account of their continual wars.

[2554] This refers to the chain of mountains which, running from the north of Switzerland, traverses Wurtemberg, Franconia, Bohemia, Moravia, and joins Mount Krapak.

[2555] The Hercynian Wood, or Black Forest, was either one or a succession of continuous forests, extending from the banks of the Rhine to the confines of Persia and Bactriana.

[2556] The Suevi occupied a considerable portion of Germany, to the north and east of Bohemia.

[2557] Coldui manuscripts. Kramer agrees with Cluverius in this instance, and we have followed Kramer’s text.

[2558] The Lugii of Tacitus.

[2559] Zeus thinks these were the Burri of Dio Cassius, lxviii. 8. See Zeus, Die Deutschen, &c., p. 126.

[2560] Kramer has Γούτωνας, although the MSS. have Βούτωνας. He is led to this emendation by Cluverius and others. Cluv. Germ. Antiq. lib. iii. c. 34, page 625.

[2561] The Gambrivii of Tacitus, Germ. cap. 2.

[2562] Cluverius considers these were the Chamavi.

[2563] We have followed Kramer’s text. MSS. read Bucteri.

[2564] For Caulci, Campsiani, Cluverius would read Cathulci, Campsani. A little further on Strabo calls the Campsiani Ampsani.

[2565] Amasias.

[2566] Visurgis.

[2567] Lupias.

[2568] Salas.

[2569] Borcum. Pliny calls this island Burchana, and adds, that the Romans gave it the name of Fabaria, on account of the beans (in Latin Faba) which grow there.

[2570] Segimundus in Tacitus, Annal. lib. i. cap. 57.

[2571] Ægimerus in Tacitus, Annal. lib. i. cap. 71.

[2572] Acrumerus, according to the correction of Cluverius. He is Actumerus in Tacitus, Annal. lib. xi. 16, 17.

[2573] MSS. Batti, which Vossius reckons were the Batavi.

[2574] Cluverius considers these were the Marsi of Tacitus, Annal. lib. ii. cap. 25.

[2575] Called Tubantes by the Roman writers.

[2576] Schwartz Wald, or Black Forest.

[2577] The Lake Constance.

[2578] Strabo could hardly have intended 300, since the diameter of the lake is given at 200. Velser conjectures that 500 or 600 would be the proper reading. Its exact circumference is about 550 stadia.

[2579] Gossellin considers that by Keltica we are to understand Cisalpine Gaul, and the neighbourhood of Milan and Mantua.

[2580] Gossellin says that the sources of the Danube are about 14 leagues distant from the western extremity of the Lake Constance.

[2581] The Rhæti possessed the countries of the Grisons and the Tyrol, extending to the eastern shores of the Lake Constance.

[2582] The Helvetii, or Swiss, possessed the southern borders of the Lake Constance.

[2583] The Vindelici occupied the country on the northern borders of the lake, with the regions of Swabia and Bavaria south of the Danube, and reaching to the Inn. Gossellin.

[2584] It is evident that some words have been omitted in this place. The words we have inserted are the conjecture of Cluverius and Groskurd.

[2585] As far as we can make out from Strabo and Pliny, book iii. cap. 27, the desert of the Boii stretched along the shores of the Danube from the river Inn to the mountains a little west of Vienna, which were the boundary between the Norici and the Pannonians. This strip of land is now called the Wiener-Wald, or Forest of Vienna. Doubtless it took its name of Desert of the Boii on account of its contiguity to the south of the country occupied by those people, and which still bears the name of Bohemia.

[2586] The Pannonians occupied the districts of Hungary west of the Danube.

[2587] The Norici inhabited that part of Austria which lies between the Danube and the Alps.

[2588] The Insubri occupied the Milanese.

[2589] The Carni have left their name to Carniola.

[2590] See also book ii. chap. 3, § 6. Festus relates that the Ambrones abandoned their country on account of this tide. The Ambrones were a tribe of the Helvetii, and more than once joined with the Cimbri.

[2591] The French translation has happily paraphrased, not translated, this passage as follows: “For although it is true that the ocean has tides of more or less height, still they occur periodically, and in an order constantly the same.”

[2592] Aristotle, Ethics, Eudem. lib. iii. cap. 1, Nicolas of Damascus, and Ælian, Var. Histor. lib. xii. cap. 23, have attributed the like extravagant proceedings to the Kelts or Gauls. Nicolas of Damascus, Reliq. pp. 272, 273, says that the Kelts resist the tides of the ocean with their swords in their hands, till they perish in the waters, in order that they may not seem to fear death by taking the precaution to fly.

[2593] It is probable that Clitarchus obtained his information from the Gauls. As for the sudden influx of the tide, there are several other examples of the kind, in which the troops surprised were not so successful in getting off.

[2594] Tacitus, De Morib. Germanor. cap. viii., says that these priestesses were held in great reputation, and mentions one Veleda as “diu apud plerosque numinis loco habitam.”

[2595] Pliny, lib. xix. cap. 1, describes this carbasus as very fine flax, grown in the neighbourhood of Tarragona in Spain. The Père Hardouin considers that the carbasus or fabric manufactured of this flax was similar to the French batiste.—The flax and the fabric were alike called carbasus.

[2596] The Sicambri, or Sugambri, dwelt to the south of the Lippe.

[2597] The Cimbri occupied Jutland, the ancient Cimbrica Chersonesus.

[2598] The shores of the Baltic.

[2599] Gossellin places the Jazyges in the southern districts of the Ukraine, between the Dniester and the Sea of Azoff.

[2600] Gossellin considers that the name of Russia is derived from these Roxolani.

[2601] The Bastarnæ and Tyregetæ, mentioned in chap. i. § 1, of this book, to whom, in book ii. chap. v. § 30, Strabo adds also the Sauromatæ.

[2602] The Sauromatæ, or Sarmatians, living to the east of the Sea of Azoff and along the banks of the Don.

[2603] The term Atlantic was applied with much more latitude by Strabo and Eratosthenes than by us.

[2604] But he himself turned back his shining eyes apart, looking towards the land of the equestrian Thracians and the close-fighting Mysians. Iliad xiii. 3.

[2605] The Strait of the Dardanelles.

[2606] Milkers of mares.

[2607] People who live on milk.

[2608] Devoid of riches.

[2609] Dwelling in waggons.

[2610] Perhaps Teurisci.

[2611] A note in the French translation suggests that Capnobatæ has some connexion with the practice of intoxication by inhaling smoke, and of using the vapour of linseed, burned upon red-hot stones, as a bath. See Herodot. book i. chap. 202; book iv. chap. 75.

[2612] And the illustrious Hippemolgi, milk-nourished, simple in living and most just men. Iliad xiii. 5.

[2613] δεκάτῳ, text: but there is no doubt it should be the thirteenth.

[2614] People without life.

[2615] The Greek is ἀνεστίους, literally “without hearths.”

[2616] Strabo does not intend by the word κυνισμὸς, which he here uses, the profession of a Cynic philosopher, which some of the Stoics affected in consequence of their not thoroughly understanding the dogmas of Zeno, the founder of their sect. It was to these ultra-Stoics that the name of Stoaces [Στόακες] was given by way of ridicule. Athenæus, book xiii. chap. 2, remarks that a like propensity to overdo the precept of the teacher led the disciples of Aristippus, who recommended rational pleasures, to become mere libertines.

[2617] Heraclides of Pontus, page 215, gives them even as many as thirty wives.

[2618] Kramer reads δαπάναις, which we have rendered by “expenses,” but all manuscripts have ἀπάταις. The French translation gives a note with Koray’s conjecture of δαπάναις, which is supported by a very similar passage respecting Alcibiades, where Isocrates (P. I. page 354, ed. Coray) says, “He was so lavish in the sacrifices and other expenses for the feast.” Both the French and German translations adopt the emendation.

[2619] Ζάλμοξις is the reading of the Paris manuscript, No. 1393, and we should have preferred it for the text, as more likely to be a Getæan name, but for the circumstance of his being generally written Zamolxis.

[2620] D’Anville imagines that this is the modern mountain Kaszon, and the little river of the same name on the confines of Transylvania and Moldavia.

[2621] See Strabo’s former remarks on this identical subject, book i. chap. ii. § 3, page 25.

[2622] εἰς τὸν Πόντον.

[2623] Ister.

[2624] Tanaïs.

[2625] Borysthenes.

[2626] Hypanis.

[2627] Phasis.

[2628] Thermodon.

[2629] Halys.

[2630] Gossellin observes, that these must have been the Scythians inhabiting the Taurica Chersonesus, now the Crimea. The people on the opposite or southern shore were less savage. The Ionians had made settlements amongst these as early as the sixth century B. C.

[2631] Africa.

[2632] The Mediterranean.

[2633] Od. book iv. line 83. See Strabo’s remarks on this reading of Zeno, book i. chap. ii. § 34, page 66.

[2634] See the notes on these various monsters, book i. chap. ii. § 35, p. 68.

[2635] The Riphæan Mountains were probably the chain of the Ural Mountains, which separate Russia from Siberia.

[2636] This mountain is unknown.

[2637] The Gorgons were Stheino, Euryalé, and Medusa, the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. See also book i. chap. ii. § 8, page 29.

[2638] The Hesperides were the daughters of Night. They dwelt on an island on the western edge of the world. See also Apollodorus, book ii. chap. v. § 11.

[2639] Ælian, Var. Histor. book iii. chap. 18, says that Theopompus related an interview between Midas, king of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which Silenus reported the existence of an immense continent, larger than Asia, Europe, and Africa taken together, and that amongst others a race of men called Meropes occupied several extensive cities there.

[2640] Ephorus speaks of the Cimmerii who dwelt round the Lake Avernus. See Strabo, book v. chap. iv. § 5, page 263.

[2641] See Strabo, book ii. chap. iv. § 2, page 158.

[2642] A note in the French translation says that this place has not been identified in the works of Aristotle now remaining, and suggests that there may be some error in the text.

[2643] See what Strabo has said on this subject in book i. chap. ii. § 37, pp. 70, 71.

[2644] Strabo will speak further on the subject of Gerena in book viii. chap. iii. § 7, and § 29.

[2645] Reference is here made to the epithet ἀκάκητα, which Homer applies to Mercury, Iliad xvi. 185. The grammarians explain it correctly as “free from evil,” or “who neither does nor suffers wrong.” However, there were some who interpreted it differently. They maintain that Mercury was so called from a cavern in Arcadia, called Acacesium, (see Schol. in Homer, edit. Villois. pag. 382,) which was situated near Cyllene, a mountain of Arcadia, where he was born. See Apollodor. Biblioth. lib. iii. cap. x. § 2. Hesiod, however, applies the same epithet to Prometheus, (Theogon. verse 613,) who, according to the scholiast, was thus designated from Acacesium, a mountain, not a cavern, of Arcadia, where he was greatly revered.

[2646] Homer, Iliad iii. verse 201, in speaking of Ulysses, says, Ὃς τράφη ἐν δήμῳ Ἰθάκης. Some writers affirmed that the Δῆμος was the name of a place in Ithaca, while others think it a word, and understand the passage “who was bred in the country of Ithaca.” On comparing this passage with others, Iliad xvi. vss. 437, 514, and with a parallel expression of Hesiod Theogon. verse 971, one is greatly astonished at the ignorance and eccentricity of those who sought to make a place Demus out of this passage of Homer.

[2647] According to some, Pelethronium was a city of Thessaly; according to others, it was a mountain there, or even a part of Mount Pelion.

[2648] There is no mention of any Glaucopium throughout the writings of Homer. Eustathius, on the Odyssey, book ii. page 1451, remarks that it was from the epithet γλαυκῶπις, blue-eyed or fierce-eyed, which he so often gives to Minerva, that the citadel at Athens was called the Glaucopium, while Stephen of Byzantium, on Ἀλαλκομένιον, asserts that both the epithet γλαυκῶπις and the name of the citadel Glaucopium comes from Glaucopus, the son of Alalcomeneus.

[2649] And the close-fighting Mysians, and the illustrious Hippemolgi, milk-nourished, simple in living, and most just of men. Iliad xiii. 5. The word which Cowper renders “blest with length of days,” and Buckley “simple in living,” is ἄβιοι. Its signification is very uncertain. Some propose to derive it from α, privative, and βιὸς, a bow, or bowless; while others regard it as a proper name, Abii. In Lucian’s Dialogues of the Dead, xv. 3, it means, without a living, poor, as derived from α, privative, and βίος, a means of living, livelihood. Cowper’s meaning is made up from α, intensive, and βίος, life.

[2650] Pontus Axenus.

[2651] This word is corrupt in the MSS.

[2652] He was called Idanthyrsus. See Herodotus, book iv. chap. 127.

[2653] Satyrus is supplied by Koray. See also chapter iv. of this book, § 4, and book xi. chap. ii. § 7. Groskurd refers also to Diodorus, book xiv. 93, and says that Leuco was the son of Satyrus.

[2654] The mountains in the north of Thrace still bear the name of Emineh-Dag, or Mount Emineh, at their eastern point; but the western portion is called the Balkan.

[2655] Piezina, at the embouchure of the Danube, between Babadag and Ismail.

[2656] A note in the French translation says, these were the Carni and the Iapodes, who having followed Sigovesus, in the reign of the elder Tarquin, had taken up their abode in the neighbourhood of the Adriatic; and refers to the Examen Critique des Anciens Historiens d’Alexandre, by M. de Sainte Croix, page 855.

[2657] Diodorus Siculus, in Excerpt. Peiresc. pag. 257; Memnon apud Photium, cod. 214, cap. 6; and Plutarch, in Demetrio, § 39 and 52, confirm what Strabo says here of the manner in which Dromichætes treated Lysimachus.

[2658] This is not in Plato’s Republic, but in his fourth book of Laws.

[2659] This passage, if it is the writing of Strabo, and not the marginal note of some learned reader, should doubtless be transferred back to the end of § 7 of this chapter.

[2660] Iliad xiii. 5. See note [2664] to page 460.

[2661] Kramer quotes Nækius in proof that we should here read Xerxes instead of Darius; and Groskurd refers to another passage in Strabo, book xiii. chap. i. § 22.

[2662] Casaubon observes that Diodorus Siculus attributes the invention of the potter’s wheel to Talus, a nephew of Dædalus, and that Theophrastus awards it to one Hyperbius of Corinth.

[2663] Iliad xviii. 600. Posidonius chose to regard this passage as an interpolation, and would not give the praise of the invention to any other than Anacharsis.

[2664] ἀβίους.

[2665] Iliad xiii. 5.

[2666] See chap. iii. § 3, 4, of this book.

[2667] ἄνδρα γόητα, one who used a kind of howling incantation while repeating spells.

[2668] See book vii. chap. iii. § 5, page 456.

[2669] Gossellin observes that the Dacians did not extend to the sources of the Danube, but to Bohemia, near the middle of the course of the Danube.

[2670] Gossellin seems to think that these Daæ are identical with the inhabitants of Daghistan. Davus is not found as the name of a slave amongst the Greeks till after the conquests of Alexander the Great.

[2671] Hyrcania comprehended the Corcan and Daghistan.

[2672] From Lydia and Syria.

[2673] Μάρισος ποταμός.

[2674] ὁ Δανούιος.

[2675] ὁ Ἴστρος. Stephen of Byzantium says that the Ister was called Δάνουβις, and that in very ancient times it was called Matoas. According to Ptolemy the lower part of the Danube was called Ister from Axiopolis, now Rassovat; according to Agathemerus, from Vienna.

[2676] Σαυρομάται.

[2677] The ancient Tyras.

[2678] Bessarabia and the southern part of Moldavia.

[2679] Peter the Great, at the beginning of the last century, incurred the risk of falling into the hands of the Turks almost on the same spot where Darius and Lysimachus had been in distress.

[2680] Now Piczina.

[2681] Ammianus Marcellinus, book xxii. chap. 8, gives the names of these mouths. He calls the Sacred Mouth by the name of the island Peuce.

[2682] There has been much geographical change in this locality since Strabo wrote.

[2683] The Tyras.

[2684] Gossellin supports this distance.

[2685] The Lake Ovidovo.

[2686] Now Akkerman.

[2687] Gossellin could not identify Niconia with any modern town. Groskurd marks it as destroyed.

[2688] Groskurd identifies this with Palanka.

[2689] Groskurd calls this Ilan-Adassi, or Schlangeninsel. Gossellin likewise translates Ilan-Adassi as “Isle of Serpents.”

[2690] The ancient Borysthenes.

[2691] Gossellin considers that Strabo wrote 1600 stadia, for at that distance from the sea there are cataracts which stop the ships that come from the sea.

[2692] Strabo’s word is Ὕπανις. Gossellin observes that we should look for the Ὕπανις to the east of the Dnieper, while the Bog lies to the west of that river.

[2693] Gossellin identifies this island with the modern Berezan.

[2694] Now the Dnieper.

[2695] Olbia, or Olbiopolis, would, according to this measure, be about the junction of the Bog and Dnieper.

[2696] Mannert has attempted to read Γεωργοί, because Herodotus, book iv. chap. 18, has so termed those Scythians who cultivated their fields. Is it not possible that the Latin Regii was the word Strabo had in his mind?

[2697] Piczina.

[2698] Some MSS. read this name Ῥωξανοί, others Ῥοξανοί, and others Ῥωξοανοί, but whether there is any distinction to be drawn between these and the Ῥωξαλανοί of book ii. chap. v. § 7, is not to be ascertained.

[2699] The Tanais.

[2700] The Sea of Zabache.

[2701] The Borysthenes.

[2702] The Gulf of Perecop, called also Olou-Degniz. Gossellin.

[2703] The Isthmus of Perecop, which connects the Peninsula of Crimea, the ancient Taurica Chersonesus.

[2704] The Strait of Zabache, or Iéni-Kalé.

[2705] Panticapæum, now Kertsch or Wospor in Europe.

[2706] Phanagoria was on the Asiatic coast of the Bosphorus.

[2707] We entirely agree with Kramer in favouring Coray’s emendation of πλοῦν for πηλόν, the reading of MSS.

[2708] Herodotus, book iv. chap. 53, says this fishing was carried on in the Dnieper. Ælian, de Natur. Animal. book xiv. chap. 26, refers it to the Danube.

[2709] Strabo has before alluded to this fact, book ii. chap. i. § 16, p. 114.

[2710] Lucian, in Macrob. § 10, spells his name Anteas, and relates that he was killed in this war when upwards of 90 years of age.

[2711] Father of Alexander the Great.

[2712] The Island of Berezan.

[2713] M. Gossellin identifies this as Cape Czile.

[2714] 190 toises.

[2715] 63½ toises.

[2716] The Dromos Achillis is pretty well laid down in D’Anville’s Orbis Romani Pars Orientalis, 1764, but at present it presents a very different appearance.

[2717] There is a note by Gossellin in the French translation to the following effect. The western part of this strip of land is known as the Island of Tendra, because it is separated by a cut. The eastern part of the strip is called Djarilgatch. The entire length of the tongue of land is 800 Olympic stadia, the two extremities are a little farther from the mainland than Strabo says, and the isthmus is about 50 Olympic stadia broad. D’Anville has run this isthmus through the tongue of land, and jutting out into the sea, so as to form a cape, which he also calls Tendra, and which would answer to the Tamyraca of Strabo. In the most recent maps there is no trace of this cape, but we see the port of which Strabo speaks. As these tongues of land are composed of a shifting sand, they may experience alterations of form and variations of extent.

[2718] Gossellin observes that the direction of the Gulf Carcinites, or Gulf of Perecop, is from west to east, with a slight inclination towards the north, on arriving from the south. Its northern shore commences at the isthmus of the Course of Achilles, and would measure about 1000 Olympic stadia if we were to follow all the sinuosities.

[2719] Perekop. The isthmus is about 5½ miles across, according to M. Huot’s map, which accompanies Prince Demidoff’s Travels in Russia.

[2720] The Crimea.

[2721] The Sivash, or Putrid Lake. It communicates at the present day, not by a large opening, but by the narrow strait of Yenitche, or Tonka, with the Sea of Azof, (the Palus Mæotis,) from which it is separated by the Tonka, or Tongue of Arabat.

[2722] ῥαπτοῖς πλοίοις. Boats probably composed of frame-work covered with hides.

[2723] Casaubon suggests, and Gossellin adopts, the reading καλὸς λιμὴν, Fair Haven, for ἄλλος λιμὴν, another harbour. Whatever harbour was meant, its situation is uncertain.

[2724] Tereklias.

[2725] The ancient Tyras.

[2726] In speaking of the Virgin as “some goddess,” it may be doubted whether Diana is here meant, or some Scythian or Eastern divinity. Parthenium, a village, is mentioned, c. 4, 5. The scene of the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides is laid some where on these shores.

[2727] The New Chersonesus, Cape Cherson, and the three small harbours near Khut.

[2728] The Heracleotic Chersonese was comprehended in the triangle formed by Ctenus, (Inkerman,) Parthenium, (Cape Cherson,) and Symbolon Limen (Baluklava). The Gulf of Ctenus is now the Gulf of Sebastopol, a name substituted for that of Akhtiar in the time of Catherine II. of Russia. On the first small bay to the west of the town of Sebastopol, was situated the New city Chersonesus, flourishing in the time of Strabo; the Old Chersonesus, described as in ruins, was situated on the small peninsula, the extreme western point of which is Cape Cherson. Both here and in various parts of the Crimea were very interesting remains of antiquity, but Dr. Clarke complains of their wanton destruction. Ctenus is probably derived from κτενώδης, “like a comb,” descriptive of the indented nature of the gulf. Both Gossellin and D’Anville have mistaken the true position of the Heracleotic Chersonese.

[2729] So named after the wife or sister of Leucon. C. Now Kaffa.

[2730] Cape Aia and Cape Keremp.

[2731] The opposite coasts are not visible from the middle passage.

[2732] The engraving in Pallas shows it to be, as the name implies, a table mountain, now Tchadir-Dagh, or Tent Mountain.

[2733] Trebizond.

[2734] The name seems to be preserved in that of one of the districts near the mountains, Eski-Krim. G. In Prince Demidoff’s map it is called Staröi-Krime.

[2735] Kertch.

[2736] The Sea of Azof.

[2737] Caffa.

[2738] i. e. from Kertch to Taman, or from Yeni-kaleh near Kertch to Taman. Prince Gleb, son of Vladimir, A. D. 1065, measured this latter distance on the ice, and found it to be 30,057 Russian fathoms, or nearly 12 miles. Here the battle was fought on the ice. See chap. iii. § 18.

[2739] The Tanais.

[2740] According to modern maps, the Don separates into two branches, and there again into several others, which form the mouths of the river. The extreme branches are at a considerable distance from each other.

[2741] Azof.

[2742] Yeni-kaleh.

[2743] Kazandib.

[2744] The amount is enormous, if it refers to the quantity of corn shipped in a single year. Neither manuscripts nor translations afford any various reading. The abbreviator, however, instead of 2,100,000, (μυριάδας μεδίμνων διακοσίας καὶ δέκα,) gives 150,000 (μεδίμνους ΜΥΡΙΑΔΑΣ ΙΕ). But instead of correcting Strabo by his abbreviator, it is more probable that the text of the latter should be changed to 2,100,000, or even to 2,150,000 (ΜΥΡΙΑΔΑΣ ΣΙΕ). Brequigny, by an oversight, or because he thought proper to change the ΜΥΡΙΑΔΑΣ of the text to ΧΙΛΙΑΔΑΣ, translates 210,000 medimni. However it may be, we know from Demosthenes, that this same prince of the Bosporus mentioned by Strabo, sent annually to Athens 400,000 medimni of corn, a quantity far below that mentioned in the text. To reconcile these authors, Mr. Wolf supposes that we ought to understand by 2,100,000 medimni of corn, the shipment made in the year of the great famine, which occurred in the 105th Olympiad, (about 360 B. C.,) and of which Demosthenes speaks in a manner to give us to understand, that the quantity sent that year by Leucon greatly exceeded that of former years. A very probable conjecture. F. T. The medimnus was about 1½ bushel.

[2745] ὄψημα.

[2746] ἀβίους.

[2747] I have adopted the reading suggested by the F. T., Πύργους καθ’ ἕκαστα στάδια δέκα. The wall of Ansander may still be traced. Pallas.

[2748] Places to me unknown. G. Pallas erroneously supposes Palacium to be the modern Balaklava.

[2749] Named after Mithridates Eupator. Koslof, now again Eupatoria.

[2750] δορκάδες.

[2751] Sea of Marmora.

[2752] The Veliki Balkan.

[2753] The southern part of Dalmatia bounded by the Narenta, which takes its source in the Herzogovina.

[2754] Called Monte Argentaro by the Italians, Basilissa by the Greeks, Rulla by the Turks. Baudrand. Despoto Dagh.

[2755] Occupied the neighbourhood of the river Titius, Kerca, which discharges itself near Siberico.

[2756] The mountainous country south of Servia.

[2757] The text presents some difficulty; another reading is Tænii. Gossellin supposes the lake to be the Czirknitz-See near Mount Albius, now Alben or Planina.

[2758] The Margus? See chap. v. § 12.

[2759] At the confluence of the Kulpa and the Save, afterwards Siscia, now Sizsek.

[2760] Occupied the coast of Morlacca from the Gulf of Quarnero to Zara.

[2761] According to Pliny, the name of this place is derived from the fable of the ship Argo, which was brought up the Danube and the Save, and thence carried on men’s shoulders to the Adriatic. Now Porto Quieto.

[2762] To the north of Trieste.

[2763] Trieste.

[2764] Carniola.

[2765] The Czirknitz-See.

[2766] The Kulpa.

[2767] Gulf of Cataro.

[2768] Now celebrated for the remains of a Roman amphitheatre.

[2769] Ancona.

[2770] The Venetian territory.

[2771] I am not acquainted with the sites of these places. G.

[2772] Ζειᾷ καὶ κέγχρῳ.

[2773] Scardona.

[2774] The Kerka.

[2775] The modern names of these numerous islands must be matter of conjecture. Issa is Lissa.

[2776] Salona.

[2777] Inhabitants, probably, of the peninsula Sabioncello.

[2778] Curzola.

[2779] Varalii, MSS.; but manifestly wrong.

[2780] Risano in the Gulf of Cataro.

[2781] The river Drin.

[2782] Kramer suggests the omission of these words, which render the passage obscure.

[2783] Galabrii. The name of this people is unknown. Probably it should be changed to Taulantii, an Illyrian tribe, or considered as a second name of the Taulantii, or that of a tribe belonging to them. The name Galabrus, or Galaurus, king of the Taulantii, has come down to us, which gives some probability to the second conjecture. C.

[2784] The Mædi occupied the mountains which separate Macedonia from Thrace, between the river Strymon and Mount Rhodope. G.

[2785] The Gulf of Cataro.

[2786] Alesso.

[2787] A fortified rock near.

[2788] Durazzo.

[2789] Ergent, or Beratino.

[2790] Lao, or Vousoutza.

[2791] Polina. Thucydides calls Apollonia a colony of the Corinthians, and not of the Corinthians and Corcyræans. He states it, however, (b. i. c. 24,) to have been the practice for colonies which in their turn founded other colonies, to unite with them, on these occasions, citizens of the mother city.

[2792] One of the peaks of Pindus.

[2793] Amphilochian Argos, now Filochia. G.

[2794] On the boundary of Cilicia and Syria.

[2795] Appear to have been situated on the Gulf of Valona. G.

[2796] The name, Ionian Gulf, appears to have extended from the Acroceraunian mountains to the southern part of Dalmatia, near Lissus, now Alessio, to the bottom of the Gulf of Drin. G.

[2797] The word Αδρίας is translated Adriatic. In the version of the New Testament it is translated Adria. Acts xxvii. 27.—The Tartaro.

[2798] Narenta.

[2799] A common opinion among ancient geographers. See b. i. c. ii. § 39.

[2800] παρακούσματα λαοδογματικά.

[2801] The Agrianæ occupied the neighbourhood of Mount Pangæus on the confines of Thrace and Macedonia. The Triballi, at the time alluded to by Strabo, possessed nearly the whole of the country included between the Adriatic and the Euxine. The Scordisci, who were at first confined to the territory situated between the Drave and the Save, in their turn took possession of all this country. It is not possible, in consequence of the continual wars which existed amongst these people, to determine with exactness the places which they successively occupied. G.

[2802] Probably the Save. G.

[2803] Mædi.

[2804] Cities not identified.

[2805] The Dobrudscha.

[2806] Mangalia, Tomesvar, the place of Ovid’s exile, Kara-Herman.

[2807] Istropolis or Kara-Herman.

[2808] Tomesvar.

[2809] Mangalia.

[2810] Sizepoli.

[2811] Baltchik, near Kavarna.

[2812] Varna.

[2813] Cape Emineh—in the English charts Emona, but there is no fixed system of spelling for names of places in this part of the world. Emineh is probably a corruption of Hæmus.

[2814] Missemvria.

[2815] Or Meneburgh, we should say. The Thracian was a language cognate with that of the Getæ; see Strabo, book vii. chap. iii. § 10; and the Getæ were Gothic. We have the Liber Aureus in the Moeso Gothic language still.

[2816] Ahiolou.

[2817] Places no longer known. G.

[2818] In the English charts Kyanees. They do not correspond to the description here given. The well-known poetical name is Symplegades.

[2819] In Italian, Pelamide, or Palamide, well known in the Mediterranean. It is not to be compared in size to the Thunny, but is much larger than the Mackerel, of a dark blue and streaked. Like the Thunny, it is migratory. Aristotle erroneously conjectures the Pelamide to be the young of the Thunny.

[2820] The ancient Byzantium, there are grounds for believing, was marked by the present walls of the Seraglio. The enlarged city was founded by the emperor Constantine, A. D. 328, who gave it his name, and made it the rival of Rome itself. It was taken from the Greeks in 1204, by the Venetians under Dandolo; retaken by the Greeks in 1261 under the emperor Michael Palæologus, and conquered by the Turks in 1453. The crescent found on some of the ancient Byzantine coins was adopted as a symbol by the Turks.

[2821] B. C.1570. He was king of Argos.

[2822] The Peloponnesus, which before the arrival of Pelops was called Apia.

[2823] Eumolpus took possession of Eleusis B. C.1400. He is said to have there instituted the mysteries of Ceres.

[2824] Cadmus, son of Agenor, king of Tyre, arrived in Bœotia B. C.1550. The citadel of Thebes was named after him.

[2825] Sues, Σύας, swine, in allusion to their ignorance.

[2826] There were two kings of Athens named Cecrops. The first of this name, first king of Attica and Bœotia, came from Egypt. Cecrops II. was the 7th, and Codrus the 17th and last king of Attica. Strabo informs us, b. x. c. i. § 3, that Œclus and Cothus were brothers of Ellops, who founded Ellopia in Eubœa, and gave the name to the whole island.

[2827] B. v. c. ii. § 4.

[2828] The capture of Troy by Hercules. See Grote i. 388.

[2829] B. C.168.

[2830] Ipsala.

[2831] Maritza.

[2832] D’Anville (Mesures Itineraires) conjectures the difference between Polybius and Strabo to arise from the Greek foot being less than the Roman foot in the ratio of 24 to 25; or 24 Roman stadia = 25 Greek stadia containing the same number of feet.

[2833] Polina.

[2834] Durazzo.

[2835] Lago d’ Ochrida.

[2836] Vodina.

[2837] The ruins of Pella are at a little distance on the east of the lake Tenidscheh.

[2838] Saloniki.

[2839] Gulf of Arta.

[2840] Iemboli.

[2841] Balkan applies to the whole mountainous range of Hæmus; Emineh to the part bordering on the Black Sea.

[2842] Sea of Marmora.

[2843] Gulf of Saros.

[2844] Cape Colonna.

[2845] Karasu, or Mesta.

[2846] The site of Dodona is unknown.

[2847] Panormo.

[2848] Santi Quaranta.

[2849] Corfu.

[2850] Cassiopo.

[2851] Brindisi.

[2852] Butrinto.

[2853] Syvota.

[2854] C. Bianco.

[2855] The Thyamus, or Thyamis, is now called Glycys, and the Acheron, Calamas.

[2856] Sopoto.

[2857] Porto Fanari.

[2858] The ruins of Nicopolis are to the north of Prevesa.

[2859] Cæsar Augustus (then Cæsar Octavianus) obtained the celebrated victory of Actium over Marcus Antonius, B. C.31. The latter, after his defeat, fled into Egypt with Cleopatra. The battle would appear to have taken place at the entrance into the Gulf of Arta, and therefore probably off La Punta, opposite Prevesa, and not off the modern town of Azio.

[2860] In the Austrian map a ground-plan of the ruins of Nicopolis are given, at about one mile to the north of Prevesa.

[2861] The Gulf of Ambracia, and the rivers which flow into it, are much distorted in D’Anville. According to more modern maps, the Arathus is the most western of the streams which flow into the gulf, and the ancient city was situated at about 15 miles from the mouth. The Lorn (the Arathus); the Mauro Potamo or Glykys (the Acheron); the Zagura (the Selleis?) which falls into it; and the Tercino, which falls into the Kalamas, (the Thyamis or Thyamus,) all rise in the mountain ridge Olytkiza, about 10 miles to the west of Ianina.

[2862] Livy xxxviii. c. 3.

[2863] Virg. Æn. iii. 280.

[2864] Descendants of the seven chiefs who fought and perished before Thebes.

[2865] These nations are mentioned by other authors; they were probably separated by the numerous mountain ridges to the west of Pindus. See below, § 9. But compare D’Anville and the Austrian military map.

[2866] Alcomenæ.

[2867] Styberra, Polyb.; Stubera, Liv.; Stobera, Suid.

[2868] Iliad, book xvi. 233.

[2869] ὑποφῆται.

[2870] τομοῦροι.

[2871] Odys. xvi. 403.

[2872] τομούρους.

[2873] θέμιστας.

[2874] βουλαί.

[2875] τομούρους.

[2876] τομαρούρους.

[2877] βουλὴν.

[2878] ὑποφῆται.

[2879] προφῆται.

[2880] The Fragments are collected from the Palatine (Epit.) and Vatican (E.) Epitomes; and, in the opinion of Kramer, much is not lost. By the diligence and research of Kramer, the former length of these Fragments is more than doubled; but for a more particular account of his labours, the reader is referred to his preface and notes.

[2881] This proverb is quoted in Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus.

[2882] Indesche Karasu.

[2883] Oxas.

[2884] Ipsala.

[2885] The Maritza.

[2886] Schar-dagh.

[2887] Egrisou-dagh.

[2888] Despoto-dagh.

[2889] Veliki-dagh.

[2890] Above Agios-Mamas, in the Bay of Cassandra.

[2891] The Gallico.

[2892] Kramer quotes the following passage from Eustathius: “In the passage ἐπικίδναται αἴῃ, or αἶαν, (for there are two readings,) some have understood αἶαv not to mean the earth, but a spring, as is evident from the words of the geographer, where he says that the Amydon of Homer was afterwards called Abydos, but was razed. For there is a spring of clearest water near Amydon, called Æa, running into the Axius, which is itself turbid, in consequence of the numerous rivers which flow into it. There is, therefore, he says, an error in the quotation, Ἀξίου κάλλιστον ὕδωρ ἐπικίδναται αἴῃ, as it is clearly not the Axius which diffuses its water over the spring, but the contrary. The geographer rather intemperately finds fault with the supposition of αἶαν meaning the earth, and seems anxious to reject altogether this reading in the Homeric poem.”

[2893] Buræus.

[2894] Gulf of Salonica.

[2895] Cape Pailuri.

[2896] The ruins of Potidæa, or Cassandria, are near Pinako.

[2897] Karafaja.

[2898] Monte Santo.

[2899] Gulf of Zeitun.

[2900] G. of Volo.

[2901] G. of Salonica.

[2902] G. of Cassandra.

[2903] G. of Monte Santo.

[2904] G. of Orfano.

[2905] Cape Stauros.

[2906] C. Demitri.

[2907] C. Pailuri.

[2908] C. Drepano.

[2909] C. St. George.

[2910] C. Monte Santo.

[2911] Kavala.

[2912] Δάτον ἀγαθῶν. Ἀγαθῶν ἀγαθίδες.

[2913] This extract should be numbered 42, and not 43. As the error in Kramer continues to the end of the book, it has not been corrected.

[2914] Gulf of Saros.

[2915] Kavaktshai.