[213] Ligurian tribes between Nice and Marseilles. Pliny, N. H. 3, § 47.
[214] Surnamed Philometor. He succeeded his uncle Attalus Philadelphus in B.C. 138, and at his death in B.C. 133 left his dominions to Rome.
[215] Alexander Balas was an impostor of low origin set up by Heracleides as a son of Antiochus Epiphanes. He entered Syria in B.C. 152, defeated and killed Demetrius in B.C. 150, and was himself defeated in B.C. 146 by Ptolemy Philometor (who also fell) in favour of a son of Demetrius, and was shortly afterwards murdered. Livy, Ep. 52. Appian, Syr. 67; Joseph. Antiq. 13, 2, 4.
[216] Odyss. 12, 95.
[217] Odyss. 12, 105.
[218] Odyss. 9, 82.
[219] Panchaia or Panchēa, the fabulous island or country in the Red Sea or Arabian gulf, in which Euhemerus asserted that he had discovered the inscriptions which proved the reputed gods to have been famous generals or kings. Plutarch, Is. et Osir. 23, Diodor. fr. 6, 1. The Roman poets used the word as equivalent to “Arabian.” See Verg. Georg. 2, 139.
[220] That is “as great a liar as Antiphanes of Berga.” See below. Strabo classes Antiphanes with Pytheas and Euhemerus more than once (see 2, 3, 5). Hence came the verb βεργαΐζειν, “to tell travellers’ tales” (Steph. Byz.). But there is considerable doubt as to the identification of the traveller Antiphanes, some confounding him with a comic poet of the same name, and others with the author of an essay περὶ ἑταιρῶν. Berga was in the valley of the Strymon.
[221] Strabo here protests against Dicaearchus being treated as a standard of geographical truth. For Pytheas see Appendix.