“inhabited the famous Celænæ, at the extremity of Ida,”
for Celænæ is at a great distance from Ida, and so are the sources of the Caïcus, for they are to be seen in the plain.
There is a mountain, Temnum, which separates this and the plain of Asia; it lies in the interior above the plain of Thebe. A river, Mysius, flows from Temnum and enters the Caïcus below its source. Hence some persons suppose that Æschylus refers to it in the beginning of the prologue to the play of the Myrmidons,
“Caïcus, and ye Mysian streams”—
Near its source is a village called Gergitha, to which Attalus transferred the inhabitants of Gergitha in the Troad, after destroying their own town.
CHAPTER II.
1. Since Lesbos, a very remarkable island, lies along and opposite to the sea-coast, extending from Lectum to Canæ, and since it is surrounded by small islands, some of which lie beyond it, others in the space between Lesbos and the continent, it is now proper to describe them, because they are Æolian places, and Lesbos is, as it were, the capital of the Æolian cities. We shall begin where we set out to describe the coast opposite to the island.
2. In sailing from Lectum to Assus the Lesbian district begins opposite to Sigrium,[1496] its northern promontory. Somewhere there is Methymna,[1497] a city of the Lesbians, 60 stadia from the coast, between Polymedium and Assus. The whole island is 1100 stadia in circumference. The particulars are these.
From Methymna to Malia,[1498] the most southern promontory to those who have the island on their right hand, and to which Canæ[1499] lies directly opposite, are 340 stadia. Thence to Sigrium, which is the length of the island, 560 stadia, thence to Methymna 210 stadia.[1500]