In front of these places lies off, at no great distance, the island Belbina; and the rampart of Patroclus; but most of these islands are uninhabited.
22. On doubling the promontory at Sunium, we meet with Sunium, a considerable demus; then Thoricus, next a demus called Potamus, from which the inhabitants are called Potamii; next Prasia,[320] Steiria, Brauron, where is the temple of
Diana Brauronia, Halæ Araphenides, where is the temple of Diana Tauropola; then Myrrhinus, Probalinthus, Marathon, where Miltiades entirely destroyed the army of Datis the Persian, without waiting for the Lacedæmonians, who deferred setting out till the full moon. There is laid the scene of the fable of the Marathonian bull, which Theseus killed.
Next to Marathon is Tricorynthus, then Rhamnus, where is the temple of Nemesis; then Psaphis, a city of the Oropii. Somewhere about this spot is the Amphiaraeum, an oracle once in repute, to which Amphiareus fled, as Sophocles says,
“The dusty Theban soil opened and received him with his armour, and the four-horse chariot.”
Oropus has frequently been a subject of contention, for it is situated on the confines of Attica and Bœotia.
In front of this coast, before Thoricum and Sunium, is the island Helena; it is rocky and uninhabited, extending in length about 60 stadia, which, they say, the poet mentions in the words, in which Alexander addresses Helen,
“Not when first I carried thee away from the pleasant Lacedæmon, across the deep, and in the island Cranaë embraced thee.”[321]
For Cranaë, from the kind of intercourse which took place there, is now called Helena. Next to Helena,[322] Eubœa[323] lies in front of the following tract of coast. It is long and narrow, and stretching along the continent like Helena. From Sunium to the southern point of Eubœa, which is called Leuce Acte,[324] [or, the white coast,] is a voyage of 300 stadia, but we shall speak hereafter of Eubœa.