CHAPTER I.
1. There remain to be described Ionia, Caria, and the sea-coast beyond the Taurus, which is occupied by Lycians, Pamphylians, and Cilicians.[19] We shall thus finish the description of the whole circuit of the peninsula, the isthmus of which, we have said, consists of the tract between the Euxine and the Sea of Issus.
2. The navigation around Ionia along the coast is about 3430 stadia. It is a considerable distance, on account of the gulfs, and of the peninsular form for the most part of the country, but the length in a straight line is not great. The distance, for example, from Ephesus to Smyrna is a journey in a straight line of 320 stadia; to Metropolis[20] is 120 stadia, and the remainder to Smyrna; but this distance by sea is little less than 2200 stadia. The extent of the Ionian coast is reckoned from Poseidium,[21] belonging to the Milesians, and the boundaries of Caria, as far as Phocæa,[22] and the river Hermus.[23]
3. According to Pherecydes, Miletus, Myus,[24] Mycale, and Ephesus, on this coast, were formerly occupied by Carians; the part of the coast next in order, as far as Phocæa, and Chios, and Samos, of which Ancæus was king, were occupied by Leleges, but both nations were expelled by the Ionians, and took refuge in the remaining parts of Caria.
Pherecydes says that the leader of the Ionian, which was posterior to the Æolian migration, was Androclus, a legitimate son of Codrus king of the Athenians, and that he was the founder of Ephesus, hence it was that it became the seat of the royal palace of the Ionian princes. Even at present the descendants of that race are called kings, and receive certain honours, as the chief seat at the public games, a purple robe as a symbol of royal descent, a staff instead of a sceptre, and the superintendence of the sacrifices in honour of the Eleusinian Ceres.
Neleus, of a Pylian family, founded Miletus. The Messenians and Pylians pretend that there is some affinity between them; in reference to which later poets say that even Nestor was a Messenian, and that many Pylians accompanied Melanthus, the father of Codrus, to Athens, and that all this people sent out the colony in common with the Ionians. There is also to be seen on the promontory Poseidium an altar erected by Neleus.
Myus was founded by Cydrelus, a spurious son of Codrus; Lebedos[25] by Andropompus, who took possession of a place called Artis; Colophon by Andræmon, a Pylian, as Mimnermus mentions in his poem of Nanno;[26] Priene by Æpytus, son of Neleus; and afterwards by Philotas, who brought a colony from Thebes; Teos by Athamas, its first founder, whence Anacreon calls the city Athamantis, but at the time of the Ionian migration of the colony it received settlers from Nauclus, a spurious son of Codrus, and after this from Apœcus and Damasus, who were Athenians, and from Geres, a Bœotian; Erythræ was founded by Cnopus, who also was a spurious son of Codrus; Phocæa by Athenians, who accompanied Philogenes; Clazomenæ by Paralus; Chios by Egertius, who brought with him a mixed body of colonists; Samos by Tembrion, and afterwards by Procles.
4. These are the twelve Ionian cities. At a subsequent period Smyrna also was added to the Ionian association at the instance of the Ephesians, for anciently they inhabited the same city, at which time Ephesus was called Smyrna. Callinus somewhere gives it this name, and calls the Ephesians Smyrnæans in the address to Jupiter:
“And pity the Smyrnæans;”
and in another passage,