42. After Magnesia is the road to Tralles;[104] travellers have on the left hand Mesogis,[105] and on the right hand, and from the road itself, the plain of the Mæander, which is occupied in common by Lydians, Carians, Ionians, Milesians, Mysians, and the Æolians of Magnesia.
The character of the sites of places is the same even as far as Nysa[106] and Antioch.
The city of Tralles is built upon ground in the shape somewhat of a trapezium. It has a citadel strongly fortified, and the places around are well defended. It is as well peopled as any of the cities in Asia, and its inhabitants are wealthy; some of them constantly occupy chief stations in the province, and are called Asiarchs. Among the latter was Pythodorus, originally a native of Nysa; but, induced by the celebrity of the place, he migrated hither. He was one of the few friends of Pompey who were fortunate. His wealth was kingly, and consisted of more than two thousand talents, which he redeemed when it was confiscated by divus Cæsar, on account of his attachment to Pompey, and left it undiminished to his children. Pythodoris, who is at present queen in Pontus, and whom we have mentioned before, is his daughter. Pythodorus flourished in our times, and also Menodorus, an eloquent man, and a person of dignified and grave demeanour; he was priest of Jupiter Larisæus. He was circumvented by the adherents of Domitius Ænobarbus, who, on the credit of informers, put him to death, for attempting, as was supposed, the revolt of his fleet.
Tralles produced also celebrated orators, Dionysocles, and after him Damasus, surnamed Scombrus.
It is said to have been founded by Argives and a body of Tralli Thracians,[107] from whom it had its name. It was governed for a short time by tyrants, sons of Cratippus, about the period of the Mithridatic war.
43. Nysa is situated near the Mesogis, resting for the most part against the mountain. It is as it were a double town, for a kind of torrent watercourse divides it into two parts, and forms a valley, one part of which has a bridge over it, connecting the two towns; the other is adorned with an amphitheatre; underneath it is a passage through which the waters of the torrents flow out of sight.
Near the theatre are situated[108] two heights; below one lies the gymnasium for the young men; below the other is the forum, and a place of exercise for older persons. To the south below the city lies the plain, as at Tralles.
44. On the road between Tralles and Nysa is a village of the Nysæans, not far from the city Acharaca, in which is the Plutonium, to which is attached a large grove, a temple of Pluto and Proserpine, and the Charonium, a cave which overhangs the grove, and possesses some singular physical properties. The sick, it is said, who have confidence in the cures performed by these deities, resort thither, and live in the village near the cave, among experienced priests, who sleep at night in the open air, on behoof of the sick, and direct the modes of cure by their dreams. The priests invoke the gods to cure the sick, and frequently take them into the cave, where, as in a den, they are placed to remain in quiet without food for several days. Sometimes the sick themselves observe their own dreams, but apply to these persons, in their character of priests and guardians of the mysteries, to interpret them, and to counsel what is to be done. To others the place is interdicted and fatal.
An annual festival, to which there is a general resort, is celebrated at Acharaca, and at that time particularly are to be seen and heard those who frequent it, conversing about cures performed there.[109] During this feast the young men of the gymnasium and the ephebi, naked and anointed with oil,[110] carry off a bull by stealth at midnight, and hurry it away into the cave. It is then let loose, and after proceeding a short distance falls down and expires.
45. Thirty stadia from Nysa, as you cross the Mesogis towards the southern parts of Mount Tmolus,[111] is a place called Leimon, or the Meadow, to which the Nysæans and all the people around repair when they celebrate a festival. Not far from this plain is an aperture in the ground, sacred to the same deities, which aperture is said to extend as far as Acharaca. They say that the poet mentions this meadow, in the words,