“On the Asian mead,”[112]
and they show a temple dedicated to two heroes, Caÿstrius and Asius, and the Caÿster flowing near it.
46. Historians relate that three brothers, Athymbrus, Athymbradus, and Hydrelus, coming hither from Lacedæmon, founded (three?) cities, to which they gave their own names; that the population of these towns afterwards declined, but that out of these jointly Nysa was peopled. The Nysæans at present regard Athymbrus as their founder.
47. Beyond the Mæander and in the neighbourhood are considerable settlements, Coscinia[113] and Orthosia, and on this side the river, Briula, Mastaura,[114] Acharaca, and above the city on the mountain, Aroma; the letter o is shortened in the pronunciation. From this latter place is obtained the Aromeus, the best Mesogitian wine.
48. Among illustrious natives of Nysa were Apollonius the Stoic philosopher, the most eminent of the disciples of Panætius, and of Menecrates, the disciple of Aristarchus; Aristodemus, the son of Menecrates, whom, when I was a very young man, I heard lecturing on philosophy, in extreme old age, at Nysa; Sostratus, the brother of Aristodemus, and another Aristodemus, his cousin, the master of Pompey the Great, were distinguished grammarians. My master taught rhetoric also at Rhodes, and in his own country he had two schools; in the morning he taught rhetoric, in the evening grammar. When he superintended the education of the children of Pompey at Rome, he was satisfied with teaching a school of grammar.
CHAPTER II.
1. The places beyond the Mæander, which remain to be described, belong to the Carians. The Carians here are not intermixed with Lydians, but occupy the whole country by themselves, if we except a small portion of the sea-coast, of which the Milesians and Mysians have taken possession.
Caria[115] begins on the sea-coast opposite to Rhodes, and ends at Poseidium,[116] belonging to the Milesians. In the interior are the extremities of Taurus, which extend as far as the Mæander. For the mountains situated above the Chelidonian islands,[117] as they are called, which lie in front of the confines of Pamphylia and Lycia, are, it is said, the beginning of the Taurus; for the Taurus has there some elevation, and indeed a mountainous ridge of Taurus separates the whole of Lycia towards the exterior and the southern part from Cibyra and its district, as far as the country opposite to Rhodes. Even there a mountainous tract is continued; it is, however, much lower in height, and is not considered as any longer belonging to Taurus, nor is there the distinction of parts lying within and parts lying without the Taurus, on account of the eminences and depressions being scattered about through the whole country both in breadth and length, and not presenting anything like a separation-wall.
The whole voyage along the coast, including the winding of the bays, is 4900 stadia, and that along the country opposite to Rhodus 1500 stadia.