CHAP. 23.—THE SPORADES.
The islands thus far are considered as belonging to the Cyclades; the rest that follow are the Sporades[2716]. These are, Helene[2717], Phacussa, Nicasia, Schinussa, Pholegandros, and, at a distance of thirty-eight miles from Naxos, Icaros[2718], which has given its name to the surrounding sea, and is the same number of miles in length[2719], with two cities, and a third now no longer in existence: this island used formerly to be called Doliche, Macris, and Ichthyoëssa[2720]. It is situate fifty miles to the north-east of Delos, and thirty-five from the island of Samos. Between Eubœa and Andros, there is an arm of the sea ten miles in width, and from Icaros to Geræstus is a distance of 1121⁄2 miles.
After we pass these, no regular order can be well observed; the rest must therefore be mentioned indiscriminately. There is the island of Scyros[2721], and that of Ios[2722], eighteen miles distant from Naxos, and deserving of all veneration for the tomb there of Homer; it is twenty-five miles in length, and was formerly known by the name of Phœnice; also Odia, Oletandros, and Gyara[2723], with a city of the same name, the island being twelve miles in circumference, and distant from Andros sixty-two. At a distance of eighty miles from Gyara is Syrnos, then Cynæthus, Telos[2724], noted for its unguents, and by Callimachus called Agathussa, Donusa[2725], Patmos[2726], thirty miles in circumference, the Corassiæ[2727], Lebinthus[2728], Leros[2729], Cinara[2730]; Sicinus[2731], formerly called Œnoë[2732]; Hieracia, also called Onus; Casos[2733], likewise called Astrabe; Cimolus[2734], or Echinussa; and Melos[2735], with a city of that name, which island Aristides calls Memblis, Aristotle Zephyria, Callimachus Mimallis, Heraclides Siphis and Acytos. This last is the most circular[2736] in form of all these islands. After this comes Machia, then Hypere, formerly Patage, or, as others have it, Platage, but now called Amorgos[2737], Polyægos[2738], Phyle, and Thera[2739], known as Calliste when it first sprang from the waves. From this, at a later period, the island of Therasia[2740] was torn away, and between the two afterwards arose Automate, also called Hiera, and Thia, which in our own times came into existence in the vicinity of these islands. Ios is distant from Thera twenty-five miles.
Next to these follow Lea, Ascania[2741], Anaphe[2742], Hippuris, and Astypalæa[2743], a free state. This island is eighty-eight miles in circumference, and 125 miles distant from Cadistus, in Crete. From Astypalæa, Platea is distant sixty miles, and Caminia thirty-eight from this last. We then come to the islands of Azibintha, Lanise, Tragæa, Pharmacussa, Techedia, Chalcia[2744], Calymna[2745], in which is the town of Coös, Calymna, at a distance of twenty-five miles from which is Carpathum[2746], which has given its name to the Carpathian Sea. The distance thence to Rhodes[2747], in the direction of the south-west wind, is fifty miles. From Carpathum to Casus is seven miles, and from Casus to Sammonium, the promontory of Crete, thirty[2748]. In the Euripus of Eubœa, almost at the very mouth of it, are the four islands called Petaliæ[2749]; and, at its outlet, Atalante[2750]. The Cyclades and the Sporades are bounded on the east by the Asiatic shores of the Icarian Sea, on the west by the Attic shores of the Myrtoan Sea, on the north by the Ægean, and on the south by the Cretan and Carpathian seas, extending 700 miles in length, and 200 in breadth.
The Gulf of Pagasa[2751] has in front of it Euthia[2752], Cicynethus[2753], Scyros, previously mentioned[2754], and the very furthermost of the Cyclades and Sporades, Gerontia and Scandila[2755]; the Gulf of Thermæ[2756], Iræsia, Solimnia, Eudemia, and Nea, which last is sacred to Minerva. Athos has before it four islands; Peparethus[2757], formerly called Evœnus, with a city of that name, at a distance from Athos of nine miles; Sciathus[2758], at a distance of fifteen, and Imbros[2759], with a city of the same name, at a distance of eighty-eight miles. This last island is distant from Mastusia, in the Chersonesus, twenty-five miles; it is sixty-two[2760] miles in circumference, and is washed by the river Ilisus. At a distance of twenty-two miles from it is Lemnos[2761], being distant from Mount Athos eighty-seven; it is 112 miles in circumference, and has the cities of Hephæstia and Myrina[2762]; into the market-place of which last city Athos throws its shadow at the summer solstice. The island of Thasos[2763], constituting a free state, is six miles distant from Lemnos; it formerly had the name of Aëria, or Æthria. Abdera[2764], on the mainland, is distant from Thasos twenty-two miles, Athos sixty-two[2765]. The island of Samothrace[2766], a free state, facing the river Hebrus, is the same distance from Thasos, being also thirty-two[2767] miles from Imbros, twenty-two from Lemnos, and thirty-eight[2768] from the coast of Thrace; it is thirty-two miles in circumference, and in it rises Mount Saoce[2769], ten miles in height. This island is the most inaccessible of them all. Callimachus mentions it by its ancient name of Dardania.
Between the Chersonesus and Samothrace, at a distance of about fifteen miles from them both, is the island of Halonnesos[2770], and beyond it Gethone, Lamponia, and Alopeconnesus[2771], not far from Cœlos, a port[2772] of the Chersonesus, besides some others of no importance. The following names may be also mentioned, as those of uninhabited islands in this gulf, of which we have been enabled to discover the names:—Desticos, Sarnos, Cyssiros, Charbrusa, Calathusa, Scylla, Draconon, Arconnesus, Diethusa, Scapos, Capheris, Mesate, Æantion, Pateronnesos, Pateria, Calate, Neriphus, and Polendos[2773].
CHAP. 24.—THE HELLESPONT.—THE LAKE MÆOTIS.
The fourth great Gulf of Europe begins at the Hellespont and ends at the entrance of the Mæotis[2774]. But in order that the several portions of the Euxine and its coasts may be the better known, we must briefly embrace the form of it in one general view. This vast sea, lying in front of Asia, is shut out from Europe by the projection of the shores of the Chersonesus, and effects an entrance into those countries by a narrow channel only, of the width, as already mentioned, of seven stadia, thus separating Europe from Asia. The entrance of these Straits is called the Hellespont; over it Xerxes, the king of the Persians, constructed a bridge of boats, across which he led his army. A narrow channel extends thence a distance of eighty-six miles, as far as Priapus[2775], a city of Asia, at which Alexander the Great passed over. At this point the sea becomes wider, and after some distance again takes the form of a narrow strait. The wider part is known as the Propontis[2776], the Straits as the Thracian Bosporus[2777], being only half-a-mile in width, at the place where Darius, the father of Xerxes, led his troops across by a bridge. The extremity of this is distant from the Hellespont 239 miles.
We then come to the vast sea called the Euxine, which invades the land as it retreats afar, and the name of which was formerly Axenus[2778]. As the shores bend inwards, this sea with a vast sweep stretches far away, curving on both sides after the manner of a pair of horns, so much so that in shape it bears a distinct resemblance to a Scythian bow[2779]. In the middle of the curve it is joined by the mouth of Lake Mæotis, which is called the Cimmerian[2780] Bosporus, and is two miles and a half in width. Between the two Bospori, the Thracian and the Cimmerian, there is a distance in a straight line, of 500 miles, as Polybius informs us. We learn from Varro and most of the ancient writers, that the circumference of the Euxine is altogether 2150 miles; but to this number Cornelius Nepos adds 350 more; while Artemidorus makes it 2919 miles, Agrippa 2360, and Mucianus 2425. In a similar manner some writers have fixed the length of the European shores of this sea at 1478 miles, others again at 1172. M. Varro gives the measurement as follows:—from the mouth of the Euxine to Apollonia 187 miles, and to Callatis the same distance; thence to the mouth of the Ister 125 miles; to the Borysthenes 250; to Chersonesus[2781], a town of the Heracleotæ, 325; to Panticapæum[2782], by some called Bosporus, at the very extremity of the shores of Europe, 212 miles: the whole of which added together, makes 1337[2783] miles. Agrippa makes the distance from Byzantium to the river Ister 560 miles, and from thence to Panticapæum, 635.
Lake Mæotis, which receives the river Tanais as it flows from the Riphæan Mountains[2784], and forms the extreme boundary between Europe and Asia, is said to be 1406 miles in circumference; which however some writers state at only 1125. From the entrance of this lake to the mouth of the Tanais in a straight line is, it is generally agreed, a distance of 375 miles.