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XIII.1 (Part 2)

This webpage reproduces a section of
The Geography

of
Strabo

published in Vol. V
of the Loeb Classical Library edition,
1928

The text is in the public domain.

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XIII.2

(Vol. VI) Strabo
Geography

 p91  Book XIII, Chapter 1 (end)

46 604 After the Sigeian Promontory and the Achilleium one comes to the Achaeïum, the part of the  p93 mainland that belongs to the Tenedians;​1 and to Tenedos itself, which is not more than forty stadia distant from the mainland. It is about eighty stadia in circumference, and has an Aeolian city and two harbours and a temple of Sminthian Apollo, as the poet testifies: "And dost rule mightily over Tenedos, O Sminthian."​2 Round it lie several small islands, in particular two, which are called the Calydnae and are situated on the voyage to Lectum. And some give the name Calydna to Tenedos itself, while others call it Leucophrys. In it is laid the scene of the myth of Tennes,​3 after whom the island was named, as also that of Cycnus, a Thracian by birth and, according to some, father of Tennes and king of Colonae.4

47 Both Larisa and Colonae used to be adjacent to the Achaeïum, formerly being on the part of the mainland that belonged to the Tenedians; and then one comes to the present Chrysa, which was founded on a rocky height above the sea, and to Hamaxitus, which lies below Lectum and adjacent to it. At the present time Alexandreia is adjacent to the Achaeïum; and those other towns, like several others of the strongholds, have been incorporated with Alexandreia, among them Cebrenê and Neandria; and Alexandreia holds their territory. But the site on which Alexandreia now lies used to be called Sigia.

48 In this Chrysa is also the temple of Sminthian  p95 Apollo; and the symbol which preserves the etymology of the name,​5 I mean the mouse, lies beneath the foot of his image. These are the works of Scopas of Paros; and also the history, or myth, about the mice is associated with this place: When the Teucrians arrived from Crete (Callinus the elegiac poet was the first to hand down an account of these people, and many have followed him), they had an oracle which bade them to "stay on the spot where the earth-born should attack them"; and, he says, the attack took place round Hamaxitus, for by night a great multitude of field-mice swarmed out of the ground and ate up all the leather in their arms and equipment; and the Teucrians remained there; and it was they who gave its name to Mt. Ida, naming it after the mountain in Crete. Heracleides of Pontus says that the mice which swarmed round the temple were regarded as sacred, and that for this reason the image was designed with its foot upon the mouse. Others say that a certain Teucer came from the deme of Troes, now called Xypeteones, in Attica, but that no Teucrians came from Crete. As a further sign of the close relation­ship of the Trojans with the people of Attica they record the fact that Erichthonius was one of the original founders in both tribes. Now this is the account of the more recent writers; but more in agreement with Homer are traces to be seen 605 in the plain of Thebê and in the Chrysa which was once founded there, which I shall soon  p97 discuss. The name of Smintheus is used in many places, for in the neighbourhood of Hamaxitus itself, apart from the Sminthium at the temple, there are two places called Sminthia; and there are others in the neighbouring territory of Larisa. And also in the territory of Parium there is a place called Sminthia, as also in Rhodes and in Lindus and in many other places. And they now call the temple Sminthium. Apart, at any rate,​6 lie both the Halesian Plain, of no great size, and inland from Lectum, and the Tragasaean salt‑pan near Hamaxitus, where salt is naturally caused to congeal by the Etesian winds. On Lectum is to be seen an altar of the twelve gods, said to have been founded by Agamemnon. These places are all in sight of Ilium, at a distance of about two hundred stadia or a little more; and the same is the case with the places round Abydus on the other side, although Abydus is a little closer.

49 On doubling Lectum one comes next to the most notable cities of the Aeolians, and to the Gulf of Adramyttium, on which the poet obviously places the majority of the Leleges, as also the Cilicians, who were twofold.​7 Here too is the shore-land of the Mitylenaeans, with certain villages​8 belonging to the Mitylenaeans who live on the mainland. The same gulf is also called the Idaean Gulf, for the ridge which extends from Lectum to Mt. Ida lies above the first part of the gulf, where the poet represents the Leleges as first settled.9

 p99  50 But I have already discussed these matters.​10 I must now add that Homer speaks of a Pedasus, a city of the Leleges, as subject to lord Altes: "Of Altes, who is lord over the war‑loving Leleges, who hold steep Pedasus on the Satnioeis."​11 And the site of the place, now deserted, is still to be seen. Some write, though wrongly, "at the foot of Satnioeis,"​12 as though the city lay at the foot of a mountain called Satnioeis; but there is no mountain here called Satnioeis, but only a river of that name, on which the city is situated; but the city is now deserted. The poet names the river, for, according to him, "he wounded Satnius with a thrust of his spear, even the son of Oenops, whom a peerless Naiad nymph bore unto Oenops, as he tended his herds by the banks of the Satnioeis";​13 and again: 606 "And he dwelt by the backs of the fair-flowing Satnioeis in steep Pedasus."​14 And in later times it was called Satnioeis, though some called it Saphnioeis. It is only a large winter torrent, but the naming of it by the poet has made it worthy of mention. These places are continuous with Dardania and Scepsia, and are, as it were, a second Dardania, but it is lower-lying.

51 To the Assians and the Gargarians now belong all the parts as far as the sea off Lesbos that are surrounded  p101 by the territory of Antandrus and that of the Cebrenians and Neandrians and Hamaxitans; for the Antandrians are situated above Hamaxitus, like it being situated inside Lectum, though farther inland and nearer to Ilium, for they are one hundred and thirty stadia distant from Ilium. Higher up than these are the Cebrenians, and still higher up than the latter are the Dardanians, who extend as far as Palaescepsis and Scepsis itself. Antandrus is called by Alcaeus "city of the Leleges": "First, Antandrus, city of the Leleges";​15 but it is placed by the Scepsian among the cities adjacent to their territory,​16 so that it would fall within the territory of the Cilicians; for the territory of the Cilicians is continuous with that of the Leleges, the former, rather than the latter, marking off the southern flank of Mt. Ida. But still the territory of the Cilicians also lies low and, rather than that of the Leleges, joins the part of the coast that is near Adramyttium.​17 For after Lectum one comes to a place called Polymedium, at a distance of forty stadia; then, at a distance of eighty,​18 to Assus, slightly above the sea; and then, at a distance of one hundred and  p103 twenty,​19 to Gargara,​a1 which lies on a promontory​20 that forms the Adramyttene Gulf, in the special sense of that term; for the whole of the coast from Lectum to Canae is also called by this same name, in which is also included the Elaïtic Gulf. In the special sense of the term, however, only that part of it is called Adramyttene which is enclosed by that promontory on which Gargara lies and the promontory called Pyrrha, on which the Aphrodisium​21 is situated. The breadth of the mouth across from promontory to promontory is a distance of one hundred and twenty stadia. Inside is Antandrus, above which lies a mountain called Alexandreia, where the Judgment of Paris is said to have taken place, as also Aspaneus, the market for the timber from Mt. Ida; for here people bring it down and sell it to those who want it. And then comes Astyra, a village with a precinct sacred to the Astyrene Artemis. And quite near Astyra is Adramyttium, a city colonised by the Athenians, which has both a harbour and a naval station. 607 Outside the gulf and the promontory called Pyrrha lies Cisthenê, a deserted city with a harbour. Above it, in the interior, lie the copper mine and Perperenê and Trarium and other settlements like these two. On the next stretch of coast one comes to the villages of the Mitylenaeans, I mean Coryphantis and Heracleia; and after these places to Attea, and then to Atarneus and Pitanê and the outlets of the Caïcus River; and here we have already reached the Elaïtic Gulf. On the far side of the river lie  p105 Elaea and the rest of the gulf as far as Canae. But let me go back and again discuss in detail the several places, if anything worthy of mention has been passed over; and first of all, Scepsis.

52 Palaescepsis lies above Cebren near the highest part of Mt. Ida, near Polichna; and it was then called Scepsis (whether for another reason or from the fact that the place is visible all round, if it is right to derive from Greek words names then used by barbarians),​22 but later the inhabitants were removed sixty stadia​23 lower down to the present Scepsis by Scamandrius the son of Hector and Ascanius the son of Aeneias; and their two families are said to have held the kingship over Scepsis for a long time. After this they changed to an oligarchy, and then Milesians settled with them as fellow-citizens;​24 and they began to live under a democracy. But the heirs of the royal family none the less continued to be called kings and retained certain prerogatives. Then the Scepsians were incorporated into Alexandreia by Antigonus; and then they were released by Lysimachus and went back to their home-land.

53 Demetrius thinks that Scepsis was also the royal residence of Aeneias, since it lies midway between the territory subject to Aeneias and Lyrnessus, to which latter he fled, according to Homer's statement, when he was being pursued by Achilles. At  p107 any rate, Achilles says: "Dost thou not remember how from the kine, when thou wast all alone, I made thee run down the Idaean mountains with swift feet? And thence thou didst escape to Lyrnessus, but I rushed in pursuit of thee and sacked it."​25 However, the oft‑repeated story of Aeneias are not in agreement with the account which I have just given of the founders of Scepsis. For according to these stories he survived the war because of his enmity to Priam: "For always he was wroth against goodly Priam, because, although he was brave amid warriors, Priam would not honour him at all";​26 608 and his fellow-rulers, the sons of Antenor and Antenor himself, survived because of the hospitality shown Menelaüs at Antenor's house. At any rate, Sophocles​27 says that the capture of Troy a leopard's skin was put before the doors of Antenor as a sign that his house was to be left unpillaged; and Antenor and his children safely escaped to Thrace with the survivors of the Heneti, and from there got across to the Adriatic Heneticê,​28 as it is called, whereas Aeneias collected a host of followers and set sail with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius; and some say that he took up his abode near the Macedonian Olympus, others that he founded Capyae near Mantineia in Arcadia, deriving the name he gave the settlement from Capys, and others say that he landed at Aegesta in Sicily with  p109 Elymus the Trojan and took possession of Eryx and Lilybaeum, and gave the names Scamander and Simoeis to rivers near Aegesta, and that thence he went into the Latin country and made it his abode, in accordance with an oracle which bade him abide where he should eat up his table, and that this took place in the Latin country in the neighbourhood of Lavinium, where a large loaf of bread was put down for a table, for want of a better table, and eaten up along with the meats upon it. Homer, however, appears not to be in agreement with either of the two stories, nor yet with the above account of the founders of Scepsis; for he clearly indicates that Aeneias remained in Troy and succeeded to the empire and bequeathed the succession thereto to his sons' sons, the family of the Priamidae having been wiped out: "For already the race of Priam was hated by the son of Cronus; and now verily the mighty Aeneias will rule over the Trojans, and his sons' sons that are hereafter to be born."​29 And in this case one cannot even save from rejection the succession of Scamandrius.​30 And Homer is in far greater disagreement with those who speak of Aeneias as having wandered even as far as Italy and make him die there. Some write, "the family of Aeneias will rule over all,​31 and his sons' sons," meaning the Romans.

54 From Scepsis came the Socratic philosophers  p111 Erastus and Coriscus and Neleus the son of Coriscus, this last a man who was not only a pupil of Aristotle and Theophrastus, but also inherited the library of Theophrastus, which included that of Aristotle. At any rate, Aristotle bequeathed his own library to Theophrastus, to whom he also left his school; and he is the first man, so far as I know, to have collected books and to have taught the kings in Egypt how to arrange a library. 609 Theophrastus bequeathed it to Neleus; and Neleus took it to Scepsis and bequeathed it to his heirs, ordinary people, who kept the books locked up and not even carefully stored. But when they heard how zealously the Attalic kings​32 to whom the city was subject were searching for books to build up the library in Pergamum, they hid their books under­ground in a kind of trench. But much later, when the books had been damaged by moisture and moths, their descendants sold them to Apellicon​33 of Teos for a large sum of money, both the books of Aristotle and those of Theophrastus. But Apellicon was a bibliophile rather than a philosopher; and therefore, seeking a restoration of the parts that had been eaten through, he made new copies of the text, filling up the gaps incorrectly, and published the books full of errors. The result was that the earlier school of Peripatetics who came after Theophrastus had no books at all, with the exception of only a few, mostly exoteric works, and were therefore able to philosophise about nothing in a practical way, but only to talk bombast about commonplace propositions, whereas the later school, from the time the books in question appeared, though better able  p113 to philosophise and Aristotelise, were forced to call most of their statements probabilities, because of the large number of errors.​34 Rome also contributed much to this; for, immediately after the death of Apellicon, Sulla, who had captured Athens, carried off Apellicon's library to Rome, where Tyrannion the grammarian, who was fond of Aristotle, got it in his hands by paying court to the librarian, as did also certain booksellers who used bad copyists and would not collate the texts — a thing that also takes place in the case of the other books that are copied for selling, both here​35 and at Alexandria. However, this is enough about these men.

55 From Scepsis came also Demetrius, whom I often mention, the grammarian who wrote a commentary on The Marshalling of the Trojan Forces, and was born at about the same time as Crates and Aristarchus; and later, Metrodorus, a man who changed from his pursuit of philosophy to political life, and taught rhetoric, for the most part, in his written works; and he used a brand‑new style and dazzled many. On account of his reputation he succeeded, though a poor man, in marrying brilliantly in Chalcedon; and he passed for a Chalcedonian. And having paid court to Mithridates Eupator, he with his wife sailed away with him to Pontus; 610 and he was treated with exceptional honour, being appointed to the judgeship from which there was no appeal to the king. However, his good fortune did  p115 not continue, but he incurred the enmity of men less just than himself and revolted from the king when he was on the embassy to Tigranes the Armenian.​36 And Tigranes sent him back against his will to Eupator, who was already in flight from his ancestral realm; but Metrodorus died on the way, whether by order of the king​37 or from disease; for both accounts are given of his death. So much for the Scepsians.

56 After Scepsis come Andeira and Pioniae and the territory of Gargara.​a2 There is a stone in the neighbourhood of Andeira which, when burned, becomes iron, and then, when heated in a furnace with a certain earth, distils mock-silver;​38 and this, with the addition of copper, makes the "mixture," as it is called, which by some is called "mountain-copper."​39 These are the places which the Leleges occupied; and the same is true of the places in the neighbourhood of Assus.

57 Assus is by nature strong and well-fortified; and the ascent to it from the sea and the harbour is very steep and long, so that the statement of Stratonicus the citharist in regard to it seems appropriate: "Go to Assus, in order that thou mayest more quickly come to the doom of death."​40 The harbour is formed by a great mole. From Assus came Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher who succeeded Zeno of Citium as head of the school and left it to Chrysippus of Soli. Here too Aristotle tarried, because of his relation­ship by marriage with the tyrant Hermeias. Hermeias was a eunuch, the slave of a certain banker;​41 on his arrival at Athens he  p117 became a pupil of both Plato and Aristotle. On his return he shared the tyranny with his master, who had already laid hold of the districts of Atarneus and Assus; and then Hermeias succeeded him and sent for both Aristotle and Xenocrates and took care of them; and he also married his brother's daughter to Aristotle. Memnon of Rhodes, who was at that time serving the Persians as general, made a pretence of friendship for Hermeias, and then invited him to come for a visit, both in the name of hospitality and at the same time for pretended business reasons; but he arrested him and sent him up to the king, where he was put to death by hanging. But the philosophers safely escaped by flight from the districts above-mentioned, which were seized by the Persians.

58 Myrsilus​42 says that Assus was founded by the Methymnaeans; and Hellanicus too calls it an Aeolian city, just as also Gargara and Lamponia belonged to the Aeolians. For Gargara​a3 was founded by the Assians; 611 but it was not well peopled, for the kings brought into it colonists from Miletopolis when they devastated that city, so that instead of Aeolians, according to Demetrius of Scepsis, the inhabitants of Gargara became semi-barbarians. According to Homer, however, all these places belonged to the Leleges, who by some are represented to be Carians, although by Homer they are mentioned apart: "Towards the sea are the Carians and the Paeonians of the curved bow and the Leleges and the Cauconians."​43 They were therefore a different people from the Carians; and they lived between  p119 the people subject to Aeneias and the people whom the poet called Cilicians, but when they were pillaged by Achilles they migrated to Caria and took possession of the district round the present Halicarnassus.44

59 However, the city Pedasus, now abandoned by them, is no longer in existence; but in the inland territory of the Halicarnassians there used to be a city Pedasa, so named by them; and the present territory is called Pedasia. It is said that as many as eight cities were settled in this territory by the Leleges, who in earlier times were so numerous that they not only took possession of that part of Caria which extends to Myndus and Bargylia, but also cut off for themselves a large portion of Pisidia. But later, when they went out on expeditions with the Carians, they became distributed throughout the whole of Greece, and the tribe disappeared. Of the eight cities, Mausolus​45 united six into one city, Halicarnassus, as Callisthenes tells us, but kept Syangela and Myndus as they were. These are the Pedasians of whom Herodotus​46 says that when any misfortune was about to come upon them and their neighbours, the priestess of Athena would grow a beard; and that this happened to them three times. And there is also a small town called Pedasum in the present territory of Stratoniceia. And throughout the whole of Caria  p121 and in Miletus are to be seen tombs, fortifications, and traces of settlements of the Leleges.

60 After the Leleges, on the next stretch of coast, lived the Cilicians, according to Homer; I mean the stretch of coast now held by the Adramytteni and Atarneitae and Pitanaei, as far as the outlet of the Caïcus. The Cilicians, as I have said,​47 were divided into two dynasties,​48 one subject to Eëtion and one to Mynes.

61 Now Homer calls Thebê the city of Eëtion: "We went into Thebê, the sacred city of Eëtion";​49 and he clearly indicates that also Chrysa, which had the temple of Sminthian Apollo, belonged to Eëtion, if it be true that Chryseïs was taken captive at Thebê, for he says, "We went into Thebê, and laid it waste and brought hither all the spoil. 612 And this they divided aright among themselves, but they chose out Chryseïs for the son of Atreus;​50 and that Lyrnessus belonged to Mynes, since Achilles "laid waste Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebê"​51 and slew both Mynes and Epistrophus; so that when Briseïs says, "thou wouldst not even let me,​52 when swift Achilles slew my husband and sacked the city of divine Mynes,"​53 Homer cannot mean Thebê (for this belonged to Eëtion), but Lyrnessus. Both were situated in what was afterwards called the Plain of Thebê, which, on account of its fertility, is said to have been an object of contention between the  p123 Mysians and Lydians in earlier times, and later between the Greeks who colonised it from Aeolis and Lesbos. But the greater part of it is now held by the Adramytteni, for here lie both Thebê and Lyrnessus, the latter a natural stronghold; but both places are deserted. From Adramyttium the former is distant sixty stadia and the latter eighty-eight, in opposite directions.54

62 In the territory of Adramyttium lie also Chrysa and Cilla. At any rate there is still to‑day a place near Thebê called Cilla, where is a temple of the Cillaean Apollo; and the Cillaeus river, which runs from Mt. Ida, flows past it. These places lie near the territory of Antandrus. The Cillaeum in Lesbos is named after this Cilla; and there is also a Mt. Cillaeum between Gargara and Antandrus. Daës of Colonae says that the temple of Cillaean Apollo was first founded in Colonae by the Aeolians who sailed from Greece; it is also said that a temple of Cillaean Apollo was established at Chrysa, though it is not clear whether he is the same as the Sminthian Apollo or distinct from him.

63 Chrysa was a small town on the sea, with a harbour; and near by, above it, lies Thebê. Here too was the temple of the Sminthian Apollo; and  p125 here lived Chryseïs. But the place is now utterly deserted; and the temple was transferred to the present Chrysa near Hamaxitus when the Cilicians were driven out, partly to Pamphylia​55 and partly to Hamaxitus. Those who are less acquainted with ancient history say that it was at this Chrysa that Chryses and Chryseïs lived, and that Homer mentions this place; but, in the first place, there is no harbour here, and yet Homer says, "And when they had now arrived inside the deep harbour";​56 and, secondly, the temple is not on the sea, though Homer makes it on the sea, "and out from the seafaring ship stepped Chryseïs. 613 Her then did Odysseus of many wiles lead to the altar, and place in the arms of her dear father";​57 neither is it near Thebê, though Homer makes it near; at any rate, he speaks of Chryseïs as having been taken captive there. Again, neither is there any place called Cilla to be seen in the territory of the Alexandreians, nor any temple of Cillaean Apollo; but the poet couples the two, "who dost stand over Chrysa and sacred Cilla."​58 But it is to be seen near by in the Plain of Thebê. And the voyage from the Cilician Chrysa to the Naval Station is about seven hundred stadia, approximately a day's voyage, such a distance, obviously, as that sailed by Odysseus;​59 for immediately upon disembarking he offered the sacrifice to the god, and since evening overtook him he remained on the spot and sailed away the next morning. But the distance from Hamaxitus is scarcely a third of that above  p127 mentioned, so that Odysseus could have completed the sacrifice and sailed back to the Naval Station on the same day. There is also a tomb of Cillus in the neighbourhood of the temple of the Cillaean Apollo, a great barrow. He is said to have been the charioteer of Pelops and to have ruled over this region; and perhaps it was after him that Cilicia was named, or vice versa.

64 Now the story of the Teucrians and the mice — whence the epithet "Sminthian,"​60 since "sminthi" means "mice" — must be transferred to this place. And writers excuse this giving of epithets from small creatures by such examples as the following: It is from locusts,​61 they say, which the Oetaeans call "cornopes," that Heracles is worshipped among the Oetaeans as "Cornopion," for ridding them of locusts; and he is worshipped among the Erythraeans who live in Mimas as "Ipoctonus,"​62 because he is the destroyer of the vine-eating ips;​63 and in fact, they add, these are the only Erythraeans in whose country this creature is not to be found. And the Rhodians, who call erysibê64 "erythibê," have a temple of Apollo "Erythibius" in their country; and among the Aeolians in Asia a certain month is called Pornopion, since the Boeotians so call the locusts, and a sacrifice is offered to Apollo Pornopion.

65 Now the territory round Adramyttium is Mysian, though it was once subject to the Lydians; and to‑day there is a gate in Adramyttium which is called the Lydian Gate because, as they say, the  p129 city was founded by Lydians. And they say that the neighbouring village Astyra belongs to Mysia. It was once a small town, where, in a sacred precinct, was the temple of the Astyrene Artemis, which was superintended, along with holy rites, by the Antandrians, who were its nearer neighbours. It is twenty stadia distant from the ancient Chrysa, which also had its temple in a sacred precinct. Here too was the Palisade of Achilles. And in the interior, fifty stadia away, is Thebê, now deserted, 614 which the poet speaks of as "beneath wooded Placus";​65 but, in the first place, the name "Placus" or "Plax" is not found there at all, and, secondly, no wooded place lies above it, though it is near Mt. Ida. Thebê is as much as seventy stadia distant from Astyra and sixty from Andeira. But all these are names of deserted or scantily peopled places, or of winter torrents; and they are often mentioned only because of their ancient history.

66 Both Assus and Adramyttium are notable cities. But misfortune befell Adramyttium in the Mithridatic War, for the members of the city council were slaughtered, to please the king, by Diodorus​66 the general, who pretended at the same time to be a philosopher of the Academy, a dispenser of justice, and a teacher of rhetoric. And indeed he also joined the king on his journey to Pontus; but when the king was overthrown he paid the penalty for his misdeeds; for many charges were brought against him, all at the same time, and, being unable to bear the ignominy, he shamefully starved himself to death, in my own city. Another inhabitant of Adramyttium  p131 was the famous orator Xenocles,​67 who belonged to the Asiatic school and was as able a debater as ever lived, having even made a speech on behalf of Asia before the Senate,​68 at the time when Asia was accused of Mithridatism.

67 Near Astyra is an abysmal lake called Sapra, which has an outbreak into a reefy seashore. Below Andeira is a temple sacred to Andeirene Mother of the gods, and also a cave that runs under­ground as far as Palaea. Palaea is a settlement so named,​69 at a distance of one hundred and thirty stadia from Andeira. The under­ground passage became known through the fact that a goat fell into the mouth of it and was found on the following day near Andeira by a shepherd who happened to have come to make sacrifice. Atarneus is the abode of the tyrant Hermeias; and then one comes to Pitanê, an Aeolic city, which has two harbours, and the Evenus River, which flows past it, whence the aqueduct has been built by the Adramytteni. From Pitanê came Arcesilaüs, of the Academy, a fellow-student with Zeno of Citium under Polemon. In Pitanê there is also a place on the sea called "Atarneus below Pitanê," opposite the island called Eleussa. It is said that in Pitanê bricks float on water, as is also the case with a certain earth​70 in Tyrrhenia, for the earth is lighter than an equal bulk of water, so that it floats. And  p133 Poseidonius says that in Iberia he saw bricks moulded from a clay-like earth, with which silver is cleaned, and that they floated on water. 615 After Pitanê one comes to the Caïcus River, which empties at a distance of thirty stadia into the Elaïtic Gulf, as it is called. On the far side of the Caïcus, twelve stadia distant from the river, is Elaea, an Aeolic city, which also is a seaport of the Pergamenians, being one hundred and twenty stadia distant from Pergamum.

68 Then, at a distance of a hundred stadia, one comes to Canê, the promontory which rises opposite Lectum and forms the Adramyttene Gulf, of which the Elaïtic Gulf is a part. Canae is a small town of Locrians from Cynus, and lies in the Canaean territory opposite the southernmost ends of Lesbos. This territory extends as far as the Arginussae Islands and the promontory above them, which some call Aega, making it the same as the word for the animal;​71 but the second syllable should be pronounced long, that is, "Aegā," like Actā and Archā, for Aega used to be the name of the whole of the mountain which is now called Canê or Canae. The mountain is surrounded on the south and west by the sea, and on the east by the plain of the Caïcus, which lies below it, and on the north by the territory of Elaea. This mountain forms a fairly compact mass off to itself, though it slopes towards the Aegaean Sea, whence it got its name.​72 Later  p135 the promontory itself was called Aega, as in Sappho,​73 but the rest was called Canê or Canae.

69 Between Elaea, Pitanê, Atarneus, and Pergamum lies Teuthrania, which is at no greater distance than seventy stadia from any of them and is this side the Caïcus River; and the story told is that Teuthras was king of the Cilicians and Mysians. Euripides​74 says that Augê, with her child Telephus, was put by Aleus, her father, into a chest and submerged in the sea when he had detected her ruin by Heracles, but that by the providence of Athena the chest was carried across the sea and cast ashore at the mouth of the Caïcus, and that Teuthras rescued the prisoners, and treated the mother as his wife and the child as his own son.​75 Now this is the myth, but there must have been some other issue of fortune through which the daughter of the Arcadian consorted with the king of the Mysians and her son succeeded to his kingdom. It is believed, at any rate, that both Teuthras and Telephus reigned as kings over the country round Teuthrania and the Caïcus, though Homer goes only so far as to mention the story thus: "But what a man was the son of Telephus, the hero Eurypylus, whom he slew with the bronze; and round him were slain many comrades, Ceteians, on account of a woman's gifts."​76 616 The poet thus sets before us a puzzle instead making a clear statement; for we neither know whom we should understand  p137 the poet to mean by the "Ceteians" nor what he means by "on account of the gifts of a woman";​77 but the grammarians too throw in petty myths, more to show their inventiveness than to solve questions.

70 However, let us dismiss these; and let us, taking that which is more obvious, say that, according to Homer, Eurypylus clearly reigned in the region of the Caïcus, so that perhaps a part of the Cilicians were subject to him, in which case there were three dynasties among them and not merely two.​78 This statement is supported by the fact that there is to be seen in the territory of Elaea a torrential stream called the Ceteius; this empties into another like it, and this again into another, and they all end in the Caïcus. But the Caïcus does not flow from Ida, as Bacchylides​79 states; neither is Euripides​80 correct in saying that Marsyas "dwells in widely-famed Celaenae, in the farthermost region of Ida"; for Celaenae is very far from Ida, and the sources of the Caïcus are also very far, for they are to be seen in a plain. Temnus is a mountain which forms the boundary between this plain and the Plain of Apia, as it is called, which lies in the interior above the Plain of Thebê. From Temnus flows a river called Mysius, which empties into the Caïcus below its sources; and it was from this fact, as some interpret  p139 the passage, that Aeschylus​81 said at the opening of the prologue to the Myrmidons, "Oh! thou Caïcus and ye Mysian in‑flows." Near the sources is a village called Gergitha, to which Attalus transferred the Gergithians of the Troad when he had destroyed their place.


The Editor's Notes:

1 See end of § 32.

2 Iliad 1.38.

3 For this myth, see Pausanias 10.14.1.

4 On the myth of Cycnus, see Leaf, p219.

5 Sminthian means "Mouse‑god."

6 The Greek for these four words seems to be corrupt.

7 See 13.1.760.

8 Coryphantis and Heracleia are named in § 51.

9 Iliad 10.429.

10 13.1.7.

11 Iliad 21.86.

12 i.e. ὑπό for ἐπί in the Homeric passage quoted.

13 Iliad 14.443.

14 Iliad 6.34.

15 Frag. 65 (Bergk). Leaf translates: "Antandros, first city of the Leleges" (see critical note).

The critical note to the Greek text (πρῶτα μὲν Ἄντανδρος Λελέγων πόλις) reads:

For πρῶτα, Leaf, as his translation (p253) shows, must have intended to read πρώτα (πρώτη).

16 Leaf translates: "But Demetrios puts it in the district adjacent (to the Leleges), so that it would fall within the territory of the Kilikes"; and in his commentary (p255) he says: "As the words stand, Strabo says that 'Demetrios places Antandros (not at Antandros but) in the neighbourhood of Antandros.' That is nonsense however we look at it." Yet the Greek cannot mean that Demetrius transfers Antandrus, "a fixed point," to "the adjacent district," as Leaf interprets, but that he includes it among the cities (ταῖς παρακειμέναις) which he enumerates as Cilician.

17 The interpretation of the Greek for this last sentence in somewhat doubtful. Cf. translation and commentary of Leaf (pp254‑255), who regards the text as corrupt.

18 i.e. eighty stadia from Polymedium, not from Lectum, as thought by Thatcher Clark (American Journal of Archaeology, 4.291 ff., quoted by Leaf). His interpretation, neither accepted nor definitely rejected by Leaf (p257), is not in accordance with Strabo's manner of enumerating distances, a fact apparently over­looked by both scholars.

19 See preceding foot-note.

20 So Clark; or "on a height," as Leaf translates (see his note).

21 Temple of Aphrodite.

22 The Greek word "scepsis" means "a viewing," "an inspection."

23 Leaf emends to "two hundred and sixty stadia" (see critical note).

The critical note to the Greek text (ὕστερον δὲ κατωτέρω σταδίοις ἑξήκοντα) reads:

After σταδίοις, Leaf inserts διακοσίοις καί (i.e. σταδίοισσξ′ instead of σταδίοισξ′).

24 See 14.1.6.

25 Iliad 20.188.

26 Iliad 13.460.

27 Frag. 10 (Nauck).

28 As distinguished from that in Paphlagonia (see 5.1.4).

29 Iliad 20.306.

30 The son of Hector, who, along with Ascanius, was said to have been king of Scepsis (§ 52).

31 i.e. they emend "Trojans" (Τρώεσσιν) to "all" (πάντεσσιν) in the Homeric passage.

32 Strabo refers to Eumenes II, who reigned 197‑159 B.C.

33 Died about 84 B.C.

34 i.e. errors in the available texts of Aristotle.

35 i.e. at Rome.

36 For the story see Plutarch, Lucullus 22.

37 Tigranes.

38 i.e. zinc.

39 The Latin term is orichalcum.

Thayer's Note: For details, see the article Orichalcum in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

40 A precise quotation of Iliad 6.143 except that Homer's ἆσσον ("nearer") is changed to Ἄσσον ("to Assus").

41 Eubulus.

42 The historian of Methymna, who appears to have flourished about 300 B.C.; only fragments of his works remain.

43 Iliad 10.428.

44 Cf. 7.7.2. On the variant spellings of "Halicarnas(s)us" see critical note.

The critical note to the Greek text (τὰ περὶ τὴν νὺν Ἁλικαρνασὸν χωρία) reads:

Ἁλικαρνασόν, Dhxz, Ἁλικαρνασσόν other MSS.

45 King of Caria 377‑353 B.C. The first "Mausoleum" was so named after him.

46 1.175, 8.104.

47 1.31.7, 49.

48 But cf. 13.1.70.

49 Iliad 1.366.

50 Iliad 1.366 ff.

51 Iliad 2.691.

52 sc. "weep."

53 Iliad 19.295.

54 The site of Thebê has been definitely identified with that of the modern Edremid (see Leaf, p322). But that of Lyrnessus is uncertain. Leaf (p308), regarding the text as corrupt, reads merely "eighty" instead of "eighty-eight," and omits "in opposite directions" (see critical note).

The critical note to the Greek text (ἡ δὲ ὀγδοήκοντα καὶ ὀκτὼ ἐπὶ θάτερα) reads:

Leaf omits the words καὶ ὀκτὼ ἐπὶ θάτερα (see his critical note on text, p36).

55 Cf. 14.4.1.

56 Iliad 1.432.

57 Iliad 1.438.

58 Iliad 1.37.

59 See Iliad 1.430 ff.

60 i.e. the "Sminthian" Apollo (Iliad 1.39).

61 "Parnopes."

62 "Ips-slayer."

63 A kind of cynips.

64 "Mildew."

65 Iliad 6.396.

66 This Diodorus is otherwise unknown.

67 This Xenocles is otherwise unknown except for a reference to him by Cicero (Brutus 91).

68 The Roman Senate.

69 i.e. "Old Settlement."

70 "Rotten-stone."

71 i.e. Αἴξ, "goat."

72 It is not clear in the Greek whether Strabo says that the Aegean Sea got its name from Aega or vice versa. Elsewhere (8.7.4) he speaks of "Aegae in Boeotia, from which it is probable that the Aegaean Sea got its name."

73 A fragment otherwise unknown (Bergk Frag. 131).

74 Frag. 696 (Nauck).

75 Cf. 12.8.24.

76 Odyssey 11.521.

77 On the variant myths of Augê and Telephus see Eustathius (note on Od.l.c.); also Leaf's note and references (p340).

78 Cf. 13.1.760.º

79 A fragment otherwise unknown (Bergk 66).

80 Frag. 1085 (Nauck).

81 Frag. 143 (Nauck).


Thayer's Note:

a1 a2 a3 Macrobius (Sat. V.20) preserves the passages mentioning Gargara in Homer, Epicharmus, Ephorus, Aratus, Alcaeus, Aristomenes, Aristophanes, and Vergil.


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