Here the Caprus and the Lycus, a large river, enter the Mæander. From

the Lycus, a considerable river, Laodiceia has the name of Laodiceia on

the Lycus. Above the city is the mountain Cadmus, from which the Lycus

issues, and another river of the same name as the mountain. The greater

part of its course is under-ground; it then emerges, and unites with

other rivers, showing that the country abounds with caverns and is

liable to earthquakes. For of all countries Laodiceia is very subject to

earthquakes, as also the neighbouring district Carura.

17. Carura[1295] is the boundary of Phrygia and Caria. It is a village,

where there are inns for the reception of travellers, and springs of

boiling water, some of which rise in the river Mæander, and others on

its banks. There is a story, that a pimp had lodgings in the inns for a

great company of women, and that during the night he and all the women

were overwhelmed by an earthquake and disappeared. Nearly the whole of

the country about the Mæander, as far as the inland parts, is subject to

earthquakes, and is undermined by fire and water. For all this cavernous

condition of the country, beginning from the plains, extends to the

Charonia; it exists likewise in Hierapolis, and in Acharaca in the

district Nysæis, also in the plain of Magnesia, and in Myus. The soil is

dry and easily reduced to powder, full of salts, and very inflammable.

This perhaps is the reason why the course of the Mæander is winding, for

the stream is diverted in many places from its direction, and brings

down a great quantity of alluvial soil, some part of which it deposits

in various places along the shore, and forcing the rest forwards

occasions it to drift into the open sea. It has made, for example,

Priene, which was formerly upon the sea, an inland city, by the

deposition of banks of alluvial earth along an extent of 40 stadia.

18. Phrygia Catacecaumene, (or the Burnt,) which is occupied by Lydians

and Mysians, obtained this name from something of the following kind. In

Philadelphia,[1296] a city adjoining to it, even the walls of the houses

are not safe, for nearly every day they are shaken, and crevices appear.

The inhabitants are constantly attentive to these accidents to which the

ground is subject, and build with a view to their occurrence.

Apameia among other cities experienced, before the invasion of

Mithridates, frequent earthquakes, and the king, on his arrival, when he

saw the overthrow of the city, gave a hundred talents for its

restoration. It is said that the same thing happened in the time of

Alexander; for this reason it is probable that Neptune is worshipped

there, although they are an inland people, and that it had the name of

Celænæ from Celænus,[1297] the son of Neptune, by Celæno, one of the

Danaïdes, or from the black colour of the stones, or from the blackness

which is the effect of combustion. What is related of Sipylus and its

overthrow is not to be regarded as a fable. For earthquakes overthrew

the present Magnesia, which is situated [CAS. 579] below that mountain,

at the time that Sardis and other celebrated cities in various parts

sustained great injury.[1298] The emperor[1299] gave a sum of money for

their restoration, as formerly his father had assisted the Tralliani on

the occurrence of a similar calamity, when the gymnasium and other parts

of the city were destroyed; in the same manner he had assisted also the

Laodiceans.

19. We must listen, however, to the ancient historians, and to the

account of Xanthus, who composed a history of Lydian affairs; he relates

the changes which had frequently taken place in this country,--I have

mentioned them in a former part of my work.[1300] Here is laid the scene

of the fable of what befell Typhon; here are placed the Arimi, and this

country is said to be the Catacecaumene. Nor do historians hesitate to

suppose, that the places between the Mæander and the Lydians are all of

this nature, as well on account of the number of lakes and rivers, as

the caverns, which are to be found in many parts of the country. The

waters of the lake between Laodiceia and Apameia, although like a sea,

emit a muddy smell, as if they had come through a subterraneous channel.

It is said that actions are brought against the Mæander for transferring

land from one place to another by sweeping away the angles of the

windings, and a fine is levied out of the toll, which is paid at the

ferries.

20. Between Laodiceia and Carura is a temple of Mēn Carus, which is held

in great veneration. In our time there was a large Herophilian[1301]

school of medicine under the direction of Zeuxis,[1302] and afterwards

of Alexander Philalethes, as in the time of our ancestors there was, at

Smyrna, a school of the disciples of Erasistratus under the conduct of

Hicesius. At present there is nothing of this kind.

21. The names of some Phrygian tribes, as the Berecyntes [and Cerbesii],

are mentioned, which no longer exist. And Alcman says,

“He played the Cerbesian, a Phrygian air.”

They speak also of a Cerbesian pit which sends forth destructive

exhalations; this however exists, but the people have no longer the name

of Cerbesii. Æschylus in his Niobe[1303] confounds them; Niobe says that

she shall remember Tantalus, and his story;

“those who have an altar of Jupiter, their paternal god, on

the Idæan hill,”

and again;

“Sipylus in the Idæan land,”

--and Tantalus says,

“I sow the furrows of the Berecynthian fields, extending

twelve days’ journey, where the seat of Adrasteia and Ida

resound with the lowing of herds and the bleating of sheep;

all the plain re-echoes with their cries.”

BOOK XIII.

ASIA.

SUMMARY.

The Thirteenth Book contains the part of Asia south of the

Propontis (Sea of Marmara), the whole of the sea-coast, and

the adjacent islands. The author dwells some time on Troy,

though deserted, on account of its distinction, and the great

renown it derived from the war.

CHAPTER I.

1. These are the limits of Phrygia. We return again to the Propontis,

and to the sea-coast adjoining the Æsepus,[1304] and shall observe, in

our description of places, the same order as before.

The first country which presents itself on the sea-coast is the

Troad.[1305] Although it is deserted, and covered with ruins, yet it is

so celebrated as to furnish a writer with no ordinary excuse for

expatiating on its history. But we ought not only to be excused, but

encouraged, for the reader should not impute the fault of prolixity to

us, but to those whose curiosity and desire of information respecting

the celebrated places of antiquity is to be gratified. The prolixity is

greater than it would be otherwise, from the great number of nations,

both Greeks and Barbarians, who have occupied the country, and from the

disagreement among writers, who do not relate the same things of the

same persons and places, nor even do they express themselves with

clearness. Among these in particular is Homer, who suggests occasions

for conjecture in the greatest part of his local descriptions. We are

therefore to examine what the poet and other writers advance, premising

a summary description of the nature of the places.

2. The coast of the Propontis extends from Cyzicene and the places about

the Æsepus and Granicus[1306] as far as Abydos, and Sestos.[1307]

Between Abydos and Lectum[1308] is the country about Ilium, and Tenedos

and Alexandreia Troas.[1309] Above all these is the mountain Ida,

extending as far as Lectum. From Lectum to the river Caïcus[1310] and

the Canæ mountains as they are called is the district comprising

Assus,[1311] Adramyttium,[1312] Atarneus,[1313] Pitane,[1314] and the

Elaïtic bay, opposite to all which places lies the island Lesbos.[1315]

Next follows the country about Cyme[1316] as far as Hermus,[1317] and

Phocæa,[1318] where Ionia begins, and Æolis terminates. Such then is the

nature of the country.

The poet implies that it was the Trojans chiefly who were divided into

eight or even nine bodies of people, each forming a petty princedom, who

had under their sway the places about Æsepus, and those about the

territory of the present Cyzicene, as far as the river Caïcus. The

troops of auxiliaries are reckoned among the allies.

3. The writers subsequent to Homer do not assign the same boundaries,

but introduce other names, and a greater number of territorial

divisions. The Greek colonies were the cause of this; the Ionian

migration produced less change, for it was further distant from the

Troad, but the Æolian colonists occasioned it throughout, for they were

dispersed over the whole of the country from Cyzicene as far as the

Caïcus, and occupied besides the district between the Caïcus and the

river Hermus. It is said that the Æolian preceded the Ionian migration

four generations, but it was attended with delays, and the settlement of

the colonies took up a longer time. Orestes was the leader of the

colonists, and died in Arcadia. He was preceded by his son Penthilus,

who advanced as far as Thrace, sixty years[1319] after the Trojan [CAS.

582] war, about the time of the return of the Heracleidæ to

Peloponnesus. Then Archelaus the son of Penthilus conducted the Æolian

colonies across the sea to the present Cyzicene, near Dascylium. Gras

his youngest son proceeded as far as the river Granicus, and, being

provided with better means, transported the greater part of those who

composed the expedition to Lesbos, and took possession of it.

On the other side, Cleuas, the son of Dorus, and Malaus, who were

descendants of Agamemnon, assembled a body of men for an expedition

about the same time as Penthilus, but the band of Penthilus passed over

from Thrace into Asia before them; while the rest consumed much time

near Locris, and the mountain Phricius. At last however they crossed the

sea, and founded Cyme, to which they gave the name of Phriconis, from

Phricius, the Locrian mountain.

4. The Æolians then were dispersed over the whole country, which we have

said the poet calls the Trojan country. Later writers give this name to

the whole, and others to a part, of Æolis; and so, with respect to

Troja, some writers understand the whole, others only a part, of that

country, not entirely agreeing with one another in anything.

According to Homer, the commencement of the Troad is at the places on

the Propontis, reckoning it from the Æsepus. According to Eudoxus, it

begins from Priapus, and Artace, situated in the island of the Cyziceni

opposite to Priapus, and thus he contracts the boundaries [of the

Troad]. Damastes contracts them still more by reckoning its commencement

from Parium.[1320] He extends the Troad as far as Lectum. But different

writers assign different limits to this country. Charon of Lampsacus

diminishes its extent by three hundred stadia more, by reckoning its

commencement from Practius, for this is the distance between Parium and

Practius, but protracts it to Adramyttium. It begins, according to

Scylax of Caryanda, at Abydos. There is the same diversity of opinion

respecting the boundaries of Æolis. Ephorus reckons its extent from

Abydos to Cyme, but different writers compute it in different ways.

5. The situation of the country actually called Troja is best marked by

the position of Ida, a lofty mountain, looking to the west, and to the

western sea, but making a slight bend to the north and towards the

northern coast. This latter is the coast of the Propontis, extending

from the straits near Abydos to the Æsepus, and to the territory of

Cyzicene. The western sea is the exterior (part of the) Hellespont, and

the Ægæan Sea.

Ida has many projecting parts like feet, and resembles in figure a

tarantula, and is bounded by the following extreme points, namely, the

promontory[1321] at Zeleia, and that called Lectum; the former

terminates in the inland parts a little above Cyzicene (to the Cyziceni

belongs the present Zeleia), and Lectum projects into the Ægæan Sea, and

is met with in the coasting voyage from Tenedos to Lesbos.

“They (namely, Somnus and Juno) came, says Homer, to Ida,

abounding with springs, the nurse of wild beasts, to Lectum

where first they left the sea,”[1322]

where the poet describes Lectum in appropriate terms, for he says

correctly that Lectum is a part of Ida, and that this was the first

place of disembarkation for persons intending to ascend Mount Ida.[1323]

[He is exact in the epithet “abounding with springs;” for the mountain,

especially in that part, has a very large supply of water, which appears

from the great number of rivers which issue from it;

“all the rivers which rise in Ida, and proceed to the sea, the

Rhesus, and Heptaporus,”[1324]

and others, which he mentions afterwards, and which are now to be seen

by us.]

In speaking of the projections like feet on each side of Ida, as Lectum,

and Zeleia,[1325] he distinguishes in proper terms [CAS. 584] the summit

Gargarum,[1326] calling it the top[1327] (of Ida), for there is now in

existence in the higher parts of Ida a place, from which the present

Gargara, an Æolian city, has its name. Between Zeleia and Lectum,

proceeding from the Propontis, are first the parts extending to the

straits at Abydos. Then the parts below the Propontis, extending as far

as Lectum.

6. On doubling Lectum a large bay opens,[1328] formed by Mount Ida,

which recedes from Lectum, and by Canæ, the promontory opposite to

Lectum on the other side. Some persons call it the Bay of Ida, others

the Bay of Adramyttium. On this bay are situated the cities of the

Æolians, extending, as we have said, to the mouths of the Hermus. I have

mentioned also in a former part of my work, that in sailing from

Byzantium in a straight line towards the south, we first arrive at

Sestos and Abydos through the middle of the Propontis; then at the

sea-coast of Asia as far as Caria. The readers of this work ought to

attend to the following observation; although we mention certain bays on

this coast, they must understand the promontories also which form them,

situated on the same meridian.[1329]

7. Those who have paid particular attention to this subject conjecture,

from the expressions of the poet, that all this coast was subject to the

Trojans, when it was divided into nine dynasties, but that at the time

of the war it was under the sway of Priam, and called Troja. This

appears from the detail. Achilles and his army perceiving, at the

beginning of the war, that the inhabitants of Ilium were defended by

walls, carried on the war beyond them, made a circuit, and took the

places about the country;

“I sacked with my ships twelve cities, and eleven in the

fruitful land of Troja.”[1330]

By Troja he means the continent which he had ravaged. Among other

places which had been plundered, was the country opposite Lesbos,--that

about Thebe, Lyrnessus, and Pedasus belonging to the Leleges, and the

territory also of Eurypylus, the son of Telephus;

“as when he slew with his sword the hero Eurypylus, the son of

Telephus;”[1331]

and Neoptolemus,

“the hero Eurypylus.”

The poet says these places were laid waste, and even Lesbos;

“when he took the well-built Lesbos,”[1332]

and,

“he sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus,”[1333]

and,

“laid waste Lyrnessus, and the walls of Thebe.”[1334]

Briseïs was taken captive at Lyrnessus;

“whom he carried away from Lyrnessus.”[1335]

In the capture of this place the poet says, Mynes and Epistrophus were

slain, as Briseïs mentions in her lament over Patroclus,

“Thou didst not permit me, when the swift-footed Achilles slew

my husband, and destroyed the city of the divine Mynes, to

make any lamentation;”[1336]

for by calling Lyrnessus “the city of the divine Mynes,” the poet

implies that it was governed by him who was killed fighting in its

defence.

Chryseïs was carried away from Thebe;

“we came to Thebe, the sacred city of Eetion,”[1337]

and Chryseïs is mentioned among the booty which was carried off from

that place.

Andromache, daughter of the magnanimous Eetion, Eetion king of

the Cilicians, who dwelt under the woody Placus at Thebe

Hypoplacia.[1338]

This is the second Trojan dynasty after that of Mynes, and in agreement

with what has been observed are these words of Andromache;[CAS. 585]

“Hector, wretch that I am; we were both born under the same

destiny; thou at Troja in the palace of Priam, but I at

Thebe.”

The words are not to be understood in their direct sense, but by a

transposition; “both born in Troja, thou in the house of Priam, but I at

Thebe.”

The third dynasty is that of the Leleges, which is also a Trojan

dynasty;

“of Altes, the king of the war-loving Leleges,”[1339]

by whose daughter Priam had Lycaon and Polydorus. Even the people, who

in the Catalogue are said to be commanded by Hector, are called Trojans;

“Hector, the mighty, with the nodding crest, commanded the

Trojans;”[1340]

then those under Æneas,

“the brave son of Anchises had the command of the Dardanii,”[1341]

and these were Trojans, for the poet says,

“Thou, Æneas, that counsellest Trojans;”[1342]

then the Lycians under the command of Pandarus he calls Trojans;

“Aphneian Trojans, who inhabited Zeleia at the farthest

extremity of Ida, who drink of the dark waters of Æsepus,

these were led by Pandarus, the illustrious son of

Lycaon.”[1343]

This is the sixth dynasty.

The people, also, who lived between the Æsepus and Abydos were Trojans,

for the country about Abydos was governed by Asius;

“those who dwelt about Percote and Practius, at Sestos,

Abydos, and the noble Arisbe, were led by Asius, the son of

Hyrtacus.”[1344]

Now it is manifest that a son of Priam, who had the care of his father’s

brood mares, dwelt at Abydos;

“he wounded the spurious son of Priam, Democoon, who came from

Abydos from the pastures of the swift mares.”[1345]

At Percote,[1346] the son of Hicetaon was the herdsman of oxen, but not

of those belonging to strangers;

“first he addressed the brave son of Hicetaon, Melanippus, who

was lately tending the oxen in their pastures at

Percote.”[1347]

so that this country also was part of the Troad, and the subsequent

tract as far as Adrasteia, for it was governed by

“the two sons of Merops of Percote.”[1348]

All therefore were Trojans from Abydos to Adrasteia, divided, however,

into two bodies, one governed by Asius, the other by the Meropidæ, as

the country of the Cilicians is divided into the Thebaic and the

Lyrnessian Cilicia. To this district may have belonged the country under

the sway of Eurypylus, for it follows next to the Lyrnessis, or

territory of Lyrnessus.[1349]

That Priam[1350] was king of all these countries the words with which

Achilles addresses him clearly show;[CAS. 586]

“we have heard, old man, that your riches formerly consisted in

what Lesbos, the city of Macar, contained, and Phrygia above

it and the vast Hellespont.”[1351]

8. Such was the state of the country at that time. Afterwards changes of

various kinds ensued. Phrygians occupied the country about Cyzicus as

far as Practius; Thracians, the country about Abydos; and Bebryces and

Dryopes, before the time of both these nations. The next tract of

country was occupied by Treres, who were also Thracians; the plain of

Thebe, by Lydians, who were then called Mæonians, and by the survivors

of the Mysians, who were formerly governed by Telephus and Teuthoras.

Since then the poet unites together Æolis and Troja, and since the

Æolians occupied all the country from the Hermus as far as the sea-coast

at Cyzicus, and founded cities, we shall not do wrong in combining in

one description Æolis, properly so called, (extending from the Hermus to

Lectum,) and the tract which follows, as far as the Æsepus;

distinguishing them again in speaking of them separately, and comparing

what is said of them by Homer and by other writers with their present

state.

9. According to Homer, the Troad begins from the city Cyzicus and the

river Æsepus. He speaks of it in this manner:

“Aphneian Trojans, who inhabited Zeleia at the farthest

extremity of Ida, who drink the dark waters of Æsepus, these

were led by Pandarus, the illustrious son of Lycaon.”[1352]

These people he calls also Lycians. They had the name of Aphneii, it is

thought, from the lake Aphnitis, for this is the name of the lake

Dascylitis.

10. Now Zeleia is situated at the farthest extremity of the country

lying at the foot of Ida, and is distant 190 stadia from Cyzicus, and

about 80[1353] from the nearest sea, into which the Æsepus discharges

itself.

The poet then immediately gives in detail the parts of the sea-coast

which follow the Æsepus;

“those who occupied Adrasteia, and the territory of Apæsus,

and Pityeia and the lofty mountain Tereia, these were

commanded by Adrastus, and Amphius with the linen corslet, the

two sons of Merops of Percote,”[1354]

These places lie below Zeleia, and are occupied by Cyziceni, and

Priapeni as far as the sea-coast. The river Tarsius[1355] runs near

Zeleia; it is crossed twenty times on the same road, like the

Heptaporus, mentioned by the poet, which is crossed seven times. The

river flowing from Nicomedia to Nicæa is crossed four-and-twenty times;

the river which flows from Pholoe to Eleia, several times; [that flowing

from * * * * to Scardon,[1356]] five-and-twenty times; that running from

Coscinii to Alabanda, in many places, and the river flowing from Tyana

through the Taurus to Soli, is crossed seventy-five times.

11. Above the mouth of the Æsepus about * * stadia is a hill on which is

seen the sepulchre of Memnon, the son of Tithonus. Near it is the

village of Memnon. Between the Æsepus and Priapus flows the Granicus,

but for the most part it flows through the plain of Adrasteia, where

Alexander defeated in a great battle the satraps of Dareius, and

obtained possession of all the country within the Taurus and the

Euphrates.

On the banks of the Granicus was the city Sidene, with a large territory

of the same name. It is now in ruins.

Upon the confines of Cyzicene and Priapene is Harpagia, a place from

which, so says the fable, Ganymede was taken away by force. Others say

that it was at the promontory Dardanium, near Dardanus.

12. Priapus is a city on the sea, with a harbour. Some say that it was

built by Milesians, who, about the same time, founded Abydos and

Proconnesus; others, that it was built by Cyziceni. It has its name from

Priapus,[1357] who is worshipped there; either because his worship was

transferred thither from Orneæ near Corinth, or the inhabitants were

disposed to worship him because the god was said to be the son of

Bacchus and a nymph, for their country abounds with vines, as also the

country on their confines, namely, the territory of the Pariani and of

the Lampsaceni. It was for this reason that Xerxes assigned

Lampsacus[1358] to Themistocles to supply him with wine.

It was in later times that Priapus was considered as a god. [CAS. 588]

Hesiod for instance knew nothing of Priapus, and he resembles the

Athenian gods Orthane, Conisalus, Tychon, and others such as these.

13. This district was called Adrasteia, and the plain of Adrasteia,

according to the custom of giving two names to the same place, as Thebe,

and the plain of Thebe; Mygdonia, and the plain of Mygdonia.

Callisthenes says that Adrasteia had its name from King Adrastus, who

first built the temple of Nemesis. The city Adrasteia is situated

between Priapus and Parium, with a plain of the same name below it, in

which there was an oracle of the Actæan Apollo and Artemis near the

sea-shore.[1359] On the demolition of the temple, all the furniture and

the stone-work were transported to Parium, where an altar, the

workmanship of Hermocreon, remarkable for its size and beauty, was

erected, but the oracle, as well as that at Zeleia, was abolished. No

temple either of Adrasteia or Nemesis exists. But there is a temple of

Adrasteia near Cyzicus. Antimachus, however, says,

“There is a great goddess Nemesis, who has received all these

things from the immortals. Adrastus first raised an altar to

her honour on the banks of the river Æsepus, where she is

worshipped under the name of Adrasteia.”

14. The city of Parium lies upon the sea, with a harbour larger than

that of Priapus, and has been augmented from the latter city; for the

Pariani paid court to the Attalic kings, to whom Priapene was subject,

and, by their permission, appropriated to themselves a large part of

that territory.

It is here the story is related that the Ophiogeneis have some affinity

with the serpent tribe (τοὺς ὄφεις). They say that the males of the

Ophiogeneis have the power of curing persons bitten by serpents by

touching them without intermission, after the manner of the enchanters.

They first transfer to themselves the livid colour occasioned by the

bite, and then cause the inflammation and pain to subside. According

to the fable, the founder of the race of Ophiogeneis, a hero, was

transformed from a serpent into a man. He was perhaps one of the

African Psylli. The power continued in the race for some time.

Parium was founded by Milesians, Erythræans, and Parians.

15. Pitya is situated in Pityus in the Parian district, and having

above it a mountain abounding with pine trees (πιτυῶδες); it is between

Parium and Priapus, near Linum, a place upon the sea, where the

Linusian cockles are taken, which excel all others.

16. In the voyage along the coast from Parium to Priapus are the ancient

and the present Proconnesus,[1360] with a city, and a large quarry of

white marble, which is much esteemed. The most beautiful works in the

cities in these parts, and particularly those in Cyzicus, are

constructed of this stone.

Aristeas, the writer of the poems called Arimaspeian, the greatest of

impostors, was of Proconnesus.

17. With respect to the mountain Tereia, some persons say that it is the

range of mountains in Peirossus, which the Cyziceni occupy, contiguous

to Zeleia, among which was a royal chase for the Lydian, and afterwards

for the Persian, kings. Others say that it was a hill forty stadia from

Lampsacus, on which was a temple sacred to the mother of the gods,

surnamed Tereia.

18. Lampsacus, situated on the sea, is a considerable city with a good

harbour, and, like Abydos, supports its state well. It is distant from

Abydos about 170 stadia. It had formerly, as they say Chios had, the

name of Pityusa. On the opposite territory in Cherronesus is

Callipolis,[1361] a small town. It is situated upon the shore, which

projects so far towards Asia opposite to Lampsacus that the passage

across does not exceed 40 stadia.

19. In the interval between Lampsacus and Parium was Pæsus, a city, and

a river Pæsus.[1362] The city was razed, and the Pæseni, who, as well as

the Lampsaceni, were a colony of Milesians, removed to Lampsacus. The

poet mentions the city with the addition of the first syllable,

“and the country of Apæsus;”[1363]

and without it,

“a man of great possessions, who lived at Pæsus;”[1364]

and this is still the name of the river.

Colonæ [CAS. 589] also is a colony of Milesians. It is situated above

Lampsacus, in the interior of the territory Lampsacene. There is another

Colonæ situated upon the exterior Hellespontic Sea, at the distance of

140 stadia from Ilium; the birth-place, it is said, of Cycnus.

Anaximenes mentions a Colonæ in the Erythræan territory, in Phocis, and

in Thessaly. Iliocolone is in the Parian district. In Lampsacene is a

place well planted with vines, called Gergithium, and there was a city

Gergitha, founded by the Gergithi in the Cymæan territory, where

formerly was a city called Gergitheis, (used in the plural number, and

of the feminine gender,) the birth-place of Cephalon[1365] the

Gergithian, and even now there exists a place in the Cymæan territory

called Gergithium, near Larissa.

Neoptolemus,[1366] surnamed the Glossographer, a writer of repute, was

of Parium. Charon,[1367] the Historian, was of Lampsacus.

Adeimantes,[1368] Anaximenes,[1369] the Rhetorician, and Metrodorus, the

friend of Epicurus, even Epicurus himself might be said to be a

Lampsacenian, having lived a long time at Lampsacus, and enjoyed the

friendship of Idomeneus and Leontes, the most distinguished of its

citizens.

It was from Lampsacus that Agrippa transported the Prostrate Lion, the

workmanship of Lysippus, and placed it in the sacred grove between the

lake[1370] and the strait.

20. Next to Lampsacus is Abydos, and the intervening places, of which

the poet speaks in such a manner as to comprehend both Lampsacene and

some parts of Pariane, for, in the Trojan times, the above cities were

not yet in existence:

“those who inhabited Percote, Practius, Sestos, Abydos, and

the famed Arisbe, were led by Asius, the son of

Hyrtacus,”[1371]

who, he says,

“came from Arisbe, from the river Selleïs in a chariot drawn

by large and furious coursers;”

implying by these words that Arisbe was the royal seat of Asius, whence,

he says, he came,

“drawn by coursers from the river Selleïs.”

But these places are so little known, that writers do not agree among

themselves about their situation, except that they are near Abydos,

Lampsacus, and Parium, and that the name of the last place was changed

from Percope to Percote.

21. With respect to the rivers, the poet says that the Selleïs flows

near Arisbe, for Asius came from Arisbe and the river Selleïs. Practius

is a river, but no city of that name, as some have thought, is to be

found. This river runs between Abydos and Lampsacus; the words,

therefore,

“and dwelt near Practius,”

must be understood of the river, as these expressions of the poet,

“they dwelt near the sacred waters of Cephisus,”[1372]

and

“they occupied the fertile land about the river Parthenius.”[1373]

There was also in Lesbos a city called Arisba, the territory belonging

to which was possessed by the Methymnæans. There is a river Arisbus in

Thrace, as we have said before, near which are situated the Cabrenii

Thracians. There are many names common to Thracians and Trojans, as

Scæi, a Thracian tribe, a river Scæus, a Scæan wall, and in Troy, Scæan

gates. There are Thracians called Xanthii, and a river Xanthus in Troja;

an Arisbus which discharges itself into the Hebrus,[1374] and an Arisbe

in Troja; a river Rhesus in Troja, and Rhesus, a king of the Thracians.

The poet mentions also another Asius, besides the Asius of Arisbe,

“who was the maternal uncle of the hero Hector, own brother of

Hecuba, and son of Dymas who lived in Phrygia on the banks of

the Sangarius.”[1375]

22. Abydos was founded by Milesians by permission of Gyges, king of

Lydia; for those places and the whole of the Troad were under his sway.

There is a promontory near [CAS. 591] Dardanus called Gyges. Abydos is

situated upon the mouth of the Propontis and the Hellespont, and is at

an equal distance from Lampsacus and Ilium, about 170 stadia. At Abydos

is the Hepta Stadium, (or strait of seven stadia,) the shores of which

Xerxes united by a bridge. It separates Europe from Asia. The extremity

of Europe is called Cherronesus, from its figure; it forms the straits

at the Zeugma (or Junction)[1376] which is opposite to Abydos.

Sestos is the finest[1377] city in the Cherronesus, and from its

proximity to Abydos was placed under the command of the same governor,

at a time when the same limits were not assigned to the governments and

to the continents. Sestos and Abydos are distant from each other, from

harbour to harbour, about 30 stadia. The Zeugma is a little beyond the

cities; on the side of the Propontis, beyond Abydos, and on the opposite

side, beyond Sestos. There is a place near Sestos, called Apobathra,

where the raft was fastened. Sestos lies nearer the Propontis, and above

the current which issues from it; whence the passage is more easy from

Sestos by deviating a little towards the tower of Hero, when, letting

the vessel go at liberty, the stream assists in effecting the crossing

to the other side. In crossing from Abydos to the other side persons

must sail out in the contrary direction, to the distance of about eight

stadia towards a tower which is opposite Sestos; they must then take an

oblique course, and the current will not be entirely against them.

After the Trojan war, Abydos was inhabited by Thracians, then by

Milesians. When the cities on the Propontis were burnt by Dareius,

father of Xerxes, Abydos shared in the calamity. Being informed, after

his return from Scythia, that the Nomades were preparing to cross over

to attack him, in revenge for the treatment which they had experienced,

he set fire to these cities, apprehending that they would assist in

transporting the Scythian army across the strait.

In addition to other changes of this kind, those occasioned by time are

a cause of confusion among places.

We spoke before of Sestos, and of the whole of the Cherronesus, when we

described Thrace. Theopompus says that Sestos is a small but

well-fortified place, and is connected with the harbour by a wall of two

plethra in extent, and for this reason, and by its situation above the

current, it commands the passage of the strait.

23. In the Troad, above the territory of Abydos is Astyra, which now

belongs to the Abydeni,--a city in ruins, but it was formerly an

independent place, and had gold-mines, which are now nearly exhausted,

like those in Mount Tmolus near the Pactolus.

From Abydos to the Æsepus are, it is said, about 700 stadia, but not so

much in sailing in a direct line.

24. Beyond Abydos are the parts about Ilium, the sea-coast as far as

Lectum, the places in the Trojan plain, and the country at the foot of

Ida, which was subject to Æneas. The poet names the Dardanii in two

ways, speaking of them as

“Dardanii governed by the brave son of Anchises,”[1378]

calling them Dardanii, and also Dardani;

“Troes, and Lycii, and close-fighting Dardani.”[1379]

It is probable that the Dardania,[1380] so called by the poet, was

anciently situated there;

“Dardanus, the son of cloud-compelling Jupiter, founded

Dardania:”[1381]

at present there is not a vestige of a city.

25. Plato conjectures that, after the deluges, three kinds of

communities were established; the first on the heights of the mountains,

consisting of a simple and savage race, who had taken refuge there

through dread of the waters, which overflowed the plains; the second, at

the foot of the mountains, who regained courage by degrees, as the

plains began to dry; the third, in the plains. But a fourth, and perhaps

a fifth, or more communities might be supposed to be formed, the last of

which might be on the sea-coast, and in the islands, after all fear of

deluge was dissipated. For as men approached the sea with a greater or

less degree of courage, we should have greater variety in forms of

government, diversity also in manners and habits, according [CAS. 593]

as a simple and savage people assumed the milder character of the second

kind of community. There is, however, a distinction to be observed even

among these, as of rustic, half rustic, and of civilized people. Among

these finally arose a gradual change, and an assumption of names,

applied to polished and high character, the result of an improved moral

condition produced by a change of situation and mode of life. Plato says

that the poet describes these differences, alleging as an example of the

first form of society the mode of life among the Cyclops, who subsisted

on the fruits of the earth growing spontaneously, and who occupied

certain caves in the heights of mountains;

“all things grow there,” he says, “without sowing seed, and

without the plough.

But they have no assemblies for consulting together, nor

administration of laws, but live on the heights of lofty

mountains, in deep caves, and each gives laws to his wife and

children.”[1382]

As an example of the second form of society, he alleges the mode of life

under Dardanus;

“he founded Dardania; for sacred Ilium was not yet a city in

the plain with inhabitants, but they still dwelt at the foot

of Ida abounding with streams.”[1383]

An example of the third state of society is taken from that in the time

of Ilus, when the people inhabited the plains. He is said to have been

the founder of Ilium, from whom the city had its name. It is probable

that for this reason he was buried in the middle of the plain, because

he first ventured to make a settlement in it,

“they rushed through the middle of the plain by the wild

fig-tree near the tomb of ancient Ilus, the son of

Dardanus.”[1384]

He did not, however, place entire confidence in the situation, for he

did not build the city where it stands at present, but nearly thirty

stadia higher to the east, towards Ida, and Dardania, near the present

village of the Ilienses. The present Ilienses are ambitious of having it

supposed that theirs is the ancient city, and have furnished a subject

of discussion to those who form their conjectures from the poetry of

Homer; but it does not seem to be the city meant by the poet. Other

writers also relate, that the city had frequently changed its place,

but at last about the time of Crœsus it became stationary. Such changes,

which then took place, from higher to lower situations, mark the

differences, I conceive, which followed in the forms of government and

modes of life. But we must examine this subject elsewhere.

26. The present city of Ilium was once, it is said, a village,

containing a small and plain temple of Minerva; that Alexander,

after[1385] his victory at the Granicus, came up, and decorated the

temple with offerings, gave it the title of city, and ordered those who

had the management of such things to improve it with new buildings; he

declared it free and exempt from tribute. Afterwards, when he had

destroyed the Persian empire, he sent a letter, expressed in kind terms,

in which he promised the Ilienses to make theirs a great city, to build

a temple of great magnificence, and to institute sacred games.

After the death of Alexander, it was Lysimachus who took the greatest

interest in the welfare of the place; built a temple, and surrounded the

city with a wall of about 40 stadia in extent. He settled here the

inhabitants of the ancient cities around, which were in a dilapidated

state. It was at this time that he directed his attention to

Alexandreia, founded by Antigonus, and surnamed Antigonia, which was

altered (into Alexandreia). For it appeared to be an act of pious duty

in the successors of Alexander first to found cities which should bear

his name, and afterwards those which should be called after their own.

Alexandreia continued to exist, and became a large place; at present it

has received a Roman colony, and is reckoned among celebrated cities.

27. The present Ilium was a kind of village-city, when the Romans first

came into Asia and expelled Antiochus the Great from the country within

the Taurus. Demetrius of Scepsis says that, when a youth, he came, in

the course of his travels, to this city, about that time, and saw the

houses so neglected that even the roofs were without tiles.

Hegesianax[1386] also relates, that the Galatians, who crossed over from

Europe, being in want of some stronghold, went up to the city, but

immediately left it, when they saw that it was not fortified with a

wall; afterwards it underwent great reparation and [CAS. 595]

improvement. It was again injured by the Romans under the command of

Fimbrias. They took it by siege in the Mithridatic war. Fimbrias was

sent as quæstor, with the consul Valerius Flaccus, who was appointed to

carry on the war against Mithridates. But having excited a sedition, and

put the consul to death in Bithynia, he placed himself at the head of

the army and advanced towards Ilium, where the inhabitants refused to

admit him into the city, as they regarded him as a robber. He had

recourse to force, and took the city on the eleventh day. When he was

boasting that he had taken a city on the eleventh day, which Agamemnon

had reduced with difficulty in the tenth year of the siege with a fleet

of a thousand vessels, and with the aid of the whole of Greece, one of

the Ilienses replied, “We had no Hector to defend the city.”

Sylla afterwards came, defeated Fimbrias, and dismissed Mithridates,

according to treaty, into his own territory. Sylla conciliated the

Ilienses by extensive repairs of their city. In our time divus Cæsar

showed them still more favour, in imitation of Alexander. He was

inclined to favour them, for the purpose of renewing his family

connexion with the Ilienses, and as an admirer of Homer.

There exists a corrected copy of the poems of Homer, called “the

casket-copy.” Alexander perused it in company with Callisthenes and

Anaxarchus, and having made some marks and observations deposited it in

a casket[1387] of costly workmanship which he found among the Persian

treasures. On account then of his admiration of the poet and his descent

from the Æacidæ, (who were kings of the Molossi, whose queen they say

was Andromache, afterwards the wife of Hector,) Alexander treated the

Ilienses with kindness.

But Cæsar, who admired the character of Alexander, and had strong proofs

of his affinity to the Ilienses, had the greatest possible desire to be

their benefactor. The proofs of his affinity to the Ilienses were

strong, first as being a Roman,--for the Romans consider Æneas to be the

founder of their race,--next he had the name of Julius, from Iulus, one

of his ancestors, a descendant of Æneas. He therefore assigned to them

a district, and guaranteed their liberty with exemption from imposts,

and they continue at present to enjoy these advantages. They maintain by

this evidence that the ancient Ilium, even by Homer’s account, was not

situated there. I must however first describe the places which commence

from the sea-coast, where I made the digression.

28. Next to Abydos is the promontory Dardanis,[1388] which we mentioned

a little before, and the city Dardanus, distant 70 stadia from Abydos.

Between them the river Rhodius discharges itself, opposite to which on

the Cherronesus is the Cyno-sema,[1389] which is said to be the

sepulchre of Hecuba. According to others, the Rhodius empties itself

into the Æsepus. It is one of the rivers mentioned by the poet,

“Rhesus, and Heptaporus, Caresus, and Rhodius.”[1390]

Dardanus is an ancient settlement, but so slightly thought of, that some

kings transferred its inhabitants to Abydos, others re-settled them in

the ancient dwelling-place. Here Cornelius Sylla, the Roman general, and

Mithridates, surnamed Eupator, conferred together, and terminated the

war by a treaty.

29. Near Dardanus is Ophrynium, on which is the grove dedicated to

Hector in a conspicuous situation, and next is Pteleos, a lake.

30. Then follows Rhœteium, a city on a hill, and continuous to it is a

shore on a level with the sea, on which is situated a monument and

temple of Ajax, and a statue. Antony took away the latter and carried it

to Ægypt, but Augustus Cæsar restored it to the inhabitants of Rhœteium,

as he restored other [CAS. 595] statues to other cities. Antony took

away the most beautiful offerings from the most celebrated temples to

gratify the Ægyptian queen, but Augustus Cæsar restored them to the

gods.

31. After Rhœteium is Sigeium,[1391] a city in ruins, and the naval

station, the harbour of the Achæans, the Achæan camp, the Stomalimne, as

it is called, and the mouths of the Scamander. The Scamander and the

Simoeis, uniting in the plain,[1392] bring down a great quantity of mud,

bank up the sea-coast, and form a blind mouth, salt-water lakes, and

marshes.

Opposite the Sigeian promontory on the Cherronesus is the

Protesilaeium,[1393] and Eleussa, of which I have spoken in the

description of Thrace.

32. The extent of this sea-coast as we sail in a direct line from

Rhœteium to Sigeium, and the monument of Achilles, is 60 stadia. The

whole of the coast lies below the present Ilium; the part near the port

of the Achæans,[1394] distant from the present Ilium about 12 stadia,

and thirty stadia more from the ancient Ilium,[1395] which is higher up

in the part towards Ida.

Near the Sigeium is a temple and monument of Achilles, and monuments

also of Patroclus and Antilochus.[1396] The Ilienses perform sacred

ceremonies in honour of them all, and even of Ajax. But they do not

worship Hercules, alleging as a reason that he ravaged their country.

Yet some one might say that he laid it waste in such a manner that he

left it to future spoilers in an injured condition indeed, but still in

the condition of a city; wherefore the poet expresses himself in this

manner,

“He ravaged the city of Ilium, and made its streets desolate,”[1397]

for desolation implies a deficiency of inhabitants, but not a complete

destruction of the place; but those persons destroyed it entirely, whom

they think worthy of sacred rites, and worship as gods; unless, perhaps,

they should plead that these persons engaged in a just, and Hercules in

an unjust, war, on account of the horses of Laomedon. To this is opposed

a fabulous tale, that it was not on account of the horses but of the

reward for the delivery of Hesione from the sea-monster. [CAS. 596] Let

us, however, dismiss this subject, for the discussion leads to the

refutation of fables only, and probably there may be reasons unknown to

us which induced the Ilienses to worship some of these persons, and not

others. The poet seems, in speaking of Hercules, to represent the city

as small, since he ravaged the city

“with six ships only, and a small band of men.”[1398]

From these words it appears that Priam from a small became a great

person, and a king of kings, as we have already said.

A short way from this coast is the Achæïum, situated on the continent

opposite Tenedos.

33. Such, then, is the nature of the places on the sea-coast. Above them

lies the plain of Troy, extending as far as Ida to the east, a distance

of many stadia.[1399] The part at the foot of the mountain is narrow,

extending to the south as far as the places near Scepsis, and towards

the north as far as the Lycians about Zeleia. This country Homer places

under the command of Æneas and the Antenoridæ, and calls it Dardania.

Below it is Cebrenia, which for the most part consists of plains, and

lies nearly parallel to Dardania. There was also formerly a city

Cybrene. Demetrius (of Scepsis) supposes that the tract about Ilium,

subject to Hector, extended to this place, from the Naustathmus (or

station for vessels) to Cebrenia, for he says that the sepulchre of

Alexander Paris exists there, and of Œnone, who, according to

historians, was the wife of Alexander, before the rape of Helen; the

poet says,

“Cebriones, the spurious son of the far-famed Priam,”[1400]

who, perhaps, received his name from the district, (Cebrenia,) or, more

probably, from the city (Cebrene[1401]). Cebrenia extends as far as the

Scepsian district. The boundary is the Scamander, which runs through the

middle of Cebrenia and Scepsia. There was continual enmity and war

between the Scepsians and Cebrenians, till Antigonus settled them both

together in the city, then called Antigonia, but at present Alexandria.

The Cebrenians remained there with the other inhabitants, but the

Scepsians, by the permission of Lysimachus, returned to their own

country.

34. From the mountainous tract of Ida near these places, two arms, he

says, extend to the sea, one in the direction of Rhœteium, the other of

Sigeium, forming a semicircle, and terminate in the plain at the same

distance from the sea as the present Ilium, which is situated between

the extremities of the above-mentioned arms, whereas the ancient Ilium

was situated at their commencement. This space comprises the Simoïsian

plain through which the Simoeis runs, and the Scamandrian plain, watered

by the Scamander. This latter plain is properly the plain of Troy, and

Homer makes it the scene of the greatest part of his battles, for it is

the widest of the two; and there we see the places named by him, the

Erineos, the tomb of Æsyetes,[1402] Batieia, and the tomb of Ilus. With

respect to the Scamander and the Simoeis, the former, after approaching

Sigeium, and the latter Rhœteium, unite their streams a little in front

of the present Ilium,[1403] and then empty themselves near Sigeium, and

form as it is called the Stomalimne. Each of the above-mentioned plains

is separated from the other by a long ridge[1404] which is in a straight

line with the above-mentioned arms;[1405] the ridge begins at the

present [CAS. 597] Ilium and is united to it; it extends as far as

Cebrenia, and completes with the arms on each side the letter θ.

35. A little above this ridge of land is the village of the Ilienses,

supposed to be the site of the ancient Ilium, at the distance of 30

stadia from the present city. Ten stadia above the village of the

Ilienses is Callicolone, a hill beside which, at the distance of five

stadia, runs the Simoeis.

The description of the poet is probable. First what he says of Mars,

“but on the other side Mars arose, like a black tempest, one

while with a shrill voice calling upon the Trojans from the

summit of the citadel, at another time running along

Callicolone beside the Simoeis;”[1406]

for since the battle was fought on the Scamandrian plain, Mars might,

according to probability, encourage the men, one while from the citadel,

at another time from the neighbouring places, the Simoeis and the

Callicolone, to which the battle might extend. But since Callicolone is

distant from the present Ilium 40 stadia, where was the utility of

changing places at so great a distance, where the array of the troops

did not extend? and the words

“The Lycii obtained by lot the station near Thymbra,”[1407]

which agree better with the ancient city, for the plain Thymbra,[1408]

is near, and the river Thymbrius, which runs through it, discharges

itself into the Scamander, near the temple of Apollo Thymbræus, but is

distant 50 stadia from the present Ilium. The Erineos,[1409] a rugged

spot abounding with wild fig-trees, lies below the ancient city, so that

Andromache might say in conformity with such a situation,

“but place your bands near Erineos, where the city is most

accessible to the enemy, and where they can mount the

wall,”[1410]

but it is very far distant from the present city. The beech-tree was a

little lower than the Erineos; of the former Achilles says,

“When I fought with the Achæans Hector was not disposed to

urge the fight away from the wall, but advanced only as far as

the Scæan gates, and the beech-tree.”[1411]

36. Besides, the Naustathmus, which retains its name at present, is so

near the present city that any person may justly be surprised at the

imprudence of the Greeks, and the want of spirit in the

Trojans;--imprudence on the part of the Greeks, that they should have

left the place for so long a time unfortified with a wall, in the

neighbourhood of so large a city, and so great a body of men, both

inhabitants and auxiliaries; for the wall, Homer says, was constructed

at a late period; or perhaps no wall was built and the erection and

destruction of it, as Aristotle says, are due to the invention of the

poet;--a want of spirit on the part of the Trojans, who, after the wall

was built, attacked that, and the Naustathmus, and the vessels

themselves, but had not the courage before there was a wall to approach

and besiege this station, although the distance was not great, for the

Naustathmus is near Sigeium. The Scamander discharges itelf near this

place at the distance of 20 stadia from Ilium.[1412] If any one shall

say that the Naustathmus is the present harbour of the Achæans, he must

mean a place still nearer, distant about twelve stadia from the sea,

[CAS. 599] which is the extent of the plain in front of the city to the

sea; but he will be in error if he include (in the ancient) the present

plain, which is all alluvial soil brought down by the rivers,[1413] so

that if the interval is 12 stadia at present, it must have been at that

period less in extent by one half. The story framed by Ulysses, which he

tells Eumæus, implies a great distance from the Naustathmus to the city;

“when we lay in ambush below Troy,”[1414]

and he adds afterwards,

“for we had advanced too far from the ships.”[1415]

Scouts are despatched to learn whether the Trojans will remain near the

ships when drawn away far from their own walls, or whether

“they will return back to the city.”[1416]

Polydamas also says,

“Consider well, my friends, what is to be done, for my advice

is to return now to the city, for we are far from the

walls.”[1417]

Demetrius (of Scepsis) adds the testimony of Hestiæa[1418] of

Alexandreia, who composed a work on the Iliad of Homer, and discusses

the question whether the scene of the war was about the present city,

and what was the Trojan plain which the poet mentions as situated

between the city and the sea, for the plain seen in front of the present

city is an accumulation of earth brought down by the rivers, and formed

at a later period.

37. Polites also,

“who was the scout of the Trojans, trusting to his swiftness

of foot, and who was on the summit of the tomb of the old

Æsyetes,”[1419]

was acting absurdly. For although he was seated

“on the summit of the tomb,”

yet he might have observed from the much greater height of the citadel,

situated nearly at the same distance, nor would his swiftness of foot

have been required for the purpose of security, for the tomb of Æsyetes,

which exists at present on the road to Alexandreia, is distant five

stadia from the citadel.

Nor is the course of Hector round the city at all a probable

circumstance, for the present city will not admit of a circuit round it

on account of the continuous ridge of hill, but the ancient city did

allow such a course round it.[1420]

38. No trace of the ancient city remains. This might be expected, for

the cities around were devastated, but not entirely destroyed, whereas

when Troy was overthrown from its foundation all the stones were removed

for the reparation of the other cities. Archæanax of Mitylene is said to

have fortified Sigeium with the stones brought from Troy. Sigeium was

taken possession of by the Athenians, who sent Phryno, the victor in the

Olympic games, at the time the Lesbians advanced a claim to nearly the

whole Troad. They had indeed [CAS. 600] founded most of the

settlements, some of which exist at present, and others have

disappeared. Pittacus of Mitylene, one of the seven wise men, sailed to

the Troad against Phryno, the Athenian general, and was defeated in a

pitched battle. (It was at this time that the poet Alcæus, as he himself

says, when in danger in some battle, threw away his arms and fled. He

charged a messenger with injunctions to inform those at home that Alcæus

was safe, but that he did not bring away his arms. These were dedicated

by the Athenians as an offering in the temple of Minerva

Glaucopis.)[1421] Upon Phryno’s proposal to meet in single combat,

Pittacus advanced with his fishing gear,[1422] enclosed his adversary in

a net, pierced him with his three-pronged spear, and despatched him with

a short sword. The war however still continuing, Periander was chosen

arbitrator by both parties, and put an end to it.

39. Demetrius accuses Timæus of falsehood, for saying that Periander

built a wall round the Achilleium out of the stones brought from Ilium

as a protection against the attacks of the Athenians, and with a view to

assist Pittacus; whereas this place was fortified by the Mitylenæans

against Sigeium, but not with stones from Ilium, nor by Periander. For

how should they choose an enemy in arms to be arbitrator?

The Achilleium is a place which contains the monument of Achilles, and

is a small settlement. It was destroyed, as also Sigeium, by the

Ilienses on account of the refractory disposition of its inhabitants.

For all the sea-coast as far as Dardanus was afterwards, and is at

present, subject to them.

Anciently the greatest part of these places were subject to the Æolians,

and hence Ephorus does not hesitate to call all the country from Abydos

to Cume by the name of Æolis. But Thucydides[1423] says that the

Mitylenæans were deprived of the Troad in the Peloponnesian war by the

Athenians under the command of Paches.

40. The present Ilienses affirm that the city was not entirely

demolished when it was taken by the Achæans, nor at any time deserted.

The Locrian virgins began to be sent there, as was the custom every

year, a short time afterwards. This however is not told by Homer. Nor

was Homer acquainted with the violation of Cassandra,[1424] but says

that she was a virgin about that time:

“He slew Othryoneus, who had lately come to the war from

Cabesus, induced by the glory of the contest, and who sought

in marriage the most beautiful of the daughters of Priam,

Cassandra, without a dower.”[1425]

He does not mention any force having been used, nor does he attribute

the death of Ajax by shipwreck to the wrath of Minerva, nor to any

similar cause, but says, in general terms, that he was an object of

hatred to Minerva, (for she was incensed against all who had profaned

her temple,) and that Ajax died by the agency of Neptune for his

boasting speeches.

The Locrian virgins were sent there when the Persians were masters of

the country.

41. Such is the account of the Ilienses. But Homer speaks expressly of

the demolition of the city:

“The day will come when at length sacred Ilium shall perish,[1426]

After we have destroyed the lofty city of Priam,[1427]

By counsel, by wisdom, and by artifice,

The city of Priam was destroyed in the tenth year.”[1428]

Of this they produce evidence of the following kind; the statue of

Minerva, which Homer represents as in a sitting posture, is seen at

present to be a standing figure, for he orders them

“to place the robe on the knees of Athene,”[1429]

in the same sense as this verse,

“no son of mine should sit upon her knees,”[1430]

and it is better to understand it thus, than as some explain it, “by

placing the robe at the knees,” and adduce this line,

“she sat upon the hearth in the light of the fire,”[1431]

[CAS. 601] for “near the hearth.” For what would the laying the robe at

the knees mean? And they who alter the accent, and for γούνασιν read

γουνασιν, like θυιάσιν, or in whatever way they understand it,[1432]

come to no conclusion. Many of the ancient statues of Minerva are found

in a sitting posture, as those at Phocæa, Massalia, Rome, Chios, and

many other cities. But modern writers, among whom is Lycurgus the

rhetorician, agree that the city was destroyed, for in mentioning the

city of the Ilienses he says, “who has not heard, when it was once razed

by the Greeks, that it was uninhabited?”[1433]

42. It is conjectured that those who afterwards proposed to rebuild it

avoided the spot as inauspicious, either on account of its calamities,

of which it had been the scene, or whether Agamemnon, according to an

ancient custom, had devoted it to destruction with a curse, as Crœsus,

when he destroyed Sidene, in which the tyrant Glaucias had taken refuge,

uttered a curse against those who should rebuild its walls. They

therefore abandoned that spot and built a city elsewhere.

The Astypalæans, who were in possession of Rhœteium, were the first

persons that founded Polium near the Simoïs, now called Polisma, but not

in a secure spot, and hence it was soon in ruins.

The present settlement, and the temple, were built in the time of the

Lydian kings; but it was not then a city; a long time afterwards,

however, and by degrees, it became, as we have said, a considerable

place.

Hellanicus, in order to gratify the Ilienses, as is his custom,

maintains that the present and the ancient city are the same. But the

district on the extinction of the city was divided by the possessors of

Rhœteium and Sigeium, and the other neighbouring people among

themselves. Upon the rebuilding of the city, however, they restored it.

43. Ida is thought to be appropriately described by Homer, as abounding

with springs on account of the multitude of rivers which issue from it,

particularly where Dardania as far as Scepsis lies at its foot, and the

places about Ilium.

Demetrius, who was acquainted with these places, (for he was a native,)

thus speaks of them: “There is a height of Ida called Cotylus; it is

situated about 120 stadia above Scepsis, and from it flow the Scamander,

the Granicus, and the Æsepus;[1434] the two last, being the

contributions of many smaller sources, fall into the Propontis, but the

Scamander, which has but a single source, flows towards the west. All

these sources are in the neighbourhood of each other, and are comprised

within a circuit of 20 stadia. The termination of the Æsepus is farthest

distant from its commencement, namely, about 500 stadia.”

We may, however, ask why the poet says,

“They came to the fair fountains, whence burst forth two

streams of the eddying Scamander, one flowing with water

warm,”[1435]

that is, hot; he proceeds, however,

“around issues vapour as though caused by fire--the other

gushes out in the summer, cold like hail, or frozen as snow,”

for no warm springs are now found in that spot, nor is the source of the

Scamander there, but in the mountain, and there is one source instead of

two.[1436] It is probable that the [CAS. 602] warm spring has failed,

but the cold spring flowing from the Scamander along a subterraneous

channel emerges at this place; or, because the water was near the

Scamander, it was called the source of that river, for there are several

springs, which are said to be its sources.

44. The Andirus empties itself into the Scamander; a river which comes

from the district of Caresene, a mountainous country, in which are many

villages. It is well cultivated by the husbandmen. It adjoins Dardania,

and extends as far as the places about Zeleia and Pityeia. The country,

it is said, had its name from the river Caresus, mentioned by the poet,

“the Rhesus, Heptaporus, Caresus, and Rhodius,”[1437]

but the city of the same name as the river is in ruins.

Demetrius again says, the river Rhesus is now called Rhoeites, unless it

is the Rhesus which empties itself into the Granicus.

The Heptaporus, which is called also Polyporus, is crossed seven times

in travelling from the places about Cale Peuce (or the beautiful pitch

tree) to the village Melænæ and to the Asclepieium, founded by

Lysimachus.

Attalus, the first king, gives this account of the beautiful pitch tree;

its circumference, he says, was 24 feet; the height of the trunk from

the root was 67 feet; it then formed three branches, equally distant

from each other; it then contracts into one head, and here it completes

the whole height of two plethra, and 15 cubits. It is distant from

Adramyttium 180 stadia towards the north.

The Caresus flows from Malus, a place situated between Palæscepsis and

Achæïum, in front of the isle of Tenedos, and empties itself into the

Æsepus.

The Rhodius flows from Cleandria and Gordus, which are distant 60 stadia

from Cale Peuce, and empties itself into the Ænius (Æsepus?).

45. In the valley about the Æsepus, on the left of its course, the first

place we meet with is Polichna, a walled stronghold; then Palæscepsis,

next Alizonium, a place invented for the supposed existence of the

Halizoni whom we have mentioned before.[1438] Then Caresus, a deserted

city, and Caresene, and a river of the same name, (Caresus,) which also

forms a considerable valley, but less than that about the Æsepus. Next

follow the plains of Zeleia, and the mountain plains, which are well

cultivated. On the right of the Æsepus, between Polichna and Palæscepsis

is Nea-Come,[1439] and Argyria, [CAS. 603] (the silver mines,)[1440]

which are another fiction framed to support the same hypothesis, in

order that the words of Homer may be defended,

“where silver is produced.”[1441]

Where then is Alybe, or Alope, or in whatever way they please to play

upon the name? For they ought to have had the impudence to invent this

place also, and not to leave their system imperfect and exposed to

detection, when they had once ventured so far. This is the contradiction

which may be given to Demetrius.

As to the rest, we ought at least in the greatest number of instances to

attend to a man of experience, and a native of the country, who also had

bestowed so much thought and time on this subject as to write thirty

books to interpret little more than 60 lines of the catalogue of the

Trojan forces.

Palæscepsis, according to Demetrius, is distant from Ænea 50, and from

the river Æsepus 30, stadia, and the name of Palæscepsis is applied to

many other places.[1442]

We return to the sea-coast, from which we have digressed.

46. After the Sigeian promontory, and the Achilleium, is the coast

opposite to Tenedos, the Achæïum, and Tenedos itself, distant not more

than 40 stadia from the continent. It is about 80 stadia in

circumference. It contains an Æolian city, and has two harbours, and a

temple of Apollo Smintheus, as the poet testifies;

“Smintheus, thou that reignest over Tenedos.”[1443]

There are several small islands around it, and two in particular, called

Calydnæ,[1444] situated in the course of the voyage to Lectum. There are

some writers who call Tenedos Calydna, and others Leucophrys.[1445]

There are other small islands around it besides these. They lay near the

scene of the fable about Tennes, from whom the island has its name, and

of the story of Cycnus, a Thracian by descent, and father, according to

some writers, of Tennes, and king of Colonæ.

47. Continuous with the Achæium are Larisa and Colonæ, formerly

belonging to the people of Tenedos, who occupied the opposite coast; and

the present Chrysa, situated upon a rocky height above the sea, and

Hamaxitus lying below, and close to Lectum. But at present Alexandreia

is continuous with the Achæium; the inhabitants of those small towns,

and of many other strongholds, were embodied in Alexandreia. Among the

latter were Cebrene and Neandria. The territory is in the possession of

the Alexandrini, and the spot in which Alexandreia is now situated was

called Sigia.

48. The temple of Apollo Smintheus is in this Chrysa, and the symbol, a

mouse, which shows the etymology of the epithet Smintheus, lying under

the foot of the statue.[1446] They are the workmanship of Scopas of

Paros. They reconcile the history, and the fable about the mice, in this

following manner.

The Teucri, who came from Crete, (of whom Callinus, the elegiac poet,

gave the first history, and he was followed by many others,) were

directed by an oracle to settle wherever the earth-born inhabitants

should attack them, which, it is said, occurred to them near Hamaxitus,

for in the night-time great multitudes of field-mice came out and

devoured all arms or utensils which were made of leather; the colony

therefore settled there. These people also called the mountain Ida,

after the name of the mountain in Crete.

But [CAS. 604] Heracleides of Pontus says, that the mice, which swarmed

near the temple, were considered as sacred, and the statue is

represented as standing upon a mouse.

Others say, that a certain Teucer came from Attica, who belonged to the

Demus of Troes, which is now called Xypeteon, but that no Teucri came

from Crete. They adduce as a proof of the intermixture of Trojans with

Athenians, that an Ericthonius was a founder of both people.

This is the account of modern writers. But the traces which now exist in

the plain of Thebe, and at Chrysa situated there, coincide better with

the description of Homer; and of these we shall speak immediately.[1447]

The name of Smintheus is to be found in many places, for near Hamaxitus

itself, besides the Sminthian Apollo at the temple, there are two places

called Sminthia, and others in the neighbouring district of Larissa. In

the district also of Pariane is a place called Sminthia; others in

Rhodes,[1448] Lindus, and in many places besides. The temple is now

called Sminthium.

Separate from the other is the Halesian plain near Lectum, which is not

extensive, and the Tragasæan salt-pan near Hamaxitus,[1449] where the

salt spontaneously concretes on the blowing of the Etesian winds. On

Lectum stands an altar dedicated to the Twelve Gods, erected, it is

said, by Agamemnon.

These places are in sight of Ilium, at the distance of a little more

than 200 stadia. On the other side the parts about Abydos are visible,

although Abydos is somewhat nearer.

49. After doubling Lectum, there follow the most considerable cities of

the Æolians, the bay of Adramyttium, on which Homer seems to have placed

the greater part of the Leleges, and the Cilicians, divided into two

tribes. There also is the coast of the Mitylenæans with some villages of

the Mitylenæans on the continent. The bay has the name of the Idæan bay,

for the ridge extending from Lectum to Ida overhangs the commencement

of the bay, where, according to the poet,[1450] the Leleges were first

settled.

50. I have spoken before of the Leleges, and I shall now add that the

poet speaks of a Pedasus, a city of theirs which was subject to Altes;

“Altes, king of the war-loving Leleges, governs

The lofty Pedasus on the river Satnioeis:”[1451]

the spot exists but there is no city. Some read, but incorrectly, “below

Satnioeis,” as if the city lay at the foot of a mountain called

Satnioeis; yet there is no mountain there called Satnioeis, but a river,

on which the city is placed. The city is at present deserted. The poet

mentions the river;

“Ajax pierced with his spear Satnius, the son of Œnops, whom

the beautiful nymph Naïs bore to Œnops, when he tended herds

on the banks of the Satnioeis.”[1452]

And in another place;

“Œnops dwelt on the banks of the smooth-flowing Satnioeis

In lofty Pedasus.”[1453]

Later writers called it Satioeis, and some writers Saphnioeis. It is a

great winter torrent, which the poet, by mentioning it, made remarkable.

These places are continuous with the districts Dardania and Scepsia, and

are as it were another Dardania, but lower than the former.

51. The country comprised in the districts of Antandria, Cebrene,

Neandria, and the Hamaxitus, as far as the sea opposite to Lesbos, now

belongs to the people of Assus and Gargara.[1454]

The Neandrians are situated above Hamaxitus on this side Lectum, but

more towards the interior, and nearer to Ilium, from which they are

distant 130 stadia. Above these people are the Cebrenii, and above the

Cebrenii the Dardanii, extending as far as Palæscepsis, and even to

Scepsis.

The poet Alcæus calls Antandrus a city of the Leleges:

“First is Antandrus, a city of the Leleges.”

Demetrius of Scepsis places it among the adjacent cities, so that it

might be in the country of the Cilicians, for these people are rather to

be regarded as bordering upon the Leleges, [CAS. 606] having as their

boundary the southern side of Mount Ida. These however are situated low

down, and approach nearer the sea-coast at Adramyttium. After Lectum, at

the distance of 40 stadia is Polymedium,[1455] a stronghold; then at the

distance of 80 stadia Assus, situated a little above the sea; next at

140 stadia Gargara, which is situated on a promontory, which forms the

gulf, properly called the gulf of Adramyttium. For the whole of the

sea-coast from Lectum to Canæ, and the Elaïtic bay, is comprised under

the same name, the gulf of Adramyttium. This, however, is properly

called the Adramyttene gulf, which is enclosed within the promontory on

which Gargara stands, and that called the promontory Pyrrha,[1456] on

which is a temple of Venus. The breadth of the entrance forms a passage

across from promontory to promontory of 120 stadia. Within it is

Antandrus,[1457] with a mountain above it, which is called Alexandreia,

where it is said the contest between the goddesses was decided by Paris;

and Aspaneus, the depository of the timber cut from the forests of Ida;

it is here that wood is brought down and disposed of to those who want

it.

Next is Astyra, a village and grove sacred to Artemis Astyrene. Close to

it is Adramyttium, a city founded by a colony of Athenians, with a

harbour, and a station for vessels. Beyond the gulf and the promontory

Pyrrha is Cisthene, a deserted city with a harbour. Above it in the

interior is a copper mine, Perperena, Trarium, and other similar

settlements.

On this coast after Cisthene are the villages of the Mitylenæans,

Coryphantis and Heracleia; next to these is Attea; then Atarneus,[1458]

Pitane,[1459] and the mouths of the Caïcus. These, however, belong to

the Elaïtic gulf. On the opposite side of the Caïcus are Elæa,[1460] and

the remainder of the gulf as far as Canæ.

We shall resume our description of each place, lest we should have

omitted any one that is remarkable. And first with regard to Scepsis.

52. Palæscepsis is situated above Cebrene towards the most elevated part

of Ida near Polichna. It had the name of Scepsis[1461] either for some

other reason or because it was within view of the places around, if we

may be allowed to derive words then in use among Barbarians from the

Greek language. Afterwards the inhabitants were transferred to the

present Scepsis, 60 stadia lower down, by Scamandrius, the son of

Hector, and by Ascanius, the son of Æneas; these two families reigned,

it is said, a long time at Scepsis. They changed the form of government

to an oligarchy; afterwards the Milesians united with the Scepsians, and

formed a democracy.[1462] The descendants of these families had

nevertheless the name of kings, and held certain dignities. Antigonus

incorporated the Scepsians with the inhabitants of Alexandreia (Troas);

Lysimachus dissolved this union, and they returned to their own country.

53. The Scepsian (Demetrius) supposes that Scepsis was the palace of

Æneas, situated between the dominion of Æneas and Lyrnessus, where, it

is said, he took refuge when pursued by Achilles.

“Remember you not,” says Achilles, “how I chased you when

alone and apart from the herds, with swift steps, from the

heights of Ida, thence indeed you escaped to Lyrnessus; but I

took and destroyed it.”[1463]

Present traditions respecting Æneas do not agree with the story

respecting the first founders of Scepsis. For it is said that he was

spared on account of his hatred to Priam:

“he ever bore hatred to Priam, for never had Priam bestowed

any honour upon him for his valour.”[1464]

His companion chiefs, the Antenoridæ, and Antenor, and myself, escaped

on account of the hospitality which the latter had shown to Menelaus.

Sophocles, in his play, The Capture of Troy, says, that a panther’s skin

was placed before Antenor’s door as a signal that his house should be

spared from plunder. Antenor and [CAS. 600] [CAS. 608] his four sons,

together with the surviving Heneti, are said to have escaped into

Thrace, and thence into Henetica on the Adriatic;[1465] but Æneas, with

his father Anchises and his son Ascanius, are said to have collected a

large body of people, and to have set sail. Some writers say that he

settled about the Macedonian Olympus; according to others he founded

Capuæ,[1466] near Mantineia in Arcadia, and that he took the name of the

city from Capys. There is another account, that he disembarked at

Ægesta[1467] in Sicily, with Elymus, a Trojan, and took possession of

Eryx[1468] and Lilybæus,[1469] and called the rivers about Ægesta

Scamander and Simoïs; that from Sicily he went to Latium, and settled

there in obedience to an oracle enjoining him to remain wherever he

should eat his table. This happened in Latium, near Lavinium, when a

large cake of bread which was set down instead of, and for want of, a

table, was eaten together with the meat that was laid upon it.

Homer does not agree either with these writers or with what is said

respecting the founders of Scepsis. For he represents Æneas as remaining

at Troy, succeeding to the kingdom, and delivering the succession to his

children’s children after the extinction of the race of Priam:

“the son of Saturn hated the family of Priam: henceforward

Æneas shall reign over the Trojans, and his children’s

children to late generations.”[1470]

In this manner not even the succession of Scamandrius could be

maintained. He disagrees still more with those writers who speak of his

wanderings as far as Italy, and make him end his days in that country.

Some write the verse thus:

“The race of Æneas and his children’s children,” meaning the Romans,

“shall rule over all nations.”

54. The Socratic philosophers, Erastus, Coriscus, and Neleus, the son of

Coriscus, a disciple of Aristotle, and Theophrastus, were natives of

Scepsis. Neleus succeeded to the possession of the library of

Theophrastus, which included that of Aristotle; for Aristotle gave his

library, and left his school, to Theophrastus. Aristotle[1471] was the

first person with whom we are acquainted who made a collection of books,

and suggested to the kings of Ægypt the formation of a library.

Theophrastus left his library to Neleus, who carried it to Scepsis, and

bequeathed it to some ignorant persons who kept the books locked up,

lying in disorder. When the Scepsians understood that the Attalic kings,

on whom the city was dependent, were in eager search for books, with

which they intended to furnish the library at Pergamus, they hid theirs

in an excavation under-ground; at length, but not before they had been

injured by damp and worms, the descendants of Neleus sold the books of

Aristotle and Theophrastus for a large sum of money to Apellicon of

Teos. Apellicon[1472] was rather a lover of books than a philosopher;

when therefore he attempted to restore the parts which had been eaten

and corroded by worms, he made alterations in the original text and

introduced them into new copies; he moreover supplied the defective

parts unskilfully, and published the books full of errors. It was the

misfortune of the ancient Peripatetics, those after Theophrastus, that

being wholly unprovided with the books of Aristotle, with the exception

of a few only, and those chiefly of the exoteric[1473] kind, they were

unable to philosophize according [CAS. 609] to the principles of the

system, and merely occupied themselves in elaborate discussions on

common places. Their successors however, from the time that these books

were published, philosophized, and propounded the doctrine of Aristotle

more successfully than their predecessors, but were under the necessity

of advancing a great deal as probable only, on account of the multitude

of errors contained in the copies.

Even Rome contributed to this increase of errors; for immediately on the

death of Apellicon, Sylla, who captured Athens, seized the library of

Apellicon. When it was brought to Rome, Tyrannion,[1474] the grammarian,

who was an admirer of Aristotle, courted the superintendent of the

library and obtained the use of it. Some vendors of books, also,

employed bad scribes and neglected to compare the copies with the

original. This happens in the case of other books which are copied for

sale both here and at Alexandreia.

This may suffice on this subject.

55. Demetrius the grammarian, whom we have frequently mentioned, was a

native of Scepsis. He composed a comment on the catalogue of the Trojan

forces. He was contemporary with Crates and Aristarchus. He was

succeeded by Metrodorus,[1475] who changed from being a philosopher to

engage in public affairs. His writings are for the most part in the

style of the rhetoricians. He employed a new and striking kind of

phraseology. Although he was poor, yet, in consequence of the reputation

which he had acquired, he married a rich wife at Chalcedon, and acquired

the surname of the Chalcedonian. He paid great court to Mithridates

Eupator, whom he accompanied with his wife on a voyage to Pontus, and

received from him distinguished honours. He was appointed to preside

over a tribunal where the party condemned by the judge had no power of

appeal to the king. His prosperity however was not lasting, for he

incurred the enmity of some very unjust persons, and deserted from the

king at the very time that he was despatched on an embassy to Tigranes

the Armenian. Tigranes sent him back much against his inclination to

Eupator, who was then flying from his hereditary kingdom. Metrodorus

died on the road, either in consequence of orders from the king, or by

natural disease, for both causes of his death are stated.

So much then respecting Scepsis.

56. Next to Scepsis are Andeira, Pioniæ, and Gargaris. There is found at

Andeira a stone, which when burnt becomes iron. It is then put into a

furnace together with some kind of earth, when it distils a mock silver,

(Pseudargyrum,) or with the addition of copper it becomes the compound

called oreichalcum. There is found a mock silver near Tmolus also. These

places and those about Assus were occupied by the Leleges.

57. Assus is a strong place, and well fortified with walls. There is a

long and perpendicular ascent from the sea and the harbour, so that the

verse of Stratonicus the citharist seems to be applicable to it; [CAS.

610]

“Go to Assus, if you mean to reach quickly the confines of death.”

The harbour is formed of a large mole.

Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher, was a native of this place. He

succeeded to the school of Zeno of Citium, and left it to Chrysippus of

Soli. Here also Aristotle resided for some time, on account of his

relationship to Hermeas the tyrant. Hermeas was an eunuch, servant of a

money-changer. When he was at Athens he was the hearer both of Plato and

of Aristotle. On his return he became the associate in the tyranny of

his master, who attacked the places near Atarneus and Assus. He

afterwards succeeded his master, sent for both Aristotle and Xenocrates,

and treated them with kindness. He even gave his niece in marriage to

Aristotle. But Memnon of Rhodes, who was at that time general in the

service of the Persians, invited to his house Hermeas, under the mask of

friendship, and on pretence of business. He seized Hermeas, and sent him

to the king, who ordered him to be hanged. The philosophers, avoiding

places in possession of the Persians, escaped by flight.

58. Myrsilus says that Assus was founded by Methymnæans; but according

to Hellanicus it was an Æolian city, like Gargara and Lamponia of the

Æolians. Gargara[1476] was founded from Assus; it was not well peopled,

for the kings introduced settlers from Miletopolis,[1477] which they

cleared of its inhabitants, so that Demetrius the Scepsian says that,

instead of being Æolians, the people became semi-barbarians. In the time

of Homer all these places belonged to Leleges, whom some writers

represent as Carians, but Homer distinguishes them,

“Near the sea are Carians, and Pæonians with curved bows,

Leleges, and Caucones.”[1478]

The Leleges were therefore a different people from the Carians, and

lived between the people subject to Æneas and the Cilicians, as they are

called by the poet. After being plundered by Achilles, they removed to

Caria, and occupied the country about the present Halicarnassus.

59. Pedasus, the city which they abandoned, is no longer in existence.

But in the interior of the country belonging to the people of

Halicarnassus there was a city called by them Pedasa, and the territory

has even now the name of Pedasis. It is said that this district

contained eight cities, occupied by the Leleges, who were formerly so

populous a nation as to possess Caria as far as Myndus, Bargylia, and a

great part of Pisidia. In later times, when they united with the Carians

in their expeditions, they were dispersed throughout the whole of

Greece, and the race became extinct.

Mausolus, according to Callisthenes, assembled in Halicarnassus[1479]

alone the inhabitants of six out of the eight cities, but allowed

Suangela and Myndus to remain untouched. Herodotus[1480] relates that

whenever anything unfortunate was about to befall the inhabitants of

Pedasus[1481] and the neighbourhood a beard appeared on the face of the

priestess of Minerva, and that this happened three times.

There is now existing in the territory of the Stratoniceis[1482] a small

town called Pedasum. There are to be seen throughout the whole of Caria

and at Miletus sepulchres, and fortifications, and vestiges of

settlements of the Leleges.

60. The tract of sea-coast following next after the Leleges was

occupied, according to Homer, by Cilicians, but at present it is

occupied by Adramytteni, Atarneitæ, and Pitanæi as far as the mouth of

the Caïcus. The Cilicians were divided into [CAS. 611] two dynasties,

as we have before said,[1483] the head of one was Eetion, the other

Mynes.

61. Homer says that Thebe was the city of Eetion;

“We went to Thebe, the sacred city of Eetion.”[1484]

To him also belonged Chrysa, which contained the temple of Apollo

Smintheus, for Chryseïs was taken from Thebe;

“We went,”

he says,

“to Thebe, ravaged it, and carried everything away; the sons

of the Achæans divided the booty among themselves, but

selected for Atrides the beautiful Chryseïs.”

Lyrnessus he calls the city of Mynes, for

“having plundered Lyrnessus, and destroyed the walls of

Thebe,”[1485]

Achilles slew Mynes and Epistrophus, so that when Bryseïs says,

“you suffered me not to weep when the swift Achilles slew my

husband, and laid waste the city of the divine Mynes,”[1486]

the poet cannot mean Thebe, for that belonged to Eetion, but Lyrnessus,

for both cities lay in what was afterwards called the plain of Thebe,

which, on account of its fertility, was a subject of contest among the

Mysians and Lydians formerly, and latterly among the Greeks who had

migrated from Æolis and Lesbos. At present Adramytteni possess the

greater part of it; there are Thebe and Lyrnessus, a strong place, but

both are deserted. One is situated at the distance of 60 stadia from

Adramyttium on one side, and the other 88 stadia on the other side.

62. In the Adramyttene district are Chrysa and Cilla. There is at

present near Thebe a place called Cilla, in which is a temple of Apollo

Cillæus. Beside it runs a river, which comes from Mount Ida. These

places are near Antandria. The Cillæum in Lesbos has its name from this

Cilla. There is also a mountain Cillæum between Gargara and Antandrus.

Daes of Colonæ says that the temple of Apollo Cillæus was founded at

Colonæ by the Æolians, who came by sea from Greece. At Chrysa also it is

said that there is a Cillæan Apollo, but it is uncertain whether it is

the same as Apollo Smintheus, or a different statue.

63. Chrysa is a small town on the sea-coast with a harbour. Near and

above it is Thebe. Here was the temple of Apollo Smintheus, and here

Chryseïs lived. The place at present is entirely abandoned. To the

present Chrysa, near Hamaxitus, was transferred the temple of the

Cilicians, one party of whom went to Pamphylia, the other to Hamaxitus.

Those who are not well acquainted with ancient histories say that

Chryses and Chryseïs lived there, and that Homer mentions the place. But

there is no harbour at this place, yet Homer says,

“but when they entered the deep harbour,”[1487]--

nor is the temple on the sea-coast, but Homer places it there;

“Chryseïs left the ship; then the sage Ulysses, leading her to

the altar, placed her in the hands of her beloved

father.”[1488]

Nor is it near Thebe, but it is near it, according to Homer, for he

says, that Chryseïs was taken away from thence.

Nor is there any place of the name of Cilla in the district of the

Alexandreia, (Troas,) nor a temple of Apollo Cillæus, whereas the poet

joins them together:

“who art the guardian of Chrysa, and the divine Cilla.”[1489]

But it is in the plain of Thebe that they are seen near together. The

voyage from the Cilician Chrysa to the Naustathmus (or naval station) is

about 700 stadia, and occupies a day, which is as much as Ulysses seems

to have completed; for immediately upon leaving the vessel he offers

sacrifice to the god, and being overtaken by the evening, remains there.

In the morning he sets sail. It is scarcely a third of the

above-mentioned distance from Hamaxitus, so that Ulysses could have

performed his sacrifice and have returned to the Naustathmus the same

day. There is also a monument of Cillus, a large mound, near the temple

of Apollo Cillæus. He is said to have been the charioteer of Pelops, and

to have had the chief command in these parts. Perhaps the country

Cilicia had its name from him, or he had his from the country.

64. The story about the Teucri, and the mice from whom the name of

Smintheus is derived, (for mice are called Sminthii,) must be

transferred to this place.

They [CAS. 613] excuse the derivation of titles from insignificant

objects by examples of this kind; as from the parnopes, which the Œtæans

call cornopes, Hercules had a surname, and was worshipped under the

title of Hercules Cornopion, because he had delivered them from locusts.

So the Erythræans, who live near the river Melius, worship Hercules

Ipoctonus, because he destroyed the ipes, or worms, which are

destructive to vines; for this pest is found everywhere except in the

country of the Erythræans. The Rhodians have in the island a temple of

Apollo Erythibius, so called from erysibe, (mildew,) and which they call

erythibe. Among the Æolians in Asia one of their months is called

Pornopion, for this name the Bœotians give to parnopes, (locusts,) and a

sacrifice is performed to Apollo Pornopion.

65. The country about Adramyttium is Mysia. It was once subject to

Lydians, and there are now Pylæ Lydiæ (or the Lydian Gates) at

Adramyttium, the city having been founded, it is said, by Lydians.

Astyra also, the village near Adramyttium, is said to belong to Mysia.

It was once a small city, in which was the temple of Artemis Astyrene,

situated in a grove. The Antandrians, in whose neighbourhood it is more

immediately situated, preside over it with great solemnity. It is

distant 20 stadia from the ancient Chrysa, which also has a temple in a

grove. There too is the Rampart of Achilles. At the distance of 50

stadia in the interior is Thebe, uninhabited, which the poet says was

situated below the woody Placus. But there is neither Placus nor Plax

there, nor a wood above it, although near Ida.

Thebe is distant from Astyra 70, and from Andeira 60 stadia. All these

are names of uninhabited places, or thinly inhabited, or of rivers which

are torrents. But they owe their fame to ancient history.

66. Assus and Adramyttium are considerable cities. Adramyttium was

unfortunate in the Mithridatic war, for Diodorus the general, in order

to gratify the king, put to death the council of the citizens, although

at the same time he pretended to be a philosopher of the Academy,

pleaded causes, and professed to teach rhetoric. He accompanied the king

on his voyage to Pontus, but upon his overthrow Diodorus was punished

for his crimes. Many accusations were simultaneously preferred against

him: but, unable to endure the disgrace, he basely destroyed himself in

my native city by abstaining from food.

Adramyttium produced Xenocles, a distinguished orator, who adopted the

Asiatic style of eloquence and was remarkable for the vehemence of his

manner; he defended Asia before the senate, at the time when that

province was accused of favouring the party of Mithridates.

67. Near Astyra is a lake called Sapra, full of deep holes, that empties

itself by a ravine among ridges of rocks on the coast. Below Andeira is

a temple dedicated to the Andeirenian mother of the gods, and a cave

with a subterraneous passage extending to Palæa. Palæa is a settlement

distant 130 stadia from Andeira. A goat, which fell into the opening,

discovered the subterraneous passage. It was found at Andeira the next

day, accidentally, by the shepherd, who had gone there to a sacrifice.

Atarneus[1490] is the royal seat of Hermeas the tyrant. Next is Pitane,

an Æolian city, with two harbours, and the river Euenus flowing beside

it, which supplies the aqueduct of the Adramyttium with water.

Arcesilaus of the Academy was a native of Pitane, and a fellow-disciple

of Zeno of Citium in the school of Polemo.

There is a place in Pitane called “Atarneus under Pitane,” opposite to

the island called Elæussa.

It is said that at Pitane bricks float upon the water, as was the case

with a small island[1491] in Tyrrhenia, for the earth, being lighter

than an equal bulk of water, swims upon it. Poseidonius says, that he

saw in Spain bricks made of an argillaceous earth (with which silver

vessels are cleansed) floating upon water.

After Pitane the Caïcus[1492] empties itself, at the distance of 30

stadia from it, into the Elaïtic bay. Beyond the Caïcus, at the distance

of 12 stadia from the river, is Elæa, an Æolian city; it is the arsenal

of Pergamum, and distant from it 120 stadia.

68. [CAS. 615] At 100 stadia farther is Cane, the promontory opposite

to Lectum, and forming the gulf of Adramyttium, of which the Elaïtic

Gulf is a part. Canæ is a small city of the Locrians who came from

Cynus; it is situated in the Canæan territory, opposite the most

southerly extremities of Lesbos. This territory extends to the Arginusæ,

and the promontory above, which some call Aiga, or the goat. The second

syllable however must be pronounced long, Aigan, like Actan and Archan,

for this was the name of the whole mountain, which at present is called

Cane, or Canæ.[1493] The sea surrounds the mountain on the south and

west; towards the east the plain of Caïcus lies below, and on the north

the Elaïtic district. The mountain itself is very much contracted. It

inclines indeed towards the Ægæan Sea, from which it has the name (Æga),

but afterwards the promontory itself was called Æga, the name which

Sappho gives it, and then Cane and Canæ.

69. Between Elæa, Pitane, Atarneus, and Pergamum on this side the

Caïcus, is Teuthrania, distant from none of these places above 70

stadia. Teuthras is said to have been king of the Cilicians and Mysians.

According to Euripides, Auge, with her son Telephus, was enclosed in a

chest and thrown into the sea, by command of her father Aleus, who

discovered that she had been violated by Hercules. By the care of

Minerva the chest crossed the sea, and was cast ashore at the mouth of

the Caïcus. Teuthras took up the mother and her son, married the former,

and treated the latter as his own child. This is a fable, but another

concurrence of circumstances is wanting to explain how the daughter of

the Arcadian became the wife of the king of the Mysians, and how her son

succeeded to the throne of the Mysians. It is however believed that

Teuthras and Telephus governed the country lying about Teuthrania and

the Caïcus, but the poet mentions a few particulars only of this

history:

“as when he slew the son of Telephus, the hero Eurypylus, and

many of his companions, the Cetæi, were killed around him for

the sake of the gifts of women.”[1494]

Homer here rather proposes an enigma than a clear meaning. For we do not

know who the Cetæi were, nor what people we are to understand by this

name, nor what is meant by the words, “for the sake of the gifts of

women.”[1495] Grammarians adduce and compare with this other stories,

but they indulge in invention rather than solve the difficulty.

70. Let us dismiss this doubtful matter, and turn to what is more

certain; for instance, according to Homer, Eurypylus appears to have

been king of the places about the Caïcus, so that perhaps a part of the

Cilicians were his subjects, and that there were not only two but three

dynasties among that people.

This opinion is supported by the circumstance that in the Elaïtis there

is a small river, like a winter torrent, of the name of Ceteium. This

falls into another like it, then again [CAS. 616] into another, but all

discharge themselves into the Caïcus. The Caïcus does not flow from Ida,

as Bacchylides says, nor does Euripides say correctly that Marsyas

“inhabited the famous Celænæ, at the extremity of Ida,”

for Celænæ is at a great distance from Ida, and so are the sources of

the Caïcus, for they are to be seen in the plain.

There is a mountain, Temnum, which separates this and the plain of Asia;

it lies in the interior above the plain of Thebe. A river, Mysius, flows

from Temnum and enters the Caïcus below its source. Hence some persons

suppose that Æschylus refers to it in the beginning of the prologue to

the play of the Myrmidons,

“Caïcus, and ye Mysian streams”--

Near its source is a village called Gergitha, to which Attalus

transferred the inhabitants of Gergitha in the Troad, after destroying

their own town.

CHAPTER II.

1. Since Lesbos, a very remarkable island, lies along and opposite to

the sea-coast, extending from Lectum to Canæ, and since it is surrounded

by small islands, some of which lie beyond it, others in the space

between Lesbos and the continent, it is now proper to describe them,

because they are Æolian places, and Lesbos is, as it were, the capital

of the Æolian cities. We shall begin where we set out to describe the

coast opposite to the island.

2. In sailing from Lectum to Assus the Lesbian district begins opposite

to Sigrium,[1496] its northern promontory. Somewhere there is

Methymna,[1497] a city of the Lesbians, 60 stadia from the coast,

between Polymedium and Assus. The whole island is 1100 stadia in

circumference. The particulars are these.

From Methymna to Malia,[1498] the most southern promontory to those who

have the island on their right hand, and to which Canæ[1499] lies

directly opposite, are 340 stadia. Thence to Sigrium, which is the

length of the island, 560 stadia, thence to Methymna 210 stadia.[1500]

Mitylene, the largest city, lies between Methymna and Malia, at the

distance from Malia of 70 stadia, and from Canæ of 120, and as many from

the Arginussæ islands,[1501] which are three small islands near the

continent, and situated near Canæ. In the interval between Mitylene and

Methymna, at a village called Ægeirus in the Methymnæan territory, is

the narrowest part of the island, having a passage of 20 stadia to the

Pyrrhæan Euripus.[1502] Pyrrha[1503] is situated on the western side of

Lesbos, at the distance of 100 stadia from Malia.

Mitylene has two harbours; of which the southern is a closed harbour for

triremes, and capable of holding 50 vessels. The northern harbour is

large, and deep, and protected by a mole. In front of both lies a small

island, which contains a part of the city. Mitylene is well provided

with everything.

3. It formerly produced celebrated men, as Pittacus, one of the Seven

Wise Men; Alcæus the poet, and his brother Antimenidas, who, according

to Alcæus, when fighting on the side of the Babylonians, achieved a

great exploit, and extricated them from their danger by killing

“a valiant warrior, the king’s wrestler, who was four cubits

in height.”

Contemporary with these persons flourished Sappho, an extraordinary

woman; for at no period within memory has any woman been known at all to

be compared to her in poetry.

At this period Mitylene was ruled by many tyrants, in consequence of the

dissensions among the citizens. These dissensions are the subject of the

poems of Alcæus called Stasiotica (the Seditions). One of these tyrants

was Pittacus: Alcæus inveighed against him as well as against Myrsilus,

Megalagyrus[1504] the Cleanactidæ, and some others; nor was he [CAS.

617] himself clear from the imputation of favouring these political

changes. Pittacus himself employed monarchical power to dissolve the

despotism of the many, but, having done this, he restored the

independence of the city.

At a late period afterwards appeared Diophanes the rhetorician; in our

times Potamo, Lesbocles, Crinagoras, and Theophanes the historian.[1505]

The latter was versed in political affairs, and became the friend of

Pompey the Great, chiefly on account of his accomplishments and

assistance he afforded in directing to a successful issue all his

enterprises. Hence, partly by means of Pompey, partly by his own

exertions, he became an ornament to his country, and rendered himself

the most illustrious of all the Grecians. He left a son, Mark Pompey,

whom Augustus Cæsar appointed prefect of Asia, and who is now reckoned

among the number of the chief friends of Tiberius.

The Athenians were in danger of incurring irremediable disgrace by

passing a decree that all the Mitylenæans who had attained the age of

puberty should be put to death. They, however, recalled their

resolution, and the counter-decree reached their generals only one day

before the former order was to be executed.

4. Pyrrha is in ruins. But the suburb is inhabited, and has a port,

whence to Mitylene is a passage of 80 stadia. Next after Pyrrha is

Eressus.[1506] It is situated upon a hill, and extends to the sea.

Thence to Sigrium 28 stadia.

Eressus was the birth-place of Theophrastus, and of Phanias, Peripatetic

philosophers, disciples of Aristotle. Theophrastus was called Tyrtamus

before his name was changed by Aristotle to Theophrastus, thus getting

rid of the cacophony of the former name, and at the same time expressing

the beauty of his elocution, for Aristotle made all his disciples

eloquent, but Theophrastus the most eloquent of them all.

Antissa[1507] is next to Sigrium. It is a city with a harbour. Then

follows Methymna, of which place Arion was a native, who, as Herodotus

relates the story, after having been thrown into the sea by pirates,

escaped safe to Tænarus on the back of a dolphin. He played on the

cithara and sang to it. Terpander, who practised the same kind of music,

was a native of this island. He was the first person that used the lyre

with seven instead of four strings, as is mentioned in the verses

attributed to him:

“we have relinquished the song adapted to four strings, and

shall cause new hymns to resound on a seven-stringed cithara.”

The historian Hellanicus, and Callias, who has commented on Sappho and

Alcæus, were Lesbians.

5. Near the strait situated between Asia and Lesbos there are about

twenty small islands, or, according to Timosthenes, forty. They are

called Hecatonnesoi,[1508] a compound name like Peloponnesus, the letter

N being repeated by custom in such words as Myonnesus, Proconnesus,

Halonnesus, so that Hecatonnesoi is of the same import as Apollonnesoi,

since Apollo is called Hecatus;[1509] for along the whole of this coast,

as far as Tenedos, Apollo is held in the highest veneration, and

worshipped under the names of Smintheus, Cillæus, Gryneus, or other

appellations.

Near these islands is Pordoselene, which contains a city of the same

name, and in front of this city is another island[1510] larger than

this, and a city of the same name, uninhabited, in which there is a

temple of Apollo.

6. Some persons, in order to avoid the indecorum couched in these

names,[1511] say that we ought to read in that place Poroselene, and to

call Aspordenum, the rocky and barren mountain near Pergamum, Asporenum,

and the temple there of the mother of the gods the temple of the

Asporene mother of the gods; what then are we to say to the names

Pordalis, Saperdes, [CAS. 619] Perdiccas, and to this word in the verse

of Simonides, “with clothes dripping with wet,” (πορδάκοισιν for

διαβρόχοις,) and in the old comedy somewhere, “the country is πορδακόν,

for λιμνάζον, or ‘marshy.’”

Lesbos is at the same distance, rather less than 500 stadia, from

Tenedos, Lemnos, and Chios.

CHAPTER III.

1. Since there subsisted so great an affinity among the Leleges and

Cilicians with the Trojans, the reason is asked, why these people are

not included in Homer’s Catalogue. Perhaps it is that, on account of the

loss of their leaders and the devastation of the cities, the few

Cilicians that were left placed themselves under the command of Hector.

For Eetion and his sons are said to have been killed before the

Catalogue is mentioned;

“The hero Achilles,”

says Andromache,

“killed my father, and destroyed Thebe, with its lofty gates,

the city of the Cilicians.”--

“I had seven brothers in the palace; all of them went in one

day to Hades, for they were all slain by the swift-footed

divine Achilles.”[1512]

Those also under the command of Mynes had lost their leaders, and their

city;

“He slew Mynes, and Epistrophus,

And destroyed the city of the divine Mynes.”[1513]

He describes the Leleges as present at the battles;

“on the sea-coast are Carians, and Pæonians with curved bows,

Leleges, and Caucones.”[1514]

And in another place,

“he killed Satnius with a spear--the son of Enops, whom a

beautiful nymph Neis bore to Enops, when he was tending herds

near the banks of Satnioeis,”[1515]

for they had not been so completely annihilated as to prevent their

forming a body of people of themselves, since their king still survived,

“Altes, king of the war-loving Leleges,”[1516]

nor was the city entirely razed, for he adds,

“who commanded the lofty city Pedasus.”[1517]

He has passed them over in the Catalogue, not considering the body of

people large enough to have a place in it; or he comprised them among

the people under the command of Hector, as being allied to one another.

For Lycaon, the brother of Hector, says,

“my mother Laothoë, daughter of the old Altes, brought me into

the world to live but a short time; of Altes, king of the

war-loving Leleges.”[1518]

Such is the reasoning, from probability, which this subject admits.

2. We reason from probability when we endeavour to determine by the

words of the poet the exact bounds of the territory of the Cilicians,

Pelasgi, and of the people situated between them, namely, the Ceteii,

who were under the command of Eurypylus.

We have said of the Cilicians and of the people under the command of

Eurypylus what can be said about them, and that they are bounded by the

country near the Caïcus.

It is agreeable to probability to place the Pelasgi next to these

people, according to the words of Homer and other histories. Homer says,

“Hippothous led the tribes of the Pelasgi, who throw the

spear, who inhabited the fertile Larisa; their leaders were

Hippothous and Pylæus, a son of Mars, both sons of Lethus the

Pelasgian, son of Teutamis.”[1519]

He here represents the numbers of Pelasgi as considerable, for he does

not speak of them as a tribe, but “tribes,” and specifies the place of

their settlement, Larisa. There are many places of the name of Larisa,

but we must understand some one of those near the Troad, and perhaps we

might not be wrong in supposing it to be that near Cyme; for of three

places of the name of Larisa, that near Hamaxitus is quite in sight of

Ilium and very near it, at the distance of about 200 stadia, so that

Hippothous could not be said consistently with probability to fall, in

the contest about Patroclus,[CAS. 620]

“far from Larisa,”[1520]

at least from this Larisa, but rather from the Larisa near Cyme, for

there are about 1000 stadia between them. The third Larisa is a village

in the Ephesian district in the plain of the Caÿster; which, it is said,

was formerly a city containing a temple of Apollo Larisæus, and situated

nearer to Mount Tmolus than to Ephesus. It is distant from Ephesus 180

stadia, so that it might be placed rather under the government of the

Mæonians. The Ephesians, having afterwards acquired more power, deprived

the Mæonians, whom we now call Lydians, of a large part of their

territory; but not even this, but the other rather, would be the Larisa

of the Pelasgi. For we have no strong evidence that the Larisa in the

plain of Caÿster was in existence at that time, nor even of the

existence of Ephesus. But all the Æolian history, relating to a period a

little subsequent to the Trojan times, proves the existence of the

Larisa near Cyme.

3. It is said that the people who set out from Phricium, a Locrian

mountain above Thermopylæ, settled on the spot where Cyme is now

situated; and finding the Pelasgi, who had been great sufferers in the

Trojan war, yet still in possession of Larisa, distant about 70 stadia

from Cyme, erected as a defence against them what is at present called

Neon-teichos, (or the New Wall,) 30 stadia from Larisa. They took

Larisa,[1521] founded Cyme, and transferred to it as settlers the

surviving Pelasgi. Cyme is called Cyme Phriconis from the Locrian

mountain, and Larisa also (Phriconis): it is now deserted.

That the Pelasgi were a great nation history, it is said, furnishes

other evidence. For Menecrates of Elæa, in his work on the foundation of

cities, says, that the whole of the present Ionian coast, beginning from

Mycale and the neighbouring islands, were formerly inhabited by Pelasgi.

But the Lesbians say, that they were commanded by Pylæus, who is called

by the poet the chief of the Pelasgi, and that it was from him that the

mountain in their country had the name of Pylæum.

The Chians also say, that the Pelasgi from Thessaly were their

founders. The Pelasgi, however, were a nation disposed to wander, ready

to remove from settlement to settlement, and experienced both a great

increase and a sudden diminution of strength and numbers, particularly

at the time of the Æolian and Ionian migrations to Asia.

4. Something peculiar took place among the Larisæans in the plain of

Caÿster, in the Phriconis, and in Thessaly. All of them occupied a

country, the soil of which has been accumulated by rivers, by the

Caÿster,[1522] the Hermus,[1523] and the Peneus.[1524]

At Larisa Phriconis Piasus is said to receive great honours. He was

chief of the Pelasgi, and enamoured, it is said, of his daughter Larisa,

whom he violated, and was punished for the outrage. She discovered him

leaning over a cask of wine, seized him by his legs, lifted him up, and

dropped him down into the vessel. These are ancient accounts.

5. To the present Æolian cities we must add Ægæ and Temnus, the

birth-place of Hermagoras, who wrote a book on the Art of Rhetoric.

These cities are on the mountainous country which is above the district

of Cyme, and that of the Phocæans and Smyrnæans, beside which flows the

Hermus.

Not far from these cities is Magnesia under Sipylus, made a free city by

a decree of the Romans. The late earthquakes have injured this place. To

the opposite parts, which incline towards the Caïcus to Cyme from

Larisa, in passing to which the river Hermus is crossed, are 70 stadia;

thence to Myrina 40 stadia; thence to Grynium 40 stadia, and thence to

Elæa. But, according to Artemidorus, next to Cyme is Adæ; then, at the

distance of 40 stadia, a promontory, which they call Hydra, that forms

the Elaïtic Gulf with the opposite promontory Harmatus. The breadth of

the entrance is about 80 stadia, including the winding of the bays.

Myrina, situated at 60 stadia, is an Æolian city with a harbour, then

the harbour of Achæans, where are altars of the twelve gods; next is

Grynium, a small city [of the Myrinæans], a temple of Apollo, an ancient

oracle, and a costly fane of white marble. To Myrina are 40 stadia; then

70 stadia to Elæa, which has a harbour and a station for vessels of the

Attalic kings, founded [CAS. 622] by Menestheus and the Athenians who

accompanied him in the expedition against Ilium.

The places about Pitane, and Atarneus, and others in this quarter, which

follow Elæa, have been already described.

6. Cyme is the largest and best of the Æolian cities. This and Lesbos

may be considered the capitals of the other cities, about 30 in number,

of which not a few exist no longer. The inhabitants of Cyme are

ridiculed for their stupidity, for, according to some writers, it is

said of them that they only began to let the tolls of the harbour three

hundred years after the foundation of their city, and that before this

time the town had never received any revenue of the kind; hence the

report that it was late before they perceived that they inhabited a city

lying on the sea.

There is another story, that, having borrowed money in the name of the

state, they pledged their porticos as security for the payment of it.

Afterwards, the money not having been repaid on the appointed day, they

were prohibited from walking in them. The creditors, through shame, gave

notice by the crier whenever it rained, that the inhabitants might take

shelter under the porticos. As the crier called out, “Go under the

porticos,” a report prevailed that the Cymæans did not perceive that

they were to go under the porticos when it rained unless they had notice

from the public crier.[1525]

Ephorus, a man indisputably of high repute, a disciple of Isocrates the

orator, was a native of this city. He was an historian, and wrote the

book on Inventions.

Hesiod the poet, who long preceded Ephorus, was a native of this place,

for he himself says, that his father Dius left Cyme in Æolis and

migrated to the Bœotians;

“he dwelt near Helicon in Ascra, a village wretched in winter,

in summer oppressive, and not pleasant at any season.”

It is not generally admitted that Homer was from Cyme, for many dispute

about him.

The name of the city was derived from an Amazon, as that of Myrina was

the name of an Amazon, buried under the Batieia in the plain of Troy;

“men call this Batieia; but the immortals, the tomb of the

bounding Myrina.”[1526]

Ephorus is bantered, because, having no achievements of his countrymen

to commemorate among the other exploits in his history, and yet being

unwilling to pass them over unnoticed, he exclaims,

“at this time the Cymæans were at peace.”

After having described the Trojan and Æolian coasts, we ought next to

notice cursorily the interior of the country as far as Mount Taurus,

observing the same order.

CHAPTER IV.

1. Pergamum[1527] has a kind of supremacy among these places. It is a

city of note, and flourished during a long period under the Attalic

kings; and here we shall begin our description, premising a short

account of her kings, their origin, and the end of their career.

Pergamum was the treasure-hold of Lysimachus, the son of Agathocles, and

one of the successors of Alexander. It is situated on the very summit of

the mountain which terminates in a sharp peak like a pine-cone.

Philetærus of Tyana was intrusted with the custody of this stronghold,

and of the treasure, which amounted to nine thousand talents. He became

an eunuch in childhood by compression, for it happened that a great body

of people being assembled to see a funeral, the nurse who was carrying

Philetærus, then an infant, in her arms, was entangled in the crowd, and

pressed upon to such a degree that the child was mutilated.

He was therefore an eunuch, but having been well educated he was thought

worthy of this trust. He continued for [CAS. 623] some time well

affected to Lysimachus, but upon a disagreement with Arsinoë, the wife

of Lysimachus, who had falsely accused him, he caused the place to

revolt, and suited his political conduct to the times, perceiving them

to be favourable to change. Lysimachus, overwhelmed with domestic

troubles, was compelled to put to death Agathocles his son. Seleucus

Nicator invaded his country and destroyed his power, but was himself

treacherously slain by Ptolemy Ceraunus.

During these disorders the eunuch remained in the fortress, continually

employing the policy of promises and other courtesies with those who

were the strongest and the nearest to himself. He thus continued master

of the stronghold for twenty years.

2. He had two brothers, the elder of whom was Eumenes, the younger

Attalus. Eumenes had a son of the same name, who succeeded to the

possession of Pergamum, and was then sovereign of the places around, so

that he overcame in a battle near Sardes[1528] Antiochus, the son of

Seleucus, and died after a reign of two-and-twenty years.

Attalus, the son of Attalus and Antiochis, daughter of Achæus, succeeded

to the kingdom. He was the first person who was proclaimed king after a

victory, which he obtained in a great battle with the Galatians. He

became an ally of the Romans, and, in conjunction with the Rhodian

fleet, assisted them in the war against Philip. He died in old age,

having reigned forty-three years. He left four sons by Apollonis, a

woman of Cyzicus,--Eumenes, Attalus, Philetærus, and Athenæus. The

younger sons continued in a private station, but Eumenes, the elder, was

king. He was an ally of the Romans in the war with Antiochus the Great,

and with Perseus; he received from the Romans all the country within the

Taurus which had belonged to Antiochus. Before this time there were not

under the power of Pergamum many places which reached the sea at the

Elaïtic and the Adramyttene Gulfs. Eumenes embellished the city, he

ornamented the Nicephorium[1529] with a grove, enriched it with votive

offerings and a library, and by his care raised the city of Pergamum to

its present magnificence. After he had reigned forty-nine years he left

the kingdom to Attalus, his son by Stratonice, daughter of Ariarathus,

king of Cappadocia.

He appointed as guardian of his son, who was very young,[1530] and as

regent of the kingdom, his brother Attalus, who died an old man after a

reign of twenty years, having performed many glorious actions. He

assisted Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, in the war against Alexander,

the son of Antiochus, and was the ally of the Romans in the war against

the Pseudo-Philip. In an expedition into Thrace he defeated and took

prisoner Diegylis, king of the Cæni.[1531] He destroyed Prusias by

exciting his son Nicomedes to rebel against his father. He left the

kingdom to Attalus his ward. His cognomen was Philometor. He reigned

five years, and died a natural death. He left the Romans his

heirs.[1532] They made the country a province, and called it Asia by the

name of the continent.

The Caïcus flows past Pergamum through the plain of Caïcus, as it is

called, and traverses a very fertile country, indeed almost the best

soil in Mysia.

3. The celebrated men in our times, natives of Pergamum, were

Mithridates, the son of Menodotus and the daughter of Adobogion; he was

of the family of the Tetrarchs of Galatia. Adobogion, it is said, had

been the concubine of Mithridates the king; the relatives therefore gave

to the child the name of Mithridates, pretending that he was the king’s

son.

This prince became so great a friend of divus Cæsar, that he was

promoted to the honour of Tetrarch (of Galatia); out of regard also to

his mother’s family, he was appointed king of Bosporus and of other

places. He was overthrown by Asander, who put to death Pharnaces the

king and obtained [CAS. 625] possession of the Bosporus. He had a great

reputation as well as Apollodorus the rhetorician, who composed a work

on the Art of Rhetoric, and was the head of the Apollodorian sect of

philosophers, whatever that may be; for many opinions have prevailed,

the merits of which are beyond our power to decide upon, among which are

those of the sects of Apollodorus and Theodorus.

But the friendship of Augustus Cæsar, whom he instructed in oratory, was

the principal cause of the elevation of Apollodorus. He had a celebrated

scholar Dionysius, surnamed Atticus, his fellow-citizen, who was an able

teacher of philosophy, an historian, and composer of orations.

4. Proceeding from the plain and the city towards the east, we meet with

Apollonia, a city on an elevated site. To the south is a mountainous

ridge, which having crossed on the road to Sardes, we find on the left

hand the city Thyateira, a colony of the Macedonians, which some authors

say is the last city belonging to the Mysians. On the right hand is

Apollonis, 300 stadia from Pergamum, and the same distance from Sardes.

It has its name from Apollonis of Cyzicus (wife of Attalus). Next are

the plains of Hermus and Sardes. The country to the north of Pergamum is

principally occupied by Mysians; it lies on the right hand of the people

called Abaïtæ, on whose borders is the Epictetus, extending to Bithynia.

5. Sardes is a large city, of later date than the Trojan times, yet

ancient, with a strong citadel. It was the royal seat of the Lydians,

whom the poet calls Meones, and later writers Mæones, some asserting

that they are the same, others that they are a different people, but the

former is the preferable opinion.

Above Sardes is the Tmolus, a fertile mountain having on its summit a

seat[1533] of white marble, a work of the Persians. There is a view from

it of the plains around, particularly of that of the Caÿster. There

dwell about it Lydians, Mysians, and Macedonians.[1534]

The Pactolus flows from the Tmolus.[1535] It anciently brought down a

large quantity of gold-dust, whence, it is said, the proverbial wealth

of Crœsus and his ancestors obtained renown. No gold-dust is found at

present. The Pactolus descends into the Hermus, into which also the

Hyllus, now called Phrygius, discharges itself. These three and other

less considerable rivers unite in one stream, and, according to

Herodotus, empty themselves into the sea at Phocæa.

The Hermus takes its rise in Mysia, descending from the sacred mountain

of Dindymene, after traversing the Catacecaumene, it enters the Sardian

territory, and passes through the contiguous plains to the sea, as we

have mentioned above. Below the city lie the plains of Sardes, of the

Cyrus, of the Hermus, and of the Caÿster, which are contiguous to one

another and the most fertile anywhere to be found.

At the distance of 40 stadia from the city is the lake Gygæa, as it is

called by the poet.[1536] Its name was afterwards altered to Coloë. Here

was a temple of Artemis Coloëne, held in the highest veneration. It is

said that at the feasts celebrated here the baskets dance.[1537] I know

not why the circulation of such strange and absurd stories should be

preferred to truth.

6. The verses in Homer are to this effect,

“Mesthles and Antiphus, sons of Talæmenes, born of the lake

Gygæa, were the leaders of the Meones, who live below

Tmolus.”[1538]

Some persons add a fourth verse to these,

“below snowy Tmolus, in the rich district of Hyda.”

But no Hyda[1539] is to be found among the Lydians. Others make this the

birth-place of Tychius, mentioned by the poet,

“he was the best leather-cutter in Hyda.”[1540]

They add that the place is woody, and frequently struck with lightning,

and that here also were the dwellings of the Arimi; for to this verse,

“Among the Arimi, where they say is the bed of Typhoëus,”[1541]

they add the following,[CAS. 626]

“in a woody country, in the rich district of Hyda.”

Some lay the scene of the last fable in Cilicia, others in Syria, others

among the Pithecussæ (islands),[1542] who say that the Pitheci (or

monkeys) are called by the Tyrrhenians Arimi. Some call Sardes Hyda;

others give this name to its Acropolis.

The Scepsian (Demetrius) says that the opinion of those authors is most

to be depended upon who place the Arimi in the Catacecaumene in Mysia.

But Pindar associates the Pithecussæ which lie in front of the Cymæan

territory and Sicily with Cilicia, for the poet says that Typhon lay

beneath Ætna;

“Once he dwelt in far-famed Cilician caverns, but now Sicily,

and the sea-girt isle, o’ershadowing Cyme, press upon his

shaggy breast.”[1543]

And again,

“O’er him lies Ætna, and in her vast prison holds him.”

And again,

“’Twas the great Jove alone of gods that o’erpowered, with

resistless force, the fifty-headed monster Typhon, of yore

among the Arimi.”

Others understand Syrians by the Arimi, who are now called Aramæi, and

maintain that the Cilicians in the Troad migrated and settled in Syria,

and deprived the Syrians of the country which is now called Cilicia.

Callisthenes says, that the Arimi from whom the mountains in the

neighbourhood have the name of Arima, are situated near the

Calycadnus,[1544] and the promontory Sarpedon close to the Corycian

cave.