Strabo, Geography

Of Lipara, then, and Thermessa I have already spoken. As for Strongyle,¹ it is so called from its shape, and it too is fiery; it falls short in the violence of its flame, but excels in the brightness of its light; and this is where Aeolus lived, it is said. The fourth island is Didyme,² and it too is named after its shape. Of the remaining islands, Ericussa³ and Phoenicussa⁴ have been so called from their plants, and are given over to pasturage of flocks. The seventh is Euonymus,⁵ which is farthest out in the high sea and is desert; it is so named because it is more to the left than the others, to those who sail from Lipara to Sicily.⁶ Again, many times flames have been observed running over the surface of the sea round about the islands when some passage had been opened up from the cavities down in the depths of the earth and the fire had forced its way to the outside. Poseidonius says that within his own recollection,⁷ one morning at daybreak about the time of the summer solstice, the sea between Hiera and Euonymus was seen raised to an enormous height, and by a sustained blast remained puffed up for a considerable time, and then subsided; and when those who had the hardihood to sail up to it saw dead fish driven by the current, and some of the men were stricken ill because of the heat and stench, they took flight; one of the boats, however, approaching more closely, lost some of its occupants and barely escaped to Lipara with the rest, who would at times become senseless like epileptics, and then afterwards would recur to their proper reasoning faculties; and many days later mud was seen forming on the surface of the sea, and in many places flames, smoke, and murky fire broke forth, but later the scum hardened and became as hard as mill-stone; and the governor of Sicily, Titus Flaminius,⁸ reported the event to the Senate, and the Senate sent a deputation to offer propitiatory sacrifices, both in the islet⁹ and in Liparae, to the gods both of the underworld and of the Sea. Now, according to the Chorographer,¹⁰ the distance from Ericodes to Phoenicodes¹¹ is ten miles, and thence to Didyme thirty, and thence to the northern part of Lipara twenty-nine, and thence to Sicily nineteen, but from Strongyle sixteen. Off Pachynus lie Melita,¹² whence come the little dogs called Melitaean, and Gaudos, both eighty-eight miles distant from the Cape. Cossura¹³ lies off Lilybaeum, and off Aspis,¹⁴ a Carthaginian city whose Latin name is Clupea; it lies midway between the two, and is the aforesaid distance¹⁵ from either. Aegimurus,¹⁶ also, and other small islands lie off Sicily and Libya. So much for the islands.