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There are islands along the whole of the aforesaid seaboard: first, the Apsyrtides,1 where Medeia is said to have killed her brother Apsyrtus who was pursuing her; and then, opposite the country of the Iapodes, Cyrictica,2 then the Liburnides,3 about forty in number; then other islands, of which the best known are Issa,4 Tragurium5 (founded by the people of Issa), and Pharos (formerly Paros, founded by the Parians6), the native land of Demetrius7 the Pharian. Then comes the seaboard of the Dalmatians, and also their sea-port, Salo.8 This tribe is one of those which carried on war against the Romans for a long time; it had as many as fifty noteworthy settlements; and some of these were cities—Salo, Priamo, Ninia, and Sinotium (both the Old and the New), all of which were set on fire by Augustus. And there is Andretium, a fortified place; and also Dalmium9 (whence the name of the tribe), which was once a large city, but because of the greed of the people Nasica10 reduced it to a small city and made the plain a mere sheep pasture. The Dalmatians have the peculiar custom of making a redistribution of land every seven years; and that they make no use of coined money is peculiar to them as compared with the other peoples in that part of the world, although as compared with many other barbarian peoples it is common. And there is Mount Adrium,11 which cuts the Dalmatian country through the middle into two parts, one facing the sea and the other in the opposite direction. Then come the River Naro and the people who live about it—the Daorisi, the Ardiaei, and the Pleraei. An island called the Black Corcyra12 and also a city13 founded by the Cnidians are close to the Pleraei, while Pharos (formerly called Paros, for it was founded by Parians) is close to the Ardiaei.
1 Now Ossero and Cherso.
2 Now Veglia.
3 Now Arbo, Pago, Isola Longa, and the rest.
4 Now Lissa.
5 Now Trau.
6 In 384 B.C. (Diodorus Siculus, 15. 13).
7 Demetrius of Pharos, on making common cause with the Romans in 229 B.C., was made ruler of most of Illyria instead of Queen Tuta (Polybius, 2-10 ff.).
8 Now Salona, between Klissa and Spalato.
9 Also spelled Delminium; apparently what is now Duvno (see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. “Delminium”).
10 P. Cornelius Scipio Nascia Corculum, in 155 B.C.
11 The Dinara.
12 Now Curzola.
13 Of the same name.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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