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[8]

After the Rhizonic Gulf comes the city of Lissus,1 and Acrolissus,2 and Epidamnus,3 founded by the Corcyraeans, which is now called Dyrrachium, like the peninsula on which it is situated. Then comes the Apsus4 River; and then the Aoüs,5 on which is situated Apollonia,6 an exceedingly well-governed city, founded by the Corinthians and the Corcyraeans, and ten stadia distant from the river and sixty from the sea. The Aoüs is called “Aeas “7 by Hecataeus, who says that both the Inachus and the Aeas flow from the same place, the region of Lacmus,8 or rather from the same subterranean recess, the former towards the south into Argos and the latter towards the west and towards the Adrias. In the country of the Apolloniates is a place called Nymphaeum; it is a rock that gives forth fire; and beneath it flow springs of warm water and asphalt—probably because the clods of asphalt in the earth are burned by the fire. And near by, on a hill, is a mine of asphalt; and the part that is trenched is filled up again in the course of time, since, as Poseidonius says, the earth that is poured into the trenches changes to asphalt. He also speaks of the asphaltic vine-earth which is mined at the Pierian Seleuceia9 as a cure for the infested vine; for, he says, if it is smeared on together with olive oil, it kills the insects10 before they can mount the sprouts of the roots;11 and, he adds, earth of this sort was also discovered in Rhodes when he was in office there as Prytanis,12 but it required more olive oil. After Apollonia comes Bylliaca,13 and Oricum14 and its seaport Panormus, and the Ceraunian Mountains, where the mouth of the Ionian Gulf15 and the Adrias begins.

1 Now Alessio.

2 A fortress near Lissus.

3 Now Durazzo.

4 Now the Semeni.

5 Now the Viosa.

6 Now Pollina.

7 Cp. 6. 2. 4, and Pliny 3.26.

8 More often spelled Lacmon; one of the heights of Pindus.

9 Now Kabousi, at the foot of the Djebel-Arsonz (Mt. Pieria), on the boundary of Cilicia and Syria.

10 In private communications to Professor C. R. Crosby of Cornell University, Dr. Paul Marchal and Professor F. Silvestri of Protici identify the insect in question as the Pseudococcus Vitis (also called Dactylopius Vitis, Nedzelsky). This insect, in conjunction with the fungus Bornetina Corium, still infests the vine in the region mentioned by Poseidonius.

11 For a discussion of this passage, see Mangin and Viala, Revue de Viticulture, 1903, Vol. XX, pp. 583-584.

12 President, or chief presiding-officer.

13 The territory (not the city of Byllis) between Apollonia and Oricum.

14 Now Erico.

15 See 6. 1. 7 and the footnote.

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