[4] Although Delos1 was so famous, yet it became still more so, and flourished after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans.2 For the merchants resorted thither, induced by the immunities of the temple, and the convenience of its harbour. It lies favourably3 for those who are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival held there serves the purposes of commerce, and the Romans particularly frequented it even before the destruction of Corinth.4 The Athenians, after having taken the island, paid equal attention to the affairs both of religion and of commerce. But the generals5 of Mithridates, and the tyrant,6 who had occasioned the detection of (Athens from the Romans), ravaged it entirely. The Romans received the island in a desolate state on the departure of the king to his own country; and it has continued in an impoverished condition to the present time.7 The Athenians are now in possession of it.
1 In the middle of the Cyclades, and by far the most remarkable, is Delos, celebrated for the temple of Apollo, and for its commerce. Pliny iv. 12.
2 Under L. Mummius, B. C. 146.
3 Thucyd. i. 36.
4 καὶ ὅτε συνεστήκει ή κόρνθος.
5 Archelaüs and Metrophanes.
6 Aristion, B. C. 87.
7 Pausanias, viii. 33, § 2, (writing in the time of Hadrian,) says of Delos, that with the exception of the persons who came from Athens, for the purpose of protecting the temple and to perform the Delian ceremonies, it was deserted.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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