[3] Next to the Coracesium is the city Syedra;1 then Hamaxia,2 a small town upon a hill, with a harbour, to which is brought down timber for ship-building; the greatest part of it consists of cedar. This country seems to produce this tree in abundance. It was on this account that Antony assigned it to Cleopatra, as being capable of furnishing materials for the construction of her fleet. Then follows Laertes a fortress, situated upon the crest of a hill, of a pap-like form; a port belongs to it; next, the city Selinus,3 then Cragus, a precipitous rock on the sea-coast; then Charadrus4 a fortress, which has a port (above it is the mountain Andriclus5) and a rocky shore, called Platanistus, next Anemurium6 a promontory, where the continent approaches nearest to Cyprus, towards the promontory Crommyum,7 the passage across being 350 stadia. From the boundaries of Pamphylia to Anemurium, the voyage along the Cilician coast is 820 stadia; the remainder of it as far as Soli8 is about 500 stadia (1500?). On this coast, after Anemurium, the first city is Nagidus, then Arsinoë,9 with a small port; then a place called Melania,10 and Celenderis11 a city, with a harbour. Some writers,12 among whom is Artemidorus, consider this place as the commencement of Cilicia, and not Coracesium. He says, that from the Pelusiac mouth to Orthosia are 3900 stadia, and to the river Orontes13 1130 stadia; then to the gates of Cilicia 525 stadia, and to the borders of Cilicia 1260 stadia.14
1 Syedra probably shared with Coracesium (Alaja), a fertile plain which here borders on the coast. But Syedra is Tzschucke's emendation of Arsinoë in the text.
2 Not mentioned by any other author.
3 Selindi.
4 Charadran.
5 Kara-Gedik.
6 Inamur.
7 Cape Kormakiti.
8 Mesetlii.
9 Softa-Kalessi.
10 Mandane?
11 Kilandria, or Gulnar.
12 According to Pliny, Cilicia anciently commenced at the river Melas, which Strabo has just said belongs to Pamphylia. Ptolemy fixes upon Coracesium as the first place in Cilicia, which, according to Mela, was separated from Pamphylia by Cape Anemurium, which was near Nagidus.
13 Nahr-el-Asy.
14 B. xvi. c. ii. § 33.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.