Strabo, Geography

It remains for me to speak of the Ionians and the Carians and the seaboard outside the Taurus, which last is occupied by Lycians, Pamphylians, and Cilicians; for in this way I can finish my entire description of the peninsula, the isthmus of which, as I was saying,¹ is the road which leads over from the Pontic Sea to the Issic Sea.² [2]

The coasting voyage round Ionia is about three thousand four hundred and thirty stadia, this distance being so great because of the gulfs and the fact that the country forms a peninsula of unusual extent; but the distance in a straight line across the isthmus is not great. For instance, merely the distance from Ephesus to Smyrna is a journey, in a straight line, of three hundred and twenty stadia, for the distance to Metropolis is one hundred and twenty stadia and the remainder to Smyrna, whereas the coasting voyage is but slightly short of two thousand two hundred. Be that as it may, the bounds of the Ionian coast extend from the Poseidium of the Milesians, and from the Carian frontiers, as far as Phocaea and the Hermus River, which latter is the limit of the Ionian seaboard. [3]

Pherecydes says concerning this seaboard that Miletus and Myus and the parts round Mycale and Ephesus were in earlier times occupied by Carians, and that the coast next thereafter, as far as Phocaea and Chios and Samos, which were ruled by Ancaeus, was occupied by Leleges, but that both were driven out by the Ionians and took refuge in the remaining parts of Caria. He says that Androclus, legitimate son of Codrus the king of Athens, was the leader of the Ionian colonization, which was later than the Aeolian, and that he became the founder of Ephesus; and for this reason, it is said, the royal seat of the Ionians was established there. And still now the descendants of his family are called kings; and they have certain honors, I mean the privilege of front seats at the games and of wearing purple robes as insignia of royal descent, and staff instead of sceptre, and of the superintendence of the sacrifices in honor of the Eleusinian Demeter. Miletus was founded by Neleus, a Pylian by birth. The Messenians and the Pylians pretend a kind of kinship with one another, according to which the more recent poets call Nestor a Messenian; and they say that many of the Pylians accompanied Melanthus, father of Codrus, and his followers to Athens, and that, accordingly, all this people sent forth the colonizing expedition in common with the Ionians. There is an altar, erected by Neleus, to be seen on the Poseidium. Myus was founded by Cydrelus, bastard son of Codrus; Lebedus by Andropompus, who seized a place called Artis; Colophon by Andraemon a Pylian, according to Mimnermus in his Nanno;³ Priene by Aepytus the son of Neleus, and then later by Philotas, who brought a colony from Thebes; Teos, at first by Athamas, for which reason it is by Anacreon called Athamantis, and at the time of the Ionian colonization by Nauclus, bastard son of Codrus, and after him by Apoecus and Damasus, who were Athenians, and Geres, a Boeotian; Erythrae by Cnopus, he too a bastard son of Codrus; Phocaea by the Athenians under Philogenes; Clazomenae by Paralus; Chios by Egertius, who brought with him a mixed crowd; Samos by Tembrion, and then later by Procles. [4]

These are the twelve Ionian cities,⁴ but at a later time Smyrna was added, being induced by the Ephesians to join the Ionian League; for the Ephesians were fellow-inhabitants of the Smyrnaeans in ancient times, when Ephesus was also called Smyrna. And Callinus somewhere so names it, when he calls the Ephesians Smyrnaeans in the prayer to Zeus,“and pity the Smyrnaeans;
” and again,“remember, if ever the Smyrnaeans burnt up beautiful thighs of oxen in sacrifice to thee.
”⁵Smyrna was an Amazon who took possession of Ephesus; and hence the name both of the inhabitants and of the city, just as certain of the Ephesians were called Sisyrbitae after Sisyrbe. Also a certain place belonging to Ephesus was called Smyrna, as Hipponax plainly indicates:“He lived behind the city in Smyrna between Tracheia and Lepra Acte;
”⁶for the name Lepra Acte was given to Mt. Prion, which lies above the present city and has on it a part of the city's wall. At any rate, the possessions behind Prion are still now referred to as in the "opistholeprian" territory,⁷ and the country alongside the mountain round Coressus was called "Tracheia."⁸ The city was in ancient times round the Athenaeum, which is now outside the city near the Hypelaeus,⁹ as it is called; so that Smyrna was near the present gymnasium, behind the present city, but between Tracheia and Lepra Acte. On departing from the Ephesians, the Smyrnaeans marched to the place where Smyrna now is, which was in the possession of the Leleges, and, having driven them out, they founded the ancient Smyrna, which is about twenty stadia distant from the present Smyrna. But later, being driven out by the Aeolians, they fled for refuge to Colophon, and then with the Colophonians returned to their own land and took it back, as Mimnermus tells us in his Nanno, after recalling that Smyrna was always an object of contention:“After we left Pylus, the steep city of Neleus, we came by ship to lovely Asia, and with our overweening might settled in beloved Colophon, taking the initiative in grievous insolence. And from there, setting out from the Astëeis River, by the will of the gods we took Aeolian Smyrna.
”¹⁰So much, then, on this subject. But I must again go over the several parts in detail, beginning with the principal places, those where the foundings first took place, I mean those round Miletus and Ephesus; for these are the best and most famous cities. [5]

Next after the Poseidium of the Milesians, eighteen stadia inland, is the oracle of Apollo Didymeus among the Branchidae.¹¹ It was set on fire by Xerxes, as were also the other temples, except that at Ephesus. The Branchidae gave over the treasures of the god to the Persian king, and accompanied him in his flight in order to escape punishment for the robbing and the betrayal of the temple. But later the Milesians erected the largest temple in the world, though on account of its size it remained without a roof. At any rate, the circuit of the sacred enclosure holds a village settlement; and there is a magnificent sacred grove both inside and outside the enclosure; and other sacred enclosures contain the oracle and the shrines. Here is laid the scene of the myth of Branchus and the love of Apollo. The temple is adorned with costliest offerings consisting of early works of art. Thence to the city is no long journey, by land or by sea. [6]

Ephorus says: Miletus was first founded and fortified above the sea by the Cretans, where the Miletus of olden times is now situated, being settled by Sarpedon, who brought colonists from the Cretan Miletus and named the city after that Miletus, the place formerly being in the possession of the Leleges; but later Neleus and his followers fortified the present city. The present city has four harbors, one of which is large enough for a fleet. Many are the achievements of this city, but the greatest is the number of its colonizations; for the Euxine Pontus has been colonized everywhere by these people, as also the Propontis and several other regions. At any rate, Anaximenes of Lampsacus says that the Milesians colonized the islands Icaros and Leros; and, near the Hellespont, Limnae in the Chersonesus, as also Abydus and Arisba and Paesus in Asia; and Artace and Cyzicus in the island of the Cyziceni; and Scepsis in the interior of the Troad. I, however, in my detailed description speak of the other cities, which have been omitted by him. Both Milesians and Delians invoke an Apollo "Ulius," that is, as god of "health and healing," for the verb "ulein" means "to be healthy"; whence the noun "ule"¹² and the salutation, "Both health and great joy to thee"; for Apollo is the god of healing. And Artemis has her name from the fact that she makes people "Artemeas."¹³ And both Helius¹⁴ and Selene¹⁵ are closely associated with these, since they are the causes of the temperature of the air. And both pestilential diseases and sudden deaths are imputed to these gods. [7]

Notable men were born at Miletus: Thales, one of the Seven Wise Men, the first to begin the science of natural philosophy¹⁶ and mathematics among the Greeks, and his pupil Anaximander, and again the pupil of the latter, Anaximenes, and also Hecataeus, the author of the History, and, in my time, Aeschines the orator, who remained in exile to the end, since he spoke freely, beyond moderation, before Pompey the Great. But the city was unfortunate, since it shut its gates against Alexander and was taken by force, as was also the case with Halicarnassus; and also, before that time, it was taken by the Persians. And Callisthenes says that Phrynichus the tragic poet was fined a thousand drachmas by the Athenians because he wrote a play entitled The Capture of Miletus by Dareius. The island Lade lies close in front of Miletus, as do also the isles in the neighborhood of the Tragaeae, which afford anchorage for pirates. [8]

Next comes the Latmian Gulf, on which is situated "Heracleia below Latmus," as it is called, a small town that has an anchoring-place. It was at first called Latmus, the same name as the mountain that lies above it, which Hecataeus indicates, in his opinion, to be the same as that which by the poet is called "the mountain of the Phtheires"¹⁷ (for he says that the mountain of the Phtheires lies above Latmus), though some say that it is Mt. Grium, which is approximately parallel to Latmus and extends inland from Milesia towards the east through Caria to Euromus and Chalcetores.¹⁸ This mountain lies above Heracleia, and at a high elevation.¹⁹ At a slight distance away from it, after one has crossed a little river near Latmus, there is to be seen the sepulchre of Endymion, in a cave. Then from Heracleia to Pyrrha, a small town, there is a voyage of about one hundred stadia. [9]

But the voyage from Miletus to Heracleia, including the sinuosities of the gulfs, is a little more than one hundred stadia, though that from Miletus to Pyrrha, in a straight course, is only thirty—so much longer is the journey along the coast. But in the case of famous places my reader must needs endure the dry part of such geography as this. [10]

The voyage from Pyrrha to the outlet of the Maeander River is fifty stadia, a place which consists of shallows and marshes; and, travelling in rowboats thirty stadia, one comes to the city Myus, one of the twelve Ionian cities, which, on account of its sparse population, has now been incorporated into Miletus. Xerxes is said to have given this city to Themistocles to supply him with fish, Magnesia to supply him with bread, and Lampsacus with wine. [11]

Thence, within four stadia, one comes to a village, the Carian Thymbria, near which is Aornum, a sacred cave, which is called Charonium, since it emits deadly vapors. Above it lies Magnesia on the Maeander, a colony of the Magnesians of Thessaly and the Cretans, of which I shall soon speak.²⁰ [12]

After the outlets of the Maeander comes the shore of Priene, above which lies Priene, and also the mountain Mycale, which is well supplied with wild animals and with trees. This mountain lies above the Samian territory²¹ and forms with it, on the far side of the promontory called Trogilian, a strait about seven stadia in width. Priene is by some writers called Cadme, since Philotas, who founded it, was a Boeotian. Bias, one of the Seven Wise Men, was a native of Priene, of whom Hipponax says“stronger in the pleading of his cases than Bias of Priene.
”²² [13]

Off the Trogilian promontory lies an isle of the same name. Thence the nearest passage across to Sunium is one thousand six hundred stadia; on the voyage one has at first Samos and Icaria and Corsia on the right, and the Melantian rocks on the left; and the remainder of the voyage is through the midst of the Cyclades islands. The Trogilian promontory itself is a kind of spur of Mt. Mycale. Close to Mycale lies another mountain, in the Ephesian territory, I mean Mt. Pactyes, in which the Mesogis terminates. [14]

The distance from the Trogilian promontory to Samos²³ is forty stadia. Samos faces the south, both it and its harbor, which latter has a naval station. The greater part of it is on level ground, being washed by the sea, but a part of it reaches up into the mountain that lies above it. Now on the right, as one sails towards the city, is the Poseidium, a promontory which with Mt. Mycale forms the seven-stadia strait; and it has a temple of Poseidon; and in front of it lies an isle called Narthecis; and on the left is the suburb near the Heraeum, and also the Imbrasus River, and the Heraeum, which consists of an ancient temple and a great shrine, which latter is now a repository of tablets.²⁴ Apart from the number of the tablets placed there, there are other repositories of votive tablets and some small chapels full of ancient works of art. And the temple, which is open to the sky, is likewise full of most excellent statues. Of these, three of colossal size, the work of Myron, stood upon one base; Antony took these statues away,²⁵ but Augustus Caesar restored two of them, those of Athena and Heracles, to the same base, although he transferred the Zeus to the Capitolium, having erected there a small chapel for that statue. [15]

The voyage round the island of the Samians is six hundred stadia. In earlier times, when it was inhabited by Carians, it was called Parthenia, then Anthemus, then Melamphyllus, and then Samos, whether after some native hero or after someone who colonized it from Ithaca and Cephallenia.²⁶ Now in Samos there is a promontory approximately facing Drepanum in Icaria which is called Ampelus, but the entire mountain which makes the whole of the island mountainous is called by the same name. The island does not produce good wine, although good wine is produced by the islands all round, and although most of the whole of the adjacent mainland produces the best of wines, for example, Chios and Lesbos and Cos. And indeed the Ephesian and Metropolitan wines are good; and Mt. Mesogis and Mt. Tmolus and the Catacecaumene country and Cnidos and Smyrna and other less significant places produce exceptionally good wine, whether for enjoyment or medicinal purposes. Now Samos is not altogether fortunate in regard to wines, but in all other respects it is a blest country, as is clear from the fact that it became an object of contention in war, and also from the fact that those who praise it do not hesitate to apply to it the proverb that "it produces even birds' milk," as Menander somewhere says. This was also the cause of the establishment of the tyrannies there, and of their enmity against the Athenians. [16]

Now the tyrannies reached their greatest height in the time of Polycrates and his brother Syloson. Polycrates was such a brilliant man, both in his good fortune and in his natural ability, that he gained supremacy over the sea; and it is set down,²⁷ as a sign of his good fortune, that he purposely flung into the sea his ring, a ring of very costly stone and engraving, and that a little later one of the fishermen brought him the very fish that swallowed it; and that when the fish was cut open the ring was found; and that on learning this the king of the Egyptians, it is said, declared in a kind of prophetic way that any man who had been exalted so highly in welfare would shortly come to no happy end of life; and indeed this is what happened, for he was captured by treachery by the satrap of the Persians and hanged. Anacreon the melic poet lived in companionship with Polycrates; and indeed the whole of his poetry is full of his praises. It was in his time, as we are told, that Pythagoras, seeing that the tyranny was growing in power, left the city and went off to Egypt and Babylon, to satisfy his fondness for learning; but when he came back and saw that the tyranny still endured, he set sail for Italy and lived there to the end of his life. So much for Polycrates. [17]

Syloson was left a private citizen by his brother, but to gratify Dareius, the son of Hystaspes, he gave him a robe which Dareius desired when he saw him wearing it; and Dareius at that time was not yet king, but when Dareius became king, Syloson received as a return-gift the tyranny of Samos. But he ruled so harshly that the city became depopulated; and thence arose the proverb, “
by the will of Syloson there is plenty of room.
” [18]

The Athenians at first sent Pericles as general and with him Sophocles the poet, who by a siege put the disobedient Samians in bad plight; but later they sent two thousand allottees from their own people, among whom was Neocles, the father of Epicurus the philosopher, a schoolmaster as they call him. And indeed it is said that Epicurus grew up here and in Teos, and that he became an ephebus²⁸ at Athens, and that Menander the comic poet became an ephebus at the same time. Creophylus, also, was a Samian, who, it is said, once entertained Homer and received as a gift from him the inscription of the poem called The Capture of Oechalia. But Callimachus clearly indicates.the contrary in an epigram of his, meaning that Creophylus composed the poem, but that it was ascribed to Homer because of the story of the hospitality shown him:“I am the toil of the Samian, who once entertained in his house the divine Homer. I bemoan Eurytus, for all that he suffered, and golden-haired Ioleia. I am called Homer's writing. For Creophylus, dear Zeus, this is a great achievement.
”Some call Creophylus Homer's teacher, while others say that it was not Creophylus, but Aristeas the Proconnesian, who was his teacher. [19]

Alongside Samos lies the island Icaria, whence was derived the name of the Icarian Sea. This island is named after Icarus the son of Daedalus, who, it is said, having joined his father in flight, both being furnished with wings, flew away from Crete and fell here, having lost control of their course; for, they add, on rising too close to the sun, his wings slipped off, since the wax²⁹ melted. The whole island is three hundred stadia in perimeter; it has no harbors, but only places of anchorage, the best of which is called Histi.³⁰ It has a promontory which extends towards the west. There is also on the island a temple of Artemis, called Tauropolium; and a small town Oenoe; and another small town Dracanum, bearing the same name as the promontory on which it is situated and having near by a place of anchorage. The promontory is eighty stadia distant from the promontory of the Samians called Cantharius, which is the shortest distance between the two. At the present time, however, it has but few inhabitants left, and is used by Samians mostly for the grazing of cattle. [20]

After the Samian strait, near Mt. Mycale, as one sails to Ephesus, one comes, on the right, to the seaboard of the Ephesians; and a part of this seaboard is held by the Samians. First on the seaboard is the Panionium, lying three stadia above the sea where the Pan-Ionia, a common festival of the Ionians, are held, and where sacrifices are performed in honor of the Heliconian Poseidon; and Prienians serve as priests at this sacrifice, but I have spoken of them in my account of the Peloponnesus.³¹ Then comes Neapolis, which in earlier times belonged to the Ephesians, but now belongs to the Samians, who gave in exchange for it Marathesium, the more distant for the nearer place. Then comes Pygela, a small town, with a temple of Artemis Munychia, founded by Agamemnon and inhabited by a part of his troops; for it is said that some of his soldiers became afflicted with a disease of the buttocks³² and were called "diseased-buttocks," and that, being afflicted with this disease, they stayed there, and that the place thus received this appropriate name. Then comes the harbor called Panormus, with a temple of the Ephesian Artemis; and then the city Ephesus. On the same coast, slightly above the sea, is also Ortygia, which is a magnificent grove of all kinds of trees, of the cypress most of all. It is traversed by the Cenchrius River, where Leto is said to have bathed herself after her travail.³³ For here is the mythical scene of the birth, and of the nurse Ortygia, and of the holy place where the birth took place, and of the olive tree near by, where the goddess is said first to have taken a rest after she was relieved from her travail. Above the grove lies Mt. Solmissus, where, it is said, the Curetes stationed themselves, and with the din of their arms frightened Hera out of her wits when she was jealously spying on Leto, and when they helped Leto to conceal from Hera the birth of her children. There are several temples in the place, some ancient and others built in later times; and in the ancient temples are many ancient wooden images, but in those of later times there are works of Scopas; for example, Leto holding a sceptre and Ortygia standing beside her with a child in each arm. A general festival is held there annually; and by a certain custom the youths vie for honor, particularly in the splendor of their banquets there. At that time, also, a special college of the Curetes holds symposiums and performs certain mystic sacrifices. [21]

The city of Ephesus was inhabited both by Carians and by Leleges, but Androclus drove them out and settled the most of those who had come with him round the Athenaeum and the Hypelaeus, though he also included a part of the country situated on the slopes of Mt. Coressus. Now Ephesus was thus inhabited until the time of Croesus, but later the people came down from the mountainside and abode round the present temple until the time of Alexander. Lysimachus built a wall round the present city, but the people were not agreeably disposed to change their abodes to it; and therefore he waited for a downpour of rain and himself took advantage of it and blocked the sewers so as to inundate the city; and the inhabitants were then glad to make the change. He named the city after his wife Arsinoe; the old name, however, prevailed. There was a senate, which was conscripted; and with these were associated the Epicleti,³⁴ as they were called, who administered all the affairs of the city. [22]

As for the temple of Artemis, its first architect was Chersiphron; and then another man made it larger. But when it was set on fire by a certain Herostratus, the citizens erected another and better one, having collected the ornaments of the women and their own individual belongings, and having sold also the pillars of the former temple. Testimony is borne to these facts by the decrees that were made at that time. Artemidorus says: Timaeus of Tauromenium, being ignorant of these decrees and being any way an envious and slanderous fellow (for which reason he was also called Epitimaeus),³⁵ says that they exacted means for the restoration of the temple from the treasures deposited in their care by the Persians; but there were no treasures on deposit in their care at that time, and, even if there had been, they would have been burned along with the temple; and after the fire, when the roof was destroyed, who could have wished to keep deposits of treasure lying in a sacred enclosure that was open to the sky? Now Alexander, Artemidorus adds, promised the Ephesians to pay all expenses, both past and future, on condition that he should have the credit therefor on the inscription, but they were unwilling, just as they would have been far more unwilling to acquire glory by sacrilege and a spoliation of the temple.³⁶ And Artemidorus praises the Ephesian who said to the king³⁷ that it was inappropriate for a god to dedicate offerings to gods. [23]

After the completion of the temple, which, he says, was the work of Cheirocrates³⁸ (the same man who built Alexandreia and the same man who proposed to Alexander to fashion Mt. Athos into his likeness, representing him as pouring a libation from a kind of ewer into a broad bowl, and to make two cities, one on the right of the mountain and the other on the left, and a river flowing from one to the other)—after the completion of the temple, he says, the great number of dedications in general were secured by means of the high honor they paid their artists,³⁹ but the whole of the altar was filled, one might say, with the works of Praxiteles. They showed me also some of the works of Thrason, who made the chapel of Hecate, the waxen image of Penelope, and the old woman Eurycleia. They had eunuchs as priests, whom they called Megabyzi. And they were always in quest of persons from other places who were worthy of this preferment, and they held them in great honor. And it was obligatory for maidens to serve as colleagues with them in their priestly office. But though at the present some of their usages are being preserved, yet others are not; but the temple remains a place of refuge, the same as in earlier times, although the limits of the refuge have often been changed; for example, when Alexander extended them for a stadium, and when Mithridates shot an arrow from the corner of the roof and thought it went a little farther than a stadium, and when Antony doubled this distance and included within the refuge a part of the city. But this extension of the refuge proved harmful, and put the city in the power of criminals; and it was therefore nullified by Augustus Caesar. [24]

The city has both an arsenal and a harbor. The mouth of the harbor was made narrower by the engineers,⁴⁰ but they, along with the king who ordered it, were deceived as to the result, I mean Attalus Philadelphus; for he thought that the entrance would be deep enough for large merchant vessels—as also the harbor itself, which formerly had shallow places because of the silt deposited by the Caÿster River—if a mole were thrown up at the mouth, which was very wide, and therefore ordered that the mole should be built. But the result was the opposite, for the silt, thus hemmed in, made the whole of the harbor, as far as the mouth, more shallow. Before this time the ebb and flow of the tides would carry away the silt and draw it to the sea outside. Such, then, is the harbor; and the city, because of its advantageous situation in other respects, grows daily, and is the largest emporium in Asia this side the Taurus. [25]

Notable men have been born in this city: in ancient times, Heracleitus the Obscure, as he is called; and Hermodorus, concerning whom Heracleitus himself says:“It were right for the Ephesians from youth upwards to be hanged, who banished their most useful man, saying: 'Let no man of us be most useful; otherwise, let him be elsewhere and with other people.'”Hermodorus is reputed to have written certain laws for the Romans. And Hipponax the poet was from Ephesus; and so were Parrhasius the painter and Apelles, and more recently Alexander the orator, surnamed Lychnus,⁴¹ who was a statesman, and wrote history, and left behind him poems in which he describes the position of the heavenly bodies and gives a geographic description of the continents, each forming the subject of a poem. [26]

After the outlet of the Caÿster River comes a lake that runs inland from the sea, called Selinusia; and next comes another lake that is confluent with it, both affording great revenues. Of these revenues, though sacred, the kings deprived the goddess, but the Romans gave them back; and again the tax-gatherers forcibly converted the tolls to their own use; but when Artemidorus was sent on an embassy, as he says, he got the lakes back for the goddess, and he also won the decision over Heracleotis, which was in revolt,⁴² his case being decided at Rome; and in return for this the city erected in the temple a golden image of him. In the innermost recess of the lake there is a temple of a king, which is said to have been built by Agamemnon. [27]

Then one comes to the mountain Gallesius, and to Colophon, an Ionian city, and to the sacred precinct of Apollo Clarius, where there was once an ancient oracle. The story is told that Calchas the prophet, with Amphilochus the son of Amphiaräus, went there on foot on his return from Troy, and that having met near Clarus a prophet superior to himself, Mopsus, the son of Manto, the daughter of Teiresias, he died of grief. Now Hesiod revises the myth as follows, making Calchas propound to Mopsus this question:“I am amazed in my heart at all these figs on this wild fig tree, small though it is; can you tell me the number?
”And he makes Mopsus reply:“They are ten thousand in number, and their measure is a medimnus;⁴³ but there is one over, which you cannot put in the measure.
”⁴⁴ "Thus he spake," Hesiod adds,“and the number the measure could hold proved true. And then the eyes of Calchas were closed by the sleep of death.
”⁴⁵But Pherecydes says that the question propounded by Calchas was in regard to a pregnant sow, how many pigs she carried, and that Mopsus said, "three, one of which is a female," and that when Mopsus proved to have spoken the truth, Calchas died of grief. Some say that Calchas propounded the question in regard to the sow, but that Mopsus propounded the question in regard to the wild fig tree, and that the latter spoke the truth but that the former did not, and died of grief, and in accordance with a certain oracle. Sophocles tells the oracle in his Reclaiming of Helen, that Calchas was destined to die when he met a prophet superior to himself, but he transfers the scene of the rivalry and of the death of Calchas to Cilicia. Such are the ancient stories. [28]

The Colophonians once possessed notable naval and cavalry forces, in which latter they were so far superior to the others that wherever in wars that were hard to bring to an end, the cavalry of the Colophonians served as ally, the war came to an end; whence arose the proverb, "he put Colophon to it," which is quoted when a sure end is put to any affair. Native Colophonians, among those of whom we have record, were: Mimnermus, who was both a flute-player and elegiac poet; Xenophanes, the natural philosopher, who composed the "Silli"⁴⁶ in verse; and Pindar speaks also of a certain Polymnastus as one of the famous musicians:“Thou knowest the voice, common to all, of Polymnastus the Colophonian.
”⁴⁷And some say that Homer was from there. On a straight voyage it is seventy stadia from Ephesus, but if one includes the sinuosities of the gulfs it is one hundred and twenty. [29]

After Colophon one comes to the mountain Coracius and to an isle sacred to Artemis, whither deer, it has been believed, swim across and give birth to their young. Then comes Lebedus, which is one hundred and twenty stadia distant from Colophon. This is the meeting-place and settlement of all the Dionysiac artists in Ionia as far as the Hellespont; and this is the place where both games and a general festal assembly are held every year in honor of Dionysus. They formerly lived in Teos, the city of the Ionians that comes next after Colophon, but when the sedition broke out they fled for refuge to Ephesus. And when Attalus settled them in Myonnesus between Teos and Lebedus the Tëians sent an embassy to beg of the Romans not to permit Myonnesus to be fortified against them; and they migrated to Lebedus, whose inhabitants gladly received them because of the dearth of population by which they were then afflicted. Teos, also, is one hundred and twenty stadia distant from Lebedus; and in the intervening distance there is an island Aspis, by some called Arconnesus. And Myonnesus is settled on a height that forms a peninsula. [30]

Teos also is situated on a peninsula; and it has a harbor. Anacreon the melic poet was from Teos; in whose time the Tëians abandoned their city and migrated to, Abdera, a Thracian city, being unable to bear the insolence of the Persians; and hence the verse in reference to Abdera.“Abdera, beautiful colony of the Tëians.
”But some of them returned again in later times. As I have already said,⁴⁸ Apellicon also was a Tëian; and Hecataeus the historian was from the same city. And there is also another harbor to the north, thirty stadia distant from the city, called Gerrhaeïdae. [31]

Then one comes to Chalcideis, and to the isthmus of the Chersonesus, belonging to the Tëians and Erythraeans. Now the latter people live this side the isthmus, but the Tëians and Clazomenians live on the isthmus itself; for the southern side of the isthmus, I mean the Chalcideis, is occupied by Tëians, but the northern by Clazomenians, where their territory joins the Erythraean. At the beginning of the isthmus lies the place called Hypocremnus, which lies between the Erythraean territory this side the isthmus and that of the Clazomenians on the other side. Above the Chalcideis is situated a sacred precinct consecrated to Alexander the son of Philip; and games, called the Alexandreia, are proclaimed by the general assembly of the Ionians and are celebrated there. The passage across the isthmus from the sacred precinct of Alexander and from the Chalcideis to Hypocremnus is fifty stadia, but the voyage round by sea is more than one thousand. Somewhere about the middle of the circuit is Erythrae, an Ionian city, which has a harbor, and also four isles lying off it, called Hippi.⁴⁹ [32]

Before coming to Erythrae, one comes first to a small town Erae belonging to the Tëians; and then to Corycus, a high mountain, and to a harbor at the foot of it, Casystes, and to another harbor called Erythras, and to several others in order thereafter. The waters along the coast of Mt. Corycus, they say, were everywhere the haunt of pirates, the Corycaeans, as they are called, who had found a new way of attacking vessels; for, they say, the Corycaeans would scatter themselves among the harbors, follow up the merchants whose vessels lay at anchor in them, and overhear what cargoes they had aboard and whither they were bound, and then come together and attack the merchants after they had put to sea and plunder their vessels; and hence it is that we call every person who is a busybody and tries to overhear private and secret conversations a Corycaean; and that we say in a proverb:“
Well then, the Corycaean was listening to this,
”when one thinks that he is doing or saying something in secret, but fails to keep it hidden because of persons who spy on him and are eager to learn what does not concern them. [33]

After Mt. Corycus one comes to Halonnesos, a small island. Then to Argennum, a promontory of the Erythraean territory; it is very close to the Poseidium of the Chians, which latter forms a strait about sixty stadia in width. Between Erythrae and Hypocremnus lies Mimas, a lofty mountain, which is well supplied with game and well wooded. Then one comes to a village Cybelia, and to a promontory Melaena, as it is called, which has a millstone quarry. [34]

Erythrae was the native city of Sibylla, a woman who was divinely inspired and had the gift of prophecy, one of the ancients. And in the time of Alexander there was another woman who likewise had the gift of prophecy; she was called Athenaïs, and was a native of the same city. And, in my time, Heracleides the Herophileian physician, fellow.pupil of Apollonius Mys,⁵⁰ was born there. [35]

As for Chios, the voyage round it along the coast is nine hundred stadia; and it has a city with a good port and with a naval station for eighty ships. On making the voyage round it from the city, with the island on the right, one comes first to the Poseidium. Then to Phanae, a deep harbor, and to a temple of Apollo and a grove of palm trees. Then to Notium, a shore suited to the anchoring of vessels. Then to Laïus, this too a shore suited to the anchoring of vessels; whence to the city there is an isthmus of sixty stadia, but the voyage round, which I have just now described, is three hundred and sixty stadia. Then to Melaena, a promontory, opposite to which lies Psyra, an island fifty stadia distant from the promontory, lofty, and having a city of the same name. The circuit of the island is forty stadia. Then one comes to Ariusia, a rugged and harborless country, about thirty stadia in extent, which produces the best of the Grecian wines. Then to Pelinaeus, the highest mountain in the island. And the island also has a marble quarry. Famous natives of Chios are: Ion the tragic poet, and Theopompus the historian, and Theocritus the sophist. The two latter were political opponents of one another. The Chians also claim Homer, setting forth as strong testimony that the men called Homeridae were descendants of Homer's family; these are mentioned by Pindar:“Whence also the Homeridae, singers of deftly woven lays, most often. . . .
”⁵¹The Chians at one time possessed also a fleet, and attained to liberty and to maritime empire. The distance from Chios to Lesbos, sailing southwards, is about four hundred stadia. [36]

After Hypocremnus one comes to Chytrium, the site on which Clazomenae was situated in earlier times. Then to the present Clazomenae, with eight small islands lying off it that are under cultivation. Anaxagoras, the natural philosopher, an illustrious man and associate of Anaximenes the Milesian, was a Clazomenian. And Archeläus the natural philosopher and Euripides the poet took his entire course. Then to a temple of Apollo and to hot springs, and to the gulf and the city of the Smyrnaeans. [37]

Next one comes to another gulf, on which is the old Smyrna, twenty stadia distant from the present Smyrna. After Smyrna had been razed by the Lydians, its inhabitants continued for about four hundred years to live in villages. Then they were reassembled into a city by Antigonus, and afterwards by Lysimachus, and their city is now the most beautiful of all; a part of it is on a mountain and walled, but the greater part of it is in the plain near the harbor and near the Metröum and near the gymnasium. The division into streets is exceptionally good, in straight lines as far as possible; and the streets are paved with stone; and there are large quadrangular porticoes, with both lower and upper stories. There is also a library; and the Homereium, a quadrangular portico containing a shrine and wooden statue⁵² of Homer; for the Smyrnaeans also lay especial claim to the poet; and indeed a bronze coin of theirs is called Homereium. The River Meles flows near the walls; and, in addition to the rest of the city's equipment, there is also a harbor that can be closed. But there is one error, not a small one, in the work of the engineers, that when they paved the streets they did not give them underground drainage; instead, filth covers the surface, and particularly during rains, when the cast-off filth is discharged upon the streets. It was here that Dolabella captured by siege, and slew, Trebonius, one of the men who treacherously murdered the deified Caesar; and he set free⁵³ many parts of the city. [38]

After Smyrna one comes to Leucae, a small town, which after the death of Attalus Philometor⁵⁴ was caused to revolt by Aristonicus, who was reputed to belong to the royal family and intended to usurp the kingdom. Now he was banished from Smyrna, after being defeated in a naval battle near the Cymaean territory by the Ephesians, but he went up into the interior and quickly assembled a large number of resourceless people, and also of slaves, invited with a promise of freedom, whom he called Heliopolitae.⁵⁵ Now he first fell upon Thyateira unexpectedly, and then got possession of Apollonis, and then set his efforts against other fortresses. But he did not last long; the cities immediately sent a large number of troops against him, and they were assisted by Nicomedes the Bithynian and by the kings of the Cappadocians. Then came five Roman ambassadors, and after that an army under Publius Crassus the consul,⁵⁶ and after that Marcus Perpernas, who brought the war to an end, having captured Aristonicus alive and sent him to Rome. Now Aristonicus ended his life in prison; Perpernas died of disease; and Crassus, attacked by certain people in the neighborhood of Leucae, fell in battle. And Manius Aquillius came over as consul⁵⁷ with ten lieutenants and organized the province into the form of government that still now endures. After Leucae one comes to Phocaea, on a gulf, concerning which I have already spoken in my account of Massalia. Then to the boundaries of the Ionians and the Aeolians; but I have already spoken of these. In the interior above the Ionian seaboard there remain to be described the places in the neighborhood of the road that leads from Ephesus to Antiocheia and the Maeander River. These places are occupied by Lydians and Carians mixed with Greeks. [39]

The first city one comes to after Ephesus is Magnesia, which is an Aeolian city and is called "Magnesia on the Maeander," for it is situated near that river. But it is much nearer the Lethaeus River, which empties into the Maeander and has its beginning in Mt. Pactyes, the mountain in the territory of the Ephesians. There is another Lethaeus in Gortyna, and another near Tricce, where Asclepius is said to have been born, and still another in the country of the Western Libyans. And the city lies in the plain near the mountain called Thorax, on which Daphitas the grammarian is said to have been crucified, because he reviled the kings in a distich:“Purpled with stripes, mere filings of the treasure of Lysimachus, ye rule the Lydians and Phrygia.
”It is said that an oracle was given out that Daphitas should be on his guard against Thorax. [40]

The Magnetans are thought to be descendants of Delphians who settled in the Didyman hills, in Thessaly, concerning whom Hesiod says:“Or as the unwedded virgin who, dwelling on the holy Didyman hills, in the Dotian Plain, in front of Amyrus, bathed her foot in Lake Boebeïs.
”⁵⁸⁵⁹ Here was also the temple of Dindymene, Mother of the gods. According to tradition, the wife of Themistocles, some say his daughter, served as a priestess there. But the temple is not now in existence, because the city has been transferred to another site. In the present city is the temple of Artemis Leucophryene, which in the size of its shrine and in the number of its votive offerings is inferior to the temple at Ephesus, but in the harmony and skill shown in the structure of the sacred enclosure is far superior to it. And in size it surpasses all the sacred enclosures in Asia except two, that at Ephesus and that at Didymi. In ancient times, also, it came to pass that the Magnetans were utterly destroyed by the Treres, a Cimmerian tribe, although they had for a long time been a prosperous people, but the Milesians took possession of the place in the following year. Now Callinus mentions the Magnetans as still being a prosperous people and as being successful in their war against the Ephesians, but Archilochus is obviously already aware of the misfortune that befell them:“to bewail the woes of the Thasians, not those of the Magnetans;
”⁶⁰ whence one may judge that he was more recent than Callinus. And Callinus recalls another, and earlier, invasion of the Cimmerians when he says:“And now the army of the Cimmerians, mighty in deeds, advanceth,
”⁶¹in which he plainly indicates the capture of Sardeis. [41]

Well-known natives of Magnesia are: Hegesias the orator, who, more than any other, initiated the Asiatic style, as it is called, whereby he corrupted the established Attic custom; and Simus the melic poet, he too a man who corrupted the style handed down by the earlier melic poets and introduced the Simoedia,⁶² just as that style was corrupted still more by the Lysioedi and the Magoedi, and by Cleomachus the pugilist, who, having fallen in love with a certain cinaedus⁶³ and with a young female slave who was kept as a prostitute by the cinaedus, imitated the style of dialects and mannerisms that was in vogue among the cinaedi. Sotades was the first man to write the talk of the cinaedi; and then Alexander the Aetolian. But though these two men imitated that talk in mere speech, Lysis accompanied it with song; and so did Simus, who was still earlier than he. As for Anaxenor, the citharoede⁶⁴, the theatres exalted him, but Antony exalted him all he possibly could, since he even appointed him exactor of tribute from four cities, giving him a body.guard of soldiers. Further, his native land greatly increased his honors, having clad him in purple as consecrated to Zeus Sosipolis,⁶⁵ as is plainly indicated in his painted image in the market-place. And there is also a bronze statue of him in the theatre, with the inscription,“Surely this is a beautiful thing, to listen to a singer such as this man is, like unto the gods in voice.
”⁶⁶But the engraver, missing his guess, left out the last letter of the second verse, the base of the statue not being wide enough for its inclusion; so that he laid the city open to the charge of ignorance, Because of the ambiguity of the writing, as to whether the last word should be taken as in the nominative case or in the dative;⁶⁷ for many write the dative case without the iota, and even reject the ordinary usage as being without natural cause. [42]

After Magnesia comes the road to Tralleis, with Mt. Mesogis on the left, and, at the road itself and on the right, the plain of the Maeander River, which is occupied by Lydians and Carians, and by Ionians, both Milesians and Myesians, and also by the Aeolians of Magnesia. And the same kind of topographical account applies as far as Nysa and Antiocheia. The city of the Tralleians is situated upon a trapezium-shaped site, with a height fortified by nature; and the places all round are well defended. And it is as well peopled as any other city in Asia by people of means; and always some of its men hold the chief places in the province, being called Asiarchs. Among these was Pythodorus, originally a native of Nysa, but he changed his abode to Tralleis because of its celebrity; and with only a few others he stood out conspicuously as a friend of Pompey. And he came into possession of the wealth of a king, worth more than two thousand talents, which, though sold by the deified Caesar, was redeemed by him through his friendship with Pompey and was left by him unimpaired to his children. He was the father of Pythodoris, the present queen in Pontus, of whom I have already spoken.⁶⁸ Pythodorus, then, flourished in my time, as also Menodorus, a man of learning, and otherwise august and grave, who held the priesthood of Zeus Larisaeus. But he was overthrown by a counter-party friendly to Dometius Ahenobarbus; and Dometius, relying on his informers, slew him, as guilty of causing the fleet to revolt. Here were born famous orators: Dionysocles and afterwards Damasus Scombrus. Tralleis is said to have been founded by Argives and by certain Tralleian Thracians, and hence the name. And the city was ruled for a short time by tyrants, the sons of Cratippus, at the time of the Mithridatic war. [43]

Nysa is situated near Mt. Mesogis, for the most part lying upon its slopes; and it is a double city, so to speak, for it is divided by a torrential stream that forms a gorge, which at one place has a bridge over it, joining the two cities, and at another is adorned with an amphitheatre, with a hidden underground passage for the torrential waters. Near the theatre are two heights, below one of which is the gymnasium of youths; and below the other is the market place and the gymnasium for older persons. The plain lies to the south of the city, as it does to the south of Tralleis. [44]

On the road between the Tralleians and Nysa is a village of the Nysaeans, not far from the city Acharaca, where is the Plutonium, with a costly sacred precinct and a shrine of Pluto and Core, and also the Charonium, a cave that lies above the sacred precinct, by nature wonderful; for they say that those who are diseased and give heed to the cures prescribed by these gods resort thither and live in the village near the cave among experienced priests, who on their behalf sleep in the cave and through dreams prescribe the cures. These are also the men who invoke the healing power of the gods. And they often bring the sick into the cave and leave them there, to remain in quiet, like animals in their lurking-holes, without food for many days. And sometimes the sick give heed also to their own dreams, but still they use those other men, as priests, to initiate them into the mysteries and to counsel them. To all others the place is forbidden and deadly. A festival is celebrated every year at Acharaca; and at that time in particular those who celebrate the festival can see and hear concerning all these things; and at the festival, too, about noon, the boys and young men of the gymnasium, nude and anointed with oil, take up a bull and with haste carry him up into the cave; and, when let loose, the bull goes forward a short distance, falls, and breathes out his life. [45]

Thirty stadia from Nysa, after one crosses over Mt. Tmolus and the mountain called Mesogis, towards the region to the south of the Mesogis,⁶⁹ there is a place called Leimon,⁷⁰ whither the Nysaeans and all the people about go to celebrate their festivals. And not far from Leimon is an entrance into the earth sacred to the same gods, which is said to extend down as far as Acharaca. The poet is said to name this meadow when he says, "On the Asian meadow"; and they point out a hero-temple of Caÿster and a certain Asius, and the Caÿster River that streams forth near by. [46]

The story is told that three brothers, Athymbrus and Athymbradus and Hydrelus, who came from Lacedaemon, founded the three cities which were named after them, but that the cities later became scantily populated, and that the city Nysa was founded by their inhabitants; but that Athymbrus is now regarded by them as their original founder. [47]

Near Nysa, on the far side of the Maeander River, are situated noteworthy settlements; I mean Coscinia and Orthosia; and this side the river, Briula, Mastaura and Acharaca, and above the city, on the mountain, Aroma (in which the letter rho⁷¹ is short), whence comes the best Mesogitan wine, I mean the Aromian. [48]

Famous men born at Nysa are: Apollonius the Stoic philosopher, best of the disciples of Panaetius; and Menecrates, pupil of Aristarchus; and Aristodemus, his son, whose entire course, in his extreme old age, I in my youth took at Nysa; and Sostratus, the brother of Aristodemus, and another Aristodemus, his cousin, who trained Pompey the Great, proved themselves notable grammarians. But my teacher also taught rhetoric and had two schools, both in Rhodes and in his native land, teaching rhetoric in the morning and grammar in the evening; at Rome, however, when he was in charge of the children of Pompey the Great, he was content with the teaching of grammar. 2.

Coming now to the far side of the Maeander,⁷² the parts that remain to be described are all Carian, since here the Lydians are no longer intermingled with the Carians, and the latter occupy all the country by themselves, except that a segment of the seaboard is occupied by Milesians and Myesians. Now the beginning of the seaboard is the Peraea⁷³ of the Rhodians on the sea, and the end of it is the Poseidium of the Milesians; but in the interior are the extremities of the Taurus, extending as far as the Maeander River. For it is said that the mountains situated above the Chelidonian islands, as they are called, which islands lie off the confines of Pamphylia and Lycia, form the beginning of the Taurus, for thence the Taurus rises to a height; but the truth is that the whole of Lycia, towards the parts outside and on its southern side, is separated by a mountainous ridge of the Taurus from the country of the Cibyrans as far as the Peraea of the Rhodians. From here the ridge continues, but is much lower and is no longer regarded as a part of the Taurus; neither are the parts outside the Taurus and this side of it so regarded, because of the fact that the eminences and depressions are scattered equally throughout the breadth and the length of the whole country, and present nothing like a wall of partition. The whole of the voyage round the coast, following the sinuosities of the gulfs, is four thousand nine hundred stadia, and merely that round the Peraea of the Rhodians is close to fifteen hundred. [2]

The Peraea of the Rhodians begins with Daedala, a place in the Rhodian territory, but ends with Mt. Phoenix, as it is called, which is also in the Rhodian territory. Off the Peraea lies the island Elaeussa, distant one hundred and twenty stadia from Rhodes. Between the two, as one sails towards the west in a straight line with the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia and Lycia, one comes to a gulf called Glaucus, which has good harbors; then to the Artemisium, a promontory and temple; then to the sacred precinct of Leto, above which, and above the sea, at a distance of sixty stadia, lies Calynda, a city; then to Caunus and to the Calbis, a river near Caunus, which is deep and affords passage for merchant vessels; and between the two lies Pisilis. [3]

The city⁷⁴ has dockyards, and a harbor that can be closed. Above the city, on a height, lies Imbrus, a stronghold. Although the country is fertile, the city is agreed by all to have foul air in summer, as also in autumn, because of the heat and the abundance of fruits. And indeed little tales of the following kind are repeated over and over, that Stratonicus the citharist, seeing that the Caunians were pitiably⁷⁵ pale,⁷⁶ said that this was the thought of the poet in the verse,“Even as is the generation of leaves, such is that also of men;
”⁷⁷and when people complained that he was jeering at the city as though it were sickly, he replied, "Would I be so bold as to call this city sickly, where even the corpses walk about?" The Caunians once revolted from the Rhodians, but by a judicial decision of the Romans they were restored to them. And there is extant a speech of Molon⁷⁸ entitled Against the Caunians. It is said that they speak the same language as the Carians, but that they came from Crete and follow usages of their own.⁷⁹ [4]

Next one comes to Physcus, a small town, which has a harbor and a sacred precinct of Leto; and then to Loryma, a rugged coast, and to the highest mountain in that part of the country; and on top of the mountain is Phoenix, a stronghold bearing the same name as the mountain; and off the mountain, at a distance of four stadia, lies Elaeussa, an island, which is about eight stadia in circuit. [5]

The city of the Rhodians lies on the eastern promontory of Rhodes; and it is so far superior to all others in harbors and roads and walls and improvements in general that I am unable to speak of any other city as equal to it, or even as almost equal to it, much less superior to it. It is remarkable also for its good order, and for its careful attention to the administration of affairs of state in general; and in particular to that of naval affairs, whereby it held the mastery of the sea for a long time and overthrew the business of piracy, and became a friend to the Romans and to all kings who favoured both the Romans and the Greeks. Consequently it not only has remained autonomous. but also has been adorned with many votive offerings, which for the most part are to be found in the Dionysium and the gymnasium, but partly in other places. The best of these are, first, the Colossus of Helius,⁸⁰ of which the author⁸¹ of the iambic verse says,“seven times ten cubits in height, the work of Chares the Lindian;
” but it now lies on the ground, having been thrown down by an earthquake and broken at the knees. In accordance with a certain oracle, the people did not raise it again. This, then, is the most excellent of the votive offerings (at any rate, it is by common agreement one of the Seven Wonders); and there are also the paintings of Protogenes, his Ialysus⁸² and also his Satyr, the latter standing by a pillar, on top of which stood a male partridge. And at this partridge, as would be natural, the people were so agape when the picture had only recently been set up, that they would behold him with wonder but overlook the Satyr, although the latter was a very great success. But the partridge-breeders were still more amazed, bringing their tame partridges and placing them opposite the painted partridge; for their partridges would make their call to the painting and attract a mob of people. But when Protogenes saw that the main part of the work had become subordinate, he begged those who were in charge of the sacred precinct to permit him to go there and efface the partridge, and so he did. The Rhodians are concerned for the people in general, although their rule is not democratic; still, they wish to take care of their multitude of poor people. Accordingly, the people are supplied with provisions and the needy are supported by the well-to-do, by a certain ancestral custom; and there are certain liturgies⁸³ that supply provisions, so that at the same time the poor man receives his sustenance and the city does not run short of useful men, and in particular for the manning of the fleets. As for the roadsteads, some of them were kept hidden and forbidden to the people in general; and death was the penalty for any person who spied on them or passed inside them. And here too, as in Massalia and Cyzicus, everything relating to the architects, the manufacture of instruments of war, and the stores of arms and everything else are objects of exceptional care, and even more so than anywhere else. [6]

The Rhodians, like the people of Halicarnassus and Cnidus and Cos, are Dorians; for of the Dorians who founded Megara after the death of Codrus, some remained there, others took part with Althaemenes the Argive in the colonization of Crete, and others were distributed to Rhodes and to the cities just now mentioned. But these events are later than those mentioned by Homer, for Cnidus and Halicarnassus were not yet in existence, although Rhodes and Cos were; but they were inhabited by Heracleidae. Now when Tlepolemus had grown to manhood,“he forthwith slew his own father's dear uncle, Licymnius, who was then growing old; and straightway he built him ships, and when he had gathered together a great host he went in flight.
”⁸⁴The poet then adds,“he came to Rhodes in his wanderings, where his people settled in three divisions by tribes;
”and he names the cities of that time,“Lindus, Ialysus, and Cameirus white with chalk,
”⁸⁵the city of the Rhodians having not yet been founded. The poet, then, nowhere mentions Dorians by name here, but perhaps indicates Aeolians and Boeotians, if it be true that Heracles and Licymnius settled there. But if, as others say, Tlepolemus set forth from Argos and Tiryns, even so the colonization thence could not have been Dorian, for it must have taken place before the return of the Heracleidae. And of the Coans, also, Homer says,“ were led by Pheidippus and Antiphus, the two sons of lord Thessalus, son of Heracles
”⁸⁶and these names indicate the Aeolian stock of people rather than the Dorian. [7]

In earlier times Rhodes was called Ophiussa and Stadia, and then Telchinis, after the Telchines, who took up their abode in the island. Some say that the Telchines are "maligners" and "sorcerers," who pour the water of the Styx mixed with sulphur upon animals and plants in order to destroy them. But others, on the contrary, say that since they excelled in workmanship they were "maligned" by rival workmen and thus received their bad reputation; and that they first came from Crete to Cypros, and then to Rhodes; and that they were the first to work iron and brass, and in fact fabricated the scythe for Cronus. Now I have already described them before,⁸⁷ but the number of the myths about them causes me to resume their description, filling up the gaps, if I have omitted anything. [8]

After the Telchines, the Heliadae, according to the mythical story, took possession of the island; and to one of these, Cercaphus, and to his wife Cydippe, were born children who founded the cities that are named after them,“Lindus, Ialysus, and Cameirus white with chalk.
”⁸⁸But some say that Tlepolemus founded them and gave them the same names as those of certain daughters of Danäus. [9]

The present city was founded at the time of the Peloponnesian War by the same architect, as they say, who founded the Peiraeus. But the Peiraeus no longer endures, since it was badly damaged, first by the Lacedaemonians, who tore down the two walls, and later by Sulla, the Roman commander. [10]

It is also related of the Rhodians that they have been prosperous by sea, not merely since the time when they founded the present city, but that even many years before the establishment of the Olympian Games they used to sail far away from their homeland to insure the safety of their people. Since that time, also, they have sailed as far as Iberia; and there they founded Rhodes,⁸⁹ of which the Massaliotes later took possession; among the Opici they founded Parthenope; and among the Daunians they, along with the Coans, founded Elpiae. Some say that the islands called the Gymnesiae were founded by them after their departure from Troy; and the larger of these, according to Timaeus, is the largest of all islands alter the seven—Sardinia, Sicily, Cypros, Crete, Euboea, Cyrnos, and Lesbos, but this is untrue, for there are others much larger. It is said that "gymnetes "⁹⁰ are called "balearides"⁹¹ by the Phoenicians, and that on this account the Gymnesiae were called Balearides. Some of the Rhodians took up their abode round Sybaris in Chonia. The poet, too, seems to bear witness to the prosperity enjoyed by the Rhodians from ancient times, forthwith from the first founding of the three cities:“and there his⁹² people settled in three divisions by tribes, and were loved of Zeus, who is lord over gods and men; and upon them,wondrous wealth was shed by the son of Cronus.
”⁹³Other writers refer these verses to a myth, and say that gold rained on the island at the time when Athena was born from the head of Zeus, as Pindar⁹⁴ states. The island has a circuit of nine hundred and twenty stadia. [11]

As one sails from the city, with the island on the right, one comes first to Lindus, a city situated on a mountain and extending far towards the south and approximately towards Alexandria.⁹⁵ In Lindus there is a famous temple of Athena Lindia, founded by the daughters of Danäus. Now in earlier times the Lindians were under a separate government of their own, as were also the Cameirians and the Ialysians, but after this they all came together at Rhodes. Cleobulus, one of the Seven Wise Men, was a native of Lindus. [12]

After Lindus one comes to Ixia, a stronghold, and to Mnasyrium; then to Atabyris, the highest of the mountains there, which is sacred to Zeus Atabyrius; then to Cameirus; then to Ialysus, a village, above which there is an acropolis called Ochyroma; then to the city of the Rhodians, at a distance of about eighty stadia. Between these lies Thoantium, a kind of promontory; and it is off Thoantium, generally speaking, that Chalcia and the Sporades in the neighborhood of Chalcia lie, which I have mentioned before.⁹⁶ [13]

Many men worthy of mention were native Rhodians, both commanders and athletes, among whom were the ancestors of Panaetius the philosopher; and, among statesmen and rhetoricians and philosophers, Panaetius himself and Stratocles and Andronicus, one of the Peripatetics, and Leonides the Stoic; and also, before their time, Praxiphanes and Hieronymus and Eudemus. Poseidonius engaged in affairs of state in Rhodes and taught there, although he was a native of Apameia in Syria, as was also the case with Apollonius Malacus⁹⁷ and Molon,⁹⁸ for they were Alabandians,⁹⁹ pupils of Menecles the orator. Apollonius Malacus began his sojourn there earlier than Molon, and when, much later, Molon came, the former said to him, "you are a late 'molon,'"¹⁰⁰ instead of saying, "late 'elthon.'"¹⁰¹ And Peisander the poet, who wrote the Heracleia, was also a Rhodian; and so was Simmias the grammarian, as also Aristocles of my own time. And Dionysius the Thracian and the Apollonius who wrote the Argonauts, though Alexandrians, were called Rhodians. As for Rhodes, I have said enough about it. [14]

As for the Carian coast that comes after Rhodes, beginning at Eleus and Loryma, it bends sharply back towards the north, and the voyage thereafter runs in a straight line as far as the Propontis, forming, as it were, a meridian line about five thousand stadia long, or slightly short of that distance. Along this line is situated the remainder of Caria, as are also the Ionians and the Aeolians and Troy and the parts round Cyzicus and Byzantium. After Loryma, then, one comes to Cynos-Sema¹⁰² and to Syme, an island. [15]

Then to Cnidus, with two harbors, one of which can be closed, can receive triremes, and is a naval station for twenty ships. Off it lies an island which is approximately seven stadia in circuit, rises high, is theatre-like, is connected by moles with the mainland, and in a way makes Cnidus a double city, for a large part of its people live on the island, which shelters both harbors. Opposite it, in the high sea, is Nisyrus. Notable Cnidians were: first, Eudoxus the mathematician, one of the comrades of Plato; then Agatharchides, one of the Peripatetics, a historian; and, in my own time, Theopompus, the friend of the deified Caesar, being a man of great influence with him, and his son Artemidorus. Thence, also, came Ctesias, who served Artaxerxes as physician and wrote the works entitled Assyrica and Persica. Then, after Cnidus, one comes to Ceramus and Bargasa, small towns situated above the sea. [16]

Then to Halicarnassus, the royal residence of the dynasts of Caria, which was formerly called Zephyra. Here is the tomb of Mausolus,¹⁰³ one of the Seven Wonders, a monument erected by Artemisia in honor of her husband; and here is the fountain called Salmacis, which has the slanderous repute, for what reason I do not know, of making effeminate all who drink from it. It seems that the effeminacy of man is laid to the charge of the air or of the water; yet it is not these, but rather riches and wanton living, that are the cause of effeminacy. Halicarnassus has an acropolis; and off the city lies Arconnesus. Its colonizers were, among others, Anthes and a number of Troezenians. Natives of Halicarnassus have been: Herodotus the historian, whom they later called a Thurian, because he took part in the colonization of Thurii; and Heracleitus the poet, the comrade of Callimachus; and, in my time, Dionysius the historian. [17]

This city, too, met a reverse when it was forcibly seized by Alexander. For Hecatomnus, the king of the Carians, had three sons, Mausolus and Hidrieus and Pixodarus, and two daughters. Mausolus, the eldest of the brothers, married Artemisia, the elder of the daughters, and Hidrieus, the second son, married Ada, the other sister. Mausolus became king and at last, childless, he left the empire to his wife, by whom the above-mentioned tomb was erected. But she pined away and died through grief for her husband, and Hidrieus then became ruler. He died from a disease and was succeeded by his wife Ada; but she was banished by Pixodarus, the remaining son of Hecatomnos. Having espoused the side of the Persians, he sent for a satrap to share the empire with him; and when he too departed from life, the satrap took possession of Halicarnassus. And when Alexander came over, the satrap sustained a siege. His wife was Ada, who was the daughter of Pixodarus by Aphenis, a Cappadocian woman. But Ada, the daughter of Hecatomnos, whom Pixodarus had banished, entreated Alexander and persuaded him to restore her to the kingdom of which she had been deprived, having promised to cooperate with him against the parts of the country which were in revolt, for those who held these parts, she said, were her own relations; and she also gave over to him Alinda, where she herself was residing. He assented and appointed her queen; and when the city, except the acropolis (it was a double acropolis), had been captured, he assigned to her the siege of the acropolis. This too was captured a little later, the siege having now become a matter of anger and personal enmity. [18]

Next one comes to a promontory, Termerium, belonging to the Myndians, opposite which lies Scandaria, a promontory of Cos, forty stadia distant from the mainland. And there is a place called Termerum above the promontory of Cos. [19]

The city of the Coans was in ancient times called Astypalaea; and its people lived on another site, which was likewise on the sea. And then, on account of a sedition, they changed their abode to the present city, near Scandarium, and changed the name to Cos, the same as that of the island. Now the city is not large, but it is the most beautifully settled of all, and is most pleasing to behold as one sails from the high sea to its shore. The size¹⁰⁴ of the island is about five hundred and fifty stadia. It is everywhere well supplied with fruits, but like Chios and Lesbos it is best in respect to its wine. Towards the south it has a promontory, Laceter, whence the distance to Nisyros is sixty stadia (but near Laceter there is a place called Halisarna), and on the west it has Drecanum and a village called Stomalimne. Now Drecanum is about two hundred stadia distant from the city, but Laceter adds thirty-five stadia to the length of the voyage. In the suburb is the Asclepïeium, a temple exceedingly famous and full of numerous votive offerings, among which is the Antigonus of Apelles. And Aphrodite Anadyomene¹⁰⁵ used to be there,¹⁰⁶ but it is now dedicated to the deified Caesar in Rome, Augustus thus having dedicated to his father the female founder of his family. It is said that the Coans got a remission of one hundred talents of the appointed tribute in return for the painting. And it is said that the dietetics practised by Hippocrates were derived mostly from the cures recorded on the votive tablets there. He, then, is one of the famous men from Cos; and so is Simus the physician; as also Philetas, at the same time poet and critic; and, in my time, Nicias, who also reigned as tyrant over the Coans; and Ariston, the pupil and heir of the Peripatetic;¹⁰⁷ and Theomnestus, a renowned harper, who was a political opponent of Nicias, was a native of the island. [20]

On the coast of the mainland near the Myndian territory lies Astypalaea, a promontory; and also Zephyrium. Then forthwith one comes to Myndus, which has a harbor; and after Myndus to Bargylia, which is also a city; between the two is Caryanda, a harbor, and also an island bearing the same name, where the Caryandians lived. Here was born Scylax, the ancient historian. Near Bargylia is the temple of Artemis Cindyas, round which the rain is believed to fall without striking it. And there was once a place called Cindye. From Bargylia there was a man of note, the Epicurean Protarchus, who was the teacher of Demetrius called Lacon.¹⁰⁸ [21]

Then one comes to Iasus, which lies on an island close to the mainland. It has a harbor; and the people gain most of their livelihood from the sea, for the sea here is well supplied with fish, but the soil of the country is rather poor. Indeed, people fabricate stories of this kind in regard to Iasus: When a citharoede¹⁰⁹ was giving a recital, the people all listened for a time, but when the bell that announced the sale of fish rang, they all left him and went away to the fish market, except one man who was hard of hearing. The citharoede, therefore, went up to him and said: "Sir, I am grateful to you for the honor you have done me and for your love of music, for all the others except you went away the moment they heard the sound of the bell." And the man said, "What's that you say? Has the bell already rung?" And when the citharoede said "Yes," the man said, "Fare thee well," and himself arose and went away. Here was born the dialectician Diodorus, nicknamed Cronus, falsely so at the outset, for it was Apollonius his master who was called Cronus, but the nickname was transferred to him because of the true Cronus' lack of repute.¹¹⁰ [22]

After Iasus one comes to the Poseidium of the Milesians. In the interior are three noteworthy cities: Mylasa, Stratoniceia, and Alabanda. The others are dependencies of these or else of the cities on the coast, among which are Amyzon, Heracleia, Euromus, and Chalcetor. As for these, there is little to be said. [23]

But as for Mylasa: it is situated in an exceedingly fertile plain; and above the plain, towering into a peak, rises a mountain, which has a most excellent quarry of white marble. Now this quarry is of no small advantage, since it has stone in abundance and close at hand, for building purposes and in particular for the building of temples and other public works;¹¹¹ accordingly this city, as much as any other, is in every way beautifully adorned with porticoes and temples. But one may well be amazed at those who so absurdly founded the city at the foot of a steep and commanding crag. Accordingly, one of the commanders, amazed at the fact, is said to have said, "If the man who founded this city, was not afraid, was he not even ashamed?" The Mylasians have two temples of Zeus, Zeus Osogo, as he is called, and Zeus Labrandenus. The former is in the city, whereas Labranda is a village far from the city, being situated on the mountain near the pass that leads over from Alabanda to Mylasa. At Labranda there is an ancient shrine and statue of Zeus Stratius. It is honored by the people all about and by the Mylasians; and there is a paved road of almost sixty stadia from the shrine to Mylasa, called the Sacred Way, on which their sacred processions are conducted. The priestly offices are held by the most distinguished of the citizens, always for life. Now these temples belong peculiarly to the city; but there is a third temple, that of the Carian Zeus, which is a common possession of all Carians, and in which, as brothers, both Lydians and Mysians have a share. It is related that Mylasa was a mere village in ancient times, but that it was the native land and royal residence of the Carians of the house of Hecatomnos. The city is nearest to the sea at Physcus; and this is their seaport. [24]

Mylasa has had two notable men in my time, who were at once orators and leaders of the city, Euthydemus and Hybreas. Now Euthydemus, having inherited from his ancestors great wealth and high repute, and having added to these his own cleverness, was not only a great man in his native land, but was also thought worthy of the foremost honor in Asia. As for Hybreas, as he himself used to tell the story in his school and as confirmed by his fellow-citizens, his father left him a mule-driver and a wood-carrying mule. And, being supported by these, he became a pupil of Diotrephes of Antiocheia for a short time, and then came back and "surrendered himself to the office of market-clerk." But when he had been "tossed about" in this office and had made but little money, he began to apply himself to the affairs of state and to follow closely the speakers of the forum. He quickly grew in power, and was already an object of amazement in the lifetime of Euthydemus, but in particular after his death, having become master of the city. So long as Euthydemus lived he strongly prevailed, being at once powerful and useful to the city, so that even if there was something tyrannical about him, it was atoned for by the fact that it was attended by what was good for the city. At any rate, people applaud the following statement of Hybreas, made by him towards the end of a public speech: "Euthydemus: you are an evil necessary to the city, for we can live neither with you nor without you." However, although he had grown very strong and had the repute of being both a good citizen and orator, he stumbled in his political opposition to Labienus; for while the others, since they were without arms and inclined to peace, yielded to Labienus when he was coming against them with an army and an allied Parthian force, the Parthians by that time being in possession of Asia, yet Zeno of Laodiceia and Hybreas, both orators, refused to yield and caused their own cities to revolt. Hybreas also provoked Labienus, a lad who was irritable and full of folly, by a certain pronouncement; for when Labienus proclaimed himself Parthian Emperor, Hybreas said, "Then I too call myself Carian Emperor." Consequently Labienus set out against the city with cohorts¹¹² of Roman soldiers in Asia that were already organized. Labienus did not seize Hybreas, however, since he had withdrawn to Rhodes, but he shamefully maltreated his home, with its costly furnishings, and plundered it. And he likewise damaged the whole of the city. But though Hybreas abandoned Asia, he came back and rehabilitated both himself and the city. So much, then, for Mylasa. [25]

Stratoniceia is a settlement of Macedonians. And this too was adorned with costly improvements by the kings. There are two temples in the country of the Stratoniceians, of which the most famous, that of Hecate, is at Lagina; and it draws great festal assemblies every year. And near the city is the temple of Zeus Chrysaoreus,¹¹³ the common possession of all Carians, whither they gather both to offer sacrifice and to deliberate on their common interests. Their League, which consists of villages, is called "Chrysaorian." And those who present the most villages have a preference in the vote,¹¹⁴ like, for example, the people of Ceramus. The Stratoniceians also have a share in the League, although they are not of the Carian stock, but because they have villages belonging to the Chrysaorian League. Here, too, in the time of our fathers, was born a noteworthy man, Menippus, surnamed Catocas, whom Cicero, as he says in one of his writings,¹¹⁵ applauded above all the Asiatic orators he had heard, comparing him with Xenocles and with the other orators who flourished in the latter's time. But there is also another Stratoniceia, "Stratoniceia near the Taurus," as it is called; it is a small town situated near the mountain. [26]

Alabanda is also situated at the foot of hills, two hills that are joined together in such a way that they present the appearance of an ass laden with panniers. And indeed Apollonius Malacus, in ridiculing the city both in regard to this and in regard to the large number of scorpions there, said that it was an "ass laden with panniers of scorpions." Both this city and Mylasa are full of these creatures, and so is the whole of the mountainous country between them. Alabanda is a city of people who live in luxury and debauchery, containing many girls who play the harp. Alabandians worthy of mention are two orators, brothers, I mean Menecles, whom I mentioned a little above,¹¹⁶ and Hierocles, and also Apollonius and Molon,¹¹⁷ who changed their abode to Rhodes. [27]

Of the numerous accounts of the Carians, the one that is generally agreed upon is this, that the Carians were subject to the rule of Minos, being called Leleges at that time, and lived in the islands; then, having migrated to the mainland, they took possession of much of the coast and of the interior, taking it away from its previous possessors, who for the most part were Leleges and Pelasgians. In turn these were deprived of a part of their country by the Greeks, I mean Ionians and Dorians. As evidences of their zeal for military affairs, writers adduce shield-holders, shield-emblems, and crests, for all these are called "Carian." At least Anacreon says,“Come, put thine arm through the shield-holder, work of the Carians.
”And Alcaeus says,“shaking the Carian crest.
”¹¹⁸ [28]

When the poet says,“Masthles¹¹⁹ in turn led the Carians, of barbarian speech,
”¹²⁰ we have no reason to inquire how it is that, although he knew so many barbarian tribes, he speaks of the Carians alone as "of barbarian speech," but nowhere speaks of "barbarians." Thucydides,¹²¹ therefore, is not correct, for he says that Homer "did not use the term 'barbarians' either, because the Hellenes on their part had not yet been distinguished under one name as opposed to them"; for the poet himself refutes the statement that the Hellenes had not yet been so distinguished when he says,“My husband, whose fame is wide through Hellas and mid-Argos.
”¹²²¹²³ And again,“And if thou dost wish to journey through Hellas and mid-Argos.
”¹²⁴Further, if they were not called "barbarians," how could they properly be called a people "of barbarian speech?" So neither Thucydides is correct, nor Apollodorus the grammarian, who says that the general term was used by the Hellenes in a peculiar and abusive sense against the Carians, and in particular by the Ionians, who hated them because of their enmity and the continuous military campaigns; for it was right to name them barbarians in this sense. But I raise the question, Why does he call them people "of barbarian speech," but not even once calls them barbarians? "Because," Apollodorus replies, "the plural does not fall in with the metre; this is why he does not call them barbarians." But though this case¹²⁵ does not fall in with metre, the nominative case¹²⁶ does not differ metrically from that of "Dardanians":¹²⁷“Trojans and Lycians and Dardanians.
”¹²⁸ So, also, the word "Trojan," in“of what kind the Trojan horses are.
”¹²⁹Neither is he correct when he says that the language of the Carians is very harsh, for it is not, but even has very many Greek words mixed up with it, according to the Philip who wrote The Carica.¹³⁰ I suppose that the word "barbarian" was at first uttered onomatopoetically in reference to people who enunciated words only with difficulty and talked harshly and raucously, like our words "battarizein," "traulizein," and "psellizein";¹³¹ for we are by nature very much inclined to denote sounds by words that sound like them, on account of their homogeneity. Wherefore onomatopoetic words abound in our language, as, for example, "celaryzein," and also "clange," "psophos," "boe," and "crotos,"¹³² most of which are by now used in their proper sense. Accordingly, when all who pronounced words thickly were being called barbarians onomatopoetically, it appeared that the pronunciations of all alien races were likewise thick, I mean of those that were not Greek. Those, therefore, they called barbarians in the special sense of the term, at first derisively, meaning that they pronounced words thickly or harshly; and then we misused the word as a general ethnic term, thus making a logical distinction between the Greeks and all other races. The fact is, however, that through our long acquaintance and intercourse with the barbarians this effect was at last seen to be the result, not of a thick pronunciation or any natural defect in the vocal organs, but of the peculiarities of their several languages. And there appeared another faulty and barbarian-like pronunciation in our language, whenever any person speaking Greek did not pronounce it correctly, but pronounced the words like barbarians who are only beginning to learn Greek and are unable to speak it accurately, as is also the case with us in speaking their languages. This was particularly the case with the Carians, for, although the other peoples were not yet having very much intercourse with the Greeks nor even trying to live in Greek fashion or to learn our language—with the exception, perhaps, of rare persons who by chance, and singly, mingled with a few of the Greeks—yet the Carians roamed throughout the whole of Greece, serving on expeditions for pay. Already, therefore, the barbarous element in their Greek was strong, as a result of their expeditions in Greece; and after this it spread much more, from the time they took up their abode with the Greeks in the islands; and when they were driven thence into Asia, even here they were unable to live apart from the Greeks, I mean when the Ionians and Dorians later crossed over to Asia. The term "barbarize," also, has the same origin; for we are wont to use this too in reference to those who speak Greek badly, not to those who talk Carian. So, therefore, we must interpret the terms "speak barbarously" and "barbarously-speaking" as applying to those who speak Greek badly. And it was from the term "Carise" that the term "barbarize" was used in a different sense in works on the art of speaking Greek; and so was the term "soloecise," whether derived from Soli,¹³³ or made up in some other way.¹³⁴ [29]

Artemidorus says that, as one goes from Physcus, in the Peraea of the Rhodians, to Ephesus, the distance to Lagina is eight hundred and fifty stadia; and thence to Alabanda, two hundred and fifty more; and to Tralleis, one hundred and sixty. But one comes to the road that leads into Tralleis after crossing the Maeander River, at about the middle of the journey,¹³⁵ where are the boundaries of Caria. The distance all told from Physcus to the Maeander along the road to Ephesus amounts to one thousand one hundred and eighty stadia. Again, from the Maeander, traversing next in order the length of Ionia along the same road, the distance from the river to Tralleis is eighty stadia; then to Magnesia, one hundred and forty; to Ephesus, one hundred and twenty; to Smyrna, three hundred and twenty; and to Phocaea and the boundaries of Ionia, less than two hundred; so that the length of Ionia in a straight line would be, according to Artemidorus, slightly more than eight hundred stadia. Since there is a kind of common road constantly used by all who travel from Ephesus towards the east, Artemidorus traverses this too: from Ephesus to Carura, a boundary of Caria towards Phrygia, through Magnesia, Tralleis, Nysa, and Antiocheia, is a journey of seven hundred and forty stadia; and, from Carura, the journey in Phrygia, through Laodiceia, Apameia, Metropolis and Chelidonia.¹³⁶ Now near the beginning of Paroreius,¹³⁷ one comes to Holmi, about nine hundred and twenty stadia from Carura, and, near the end of Paroreius near Lycaonia, through Philomelium, to Tyriaeum, slightly more than five hundred. Then Lycaonia, through Laodiceia Catacecaumene,¹³⁸ as far as Coropassus, eight hundred and forty stadia; from Coropassus in Lycaonia to Garsaura, a small town in Cappadocia, situated on its borders, one hundred and twenty; thence to Mazaca, the metropolis of the Cappadocians, through Soandum and Sadacora, six hundred and eighty; and thence to the Euphrates River, as far as Tomisa, a place in Sophene, through Herphae, a small town, one thousand four hundred and forty. The places on a straight line with these as far as India are the same in Artemidorus as they are in Eratosthenes. But Polybius says that we should rely most on Artemidorus in regard to the places here. He begins with Samosata in Commagene, which lies at the river crossing and at Zeugma, and states that the distance to Samosata, across the Taurus, from the boundaries of Cappadocia round Tomisa is four hundred and fifty stadia. 3.

¹³⁹After the Peraea of the Rhodians, of which Daedala is a boundary, sailing next in order towards the rising sun, one comes to Lycia, which extends as far as Pamphylia; then to Pamphylia, extending as far as the Tracheian Cilicians;¹⁴⁰ and then to the country of these, extending as far as the other Cilicians living round the Gulf of Issus. These are parts of the peninsula, the isthmus of which, as I was saying, is the road from Issus to Amisus, or, according to some, Sinope, but they lie outside the Taurus on the narrow coast which extends from Lycia as far as the region of Soli, the present Pompeïopolis. Then forthwith the coast in the neighborhood of Soli, beginning at Soli and Tarsus, spreads out into plains. So then, when I have traversed this coast, my account of the whole peninsula will have been completed. Then I shall pass to the other parts of Asia that are outside the Taurus. And lastly I shall set forth my account of Libya. [2]

After Daedala of the Rhodians, then, one comes to a mountain in Lycia which bears the same name as the city, Daedala, whence the whole voyage along the Lycian coast takes its beginning; this coast extends one thousand seven hundred and twenty stadia, and is rugged and hard to travel, but is exceedingly well supplied with harbors and inhabited by decent people. Indeed, the nature of the country, at least, is similar to both that of the Pamphylians and the Tracheian Cilicians, but the former used their places as bases of operation for the business of piracy, when they engaged in piracy themselves or offered them to pirates as markets for the sale of booty and as naval stations. In Side, at any rate, a city in Pamphylia, the dockyards stood open to the Cilicians, who would sell their captives at auction there, though admitting that these were freemen. But the Lycians continued living in such a civilized and decent way that, although the Pamphylians through their successes gained the mastery of the sea as far as Italy, still they themselves were stirred by no desire for shameful gain, but remained within the ancestral domain of the Lycian League. [3]

There are twenty-three cities that share in the vote. They come together from each city to a general congress, after choosing whatever city they approve of. The largest of the cities control three votes each, the medium-sized two, and the rest one. In the same proportion, also, they make contributions and discharge other liturgies.¹⁴¹ Artemidorus said that the six largest were Xanthus, Patara, Pinara, Olympus, Myra, and Tlos, the last named being situated near the pass that leads over into Cibyra. At the congress they first choose a "Lyciarch," and then other officials of the League; and general courts of justice are designated. In earlier times they would deliberate about war and peace and alliances, but now they naturally do not do so, since these matters necessarily lie in the power of the Romans, except, perhaps, when the Romans should give them permission or it should be for their benefit. Likewise, judges and magistrates are elected from the several cities in the same proportion. And since they lived under such a good government, they remained ever free under the Romans, thus retaining their ancestral usages; and they saw the pirates utterly wiped out, first by Servilius Isauricus, at the time that he demolished Isaura, and later by Pompey the Great, when he set fire to more than thirteen hundred boats and laid waste their settlements. Of the pirates who survived the fights,¹⁴² he brought some down to Soli, which he named Pompeïopolis, and the others to Dyme, where there was a dearth of population; it is now occupied by a colony of Romans. The poets, however, and especially the tragic poets, confuse the tribes, as, for example, the Trojans and the Mysians and the Lydians, whom they call Phrygians; and likewise the Lycians, whom they call Carians. [4]

After Daedala, then, I mean the mountain in Lycia, one comes to a Lycian town near it, Telmessus, and to Telmessis, a promontory with a harbor. Eumenes¹⁴³ received this place from the Romans in the Antiochian War, but when his kingdom was dissolved the Lycians got it back again. [5]

Then, next, one comes to Anticragus, a steep mountain, where is Carmylessus, an inhabited place situated in a ravine; and, after this, to Cragus, which has eight promontories and a city of the same name. The scene of the myth of Chimaera is laid in the neighborhood of these mountains. Chimaera, a ravine extending up from the shore, is not far from them. At the foot of Cragus, in the interior, lies Pinara, one of the largest cities in Lycia. Here Pandarus is held in honor, who may, perhaps, be identical with the Trojan hero, as when the poet says,“The daughter of Pandareus, the nightingale of the greenwood,
”¹⁴⁴for Pandareus is said to have been from Lycia. [6]

Then one comes to the Xanthus River, which the people of earlier times called the Sirbis. Sailing up this river by rowboat for ten stadia one comes to the Letoüm; and proceeding sixty stadia beyond the temple one comes to the city of the Xanthians, the largest city in Lycia. After Xanthus, to Patara, which is also a large city, has a harbor, has a temple of Apollo, and was founded by Patarus. When Ptolemy Philadelphus repaired it, he called it Lycian Arsinoe, but the original name prevailed. [7]

Then one comes to Myra, at a distance of twenty stadia above the sea, on a lofty hiIl. Then to the outlet of the Limyrus River, and then, going twenty stadia inland on foot, to Limyra, a small town. In the intervening distance on the coasting voyage there are numerous isles and harbors, among which are the island Megiste, with a city of the same name, and Cisthene. And in the interior are places called Phellus and Antiphellus and Chimaera, which last I have mentioned above. [8]

Then one comes to the promontory Hiera and to the Chelidoniae, three rugged islands, which are about equal in size and are about five stadia distant from one another. They lie about six stadia off the shore, and one of them has a landing-place for vessels. Here it is, according to the majority of writers, that the Taurus takes its beginning, not only because of the loftiness of the promontory and because it extends down from the Pisidian mountains that lie above Pamphylia, but also because of the islands that lie off it, presenting, as they do, a sort of conspicuous sign in the sea, like outskirts of a mountain. But in truth the mountainous tract is continuous from the Peraea of the Rhodians to the parts near Pisidia; and this tract too is called the Taurus. The Chelidoniae are likewise thought to lie approximately opposite to Canobus;¹⁴⁵ and the passage thence to Canobus is said to be four thousand stadia. From the promontory Hiera to Olbia there remain three hundred and sixty-seven stadia; and on this stretch lie, not only Crambusa, but also Olympus, a large city and a mountain of the same name, which latter is also called Phoenicus. Then one comes to Corycus, a tract of sea-coast. [9]

Then one comes to Phaselis, with three harbors, a city of note, and to a lake. Above it lies Solyma, a mountain, and also Termessus, a Pisidian city situated near the defiles, through which there is a pass over the mountain to Milyas. Alexander destroyed Milyas for the reason that he wished to open the defiles. Near Phaselis, by the sea, there are defiles, through which Alexander led his army. And here there is a mountain called Climax, which lies near the Pamphylian Sea and leaves a narrow pass on the shore; and in calm weather this pass is free from water, so that it is passable for travellers, but when the sea is at flood-tide it is to a considerable extent hidden by the waves. Now the pass that leads over through the mountain is circuitous and steep, but in fair weather people use the pass along the shore. Alexander, meeting with a stormy season, and being a man who in general trusted to luck, set out before the waves had receded; and the result was that all day long his soldiers marched in water submerged to their navels. Now this city too is Lycian, being situated on the borders towards Pamphylia, but it has no part in the common League and is a separate organization to itself. [10]

Now the poet makes the Solymi different from the Lycians, for when Bellerophon was sent by the king of the Lycians to the second struggle,“he fought with the glorious Solymi.
”¹⁴⁶But others, who assert that the Lycians were in earlier times called Solymi, but in later times were called Termilae¹⁴⁷ from the Termilae who came there from Crete with Sarpedon, and after this were called Lycians, from Lycius the son of Pandion, who, after having been banished from his homeland, was admitted by Sarpedon as a partner in his empire, are not in agreement with Homer. Better is the opinion of those who assert that by "Solymi" the poet means the people who are now called the Milyae, of whom I have already spoken."¹⁴⁸ 4.

After Phaselis one comes to Olbia, the beginning of Pamphylia, a large fortress; and after this to the Cataractes, as it is called, a river which dashes down¹⁴⁹ in such volume and so impetuously that the noise can be heard from afar. Then to a city, Attaleia, so named after its founder Attalus Philadelphus, who also sent a colony to Corycus, a small neighboring town, and surrounded it with a greater circuit-wall. It is said that both Thebe and Lyrnessus are to be seen between Phaselis and Attaleia, a part of the Trojan Cilicians having been driven out of the plain of Thebe into Pamphylia, as Callisthenes states. [2]

Then one comes to the Cestrus River; and, sailing sixty stadia up this river, one comes to Perge, a city; and near Perge, on a lofty site, to the temple of Artemis Pergaea, where a general festival is celebrated every year. Then, about forty stadia above the sea, one comes to Syllium, a lofty city that is visible from Perge. Then one comes to a very large lake, Capria; and after this, to the Eurymedon River; and, sailing sixty stadia up this river, to Aspendus, a city with a flourishing population and founded by the Argives. Above Aspendus lies Petnelissus. Then comes another river; and also numerous isles that lie off it. Then Side, a colony of the Cymaeans, which has a temple of Athena; and near by is the coast of the Lesser Cibyratae. Then the Melas River and a mooring-place. Then Ptolemaïs, a city. And after this come the boundaries of Pamphylia, and also Coracesium, the beginning of Cilicia Tracheia. The whole of the voyage along the coast of Pamphylia is six hundred and forty stadia. [3]

Herodotus¹⁵⁰ says that the Pamphylians are the descendants of the peoples led by Amphilochus and Calchas, a miscellaneous throng who accompanied them from Troy; and that most of them remained here, but that some of them were scattered to numerous places on earth. Callinus says that Calchas died in Clarus, but that the peoples led by Mopsus passed over the Taurus, and that, though some remained in Pamphylia, the others were dispersed in Cilicia, and also in Syria as far even as Phoenicia. 5.

As for Cilicia outside the Taurus, one part of it is called Tracheia¹⁵¹ and the other Pedias.¹⁵² As for Tracheia, its coast is narrow and has no level ground, or scarcely any; and, besides that, it lies at the foot of the Taurus, which affords a poor livelihood as far as its northern side in the region of Isaura and of the Homonadeis as far as Pisidia; and the same country is also called Tracheiotis, and its inhabitants Tracheiotae. But Cilicia Pedias extends from Soli and Tarsus as far as Issus, and also to those parts beyond which, on the northern side of the Taurus, Cappadocians are situated; for this country consists for the most part of plains and fertile land. Since some parts of this country are inside the Taurus and others outside it, and since I have already spoken of those inside it, let me now speak of those outside it, beginning with the Tracheiotae. [2]

The first place in Cilicia, then, to which one comes, is a stronghold, Coracesium, situated on an abrupt rock, which was used by Diodotus, called Tryphon, as a base of operations at the time when he caused Syria to revolt from the kings and was fighting it out with them, being successful at one time and failing at another. Now Tryphon was hemmed up in a certain place by Antiochus, son of Demetrius, and forced to kill himself; and it was Tryphon, together with the worthlessness of the kings who by succession were then reigning over Syria and at the same time over Cilicia, who caused the Cilicians to organize their gangs of pirates; for on account of his revolutionary attempts others made like attempts at the same time, and thus the dissensions of brethren with one another put the country at the mercy of any who might attack it. The exportation of slaves induced them most of all to engage in their evil business, since it proved most profitable; for not only were they easily captured, but the market, which was large and rich in property, was not extremely far away, I mean Delos, which could both admit and send away ten thousand slaves on the same day; whence arose the proverb, "Merchant, sail in, unload your ship, everything has been sold. The cause of this was the fact that the Romans, having become rich after the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, used many slaves; and the pirates, seeing the easy profit therein, bloomed forth in great numbers, themselves not only going in quest of booty but also trafficking in slaves. The kings both of Cyprus and of Egypt cooperated with them in this, being enemies to the Syrians. Neither were the Rhodians friendly to the Syrians, and they therefore afforded them no assistance. And at the same time the pirates, pretending to be slave-dealers, carried on their evil business unchecked. Neither were the Romans concerning themselves as yet so much about the peoples outside the Taurus; but they sent Scipio Aemilianus, and again certain others, to inspect the tribes and the cities; and they decided that the above mentioned piracy was due to the incompetence of the rulers, although they were ashamed, since they themselves had ratified the hereditary succession from Seleucus Nicator, to deprive them of it. And this is what made the Parthians masters of the country, who got possession of the region on the far side of the Euphrates; and at last made also the Armenians masters, who not only seized the country outside the Taurus even as far as Phoenicia, but also, so far as they could, overthrew the kings and the whole royal stock; the sea, however, they gave over to the Cilicians. Then, after these people had grown in power, the Romans were forced to destroy them by war and with an army, although they had not hindered their growing power. Now it is hard to condemn the Romans of negligence, since, being engaged with matters that were nearer and more urgent, they were unable to watch those that were farther away. So much I have decided to say by way of a brief digression from my geographical description. [3]

After Coracesium, one comes to Arsinoe,¹⁵³ a city; then to Hamaxia, a settlement on a hill, with a harbor, where ship-building timber is brought down. Most of this timber is cedar; and it appears that this region beyond others abounds in cedar-wood for ships; and it was on this account that Antony assigned this region to Cleopatra, since it was suited to the building of her fleets. Then one comes to Laertes, a stronghold on a breast-shaped hill, with a mooring-place. Then to Selinus, a city and river. Then to Cragus, a rock which is precipitous all round and near the sea. Then to Charadrus, a fortress, which also has a mooring-place (above it lies Mt. Andriclus); and the coast alongside it, called Platanistes, is rugged. Then to Anemurium, a promontory, where the mainland approaches closest to Cyprus, in the direction of the promontory of Crommyus,¹⁵⁴ the passage across being three hundred and fifty stadia. Now the coasting-voyage along Cilicia from the borders of Pamphylia to Anemurium is eight hundred and twenty stadia, whereas the rest, as far as Soli, is about five hundred stadia. On this latter one comes to Nagidus, the first city after Anemurium; then to Arsinoe, which has a landing-place; then to a place called Melania,¹⁵⁵ and to Celenderis, a city with a harbor. Some writers, among whom is Artemidorus, make Celenderis, not Coracesium, the beginning of Cilicia. And he says that the distance from the Pelusian mouth¹⁵⁶ to Orthosia is three thousand nine hundred stadia; to the Orontes River, one thousand one hundred and thirty; to the Gates¹⁵⁷ next thereafter, five hundred and twenty-five; and to the borders¹⁵⁸ of the Cilicians, one thousand two hundred and sixty.¹⁵⁹ [4]

Then one comes to Holmi, where the present Seleuceians formerly lived; but when Seleuceia on the Calycadnus was founded, they migrated there; for immediately on doubling the shore, which forms a promontory called Sarpedon, one comes to the outlet of the Calycadnus. Near the Calycadnus is ,also Zephyrium, likewise a promontory. The river affords a voyage inland to Seleuceia, a city which is well-peopled and stands far aloof from the Cilician and Pamphylian usages. Here were born in my time noteworthy men of the Peripatetic sect of philosophers, Athenaeus and Xenarchus. Of these, Athenaeus engaged also in affairs of state and was for a time leader of the people in his native land; and then, having fallen into a friendship with Murena, he was captured along with Murena when in flight with him, after the plot against Augustus Caesar had been detected, but, being clearly proven guiltless, he was released by Caesar. And when, on his return to¹⁶⁰ Rome, the first men who met him were greeting him and questioning him, he repeated the following from Euripides:“I am come, having left the vaults of the dead¹⁶¹ and the gates of darkness.
”¹⁶²But he survived his return only a short time, having been killed in the collapse, which took place in the night, of the house in which he lived. Xenarchus, however, of whom I was a pupil, did not tarry long at home, but resided at Alexandria and at Athens and finally at Rome, having chosen the life of a teacher; and having enjoyed the friendship both of Areius and of Caesar Augustus, he continued to be held in honor down to old age; but shortly before the end he lost his sight, and then died of a disease. [5]

After the Calycadnus one comes to the rock Poecile,¹⁶³ as it is called, which has steps hewn in it that lead to Seleuceia; then to Anemurium, a promontory, bearing the same name as the former,¹⁶⁴ and to Crambusa, an island, and to Corycus, a promontory, above which, at a distance of twenty stadia, is the Corycian cave, in which the best crocus¹⁶⁵ grows. It is a great circular hollow, with a rocky brow situated all round it that is everywhere quite high. Going down into it, one comes to a floor that is uneven and mostly rocky, but full of trees of the shrub kind, both the evergreen and those that are cultivated. And among these trees are dispersed also the plots of ground which produce the crocus. There is also a cave here, with a great spring, which sends forth a river of pure and transparent water; the river forthwith empties beneath the earth, and then, alter running invisible underground, issues forth into the sea. It is called Picrum Hydor.¹⁶⁶ [6]

Then, after Corycus, one comes to Elaeussa, an island lying close to the mainland, which Archelaüs settled, making it a royal residence,¹⁶⁷ after he had received¹⁶⁸ the whole of Cilicia Tracheia except Seleuceia—the same way in which it was obtained formerly by Amyntas¹⁶⁹ and still earlier by Cleopatra;¹⁷⁰ for since the region was naturally well adapted to the business of piracy both by land and by sea—by land, because of the height of the mountains and the large tribes that live beyond them, tribes which have plains and farm-lands that are large and easily overrun, and by sea, because of the good supply, not only of shipbuilding timber, but also of harbors and fortresses and secret recesses—with all this in view, I say, the Romans thought that it was better for the region to be ruled by kings than to be under the Roman prefects sent to administer justice, who were not likely always to be present or to have armed forces with them. Thus Archelaüs received, in addition to Cappadocia, Cilicia Tracheia; and the boundary¹⁷¹ of the latter, the river Lamus and the village of the same name, lies between Soli and Elaeussa. [7]

Near the mountain ridges of the Taurus¹⁷² lies the piratical stronghold of Zenicetus—I mean Olympus, both mountain and fortress, whence are visible all Lycia and Pamphylia and Pisidia and Milyas; but when the mountain was captured by Isauricus,¹⁷³ Zenicetus burnt himself up with his whole house. To him belonged also Corycus and Phaselis and many places in Pamphylia; but all were taken by Isauricus. [8]

After Lamus one comes to Soli, a noteworthy city, the beginning of the other Cilicia, that which is round Issus; it was founded by Achaeans and Rhodians from Lindus. Since this city was of scant population, Pompey the Great settled in it those survivors of the pirates whom he judged most worthy of being saved and provided for;¹⁷⁴ and he changed its name to Pompëiopolis. Among the famous natives of Soli were: Chrysippus the Stoic philosopher, whose father had moved there from Tarsus; Philemon, the comic poet; and Aratus, who wrote the work entitled The Phaenomena, in verse. [9]

Then to Zephyrium, which bears the same name as the place near Calycadnus.¹⁷⁵ Then, a little above the sea, to Anchiale, which, according to Aristobulus, was founded by Sardanapallus. Here, he says, is the tomb of Sardanapallus, and a stone figure which represents the fingers of the right hand as snapping together, and the following inscription in Assyrian letters: "Sardanapallus, the son of Anacyndaraxes, built Anchiale and Tarsus in one day. Eat, drink, be merry, because all things else are not worth this," meaning the snapping of the fingers. Choerilus also mentions this inscription; and indeed the following verses are everywhere known:“Mine are all that I have eaten, and the delights of love that I have enjoyed; but those numerous blessings have been left behind.
”¹⁷⁶ [10]

Above Anchiale lies Cyinda, a fortress, which at one time was used as a treasury by the Macedonians. But the treasures were taken away by Eumenes, when he revolted from Antigonus. And still above this and Soli is a mountainous country, in which is a city Olbe, with a temple of Zeus, founded by Ajax the son of Teucer. The priest of this temple became dynast of Cilicia Tracheia; and then the country was beset by numerous tyrants, and the gangs of pirates were organized. And after the overthrow of these they called this country the domain of Teucer, and called the same also the priesthood of Teucer; and most of the priests were named Teucer or Ajax. But Aba, the daughter of Xenophanes, one of the tyrants, came into this family by marriage and herself took possession of the empire, her father having previously received it in the guise of guardian. But later both Antony and Cleopatra conferred it upon her as a favor, being moved by her courteous entreaties. And then she was overthrown, but the empire remained with her descendants. After Anchiale one comes to the outlets of the Cydnus, near the Rhegma, as it is called. It is a place that forms into a lake, having also ancient arsenals; and into it empties the Cydnus River, which flows through the middle of Tarsus and has its sources in the city Taurus, which lies above Tarsus. The lake is also the naval station of Tarsus. [11]

Now thus far the seaboard as a whole, beginning at the Peraea of the Rhodians, extends towards the equinoctial east from the equinoctial west,¹⁷⁷ and then bends in the direction of winter sunrise¹⁷⁸ as far as Issus, and then forthwith takes a bend towards the south as far as Phoenicia; and the remainder extends towards the west as far as the Pillars¹⁷⁹ and there ends. Now the truth is that the actual isthmus of the peninsula which I have described is that which extends from Tarsus and the outlet of the Cydnus to Amisus, for this is the shortest distance from Amisus to the boundaries of Cilicia; and the distance thence to Tarsus is one hundred and twenty stadia, and the distance from there to the outlet of the Cydnus is no more than that. And in fact to Issus, and the sea near it, there is no other road from Amisus which is shorter than that through Tarsus, and Tarsus is not nearer to Issus than to the Cydnus;¹⁸⁰ and therefore it is clear that in reality this would be the isthmus; but still people call that which extends as far as the Gulf of Issus the true isthmus, thus betraying the facts because of the significance of the gulf. And it is because of this very thing that I, without making any accurate distinctions, represent the line from Rhodes, which I have prolonged to the Cydnus, to be the same as the line extending as far as Issus, and also assert that the Taurus extends in a straight line with that line as far as India. [12]

As for Tarsus, it lies in a plain; and it was founded by the Argives who wandered with Triptolemus in quest of Io; and it is intersected in the middle by the Cydnus River, which flows past the very gymnasium of the young men. Now inasmuch as the source of the river is not very far away and its stream passes through a deep ravine and then empties immediately into the city, its discharge is both cold and swift; and hence it is helpful both to men and to cattle that are suffering from swollen sinews, if they immerse themselves in its waters. [13]

The people at Tarsus have devoted themselves so eagerly, not only to philosophy, but also to the whole round of education in general, that they have surpassed Athens, Alexandria, or any other place that can be named where there have been schools and lectures of philosophers. But it is so different from other cities that there the men who are fond of learning, are all natives, and foreigners are not inclined to sojourn there; neither do these natives stay there, but they complete their education abroad; and when they have completed it they are pleased to live abroad, and but few go back home. But the opposite is the case with the other cities which I have just mentioned except Alexandria; for many resort to them and pass time there with pleasure, but you would not see many of the natives either resorting to places outside their country through love of learning or eager about pursuing learning at home. With the Alexandrians, however, both things take place, for they admit¹⁸¹ many foreigners and also send not a few of their own citizens abroad. Further, the city of Tarsus has all kinds of schools of rhetoric; and in general it not only has a flourishing population but also is most powerful, thus keeping up the reputation of the mother-city.¹⁸² [14]

The following men were natives of Tarsus: among the Stoics, Antipater and Archedemus and Nestor; and also the two Athenodoruses, one of whom, called Cordylion, lived with Marcus Cato and died at his house; and the other, the son of Sandon, called Cananites after some village, was Caesar's teacher and was greatly honored by him; and when he returned to his native land, now an old man, he broke up the government there established, which was being badly conducted by Boethus, among others, who was a bad poet and a bad citizen, having prevailed there by currying the favour of the people. He had been raised to prominence by Antony, who at the outset received favorably the poem which he had written upon the victory at Philippi, but still more by that facility prevalent among the Tarsians whereby he could instantly speak offhand and unceasingly on any given subject. Furthermore, Antony promised the Tarsians an office of gymnasiarch, but appointed Boethus instead of a gymnasiarch, and entrusted to him the expenditures. But Boethus was caught secreting, among other things, the olive-oil; and when he was being proven guilty by his accusers in the presence of Antony he deprecated Antony's wrath, saying, among other things, that "Just as Homer had hymned the praises of Achilles and Agamemnon and Odysseus, so I have hymned thine. It is not right, therefore, that I should be brought before you on such slanderous charges." When, however, the accuser caught the statement, he said, "Yes, but Homer did not steal Agamemnon's oil, nor yet that of Achilles, but you did; and therefore you shall be punished." However, he broke the wrath of Antony by courteous attentions, and no less than before kept on plundering the city until the overthrow of Antony. Finding the city in this plight, Athenodorus for a time tried to induce both Boethus and his partisans to change their course; but since they would abstain from no act of insolence, he used the authority given him by Caesar, condemned them to exile, and expelled them. These at first indicted him with the following inscription on the walls:“Work for young men, counsels for the middle-aged, and flatulence for old men;
”and when he, taking the inscription as a joke, ordered the following words to be inscribed beside it, "thunder for old men," someone, contemptuous of all decency and afflicted with looseness of the bowels, profusely bespattered the door and wall of Athenodorus' house as he was passing by it at night. Athenodorus, while bringing accusations in the assembly against the faction, said: "One may see the sickly plight and the disaffection of the city in many ways, and in particular from its excrements." These men were Stoics; but the Nestor of my time, the teacher of Marcellus, son of Octavia the sister of Caesar, was an Academician. He too was at the head of the government of Tarsus, having succeeded Athenodorus; and he continued to be held in honor both by the prefects and in the city. [15]

Among the other philosophers from Tarsus,“whom I could well note and tell their names,
”¹⁸³are Plutiades and Diogenes, who were among those philosophers that went round from city to city and conducted schools in an able manner. Diogenes also composed poems, as if by inspiration, when a subject was given him—for the most part tragic poems; and as for grammarians whose writings are extant, there are Artemidorus and Diodorus; and the best tragic poet among those enumerated in the "Pleias"¹⁸⁴ was Dionysides. But it is Rome that is best able to tell us the number of learned men from this city; for it is full of Tarsians and Alexandrians. Such is Tarsus. [16]

After the Cydnus River one comes to the Pyramus River, which flows from Cataonia, a river which I have mentioned before.¹⁸⁵ According to Artemidorus, the distance thence to Soli in a straight voyage is five hundred stadia. Near by, also, is Mallus, situated on a height, founded by Amphilochus and Mopsus, the latter the son of Apollo and Manto, concerning whom many myths are told. And indeed I, too, have mentioned them in my account of Calchas¹⁸⁶ and of the quarrel between Calchas and Mopsus about their powers of divination. For some writers transfer this quarrel, Sophocles, for example, to Cilicia, which he, following the custom of tragic poets, calls Pamphylia,just as he calls Lycia "Caria"¹⁸⁷ and Troy and Lydia "Phrygia." And Sophocles, among others, tells us that Calchas died there. But, according to the myth, the contest concerned, not only the power of divination, but also the sovereignty; for they say that Mopsus and Amphilochus went from Troy and founded Mallus, and that Amphilochus then went away to Argos, and, being dissatisfied with affairs there, returned to Mallus, but that, being excluded from a share in the government there, he fought a duel with Mopsus, and that both fell in the duel and were buried in places that were not in sight of one another. And today their tombs are to be seen in the neighborhood of Magarsa near the Pyramus River. This¹⁸⁸ was the birthplace of Crates the grammarian, of whom Panaetius is said to have been a pupil. [17]

Above this coast lies the Aleïan Plain, through which Philotas led the cavalry for Alexander, when Alexander led his phalanx from Soli along the coast and the territory of Mallus against Issus and the forces of Dareius. It is said that Alexander performed sacrifices to Amphilochus because of his kinship with the Argives. Hesiod says that Amphilochus was slain by Apollo at Soli; but others say that he was slain in the neighborhood of the Aleïan Plain, and others in Syria, when he was quitting the Aleïan Plain because of the quarrel. [18]

After Mallus one comes to Aegaeae, a small town, with a mooring-place; and then to the Amanides Gates, with a mooring-place, where ends the mountain Amanus, which extends down from the Taurus and lies above Cilicia towards the east. It was always ruled by several powerful tyrants, who possessed strongholds; but in my time a notable man established himself as lord of all, and was named king by the Romans because of his manly virtues—I refer to Tarcondimotus, who bequeathed the succession to his posterity. [19]

After Aegaeae, one comes to Issus, a small town with a mooring-place, and to the Pinarus River. It was here that the struggle between Alexander and Dareius occurred; and the gulf is called the Issic Gulf. On this gulf are situated the city Rhosus, the city Myriandrus, Alexandreia, Nicopolis, Mopsuestia, and Pylae, as it is called, which is the boundary between the Cilicians and the Syrians. In Cilicia is also the temple and oracle of the Sarpedonian Artemis; and the oracles are delivered by persons who are divinely inspired. [20]

After Cilicia the first Syrian city is Seleuceiain-Pieria, near which the Orontes River empties. The voyage from Seleuceia to Soli, on a straight course, is but little short of one thousand stadia. [21]

Since the Cilicians in the Troad whom Homer mentions are far distant from the Cilicians outside the Taurus, some represent those in Troy as original colonizers of the latter, and point out certain places of the same name there, as, for example, Thebe and Lyrnessus in Pamphylia, whereas others of contrary opinion point out also an Aleïan Plain in the former.

Now that the parts of the aforesaid peninsula outside the Taurus have been described, I must add what follows. [22]

Apollodorus, in his work On the Catalogue of Ships, goes on to say to this effect, that all the allies of the Trojans from Asia were enumerated by the poet as being inhabitants of the peninsula, of which the narrowest isthmus is that between the innermost recess at Sinope and Issus. And the exterior sides of this peninsula, he says, which is triangular in shape, are unequal in length, one of them extending from Cilicia to the Chelidonian Islands, another from the Chelidonian Islands to the mouth of the Euxine, and the third thence back to Sinope. Now the assertion that the allies were alone those who lived in the peninsula can be proved wrong by the same arguments by which I have previously shown that the allies were not alone those who lived this side the Halys River.¹⁸⁹ For just as the places round Pharnacia, in which, as I said, the Halizoni lived, are outside the Halys River, so also they are outside the isthmus, if indeed they are outside the narrows between Sinope and Issus; and not outside these alone, but also outside the true narrows between Amisus and Issus, for he too incorrectly defines the isthmus and its narrows, since he substitutes the former for the latter. But the greatest absurdity is this, that, after calling the peninsula triangular in shape, he represents the "exterior sides" as three in number; for when he speaks of the "exterior sides" he seems privily to exclude the side along the narrows, as though this too were a side, but not "exterior" or on the sea. If, then, these narrows were so shortened that the exterior side ending at Issus and that ending at Sinope lacked but little of joining one another, one might concede that the peninsula should be called triangular; but, as it is, since the narrows mentioned by him leave a distance of three thousand stadia between Issus and Sinope, it is ignorance and not knowledge of chorography to call such a four-sided figure triangular. Yet he published in the metre of comedy¹⁹⁰ a work on chorography entitled A Description of the Earth. The same ignorance still remains even though one should reduce the isthmus to the minimum distance, I mean, to one-half of the whole distance, as given by those who have most belied the facts, among whom is also Artemidorus, that is, fifteen hundred stadia; for even this does contract the side along the narrows enough to make the peninsula a triangular figure. Neither does Artemidorus correctly distinguish the exterior sides when he speaks of "the side that extends from Issus as far as the Chelidonian Islands," for there still remains to this side the whole of the Lycian coast, which lies in a straight line with the side he mentions, as does also the Peraea of the Rhodians as far as Physcus. And thence the mainland bends and begins to form the second, or westerly, side extending as far as the Propontis and Byzantium. [23]

But though Ephorus said that this peninsula was inhabited by sixteen tribes, of which three were Hellenic and the rest barbarian, except those that were mixed, adding that the Cilicians, Pamphylians, Lycians, Bithynians, Paphlagonians, Mariandynians, Trojans, and Carians lived on the sea, but the Pisidians, Mysians, Chalybians, Phrygians, and Milyans in the interior, Apollodorus, who passes judgment upon this matter, says that the tribe of the Galatians, which is more recent than the time of Ephorus, is a seventeenth, and that, of the aforesaid tribes, the Hellenic had not yet, in the time of the Trojan War, settled there, and that the barbarian tribes are much confused because of the lapse of time; and that the poet names in his Catalogue the tribes of the Trojans and of the Paphlagonians, as they are now named, and of the Mysians and Phrygians and Carians and Lycians, as also the Meïonians, instead of the Lydians, and other unknown peoples, as, for example, the Halizones and Caucones; and, outside the Catalogue, the Ceteians and the Solymi and the Cilicians from the plain of Thebe and the Leleges, but nowhere names the Pamphylians, Bithynians, Mariandynians, Pisidians, Chalybians, Milyans, or Cappadocians—some because they had not yet settled in this region, and others because they were included among other tribes, as, for example, the Hidrieis and the Termilae among the Carians, and the Doliones and Bebryces among the Phrygians. [24]

But obviously Apollodorus does not pass a fair judgment upon the statement of Ephorus, and also confuses and falsifies the words of the poet; for he ought first to have asked Ephorus this question: Why he placed the Chalybians inside the peninsula when they were so far distant towards the east from both Sinope and Amisus? For those who say that the isthmus of this peninsula is the line from Issus to the Euxine make this line a kind of meridian, which some think should be the line to Sinope, and others, that to Amisus, but no one that to the land of the Chalybians, which is absolutely oblique; in fact, the meridian through the land of the Chalybians would be drawn through Lesser Armenia and the Euphrates, cutting off on this side of it the whole of Cappadocia, Commagene, Mt. Amanus, and the Issic Gulf. If, however, we should concede that the oblique line bounds the isthmus, at least most of these places, and Cappadocia in particular, would be cut off on this side, as also the country now called Pontus in the special sense of the term, which is a part of Cappadocia towards the Euxine; so that, if the land of the Chalybians must be set down as a part of the peninsula, much more should Cataonia and both Cappadocias, as also Lycaonia, which is itself omitted by him. Again, why did Ephorus place in the interior the Chalybians, whom the poet called Halizones, as I have already demonstrated?¹⁹¹ For it would have been better to divide them and set one part of them on the sea and the other in the interior, as should also be done in the case of Cappadocia and Cilicia; but Ephorus does not even name Cappadocia, and speaks only of the Cilicians on the sea. Now as for the people who were subject to Antipater Derbetes, and the Homonadeis and several other peoples who border on the Pisidians,“men who do not know the sea and even do not eat food mingled with salt,
”¹⁹²where are they to be placed? Neither does he say in regard to the Lydians or Meïones whether they are two peoples or the same, or whether they live separately by themselves or are included within another tribe. For it would be impossible to lose from sight so significant a tribe; and if Ephorus says nothing about it, would he not seem to have omitted something most important? [25]

And who are the "mixed" tribes? For we would be unable to say that, as compared with the aforesaid places, others were either named or omitted by "him which we shall assign to the "mixed" tribes; neither can we call "mixed" any of these peoples themselves whom he has mentioned or omitted; for, even if they had become mixed, still the predominant element has made them either Hellenes or barbarians; and I know nothing of a third tribe of people that is "mixed." [26]

And how can there be three Hellenic tribes that live on the peninsula? For if it is because the Athenians and the Ionians were the same people in ancient times, let also the Dorians and the Aeolians be called the same people; and thus there would be only two tribes. But if one should make distinctions in accordance with the customs of later times, as, for example, in accordance with dialects, then the tribes, like the dialects, would be four in number.¹⁹³ But this peninsula, particularly in accordance with the division of Ephorus, is inhabited, not only by Ionians, but also by Athenians, as I have shown in my account of the several places.¹⁹⁴ Now although it is worth while to raise such questions as these with reference to Ephorus, yet Apollodorus took no thought for them and also goes on to add to the sixteen tribes a seventeenth, that of the Galatians—in general a useful thing to do, but unnecessary for the passing of judgment upon what is said or omitted by Ephorus. But Apollodorus states the reason himself, that all this is later than the time of Ephorus. [27]

Passing to the poet, Apollodorus rightly says that much confusion of the barbarian tribes has taken place from the Trojan times to the present because of the changes, for some of them have been added to, others have vanished, others have been dispersed, and others have been combined into one tribe. But he incorrectly sets forth as twofold the reason why the poet does not mention some of them; either because a country was not yet inhabited by this or that tribe or because this or that tribe was included within another; for instance, the poet fails to mention Cappadocia, Cataonia, and likewise Lycaonia, but for neither of these reasons, for we have no history of this kind in their case. Further, it is ridiculous that Apollodorus should concern himself about the reason why Homer omitted the Cappadocians and Lycaonians and speak in his defence, and yet should himself omit to tell the reason why Ephorus omitted them, and that too when he had cited the statement of the man for the very purpose of examining it and passing judgment upon it; and also to teach us why Homer mentioned Meïonians instead of Lydians, but not to remark that Ephorus mentions neither Lydians nor Meïonians. [28]

After saying that the poet mentions certain unknown tribes, Apollodorus rightly names the Cauconians, the Solymi, the Ceteians, the Leleges, and the Cilicians of the plain of Thebe; but the Halizones are a fabrication of his own, or rather of the first men who, not knowing who the Halizones were, wrote the name in several different ways¹⁹⁵ and fabricated the "birthplace of silver"¹⁹⁶ and many other mines, all of which have given out. And in furtherance of their emulous desire they also collected the stories cited by Demetrius of Scepsis from Callisthenes and certain other writers, who were not free from the false notions about the Halizones. Likewise the wealth of Tantalus and the Pelopidae arose from the mines round Phrygia and Sipylus; that of Cadmus from those round Thrace and Mt. Pangaeus; that of Priam from the gold mines at Astyra near Abydus (of which still today there are small remains; here the amount of earth thrown out is considerable, and the excavations are signs of the mining in olden times); and that of Midas from those round Mt. Bermius; and that of Gyges and Alyattes and Croesus from those Lydia and from the region between Atarneus and Pergamum, where is a small deserted town, whose lands have been exhausted of ore. [29]

Still further one might find fault with Apollodorus, because, when the more recent writers make numerous innovations contrary to the statements of Homer, he is wont frequently to put these innovations to the test, but in the present case he not only has made small account of them, but also, on the contrary, identifies things that are not meant alike; for instance, Xanthus the Lydian says that it was after the Trojan War that the Phrygians came from Europe and the left-hand side of the Pontus, and that Scamandrius led them from the Berecyntes and Ascania, but Apollodorus adds to this the statement that Homer refers to this Ascania that is mentioned by Xanthus:“And Phorcys and godlike Ascanius led the Phrygians from afar, from Ascania.
”¹⁹⁷However, if this is so, the migration must have taken place later than the Trojan War, whereas the allied force mentioned by the poet came from the opposite mainland, from the Berecyntes and Ascania. Who, then, were the Phrygians,“who were then encamped along the banks of the Sangarius,
”¹⁹⁸when Priam says,“for I too, being an ally, was numbered among these?
”¹⁹⁹And how could Priam have sent for Phrygians from the Berecyntes, with whom he had no compact, and yet leave uninvited those who lived on his borders and to whom he had formerly been ally? And after speaking in this way about the Phrygians he adds also an account of the Mysians that is not in agreement with this; for he says that there is also a village in Mysia which is called Ascania, near a lake of the same name, whence flows the Ascanius River, which is mentioned by Euphorion,“beside the waters of the Mysian Ascanius,
”and by Alexander the Aetolian,“who have their homes on the Ascanian streams, on the lips of the Ascanian Lake, where dwelt Dolion, the son of Silenus and Melia.
”And he says that the country round Cyzicus, as one goes to Miletupolis, is called Dolionis and Mysia. If this is so, then, and if witness thereto is borne both by the places now pointed out and by the poets, what could have prevented Homer from mentioning this Ascania, and not the Ascania spoken of by Xanthus? I have discussed this before, in my account of the Mysians and Phrygians;²⁰⁰ and therefore let this be the end of that subject. 6.

It remains for me to describe the island which lies alongside this peninsula on the south, I mean Cyprus. I have already said that the sea surrounded by Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, and the rest of the coast as far as Rhodia²⁰¹ consists approximately of the Aegyptian and Pamphylian Seas and of the sea at the gulf of Issus. In this last sea lies Cypros; its northern parts closely approach Cilicia Tracheia, where they are closest to the mainland, and its eastern parts border on the Issic Gulf, and its western on the Pamphylian Sea, being washed by that sea, and its southern by the Aegyptian Sea. Now the Aegyptian Sea is confluent on the west with the Libyan and Carpathian Seas, but in its southern and eastern parts borders on Aegypt and the coast next thereafter as far as Seleuceia and lssus, and towards the north on Cypros and the Pamphylian Sea; but the Pamphylian Sea is surrounded on the north by the extremities of Cilicia Tracheia, of Pamphylia, and of Lycia, as far as Rhodia, and on the west by the island of the Rhodians, and on the east by the part of Cypros near Paphos and the Acamas, and on the south is confluent with the Aegyptian Sea. [2]

The circuit of Cypros is three thousand four hundred and twenty stadia, including the sinuosities of the gulfs. The length from Cleides to the Acamas by land, travelling from east to west, is one thousand four hundred stadia. The Cleides are two isles lying off Cypros opposite the eastern parts of the island, which are seven hundred stadia distant from the Pyramus. The Acamas is a promontory with two breasts and much timber. It is situated at the western part of the island, and extends towards the north; it lies closest to Selinus in Cilicia Tracheia, the passage across being one thousand stadia, whereas the passage across to Side in Pamphylia is one thousand sixteen hundred and to the Chelidonian islands one thousand nine hundred. The shape of the island as a whole is oblong; and in some places it forms isthmuses on the sides which define its breadth. But the island also has its several parts, which I shall describe briefly, beginning with the point that is nearest to the mainland. [3]

I have said somewhere²⁰² that opposite to Anemurium, a cape of Cilicia Tracheia, is the promontory of the Cyprians, I mean the promontory of Crommyus, at a distance of three hundred and fifty stadia. Thence forthwith, keeping the island on the right and the mainland on the left, the voyage to the Cleides lies in a straight line towards the north-east, a distance of seven hundred stadia. In the interval is the city Lapathus, with a mooring-place and dockyards; it was founded by Laconians and Praxander, and opposite it lies Nagidus. Then one comes to Aphrodisium, where the island is narrow, for the passage across to Salamis is only seventy stadia. Then to the beach of the Achaeans, where Teucer, the founder of Salamis in Cypros, first landed, having been banished, as they say, by his father Telamon. Then to a city Carpasia, with a harbor. It is situated opposite the promontory Sarpedon; and the passage from Carpasia across the isthmus to the Carpasian Islands and the southern sea is thirty stadia. Then to a promontory and mountain. The mountain peak is called Olympus; and it has a temple of Aphrodite Acraea, which cannot be entered or seen by women. Off it, and near it, lie the Cleides, as also several other islands; and then one comes to the Carpasian Islands; and, after these, to Salamis, where Aristus the historian was born. Then to Arsinoe, a city and harbor. Then to another harbor, Leucolla. Then to a promontory, Pedalium, above which lies a hill that is rugged, high, trapezium-shaped, and sacred to Aphrodite, whereto the distance from the Cleides is six hundred stadia. Then comes the coasting-voyage to Citium, which for the most part is sinuous and rough. Citium has a harbor that can be closed; and here were born both Zeno, the original founder of the Stoic sect, and Apollonius, a physician. The distance thence to Berytus is one thousand five hundred stadia. Then to the city Amathus, and, in the interval, to a small town called Palaea, and to a breast-shaped mountain called Olympus. Then to Curias, which is peninsula-like, whereto the distance from Throni is seven hundred stadia. Then to a city Curium, which has a mooring-place and was founded by the Argives. One may therefore see at once the carelessness of the poet who wrote the elegy that begins,“we hinds, sacred to Phoebus, racing across many billows, came hither in our swift course to escape the arrows of our pursuers,
”whether the author was Hedylus or someone else; for he says that the hinds set out from the Corycian heights and swam across from the Cilician shore to the beach of Curias, and further says that“it is a matter of untold amazement to men to think how we ran across the impassable stream by the aid of a vernal west wind;
”for while there is a voyage round the island from Corycus to the beach Curias, which is made neither by the aid of a west wind nor by keeping the island on the right nor on the left, there is no passage across the sea between the two places. At any rate, Curium is the beginning of the westerly voyage in the direction of Rhodes; and immediately one comes to a promontory, whence are flung those who touch the altar of Apollo. Then to Treta, and to Boosura, and to Palaepaphus, which last is situated at about ten stadia above the sea, has a mooring-place, and an ancient temple of the Paphian Aphrodite. Then to the promontory Zephyria, with a landing-place, and to another Arsinoe, which likewise has a landing-place and a temple and a sacred precinct. And at a little distance from the sea is Hierocepis. Then to Paphus, which was founded by Agapenor, and has both a harbor and well-built temples. It is sixty stadia distant from Palaepaphus by land; and on this road men together with women, who also assemble here from the other cities, hold an annual procession to Palaepaphus. Some say that the distance from Paphus to Alexandria is three thousand six hundred stadia. Then, after Paphus, one comes to the Acamas. Then, after the Acamas, towards the east, one sails to a city Arsinoe and the sacred precinct of Zeus. Then to a city Soli, with a harbor and a river and a temple of Aphrodite and Isis. It was founded by Phalerus and Acamas, Athenians; and the inhabitants are called Solians; and here was born Stasanor, one of the comrades of Alexander, who was thought worthy of a chief command; and above it, in the interior, lies a city Limenia. And then to the promontory of Crommyus. [4]

But why should one wonder at the poets, and particularly at writers of the kind that are wholly concerned about style, when we compare the statements of Damastes, who gives the length of the island as from north to south, "from Hierocepias," as he says, "to Cleides"? Neither is Eratosthenes correct, for, although he censures Damastes, he says that Hierocepias is not on the north but on the south; for it is not on the south either, but on the west, since it lies on the western side, where are also Paphus and the Acamas. Such is the geographical position of Cypros. [5]

In fertility Cypros is not inferior to any one of the islands, for it produces both good wine and good oil, and also a sufficient supply of grain for its own use. And at Tamassus there are abundant mines of copper, in which is found chalcanthite²⁰³ and also the rust of copper, which latter is useful for its medicinal properties. Eratosthenes says that in ancient times the plains were thickly overgrown with forests, and therefore were covered with woods and not cultivated; that the mines helped a little against this, since the people would cut down the trees to burn the copper and the silver, and that the building of the fleets further helped, since the sea was now being navigated safely, that is, with naval forces, but that, because they could not thus prevail over the growth of the timber, they permitted anyone who wished, or was able, to cut out the timber and to keep the land thus cleared as his own property and exempt from taxes. [6]

Now in the earlier times the several cities of the Cyprians were under the rule of tyrants, but from the time the Ptolemaic kings became established as lords of Aegypt Cypros too came into their power, the Romans often cooperating with them. But when the last Ptolemy that reigned, the brother of the father of Cleopatra, the queen in my time, was decreed to be both disagreeable and ungrateful to his benefactors, he was deposed, and the Romans took possession of the island; and it has become a praetorian province by itself. The chief cause of the ruin of the king was Publius Claudius Pulcher; for the latter, having fallen into the hands of the bands of pirates, the Cilicians then being at the height of their power, and, being asked for a ransom, sent a message to the king, begging him to send and rescue him. The king indeed sent a ransom, but so utterly small that the pirates disdained to take it and sent it back again, but released him without ransom. Having safely escaped, he remembered the favour of both; and, when he became tribune of the people, he was so powerful that he had Marcus Cato sent to take Cypros away from its possessor. Now the king killed himself beforehand, but Cato went over and took Cypros and disposed of the king's property and carried the money to the Roman treasury. From that time the island became a province, just as it is now—a praetorian province. During a short intervening time Antony gave it over to Cleopatra and her sister Arsinoe, but when he was overthrown his whole organization was overthrown with him.