Chapter III (2)

[102] These innovations or corruptions were not confined to the composition of pieces intended for the theatre, but extended also to the manner of their representation, to music, dancing, and the costume of the actors. It was an absolute plague, which corrupted taste, and finally destroyed the Greek theatre. We are not informed of the detail of these innovations, but from what we are able to judge by comparing Strabo with what is found in Athenæus, (b. xiv. § 14, p. 990, of Bohn’s Classical Library,) Simodia was designated by the name of Hilarodia, (joyous song,) and obtained the name Simodia from one Simus, or Simon, who excelled in the art. The Lysiodi and Magodi, or Lysodia and Magodia, were the same thing, according to some writers. Under these systems decency appears to have been laid aside.

[103] Od. ix. 3.

[104] Aidin-Gusel-Hissar.

[105] The chain of mountains between the Caÿster and the Mæander, the different eminences of which bear the names of Samsun-dagh, Gumusch-dagh, Dsehuma-dagh, &c.

[106] Sultan-Hissar.

[107] The Tralli Thracians appear to have acted as mercenary soldiers, according to Hesychius.

[108] Groskurd supplies the word πρόσκεινται.

[109] Groskurd reads τοιούτων, for τοσούτων in the text. Coraÿ proposes νοσούντων.

[110] Meineke’s conjecture is followed, λίπα ἀληλιμμένοι, for ἀπαληλιμμένοι.

[111] Groskurd’s emendation of this corrupt passage is adopted, ὑπερβᾶσι τὴν Μεσωγίδα ἐπὶ τὰ πρὸς τὸν νότον μέρη Τμώλου τοῦ ὄρους.

[112] Il. ii. 461.

[113] Arpas-Kalessi.

[114] Mastauro.

[115] Adopting Kramer’s correction of Καρίας for παραλίας.

[116] Cape Arbora.

[117] Schelidan Adassi islands, opposite Cape Chelidonia.

[118] Near Gudschek, at the bottom of the Gulf of Glaucus, now Makri.

[119] The Phœnix (Phinti?) rises above the Gulf of Saradeh.

[120] Alessa, or, according to others, Barbanicolo.

[121] Dalian.

[122] Doloman-Ischai.

[123] Kramer suggests the words ὑπομέλανας καὶ, for the corrupt reading, ἐπιμελῶς.

[124] Il. vi. 146.

[125] The Caunians were aborigines of Caria, although they affected to come from Crete.—_Herod._ i. 72.

[126] Castro Marmora. The gulf on which it stands is still called Porto Fisko.

[127] Chares flourished at the beginning of the third century B. C. The accounts of the height of the Colossus of Rhodes differ slightly, but all agree in making it 105 English feet. It was twelve years in erecting, (B. C. 292-280,) and it cost 300 talents. There is no authority for the statement that its legs extended over the mouth of the harbour. It was overthrown 56 years after its erection. The fragments of the Colossus remained on the ground 923 years, until they were sold by Moawiyeh, the general of the Caliph Othman IV., to a Jew of Emessa, who carried them away on 900 camels, A. D. 672. Hence Scaliger calculated the weight of the bronze at 700,000 pounds.—_Smith’s Dict. of Biog. and Mythology._

[128] Protogenes occupied seven years in painting the Jalysus, which was afterwards transferred to the Temple of Peace at Rome. The Satyr was represented playing on a flute, and was entitled, The Satyr Reposing.—_Plutarch, Demetr._; _Pliny_, xxxv. 10.

[129] ὀψωνιασμοῦ, Kramer’s proposed correction, is adopted for ὀψωνιαζόμενοι.

[130] Marseilles and Artaki.

[131] Bodrum.

[132] Il. ii. 662.

[133] Il. ii. 656.

[134] Il. ii. 678.

[135] Formerly, says Pliny, it was called Ophiussa, Asteria, Æthræa, Trinacria, Corymbia, Pœeessa, Atabyria, from a king of that name; then Macaria and Oloëssa. B. v. 31. To these names may be added Lindus and Pelagia. Meineke, however, suspects the name Stadia in this passage to be a corruption for Asteria.

[136] That is, Children of the Sun. They were seven in number, Cercaphus, Actis, Macareus, Tenages, Triopes, Phaethon, and Ochimus, born of the Sun and of a nymph, or, according to others, of a heroine named Rhodus.

[137] Il. ii. 656.

[138] Hippodamus of Miletus.

[139] Naples.

[140] Majorca.

[141] Negropont.

[142] Called light-armed probably from the use of the sling, common among the Rhodians, as it was also among the Cretans. The use of the sling tends to prove the Rhodian origin of the inhabitants of the Balearic islands. The Athenian expedition to Sicily (Thucyd. vi. 43) was accompanied by 700 slingers from Rhodes.

[143] Strabo here omits to mention the Rhodian origin of Agrigentum and Gela in Sicily.

[144] Il. ii. 668.

[145] Ol. vii. 61.

[146] Lindo.

[147] According to Strabo, Alexandria and Rhodes were upon the same meridian.

[148] Camiro.

[149] Lanathi?

[150] Abatro.

[151] B. x. c. v. § 14.

[152] The original, which is a play upon words, cannot be rendered in English.

[153] Called before, Eleussa, c. ii. § 2.

[154] The Sea of Marmora.

[155] Capo Volpe, or Alepo Kavo, meaning the same thing.

[156] Isle of Symi.

[157] Crio.

[158] Indschirli, or Nisari.

[159] Keramo.

[160] The word ἔργον, “a work,” suggests that there is some omission in the text. Coraÿ supposes that the name of the architect or architects is wanting. Groskurd would supply the words Σκόπα καὶ ἄλλων τεχνιτῶν, “the work of Scopas and other artificers.” See Pliny, N. H. xxxvi., and Vitruvius Præf. b. vii.

[161] Coronata.

[162] Mela says, of Argives. B. i. c. xvi. § 19.

[163] Petera, or Petra Termera.

[164] Cape Kephala.

[165] Pascha-Liman.

[166] Assem-Kalessi.

[167] Cape Arbore.

[168] Mylassa, or Marmora.

[169] Eski-hissar.

[170] Arab-hissar.

[171] This is a parody on a passage in Aristophanes. Lysis. v. 1038.

[172] Of the golden rays (around the head).

[173] Cicero. _Brut._, c. 91.

[174] Il. ii. 867, in which the reading is Νάστης, but Μέσθλης in Il. ii. 864.

[175] Od. i. 344.

[176] Il. xv. 80.

[177] Il. v. 222.

[178] βατταρίζειν, τραυλίζειν, ψελλίζειν.

[179] κελαρύζειν, κλαγγὴ, ψόφος, βοὴ, κρότος.

[180] Chelidoniæ, in this passage, is probably an error. Groskurd adopts the name Philomelium.

[181] Ilgun.

[182] At the base of Sultan-dagh.

[183] Ak-Schehr.

[184] Sultan Chan.

[185] Ak-Sera.

[186] Kaiserieh.

[187] Called Herpa, b. xii. ch. ii. § 6, pages 281, 283.

[188] Μετὰ τὴν Ῥοδίων Περαίαν, or, “After the Peræa of Rhodes.” Peræa was the name of the coast of Caria opposite to Rhodes, which for several centuries formed a dependency of that opulent republic. In the time of Scylax, the Rhodians possessed only the peninsula immediately in face of their island. As a reward for their assistance in the Antiochian war, the Romans gave them a part of Lycia, and all Caria as far as the Mæander. By having adopted a less prudent policy in the second Macedonic war, they lost it all, including Caunus, the chief town of Peræa. It was not long, however, before it was restored to them, together with the small islands near Rhodes; and from this time Peræa retained the limits which Strabo has described, namely, Dædala on the east and Mount Loryma on the west, both included. Vespasian finally reduced Rhodes itself into the provincial form, and joined it to Caria.—_Leake._

[189] Samsun.

[190] Eski Adalia, Old Attaleia; but the Greeks gave the name παλαιὰ Ἀττάλεια, Old Attaleia, to Perge.—_Leake._

[191] Gunik.

[192] Patera.

[193] Minara.

[194] Duvar.

[195] Gillies, in his translation of Aristotle, makes use of this example of the Lycians to prove that representative government was not unknown to the ancients. The deputies sent from the twenty-three cities formed a parliament. The taxes and public charges imposed on the several towns were in proportion to the number of representatives sent from each city.—_Gillies_, vol. ii. p. 64, &c.

[196] Makri.

[197] Site unknown.

[198] Efta Kavi, the Seven Capes.

[199] Od. xix. 518.

[200] Kodscha.

[201] The passage in the original, in which all manuscripts agree, and which is the subject of much doubt, is—

ὧν καὶ μεγίστη νῆσος καὶ πόλις ὁμώνυμος, ἡ Κισθήνη.

Groskurd would read καὶ before ἡ, and translates,—“Among others is Megiste an island, and a city of the same name, and Cisthene.”

Later writers, says Leake, make no mention of Cisthene; and Ptolemy, Pliny, Stephanus, agree in showing that Megiste and Dolichiste were the two principal islands on the coast of Lycia: the former word Megiste, _greatest_, well describing the island Kasteloryzo or Castel Rosso, as the latter word (longest) does that of Kakava. Nor is Scylax less precise in pointing out Kasteloryzo as Megiste, which name is found in an inscription copied by M. Cockerell from a rock at Castel Rosso. It would seem, therefore, that this island was anciently known by both names, (Megiste and Cisthene,) but in later times perhaps chiefly by that of Megiste.

[202] Cape Chelidonia.

[203] Aboukir, nearly under the same meridian.

[204] Tschariklar.

[205] Garabasa.

[206] Tschiraly. Deliktasch.—_Leake._

[207] Ianartasch.

[208] Tirikowa.

[209] Solyma-dagh.

[210] Gulik-Chan?

[211] Il. vi. 184.

[212] Duden-su.

[213] Adalia.

[214] Ernatia.

[215] Ak-su.

[216] Murtana.

[217] Tekeh.

[218] Kopru-su.

[219] Balkesu.

[220] Kislidscha-koi.

[221] Menavgat-su.

[222] Alara.

[223] Alaja, or Castel Ubaldo.

[224] Herod. vii. 91. According to this passage, therefore, the name Pamphylians is derived from πᾶν, “all,” and φῦλον, “nation.”

[225] Alaja.

[226] Syedra probably shared with Coraresium (Alaja), a fertile plain which here borders on the coast. But Syedra is Tzschucke’s emendation of Arsinoë in the text.

[227] Not mentioned by any other author.

[228] Selindi.

[229] Charadran.

[230] Kara-Gedik.

[231] Inamur.

[232] Cape Kormakiti.

[233] Mesetlii.

[234] Softa-Kalessi.

[235] Mandane?

[236] Kilandria, or Gulnar.

[237] According to Pliny, Cilicia anciently commenced at the river Melas, which Strabo has just said belongs to Pamphylia. Ptolemy fixes upon Coracesium as the first place in Cilicia, which, according to Mela, was separated from Pamphylia by Cape Anemurium, which was near Nagidus.

[238] Nahr-el-Asy.

[239] B. xvi. c. ii. § 33.

[240] Selefke.

[241] Cape Lissan.

[242] Gok-su.

[243] Cape Cavaliere.

[244] Eurip. Hec. 1.

[245] Its distance (40 stadia) from the Calycadnus, if correct, will place it about Pershendi, at the north-eastern angle of the sandy plain of the Calycadnus.

[246] Anamur.

[247] Ianartasch; but, according to Leake, it still preserves its name.

[248] A sandy plain now connects Elæussa with the coast.—_Leake._

[249] Lamas-su, of which Lamuzo-soui is an Italian corruption.

[250] Lamas.

[251] Tschirlay, or Porto Venetico.

[252] Mesetlii.

[253] Cape Zafra.

[254] What better inscription, said Aristotle, could you have for the tomb, not a king, but of an ox? Cicero, Tusc. Quæs. iii. 35.

[255] Mesarlyk-tschai.

[256] Strabo means to say, that the coast, from the part opposite Rhodes, runs E. in a straight line to Tarsus, and then inclines to the S.E.; that afterwards it inclines to the S., to Gaza, and continues in a westerly direction to the Straits of Gibraltar.

[257] The translation follows the reading proposed by Groskurd, παχυνευροῦσι καὶ ῥοïζομένοις καὶ ποδαγριζομένοις, who quotes Vitruv. viii. 3, and Pliny xxxi. 8.

[258] Kramer does not approve of the corrections proposed in this passage by Groskurd. The translation follows the proposed emendation of Falconer, which Kramer considers the least objectionable.

[259] Augustus.

[260] Groskurd, with some probability, supposes the name of Achilles to be here omitted.

[261] Il. iii. 235.

[262] Dschehan-tschai.

[263] Chun.

[264] Ajas.

[265] Demir-Kapu.

[266] The ridge extending N. E., the parts of which bear various names, Missis, Durdan-dagh, &c.

[267] Deli-tschai.

[268] Arsus.

[269] Iskenderun.

[270] Its name under the Byzantine empire was corrupted to Mampsysta, or Mamista; of which names the modern Mensis appears to be a further corruption.—_Leake._

[271] The passage is defended by the fortress of Merkes.

[272] Suveidijeh.

[273] Nahr-el-Asy.

[274] Groskurd is desirous of reading Tarsus for Issus. See above, c. v. § 11. But Strabo is here considering the two opinions held respecting the isthmus.

[275] Scymnus of Chios counts fifteen nations who occupied this peninsula, namely, three Greek and twelve barbarian. The latter were Cilicians, Lycians, Carians, Maryandini, Paphlagonians, Pamphylians, Chalybes, Cappadocians, Pisidians, Lydians, Mysians, and Phrygians. In this list the Bithynians, Trojans, and Milyæ are not mentioned; but in it are found the Cappadocians and Lydians—two nations whom, according to Strabo, Ephorus has not mentioned. This discrepancy is the more remarkable as Scymnus must have taken the list from Ephorus himself.

[276] Od. xi. 122.

[277] Apollodorus, like Scymnus, had probably found the Lydians mentioned in the list of Ephorus, as also the Cappadocians.

[278] Kramer says that he is unable to decide how this corrupt passage should be restored. The translation follows the conjectures of Coray.

[279] Il. ii. 862.

[280] Il. iii. 187.

[281] Isnik.

[282] Euphorion acquired celebrity as a voluminous writer. Vossius, i. 16, gives a catalogue of his works. According to Suidas, he was born in Chalcis, in Negropont, at the time Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was defeated by the Romans. He acquired a considerable fortune by his writings and by his connexion with persons of eminent rank. He was invited to the court of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, who intrusted him with the care of his library. According to Sallust, (Life of Tiberius,) he was one of the poets whom Tiberius took as his model in writing Greek verse. Fecit et Græca poemata, imitatus Euphorionem, et Rhianum et Parthenium.

[283] The Clides, off Cape Andrea.

[284] Cape Arnauti.

[285] Dschehan-Tschai.

[286] Kormakiti.

[287] Lapito.

[288] Near Artemisi.

[289] To the north of Tamagousta.

[290] Carpas.

[291] Lissan el Cape, in Cilicia.

[292] Near the present Larnaka.

[293] Limasol.

[294] Cape Gata.

[295] Cape Grego.

[296] Piscopia.

[297] Capo Bianco.

[298] Bisur.

[299] Point Zephyro.

[300] Jeroskipo.

[301] Solea.

[302] The Indian Ocean.

[303] Behul or Jelum.

[304] Beas.

[305] The island Cos, or Stanco, one of the earlier names of which was Meropis.

[306] ἢ κατ’ ἄλλους for καὶ ἄλλου.—_Groskurd._

[307] See ch. i. § 73.

[308] Mekran.

[309] It is evident that the name Pillars misled Megasthenes or the writers from whom he borrowed the facts; for it is impossible to suppose that Tearcho, who reigned in Arabia, or that Nabuchodonosor, who reigned at Babylon, ever conducted an army across the desert and through the whole breadth of Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar, to which place nothing invited them, and the existence of which, as well as that of the neighbouring countries, must have been unknown. The Egyptians, Arabians, and Babylonians directed their invasions towards the north, to Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Iberia, and Colchis. This was the line of march followed by Sesostris.

Ptolemy indicates the existence of “Pillars,” which he calls “the Pillars of Alexander,” above Albania and Iberia, at the commencement of the Asiatic Sarmatia. But as it is known that Alexander never penetrated into these regions, it is clear that the title “of Alexander” was added by the Greeks to the names of mountains, which separated a country partly civilized from that entirely occupied by hordes of savages. Everything therefore seems to show, that these Pillars near Iberia in Asia, and not the Pillars of Hercules in Europe, formed the boundary of the expeditions of Sesostris, Tearcho, and Nabuchodonosor.—_Gossellin._

[310] As the Oxydraci are here meant, Groskurd adopts this name in the text. They were settled in Sagur and Outch, of the province of Lahore.

[311] Eurip. Bacchæ, v. 13.—_Wodehull._

[312] Many cities and mountains bore the name of Nysa; but it is impossible to confound the mountain Nysa, spoken of by Sophocles, with the Nysa of India, which became known to the Greeks by the expedition only of Alexander, more than a century after the death of the poet.

[313] Probably interpolated.

[314] Il. vi. 132. Nysa in India was unknown to Homer, who here refers to Mount Nysa in Thrace.

[315] Strabo takes for the source of the Indus the place where it passes through the mountains to enter the Punjab. The site of Aornos seems to correspond with Renas.—_Gossellin_.

[316] The Sibæ, according to Quintus Curtius, who gives them the name of Sobii, occupied the confluent of the Hydaspes and the Acesines.

This people appear to have been driven towards the east by one of those revolutions so frequent in all Asia. At least, to the north of Delhi, and in the neighbourhood of Hardouar, a district is found bearing the name of Siba.

[317] That is, the Macedonians transferred the name of the Caucasus, situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian, to the mountains of India. The origin of their mistake arose from the Indians giving, as at present, the name of Kho, which signifies “white,” to the great chain of mountains covered with snow, from whence the Indus, and the greater part of the rivers which feed it, descend.

[318] This people occupied the Paropamisus, where the mountains now separate Candahar from Gaour.

[319] Book ii. c. i. 2.

[320] Under the name of Ariana, the ancients comprehended almost all the countries situated between the Indus and the meridian of the Caspian Gates. This large space was afterwards divided by them according to the position of the different nations which occupied it.—_Gossellin._ There can be no doubt the modern Iran represents the ancient Ariana. See _Smith_, art. Ariana, and b. ii. c. v. § 32, vol. i. p. 196, note^{903}.

[321] Eratosthenes and Strabo believed that the eastern parts of Asia terminated at the mouth of the Ganges, and that, consequently, this river discharged itself into the Eastern Ocean at the place where terminated the long chain of Taurus.

[322] According to Major Rennell, Emodus and Imaus are only variations of the same name, derived from the Sanscrit word Himmaleh, which signifies “covered with snow.”

[323] In some MSS. the following diagram is to be found.

[324] The extremity of India, of which Eratosthenes speaks, is Cape Comorin, which he placed farther to the east than the mouth of the Ganges.

[325] Patelputer or Pataliputra near Patna, see b. ii. ch. i. §9.

[326] The reading is σχοινίοις, which Coraÿ changes σχοίνοις, Schœni: see Herod. i. 66. The Schœnus was 40 stadia. B. xii. ch. ii. §12.

[327] Athenæus (b. xi. ch. 103, page 800, Bohn’s Classical Library) speaks of Amyntas as the author of a work on the Stations of Asia. The Stathmus, or distance from station to station, was not strictly a measure of distance, and depended on the nature of the country and the capability of the beasts of burthen.

[328] The reading Coliaci in place of Coniaci has been proposed by various critics, and Kramer, without altering the text, considers it the true form of the name. The Coliaci occupied the extreme southern part of India. Cape Comorin is not precisely the promontory Colis, or Coliacum, which seems to answer to Panban, opposite the island Ramanan Kor.

[329] The Indian Caucasus.

[330] Book ii. ch. i. § 3.

[331] λίνον, probably the λίνον τὸ ἀπὸ δενδρέων, or cotton, of Arrian.

[332] βόσμορον. § 18.

[333] Ceylon.

[334] The voyage from the Ganges to Ceylon, in the time of Eratosthenes, occupied seven days, whence he concluded that Ceylon was seven days’ sail from the continent.

[335] Groskurd reads 5000 stadia. B. ii. c. i. § 14.

[336] εἰδοποιήσουσι. _Coraÿ._

[337] The text is, as Coraÿ observes, obscure, if not corrupt. The proposed emendations of Coraÿ and Kramer are followed.

[338] Herod. ii. 5.

[339] At the beginning of autumn.

[340] At the beginning of winter.

[341] Taxila seems to have been situated at some distance to the east of Attock.

[342] At the delta formed by the Indus.

[343] Towards the end of summer.

[344] The Chenab.

[345] The district between Moultan and the mountains.

[346] Herod. ii. 86. Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres? Virg. Geor. ii. 121.

[347] Cloth of silk.

[348] The sugar-cane.

[349] C. i. § 33.

[350] The Banyan tree.

[351] Probably the Caroubba (Lotus Zizyphus), but it does not produce the effect here mentioned.

[352] The Ravee.

[353] Arist. Hist. An. vii. 4, who speaks however of five only.

[354] πεπλησμένως. _Coraÿ._

[355] Od. ii. 157.

[356] That is to say, he crossed the Paropamisus, or Mount Ghergistan, from the western frontier of Cabul, by the pass of Bamian, to enter the district of Balk.

[357] The Attock.

[358] The river of Cabul.

[359] The Gandaræ were a widely extended people of Indian or Arianian origin, who occupied a district extending more or less from the upper part of the Punjab to the neighbourhood of Candahar, and variously called Gandaris and Gandaritis. See Prof. Wilson’s _Ariana Antiqua_.

[360] Aspasii. _Coraÿ._

[361] Peucela, in Arrian iv. 22. Rennell supposes it to be Puckholi, or Pehkely.

[362] Abisarus was king of the mountainous part of India, and, according to the conjecture of Vincent, which is not without some probability, his territory extended to Cashmir.

[363] India is bordered to the north, from Ariana to the Eastern Sea, by the extremities of Taurus, to which the aboriginal inhabitants give the different names of Paropamisus, Emodon, Imaon, and others, while the Macedonians call them Caucasus. The Emodi mountains were the Western Himalaya. See _Smith_, art. Emodi Montes.

[364] The name of the modern city Lahore, anciently Lo-pore, recalls that of Porus. It is situated on the Hyarotis or Hydraotes (Ravee), which does not contradict our author; for, as Vincent observes, the modern Lahore represents the capital of the second Porus, whom Strabo will mention immediately; and the Lahore situate between the Hydaspes (the Behut or Jelum) and the Acesines (the Chenab), the exact position of which is unknown, was that of the first Porus. Probably these two districts, in which the two cities were situated, formed a single district only, one part of which was occupied and governed by Porus the uncle, and the other by Porus the nephew. It is probable, also, that these two princes took their name from the country itself, Lahore, as the prince of Taxila was called Taxiles, and the prince of Palibothra, Palibothrus.

[365] Strabo’s Bucephalia was on the Hydaspes, between Beherat and Turkpoor, not far from Rotas. _Groskurd._ The exact site is not ascertained, but the probabilities seem to be in favour of Jelum, at which place is the ordinary passage of the river, or of Jellapoor, about 16 miles lower down. _Smith._

[366] Ox-headed.

[367] Cercopitheces.

[368] Hence the Cathay of the Chinese and Modern Europe.

[369] So also Arrian, who takes the number from Megasthenes. Pliny says that nineteen rivers unite with the Indus.

[370] Probably an interpolation.

[371] The island Cos.

[372] B. xv. c. i. § 7.

[373] The Malli occupied a part of Moultan.

[374] The Sambus of Arrian. Porticanus is the Oxycanus of Arrian. Both Porticanus and Musicanus were chiefs of the cicar of Sehwan. _Vincent’s Voyage of Nearchus_, p. 133.

[375] This number is too large. There is probably an error in the text. Groskurd reads 20; but Kramer refers to Arrian’s expedition of Alexander, v. 20, and suggests that we may here read 100 (ρ) instead of 200 (σ).

[376] The Seres are here meant, whose country and capital still preserve the name of Serhend. It was the Serica India of the middle ages, and to this country Justinian sent to procure silkworms’ eggs, for the purpose of introducing them into Europe. Strabo was not acquainted with the Seres of Scythia, whose territory is now called Serinagar, from whence the ancients procured the wool and fine fabrics which are now obtained from Cashmir; nor was he acquainted with the Seres who inhabited the peninsula of India, and whose territory and capital have retained the name of Sera. Pliny is the only ancient author who seems to have spoken of these latter Seres. _Gossellin._ The passage in brackets is supposed by Groskurd to be an interpolation. Meineke would retain it, by reading καί τοι for καὶ γὰρ.

[377] The passage is corrupt, and for κήτη, “whales or cetaceous animals,” Groskurd proposes λέγει. The whole would therefore thus be translated, “and speaks of what he saw on it, of its magnitude,” &c.

[378] The exaggeration of Megasthenes is nothing in comparison of Ælian, who gives to the Ganges a breadth of 400 stadia. Modern observations attribute to the Ganges a breadth of about three quarters of a geographical mile, or 30 stadia.

[379] About 120 feet.

[380] Hiranjavahu.

[381] B. ii. c. i. § 9.

[382] B. xvi. c. i. § 28.

[383] Herodotus iii. 102. The marmot?

[384] The passage is corrupt. Groskurd proposes to add the word ὥς before καὶ καμήλους, “as camels.” Coraÿ changes the last word to ἀχαλίνους, which is adopted in the translation. See below, § 53.

[385] θρίσσα.

[386] κεστρεύς.

[387] καρίδες.

[388] In the text, μέχρι ὄρους, “to a mountain.” Coraÿ changes the last word to the name of a people, Οὔρων, but Strabo does not appear to have been acquainted with them; Groskurd, to ὀρῶν. The translation adopts this correction, with the addition of the article, which, as Kramer observes, is wanting if we follow Groskurd.

[389] Groskurd proposes τειχῶν, “walls,” in place of, τιμῶν, “prices.”

[390] Κώδων, “a bell,” or gong, or trumpet?

[391] The orguia was equal to four cubits, or six feet one inch.

[392] Men who slept on their ears. See b. i. c. ii. § 35.

[393] The Brahmins.

[394] Sarmanes, Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 305.

[395] Meineke’s conjecture, ἐσθητοὺς φλοιῷ δενδρείῳ.

[396] According to Diodorus Siculus, xix. 33, an exception was made for women with child, or with a family; but otherwise, if she did not comply with this custom, she was compelled to remain a widow during the rest of her life, and to take no part in sacrifices or other rites, as being an impious person.

[397] By Arrian and Plutarch he is called Dandamis.

[398] By φιμοῖς, probably here is meant a circular segment, or band of iron, furnished with slightly raised points in the inside; it passes over the bone of the nose, and is fastened below by a cord which is continued as a bridle. Such a contrivance is still in use for mules and asses in the East.

[399] Coraÿ reads πόθος instead of κόρος in the text. The translation would then be, “who required nothing;” but ἐκείνου here refers to Alexander.

[400] On the day of his birth, Herod. ix. 109.

[401] Of Armenia.

[402] About 6 feet.

[403] The text is corrupt. Tzschucke’s emendation is adopted, viz. βόνασοι. Groskurd translates the word by “hump-backed oxen,” or zebus.

[404] Ælian de Nat. Animal. xvii. 21.

[405] Bird of paradise?

[406] Not far from the present Anopschir on the Ganges, south-east from Delhi. _Groskurd._

[407] Patalputer, b. ii. c. i. § 9.

[408] Probably the Iomanes.

[409] A subordinate town in the pachalic of Aleppo, and its modern name is still Antakieh. It was anciently distinguished as Antioch by the Orontes, because it was situated on the left bank of that river, where its course turns abruptly to the west, after running northwards between the ranges of Lebanon and Antilebanon, and also Antioch by Daphne, because of the celebrated grove of Daphne which was consecrated to Apollo, in the immediate neighbourhood.

[410] In Dion Cassius, liv. ix. he is called Zarmanus, a variation probably of Garmanus, see above, § 60. Chegas, or Sheik, seems to be the Tartar title Chan or Khan, which may be detected also in the names Musi-canus, Porti-canus, Oxy-canus, Assa-canus, _Vincent, Voyage of Nearchus_, p. 129. Groskurd writes Zarmanos Chanes.

[411] Bargosa is probably a corruption of Barygaza mentioned in Arrian’s Periplus of the Red Sea. It was a large mart on the north of the river Nerbudda, now Baroatsch or Barutsch. _Groskurd._

[412] “Beyond,” as Strabo has just been speaking of India, with reference to which Ariana is to the west of the Indus.

[413] To the south of the great chain bearing that name, extending from west to east of Asia.

[414] The exact place corresponding with the Caspiæ Pylæ is probably a spot between Hark-a-Koh and Siah-Koh, about 6 parasangs from Rey, the name of the entrance of which is called Dereh. _Smith_, art. Caspiæ Pylæ.

[415] An extensive province of Asia along the northern side of the Persian Gulf, extending from Carpella (either C. Bombareek or C. Isack) on the E. to the river Bagradas (Nabend) on the W. According to Marcian the distance between these points was 4250 stadia. It appears to have comprehended the coast-line of the modern Laristan, Kirman, and Moghostan. It was bounded on the N. by Parthia and Ariana; on the E. by Drangiana and Gedrosia; on the S. by the Persian Gulf, and on the W. by Persis. _Smith_, art. Carmania.

[416] The Purali.

[417] Mekran.

[418] By the achronical rising of the Pleiades is meant the rising of this constellation, or its first becoming visible, after sunset. Vincent (Voyage of Nearchus) fixes on the 23rd October, 327 B. C., as the date of the departure of Alexander from Nicæa; August, 326 B. C., as the date of his arrival at Pattala; and the 2nd of October, 326 B. C., as the date of the departure of the fleet from the Indus.

[419] The pith in the young head-shoot of the palm-tree.

[420] Called Pura by Arrian.

[421] The Oritæ are no doubt here meant.

[422] By the line drawn from the Caspian Gates to Carmania.

[423] See above, c. i. § 12.

[424] Herat.

[425] Candahar.

[426] See b. xi. c. viii. § 9.

[427] The text is corrupt: ἐκ μέρους is probably taken from some other part of the text and here inserted.

[428] The same as Zarangæ; they probably dwelt on the lake Zarah, which undoubtedly retains its Zend name. _Wilson’s_ Ariana.

[429] Corresponding nearly with the present Hamadan.

[430] None is said to be found there at the present day.

[431] They were called Ariaspi; Cyrus, son of Cambyses, gave them the name Euergetæ, “benefactors,” in consideration of the services which they had rendered in his expedition against the Scythians.

[432] At the beginning of winter.

[433] The text is corrupt; the words between brackets are supplied by Kramer’s conjecture. See b. xi. c. xi. § 2.

[434] Theophrastus, iv. 5. The Pistatia-nut tree.

[435] Bamian, see b. xi. c. xi. § 2.

[436] In the text 19,000. Kramer’s proposed reading is adopted of separating the amount.

[437] Ariana in the text. Groskurd proposes to read Carmania; Kramer, Bactriana.

[438] About 140 feet. Arrian says twenty-five orguiæ, or about 150 feet.

[439] Groskurd proposes to supply after “Sea” words which he thinks are here omitted; upon insufficient grounds, however, according to Kramer.

[440] The Arosis of Arrian, now the Tab.

[441] This passage is very corrupt, and many words, according to Kramer, appear to be omitted. See b. ii. c i. § 26. We read with Groskurd “Media” for “Caspian Gates” in the text: and insert “9000 stadia,” here from b. ii. c. i. § 26, and, following the same authority, 3000 for 2000 stadia in the text below.

[442] Persæ, v. 17 and 118.

[443] Pasa or Fesa.

[444] Taug or Taüog, on the river Grâ.

[445] The Uxii occupied the district of Asciac.

[446] There seems little doubt that the Karun represents the ancient Eulæus (on which some authors state Susa to have been situated), and the Kerkhah the old Choaspes. See _Smith_, art. Choaspes.

[447] Groskurd adds 1000 stadia to this amount.

[448] Quin. Curtius, v. 10. Diod. Sic. xvii. 67.

[449] Ab-Zal.

[450] Hollow Persis.

[451] Bendamir.

[452] The capital of Parætacene is Ispahan.

[453] Probably the Ab-Kuren.

[454] Pasa or Fesa.

[455] Orxines, Quint. Cur. x. c. 1.

[456] For sacrifice to Cyrus. Arrian, vi. c. 29.

[457] Arrian adds, “Son of Cambyses.”

[458] Groskurd reads, ἅλλεσθαι, hops or jumps up.

[459] Founded probably by the Macedonians.

[460] The Elymæi reached to the Persian Gulf. Ptolem. vi. 1. They appear to have left vestiges of their name in that of a gulf, and a port called Delem.

[461] The account of the Persians is taken from Herodotus, i. 131, &c.

[462] According to Herodotus, the priest who sacrificed was crowned.

[463]

Roused the sacred fire, as the law bids,
Touching the god with consecrated wand.

_Athenæus_ xii. 40, p. 850. Bohn’s Classical Library.

[464] i. e. “who kindle fire.”

[465] i. e. places where fire is kindled.

[466] B. xi. c. viii. § 4.

[467] Not the same plant as mentioned above, c. i. § 10, but the pistacia terebinthus.

[468] An interpolation. The Cardaces were not Persians, but foreign soldiers. “Barbari milites quos Persæ Cardacas appellant,” (Cornel. Nepos.) without doubt were Assyrian and Armenian Carduci. See b. xvi. c. i. § 24, and Xenoph. Anab. iv. 3. Later Gordyæi or Gordyeni, now the Kurds. _Groskurd._

[469] Cardamum is probably the “lepidum perfoliatum” of Linnæus, or the “nasturtium orientale” of Tournefort. Xenophon also, Expedit. Cyr. iii. 5 and vii. 8, speaks of the great use made of this plant by the Persians.

[470] The length of the arms and the surname “Longhand” here given to Darius are assigned by others to Artaxerxes. It was in fact the latter to whom this surname was given, according to Plutarch, in consequence of the right arm being longer than the left. Therefore Falconer considers this passage an interpolation. _Coraÿ._

[471] This, says Gossellin, may account for the rarity of the Persian Darius, badly struck, and coined long before the time of Alexander, and appearing to belong to a period anterior to the reign of Darius Hystaspes.

[472] Chalybon was the name of the modern Aleppo, but the wine of Damascus must have possessed the same qualities, and had the same name. “The Chalybonian wine, Posidonius says, is made in Damascus in Syria, from vines which were planted there by the Persians.” _Athenæus_, b. i. page 46, Bohn’s Classical Library.

[473] In the text “ten or eleven years,” which reading is contrary to all other authorities, and is rejected by Kramer.

[474] This is only an approximation. From the conquest of the Medes by Cyrus to the death of Darius Codomanus, last king of Persia, is a period of 225 years.

[475] According to Dion Cassius, xviii. § 26, Aturia is synonymous with Assyria, and only differs from it by a barbarous pronunciation; which shows that the name Assyria belonged peculiarly to the territory of Nineveh.

[476] Aiaghi-dagh.

[477] It is to be remarked that the people bordering upon the Gordyæi are the only people of Mesopotamia here mentioned, for the whole of Mesopotamia, properly so called, is comprised under the name of Assyria.

[478] The bridge or passage at the foot of the modern fortress Roum-Kala.

[479] B. xii. c. iii. § 5; Herod. i. 6 and 72.

[480] Al. Lucan. b. xi. c. xii. § 4; b. xiv. c. v. § 18; b. xvi. c. ii. § 8.

[481] Probably walls built for the protection of certain districts. Such was the διατείχισμα Σεμιράμιδος, constructed between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and intended, together with canals brought from those rivers, to protect Babylon from the incursions of the Arabian Scenitæ or Medes. B. ii.

[482] κλίμακες, roads of steep ascent, with steps such as may be seen in the Alps of Europe; the word differs from ὁδοὶ, roads below, inasmuch as the former roads are only practicable for travellers on foot and beasts of burthen, the latter for carriages also.

[483] The union of these two names, says Kramer, is remarkable, and still more so is the insertion of the article τῆς before them: he, therefore, but with some hesitation, suggests that the word μάχης has been omitted in the text by the copyist.

[484] Assyrians.

[485] Erbil.

[486] Called also Zabus, Zabatus, and Zerbes, now the Great Zab.

[487] Adopting Kramer’s reading, καὶ ἃ.

[488] Probably a branch of the Karadgeh-dagh.

[489] The Little Zab, or Or.

[490] As the name Artacene occurs nowhere else, Groskurd, following Cellarius (v. Geogr. Ant. i. 771), suspects that here we ought to read Arbelene, and would understand by it the same district which is called Arbelitis by Ptolemy, vi. 1, and by Pliny, H. N. vi. 13, § 16, but as this form of the national name is nowhere to be found, it would appear improper to introduce it into the text. It is more probable, continues Kramer, that Strabo wrote Adiabene, of which Arbelitis was a part, according to Pliny, loco citato.

[491] The same, no doubt, as the goddess Anaïtis. B. xi. c. viii. § 4, and b. xv. c. iii. § 15.

[492] All manuscripts agree in giving this number, but critics agree also in its being an error for 365. The number of stadia in the wall, according to ancient authors, corresponded with the number of days in the year.

[493] That is, at a short distance from the Persian Gulf, a little more to the south than the modern town Basra.

[494] Some extensive ruins near the angle formed by the Adhem (the ancient Physcus) and the Tigris, and the remains of the Nahr-awan canal, are said to mark the site of Opis.

[495] The name Cœle-Syria, or Hollow Syria, which was properly applied to the district between Libanus and Antilibanus, was extended also to that part of Syria which borders upon Egypt and Arabia; and it is in this latter sense that Strabo here speaks of Cœle-Syria. So also Diodorus Siculus, i. § 30, speaks of “Joppa in Cœle-Syria;” and Polybius, v. 80, § 2, of “Rhinocolura, the first of the cities in Cœle-Syria;” and Josephus, Ant. Jud. xiii. 13, § 2, “of Scythopolis of Cœle-Syria.”

[496] El-Arish.

[497] El-Kas near Sebakit-Bardoil, the ancient lake Serbonis.

[498] Barathra.

[499] Strabo has misunderstood the meaning of Eratosthenes, who had said that the excess of the waters of the Euphrates sunk into the ground and reappeared under the form of torrents, which became visible near “Rhinocolura in Cœle-Syria and Mt. Casius,” the Casius near Egypt. Our author properly observes that the length and nature of the course contradicts this hypothesis: but, misled by the names Cœle-Syria and Casius, he forgets that the Casius of Egypt and the district bordering upon Egypt, improperly called Cœle-Syria, are here in question; he transfers the first name to Cœle-Syria of Libanus, and the second to Mt. Casius near Seleucia and Antioch, and adds that, according to the notion of Eratosthenes, the waters of the Euphrates would have to traverse Libanus, Antilibanus, and the Casius (of Syria), whilst Eratosthenes has not, and could not, say any such thing. The hypothesis of Eratosthenes could not, indeed, be maintained, but Strabo renders it absurd. The error of our author is the more remarkable, as the name of the city Rhinocolura ought necessarily to have suggested to him the sense in which the words Casius and Cœle-Syria should be understood.

[500] καὶ οὕτως πλημμυρεῖν. These words are, as Kramer proposes, transferred from below. There can be no meaning given to them as they stand in the text, which is here corrupt.

[501] Herod. i. 193.

[502] Herod. i. 194.

[503] Al-Madain.

[504] Strabo probably here refers to Hecatompylos, which, in b. xi. c. ix. § 1, he calls “the royal seat of the Parthians,” and which shared with Ecbatana the honour of being a residence of the Parthian kings. The name Hyrcania has here a wide meaning; the proper name would have been Parthia.

[505] Cicero de Nat. Deor. i. § 5.

[506] Descura. _D’Anville._

[507] Sus.

[508] Asciac part of Khosistan.

[509] Kerman.

[510] Groskurd here supposes an omission by the copyist of the words ἑσπέραν καὶ πρὸς before ἄρκτον.

[511] Parætacene, Cossæa, and Elymaïs occupied the mountainous parts of Irak Adjami.

[512] Aiaghi-dagh.

[513] Media extended partly into Irak Adjami, and partly into Kurdistan.

[514] ὕστερον in the text must be omitted, or altered to πρότερον, unless, as Kramer proposes, the words καὶ πρὸς τοὺς Πέρσας be introduced into the text. Strabo frequently mentions together the three successive governments of Persians, Macedonians, and Parthians. B. xi. c. xiii. § 4, and c. xiv. § 15.

[515] Mithridates I., son of Phraates, 163 B. C., and 124 years after the expedition of Antiochus.

[516] Probably the Djerrahi.

[517] On comparing this passage with others, (b. xi. c. xiv. § 12, and b. xvi. c. i. § 1, and c. i. § 8,) in which Strabo speaks of Adiabene, we perceive that he understood it to be a part of the country below the mountains of Armenia, and to the north of Nineveh, on both banks of the Tigris. Other authors have given a more extended meaning to the name, and applied it to the country on the north of the two rivers Zab, from whence (Amm. Marcel. xxiii. 5, 6) the name Adiabene appears to be derived. In this sense Adiabene may be considered the same as Assyria Proper.

[518] B. xi. c. xiv. § 15.

[519] Groskurd proposes reading Saulopodes, delicate walkers, in place of Saccopodes, sack-footed.

[520] Herod. i. 198. Almost all the details concerning the Babylonian customs are taken from Herodotus, who sets them forth with greater clearness; there are, however, some differences, as, for example, the disposal of young women in marriage, and the different tribunals, which prove that Strabo had other sources of information.

[521] Groskurd here suspects a corruption of the text, and for τούτου reads τοῦ πρώτου, “of the first,” and for ἄλλου, “of another,” δευτέρου, “of the second.”

[522] Merkan.

[523] El-der.

[524] The Van. B. xi. c. xiv. § 8.

[525] In b. xi. c. xiv. § 8, Strabo says that this lake contains one kind of fish only.

[526] Now Roumkala, from the fortress which defends the passage of the river.

[527] Nisibin.

[528] Kara-dagh.

[529] Sered.

[530] Haran.

[531] Racca.

[532] B. C. 51.

[533] Gordyæa was the most northerly part of Assyria, or Kurdistan, near the lake Van. From Carduchi, the name of the inhabitants, is derived the modern name Kurds.

[534] Pliny, x. c. iii. and xxxvi. c. xix., calls it “Gagates lapis;” a name derived, according to Dioscorides, from a river Gagas in Lycia.

[535] Herod. vi. 199.

[536] These appear to be the rivers found in the neighbourhood of Roha or Orfa, the ancient Edessa. One of these rivers bears the name of Beles, and is perhaps the Basileios of Strabo. Chabur is the Aborrhas.

[537] Probably an interpolation.

[538] The passage of the Euphrates here in question was effected at the Zeugma of Commagene, called by Strabo the present passage. On passing the river you entered Anthemusia, a province which appears to have received, later on, the name of Osroene. It extended considerably towards the north, for in it the Aborrhas, according to Strabo, had its source; but it is doubtful whether it extended to the north of Mount Masius, where the latitudes, as given by Ptolemy, would place it. I do not exactly know whether Strabo intends to speak of a city or a province, for the position of the city is unknown; we only learn from a passage in Pliny, vi. c. xxvi., that it was not on the Euphrates. The word τόπος is not, I think, so applicable to a province as to a city, and in this last sense I have understood it, giving also to κατὰ the meaning of latitude, in which it is so often applied by Strabo; strictly speaking, the sense of “vis-à-vis,” “opposite to,” might be given to it.—_Letronne._

[539] This is an error of the author or of the copyist. Edessa (now Orfa) is not to be confounded with Bambyce (Kara-Bambuche, or Buguk Munbedj) of Cyrrhestica in Syria, which obtained its Hellenic name from Seleucus Nicator.

[540] B. C. 54.

[541] The Parthians became masters of Syria under Pacorus, and of Asia Minor under Labienus. B. C. 38.

[542] Artavasdes, king of the Armenians. B. xi. c. xiii. § 4.

[543] The text would lead us to suppose that Phraates succeeded Pacorus, whereas below, § 8, Pacorus, the eldest son of the Parthian king, died before his father, Orodes. Letronne, therefore, and Groskurd suppose that the words, “the son of Orodes,” are omitted after “Pacorus” above, and “his” in the translation would then refer to Orodes.

[544] See b. vi. c. iv. § 2, in which the motives for getting rid of these members of his family are not mentioned.

[545] Judging from Arrian (Anab. v. § 25; vii. § 9; iii. § 8), the historians of Alexander, as well as more ancient authors, gave the name of Syria to all the country comprehended between the Tigris and the Mediterranean. The part to the east of the Euphrates, afterwards named Mesopotamia, was called “Syria between the rivers;” that to the west was called by the general name Cœle-Syria, and although Phœnicia and Palestine were sometimes separated from it, yet it often comprehended the whole country as far as Egypt. Strabo below, c. ii. § 21, refers to this ancient division, when he says that the name Cœle-Syria extends to the whole country as far as Egypt and Arabia, although in its peculiar acceptation it applied only to the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus.

[546] B. C. 70.

[547] Antakieh.

[548] Modern conjecture has identified it with Shogh and Divertigi.

[549] Kulat-el-Mudik.

[550] Ladikiyeh.

[551] Mesopotamia in the text is no doubt an error of the copyist. We ought probably to read Commagene. Groskurd proposes to read “Commagene, like Mesopotamia, consisted of one satrapy.” Groskurd’s emendation of the text is followed, although not approved of, by Kramer.

[552] These four portions were no doubt formed by the four hills contained within the circuit of Antioch. The circuit wall existed in the time of Pococke. The detailed and exact description given of it by this learned traveller, as also his plan of Antioch, agree with Strabo’s account. _Pococke, Descrip. of the East_, ii. p. 190.

[553] C. i. § 25.

[554] Mount Soldin.

[555] Orontes, or Nahr-el-Asy.

[556] Beit-el-Ma.

[557] B. xii. c. viii. § 19; b. xiii. c. iv. § 6.

[558] Also Hierapolis, the modern Kara Bambuche.

[559] Berœa owes its name to Seleucus Nicator, and continued to be so called till the conquest of the Arabs under Abu Obeidah, A. D. 638, when it resumed its ancient name of Chaleb, or Chalybon.

[560] The territory subject to the town Cyrrhus, now Coro.

[561] Baghras.

[562] The modern names of the Arceuthus and Labotas are unknown.

[563] The Afreen.

[564] B. C. 145.

[565] A table.

[566] Called Phraates by Pseudo-Appian, in Parthicis, p. 72.

[567] Selefkeh.

[568] Posidi, on the southern side of the bay, which receives the Orontes.

[569] On Cape Ziaret.

[570] B. C. 40.

[571] The text is corrupt. The translation follows the proposed corrections of Letronne and Kramer.

[572] Shizar, on the Orontes.

[573] Cæcilius Bassus was besieged twice in Apameia, first by C. Antistius, afterwards by Marcus Crispus and Lucius Statius Marcius. Cassius succeeded in dispersing the troops of this rebel without much difficulty, according to Dion Cassius, xlvii. 27.

[574] Arethusa, now Restan, was founded by Seleucus Nicator. According to Appian, Pompey subdued Sampsiceramus, who was king of Arethusa. On this account Cicero, in his letters to Atticus (ii. 14, 16, 17, 23), calls Pompey in derision Sampsiceramus. Antony put Iamblicus, son of Sampsiceramus, to death; but Augustus restored the small state of Arethusa to another Iamblicus, son of the former.

[575] The people of Emesa, now Hems.

[576] Balbek and Kalkos.

[577] This Ptolemy, son of Mennæus, was master chiefly of Chalcis, at the foot of Libanus, from whence he made incursions on the territory of Damascus. Pompey was inclined to suppress his robberies, but Ptolemy softened his anger by a present of 1000 talents, which the Roman general applied to the payment of his troops. He remained in possession of his dominion until his death, and was succeeded by his son Lysanias, whom Cleopatra put to death, on the pretext that he had induced the Parthians to come into the country. _Josephus, Bell. Jud._

[578] One of the branches of Antilibanus.

[579] This Alchædamnus is constantly called Alchaudonius, by Dion Cassius, whom he calls the “Arabian dynast.” Falconer therefore inferred that here we ought to read Ἀράβων instead of Ῥαμβαίων, but Letronne does not adopt this reading, and supposes the Rhambæi may have been a tribe of the Arabians.

[580] The text is here corrupt, and the passage, according to Kramer, probably introduced into the text from a marginal note.

[581] παραλία, but this is a correction for παλαιά, which Letronne proposes to correct for περαία, which is supported in § 13, below. The part of the continent opposite, and belonging to an island, was properly called Peræa, of which there are many examples. That part of Asia Minor which is opposite Rhodes was so called, b. xiv. c. v. § 11, as also the coast opposite Tenedos, b. xiii. c. i. § 46. Peræa was also adopted as a proper name. Livy, xxxiii. 18.

[582] Pococke places Paltus at Boldo; Shaw, at the ruins at the mouth of the Melleck, six miles from Jebilee, the ancient Gabala.

[583] Carnoon.

[584] Ain-el-Hiyeh.

[585] According to Pococke, the ruins of Aradus (Ruad) are half a mile to the north of Tortosa (Antaradus). It is remarkable that Strabo makes no mention of Antaradus, situated on the continent opposite Aradus; Pliny is the first author who speaks of it. Probably the place only became of note subsequent to the time of Strabo, and acquired power at the expense of some of the small towns here mentioned. Antaradus, reëstablished by Constantine, assumed the name of Constantia.

[586] Sumrah.

[587] Ortosa.

[588] Carnus.

[589] The resistance of the sea water to the ascent of the fresh water is cut off by this ingenious contrivance, and the fresh water rises above the level of the sea through the pipe, by natural causes, the head or source of the spring being in the upper ground of the mainland. This fountain is now known by the name of Ain Ibrahim, Abraham’s fountain.

[590] B. xiv. c. v. § 2.

[591] Greego.

[592] If the words of the text, φέρει δὲ καὶ, “it produces also,” refer to the lake, our author would contradict himself; for below, § 41, he says that Jericho alone produces it. They must therefore be referred to “a hollow plain” above; and the fact that they do so arises from the remarkable error of Strabo, in placing Judæa in the valley formed by Libanus and Antilibanus. From the manner in which he expresses himself, it is evident that he supposed the Jordan to flow, and the Lake Gennesaret to be situated, between these two mountains. As to the Lycus (the Nahr el Kelb), Strabo, if he had visited the country, would never have said that the Arabians transported upon it their merchandise. It is evident that he has confused the geography of all these districts, by transferring Judæa, with its lakes and rivers, to Cœle-Syria Proper; and here probably we may find the result of his first error in confounding Cœle-Syria Proper with Cœle-Syria understood in a wider meaning. See above, c. i. § 12.

[593] Nahr-el-Kelb.

[594] Iouschiah.

[595] Gebail.

[596] Beyrout.

[597] Nahr-Ibrahim.

[598] Josephus, i. 1.

[599] Above, c. ii. § 3.

[600] Ortosa.

[601] Tineh.

[602] Above, c. i. § 12, 15.

[603] Nahr-Damur.

[604] Sour.

[605] Tyre—daughter of Zidon. Isaiah xxiii. 12.

[606] In B. v. c. iii. § 7, Strabo tells us that Augustus prohibited houses being erected of more than 70 Roman feet in height.

[607] Josephus (Antiq. Jud. xv. 4, § 1) states, that Mark Antony gave Cleopatra all the coast of Phœnicia, from Eleutheria to Egypt, with the exception of Tyre and Sidon, which he left in the enjoyment of their ancient independence. But according to Dion Cassius (liv., 7), Augustus arrived in the East in the spring of the year 734, B. C., or eighteen years before the Christian era, and deprived the Tyrians and Sidonians of their liberty, in consequence of their seditious conduct. It follows therefore, that if Strabo had travelled in Phœnicia, he must have visited Tyre before the above date, because his account refers to a state of things anterior to the arrival of Augustus in Syria; and in this case the information he gives respecting the state of the neighbouring cities must belong to the same date; but he speaks above (§ 19) of the order reëstablished by Agrippa at Beyrout, which was effected four years after the coming of Augustus into Syria. We must conclude, therefore, that Strabo speaks only by hearsay of the Phœnician cities, and that he had never seen the country itself. _Letronne._

[608] Il. xxiii. 743.

[609] Probably under Zenarchus of Seleucia, the Peripatetic philosopher whose lectures he attended. B. xiv. c. v. § 4.

[610] Nahr-Quasmieh.

[611] Vestiges of the ancient city still remain. Here was the celebrated temple of the Phœnician Hercules, founded according to Herodotus, ii. 44, before 2700 B. C.

[612] Acre.

[613] Letronne estimates this at a penny.

[614] Athenæus, p. 742, Bohn’s Class. Library.

[615] The Tower of Strato was an ancient city almost in ruins, which was repaired, enlarged, and embellished by Herod with magnificent buildings; for he found there excellent anchorage, the value of which was increased by the fact of its being almost the only one on that dangerous coast. He gave it the name of Cæsarea, in honour of Augustus, and raised it to the rank of a city of the first order. The repairs of the ancient city, the Tower of Strato, or rather the creation of the new city Cæsarea, took place about eight or nine years B. C.; so that this passage of Strabo refers to an earlier period.

[616] Josephus (Ant. Jud. xiv. 13, § 3) calls a district near Mount Carmel Drumos, employing the word Δρυμός, a forest, as a proper name.

[617] Jaffa.