Chapter 30

1421This paragraph, according to Kramer, is probably an interpolation.

1422Herod. viii. c. 85.

1423Thucyd., b. iii. c. 50, does not use the word Troad, but says “all the towns possessed by the Mitylenæans.”

1424Poets and mythologists subsequent to Homer supposed Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, to have been violated by Ajax, the Locrian; that as a punishment for his crime this hero perished by shipwreck on his return from Troy, and that three years afterwards Locris was visited by a famine, which occasioned great destruction to the inhabitants. The oracle consulted on the occasion of this calamity advised the Locrians to send annually to Minerva of Ilium two young women chosen by lot. They obeyed and continued to send them for 1000 years, until the time of the sacred war.

1425Il. xiii. 363.

1426Il. vi. 448.

1427Od. iii. 130.

1428Il. xii. 15.

1429Il. vi. 92 and 273.

1430Il. ix. 455.

1431Il. vi. 305.

1432The corrupt passage replaced by asterisks is εἶθ’ ἱκετεύοντες τε φρένας, which is unintelligible.

1433The following is a translation of the passage, as found in the speech of Lycurgus, still preserved to us:“Who has not heard of Troy, the greatestCity of those times, and sovereign of allAsia, that when once destroyed byThe Greeks it remained for ever uninhabited?”

1433The following is a translation of the passage, as found in the speech of Lycurgus, still preserved to us:

“Who has not heard of Troy, the greatestCity of those times, and sovereign of allAsia, that when once destroyed byThe Greeks it remained for ever uninhabited?”

“Who has not heard of Troy, the greatest

City of those times, and sovereign of all

Asia, that when once destroyed by

The Greeks it remained for ever uninhabited?”

1434Modern maps place the Cotylus, and consequently the sources of the river which Demetrius calls Scamander, at more than 30,000 toises, or nearly eleven leagues, to the S. E. of the entrance of the Hellespont, when the source of the Scamander should be near Troy; and Troy itself, according to the measurement adopted by Demetrius, ought not to be more than 3400 toises, or a league and a quarter, from the sea. There is therefore a manifest contradiction, and it appears, as I have already remarked, that the river called Scamander by Demetrius, is not the river so called by Homer, but the Simoïs of the poet.—Gossellin.Modern travellers accuse Demetrius with having confounded the Scamander with the Simoïs. The Simoïs they say rises in Cotylus, (Kas-dagh,) as also the Granicus, (Oustrola,) and the Æsepus, (Satal-dere,) but the sources of the Scamander are below, and to the W. of Ida, near the village called by the Turks Bounar-bachi, which signifies the head of the source. If it is an error, Demetrius is not alone responsible for it, as Hellenicus (Schol. in Iliad xxi. 242) also says that the Scamander had its source in Mount Ida itself. Both probably rested on the authority of Homer, who places the source of the Scamander in Ida. They did not, however, observe that Homer employs the expression ἀπ’ Ἰδαίων ὀρέων in a more extensive sense.—Du Theil.

Modern travellers accuse Demetrius with having confounded the Scamander with the Simoïs. The Simoïs they say rises in Cotylus, (Kas-dagh,) as also the Granicus, (Oustrola,) and the Æsepus, (Satal-dere,) but the sources of the Scamander are below, and to the W. of Ida, near the village called by the Turks Bounar-bachi, which signifies the head of the source. If it is an error, Demetrius is not alone responsible for it, as Hellenicus (Schol. in Iliad xxi. 242) also says that the Scamander had its source in Mount Ida itself. Both probably rested on the authority of Homer, who places the source of the Scamander in Ida. They did not, however, observe that Homer employs the expression ἀπ’ Ἰδαίων ὀρέων in a more extensive sense.—Du Theil.

1435Il. xxii. 147.

1436We owe to the researches of M. de Choiseul Gouffier, published without his knowledge in 1793, an acquaintance with these two springs, which present nearly the same phenomena as described by Homer. These springs have since been seen by many travellers; they are situated at the foot of a small hill on which is Bounar-bachi, and about 6500 toises in a straight line from the mouth of the Menderé. The stream which flows from them never fails, and after having run for some time parallel to the Menderé, it turns suddenly to throw itself into the Archipelago, near the middle of the interval which separates the ruins of Alesandria-Troas from the cape Koum-kale, but still leaving traces of a bed through which it formerly flowed to join the Menderé. We are now convinced that this little river is the Scamander of Homer, that the present Menderé is the Simoïs of that poet, and that the ancient Ilium, which was near the sources of the Scamander, must have been situated on the heights of Bounar-bachi.In the time of Homer these two rivers united together and discharged themselves into the sea by the same mouth: but the course of the Scamander has been changed for a long time, since, according to Pliny, (v. c. 33,) a part of its waters spread themselves over a marsh, and the remainder flowed unto the Ægæan Sea, between Alexandria-Troas and Sigeum. This ancient author therefore gave to the little river (which he called Palœscamander, the old Scamander) exactly the same course which the stream Bounar-bachi still follows. This change of direction in the course of the river appears to me to have been anterior to the time of Demetrius of Scepsis, for this alone can explain his error. For, no longer finding a stream which runs on the left of the present Menderé, and which might represent the Scamander, he thought proper to transfer this latter name to the Simoïs, and to look for the site of the Ilium of Homer, as also of the plain which was the scene of the combats described by the poet, on the right of this river. Thence he is persuaded that the town of the Ilienses occupied the same site as the ancient Ilium, and that the stream of the Tschiblak was the Simoïs.I must remark that the Menderé is a torrent, the waters of which fail during a great part of the year, whilst the stream of the Bounar-bachi always continues to flow. This advantage is probably the reason why it preserved the name of Scamander to the sea, although it ran into the bed of the Simoïs and was far inferior to this torrent in the length of its course. Hence it may be perceived how the name of Scamander, now changed into that of Menderé, has remained attached to this ancient mouth, how ultimately it was given to the whole course of the Simoïs, and how Demetrius of Scepsis was led into error by the change in the course of the true Scamander, and by the transfer of its name to the Simoïs.—Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce parM. de Choiseul Gouffier. Le Voyage dans la Troad, parM. Lechevalier. The Topography of Troy,W. Gell.—Gossellin.

In the time of Homer these two rivers united together and discharged themselves into the sea by the same mouth: but the course of the Scamander has been changed for a long time, since, according to Pliny, (v. c. 33,) a part of its waters spread themselves over a marsh, and the remainder flowed unto the Ægæan Sea, between Alexandria-Troas and Sigeum. This ancient author therefore gave to the little river (which he called Palœscamander, the old Scamander) exactly the same course which the stream Bounar-bachi still follows. This change of direction in the course of the river appears to me to have been anterior to the time of Demetrius of Scepsis, for this alone can explain his error. For, no longer finding a stream which runs on the left of the present Menderé, and which might represent the Scamander, he thought proper to transfer this latter name to the Simoïs, and to look for the site of the Ilium of Homer, as also of the plain which was the scene of the combats described by the poet, on the right of this river. Thence he is persuaded that the town of the Ilienses occupied the same site as the ancient Ilium, and that the stream of the Tschiblak was the Simoïs.

I must remark that the Menderé is a torrent, the waters of which fail during a great part of the year, whilst the stream of the Bounar-bachi always continues to flow. This advantage is probably the reason why it preserved the name of Scamander to the sea, although it ran into the bed of the Simoïs and was far inferior to this torrent in the length of its course. Hence it may be perceived how the name of Scamander, now changed into that of Menderé, has remained attached to this ancient mouth, how ultimately it was given to the whole course of the Simoïs, and how Demetrius of Scepsis was led into error by the change in the course of the true Scamander, and by the transfer of its name to the Simoïs.—Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce parM. de Choiseul Gouffier. Le Voyage dans la Troad, parM. Lechevalier. The Topography of Troy,W. Gell.—Gossellin.

1437Il. xii. 20.

1438B. xii. c. iii. § 21.

1439Below Strabo calls this same place Ænea, and in b. xii. c. iii. § 23, Enea-Come. Pliny calls it Nea; it is said to be the same place called by the Turks Ene.

1440Ἀργύρια, in the neuter gender, with the accent on the antipenultima, means “silver mines.” But Ἀργυρία, with the accent on the penultima, becomes the name of a town.

1441Il. ii. 856.

1442What other places? I do not think that Strabo or Demetrius have mentioned any other place bearing the name of Palæscepsis.—Du Theil.

1443Il. i. 38.

1444There are no islands to the south of Tenedos,—that is, between Tenedos and Cape Lectum (Baba). The state of the text might induce us to suppose that, instead of Lectum, Strabo wrote Sigeum. Then the Calydnæ islands would answer to the Mauro islands or to the isles des Lapins.—Gossellin.

1445Called also Lyrnessa and Phœnice. The first of these names is the same as that of one of the 12 towns on the continent sacked by Achilles. The name Phœnice was given to it probably by a Phœnician colony. Leucophrys, (white brows,) from the colour of the coast.

1446From σμίνθος, a rat, in the Æolic dialect. The worship of Apollo Smintheus was not confined to the town of Chrysa alone; it was common to all the continent of the Troad and to the adjacent islands; it extended along the whole coast to the island of Rhodes, as Strabo afterwards informs us. He has already told us that there was a temple of Apollo Smintheus in the island of Tenedos. Coins of this island exist, bearing the effigy of the god with a rat under the chin. The town of Hamaxitus, on the continent, had also its temple of Apollo Smintheus, where was not only to be seen the picture of a rat near the tripod of the god, but also tame rats, maintained at the public expense.

1447Sect. 63.

1448In the island of Rhodes more especially many Sminthia must have existed, as Andreas, a native of Lindus, one of the three cities of the island, made these temples the subject of a treatise entitled “On the Sminthia of Rhodes.”

1449The Turks call the place Fousla, “the salt-pans.”

1450Il. x. 429.

1451Il. xxi. 86.

1452Il. xiv. 443.

1453Il. vi. 34.

1454At the foot of the mountain on which is now the village Ine.

1455Palamedium? Pliny, b. v. c. 30.

1456Karatepe-bournou, or Cape San Nicolo.

1457Antandro.

1458Dikeli-koi.

1459Tschandarlyk.

1460Ialea.

1461From σκέπτομαι, (sceptomai,)I see to a distance, from which the compound περισκέπτομαι, (perisceptomai,)I see to a distance around. Strabo perceived the absurdity of such an etymology. Others derived the name of this place from σκήπτομαι,I pretend, whence σκῆψις, (skepsis,)a pretext, because it was on this part of the chain of Ida that Rhea, on the birth of Jupiter, substituted for him a stone clothed as an infant, and presented it to be devoured by Saturn in place of her child. This etymology is conformable to analogy, although founded on a ridiculous fable.

1462B. xiii. c. i.§ 6.

1463Il. xx. 188.

1464Il. xiii. 460

1465See note4, vol. i.p. 76.

1466Some assert that Capys, the father of Anchises, was the founder of Capua or Capya in Italy. The town in Arcadia was afterwards called Caphya or Caphyæ.

1467Segesta.

1468Trapani.

1469Cape Boë.

1470Il. xx. 306.

1471This statement is not in contradiction with those (Athen. b. i. c. 3) who assert that Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, and Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, were the first who formed libraries. The libraries of these two princes, who lived six centuries before our time, were probably confined to half a dozen poets, and it may be supposed that the care Pisistratus took to collect the poems of Homer did not extend to poets posterior to his time. But in the time of Aristotle there existed many poems, a great number of oratorical discourses, historical works, and various treatises of philosophy.

1472Apellicon proclaimed himself a philosopher of the school of Aristotle. From what Athenæus, b. v., says of him, he appears to have used his great wealth for the purposes of ostentation rather than of employing it for the benefit of others. He was sent by Aristion, (or Athenion, as Athenæus calls him,) tyrant of Athens, to Delos, at the head of ten thousand soldiers, to remove the treasures of the temple. He was defeated by the Romans, and having lost his whole army, escaped with difficulty.

1473This name was given to books intended to be seen and read by every one, but which did not contain the fundamental dogmas which Aristotle only communicated to those of his own school. The books which contained these doctrines were called, by way of distinction,esoteric. Such at least is the opinion of those who admit of the existence of a secret doctrine, and a public doctrine, in the philosophy of Aristotle. This passage of Strabo however seems to favour those who maintained a different opinion, namely, that this celebrated distinction ofexotericandesotericdoctrines, which is peculiar to the works of Aristotle, is not founded on any essential difference of doctrine, but rather on a difference of method, so that the wordexotericwas applied to works where the opinions of the philosopher were set forth in a manner to be understood by all intelligent readers, whether of his own school or strangers; andesotericto those works where his opinions were thoroughly discussed, and in a scientific manner, and which, not being intelligible to every one, required to be explained by the master himself.

1474Tyrannion was a native of Amisus, whose lectures he attended (b. xii. c. iii. § 16). He is often quoted among the commentators of Homer. It was he also who gave copies of the works of Aristotle to Andronicus of Rhodes, for whom he made a catalogue of them.

1475Metrodorus was not only a fellow-countryman of Demetrius, who was one of the richest and most distinguished citizens of Scepsis, but also his contemporary and protegé. A small treatise of Metrodorus is cited, entitled περὶ ἀλειπτικῆς, which may mean “on anointing with oil,” or “on oil used in the public exercises.” It seems however very probable that the treatise on the Troad, (Τρωïκὰ,) which Athenæus attributes to another Metrodorus of Chios, was the work of this Metrodorus of Scepsis. The place of his birth, which was in the Troad, might have suggested, as it did to his patron, the idea of treating a subject liable to discussion, and to endeavour to throw light upon it by the words of Homer. Add to this that Strabo quotes also Metrodorus on the subject of the Amazons, whose history appears so closely connected with the Trojan war that all who have touched on the one, have also treated of the other. Pliny quotes also a Metrodorus on the subject of the serpents of the river Rhyndacus, near the Troad. It is also a question whether Metrodorus was one of those who occupied themselves with mnemonics, or the art of increasing and strengthening the memory. According to Plutarch, Metrodorus was the victim of Mithridates. Tigranes, who had placed the philosopher in his power, more from inadvertence than intentionally, so much regretted his death that he celebrated magnificent obsequies to his memory.

1476Gargara is the same town called above by Strabo Gargaris, unless he meant by the latter name the territory of Gargara, a distinction we find made below between Pedasa and Pedasis. The author of the Etymologicum Magnum calls the place Gargarus, and informs us that the inhabitants abandoned it on account of the cold, it being situated on Mount Ida; that they founded a new town in the plain, and that the town abandoned afterwards received the name of Old Gargara.The town called Lamponia by Strabo is called Lamponium by Hellanicus and Herodotus.

The town called Lamponia by Strabo is called Lamponium by Hellanicus and Herodotus.

1477By “the kings,” we must probably understand the kings of Bithynia rather than the kings of Persia, as understood by Rambach (De Mileto ejusque coloniæ); for if we suppose that colonists are here meant who came to Gargara from Miletus after the destruction of this latter town by the Persians, how could Demetrius of Scepsis say of the Gargareans that, “Æolians as they were, or instead of Æolians they became semi-barbarians?” He ought at least to have said, “that they became Ionians,” for Miletus, a Greek city of Ionia, at the time of its destruction by the Persians, was far from being barbarous. But Miletopolis, although from its name and position in the territory of Cyzicus was probably, like Cyzicus, a colony of Miletus, yet might have been peopled with barbarians at the time Gargara received colonists. Mualitsh is the modern name of Miletopolis.

1478Il. x. 428.

1479Budrun, the birth-place of Herodotus.

1480Herod. i. 175; viii. 104.

1481Paitschin?

1482Eski-Hissar.

1483C. vii. § 49.

1484Il. i. 366.

1485Il. ii. 691.

1486Il. ii. 295.

1487Il. i. 432.

1488Il. i. 439.

1489Il. i. 37.

1490Dikeli-koi.

1491For νησὶς Meineke reads γῆ τις, “a certain earth.” Pliny, b. ii. c. 95, speaks of islands “which are always floating;” something of the kind occurs in volcanic lakes.

1492Ak-su or Bakir.

1493It is difficult to clear up this passage ἣν ΑΙΓΑ τινὲς ὀνομαζουσιν ὁμωνύμως τῷ ξώῳ· δεῖ δὲ μακρῶς τὴν δευτέραν συλλαβὴν ἐκφέρειν ἈΙΓΑΝ ὡς ἈΚΤΑΝ καὶ ἈΡΧΑΝ. There is no doubt that the first of these words in capitals, to be homonymous withgoat, should be αἶγα, as is read in the old editions, and in many manuscripts, and not αἰγᾶ, αἰγὰ, or, αἰγὰν, as in others. Αἶγα is the accusative of Αἲξ, (Æx,)a goat, which name Artemidorus actually gives to this promontory. But as our language has no termination of cases, the passage requires some explanation. If the Greeks desired to express in the nominative case the position of the promontory with respect to the island of Lesbos, they would say, according to Artemidorus,The cape Æx(Αἲξ)is in front of Lesbos; according to Strabo,The cape Æga(Αἰγᾶ)is in front of Lesbos. The first, Æx, signifiesa goat, as Artemidorus intended; the second, Æga, in the Doric dialect (for Æge, Αἰγῆ) means a goat’s skin. If they desired to employ the word in the accusative, they said, according to Artemidorus,We have doubled Cape Æga(Αἶγα); according to Strabo,We have doubled Cape Ægan(Αἰγᾶν). The matter is clear thus far, but what follows, δεῖ δὲ μακρῶς * * * ὡς ἀκτᾶν καὶ ἀρχᾶν, is difficult to explain. The two last words are Doric genitive plurals, the first for ἀκτῶν,shores, the second for ἀρχῶν,beginnings; and yet one would expect to find examples of accusatives in the singular number, as ἀκτὰν and ἀρχὰν; the difference of accent is here of no importance, for the last syllables of these accusatives are long, as Strabo wishes to make the last syllable long of Ægan (Αἰγᾶν). If he had required examples agreeing with this last word in quantity, accent, and case, he might have cited sycan, (συκᾶν, a fig-tree,) or some other word of this form. It might be supposed that Ακτᾶν was here taken in the acceptation [ἀκτέην, ἀκτῆν, and, in the Doric dialect, ἀκτᾶν]; but there still remains ἀρχᾶν, unless we change the word to ἀρχτᾶν,a bear’s skin.—Coraÿ.]

1494Od. xi. 521.

1495Eurypylus, son of Telephus, being invited by Priam to come to his assistance, answered that he could not do so without the permission of his mother, Astyoche. Priam by rich presents obtained from her this permission. There are other explanations equally uncertain. Bryant asserts that the Cetæi were pirates, and exacted young women as tribute from the people whom they attacked.

1496Sigri.

1497Molyvo.

1498Cape Sta. Maria.

1499Adshane.

1500This is the number given in Agathermus, and there is no difference in manuscripts in this part of the text. Falconer thinks we ought to read χιλίων ἑκατὸν καὶ δέκα (1110) for χιλίων ἑκατὸν (1100), to make the sum-total given agree with the sum-total of the particular distances. I am more inclined to deduct 10 stadia from the 210, which is the distance given between Sigrium and Methymne.—Coraÿ.

1501Arginusi Islands; according to others, Musconisia.

1502The entrance to the Gulf of Caloni.

1503Pira.

1504We should probably read here Melanchus, tyrant of Lesbos, who, assisted by the brothers of Alcæus, overthrew Pittacus.

1505Diophanes was the friend of Tiberius Gracchus, and was the victim of his friendship. Potamo was professor of rhetoric at Rome, and was the author of the Perfect Orator, the Life of Alexander the Great, the Praise of Cæsar, the Praise of Brutus, and the Annals of Samos. Pliny mentions a sculptor of the name of Lesbocles, whose name seems to indicate his origin from Lesbos. Athenæus also names a sculptor from Mitylene called Lesbothemis. Strabo is probably the only person who makes mention of Crinagoras. Theophanes is known as an historian, and especially as the friend of Pompey, whom however he advised to retire to Egypt. The philosopher Lesbonax, father of Potamo, was a native of Mitylene.

1506Eresso.

1507To the N. E. of Sigri.

1508In which are comprehended the Arginusi mentioned above.

1509According to Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, Hecatonnesoi means the “hundred islands,” the word being composed not of Hecatus but of Hecaton, ἑκατὸν, “a hundred,” and νῆσοι, “islands.”

1510The name appears to be wanting.

1511Derived from πορδὴ and πέρδω.

1512Il. vi. 414, 421.

1513Il. ii. 692; xix. 296.

1514Il. x. 428.

1515Il. xiv. 443.

1516Il. xxi. 86.

1517Il. xxi. 87.

1518Il. xxi. 84.

1519Il. ii. 840.

1520Il. xvii. 301.

1521Kramer adopts Coraÿ’s correction of ἑλόντας for ἐλθόντας, although he at the same time remarks, that we have no other information of Larisa being then taken.

1522Karasu, or Kutschuk-Meinder.

1523Sarabat.

1524Salambria.

1525In spite of the improbability of these anecdotes, there must have been something real in the dulness of the Cymæans; for Cymæan was employed by the Greeks as a word synonymous with stupid. Cæsar, among the Romans, (Plutarch, Cæsar,) adopted this name in the same sense. This stupidity gave occasion to a proverb, ὄνος εἰς κυμαίους, an ass among the Cymæans, which was founded on the following story. The first time an ass appeared among the Cymæans, the inhabitants, who were unacquainted with the beast, deserted the town with such precipitation that one would have said they were escaping from an earthquake.

1526Il. ii. 814.

1527Bergamo.

1528Sart.

1529A building raised in commemoration of a victory. It was destroyed by Philip of Macedon, Polyb. xvi. 1. It appears, however, that he restored it to its ancient splendour, as forty-fire years afterwards it was devastated a second time by Prusias, king of Bithynia, which Strabo notices hereafter.

1530The circumstances are differently narrated by Plutarch “On brotherly love,” and by Livy, xlii. c. 15 and 16.

1531Diegylis, king of the Cæni, a Thracian people, was the father-in-law of Prusias.

1532Aristonicus, brother of Attalus, and a natural son of Eumenes, for some time contended with the Romans for the possession of this inheritance; but finally he was vanquished and made prisoner by the consul Perperna, carried to Rome, and there died in prison. B. xiv. c. i. § 38.

1533ἐξέδρα The exhedra was that part of the building added to the portico, and, according to Vitruvius, when spacious it consisted of three parts, and was provided with seats. It probably here means a place for sitting and resting, protected by a covering supported by columns, so as to afford a view all round.

1534Pliny also places Macedonians, surnamed Cadueni, near Tmolus. B. v. c. 29.

1535Bouz-dagh.

1536Il. ii. 865.

1537Some pretended miracle relating probably to the baskets carried by the virgins on their heads at festivals.

1538Il. ii. 864.

1539B. ix.

1540Il. vii. 221.

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