Chapter 254

2463On the right bank of the river Strymon in Thracian Macedonia. It stood on the site of the modern Zervokhori.

2464A people of Epirus on the borders of Thessaly.

2465In Mygdonia, at the mouth of the Axius—King Perseus put all its male inhabitants to death. Its site was at or near the modern Kulakia.

2466Now Saloniki. Its original name was Thermæ, but it was first made an important city by Cassander,B.C.315, who gave it its new name in honour of his wife, the sister of Alexander the Great: St. Paul visited it aboutA.D.53, and two years after addressed from Corinth two Epistles to his converts in the city.

2467Polybius says, in Strabo, B. vii., 267 miles.

2468As already mentioned, Thermæ became merged in Thessalonica, when refounded by Cassander under that name.

2469Now the Gulf of Saloniki.

2470This is probably an error. Pydna, already mentioned, lay far inland in the district of Pieria.

2471On the peninsula of Pallene. Its male inhabitants were put to death by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war.

2472Now Capo Paliuri, the extreme point of the Isthmus of Pallene.

2473The most westerly of the three peninsulas of Chalcidice. Phlegra is generally understood to have been its former name.

2474Perhaps the same as Nyssa, between the rivers Nestus or Mestus, and Strymon.

2475Its ruins are now called Pinaka. It was a colony of the Corinthians but refounded by Cassander, King Philip having previously destroyed the city.

2476South-east of Thessalonica, and north of Chalcidice. It was given by King Philip to the Olynthians.

2477Near Mount Athos.

2478Now Molivo, at the head of the Toronaic Gulf, part of which thence took its name.

2479The name of a promontory at the extremity of the peninsula of Sithonia, in Chalcidice. It seems to correspond with the modern Capo Kartali.

2480In the district of Chalcidice, on the S.W. of the peninsula of Sithonia.

2481On the east of the peninsula of Sithonia. It gave its name to the Sinus Singiticus or Singitic Gulf.

2482Now Monte Santo, at the end of the long peninsula running out from Chalcidice.

2483This is a mistake. It is only forty miles in length. From Lieut. Smith (Journal of Royal Geogr. Soc.vol. vii. p. 65) we learn that its average breadth is about four miles; consequently Pliny’s statement as to its circumference must be greatly exaggerated. Juvenal, Sat. x. l. 174, mentions the story of the canal as a specimen of Greek falsehood; but distinct traces have survived, to be seen by modern travellers, all the way from the Gulf of Monte Santo to the Bay of Erso in the Gulf of Contessa, except about 200 yards in the middle, which has been probably filled up.

2484Or Acrothoüm. Pliny, with Strabo and Mela, errs in thinking that it stoodonthemountain. It stood on thepeninsulaonly, probably on the site of the modern Lavra.

2485Or the ‘Heaven City,’ from its elevated position. It was founded by Alexarchus, brother of Cassander, king of Macedon.

2486Probably on the west side of the peninsula, south of Thyssus.

2487Or “long-lived.”

2488Now Erisso; on the east side of the Isthmus, about a mile and a half from the canal of Xerxes. There are ruins here of a large mole.

2489A little to the north of the Isthmus now called Stavro. It was the birth-place of Aristotle the philosopher, commonly called the Stagirite, and was, in consequence, restored by Philip, by whom it had been destroyed; or, as Pliny says in B. vii. c. 30, by Alexander the Great.

2490The name of the central one of the three peninsulas projecting from Chalcidice. The poets use the wordSithoniusfrequently as signifying ‘Thracian.’

2491Possibly not the same as the Heraclea Sintica previously mentioned.

2492Now called Pollina, south of Lake Bolbe, on the road from Thessalonica to Amphipolis.

2493Sacred to Poseidon or Neptune. Now Capo Stavros in Thessaly, the west front of the Gulf of Pagasa, if indeed this is the place here meant.

2494On the left or eastern bank of the river Strymon, which flowed round it, whence its name Amphi-polis, “round the city.” Its site is now occupied by a village called Neokhorio, in Turkish Jeni-Keni or “Newtown.” A few remains are still to be seen. The bay at the mouth of the Strymon, now Struma or Kara-Sou, is called the Gulf of Orphano.

2495A Thracian people, extending from the river Strymon on the east to Crestonica on the west.

2496In Mount Scomius namely, one of the Hæmus or Balkan range.

2497Under Alexander the Great. On his death his empire was torn in pieces by the contentions of his generals.

2498In allusion to the legendary accounts of the Indian expeditions of Bacchus and Hercules.

2499On the conquest of Perseus. Plutarch says that these seventy cities were pillaged in one and the same hour. They were thus punished for their support of Perseus.

2500Alexander the Great and Paulus Æmilius.

2501Or præfectures, as the Romans called them.

2502In the lastChapter.

2503An extensive tribe occupying the country about the rivers Axius, Strymon, and Nestus or Mestus.

2504This river is now called the Mesto or Kara-Sou.

2505A range between the Strymon and the Nestus, now the Pangea or Despoto-Dagh.

2506Probably a canton or division of the Bessi.

2507The most powerful people of Thrace; dwelling on both sides of the Artiscus, and on the plain of the Hebrus.

2508Now the Maritza. It rises near the point where Mount Scomius joins Mount Rhodope. The localities of most of the tribes here named are unknown.

2509The name of this people is often used by the poets to express the whole of Thrace. The district of Edonis, on the left bank of the Strymon, properly extended from Lake Cercinitis as far east as the river Nestus.

2510Or “Trouble City,” also called Eumolpias.

2511Or “Philip’s City,” founded by Philip of Macedon; still called Philippopoli.

2512Because it stood on a hill with three summits. Under the Roman empire it was the capital of the province of Thracia.

2513On account probably of the winding nature of the roads; as the height of the Balkan range in no part exceeds 3000 feet. With Theopompus probably originated the erroneous notion among the ancients as to its exceeding height.

2514The people of Mœsia. The Aorsi and Getæ are again mentioned in C.25of this Book.

2515The inhabitants of the present Bulgaria, it is supposed.

2516Following the account which represent him as a king of the Cicones, and dwelling in the vicinity of Mount Rhodope. The Sithonii here mentioned dwelt about the mouth of the Ister, or Danube, and were a different people from those of Sithonia, in Chalcidice, referred to in a previous note.

2517The Sea of Marmora.

2518It is difficult to conceive which place of this name is here alluded to, as there seem to have been four places on this coast so called, and all mentioned by Pliny in the present Book.

2519Called Æsyma by Homer; between the rivers Strymon and Nestus.

2520Now called Kavallo, on the Strymonic Gulf. The site of Datos appears to be unknown.

2521Now called Filiba, or Felibejik, on a height of Mount Pangæus, on the river Gangites, between the Nestus and the Strymon. It was founded by Philip, on the site of the ancient town of Crenides, in the vicinity of the gold mines. Here Augustus and Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius,B.C.42; and here the Apostle Paul first preached the Gospel in Europe,A.D.53. See Acts xvi. 12.

2522Its site seems unknown, but it is evidently a different place from that mentioned in the last Chapter.

2523Also called Mestus.

2524Sintica, previously mentioned.

2525Now Aco Mamas, at the head of the Toronaic Gulf. It was the most important Greek city on the coast of Macedon. It was taken and destroyed by Philip,B.C.347, and its inhabitants sold as slaves. Mecyberna, already mentioned, was used as its sea-port.

2526On the coast, and east of the river Nestus. Its people were proverbial for their stupidity, though it produced the philosophers Democritus, Protagoras, and Anaxarchus. No traces of its site are to be found.

2527Now called the Lagos Buru. The name of the Bistones is sometimes used by the poets for that of the Thracians in general.

2528Or mares rather. Diomedes was the son of Ares, or Mars, and king of the Bistones. He was slain by Hercules.

2529By some identified with the modern Curnu, by others with Bauron.

2530Or Ismarus, at the foot of Mount Ismarus.

2531Now Marogna.

2532A promontory opposite the island of Samothrace.

2533A town on a promontory of the same name, said to have been frequented by Orpheus.

2534The Plain of Doriscus is now called the Plain of Romigik. Parisot suggests the true reading here to be 100,000, or, as some MSS. have it, 120,000, there being nothing remarkable in a plain containing 10,000 men. Pliny however does not mention it as being remarkable, but merely suggests that the method used by Xerxes here for numbering his host is worthy of attention.

2535Now the Maritza. At its mouth it divides into two branches, the eastern forming the port of Stentor.

2536Still called Enos.

2537A son of Priam and Hecuba, murdered by Polymnestor, king of the Thracian Chersonesus, to obtain his treasures. See the Æneid, B. iii.

2538From the Greek,μάκρον τεῖχος.

2539Now the Gulf of Enos.

2540Now Ipsala, or Chapsylar, near Keshan.

2541Now Rodosto, or Rodostshig, on the coast of the Propontis, or Sea of Marmora.

2542Now called the Peninsula of the Dardanelles, or of Gallipoli. The wall was built to protect it from incursions from the mainland.

2543He here skips nearly five degrees of latitude, and at once proceeds to the northern parts of Thrace, at the mouth of the Danube, and moves to the south.

2544Or, the “city of the Ister,” at the south of Lake Halmyris, on the Euxine. Its site is not exactly known; but by some it is supposed to have been the same with that of the modern Kostendsje.

2545Now Temesvar, or Jegni Pangola, the capital of Scythia Minor. It was said to have been so called from the Greekτέμνω, “to cut,” because Medea here cut to pieces the body of her brother Absyrtus. It is famous as the place of Ovid’s banishment; and here he wrote his ‘Tristia’ and his ‘Pontic Epistles.’

2546Usually identified with the modern Collat, or Collati.

2547Its site does not appear to be known, nor yet those of many of the towns here mentioned.

2548This story no doubt arose from the similarity of its name toγέρανος, “a crane;” the cranes and the Pigmies, according to the poets, being in a state of continual warfare.

2549Supposed to be the present Varna.

2550Now called Daphne-Soui, according to D’Anville.

2551Said to have been built by Aristæus, son of Apollo.

2552Now Missivri.

2553Or Anchiale, now Akiali.

2554Now Sizeboli, famous for its temple of Apollo, with his statue, thirty cubits in height, which Lucullus carried to Rome. In later times it was called Sozopolis.

2555Now Tiniada.

2556The present Midjeh, according to D’Anville.

2557Afterwards called Zagora, which name it still bears.

2558Or Straits of Constantinople.

2559Between Galata and Fanar, according to Brotier.

2560Or Golden Horn; still known by that name.

2561The site of the present Constantinople.

2562These rivers do not appear to have been identified.

2563The present Silivri occupies its site.

2564An important town of Thrace. Eski Erckli stands on its site.

2565Now Vizia, or Viza.

2566He alludes to the poetical story of Tereus, king of Thrace, Progne, and Philomela. Aldrovandus suggests that the real cause of the absence of the swallow is the great prevalence here of northern winds, to which they have an aversion.

2567So called probably from the Thracian tribe of the Cænici, or Cæni.

2568Now called Erkene, a tributary of the Hebrus.

2569All that is known of it is, that it is mentioned as a fortress on the Propontis.

2570Hexamila now occupies its site.

2571The isthmus or neck of the Peninsula of Gallipoli, or the Dardanelles.

2572That of Corinth. They are both about five miles wide at the narrowest part.

2573Now Cardia, or Caridia. It was the birth-place of king Eumenes.

2574Fromκαρδία, in consequence of its supposed resemblance to a heart.

2575Lysimachus destroyed Cardia, and, building Lysimachia, peopled it with the inhabitants.

2576Mannert identities it with the ancient Ægos and the modern Galata.

2577More generally called Ægospotamos, the “Goat River,” upon which the town of Ægos stood. It was here that Lysander defeated the Athenian fleet,B.C.405, which put an end to the Peloponnesian war.

2578Antoninus, in his Itinerary, makes this distance twenty-six miles.

2579B. ii. c.92. The present Straits of Gallipoli.

2580Now Gallipoli, a place of considerable commercial importance.

2581Now Ialova; famous in Grecian poetry, with Abydos, for the loves of Hero and Leander.

2582Now Lamsaki.

2583The village of Aidos, or Avido, probably marks its site. To the north, Xerxes passed over to Sestos on his bridge of boats,B.C.480.

2584Now Capo Helles.

2585Now Jeni-Hisari, the N.W. promontory of Troas. Here Homer places the Grecian camp during the Trojan war.

2586Meaning the “Bitch’s tomb,” the fable being that Hecuba, in her old age, was changed into that animal. It was near the town of Madytus.

2587Meaning that their fleet was anchored off here during the Trojan war.

2588A magnificent temple was erected near his tomb at Eleus, where he also had a sacred grove. It was greatly enriched by the votive offerings of Greek travellers. According to D’Anville, its site lay to the south of Mastusia.

2589Now called Kilidbahr. Near this place the Spartans were defeated by the Athenians, who erected a trophy near the tomb of Hecuba.

2590In the present Chapter; where he says that the distance from Byzantium to Dyrrhachium is 711 miles. See p. 305.

2591Αἲξ, “a goat.” Other authors give other derivations for the name of Ægean,—from the town of Ægæ in Eubœa, or from Ægeus, the father of Theseus, who threw himself into it; or from Ægæa, a queen of the Amazons, who perished there; or from Ægæon, a god of the sea; or from the Greekαἰγὶς, “a squall,” on account of its storms.

2592See c.5of this Book.

2593Both places in Eubœa, mentioned in c.21of this Book.

2594Now Corfu. Of its city of Corcyra only a few ruins now exist.

2595There are still some remains of it near the village called Cassopo.

2596Now Fano, or Merlere.

2597Now Paxo and Antipaxo.

2598On the contrary, they lie at the other end of the isle of Corcyra. Some of them are mere rocks, and cannot be distinguished by their ancient names. The present names of four are Sametraki, Diaplo, Boaia, and the Isle of Ulysses.

2599Now Capo Drasti.

2600Now Capo Levkimo. The islands are those of Santo Niccolo.

2601Or Islands of the Teleboans.

2602These three seem to be those now called Magnisi, Kalamota, and Kastus. These lie facing the promontory of Leucadia, the others opposite Ætolia.

2603Opposite Acarnania: by the Venetians they were called the Islands of Kurtzolari. Some of them are cultivated, others again are mere rocks.

2604Now called Cephallenia.

2605Now Zante.

2606Now Thiaki, or Cefalogna Piccola—Little Cephallenia.

2607The general opinion is, that Strabo is right in identifying this island with one of the Echinades; but it seems impossible now to say which of them was so called.

2608Sometimes confounded with Cephallenia; but, according to Virgil and Mela, as well as Pliny, they were different islands.

2609Crocylæa was a town of Acarnania, referred to by Homer; and there was a district of Ithaca called Crocylcium. Pliny is probably in error in mentioning Crocyle as an island.

2610Or the “Black Island;” probably from its thick foliage.

2611Pale, Cranii, and Proni.

2612So called from its fir-trees. It now has the name of Scopo.

2613Now Monte Stefano.

2614See c.6of this Book.

2615Supposed by some writers to be the same with the rocky isle now called Dyscallio. Though mentioned by Homer, its existence was disputed by many of the ancient commentators.

2616The modern Strivali and Stamphane.

2617The present Guardiania, according to Lapie.

2618According to Ansart, these were Prote, now Prodano, and Sphagia, formerly Sphacteria, before Pylos, now called Zonchio, or Old Navarino; the third being perhaps the isle of Bechli, in the Bay of Navarino.

2619Now called Sapienza, Santa Maria, and Cabrera.

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