The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Geography of Strabo Vol. II., translated By H. C. Hamilton.

503 Hence Virgil, Geor. 3, calls Apollo, Pastor ab Amphryso.

504 Isdin or Zeitun.

507 Above S. Theodoro.

509 πήγνυμι, to fasten.

510 ἀφετήριον, a starting-place.

520 The ruins are pointed out to the south of Stagus Kalabak.

525 τίτανος, chalk.

528 Meineke suggests the reading μεταξύ, between, instead of μέχρι, as far as.

529 The words after Perrhæbi, εἰς τὴν ἐν τῇ μεσογαίᾳ ποταμίαν, into the country in the interior lying along the river, are omitted, as suggested by Meineke.

531 Groskurd suggests the insertion here of Messembria or Odessus. Kramer is inclined to adopt the latter.

533 Or Pelasgiotis. Groskurd.

537 In the middle ages Eubœa was called Egripo, a corruption of Euripus, the name of the town built upon the ruins of Chalcis. The Venetians, who obtained possession of the island upon the dismemberment of the Byzantine empire by the Latins, called it Negropont, probably a corruption of Egripo and Ponte, a bridge. Smith.

538 This expression is obscure; probably it may mean that Eubœa is not equal in length to the coast comprehended between Sunium and the southern limits of Thessaly.

539 C. Lithada. The mountain Lithada above the cape, rises to the height of 2837 feet above the sea.

541 The real length of the island from N. to S. is about 90 miles, its extreme breadth is 30 miles, but in one part it is not more than 4 miles across. See Smith art. Eubœa.

543 Strabo is the only ancient author who describes a place of this name as existing in Eubœa. Kiepert and the Austrian map agree in giving the name Petaliæ, which may here be meant, to the Spili islands.

544 ἀντίπορθμος

545 Eubœa has various names. Formerly (says Pliny, b. iv. c. 12) it was called Chalcedontis or Macris, according to Dionysius and Ephorus; Macra, according to Aristides; Chalcis, from brass being there first discovered, according to Callidemus; Abantias, according to Menæchmus; and Asopis by the poets in general.

546 The narrow channel between the island and the mainland.

547 Il. ii. 536, 542.

548 From Abas, great grandson of Erectheus.

549 From Eubœa, daughter of the river Asopus and mistress of Neptune.

550 From εὖ, well, and βοῦς, a cow. The ancient coins of the island bear the head of an ox.

551 Mount St. Elias, 4748 feet above the level of the sea. Bochart derives the name from an eastern word signifying “narrow.”

552 At the base of Ploko Vuno.

553 Mount Galzades, celebrated for producing medicinal plants. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. b. ix. c. 15 and 20.

554 Dipso, according to Kiepert.

556 Not the town named Histiæa-Oreus, which was on the sea-coast.

557 Livy, b. xxxi. c. 46.

558 διὰ τὸ ὀρείους εἶναι

559 Kiepert accordingly places Dium near the modern Jaitra, but the Austrian map places it to the N. E. of Ploko Vuno.

560 Castel Rosso. The landing-place of the Persian expedition under Datis and Artaphernes, B. C. 490. Herod. b. vi. c. 99.

562 The ruins are indicated as existing opposite the Spili islands.

563 λίθος φύεται

564 τῇ τῶν λίνων πλύσει

567 As this statement is unsupported by any other authority, Meineke suggests that the word Arabians (Ἄραβες οἱ) is an error for Aradii (Ἀράδιοι).

568 Repub. b. iv. c. 3.

569 According to the Scholiast in Apollon. Rhod. Argon, b. i. v. 77, Canethus was a mountain on the Bœotian side of the Euripus.

570 B. i. c. iii. § 16.

571 B. ix. c. ii. § 13.

574 ἐνιαυτόν for αὐτόν. Meineke.

575 Near Palæo-castro.

576 Herod. b. iii. c. 149, and b. vi. c. 101.

577 A common practice of the Dorians.

578 B. viii. c. iii. § 6.

580 Negropont. It was one of the three cities which Philip of Macedon called the chains of Greece. Brass (χαλκὸς) was said to have been first found there.

581 He retired there B. C. 322.

584 ἡ σάρισσα καὶ ὁ ὑσσὸς Probably an interpolation. Groskurd.

585 μάχην τὴν σταδίαν

586 συστάδην

587 ἐκ χειρός

592 Il. xiii. 713, 716.

593 B. vi. c. i. § 13.

594 B. viii. c. vii. § 1.

595 The Aspro-potamo.

597 B. viii. c. iii. § 11.

598 B. ix. c. v. § 10.

599 B. viii. c. ii. § 3.

600 The promontory bears the name C. Madonna, and the ruins of Anactorium are pointed out as existing at the bottom of the small bay of Prevesa. The modern town, Azio, which is not the ancient Actium, is near these ruins.

602 Correction by Groskurd. Trigardon is given in the Austrian map as the ancient site of Œniadæ, but this position does not agree with the text.

603 Porto-fico according to D’Anville.

604 Kandili, opposite the island Kalamo.

607 Arta, but the Austrian map gives Rogus as the site.

608 This is an error either of the author or in the text. Groskurd proposes to read Antirrhium (Castel Rumeli) in place of Anactorium. Kramer proposes to follow Tzschucke, and to exchange the positions of the words Stratus and Alyzia in the text.

609 There has been some dispute respecting the site of Calydon. Leake supposes the ruins which he discovered at Kurtaga, or Kortaga, to the west of the Evenus, (Fidari,) to be those of Calydon.

611 Leake supposes it to have stood in the plain of Marathia, opposite the island Trissonia.

622 I follow the proposed reading, ἅλμα for ἀλλὰ.

623 Du Theil says, Strabo should have said “a daughter of Pterelas who was in love with Cephalus.” See below, § 14.

638 Probably interpolated. Kramer.

641 εὐδείελος is the reading of the text, but the reading in Homer is ἱππήλατος, adapted for horses, and thus translated by Horace, Epist. lib. I. vii. 41, Non est aptus equis Ithacæ locus.

646 For the explanation of climate, see book ii. ch. i. § 20, but in this passage the word has a different sense, and implies the division of the heavens into north, south, east, and west. The idea of Strabo seems to be that of a straight line drawn from east to west, dividing the celestial horizon into two parts, the one northern, (or arctic,) the other southern. The sun in its course from east to west continues always as regards us in the southern portion. Gossellin.

647 οὐδ’ ὅπου ἀρχή

648 So in the text, but there is manifestly an error.

656 We may hence conjecture that Cephallenia in the time of Homer was divided into two parts, Dulichium and Samé. It may explain at least the uncertainty of the ancients respecting the position of Dulichium. Pausanias, b. vi. c. 15, speaking of the Paleis says, that formerly they were called Dulichii; and Hesychius, that Dulichium is a city of Cephallenia.

657 Situated near the modern capital Argostoli.

658 Probably the site of the ruins in the harbour of Viscardo.

664 In the Valle d’Alessandro, in Cephalonia, there is still a place called Samo.