2463 On the right bank of the river Strymon in Thracian Macedonia. It stood on the site of the modern Zervokhori.
2464 A people of Epirus on the borders of Thessaly.
2465 In 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.
2466 Now 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 about A.D. 53, and two years after addressed from Corinth two Epistles to his converts in the city.
2467 Polybius says, in Strabo, B. vii., 267 miles.
2468 As already mentioned, Thermæ became merged in Thessalonica, when refounded by Cassander under that name.
2469 Now the Gulf of Saloniki.
2470 This is probably an error. Pydna, already mentioned, lay far inland in the district of Pieria.
2471 On the peninsula of Pallene. Its male inhabitants were put to death by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war.
2472 Now Capo Paliuri, the extreme point of the Isthmus of Pallene.
2473 The most westerly of the three peninsulas of Chalcidice. Phlegra is generally understood to have been its former name.
2474 Perhaps the same as Nyssa, between the rivers Nestus or Mestus, and Strymon.
2475 Its ruins are now called Pinaka. It was a colony of the Corinthians but refounded by Cassander, King Philip having previously destroyed the city.
2476 South-east of Thessalonica, and north of Chalcidice. It was given by King Philip to the Olynthians.
2477 Near Mount Athos.
2478 Now Molivo, at the head of the Toronaic Gulf, part of which thence took its name.
2479 The name of a promontory at the extremity of the peninsula of Sithonia, in Chalcidice. It seems to correspond with the modern Capo Kartali.
2480 In the district of Chalcidice, on the S.W. of the peninsula of Sithonia.
2481 On the east of the peninsula of Sithonia. It gave its name to the Sinus Singiticus or Singitic Gulf.
2482 Now Monte Santo, at the end of the long peninsula running out from Chalcidice.
2483 This 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.
2484 Or Acrothoüm. Pliny, with Strabo and Mela, errs in thinking that it stood on the mountain. It stood on the peninsula only, probably on the site of the modern Lavra.
2485 Or the ‘Heaven City,’ from its elevated position. It was founded by Alexarchus, brother of Cassander, king of Macedon.
2486 Probably on the west side of the peninsula, south of Thyssus.
2487 Or “long-lived.”
2488 Now 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.
2489 A 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.
2490 The name of the central one of the three peninsulas projecting from Chalcidice. The poets use the word Sithonius frequently as signifying ‘Thracian.’
2491 Possibly not the same as the Heraclea Sintica previously mentioned.
2492 Now called Pollina, south of Lake Bolbe, on the road from Thessalonica to Amphipolis.
2493 Sacred 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.
2494 On 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.
2495 A Thracian people, extending from the river Strymon on the east to Crestonica on the west.
2496 In Mount Scomius namely, one of the Hæmus or Balkan range.
2497 Under Alexander the Great. On his death his empire was torn in pieces by the contentions of his generals.
2498 In allusion to the legendary accounts of the Indian expeditions of Bacchus and Hercules.
2499 On 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.
2500 Alexander the Great and Paulus Æmilius.
2501 Or præfectures, as the Romans called them.
2503 An extensive tribe occupying the country about the rivers Axius, Strymon, and Nestus or Mestus.
2504 This river is now called the Mesto or Kara-Sou.
2505 A range between the Strymon and the Nestus, now the Pangea or Despoto-Dagh.
2506 Probably a canton or division of the Bessi.
2507 The most powerful people of Thrace; dwelling on both sides of the Artiscus, and on the plain of the Hebrus.
2508 Now the Maritza. It rises near the point where Mount Scomius joins Mount Rhodope. The localities of most of the tribes here named are unknown.
2509 The 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.
2510 Or “Trouble City,” also called Eumolpias.
2511 Or “Philip’s City,” founded by Philip of Macedon; still called Philippopoli.
2512 Because it stood on a hill with three summits. Under the Roman empire it was the capital of the province of Thracia.
2513 On 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.
2515 The inhabitants of the present Bulgaria, it is supposed.
2516 Following 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.
2517 The Sea of Marmora.
2518 It 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.
2519 Called Æsyma by Homer; between the rivers Strymon and Nestus.
2520 Now called Kavallo, on the Strymonic Gulf. The site of Datos appears to be unknown.
2521 Now 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.
2522 Its site seems unknown, but it is evidently a different place from that mentioned in the last Chapter.
2523 Also called Mestus.
2524 Sintica, previously mentioned.
2525 Now 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.
2526 On 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.
2527 Now called the Lagos Buru. The name of the Bistones is sometimes used by the poets for that of the Thracians in general.
2528 Or mares rather. Diomedes was the son of Ares, or Mars, and king of the Bistones. He was slain by Hercules.
2529 By some identified with the modern Curnu, by others with Bauron.
2530 Or Ismarus, at the foot of Mount Ismarus.
2531 Now Marogna.
2532 A promontory opposite the island of Samothrace.
2533 A town on a promontory of the same name, said to have been frequented by Orpheus.
2534 The 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.
2535 Now the Maritza. At its mouth it divides into two branches, the eastern forming the port of Stentor.
2536 Still called Enos.
2537 A son of Priam and Hecuba, murdered by Polymnestor, king of the Thracian Chersonesus, to obtain his treasures. See the Æneid, B. iii.
2538 From the Greek, μάκρον τεῖχος.
2539 Now the Gulf of Enos.
2540 Now Ipsala, or Chapsylar, near Keshan.
2541 Now Rodosto, or Rodostshig, on the coast of the Propontis, or Sea of Marmora.
2542 Now called the Peninsula of the Dardanelles, or of Gallipoli. The wall was built to protect it from incursions from the mainland.
2543 He 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.
2544 Or, 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.
2545 Now Temesvar, or Jegni Pangola, the capital of Scythia Minor. It was said to have been so called from the Greek τέμνω, “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.’
2546 Usually identified with the modern Collat, or Collati.
2547 Its site does not appear to be known, nor yet those of many of the towns here mentioned.
2548 This story no doubt arose from the similarity of its name to γέρανος, “a crane;” the cranes and the Pigmies, according to the poets, being in a state of continual warfare.
2549 Supposed to be the present Varna.
2550 Now called Daphne-Soui, according to D’Anville.
2551 Said to have been built by Aristæus, son of Apollo.
2552 Now Missivri.
2553 Or Anchiale, now Akiali.
2554 Now 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.
2555 Now Tiniada.
2556 The present Midjeh, according to D’Anville.
2557 Afterwards called Zagora, which name it still bears.
2558 Or Straits of Constantinople.
2559 Between Galata and Fanar, according to Brotier.
2560 Or Golden Horn; still known by that name.
2561 The site of the present Constantinople.
2562 These rivers do not appear to have been identified.
2563 The present Silivri occupies its site.
2564 An important town of Thrace. Eski Erckli stands on its site.
2565 Now Vizia, or Viza.
2566 He 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.
2567 So called probably from the Thracian tribe of the Cænici, or Cæni.
2568 Now called Erkene, a tributary of the Hebrus.
2569 All that is known of it is, that it is mentioned as a fortress on the Propontis.
2570 Hexamila now occupies its site.
2571 The isthmus or neck of the Peninsula of Gallipoli, or the Dardanelles.
2572 That of Corinth. They are both about five miles wide at the narrowest part.
2573 Now Cardia, or Caridia. It was the birth-place of king Eumenes.
2574 From καρδία, in consequence of its supposed resemblance to a heart.
2575 Lysimachus destroyed Cardia, and, building Lysimachia, peopled it with the inhabitants.
2576 Mannert identities it with the ancient Ægos and the modern Galata.
2577 More 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.
2578 Antoninus, in his Itinerary, makes this distance twenty-six miles.
2580 Now Gallipoli, a place of considerable commercial importance.
2581 Now Ialova; famous in Grecian poetry, with Abydos, for the loves of Hero and Leander.
2582 Now Lamsaki.
2583 The 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.
2584 Now Capo Helles.
2585 Now Jeni-Hisari, the N.W. promontory of Troas. Here Homer places the Grecian camp during the Trojan war.
2586 Meaning 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.
2587 Meaning that their fleet was anchored off here during the Trojan war.
2588 A 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.
2589 Now called Kilidbahr. Near this place the Spartans were defeated by the Athenians, who erected a trophy near the tomb of Hecuba.
2590 In the present Chapter; where he says that the distance from Byzantium to Dyrrhachium is 711 miles. See p. 305.
2591 Αἲξ, “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 Greek αἰγὶς, “a squall,” on account of its storms.
2594 Now Corfu. Of its city of Corcyra only a few ruins now exist.
2595 There are still some remains of it near the village called Cassopo.
2596 Now Fano, or Merlere.
2597 Now Paxo and Antipaxo.
2598 On 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.
2599 Now Capo Drasti.
2600 Now Capo Levkimo. The islands are those of Santo Niccolo.
2601 Or Islands of the Teleboans.
2602 These three seem to be those now called Magnisi, Kalamota, and Kastus. These lie facing the promontory of Leucadia, the others opposite Ætolia.
2603 Opposite Acarnania: by the Venetians they were called the Islands of Kurtzolari. Some of them are cultivated, others again are mere rocks.
2604 Now called Cephallenia.
2605 Now Zante.
2606 Now Thiaki, or Cefalogna Piccola—Little Cephallenia.
2607 The 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.
2608 Sometimes confounded with Cephallenia; but, according to Virgil and Mela, as well as Pliny, they were different islands.
2609 Crocylæa 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.
2610 Or the “Black Island;” probably from its thick foliage.
2611 Pale, Cranii, and Proni.
2612 So called from its fir-trees. It now has the name of Scopo.
2613 Now Monte Stefano.
2615 Supposed 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.
2616 The modern Strivali and Stamphane.
2617 The present Guardiania, according to Lapie.
2618 According 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.
2619 Now called Sapienza, Santa Maria, and Cabrera.