They admit
into this council those who have been thought worthy of the office of
Cosmi, and who were otherwise persons of tried worth.
into this council those who have been thought worthy of the office of
Cosmi, and who were otherwise persons of tried worth.
Strabo
They form a ridge, which
terminates at the narrow parts (the isthmus). In the middle of the
island, in the widest part, is (Ida),[770] the highest of the mountains
there. Its compass is about 600 stadia. It is surrounded by the
principal cities. There are other mountains equal in height to the White
Mountains, some of which terminate on the south, others towards the
east.
5. From the Cyrenæan[771] territory to Criu-metopon[772] is a voyage of
two days and nights. From Cimarus [to Malea] are 700 stadia. [773] In the
midway is Cythera. [774] From the promontory Samonium[775] to Ægypt a
ship sails in four days and nights, but, according to other writers, in
three. Some say that it is a voyage of 5000 stadia; others, of still
less than this. According to Eratosthenes, the distance from Cyrenaïca
to Criu-Metopon is 2000 stadia, and thence to Peloponnesus less than
[1000]. [776]
6. One language is intermixed with another, says the poet; there are in
Crete,
“Achæi, the brave Eteocretans, Cydones, Dorians divided into
three bands,[777] and the divine Pelasgi. ”[778]
Of these people, says Staphylus, the Dorians occupy the eastern parts of
the island, Cydonians the western, Eteocretans the southern, to whom
Prasus, a small town, belonged, where is the temple of the Dictæan
Jupiter; the other nations, being more powerful, inhabited the plains.
It is probable that the Eteocretans[779] and Cydonians were aboriginal
inhabitants, and that the others were foreigners, who Andron says came
from Thessaly, formerly called Doris, but now Hestiæotis, from which
country he says the Dorians, who were settled about Parnassus, migrated,
and founded Erineum, Bœum, and Cytinium, whence they are called by the
poet Trichaïces, or tripartite. But the account of Andron is not
generally admitted, who represents the Tetrapolis Doris as composed of
three cities, and the metropolis of the Dorians as a colony of
Thessalians. The epithet Trichaïces[780] is understood to be derived
either from their wearing a triple crest,[781] or from having crests of
hair. [782]
7. There are many cities in Crete, but the largest and most
distinguished are Cnossus,[783] Gortyna,[784] Cydonia. [785] Both Homer
and later writers celebrate Cnossus[783] above the rest, [CAS. 476]
calling it vast, and the palace of Minos. It maintained its pre-eminence
for a long period. It afterwards lost its ascendency, and was deprived
of many of its customs and privileges. The superiority was transferred
to Gortyna and Lyctus. [786] But it afterwards recovered its ancient rank
of the capital city. Cnossus lies in a plain, with its ancient
circumference of 30 stadia, between the Lyctian and Gortynian territory;
[distant] 200 stadia from Gortyna, and from Lyttus 120, which the
poet[787] calls Lyctus. Cnossus is at the distance of 25 stadia from the
northern sea; Gortyna 90, and Lyctus 80, stadia from the African sea.
Cnossus has a marine arsenal, Heracleium. [788]
8. Minos, it is said, used as an arsenal Amnisus,[789] where is a temple
of Eileithyia. Cnossus formerly had the name of Cæratus, which is the
name of the river[790] which runs beside it.
Minos[791] is regarded as an excellent legislator, and the first who
possessed the sovereignty of the sea. He divided the island into three
portions, in each of which he built a city; Cnossus * * * * * * *,[792]
opposite to Peloponnesus, which lies toward the north.
According to Ephorus, Minos was an imitator of Rhadamanthus, an ancient
personage, and a most just man. He had the same name as his brother, who
appears to have been the first to civilize the island by laws and
institutions, by founding cities, and by establishing forms of
government. He pretended to receive from Jupiter the decrees which he
promulgated. It was probably in imitation of Rhadamanthus that Minos
went up to the cave of Jupiter, at intervals of nine years, and brought
from thence a set of ordinances, which he said were the commands of
Jove; for which reason the poet thus expresses himself;
“There reigned Minos, who every ninth year conversed with the
great Jupiter. ”[793]
Such is the statement of Ephorus; the ancients on the other hand give a
different account, and say that he was tyrannical and violent, and an
exactor of tribute, and speak in the strain of tragedy about the
Minotaur, the Labyrinth, and the adventures of Theseus and Dædalus.
9. It is difficult to determine which is right. There is another story
also not generally received; some persons affirming that Minos was a
foreigner, others that he was a native of the island. Homer seems to
support the latter opinion, when he says, that
“Minos, the guardian of Crete, was the first offspring of
Jupiter. ”[794]
It is generally admitted with regard to Crete that in ancient times it
was governed by good laws, and induced the wisest of the Greeks to
imitate its form of government, and particularly the Lacedæmonians, as
Plato shows in his “Laws,” and Ephorus has described in his work
“Europe. ” Afterwards there was a change in the government, and for the
most part for the worse. For the Tyrrheni, who chiefly infested our sea,
were followed by the Cretans, who succeeded to the haunts and piratical
practices of the former people, and these again afterwards were subject
to the devastations of the Cilicians. But the Romans destroyed them all
after the conquest of Crete,[795] and demolished the piratical
strongholds of the Cilicians. At present Cnossus has even a colony of
Romans.
10. So much then respecting Cnossus, a city to which I am no stranger;
but owing to the condition of human affairs, their vicissitudes and
accidents, the connexion and intercourse that subsisted between
ourselves and the city is at an end. Which may be thus explained.
Dorylaüs, a military tactician, a friend of Mithridates Euergetes, was
appointed, on account of his experience in military affairs, to levy a
body of foreigners, and was frequently in Greece and Thrace, and often
in the company of persons who came from Crete, before the Romans were in
possession of the island. A great multitude of mercenary soldiers was
collected there, from whom [CAS. 478] even the bands of pirates were
recruited. During the stay of Dorylaüs in the island, a war happened to
break out between the Cnossians and the Gortynians. He was appointed
general by the Cnossians, and having finished the war speedily and
successfully, he obtained the highest honours. A short time afterwards,
being informed that Euergetes had been treacherously put to death by his
courtiers at Sinope, and that he was succeeded in the government by his
wife and children, he abandoned everything there, remained at Cnossus,
and married a Macedonian woman of the name of Sterope, by whom he had
two sons, Lagetas and Stratarchas, (the latter I myself saw when in
extreme old age,) and one daughter. Of the two sons of Euergetes, he who
was surnamed Eupator succeeded to the throne when he was eleven years of
age; Dorylaüs, the son of Philetærus, was his foster-brother. Philetærus
was the brother of Dorylaüs the Tactician. The king had been so much
pleased with his intimacy with Dorylaüs when they lived together as
children, that on attaining manhood he not only promoted Dorylaüs to the
highest honours, but extended his regard to his relations and sent for
them from Cnossus. At this time Lagetas and his brother had lost their
father, and were themselves grown up to manhood. They quitted Cnossus,
and came to Mithridates. My mother’s mother was the daughter of Lagetas.
While he enjoyed prosperity, they also prospered; but upon his downfall
(for he was detected in attempting to transfer the kingdom to the Romans
with a view to his own appointment to the sovereignty) the affairs of
Cnossus were involved in his ruin and disgrace; and all intercourse with
the Cnossians, who themselves had experienced innumerable vicissitudes
of fortune, was suspended.
So much then respecting Cnossus.
11. After Cnossus, the city Gortyna seems to have held the second place
in rank and power. For when these cities acted in concert they held in
subjection all the rest of the inhabitants, and when they were at
variance there was discord throughout the island; and whichever party
Cydonia espoused, to them she was a most important accession.
The city of the Gortynians lies in a plain, and was perhaps anciently
protected by a wall, as Homer also intimates,
“and Gortyna, a walled city;”[796]
it lost afterwards its walls, which were destroyed from their
foundation, and it has remained ever since without walls; for Ptolemy
Philopator, who began to build a wall, proceeded with it to the distance
only of about 8 stadia. Formerly the building occupied a considerable
compass, extending nearly 50 stadia. It is distant from the African sea,
and from Leben its mart, 90 stadia. It has also another arsenal,
Matalum. [797] It is distant from that 130 stadia. The river Lethæus[798]
flows through the whole of the city.
12. Leucocomas and Euxynthetus his erastes (or lover), whom Theophrastus
mentions in his discourse on Love, were natives of Leben. [799] One of
the tasks enjoined Euxynthetus by Leucocomas was this, according to
Theophrastus, to bring him his dog from Prasus. [800] The Prasii border
upon the Lebenii at the distance of 60 stadia from the sea, and from
Gortyn 180. We have said that Prasus was subject to the Eteocretans, and
that the temple of the Dictæan Jupiter was there. For Dicte[801] is
near; not, as Aratus[802] alleges, near Ida; since Dicte is distant 1000
stadia from Mount Ida, and situated at that distance from it towards the
rising sun; and 100 stadia from the promontory Samonium. Prasus was
situated between the promontory Samonium, and the Cherrhonesus, at the
distance of 60 stadia from the sea. It was razed by the Hierapytnii. He
says, too, that Callimachus[803] is not right in asserting that
Britomartis, in her escape from the violence offered by Minos, leaped
from Dicte among the nets of the fishermen (δίκτυα), and
that hence she had the name of Dictynna from the Cydoniatæ, and the
mountain that of [CAS. 479] Dicte. For Cydonia is not at all situated
in the neighbourhood of these places, but lies at the western extremity
of the island. The mountain Tityrus[804] belongs to the Cydonian
territory; upon it is situated a temple, not called Dictæan, but
Dictynnæan.
13. Cydonia is situated on the sea, fronting Laconia, at an equal
distance from both Cnossus and Gortyn, about 800 stadia, and from Aptera
80, and from the sea in this quarter 40 stadia. Cisamus[805] is the
naval arsenal of Aptera. [806] The Polyrrhenii border upon the Cydoniatæ
towards the west; in their territory is the temple of Dictynna. They are
at the distance of about 30 stadia from the sea, and 60 from Phalasarna.
Formerly they lived in villages; then Achæans and Laconians settled
there together, and fortified with a wall a strong site fronting the
south.
14. Of the three cities founded by Minos, the last, which was
Phæstus,[807] was razed by the Gortynians; it was at the distance of 60
stadia from Gortyn, 20 from the sea, and from Matalum, the arsenal, 40
stadia. They who razed the city possess the territory. Rhytium also
together with Phæstus belongs to the Gortynians,
“both Phæstus and Rhytium. ”[808]
Epimenides, who performed lustrations by the means of his poetry, is
said to have been a native of Phæstus. Olyssa (Lisses? ) also belonged to
the territory of Phæstus.
Cherrhonesus,[809] as it is called, is the arsenal of Lyttus or
(Lyctus), which we have before mentioned; on the former is the temple of
Britomartis.
Miletus and Lycastus, the cities which were enumerated together with
Lyctus, no longer exist; but the territory, after they had razed the
city (Lyctus), was partitioned among Lyctians and Cnossians.
15. As the poet in one place speaks of Crete as having a hundred, and in
another ninety, cities, Ephorus says, that ten were founded in later
times after the Trojan war by the Dorians, who accompanied Althæmenes
the Argive, and that hence Ulysses speaks of its ninety cities. This
account is probable. But others say, that the ten were razed by the
enemies of Idomeneus; but the poet does not say that Crete had a hundred
cities at the time of the Trojan war, but in his own age, for he speaks
in his own person; but if the words had been those of some person then
living, as those in the Odyssey, where Ulysses says, Crete had ninety
cities, they might have been properly understood in this manner. But
even if we admit this, the subsequent verses will not be exempt from
objection. For neither at the time of the expedition, nor after the
return of Idomeneus, is it probable that these cities were destroyed by
his enemies, for the poet says,
“but Idomeneus brought back all his companions who had
survived the war to Crete; the sea had not deprived him of any
of them;”[810]
for he would have mentioned such a misfortune. Ulysses indeed might not
have been acquainted with the destruction of these cities, for he had
not had any intercourse with any of the Greeks either during or after
his wanderings; but (Nestor), who had been the companion of Idomeneus in
the expedition and in his escape from shipwreck, could not be ignorant
of what had happened at home during the expedition and before his
return. But he must certainly have been aware of what occurred after his
return. For if he and all his companions escaped, he returned so
powerful that their enemies were not in a position to deprive them of
ten cities.
Such then is the general description of the country of Crete.
16. With respect to the form of government, which Ephorus has described
at large, it will be sufficient to give a cursory account of the
principal parts. The law-giver, says Ephorus, seems to lay, as the
foundation of his constitution, the greatest good that states can enjoy,
namely, liberty; for it is this alone which makes the property of every
kind which a man possesses his own; in a state of slavery it belongs to
the governor, and not to the governed. The liberty also which men enjoy
must be guarded. Unanimity ensues, when the dissensions that arise from
covetousness and luxury[811] are [CAS. 481] removed. Now where all live
temperately and frugally, neither envy, nor injuries, nor hatred have
place among equals. Whence the young were enjoined to repair to the
Agelæ, and those of mature age to assemble at the Syssitia, or common
meals, called Andreia, in order that the poorer sort, who were fed at
the public charge, might partake of the same fare as the rich.
With a view that courage, and not fear, should predominate, they were
accustomed from childhood to the use of arms, and to endure fatigue.
Hence they disregarded heat and cold, rugged and steep roads, blows
received in gymnastic exercises and in set battles.
They practised archery, and the dance in armour, which the Curetes first
invented, and was afterwards perfected by Pyrrhichus, and called after
him Pyrrhiche. Hence even their sports were not without their use in
their training for war. With the same intention they used the Cretan
measures in their songs; the tones of these measures are extremely loud;
they were invented by Thales, to whom are ascribed the pæans and other
native songs and many of their usages. They adopted a military dress
also, and shoes, and considered armour as the most valuable of all
presents.
17. Some, he says, alleged that many of the institutions supposed to be
Cretan were of Lacedæmonian origin; but the truth is, they were invented
by the former, but perfected by the Spartans. The Cretans, when their
cities, and particularly Cnossus, were ravaged, neglected military
affairs, but some usages were more observed by the Lyttii and Gortynii,
and some other small cities, than by the Cnossians. Those persons, who
maintain the priority of the Laconian institutions, adduce as evidence
of this those of the Lyttii, because as colonists they would retain the
customs of the parent state. Otherwise, it would be absurd for those,
who lived under a better form of constitution and government, to be
imitators of a worse. But this is not correct. For we ought not to form
conjectures respecting the ancient from the present state of things, for
each has undergone contrary changes. The Cretans were formerly powerful
at sea, so that it was a proverbial saying addressed to those who
pretended to be ignorant of what they knew, “a Cretan, and not know the
sea;” but at present they have abandoned nautical affairs.
Nor did it follow necessarily that, because there were some cities in
Crete colonized by Spartans, they should continue to observe Spartan
usages, since many of the cities of colonists do not preserve the
customs of the mother country; and there are many cities in Crete, the
inhabitants of which are not colonists, and yet have the same usages as
those that have received colonies.
18. Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator, he says, was five generations
later than Althæmenes, who conducted the colony into Crete. He is said
by historians to have been the son of Cissus, who founded Argos[812]
about the same time that Procles was engaged in establishing a colony at
Sparta. It is also generally admitted that Lycurgus was the sixth in
descent from Procles. [813] Copies do not precede the models, nor modern
precede ancient things. The usual kind of dancing practised among the
Lacedæmonians, the measures, and the pæans sung according to a certain
mood, and many other usages, are called among them Cretan, as if they
came from Crete. But among the ancient customs, those relative to the
administration of the state have the same designations as in Crete,[814]
as the council of Gerontes[815] and that of the Knights,[816] except
that in Crete the knights had horses; whence it is conjectured, that the
council of Knights in Crete is more ancient, since the origin of the
appellation is preserved. But the Spartan knight did not keep a horse.
They who perform the same functions as the Cosmi in Crete, have the
different title of Ephori [in Sparta]. The Syssitia, or common meal, is
even at present called Andreia among the Cretans; but among the Spartans
they did not continue to call it by its former name, as it is found in
the poet Alcman;
“In festivals and in joyous assemblies of the Andreia, it is
fit to begin the pæan in honour of the guests. ”
19. The occasion of the journey of Lycurgus to Crete is said by the
inhabitants to be as follows. The elder brother of Lycurgus was
Polydectes, who, at his death, left his wife pregnant. Lycurgus reigned
in place of his brother till the [CAS. 483] birth of a son. He then
became the guardian of the child, who was heir to the kingdom. Some one
said to him insultingly, he was sure Lycurgus would be king. Suspecting
that by this speech he might be accused of contriving a plot against the
child, and fearing that, if the child should die by any accident, his
enemies might impute its death to him, he departed to Crete. This is
said to have been the cause of his journey. Upon his arrival in Crete he
became acquainted with Thales, the lyric poet and legislator. He learnt
from this person the plan adopted by Rhadamanthus in former times, and
afterwards by Minos in promulgating their laws, so as to procure a
belief that they proceeded from Jupiter. He was also in Ægypt, and
obtained information respecting the laws and customs of that
country. [817] According to some writers, he met at Chios with Homer, who
was living there, and then returned to his own country, where he found
Charilaus, the son of his brother Polydectes, upon the throne. He then
began to frame laws, repairing to the god at Delphi, and bringing thence
ordinances, as Minos brought his from the cave of Jupiter. [818] The
greater part of these ordinances were similar to those of Minos.
20. The following are the principal of the laws of Crete, which Ephorus
has given in detail.
All the Cretans, who are selected at the same time from the troop
(ἀγέλη) of youths, are compelled to marry at once. They do not
however take the young women whom they have married immediately to their
homes, until they are qualified to administer household affairs.
The woman’s dower, if she has brothers, is half of the brother’s
portion.
The children are taught to read, to chaunt songs taken from the laws,
and some kinds of music.
While they are still very young they are taken to the Syssitia, called
Andreia. They sit on the ground, eating their food together, dressed in
mean garments, which are not changed in winter or summer. They wait upon
themselves and on the men. Both those of the same and those of different
messes have battles with one another. A trainer of boys presides over
each Andreion. As they grow older they are formed into (Ἀγέλαι) or
troops of youths. The most illustrious and powerful of the youths form
Agelæ, each individual assembling together as many as he can collect.
The governor of the troop is generally the father of the youth who has
assembled them together, and has the power of taking them to hunt and to
exercise themselves in running, and of punishing the disobedient. They
are maintained at the public charge.
On certain set days troop encounters troop, marching in time to the
sound of the pipe and lyre, as is their custom in actual war. They
inflict blows, some with the hand, and some even with iron weapons.
21. They have a peculiar custom with respect to their attachments. They
do not influence the objects of their love by persuasion, but have
recourse to violent abduction. The lover apprizes the friends of the
youth, three or more days beforehand, of his intention to carry off the
object of his affection. It is reckoned a most base act to conceal the
youth, or not to permit him to walk about as usual, since it would be an
acknowledgment that the youth was unworthy of such a lover. But if they
are informed that the ravisher is equal or superior in rank, or other
circumstances, to the youth, they pursue and oppose the former slightly,
merely in conformity with the custom. They then willingly allow him to
carry off the youth. If however he is an unworthy person, they take the
youth from him. This show of resistance does not end, till the youth is
received into the Andreium to which the ravisher belongs. They do not
regard as an object of affection a youth exceedingly handsome, but him
who is distinguished for courage and modesty. The lover makes the youth
presents, and takes him away to whatever place he likes. The persons
present at the abduction accompany them, and having passed two months in
feasting, and in the chase, (for it is not permitted to detain the youth
longer,) they return to the city. The youth is dismissed with presents,
which consist of a military dress, an ox, and a drinking cup; the last
are prescribed by law, and besides these many other very costly gifts,
so that the friends contribute each their share in order to diminish the
expense.
The youth sacrifices the ox to Jupiter, and entertains at a feast those
who came down with him from the mountains. He then declares concerning
the intercourse with the lover, [CAS. 484] whether it took place with
his consent or not, since the law allows him, if any violence is used in
the abduction, to insist upon redress, and set him free from his
engagement with the lover. But for the beautiful and high-born not to
have lovers is disgraceful, since this neglect would be attributed to a
bad disposition.
The parastathentes, for this is the name which they give to those youths
who have been carried away, enjoy certain honours. At races and at
festivals they have the principal places. They are permitted to wear the
stole, which distinguishes them from other persons, and which has been
presented to them by their lovers; and not only at that time, but in
mature age, they appear in a distinctive dress, by which each individual
is recognised as Kleinos, for this name is given to the object of their
attachment, and that of Philetor to the lover.
These then are the usages respecting attachments.
22. They elect ten Archons. On matters of highest moment they have
recourse to the counsel of the Gerontes, as they are called.
They admit
into this council those who have been thought worthy of the office of
Cosmi, and who were otherwise persons of tried worth.
I considered the form of government among the Cretans as worthy of
description, on account both of its peculiarity and its fame. Few of
these institutions are now in existence, and the administration of
affairs is chiefly conducted according to the orders of the Romans, as
is the case also in their other provinces.
CHAPTER V.
1. The islands about Crete are Thera,[819] the capital of the Cyrenæans,
and a colony of the Lacedæmonians; and near Thera is Anaphe,[820] in
which is the temple of Apollo Ægletes. Callimachus speaks of it in one
place, thus,
“And Æglete Anaphe, close to the Lacedæmonian Thera;”
and in another, he mentions Thera only,
“Mother of my country, celebrated for its fine breed of horses. ”
Thera is a long island, about 200 stadia in circumference. It lies
opposite to the island Dia,[821] towards the Cnossian Heracleium. It is
distant about 700 stadia from Crete. Near it are Anaphe and
Therasia. [822] The little island Ios[823] is distant from the latter
about 100 stadia. Here according to some authors the poet Homer was
buried. [824] In going from Ios towards the west are Sicenus[825] and
Lagusa,[826] and Pholegandrus,[827] which Aratus calls the iron island,
on account of its rocks. Near these islands is Cimolus,[828] whence is
obtained the Cimolian earth. From Cimolus Siphnus[829] is visible. To
this island is applied the proverb, “a Siphnian bone (astragalus),” on
account of its insignificance. Still nearer, both to Cimolus and Crete,
is Melos,[830] more considerable than these. It is distant from the
Hermionic promontory, the Scyllæum,[831] 700 stadia, and nearly as many
from the Dictynnæan promontory. The Athenians formerly despatched an
army to Melos,[832] and put to death the inhabitants from youth upwards.
These islands are situated in the Cretan sea. Delos,[833] the Cyclades
about it, and the Sporades adjacent to these, belong rather to the Ægæan
sea. To the Sporades also are to be referred the islands about Crete,
which I have already mentioned.
2. The city of Delos is in a plain. Delos contains the temple of Apollo,
and the Latoum, or temple of Latona. The Cynthus,[834] a naked and
rugged mountain, overhangs the city. [CAS. 485] The Inopus,[835] not a
large river, for the island is small, flows through it. Anciently, even
from the heroic times, this island has been held in veneration on
account of the divinities worshipped here. Here, according to the fable,
Latona was relieved from the pains of labour, and gave birth to Apollo
and Diana.
“Before this time,” (says Pindar,[836]) “Delos was carried
about by the waves, and by winds blowing from every quarter,
but when the daughter of Cœus set her foot upon it, who was
then suffering the sharp pangs of approaching childbirth, at
that instant four upright columns, resting on adamant, sprang
from the depths of the earth and retained it fast on the
rugged rock; there she brought forth, and beheld her happy
offspring. ”
The islands lying about it, called Cyclades, gave it celebrity, since
they were in the habit of sending at the public charge, as a testimony
of respect, sacred delegates, (Theori,) sacrifices, and bands of
virgins; they also repaired thither in great multitudes to celebrate
festivals. [837]
3. Originally, there were said to be twelve Cyclades, but many others
were added to them. Artemidorus enumerates (fifteen? ) where he is
speaking of the island Helena,[838] and of which he says that it extends
from Thoricus[839] to Sunium,[840] and is about 60 stadia in length; it
is from this island, he says, the Cyclades, as they are called, begin.
He names Ceos,[841] as the nearest island to Helena, and next to this
Cythnus, Seriphus,[842] Melos, Siphnus, Cimolus, Prepesinthus,[843]
Oliarus,[844] and besides these Paros,[845] Naxos,[846] Syros,[847]
Myconus,[848] Tenos,[849] Andros,[850] Gyarus. [851] The rest I consider
as belonging to the Twelve, but not Prepesinthus, Oliarus, and Gyarus.
When I put in at the latter island I found a small village inhabited by
fishermen. When we left it we took in a fisherman, deputed from the
inhabitants to go to Cæsar, who was at Corinth on his way to celebrate
his triumph after the victory at Actium. [852] He told his
fellow-passengers, that he was deputed to apply for an abatement of the
tribute, for they were required to pay 150 drachmæ, when it was with
difficulty they could pay 100.
Aratus,[853] in his Details, intimates how poor they were;
“O Latona, thou art shortly going to pass by me [_an
insignificant island_] like to the iron-bound Pholegandrus, or
to unhappy Gyarus.
4. Although Delos[854] was so famous, yet it became still more so, and
flourished after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans. [855] For the
merchants resorted thither, induced by the immunities of the temple, and
the convenience of its harbour. It lies favourably[856] for those who
are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival held
there serves the purposes of commerce, and the Romans particularly
frequented it even before the destruction of Corinth. [857] The
Athenians, after having taken the island, paid equal attention to the
affairs both of religion and of commerce. But the generals[858] of
Mithridates, and the tyrant,[859] who had occasioned the defection of
(Athens from the Romans), ravaged it entirely. The Romans received the
island in a desolate state on the departure of the king to his own
country; and it has continued in an impoverished condition to the
present time. [860] The Athenians are now in possession of it.
5. Rheneia[861] is a small desert island 4 stadia from Delos, where are
the sepulchral monuments of the Delians. For it is not permitted to bury
the dead in Delos, nor to burn a [CAS. 486] dead body there. It is not
permitted even to keep a dog in Delos.
Formerly it had the name of Ortygia. [862]
6. Ceos[863] once contained four cities. Two remain, Iulis and Carthæ,
to which the inhabitants of the others were transferred; those of
Pœëessa to Carthæ, and those of Coressia to Iulis. Simonides the lyric
poet, and Bacchylides his nephew, and after their times Erasistratus the
physician, and Ariston the Peripatetic philosopher, the imitator of
Bion,[864] the Borysthenite, were natives of this city.
There was an ancient law among these people, mentioned by Menander.
“Phanias, that is a good law of the Ceans; who cannot live
comfortably (or well), let him not live miserably (or
ill). ”[865]
For the law, it seems, ordained that those above sixty years old should
be compelled to drink hemlock, in order that there might be sufficient
food for the rest. It is said that once when they were besieged by the
Athenians, a decree was passed to the effect that the oldest persons,
fixing the age, should be put to death, and that the besiegers retired
in consequence.
The city lies on a mountain, at a distance from the sea of about 25
stadia. Its arsenal is the place on which Coressia was built, which does
not contain the population even of a village. Near the Coressian
territory and Pϑessa is a temple of Apollo Sminthius. But between the
temple and the ruins of Pϑessa is the temple of Minerva Nedusia, built
by Nestor, on his return from Troy. The river Elixus runs around the
territory of Coressia.
7. After Ceos are Naxos[866] and Andros,[867] considerable islands, and
Paros, the birth-place of the poet Archilochus. Thasos[868] was founded
by Parians, and Parium,[869] a city in the Propontis. In this last place
there is said to be an altar worthy of notice, each of whose sides is a
stadium in length.
In Paros is obtained the Parian marble, the best adapted for statuary
work. [870]
8. Here also is Syros, (the first syllable is long,) where Pherecydes
the son of Babys was born. The Athenian Pherecydes is younger than the
latter person. The poet seems to have mentioned this island under the
name of Syria;
“above Ortygia is an island called Syria. ”[871]
9. Myconus[872] is an island beneath which, according to the
mythologists, lie the last of the giants, destroyed by Hercules; whence
the proverb, “all under one Myconus,” applied to persons who collect
under one title things that are disjoined by nature. Some also call bald
persons Miconians, because baldness is frequent among the inhabitants of
the island. [873]
10. Seriphos[874] is the island where is laid the scene of the fable of
Dictys, who drew to land in his net the chest in which were enclosed
Perseus and his mother Danaë, who were thrown into the sea by order of
Acrisius, the father of Danaë. There it is said Perseus was brought up,
and to this island he brought the head of the Gorgon; he exhibited it to
the Seriphians, and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge
the wrongs of his mother, because their king Polydectes, with the
assistance of his subjects, desired to make her his wife by force.
Seriphus abounds so much with rocks, that they say in jest that it was
the work of the Gorgon.
11. Tenos[875] has a small city, but there is, in a grove beyond it, a
large temple of Neptune worthy of notice. It contains large banqueting
rooms, a proof of the great multitudes that repair thither from the
neighbouring places to celebrate a feast, and to perform a common
sacrifice in honour of Neptune.
12. To the Sporades belongs Amorgos,[876] the birth-place of [CAS. 488]
Simonides, the Iambic poet; Lebinthus[877] also, and Leria (Leros). [878]
Phocylides refers to Leria in these lines;
“the Lerians are bad, not some, but all, except Procles; but
Procles is a Lerian;”
for the Lerians are reputed to have bad dispositions.
13. Near these islands are Patmos,[879] and the Corassiæ[880] islands,
situated to the west of Icaria,[881] as the latter is with respect to
Samos.
Icaria has no inhabitants, but it has pastures, of which the Samians
avail themselves. Notwithstanding its condition it is famous, and gives
the name of Icarian to the sea in front of it, in which are situated
Samos, Cos, and the islands just mentioned,[882] the Corassiæ, Patmos,
and Leros[883] [in Samos is the mountain the Cerceteus, more celebrated
than the Ampelus, which overhangs the city of the Samians]. [884]
Continuous to the Icarian sea, towards the south, is the Carpathian sea,
and the Ægyptian sea to this; to the west are the Cretan and African
seas.
14. In the Carpathian sea, between Cos, Rhodes, and Crete, are situated
many of the Sporades, as Astypalæa,[885] Telos,[886] Chalcia,[887] and
those mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue.
“They who occupied Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and Cos,
The city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnæ islands. ”[888]
Except Cos, and Rhodes, of which we shall speak hereafter, we place the
rest among the Sporades, and we mention them here although they do not
lie near Europe, but Asia, because the course of my work induces me to
include the Sporades in the description of Crete and of the Cyclades.
We shall traverse in the description of Asia the considerable islands
adjacent to that country, as Cyprus, Rhodes, Cos, and those situated on
the succeeding line of coast, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. At
present we are to describe the remaining islands of the Sporades, which
deserve mention.
15. Astypalæa lies far out at sea, and contains a city.
Telos, which is long, high, and narrow, in circumference about 140
stadia, with a shelter for vessels, extends along the Cnidian territory.
Chalcia is distant from Telos 80, from Carpathus 400 stadia, and about
double this number from Astypalæa. It has a settlement of the same name,
a temple of Apollo, and a harbour.
16. Nisyrus lies to the north of Telos, at the distance of about 60
stadia, which is its distance also from Cos. It is round, lofty, and
rocky, and has abundance of mill-stone, whence the neighbouring people
are well supplied with stones for grinding. It contains a city of the
same name, a harbour, hot springs, and a temple of Neptune. Its
circumference is 80 stadia. Near it are small islands, called the
islands of the Nisyrians. Nisyrus is said to be a fragment broken off
from Cos; a story is also told of Neptune, that when pursuing Polybotes,
one of the giants, he broke off with his trident a piece of the island
Cos, and hurled it at him, and that the missile became the island
Nisyrus, with the giant lying beneath it. But some say that the giant
lies beneath Cos.
17. Carpathus, which the poet calls Crapathus, is lofty, having a
circumference of 200 stadia. It contained four cities, and its name was
famous, which it imparted to the surrounding sea. One of the cities was
called Nisyrus, after the name of the island Nisyrus. It lies opposite
Leuce Acte in Africa, which is distant about 1000 stadia from
Alexandria, and about 4000 from Carpathus.
18. Casus is distant from Carpathus 70, and from the promontory
Salmonium in Crete 250 stadia. It is 80 stadia in circumference. It
contains a city of the same name; and many islands, called the islands
of the Casii, lie about it.
19. They say that the poet calls the Sporades, Calydnæ, [CAS. 489] one
of which is Calymna. [889] But it is probable that as the islands, which
are near and dependent, have their names from the Nisyrii and Casii, so
those that lie around Calymna had their name from that island, which was
then perhaps called Calydna. Some say that the Calydnæ islands are two,
Leros and Calymna, and that the poet means these. But the Scepsian says,
that the name of the island was used in the plural number, Calymnæ, like
Athenæ, Thebæ, and that the words of the poet must be understood
according to the figure hyperbaton, or inversion, for he does not say,
the islands Calydnæ, but,
“they who occupied the islands Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and
Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and Calydnæ. ”
All the honey of the islands is, for the most part, excellent, and
rivals that of Attica; but the honey of these islands surpasses it,
particularly that of Calymna. [890]
BOOK XI.
ASIA.
SUMMARY.
The Eleventh Book commences with Asia and the river Don,
which, taking its rise in the northern regions, separates
Europe from Asia. It includes the nations situated in Asia
near its sources on the east and south, and the barbarous
Asiatic nations who occupy the neighbourhood of Mount
Caucasus, among whom are the Amazones, Massagetæ, Scythians,
Albani, Iberes, Bactriani, Caspii, Medes, Persians, and the
two Armenias, extending to Mesopotamia. Among these nations
are included the Troglodytæ, Heniochi, Sceptuchi, Soanes,
Assyrians, Polyphagi, Nabiani, Siraci, and Tapyri. Mention is
made of Jason and Medea, and of the cities founded by
them:--of Xerxes, Mithridates, and Alexander, son of Philip.
CHAPTER I.
1. Asia is contiguous to Europe, approaching close to it at the Tanaïs
or Don.
I am to describe this country next, after dividing it, for the sake of
perspicuity, by certain natural boundaries. What Eratosthenes has done
with respect to the whole habitable earth, this I propose to do with
respect to Asia.
2. The Taurus, extending from west to east, embraces the middle of this
continent, like a girdle, leaving one portion to the north, another to
the south. The Greeks call the former Asia Within the Taurus,[891] the
latter, Asia Without the Taurus. We have said this before, but it is
repeated now to assist the memory.
3. The Taurus has in many places a breadth of 3000 stadia; its length
equals that of Asia, namely 45,000 stadia,[892] [CAS. 491] reckoning
from the continent opposite to Rhodes to the eastern extremities of
India and Scythia.
4. It is divided into many parts, which are circumscribed by boundaries
of greater or less extent, and distinguished by various names.
But as such an extended range of mountains must comprise nations some of
which are little known, and others with whom we are well acquainted, as
Parthians,[893] Medes, Armenians, some of the Cappadocians, Cilicians,
and Pisidians; those which approach near the northern parts must be
assigned to the north, (northern Asia,) those approximating the southern
parts, to the south, (southern Asia,) and those situated in the middle
of the mountains must be placed on account of the similarity of the
temperature of the air, for it is cold to the north, while the air of
the south is warm.
The currents of almost all the rivers which flow from the Taurus are in
a direction contrary to each other, some running to the north, others to
the south, at least at the commencement of their course, although
afterwards some bend towards the east or west. They naturally suggest
the adoption of this chain of mountains as a boundary in the division of
Asia into two portions; in the same manner that the sea within the
Pillars, which for the most part runs in the same line with these
mountains, conveniently forms two continents, Europe and Africa, and is
a remarkable boundary to both.
5. In passing in our geographical description from Europe to Asia, the
first parts of the country which present themselves are those in the
northern division, and we shall therefore begin with these.
Of these parts the first are those about the Tanaïs, (or Don,) which we
have assumed as the boundary of Europe and Asia. These have a kind of
peninsular form, for they are surrounded on the west by the river Tanaïs
(or Don) and the Palus Mæotis[894] as far as the Cimmerian
Bosporus,[895] and that part of the coast of the Euxine which terminates
at Colchis; on the north by the Ocean, as far as the mouth of the
Caspian Sea; on the east by the same sea, as far as the confines of
Albania and Armenia, where the rivers Cyrus[896] and Araxes[897] empty
themselves; the latter flowing through Armenia, and the Cyrus through
Iberia[898] and Albania;[899] on the south is the tract of country
extending from the mouth of the Cyrus as far as Colchis, and comprising
about 3000 stadia from sea to sea, across the territory of the Albani,
and Iberes,[900] so as to represent an isthmus. [901]
Those writers do not deserve attention who contract the isthmus as much
as Cleitarchus, according to whom it is subject to inundations of the
sea from either side. According to Posidonius the isthmus is 1500 stadia
in extent, that is, as large as the isthmus from Pelusium to the Red
Sea. And I think, says he, that the isthmus between the Palus Mæotis and
the Ocean is not very different from this in extent.
6. I know not how any one can rely upon his authority respecting what is
uncertain, when he has nothing probable to advance on the subject; for
he reasons so falsely respecting things which are evident, and this too
when he enjoyed the friendship of Pompey, who had carried on war against
the Iberes and Albani, and was acquainted with both the Caspian and
Colchian[902] Seas on each side of the isthmus. It is related, that when
Pompey[903] was at Rhodes, on his expedition against the pirates, (he
was soon afterwards to carry on war against Mithridates and the nations
as far as the Caspian Sea,) he accidentally heard a philosophical
lecture of Posidonius; and on his departure he asked Posidonius if he
had any commands; to which he replied, [CAS. 492]
“To stand the first in worth, as in command. ”[904]
Add to this, that he wrote the history of Pompey. For these reasons he
ought to have paid a greater regard to truth.
7. The second portion is that above the Hyrcanian,[905] which we also
call the Caspian Sea, extending as far as the Scythians near the
Indians.
The third portion is continuous with the above-mentioned isthmus, and
consists of the country following next in order to the isthmus and the
Caspian Gates,[906] and approaching nearest the parts within the Taurus,
and to Europe; these are Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, and the intervening
country. [907]
The fourth portion consists of the tract within the Halys,[908] and the
parts upon and without the Taurus, which coincide with the peninsula
formed by the isthmus,[909] which separates the Euxine and the Cilician
Seas. Among the other countries beyond the Taurus we place Indica and
Ariana,[910] as far as the nations which extend to the Persian Sea, the
Arabian Gulf, and the Nile, and to the Ægyptian and the Issic seas.
CHAPTER II.
1. According to this disposition, the first portion towards the north
and the Ocean is inhabited by certain tribes of Scythians, shepherds,
(nomades,) and Hamaxœci (or those who live in waggon-houses). Within
these tribes live Sarmatians, who also are Scythians, Aorsi,[911] and
Siraci, extending as far as the Caucasian Mountains towards the south.
Some of these are Nomades, or shepherd tribes, others Scenitæ, (or
dwellers in tents,) and Georgi, or tillers of the ground. About the lake
Mæotis live the Mæotæ. Close to the sea is the Asiatic portion of the
Bosporus and Sindica. [912] Next follow Achæi, Zygi, Heniochi,[913]
Cercetæ, and Macropogones (or the long-beards). Above these people are
situated the passes of the Phtheirophagi (or Lice-eaters). After the
Heniochi is Colchis, lying at the foot of the Caucasian and Moschic
mountains. Having assumed the Tanaïs as the boundary of Europe and Asia,
we must begin our description in detail from this river.
2. [CAS. 493] The Tanaïs or Don flows from the northern parts. It does
not however flow in a direction diametrically opposite to the Nile, as
some suppose, but its course is more to the east than that of the latter
river; its sources, like those of the Nile, are unknown. A great part of
the course of the Nile is apparent, for it traverses a country the whole
of which is easy of access, and its stream is navigable to a great
distance from its mouth. We are acquainted with the mouths of the Don,
(there are two in the most northerly parts of the Mæotis, distant 60
stadia from each other,) but a small part only of the tract above the
mouths is explored, on account of the severity of the cold, and the
destitute state of the country; the natives are able to endure it, who
subsist, like the wandering shepherd tribes, on the flesh of their
animals and on milk, but strangers cannot bear the climate nor its
privations. Besides, the nomades dislike intercourse with other people,
and being a strong and numerous tribe have excluded travellers from
every part of the country which is accessible, and from all such rivers
as are navigable. For this reason some have supposed that the sources of
the river are among the Caucasian mountains, that, after flowing in a
full stream towards the north, it then makes a bend, and discharges
itself into the Mæotis. Theophanes[914] of Mitylene is of the same
opinion with these writers. Others suppose that it comes from the higher
parts of the Danube, but they do not produce any proof of so remote a
source, and in other climates, though they seem to think it impossible
for it to rise at no great distance and in the north.
3. Upon the river, and on the lake, stands a city Tanaïs, founded by the
Greeks, who possess the Bosporus; but lately the King Polemon[915] laid
it waste on account of the refractory disposition of the inhabitants. It
was the common mart both of the Asiatic and of the European nomades, and
of those who navigate the lake from the Bosporus, some of whom bring
slaves and hides, or any other nomadic commodity; others exchange wine
for clothes, and other articles peculiar to a civilized mode of life.
terminates at the narrow parts (the isthmus). In the middle of the
island, in the widest part, is (Ida),[770] the highest of the mountains
there. Its compass is about 600 stadia. It is surrounded by the
principal cities. There are other mountains equal in height to the White
Mountains, some of which terminate on the south, others towards the
east.
5. From the Cyrenæan[771] territory to Criu-metopon[772] is a voyage of
two days and nights. From Cimarus [to Malea] are 700 stadia. [773] In the
midway is Cythera. [774] From the promontory Samonium[775] to Ægypt a
ship sails in four days and nights, but, according to other writers, in
three. Some say that it is a voyage of 5000 stadia; others, of still
less than this. According to Eratosthenes, the distance from Cyrenaïca
to Criu-Metopon is 2000 stadia, and thence to Peloponnesus less than
[1000]. [776]
6. One language is intermixed with another, says the poet; there are in
Crete,
“Achæi, the brave Eteocretans, Cydones, Dorians divided into
three bands,[777] and the divine Pelasgi. ”[778]
Of these people, says Staphylus, the Dorians occupy the eastern parts of
the island, Cydonians the western, Eteocretans the southern, to whom
Prasus, a small town, belonged, where is the temple of the Dictæan
Jupiter; the other nations, being more powerful, inhabited the plains.
It is probable that the Eteocretans[779] and Cydonians were aboriginal
inhabitants, and that the others were foreigners, who Andron says came
from Thessaly, formerly called Doris, but now Hestiæotis, from which
country he says the Dorians, who were settled about Parnassus, migrated,
and founded Erineum, Bœum, and Cytinium, whence they are called by the
poet Trichaïces, or tripartite. But the account of Andron is not
generally admitted, who represents the Tetrapolis Doris as composed of
three cities, and the metropolis of the Dorians as a colony of
Thessalians. The epithet Trichaïces[780] is understood to be derived
either from their wearing a triple crest,[781] or from having crests of
hair. [782]
7. There are many cities in Crete, but the largest and most
distinguished are Cnossus,[783] Gortyna,[784] Cydonia. [785] Both Homer
and later writers celebrate Cnossus[783] above the rest, [CAS. 476]
calling it vast, and the palace of Minos. It maintained its pre-eminence
for a long period. It afterwards lost its ascendency, and was deprived
of many of its customs and privileges. The superiority was transferred
to Gortyna and Lyctus. [786] But it afterwards recovered its ancient rank
of the capital city. Cnossus lies in a plain, with its ancient
circumference of 30 stadia, between the Lyctian and Gortynian territory;
[distant] 200 stadia from Gortyna, and from Lyttus 120, which the
poet[787] calls Lyctus. Cnossus is at the distance of 25 stadia from the
northern sea; Gortyna 90, and Lyctus 80, stadia from the African sea.
Cnossus has a marine arsenal, Heracleium. [788]
8. Minos, it is said, used as an arsenal Amnisus,[789] where is a temple
of Eileithyia. Cnossus formerly had the name of Cæratus, which is the
name of the river[790] which runs beside it.
Minos[791] is regarded as an excellent legislator, and the first who
possessed the sovereignty of the sea. He divided the island into three
portions, in each of which he built a city; Cnossus * * * * * * *,[792]
opposite to Peloponnesus, which lies toward the north.
According to Ephorus, Minos was an imitator of Rhadamanthus, an ancient
personage, and a most just man. He had the same name as his brother, who
appears to have been the first to civilize the island by laws and
institutions, by founding cities, and by establishing forms of
government. He pretended to receive from Jupiter the decrees which he
promulgated. It was probably in imitation of Rhadamanthus that Minos
went up to the cave of Jupiter, at intervals of nine years, and brought
from thence a set of ordinances, which he said were the commands of
Jove; for which reason the poet thus expresses himself;
“There reigned Minos, who every ninth year conversed with the
great Jupiter. ”[793]
Such is the statement of Ephorus; the ancients on the other hand give a
different account, and say that he was tyrannical and violent, and an
exactor of tribute, and speak in the strain of tragedy about the
Minotaur, the Labyrinth, and the adventures of Theseus and Dædalus.
9. It is difficult to determine which is right. There is another story
also not generally received; some persons affirming that Minos was a
foreigner, others that he was a native of the island. Homer seems to
support the latter opinion, when he says, that
“Minos, the guardian of Crete, was the first offspring of
Jupiter. ”[794]
It is generally admitted with regard to Crete that in ancient times it
was governed by good laws, and induced the wisest of the Greeks to
imitate its form of government, and particularly the Lacedæmonians, as
Plato shows in his “Laws,” and Ephorus has described in his work
“Europe. ” Afterwards there was a change in the government, and for the
most part for the worse. For the Tyrrheni, who chiefly infested our sea,
were followed by the Cretans, who succeeded to the haunts and piratical
practices of the former people, and these again afterwards were subject
to the devastations of the Cilicians. But the Romans destroyed them all
after the conquest of Crete,[795] and demolished the piratical
strongholds of the Cilicians. At present Cnossus has even a colony of
Romans.
10. So much then respecting Cnossus, a city to which I am no stranger;
but owing to the condition of human affairs, their vicissitudes and
accidents, the connexion and intercourse that subsisted between
ourselves and the city is at an end. Which may be thus explained.
Dorylaüs, a military tactician, a friend of Mithridates Euergetes, was
appointed, on account of his experience in military affairs, to levy a
body of foreigners, and was frequently in Greece and Thrace, and often
in the company of persons who came from Crete, before the Romans were in
possession of the island. A great multitude of mercenary soldiers was
collected there, from whom [CAS. 478] even the bands of pirates were
recruited. During the stay of Dorylaüs in the island, a war happened to
break out between the Cnossians and the Gortynians. He was appointed
general by the Cnossians, and having finished the war speedily and
successfully, he obtained the highest honours. A short time afterwards,
being informed that Euergetes had been treacherously put to death by his
courtiers at Sinope, and that he was succeeded in the government by his
wife and children, he abandoned everything there, remained at Cnossus,
and married a Macedonian woman of the name of Sterope, by whom he had
two sons, Lagetas and Stratarchas, (the latter I myself saw when in
extreme old age,) and one daughter. Of the two sons of Euergetes, he who
was surnamed Eupator succeeded to the throne when he was eleven years of
age; Dorylaüs, the son of Philetærus, was his foster-brother. Philetærus
was the brother of Dorylaüs the Tactician. The king had been so much
pleased with his intimacy with Dorylaüs when they lived together as
children, that on attaining manhood he not only promoted Dorylaüs to the
highest honours, but extended his regard to his relations and sent for
them from Cnossus. At this time Lagetas and his brother had lost their
father, and were themselves grown up to manhood. They quitted Cnossus,
and came to Mithridates. My mother’s mother was the daughter of Lagetas.
While he enjoyed prosperity, they also prospered; but upon his downfall
(for he was detected in attempting to transfer the kingdom to the Romans
with a view to his own appointment to the sovereignty) the affairs of
Cnossus were involved in his ruin and disgrace; and all intercourse with
the Cnossians, who themselves had experienced innumerable vicissitudes
of fortune, was suspended.
So much then respecting Cnossus.
11. After Cnossus, the city Gortyna seems to have held the second place
in rank and power. For when these cities acted in concert they held in
subjection all the rest of the inhabitants, and when they were at
variance there was discord throughout the island; and whichever party
Cydonia espoused, to them she was a most important accession.
The city of the Gortynians lies in a plain, and was perhaps anciently
protected by a wall, as Homer also intimates,
“and Gortyna, a walled city;”[796]
it lost afterwards its walls, which were destroyed from their
foundation, and it has remained ever since without walls; for Ptolemy
Philopator, who began to build a wall, proceeded with it to the distance
only of about 8 stadia. Formerly the building occupied a considerable
compass, extending nearly 50 stadia. It is distant from the African sea,
and from Leben its mart, 90 stadia. It has also another arsenal,
Matalum. [797] It is distant from that 130 stadia. The river Lethæus[798]
flows through the whole of the city.
12. Leucocomas and Euxynthetus his erastes (or lover), whom Theophrastus
mentions in his discourse on Love, were natives of Leben. [799] One of
the tasks enjoined Euxynthetus by Leucocomas was this, according to
Theophrastus, to bring him his dog from Prasus. [800] The Prasii border
upon the Lebenii at the distance of 60 stadia from the sea, and from
Gortyn 180. We have said that Prasus was subject to the Eteocretans, and
that the temple of the Dictæan Jupiter was there. For Dicte[801] is
near; not, as Aratus[802] alleges, near Ida; since Dicte is distant 1000
stadia from Mount Ida, and situated at that distance from it towards the
rising sun; and 100 stadia from the promontory Samonium. Prasus was
situated between the promontory Samonium, and the Cherrhonesus, at the
distance of 60 stadia from the sea. It was razed by the Hierapytnii. He
says, too, that Callimachus[803] is not right in asserting that
Britomartis, in her escape from the violence offered by Minos, leaped
from Dicte among the nets of the fishermen (δίκτυα), and
that hence she had the name of Dictynna from the Cydoniatæ, and the
mountain that of [CAS. 479] Dicte. For Cydonia is not at all situated
in the neighbourhood of these places, but lies at the western extremity
of the island. The mountain Tityrus[804] belongs to the Cydonian
territory; upon it is situated a temple, not called Dictæan, but
Dictynnæan.
13. Cydonia is situated on the sea, fronting Laconia, at an equal
distance from both Cnossus and Gortyn, about 800 stadia, and from Aptera
80, and from the sea in this quarter 40 stadia. Cisamus[805] is the
naval arsenal of Aptera. [806] The Polyrrhenii border upon the Cydoniatæ
towards the west; in their territory is the temple of Dictynna. They are
at the distance of about 30 stadia from the sea, and 60 from Phalasarna.
Formerly they lived in villages; then Achæans and Laconians settled
there together, and fortified with a wall a strong site fronting the
south.
14. Of the three cities founded by Minos, the last, which was
Phæstus,[807] was razed by the Gortynians; it was at the distance of 60
stadia from Gortyn, 20 from the sea, and from Matalum, the arsenal, 40
stadia. They who razed the city possess the territory. Rhytium also
together with Phæstus belongs to the Gortynians,
“both Phæstus and Rhytium. ”[808]
Epimenides, who performed lustrations by the means of his poetry, is
said to have been a native of Phæstus. Olyssa (Lisses? ) also belonged to
the territory of Phæstus.
Cherrhonesus,[809] as it is called, is the arsenal of Lyttus or
(Lyctus), which we have before mentioned; on the former is the temple of
Britomartis.
Miletus and Lycastus, the cities which were enumerated together with
Lyctus, no longer exist; but the territory, after they had razed the
city (Lyctus), was partitioned among Lyctians and Cnossians.
15. As the poet in one place speaks of Crete as having a hundred, and in
another ninety, cities, Ephorus says, that ten were founded in later
times after the Trojan war by the Dorians, who accompanied Althæmenes
the Argive, and that hence Ulysses speaks of its ninety cities. This
account is probable. But others say, that the ten were razed by the
enemies of Idomeneus; but the poet does not say that Crete had a hundred
cities at the time of the Trojan war, but in his own age, for he speaks
in his own person; but if the words had been those of some person then
living, as those in the Odyssey, where Ulysses says, Crete had ninety
cities, they might have been properly understood in this manner. But
even if we admit this, the subsequent verses will not be exempt from
objection. For neither at the time of the expedition, nor after the
return of Idomeneus, is it probable that these cities were destroyed by
his enemies, for the poet says,
“but Idomeneus brought back all his companions who had
survived the war to Crete; the sea had not deprived him of any
of them;”[810]
for he would have mentioned such a misfortune. Ulysses indeed might not
have been acquainted with the destruction of these cities, for he had
not had any intercourse with any of the Greeks either during or after
his wanderings; but (Nestor), who had been the companion of Idomeneus in
the expedition and in his escape from shipwreck, could not be ignorant
of what had happened at home during the expedition and before his
return. But he must certainly have been aware of what occurred after his
return. For if he and all his companions escaped, he returned so
powerful that their enemies were not in a position to deprive them of
ten cities.
Such then is the general description of the country of Crete.
16. With respect to the form of government, which Ephorus has described
at large, it will be sufficient to give a cursory account of the
principal parts. The law-giver, says Ephorus, seems to lay, as the
foundation of his constitution, the greatest good that states can enjoy,
namely, liberty; for it is this alone which makes the property of every
kind which a man possesses his own; in a state of slavery it belongs to
the governor, and not to the governed. The liberty also which men enjoy
must be guarded. Unanimity ensues, when the dissensions that arise from
covetousness and luxury[811] are [CAS. 481] removed. Now where all live
temperately and frugally, neither envy, nor injuries, nor hatred have
place among equals. Whence the young were enjoined to repair to the
Agelæ, and those of mature age to assemble at the Syssitia, or common
meals, called Andreia, in order that the poorer sort, who were fed at
the public charge, might partake of the same fare as the rich.
With a view that courage, and not fear, should predominate, they were
accustomed from childhood to the use of arms, and to endure fatigue.
Hence they disregarded heat and cold, rugged and steep roads, blows
received in gymnastic exercises and in set battles.
They practised archery, and the dance in armour, which the Curetes first
invented, and was afterwards perfected by Pyrrhichus, and called after
him Pyrrhiche. Hence even their sports were not without their use in
their training for war. With the same intention they used the Cretan
measures in their songs; the tones of these measures are extremely loud;
they were invented by Thales, to whom are ascribed the pæans and other
native songs and many of their usages. They adopted a military dress
also, and shoes, and considered armour as the most valuable of all
presents.
17. Some, he says, alleged that many of the institutions supposed to be
Cretan were of Lacedæmonian origin; but the truth is, they were invented
by the former, but perfected by the Spartans. The Cretans, when their
cities, and particularly Cnossus, were ravaged, neglected military
affairs, but some usages were more observed by the Lyttii and Gortynii,
and some other small cities, than by the Cnossians. Those persons, who
maintain the priority of the Laconian institutions, adduce as evidence
of this those of the Lyttii, because as colonists they would retain the
customs of the parent state. Otherwise, it would be absurd for those,
who lived under a better form of constitution and government, to be
imitators of a worse. But this is not correct. For we ought not to form
conjectures respecting the ancient from the present state of things, for
each has undergone contrary changes. The Cretans were formerly powerful
at sea, so that it was a proverbial saying addressed to those who
pretended to be ignorant of what they knew, “a Cretan, and not know the
sea;” but at present they have abandoned nautical affairs.
Nor did it follow necessarily that, because there were some cities in
Crete colonized by Spartans, they should continue to observe Spartan
usages, since many of the cities of colonists do not preserve the
customs of the mother country; and there are many cities in Crete, the
inhabitants of which are not colonists, and yet have the same usages as
those that have received colonies.
18. Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator, he says, was five generations
later than Althæmenes, who conducted the colony into Crete. He is said
by historians to have been the son of Cissus, who founded Argos[812]
about the same time that Procles was engaged in establishing a colony at
Sparta. It is also generally admitted that Lycurgus was the sixth in
descent from Procles. [813] Copies do not precede the models, nor modern
precede ancient things. The usual kind of dancing practised among the
Lacedæmonians, the measures, and the pæans sung according to a certain
mood, and many other usages, are called among them Cretan, as if they
came from Crete. But among the ancient customs, those relative to the
administration of the state have the same designations as in Crete,[814]
as the council of Gerontes[815] and that of the Knights,[816] except
that in Crete the knights had horses; whence it is conjectured, that the
council of Knights in Crete is more ancient, since the origin of the
appellation is preserved. But the Spartan knight did not keep a horse.
They who perform the same functions as the Cosmi in Crete, have the
different title of Ephori [in Sparta]. The Syssitia, or common meal, is
even at present called Andreia among the Cretans; but among the Spartans
they did not continue to call it by its former name, as it is found in
the poet Alcman;
“In festivals and in joyous assemblies of the Andreia, it is
fit to begin the pæan in honour of the guests. ”
19. The occasion of the journey of Lycurgus to Crete is said by the
inhabitants to be as follows. The elder brother of Lycurgus was
Polydectes, who, at his death, left his wife pregnant. Lycurgus reigned
in place of his brother till the [CAS. 483] birth of a son. He then
became the guardian of the child, who was heir to the kingdom. Some one
said to him insultingly, he was sure Lycurgus would be king. Suspecting
that by this speech he might be accused of contriving a plot against the
child, and fearing that, if the child should die by any accident, his
enemies might impute its death to him, he departed to Crete. This is
said to have been the cause of his journey. Upon his arrival in Crete he
became acquainted with Thales, the lyric poet and legislator. He learnt
from this person the plan adopted by Rhadamanthus in former times, and
afterwards by Minos in promulgating their laws, so as to procure a
belief that they proceeded from Jupiter. He was also in Ægypt, and
obtained information respecting the laws and customs of that
country. [817] According to some writers, he met at Chios with Homer, who
was living there, and then returned to his own country, where he found
Charilaus, the son of his brother Polydectes, upon the throne. He then
began to frame laws, repairing to the god at Delphi, and bringing thence
ordinances, as Minos brought his from the cave of Jupiter. [818] The
greater part of these ordinances were similar to those of Minos.
20. The following are the principal of the laws of Crete, which Ephorus
has given in detail.
All the Cretans, who are selected at the same time from the troop
(ἀγέλη) of youths, are compelled to marry at once. They do not
however take the young women whom they have married immediately to their
homes, until they are qualified to administer household affairs.
The woman’s dower, if she has brothers, is half of the brother’s
portion.
The children are taught to read, to chaunt songs taken from the laws,
and some kinds of music.
While they are still very young they are taken to the Syssitia, called
Andreia. They sit on the ground, eating their food together, dressed in
mean garments, which are not changed in winter or summer. They wait upon
themselves and on the men. Both those of the same and those of different
messes have battles with one another. A trainer of boys presides over
each Andreion. As they grow older they are formed into (Ἀγέλαι) or
troops of youths. The most illustrious and powerful of the youths form
Agelæ, each individual assembling together as many as he can collect.
The governor of the troop is generally the father of the youth who has
assembled them together, and has the power of taking them to hunt and to
exercise themselves in running, and of punishing the disobedient. They
are maintained at the public charge.
On certain set days troop encounters troop, marching in time to the
sound of the pipe and lyre, as is their custom in actual war. They
inflict blows, some with the hand, and some even with iron weapons.
21. They have a peculiar custom with respect to their attachments. They
do not influence the objects of their love by persuasion, but have
recourse to violent abduction. The lover apprizes the friends of the
youth, three or more days beforehand, of his intention to carry off the
object of his affection. It is reckoned a most base act to conceal the
youth, or not to permit him to walk about as usual, since it would be an
acknowledgment that the youth was unworthy of such a lover. But if they
are informed that the ravisher is equal or superior in rank, or other
circumstances, to the youth, they pursue and oppose the former slightly,
merely in conformity with the custom. They then willingly allow him to
carry off the youth. If however he is an unworthy person, they take the
youth from him. This show of resistance does not end, till the youth is
received into the Andreium to which the ravisher belongs. They do not
regard as an object of affection a youth exceedingly handsome, but him
who is distinguished for courage and modesty. The lover makes the youth
presents, and takes him away to whatever place he likes. The persons
present at the abduction accompany them, and having passed two months in
feasting, and in the chase, (for it is not permitted to detain the youth
longer,) they return to the city. The youth is dismissed with presents,
which consist of a military dress, an ox, and a drinking cup; the last
are prescribed by law, and besides these many other very costly gifts,
so that the friends contribute each their share in order to diminish the
expense.
The youth sacrifices the ox to Jupiter, and entertains at a feast those
who came down with him from the mountains. He then declares concerning
the intercourse with the lover, [CAS. 484] whether it took place with
his consent or not, since the law allows him, if any violence is used in
the abduction, to insist upon redress, and set him free from his
engagement with the lover. But for the beautiful and high-born not to
have lovers is disgraceful, since this neglect would be attributed to a
bad disposition.
The parastathentes, for this is the name which they give to those youths
who have been carried away, enjoy certain honours. At races and at
festivals they have the principal places. They are permitted to wear the
stole, which distinguishes them from other persons, and which has been
presented to them by their lovers; and not only at that time, but in
mature age, they appear in a distinctive dress, by which each individual
is recognised as Kleinos, for this name is given to the object of their
attachment, and that of Philetor to the lover.
These then are the usages respecting attachments.
22. They elect ten Archons. On matters of highest moment they have
recourse to the counsel of the Gerontes, as they are called.
They admit
into this council those who have been thought worthy of the office of
Cosmi, and who were otherwise persons of tried worth.
I considered the form of government among the Cretans as worthy of
description, on account both of its peculiarity and its fame. Few of
these institutions are now in existence, and the administration of
affairs is chiefly conducted according to the orders of the Romans, as
is the case also in their other provinces.
CHAPTER V.
1. The islands about Crete are Thera,[819] the capital of the Cyrenæans,
and a colony of the Lacedæmonians; and near Thera is Anaphe,[820] in
which is the temple of Apollo Ægletes. Callimachus speaks of it in one
place, thus,
“And Æglete Anaphe, close to the Lacedæmonian Thera;”
and in another, he mentions Thera only,
“Mother of my country, celebrated for its fine breed of horses. ”
Thera is a long island, about 200 stadia in circumference. It lies
opposite to the island Dia,[821] towards the Cnossian Heracleium. It is
distant about 700 stadia from Crete. Near it are Anaphe and
Therasia. [822] The little island Ios[823] is distant from the latter
about 100 stadia. Here according to some authors the poet Homer was
buried. [824] In going from Ios towards the west are Sicenus[825] and
Lagusa,[826] and Pholegandrus,[827] which Aratus calls the iron island,
on account of its rocks. Near these islands is Cimolus,[828] whence is
obtained the Cimolian earth. From Cimolus Siphnus[829] is visible. To
this island is applied the proverb, “a Siphnian bone (astragalus),” on
account of its insignificance. Still nearer, both to Cimolus and Crete,
is Melos,[830] more considerable than these. It is distant from the
Hermionic promontory, the Scyllæum,[831] 700 stadia, and nearly as many
from the Dictynnæan promontory. The Athenians formerly despatched an
army to Melos,[832] and put to death the inhabitants from youth upwards.
These islands are situated in the Cretan sea. Delos,[833] the Cyclades
about it, and the Sporades adjacent to these, belong rather to the Ægæan
sea. To the Sporades also are to be referred the islands about Crete,
which I have already mentioned.
2. The city of Delos is in a plain. Delos contains the temple of Apollo,
and the Latoum, or temple of Latona. The Cynthus,[834] a naked and
rugged mountain, overhangs the city. [CAS. 485] The Inopus,[835] not a
large river, for the island is small, flows through it. Anciently, even
from the heroic times, this island has been held in veneration on
account of the divinities worshipped here. Here, according to the fable,
Latona was relieved from the pains of labour, and gave birth to Apollo
and Diana.
“Before this time,” (says Pindar,[836]) “Delos was carried
about by the waves, and by winds blowing from every quarter,
but when the daughter of Cœus set her foot upon it, who was
then suffering the sharp pangs of approaching childbirth, at
that instant four upright columns, resting on adamant, sprang
from the depths of the earth and retained it fast on the
rugged rock; there she brought forth, and beheld her happy
offspring. ”
The islands lying about it, called Cyclades, gave it celebrity, since
they were in the habit of sending at the public charge, as a testimony
of respect, sacred delegates, (Theori,) sacrifices, and bands of
virgins; they also repaired thither in great multitudes to celebrate
festivals. [837]
3. Originally, there were said to be twelve Cyclades, but many others
were added to them. Artemidorus enumerates (fifteen? ) where he is
speaking of the island Helena,[838] and of which he says that it extends
from Thoricus[839] to Sunium,[840] and is about 60 stadia in length; it
is from this island, he says, the Cyclades, as they are called, begin.
He names Ceos,[841] as the nearest island to Helena, and next to this
Cythnus, Seriphus,[842] Melos, Siphnus, Cimolus, Prepesinthus,[843]
Oliarus,[844] and besides these Paros,[845] Naxos,[846] Syros,[847]
Myconus,[848] Tenos,[849] Andros,[850] Gyarus. [851] The rest I consider
as belonging to the Twelve, but not Prepesinthus, Oliarus, and Gyarus.
When I put in at the latter island I found a small village inhabited by
fishermen. When we left it we took in a fisherman, deputed from the
inhabitants to go to Cæsar, who was at Corinth on his way to celebrate
his triumph after the victory at Actium. [852] He told his
fellow-passengers, that he was deputed to apply for an abatement of the
tribute, for they were required to pay 150 drachmæ, when it was with
difficulty they could pay 100.
Aratus,[853] in his Details, intimates how poor they were;
“O Latona, thou art shortly going to pass by me [_an
insignificant island_] like to the iron-bound Pholegandrus, or
to unhappy Gyarus.
4. Although Delos[854] was so famous, yet it became still more so, and
flourished after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans. [855] For the
merchants resorted thither, induced by the immunities of the temple, and
the convenience of its harbour. It lies favourably[856] for those who
are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival held
there serves the purposes of commerce, and the Romans particularly
frequented it even before the destruction of Corinth. [857] The
Athenians, after having taken the island, paid equal attention to the
affairs both of religion and of commerce. But the generals[858] of
Mithridates, and the tyrant,[859] who had occasioned the defection of
(Athens from the Romans), ravaged it entirely. The Romans received the
island in a desolate state on the departure of the king to his own
country; and it has continued in an impoverished condition to the
present time. [860] The Athenians are now in possession of it.
5. Rheneia[861] is a small desert island 4 stadia from Delos, where are
the sepulchral monuments of the Delians. For it is not permitted to bury
the dead in Delos, nor to burn a [CAS. 486] dead body there. It is not
permitted even to keep a dog in Delos.
Formerly it had the name of Ortygia. [862]
6. Ceos[863] once contained four cities. Two remain, Iulis and Carthæ,
to which the inhabitants of the others were transferred; those of
Pœëessa to Carthæ, and those of Coressia to Iulis. Simonides the lyric
poet, and Bacchylides his nephew, and after their times Erasistratus the
physician, and Ariston the Peripatetic philosopher, the imitator of
Bion,[864] the Borysthenite, were natives of this city.
There was an ancient law among these people, mentioned by Menander.
“Phanias, that is a good law of the Ceans; who cannot live
comfortably (or well), let him not live miserably (or
ill). ”[865]
For the law, it seems, ordained that those above sixty years old should
be compelled to drink hemlock, in order that there might be sufficient
food for the rest. It is said that once when they were besieged by the
Athenians, a decree was passed to the effect that the oldest persons,
fixing the age, should be put to death, and that the besiegers retired
in consequence.
The city lies on a mountain, at a distance from the sea of about 25
stadia. Its arsenal is the place on which Coressia was built, which does
not contain the population even of a village. Near the Coressian
territory and Pϑessa is a temple of Apollo Sminthius. But between the
temple and the ruins of Pϑessa is the temple of Minerva Nedusia, built
by Nestor, on his return from Troy. The river Elixus runs around the
territory of Coressia.
7. After Ceos are Naxos[866] and Andros,[867] considerable islands, and
Paros, the birth-place of the poet Archilochus. Thasos[868] was founded
by Parians, and Parium,[869] a city in the Propontis. In this last place
there is said to be an altar worthy of notice, each of whose sides is a
stadium in length.
In Paros is obtained the Parian marble, the best adapted for statuary
work. [870]
8. Here also is Syros, (the first syllable is long,) where Pherecydes
the son of Babys was born. The Athenian Pherecydes is younger than the
latter person. The poet seems to have mentioned this island under the
name of Syria;
“above Ortygia is an island called Syria. ”[871]
9. Myconus[872] is an island beneath which, according to the
mythologists, lie the last of the giants, destroyed by Hercules; whence
the proverb, “all under one Myconus,” applied to persons who collect
under one title things that are disjoined by nature. Some also call bald
persons Miconians, because baldness is frequent among the inhabitants of
the island. [873]
10. Seriphos[874] is the island where is laid the scene of the fable of
Dictys, who drew to land in his net the chest in which were enclosed
Perseus and his mother Danaë, who were thrown into the sea by order of
Acrisius, the father of Danaë. There it is said Perseus was brought up,
and to this island he brought the head of the Gorgon; he exhibited it to
the Seriphians, and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge
the wrongs of his mother, because their king Polydectes, with the
assistance of his subjects, desired to make her his wife by force.
Seriphus abounds so much with rocks, that they say in jest that it was
the work of the Gorgon.
11. Tenos[875] has a small city, but there is, in a grove beyond it, a
large temple of Neptune worthy of notice. It contains large banqueting
rooms, a proof of the great multitudes that repair thither from the
neighbouring places to celebrate a feast, and to perform a common
sacrifice in honour of Neptune.
12. To the Sporades belongs Amorgos,[876] the birth-place of [CAS. 488]
Simonides, the Iambic poet; Lebinthus[877] also, and Leria (Leros). [878]
Phocylides refers to Leria in these lines;
“the Lerians are bad, not some, but all, except Procles; but
Procles is a Lerian;”
for the Lerians are reputed to have bad dispositions.
13. Near these islands are Patmos,[879] and the Corassiæ[880] islands,
situated to the west of Icaria,[881] as the latter is with respect to
Samos.
Icaria has no inhabitants, but it has pastures, of which the Samians
avail themselves. Notwithstanding its condition it is famous, and gives
the name of Icarian to the sea in front of it, in which are situated
Samos, Cos, and the islands just mentioned,[882] the Corassiæ, Patmos,
and Leros[883] [in Samos is the mountain the Cerceteus, more celebrated
than the Ampelus, which overhangs the city of the Samians]. [884]
Continuous to the Icarian sea, towards the south, is the Carpathian sea,
and the Ægyptian sea to this; to the west are the Cretan and African
seas.
14. In the Carpathian sea, between Cos, Rhodes, and Crete, are situated
many of the Sporades, as Astypalæa,[885] Telos,[886] Chalcia,[887] and
those mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue.
“They who occupied Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and Cos,
The city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnæ islands. ”[888]
Except Cos, and Rhodes, of which we shall speak hereafter, we place the
rest among the Sporades, and we mention them here although they do not
lie near Europe, but Asia, because the course of my work induces me to
include the Sporades in the description of Crete and of the Cyclades.
We shall traverse in the description of Asia the considerable islands
adjacent to that country, as Cyprus, Rhodes, Cos, and those situated on
the succeeding line of coast, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. At
present we are to describe the remaining islands of the Sporades, which
deserve mention.
15. Astypalæa lies far out at sea, and contains a city.
Telos, which is long, high, and narrow, in circumference about 140
stadia, with a shelter for vessels, extends along the Cnidian territory.
Chalcia is distant from Telos 80, from Carpathus 400 stadia, and about
double this number from Astypalæa. It has a settlement of the same name,
a temple of Apollo, and a harbour.
16. Nisyrus lies to the north of Telos, at the distance of about 60
stadia, which is its distance also from Cos. It is round, lofty, and
rocky, and has abundance of mill-stone, whence the neighbouring people
are well supplied with stones for grinding. It contains a city of the
same name, a harbour, hot springs, and a temple of Neptune. Its
circumference is 80 stadia. Near it are small islands, called the
islands of the Nisyrians. Nisyrus is said to be a fragment broken off
from Cos; a story is also told of Neptune, that when pursuing Polybotes,
one of the giants, he broke off with his trident a piece of the island
Cos, and hurled it at him, and that the missile became the island
Nisyrus, with the giant lying beneath it. But some say that the giant
lies beneath Cos.
17. Carpathus, which the poet calls Crapathus, is lofty, having a
circumference of 200 stadia. It contained four cities, and its name was
famous, which it imparted to the surrounding sea. One of the cities was
called Nisyrus, after the name of the island Nisyrus. It lies opposite
Leuce Acte in Africa, which is distant about 1000 stadia from
Alexandria, and about 4000 from Carpathus.
18. Casus is distant from Carpathus 70, and from the promontory
Salmonium in Crete 250 stadia. It is 80 stadia in circumference. It
contains a city of the same name; and many islands, called the islands
of the Casii, lie about it.
19. They say that the poet calls the Sporades, Calydnæ, [CAS. 489] one
of which is Calymna. [889] But it is probable that as the islands, which
are near and dependent, have their names from the Nisyrii and Casii, so
those that lie around Calymna had their name from that island, which was
then perhaps called Calydna. Some say that the Calydnæ islands are two,
Leros and Calymna, and that the poet means these. But the Scepsian says,
that the name of the island was used in the plural number, Calymnæ, like
Athenæ, Thebæ, and that the words of the poet must be understood
according to the figure hyperbaton, or inversion, for he does not say,
the islands Calydnæ, but,
“they who occupied the islands Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and
Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and Calydnæ. ”
All the honey of the islands is, for the most part, excellent, and
rivals that of Attica; but the honey of these islands surpasses it,
particularly that of Calymna. [890]
BOOK XI.
ASIA.
SUMMARY.
The Eleventh Book commences with Asia and the river Don,
which, taking its rise in the northern regions, separates
Europe from Asia. It includes the nations situated in Asia
near its sources on the east and south, and the barbarous
Asiatic nations who occupy the neighbourhood of Mount
Caucasus, among whom are the Amazones, Massagetæ, Scythians,
Albani, Iberes, Bactriani, Caspii, Medes, Persians, and the
two Armenias, extending to Mesopotamia. Among these nations
are included the Troglodytæ, Heniochi, Sceptuchi, Soanes,
Assyrians, Polyphagi, Nabiani, Siraci, and Tapyri. Mention is
made of Jason and Medea, and of the cities founded by
them:--of Xerxes, Mithridates, and Alexander, son of Philip.
CHAPTER I.
1. Asia is contiguous to Europe, approaching close to it at the Tanaïs
or Don.
I am to describe this country next, after dividing it, for the sake of
perspicuity, by certain natural boundaries. What Eratosthenes has done
with respect to the whole habitable earth, this I propose to do with
respect to Asia.
2. The Taurus, extending from west to east, embraces the middle of this
continent, like a girdle, leaving one portion to the north, another to
the south. The Greeks call the former Asia Within the Taurus,[891] the
latter, Asia Without the Taurus. We have said this before, but it is
repeated now to assist the memory.
3. The Taurus has in many places a breadth of 3000 stadia; its length
equals that of Asia, namely 45,000 stadia,[892] [CAS. 491] reckoning
from the continent opposite to Rhodes to the eastern extremities of
India and Scythia.
4. It is divided into many parts, which are circumscribed by boundaries
of greater or less extent, and distinguished by various names.
But as such an extended range of mountains must comprise nations some of
which are little known, and others with whom we are well acquainted, as
Parthians,[893] Medes, Armenians, some of the Cappadocians, Cilicians,
and Pisidians; those which approach near the northern parts must be
assigned to the north, (northern Asia,) those approximating the southern
parts, to the south, (southern Asia,) and those situated in the middle
of the mountains must be placed on account of the similarity of the
temperature of the air, for it is cold to the north, while the air of
the south is warm.
The currents of almost all the rivers which flow from the Taurus are in
a direction contrary to each other, some running to the north, others to
the south, at least at the commencement of their course, although
afterwards some bend towards the east or west. They naturally suggest
the adoption of this chain of mountains as a boundary in the division of
Asia into two portions; in the same manner that the sea within the
Pillars, which for the most part runs in the same line with these
mountains, conveniently forms two continents, Europe and Africa, and is
a remarkable boundary to both.
5. In passing in our geographical description from Europe to Asia, the
first parts of the country which present themselves are those in the
northern division, and we shall therefore begin with these.
Of these parts the first are those about the Tanaïs, (or Don,) which we
have assumed as the boundary of Europe and Asia. These have a kind of
peninsular form, for they are surrounded on the west by the river Tanaïs
(or Don) and the Palus Mæotis[894] as far as the Cimmerian
Bosporus,[895] and that part of the coast of the Euxine which terminates
at Colchis; on the north by the Ocean, as far as the mouth of the
Caspian Sea; on the east by the same sea, as far as the confines of
Albania and Armenia, where the rivers Cyrus[896] and Araxes[897] empty
themselves; the latter flowing through Armenia, and the Cyrus through
Iberia[898] and Albania;[899] on the south is the tract of country
extending from the mouth of the Cyrus as far as Colchis, and comprising
about 3000 stadia from sea to sea, across the territory of the Albani,
and Iberes,[900] so as to represent an isthmus. [901]
Those writers do not deserve attention who contract the isthmus as much
as Cleitarchus, according to whom it is subject to inundations of the
sea from either side. According to Posidonius the isthmus is 1500 stadia
in extent, that is, as large as the isthmus from Pelusium to the Red
Sea. And I think, says he, that the isthmus between the Palus Mæotis and
the Ocean is not very different from this in extent.
6. I know not how any one can rely upon his authority respecting what is
uncertain, when he has nothing probable to advance on the subject; for
he reasons so falsely respecting things which are evident, and this too
when he enjoyed the friendship of Pompey, who had carried on war against
the Iberes and Albani, and was acquainted with both the Caspian and
Colchian[902] Seas on each side of the isthmus. It is related, that when
Pompey[903] was at Rhodes, on his expedition against the pirates, (he
was soon afterwards to carry on war against Mithridates and the nations
as far as the Caspian Sea,) he accidentally heard a philosophical
lecture of Posidonius; and on his departure he asked Posidonius if he
had any commands; to which he replied, [CAS. 492]
“To stand the first in worth, as in command. ”[904]
Add to this, that he wrote the history of Pompey. For these reasons he
ought to have paid a greater regard to truth.
7. The second portion is that above the Hyrcanian,[905] which we also
call the Caspian Sea, extending as far as the Scythians near the
Indians.
The third portion is continuous with the above-mentioned isthmus, and
consists of the country following next in order to the isthmus and the
Caspian Gates,[906] and approaching nearest the parts within the Taurus,
and to Europe; these are Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, and the intervening
country. [907]
The fourth portion consists of the tract within the Halys,[908] and the
parts upon and without the Taurus, which coincide with the peninsula
formed by the isthmus,[909] which separates the Euxine and the Cilician
Seas. Among the other countries beyond the Taurus we place Indica and
Ariana,[910] as far as the nations which extend to the Persian Sea, the
Arabian Gulf, and the Nile, and to the Ægyptian and the Issic seas.
CHAPTER II.
1. According to this disposition, the first portion towards the north
and the Ocean is inhabited by certain tribes of Scythians, shepherds,
(nomades,) and Hamaxœci (or those who live in waggon-houses). Within
these tribes live Sarmatians, who also are Scythians, Aorsi,[911] and
Siraci, extending as far as the Caucasian Mountains towards the south.
Some of these are Nomades, or shepherd tribes, others Scenitæ, (or
dwellers in tents,) and Georgi, or tillers of the ground. About the lake
Mæotis live the Mæotæ. Close to the sea is the Asiatic portion of the
Bosporus and Sindica. [912] Next follow Achæi, Zygi, Heniochi,[913]
Cercetæ, and Macropogones (or the long-beards). Above these people are
situated the passes of the Phtheirophagi (or Lice-eaters). After the
Heniochi is Colchis, lying at the foot of the Caucasian and Moschic
mountains. Having assumed the Tanaïs as the boundary of Europe and Asia,
we must begin our description in detail from this river.
2. [CAS. 493] The Tanaïs or Don flows from the northern parts. It does
not however flow in a direction diametrically opposite to the Nile, as
some suppose, but its course is more to the east than that of the latter
river; its sources, like those of the Nile, are unknown. A great part of
the course of the Nile is apparent, for it traverses a country the whole
of which is easy of access, and its stream is navigable to a great
distance from its mouth. We are acquainted with the mouths of the Don,
(there are two in the most northerly parts of the Mæotis, distant 60
stadia from each other,) but a small part only of the tract above the
mouths is explored, on account of the severity of the cold, and the
destitute state of the country; the natives are able to endure it, who
subsist, like the wandering shepherd tribes, on the flesh of their
animals and on milk, but strangers cannot bear the climate nor its
privations. Besides, the nomades dislike intercourse with other people,
and being a strong and numerous tribe have excluded travellers from
every part of the country which is accessible, and from all such rivers
as are navigable. For this reason some have supposed that the sources of
the river are among the Caucasian mountains, that, after flowing in a
full stream towards the north, it then makes a bend, and discharges
itself into the Mæotis. Theophanes[914] of Mitylene is of the same
opinion with these writers. Others suppose that it comes from the higher
parts of the Danube, but they do not produce any proof of so remote a
source, and in other climates, though they seem to think it impossible
for it to rise at no great distance and in the north.
3. Upon the river, and on the lake, stands a city Tanaïs, founded by the
Greeks, who possess the Bosporus; but lately the King Polemon[915] laid
it waste on account of the refractory disposition of the inhabitants. It
was the common mart both of the Asiatic and of the European nomades, and
of those who navigate the lake from the Bosporus, some of whom bring
slaves and hides, or any other nomadic commodity; others exchange wine
for clothes, and other articles peculiar to a civilized mode of life.
