Geography

Some writers do not hesitate to affirm, that Cephallenia and Dulichium are the same; others identify it with Taphos, and the Cephallenians with Taphians, and these again with Teleboae. They assert that Amphitryon, with the aid of Cephalus, the son of Deioneus, an exile from Athens, undertook an expedition against the island, and having got possession of it, delivered it up to Cephalus; hence this city bore his name, and the rest those of his children. But this is not in accordance with Homer, for the Cephallenians were subject to Ulysses and Laertes, and Taphos to Mentes; I boast that I am Mentes, son of the valiant Anchialus, And king of the Taphians, skilful rowers. Taphos is now called Taphius. Nor does Hellanicus follow Homer when he calls Cephallenia, Dulichium, for Dulichium, and the other Echinades, are said to be under the command of Meges, and the inhabitants, Epeii, who came from Elis; wherefore he calls Otus the Cyllenian,

companion of Phyleides, chief of the magnanimous Epeii; but Ulysses led the magnanimous Cephallenes. Neither, as Andro asserts, is Cephallenia, according to Homer, Dulichium, nor does Dulichium belong to Cephallenia, for Epeii possessed Dulichium, and Cephallenians the whole of Cephallenia, the former of whom were under the command of Ulysses, the latter of Meges. Paleis is not called Dulichium by Homer, as Pherecydes says. But he who asserts that Cephallenia and Dulichium are the same contradicts most strongly the account of Homer; for as fifty-two of the suitors came from Dulichium, and twenty-four from Samé, would he not say, that from the whole island came such a number of suitors, and from a single city of the four came half the number within two? If any one should admit this, we shall inquire what the Samé could be, which is mentioned in this line, Dulichium and Samé, and the woody Zacynthus.

Cephallenia is situated opposite to Acarnania, at the distance from Leucatas of about 50, or according to others, of 40 stadia, and from Chelonatas of about 80 stadia. It is about 300 stadia (1300?) in circumference. It extends in length towards the south-east (Eurus). It is mountainous; the largest mountain in it is the Aenus, on which is the temple of Jupiter Aenesius. Here is the narrowest part of the island, which forms a low isthmus, that is frequently overflowed from sea to sea. Cranii and Paleis are situated near the straits in the Gulf.

Between Ithaca and Cephallenia is the small island Asteria, or Asteris, as t is called by the poet, which, according to Demetrius, the Scepsian, does not remain in the state described by the poet, there are harbours in it, open on both sides, for the reception of vessels. But Apollodorus says that it exists even at present, and mentions a small city in it, Alalcomenae, situated quite upon the isthmus.

The poet also gives the name of Samos to Thracia, which we now call Samothracé. He was probably acquainted with the Ionian island, for he seems to have been acquainted with the Ionian migration. He would not, otherwise, have made a distinction between islands of the same names, for in speaking of Samothrace, he makes the distinction sometimes by the epithet, on high, upon the loftiest summit of the woody Samos, the Thracian, sometimes by uniting it with the neighbouring islands, to Samos, and Imbros, and inaccessible Lemnos; and again, between Samos and rocky Imbros. He was therefore acquainted with the Ionian island, although he has not mentioned its name. Nor had it formerly always the same name, but was called Melamphylus, then Anthemis, then Parthenia, from the river Parthenius, the name of which was changed to Imbrasus. Since then both Cephallenia and Samothracé were called Samos at the time of the Trojan war, (for if it had not been so Hecuba would not have been introduced saying, that Achilles would sell any of her children that he could seize at Samos and Imbros,) Ionian Samos was not yet colonized (by Ionians), which is evident from its having the same name from one of the islands earlier (called Samos), that had it before; whence this also is clear, that those persons contradict ancient history, who assert, that colonists came from Samos after the Ionian migration, and the arrival of Tembrion, and gave the name of Samos to Samothracé. The Samians invented this story out of vanity. Those are more entitled to credit, who say, that heights are called Sami, and that the island obtained its name from this circumstance, for from thence was seen all Ida, the city of Priam, and the ships of the Greeks. But according to some writers, Samos had its name from the Saii, a Thracian tribe, who formerly inhabited it, and who occupied also the adjoining continent, whether they were the same people as the Sapae, or the Sinti, whom the poet calls Sinties, or a different nation. Archilochus mentions the Sail; one of the Saii is exulting in the possession of an honourable shield, which I left against my will near a thicket.

Of the islands subject to Ulysses there remains to be described Zacynthus. It verges a little more than Cephallenia to the west of Peloponnesus, but approaches closer to it. It is 160 stadia in circumference, and distant from Cephallenia about 60 stadia. It is woody, but fertile, and has a considerable city of the same name. Thence to the Hesperides belonging to Africa are 3300 stadia.

To the east of this island, and of Cephallenia, are situated the Echinades islands; among which is Dulichium, at present called Dolicha, and the islands called Oxeiae, to which the poet gives the name of Thoae.

Dolicha is situated opposite to the Oeniadae, and the mouth of the Achelous: it is distant from Araxus, the promontory of Elis, 100 stadia. The rest of the Echinades are numerous, they are all barren and rocky, and lie in front of the mouth of the Achelous, the most remote of them at the distance of 15, the nearest at the distance of 5 stadia; they formerly were farther out at sea, but the accumulation of earth, which is brought down in great quantity by the Achelous, has already joined some, and will join others, to the continent. This accumulation of soil anciently formed the tract Paracheloitis, which the river overflows, a subject of contention, as it was continually confounding boundaries, which had been determined by the Acarnanians and the Aetolians. For want of arbitrators they decided their dispute by arms. The most powerful gained the victory. This gave occasion to a fable, how Hercules overcame the Achelous in fight, and received in marriage as the prize of his victory, Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus. Sophocles introduces her, saying, My suitor was a river, I mean the Achelous, who demanded me of my father under three forms; one while coming as a bull of perfect form, another time as a spotted writhing serpent, at another with the body of a man and the forehead of a bull. Some writers add, that this was the horn of Amaltheia, which Hercules broke off from the Achelous, and presented to Oeneus as a bridal gift. Others, conjecturing the truth included in this story, say, that Achelous is reported to have resembled a bull, like other rivers, in the roar of their waters, and the bendings of their streams, which they term horns; and a serpent from its length and oblique course; and bull-fronted because it was compared to a bull’s head; and that Hercules, who, on other occasions, was disposed to perform acts of kindness for the public benefit, so particularly, when he was desirous of contracting an alliance with Oeneus, performed for him these services; he prevented the river from overflowing its banks, by constructing mounds and by diverting its streams by canals, and by draining a large tract of the Paracheloitis, which had been injured by the river; and this is the horn of Amaltheia.

Homer says, that in the time of the Trojan war the Echinades, and the Oxeiae were subject to Meges, son of the hero Phyleus, beloved of Jupiter, who formerly repaired to Dulichium on account of a quarrel with his father. The father of Phyleus was Augeas, king of Elis, and of the Epeii. The Epeii then, who possessed these islands, were those who had migrated to Dulichium with Phyleus.

The islands of the Taphii, and formerly of the Teleboae, among which was Taphus, now called Taphius, were distinct from the Echinades, not separated by distance, (for they lie near one another,) but because they were ranged under different chiefs, Taphii and Teleboae. In earlier times Amphitryon, in conjunction with Cephalus, the son of Deioneus, an exile from Athens, attacked, and then delivered them up to the government of Cephalus. But the poet says that Mentes was their chief, and calls them robbers, which was the character of all the Teleboae.

So much then concerning the islands off Acarnania.

Between Leucas and the Ambracian gulf is a sea-lake, called Myrtuntium. Next to Leucas followed Palerus, and Alyzia, cities of Acarnania, of which Alyzia is distant from the sea 15 stadia. Opposite to it is a harbour sacred to Hercules, and a grove from whence a Roman governor transported to Rome the labours of Hercules, the workmanship of Lysippus, which was lying in an unsuitable place, being a deserted spot.

Next are Crithote, a promontory, and the Echinades, and Astacus, used in the singular number, a city of the same name as that near Nicomedia, and the Gulf of Astacus, Crithote, a city of the same name as that in the Thracian Chersonesus. All the coast between these places has good harbours. Then follows $Oeniadae, and the Achelous; then a lake belonging to the $Oeniadae, called Melite, 30 stadia in length, and in breadth 20; then another Cynia, of double the breadth and length of Melite; a third Uria, much less than either of the former. Cynia even empties itself into the sea; the others are situated above it at the distance of about half a stadium.

Next is the river Evenus, which is distant from Actium 670 stadia.

Then follows the mountain Chalcis, which Artemidorus calls Chalcia; [next Pleuron, then Licyrna, a village, above which in the interior is situated Calydon at the distance of 30 stadia. Near Calydon is the temple of Apollo Laphrius;] then the mountain Taphiassus; then Macynia, a city; then Molycria, and near it Antirrhium, the boundary of Aetolia and of Locris. To Antirrhium from the Evenus are about 120 stadia.

Artemidorus does not place the mountain, whether Chalcis or Chalcia, between the Achelous and Pleuron, but Apollodorus, as I have said before, places Chalcis and Taphiassus above Molycria; and Calydon between Pleuron and Chalcis. Are we then to place one mountain of the name of Chalcia near Pleuron, and another of the name of Chalcis near Molycria?

Near Calydon is a large lake, abounding with fish. It belongs to the Romans of Patrae.

Apollodorus says, that there is in the inland parts of Acarnania, a tribe of Erysichaei, mentioned by Aleman, not an Erysichaean, nor a shepherd; but I came from the extremities of Sardis. Olenus belonged to Aetolia; Homer mentions it in the Aetolian Catalogue, but traces alone remain of it near Pleuron below Aracynthus.

Lysimachia also was near Olenus. This place has disappeared. It was situated upon the lake, the present Lysimachia, formerly Hydra, between Pleuron and the city Arsinoë, formerly a village of the name of Conopa. It was founded by Arsinoë, wife and also sister of the second Ptolemy. It is conveniently situated above the passage across the Achelous.

Pylene has experienced nearly the same fate as Olenus.

When the poet describes Calydon as lofty, and rocky, we must understand these epithets as relating to the character of the country. For we have said before, that when they divided the country into two parts, they assigned the mountainous portion and the Epictetus to Calydon, and the tract of plains to Pleuron.

The Acarnanians, and the Aetolians, like many other nations, are at present worn out, and exhausted by continual wars. The Aetolians however, in conjunction with the Acarnanians, during a long period withstood the Macedonians and the other Greeks, and lastly the Romans, in their contest for independence.

But since Homer, and others, both poets and historians, frequently mention them, sometimes in clear and undisputed terms, and sometimes less explicitly, as appears from what we have already said of these people, we must avail ourselves of some of the more ancient accounts, which will supply us with a beginning, or with an occasion of inquiring into what is controverted.

First then with respect to Acarnania. We have already said, that it was occupied by Laertes and the Cephallenians; but as many writers have advanced statements respecting the first occupants in terms sufficiently clear, indeed, but contradictory, the inquiry and discussion are left open to us.

They say, that the Taphii and Teleboae, as they are called, were the first inhabitants of Acarnania, and that their chief, Cephalus, who was appointed by Amphitryon sovereign of the islands about Taphus, was master also of this country. Hence is related of him the fable, that he was the first person who took the reputed leap from Leucatas. But the poet does not say, that the Taphii inhabited Acarnania before the arrival of the Cephallenians and Laertes, but that they were friends of the Ithacenses; consequently, in his time, either they had not the entire command of these places, or had voluntarily retired, or had even become joint settlers.

A colony of certain from Lacedaemon seems to have settled in Acarnania, who were followers of Icarius, father of Penelope, for the poet in the Odyssey represents him and the brothers of Penelope as then living; who did not dare to go to the palace of Icarius with a view of his disposing of his daughter in marriage. And with respect to the brothers; for now a long time both her father and her brothers were urging her to marry Eurymachus. Nor is it probable that they were living at Lacedaemon, for Telemachus would not, in that case, have been the guest of Menelaus upon his arrival, nor is there a tradition, that they had any other habitation. But they say that Tyndareus and his brother Icarius, after being banished from their own country by Hippocoon, repaired to Thestius, the king of the Pleuronii, and assisted in obtaining possession of a large tract of country on the other side of the Achelous on condition of receiving a portion of it; that Tyndareus, having espoused Leda the daughter of Thestius, returned home; that Icarius continued there in possession of a portion of Acarnania, and had Penelope and her brothers by his wife Polycasta, daughter of Lygaeus. We lave shown by the Catalogue of the Ships in Homer, that the Acarnanians were enumerated among the people who took part in the war of Troy; and among these are reckoned the inhabitants of the Acté, and besides these, they who occupied Epirus, and cultivated the land opposite. But Epirus was never called Acarnania, nor Acté, Leucas.

Ephorus does not say that they took part in the expedition against Troy; but he says that Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, who was the companion of Diomede, and the other Epigoni in their expedition, having brought the war against the Thebans to a successful issue, went with Diomede to assist in punishing the enemies of Oeneus, and having delivered up Aetolia to Diomede, he himself passed over into Acarnania, which country also he subdued. In the mean time Agamemnon attacked the Argives, and easily overcame them, the greatest part having attached themselves to the followers of Diomede. But a short time afterwards, when the expedition took place against Troy, he was afraid, lest, in his absence with the army, Diomede and his troops should return home, (for there was a rumour that he had collected a large force,) and should regain possession of a territory to which they had the best right, one being the heir of Adrastus, the other of his father. Reflecting then on these circumstances, he invited them to unite in the recovery of Argos, and to take part in the war. Diomede consented to take part in the expedition, but Alcmaeon was indignant and refused; whence the Acarnanians were the only people who did not participate in the expedition with the Greeks. The Acarnanians, probably by following this account, are said to have imposed upon the Romans, and to have obtained from them the privilege of an independent state, because they alone had not taken part in the expedition against the ancestors of the Romans, for their names are neither in the Aetolian Catalogue, nor are they mentioned by themselves, nor is their name mentioned anywhere in the poem.

Ephorus then having represented Acarnania as subject to Alcmeon before the Trojan war, ascribes to him the foundation of Amphilochian Argos, and says that Acarnania had its name from his son Acarnan, and the Amphilochians from his brother Amphilochus; thus he turns aside to reports contrary to the history in Homer. But Thucydides and other writers say, that Amphilochus, on his return from the Trojan expedition, being displeased with the state of affairs at Argos, dwelt in this country; according to some writers, he obtained it by succeeding to the dominions of his brother; others represent it differently. So much then respecting the Acarnanians considered by themselves. We shall now speak of their affairs where they are intermixed in common with those of the Aetolians, and we shall then relate as much of the history of the Aetolians as we proposed to add to our former account of this people.

SOME writers reckon the Curetes among the Acarnanians, others among the Aetolians; some allege that they came from Crete, others that they came from Euboea. Since, however, they are mentioned by Homer, we must first examine his account of them. It is thought that he does not mean the Acarnanians, but the Aetolians, in the following verses, for the sons of Porthaon were, Agrius, Melas, and the hero Oeneus, These dwelt at Pleuron, and the lofty Calydon, both of which are Aetolian cities, and are mentioned in the Aetolian Catalogue; wherefore since those who inhabited Pleuron appear to be, according to Homer, Curetes, they might be Aetolians. The opponents of this conclusion are misled by the mode of expression in these verses, Curetes and Aetolians, firm in battle, were fighting for the city Calydon, for neither would he have used appropriate terms if he had said, Boeotians and Thebans were contending against each other, nor Argives and Peloponnesians. But we have shown in a former part of this work, that this mode of expression is usual with Homer, and even trite among other poets. This objection then is easily answered. But let the objectors explain, how, if these people were not Aetolians, the poet came to reckon the Pleuronii among the Aeto lians.

Ephorus, after having asserted that the nation of the Aetolians were never in subjection to any other people, but, from all times of which any memorial remains, their country continued exempt from the ravages of war, both on account of its local obstacles and their own experience in warfare, says, that from the beginning Curetes were in possession of the whole country, but on the arrival of Aetōlus, the son of Endynion, from Elis, who defeated them in various battles, the Curetes retreated to the present Acarnania, and the Aetolians returned with a body of Epeii, and founded ten of the most ancient cities in Aetolia; and in the tenth generation afterwards Elis was founded, in conjunction with that people, by Oxylus, the son of Haemon, who had passed over from Aetolia. They produce, as proofs of these facts, inscriptions, one sculptured on the base of the statue of Aetolus at Therma in Aetolia, where, according to the custom of the country, they assemble to elect their magistrates; this statue of Aetolus, son of Endymion, brought up near the streams of the Alpheius, and in the neighbourhood of the stadia of Olympia, Aetolians dedicated as a public monument of his merits. And the other inscription on the statue of Oxylus is in the market-place of Elis; Aetolus, having formerly abandoned the original inhabitants of this country, won by the toils of war the land of the Curetes. But Oxylus, the son of Haemon, the tenth scion of that race, founded this ancient city.

He rightly alleges, as a proof of the affinity subsisting reciprocally between the Eleii and the $Etolians, these inscriptions, both of which recognise not the affinity alone, but also that their founders had established settlers in each other’s country. Whence he clearly convicts those of falsehood who assert, that the Eleii were a colony of Aetolians, and that the Aetolians were not a colony of Eleii. But he seems to exhibit the same inconsistency in his positions here, that we proved with regard to the oracle at Delphi. For after asserting that Aetolia had never been ravaged by war from all time of which there was any memorial, and saying, that from the first the Curetes were in possession of this country, he ought to have inferred from such premises, that the Curetes continued to occupy the country of Aetolia to his days. For in this manner it might be understood never to have been devastated, nor in subjection to any other nation. But forgetting his position, he does not infer this, but the contrary, that Aetolus came from Elis, and having defeated the Curetes in various battles, these people retreated into Acarnania. What else then is there peculiar to the devastation of a country than the defeat of the inhabitants in war and their abandonment of their land, which is evinced by the inscription among the Eleii; for speaking of Aetolus the words are, he obtained possession of the country of the Curetes by the continued toils of war.

But perhaps some person may say, that he means Aetolia was not laid waste, reckoning from the time that it had this name after the arrival of Aetolus; but he takes away the ground of this supposition, by saying afterwards, that the greatest part of the people, that remained among the Aetolians, were those called Epeii, with whom Aetolians were afterwards intermingled, who had been expelled from Thessaly together with Boeotians, and possessed the country in common with these people. But is it probable that, without any hostilities, they invaded the country of another nation and divided it among themselves and the original possessors, who did not require such a partition of their land? If this is not probable, is it to be believed that the victors agreed to an equal division of the territory? What else then is devastation of a country, but the conquest of it by arms? Besides, Apollodorus says that, according to history, the Hyantes abandoned Boeotia and came and settled among the Aetolians, and concludes as confident that his opinion is right by saying it is our custom to relate these and similar facts exactly, whenever any of them is altogether dubious, or concerning which erroneous opinions are entertained.

Notwithstanding these faults in Ephorus, still he is superior to other writers. Polybius himself, who has studiously given him so much praise, has said that Eudoxus has written well on Grecian affairs, but that Ephorus has given the best account of the foundation of cities, of the relationship subsisting between nations, of changes of settlements, and of leaders of colonies, in these words, but I shall explain the present state of places, both as to position and distances; for this is the peculiar province of chorography.