Geography

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.

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, 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.

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.

THE islands about Crete are Thera, the capital of the Cyrenaeans, and a colony of the Lacedaemonians; and near Thera is Anaphe, in which is the temple of Apollo Aegletes. Callimachus speaks of it in one place, thus, And Aeglete Anaphe, close to the Lacedaemonian 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, towards the Cnossian Heracleium. It is distant about 700 stadia from Crete. Near it are Anaphe and Therasia. The little island Ios is distant from the latter about 100 stadia. Here according to some authors the poet Homer was buried. In going from Ios towards the west are Sicenus and Lagusa, and Pholegandrus, which Aratus calls the iron island, on account of its rocks. Near these islands is Cimolus, whence is obtained the Cimolian earth. From Cimolus Siphnus 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, more considerable than these. It is distant from the Hermionic promontory, the Scyllaeum, 700 stadia, and nearly as many from the Dictynnaean promontory. The Athenians formerly despatched an army to Melos, and put to death the inhabitants from youth upwards.

These islands are situated in the Cretan sea. Delos, the Cyclades about it, and the Sporades adjacent to these, belong rather to the Aegoean sea. To the Sporades also are to be referred the islands about Crete, which I have already mentioned.

The city of Delos is in a plain. Delos contains the temple of Apollo, and the Latoum, or temple of Latona. The Cynthus, a naked and rugged mountain, overhangs the city. The Inopus, 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,) Delos was carried about by the waves, and by winds blowing from every quarter, but when the daughter of Coeus set her foot upon it, who was then suffering the sharp pangs of approaching child-birth, 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.

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, and of which he says that it extends from Thoricus to Sunium, and is about 60 stadia in length; it is from this island, he says, the Cyclades, as they are called, begin. He names Ceos, as the nearest island to Helena, and next to this Cythnus, Seriphus, Melos, Siphnus, Cimolus, Prepesinthus, Oliarus, and besides these Paros, “Naxos, Syros, Myconus, Tenos, Andros, Gyarus. 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 C$esar, who was at Corinth on his way to celebrate his triumph after the victory at Actium. He told his fellow-passengers, that he was deputed to apply for an abatement of the tribute, for they were required to pay 150 drachmae, when it was with difficulty they could pay 100.

Aratus, in his Details, intimates how poor they were; “O Latona, thou art shortly going to pass by me [an insignificant is- land] like to the iron-bound Pholegandrus, or to unhappy Gyarus.

Although Delos was so famous, yet it became still more so, and flourished after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans. For the merchants resorted thither, induced by the immunities of the temple, and the convenience of its harbour. It lies favourably 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. The Athenians, after having taken the island, paid equal attention to the affairs both of religion and of commerce. But the generals of Mithridates, and the tyrant, who had occasioned the detection 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. The Athenians are now in possession of it.

Rheneia 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 dead body there. It is not permitted even to keep a dog in Delos.

Formerly it had the name of Ortygia.

Ceos once contained four cities. Two remain, Iulis and Carthae, to which the inhabitants of the others were transferred; those of Poaeëssa to Carthae, 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, 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). 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 Poeëessa is a temple of Apollo Sminthius. But between the temple and the ruins of Poeëessa is the temple of Minerva Nedusia, built by Nestor, on his return from Troy. The river Elixus runs around the territory of Coressia.

After Ceos are Naxos and Andros, considerable islands, and Paros, the birth-place of the poet Archilochus. Thasos was founded by Parians, and Parium, 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.

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.

Myconus 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.

Seriphos 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.

Tenos 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.

To the Sporades belongs Amorgos, the birth-place of Simonides, the Iambic poet; Lebinthus also, and Leria (Leros). Phocylides refers to Leria in these lines; the Lerians are bad, not some, but all, except Procles; but Procies is a Lerian; for the Lerians are reputed to have bad dispositions.

Near these islands are Patmos, and the Corassia, islands, situated to the west of Icaria, 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, the Corassiae, Patmos, and Leros [in Samos is the mountain the Cerceteus, more celebrated than the Ampelus, which overhangs the city of the Samians]. Continuous to the Icarian sea, towards the south, is the Carpathian sea, and the Aegyptian sea to this; to the west are the Cretan and African seas.

In the Carpathian sea, between Cos, Rhodes, and Crete, are situated many of the Sporades, as Astypalaea, Telos, Chalcia, and those mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue. They who occupied Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and Cos, The city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnae islands. 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.

Astypalaea 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 Astypalaea. It has a settlement of the same name, a temple of Apollo, and a harbour.

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.

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.

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.

They say that the poet calls the Sporades, Calydnae, one of which is Calymna. 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 Calydnoe 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, Calymnae, like Athenae, Thebae, and that the words of the poet must be understood according to the figure hyperbaton, or inversion, for he does not say, the islands Calydnae, but, they who occupied the islands Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and Calydnae.

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.

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, Massagetae, Scythians, Albani, Iberes, Bactriani, Caspii, Medes, Persians, and the two Armenias, extending to Mesopotamia. Among these nations are included the Troglodytae, 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.

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.

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, the latter, Asia Without the Taurus. We have said this before, but it is repeated now to assist the memory.

The Taurus has in many places a breadth of 3000 stadia; its length equals that of Asia, namely 45,000 stadia, reckoning from the continent opposite to Rhodes to the eastern extremities of India and Scythia.

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, 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.

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 Maotis as far as the Cimmerian Bosporus, 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 and Araxes empty themselves; the latter flowing through Armenia, and the Cyrus through Iberia and Albania; 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, so as to represent an isthmus.

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 Maeotis and the Ocean is not very different from this in extent.

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 Seas on each side of the isthmus. It is related, that when Pompey 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, To stand the first in worth, as in command. Add to this, that he wrote the history of Pompey. For these reasons he ought to have paid a greater regard to truth.

The second portion is that above the Hyrcanian, 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, and approaching nearest the parts within the Taurus, and to Europe; these are Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, and the intervening country.

The fourth portion consists of the tract within the Halys, and the parts upon and without the Taurus, which coincide with the peninsula formed by the isthmus, which separates the Euxine and the Cilician Seas. Among the other countries beyond the Taurus we place Indica and Ariana, as far as the nations which extend to the Persian Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and the Nile, and to the Aegyptian and the Issic seas.