Col. William Leake, Travels in the Morea (v.1-3)

§ 3.414 In this passage, as in many others, Pausanias by a slight omission, that is to say, by failing to connect the paraplus with the land route, and by giving only a single distance in the latter, namely from Rhypae to Aegium, has left the topography in such a state of doubt as can only be removed by an actual inspection of the places. Strabo, too, tends to mislead us by speaking of Rhium and Drepanum, as if they were one and the same promontory. No one can doubt, that Rhium, which formed with Antirrhium the narrowest part of the strait, is the cape now occupied by the Morea castle; nor is it less certain, that Drepanum is the low sandy point four miles to the eastward of the castle, which still preserves its ancient appellation. The name was often applied by the ancients to low sandy promontories, which, by the action of currents in the sea upon the deposits of rivers, assume the form of a δρεπανον, or sickle. Cape Dhrepano is exactly in that predicament, and Pausanias has correctly described its position as being at the mouth of the fourth river from Patrae in the way to Aegium. Strabo makes the distance from Patrae to Rhium 40 stades, Pausanias 30: the difference is accounted for by the former having meant the

§ 3.415 land route, and the latter the navigation, which he supposed, on the whole paraplus to Aegium, to have been 40 stades more than the road by land. His paraplus of 230 stades is nearly correct, its length on the map being 24 geographical miles, measured on a curved line parallel to the coast; but the length which he assigns to the road by land, 190 stades, is below the truth, the line, when measured with a distance of 3 geographical miles in the compasses, being 21 geographical miles, which, at 10.5 stades to the geographical mile, amounts to 220. Indeed, it is obvious that, as the land route followed a curve nearly parallel to the paraplus, the difference between them could not have been so great as he makes it. The places mentioned by Pausanias on the route by sea, beyond Rhium are, 1. Port Panormus, 15 stades from Rhium; 2. The wall or fortress of Minerva, 15 stades from Panormus; 3. Port Erineus, 90 stades from the wall of Minerva, and 60 stades from Aegium. Panormus is well known in history as having been the scene of a naval battle between the Peloponnesians and Athenians, in the third year of the Peloponnesian war. It is described as having been near the Achaic Rhium, and over

§ 3.416 against Naupactus; a description which leaves no doubt of its being that curve of the coast between Cape Dhrepano and Kasteli, (the Morea castle) now called Tekieh. The measurement of Pausanias is not incorrect when taken to the part nearest to Rhium. If the fort of Minerva was a harbour, as we cannot but suspect from its being named in the Paraplus between two other harbours, it could have been no other than Psathopyrgo, that being the only harbour eastward of Cape Drepanum until we arrive at Lambiri; moreover, the respective distances of ninety stades and sixty stades, placed by Pausanias between the fort of Minerva, Erineus, and Aegium, confirm both the position of the fort of Minerva at Psathopyrgo and that of Port Erineus at Lambiri. The name of Psathopyrgo was derived from a tower which once existed at the harbour; it may have been the fortress of Minerva itself, or, perhaps, a building of later times erected upon the ancient foundations. The only objection to its being the ancient site in question is, that the fifteen stades of Pausanias, between Panormus and the fort of Minerva, is below the distance from Psathopyrgo even to the nearest part of the harbour of Tekieh. Rut I have already remarked, that Pausanias is below the

§ 3.417 truth in his estimate of the land route: the chief part of the deficiency seems to have been between Rhium and the fort of Minerva. The certainty as to Drepanum furnishes a fortunate adjustment for the places on the land route of Pausanias. It would otherwise have been difficult to understand, from his abrupt mention of Rhypae immediately after Drepanum, that there was in truth a road-distance of fifteen miles between them. But Drepanum fixes the river Bolinaeus, so called from the town Bolina, which once stood on its bank and thus also we apply, without difficulty, the name of Selemnus, upon the bank of which (probably the left bank) stood Argyra, to the stream which joins the sea a little eastward of Rhium, and that of Charadrus to the torrents which unite and join the sea a little westward of the same point. There remains the river of Sykena nearer to Patra, corresponding precisely to the Meilichus. Rhypae, though not mentioned by Homer, was a very ancient city, and contributed to the foundation of Crotona in Italy, where another Achaean colony from Aegae gave the name of the river Crathis to the stream which flows near Crotona. I have already remarked, that

§ 3.418 Rhypae probably occupied a position on the banks of the river of Salmeniko. The arguments for this opinion are; 1st. That Greek cities were generally so situated, as well for the sake of the water as for defence, especially when they had the benefit of such torrents as that of Salmeniko, which is incased in precipitous banks and sometimes impassable. 2d. That of the three rivers which join the sea between Vostitza, or Aegium, and Lambiri, or Erineus, two, namely, the Meganitas and Phoenix, were in the Aegiatis, between Rhypae and Aegium. 3d. That the river of Salmeniko is not far from Port Lambiri, and Erineus, according to Thucydides, was in the district of Rhypae. The objection is, that Pausanias places Rhypae at thirty stades from Aegium, or at about equal distances from Aegium and Erineus, whereas the river of Salmeniko is at two thirds of the route from Vostitza to Lambiri. It appears, however, from other instances, that the numbers of Pausanias on this coast will hardly bear so close an examination. There still remains a difficult question in regard to one of the Achaean cities, and I have deferred it to this place, because the information regarding it being very scanty, it is only

§ 3.419 from negative arguments that it can be placed with any degree of probability, We have seen that Polybius mentions a Leontium among the twelve cities of the Achaean league. It was the native place of Callicrates, whose treachery to his native country has been recorded by Pausanias as well as Polybius. Pausanias, however, does not say that Callicrates was of Leontium, nor can I discover that any author besides Polybius has named this Achaean city. That it was not on the coast may be presumed from the silence of Strabo, and still more from that of Pausanias, who has so particularly described the maritime country. We may infer then that it was an inland town, and consequently in the country situated to the southward or eastward of Mount Panachaicum, that being the only part in which Achaea was not confined to the vicinity of the coast. But in this district the inland part of the valley of the river Peirus, above Olenus, belonged to Pharae, and that which lay near the sources of the Selinus, between the Pharaea and the Cynaethaea, confining on Arcadia, belonged to Tritaea; Leontium therefore, it should seem, occupied an intermediate part of the valley of the Selinus, between the Tritaeis and the district of Aegium. This agrees exactly with the position of a place which is now called Ai Andhrea, from a ruined church of

§ 3.420 that saint near the village of Guzumistra and which is in or near the direct road from Kalavryta to Patra, at something less than half-way. If I am rightly informed, vestiges of an ancient city of considerable extent there occupy a height on the left bank of the river of Aio Vlasi, consequently about the middle of the course of the ancient Selinus. And this conjecture, as to the position of Leontium, receives some countenance from Polybius, who informs us, that in the Social War, Euripidas the Aetolian, at the head of 2000 Eleians and sixty cavalry, having marched from the Eleia through the territory of Pharae, advanced to the vicinity of Aegium, where the Achaic council was then convened under Aratus; that after having ravaged the country he retired with a great plunder to Leontium, and that having been there attacked by the Achaeans under Lycus of Pharae he was defeated with a loss of 600 men. These circumstances are well illustrated by placing Leontium near Guzumistra.