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Strabo, Geography
Editions and translations: Greek
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I.[1] After the mouth of the Silaris one comes to Leucania, and
to the temple of the Argoan Hera,
built by Jason,
and near by, within fifty stadia, to Poseidonia.
Thence, sailing out past the gulf, one comes to Leucosia,1
an island, from which it is only a short voyage across to the continent.
The island is named after one of the Sirens, who was cast ashore here
after the Sirens had flung themselves, as the myth has it, into the depths
of the sea. In front of the island lies that promontory2
which is opposite the Sirenussae and with them forms the Poseidonian Gulf.
On doubling this promontory one comes immediately to another gulf, in
which there is a city which was called "Hyele"
by the Phocaeans who founded it, and by others "Ele," after a certain
spring, but is called by the men of today "Elea."
This is the native city of Parmenides
and Zeno,
the Pythagorean
philosophers. It is my opinion that not only through the influence of
these men but also in still earlier times the city was well governed; and
it was because of this good government that the people not only held their
own against the Leucani and the Poseidoniatae, but even returned
victorious, although they were inferior to them both in extent of
territory and in population. At any rate, they are compelled, on account
of the poverty of their soil, to busy themselves mostly with the sea and
to establish factories for the salting of fish, and other such industries.
According to Antiochus,3
after the capture of Phocaea
by Harpagus,
the general of Cyrus,
all the Phocaeans who could do so embarked with their entire families on
their light boats and, under the leadership of Creontiades,
sailed first to Cyrnus
and Massalia,
but when they were beaten off from those places founded Elea.
Some, however, say that the city took its name from the River Elees.4
It is about two hundred stadia distant from Poseidonia.
After Elea
comes the promontory of Palinurus.
Off the territory of Elea
are two islands, the Oenotrides,
which have anchoring-places. After Palinurus
comes Pyxus--a
cape, harbor, and river, for all three have the same name. Pyxus
was peopled with new settlers by Micythus,
the ruler of the Messene
in Sicily,
but all the settlers except a few sailed away again. After Pyxus
comes another gulf, and also Laüs--a
river and city; it is the last of the Leucanian cities, lying only a short
distance above the sea, is a colony of the Sybaritae, and the distance
thither from Ele is four hundred stadia. The whole voyage along the coast
of Leucania is six hundred and fifty stadia. Near Laüs
is the hero-temple of Draco,
one of the companions of Odysseus,
in regard to which the following oracle was given out to the Italiotes:5
Much people will one day perish about
Laïan Draco. 6
And the oracle came true, for, deceived by it, the peoples7
who made campaigns against Laüs,
that is, the Greek
inhabitants of Italy,
met disaster at the hands of the Leucani.
[2] These, then, are the places on the Tyrrhenian seaboard that
belong to the Leucani. As for the other sea,8
they could not reach it at first; in fact, the Greeks
who held the Gulf of Tarentum
were in control there. Before the Greeks
came, however, the Leucani were as yet not even in existence, and the
regions were occupied by the Chones
and the Oenotri.
But after the Samnitae had grown considerably in power, and had ejected
the Chones
and the Oenotri,
and had settled a colony of Leucani in this portion of Italy,
while at the same time the Greeks
were holding possession of both seaboards as far as the Strait, the Greeks
and the barbarians carried on war with one another for a long time. Then
the tyrants of Sicily,
and afterwards the Carthaginians,
at one time at war with the Romans
for the possession of Sicily
and at another for the possession of Italy
itself, maltreated all the peoples in this part of the world, but
especially the Greeks.
Later on, beginning from the time of the Trojan
war, the Greeks
had taken away from the earlier inhabitants much of the interior country
also, and indeed had increased in power to such an extent that they called
this part of Italy,
together with Sicily,
Magna
Graecia. But today all parts of it, except Taras,9
Rhegium,
and Neapolis,
have become completely barbarized,10
and some parts have been taken and are held by the Leucani and the
Brettii, and others by the Campani--that is, nominally by the Campani but
in truth by the Romans,
since the Campani themselves have become Romans.
However, the man who busies himself with the description of the earth must
needs speak, not only of the facts of the present, but also sometimes of
the facts of the past, especially when they are notable. As for the
Leucani, I have already spoken of those whose territory borders on the Tyrrhenian
Sea, while those who hold the interior are the people who live above
the Gulf of Tarentum.
But the latter, and the Brettii, and the Samnitae themselves (the
progenitors of these peoples) have so utterly deteriorated that it is
difficult even to distinguish their several settlements; and the reason is
that no common organization longer endures in any one of the separate
tribes; and their characteristic differences in language, armor, dress,
and the like, have completely disappeared; and, besides, their
settlements, severally and in detail, are wholly without repute.
[3] Accordingly, without making distinctions between them, I
shall only tell in a general way what I have learned about the peoples who
live in the interior, I mean the Leucani and such of the Samnitae as are
their next neighbors. Petelia,
then, is regarded as the metropolis of the Chones,
and has been rather populous down to the present day. It was founded by Philoctetes
after he, as the result of a political quarrel, had fled from Meliboea.
It has so strong a position by nature that the Samnitae once fortified it
against the Thurii.
And the old Crimissa,
which is near the same regions, was also founded by Philoctetes.
Apollodorus,
in his work On Ships,11
in mentioning Philoctetes,
says that, according to some, when Philoctetes
arrived at the territory of Croton,
he colonized the promontory Crimissa,
and, in the interior above it, the city Chone,
from which the Chonians of that district took their name, and that some of
his companions whom he had sent forth with Aegestes the Trojan
to the region of Eryx
in Sicily
fortified Aegesta.12
Moreover, Grumentum
and Vertinae
are in the interior, and so are Calasarna
and some other small settlements, until we arrive at Venusia,
a notable city; but I think that this city and those that follow in order
after it as one goes towards Campania
are Samnite
cities. Beyond Thurii
lies also the country that is called Tauriana. The Leucani are Samnite
in race, but upon mastering the Poseidoniatae and their allies in war they
took possession of their cities. At all other times, it is true, their
government was democratic, but in times of war they were wont to choose a
king from those who held magisterial offices. But now they are Romans.
[4] The seaboard that comes next after Leucania, as far as the
Sicilian Strait and for a distance of thirteen hundred and fifty stadia,
is occupied by the Brettii. According to Antiochus,
in his treatise On Italy,
this territory (and this is the territory which he says he is describing)
was once called Italy,
although in earlier times it was called Oenotria.
And he designates as its boundaries, first, on the Tyrrhenian
Sea, the same boundary that I have assigned to the country of the
Brettii--the River Laüs;
and secondly, on the Sicilian
Sea, Metapontium.
But as for the country of the Tarantini, which borders on Metapontium,
he names it as outside of Italy,
and calls its inhabitants Iapyges. And at a time more remote, according to
him, the names "Italians" and "Oenotrians" were applied only to the people
who lived this side the isthmus in the country that slopes toward the
Sicilian Strait. The isthmus itself, one hundred and sixty stadia in
width, lies between two gulfs--the Hipponiate (which Antiochus
has called Napetine) and the Scylletic. The coasting-voyage round the
country comprised between the isthmus and the Strait is two thousand
stadia. But after that, he says, the name of "Italy"
and that of the "Oenotrians" was further extended as far as the territory
of Metapontium
and that of Seiris, for, he adds, the Chones,
a well-regulated Oenotrian tribe, had taken up their abode in these
regions and had called the land Chone.
Now Antiochus
had spoken only in a rather simple and antiquated way, without making any
distinctions between the Leucani and the Brettii. In the first place,
Leucania lies between the Tyrrhenian and Sicilian coastlines,13
the former coastline from the River Silaris as far as Laüs,
and the latter, from Metapontium
as far as Thurii;
in the second place, on the mainland, from the country of the Samnitae as
far as the isthmus which extends from Thurii
to Cerilli
(a city near Laüs),
the isthmus is three hundred stadia in width. But the Brettii are situated
beyond the Leucani; they live on a peninsula, but this peninsula includes
another peninsula which has the isthmus that extends from Scylletium
to the Hipponiate Gulf. The name of the tribe was given to it by the
Leucani, for the Leucani call all revolters "brettii." The Brettii
revolted, so it is said (at first they merely tended flocks for the
Leucani, and then, by reason of the indulgence of their masters, began to
act as free men), at the time when Rio made his expedition against Dionysius
and aroused all peoples against all others. So much, then, for my general
description of the Leucani and the Brettii.
[5] The next city after Laüs
belongs to Brettium, and is named Temesa,
though the men of today call it Tempsa;
it was founded by the Ausones,
but later on was settled also by the Aetolians
under the leadership of Thoas;
but the Aetolians
were ejected by the Brettii, and then the Brettii were crushed by Hannibal
and by the Romans.
Near Temesa,
and thickly shaded with wild olive trees, is the hero-temple of Polites,
one of the companions of Odysseus,
who was treacherously slain by the barbarians, and for that reason became
so exceedingly wroth against the country that, in accordance with an
oracle, the people of the neighborhood collected tribute14
for him; and hence, also, the popular saying applied to those who are
merciless,15
that they are "beset by the hero of Temesa."
But when the Epizephyrian
Locrians captured the city, Euthymus,
the pugilist, so the story goes, entered the lists against Polites,
defeated him in the fight and forced him to release the natives from the
tribute. People say that Homer has in mind this Temesa,
not the Tamassus
in Cyprus
(the name is spelled both ways), when he says "to Temesa,
in quest of copper."16
And in fact copper mines are to be seen in the neighborhood, although now
they have been abandoned. Near Temesa
is Terina,
which Hannibal
destroyed, because he was unable to guard it, at the time when he had
taken refuge in Brettium itself. Then comes Consentia,
the metropolis of the Brettii; and a little above this city is Pandosia,
a strong fortress, near which Alexander the Molossian17
was killed. He, too, was deceived by the oracle18
at Dodona,
which bade him be on his guard against Acheron
and Pandosia;
for places which bore these names were pointed out to him in Thesprotia,
but he came to his end here in Brettium. Now the fortress has three
summits, and the River Acheron
flows past it. And there was another oracle that helped to deceive him:
Three-hilled Pandosia,
much people shalt thou kill one day; for he thought that the
oracle clearly meant the destruction of the enemy, not of his own people.
It is said that Pandosia
was once the capital of the Oenotrian Kings. After Consentia
comes Hipponium,
which was founded by the Locrians.
Later on, the Brettii were in possession of Hipponium,
but the Romans
took it away from them and changed its name to Vibo
Valentia. And because the country round about Hipponium
has luxuriant meadows abounding in flowers, people have believed that
Core19
used to come hither from Sicily
to gather flowers; and consequently it has become the custom among the
women of Hipponium
to gather flowers and to weave them into garlands, so that on festival
days it is disgraceful to wear bought garlands. Hipponium
has also a naval station, which was built long ago by Agathocles,
the tyrant of the Siciliotes,20
when he made himself master of the city. Thence one sails to the Harbor of
Heracles,21
which is the point where the headlands of Italy
near the Strait begin to turn towards the west. And on this voyage one
passes Medma,
a city of the same Locrians
aforementioned, which has the same name as a great fountain there, and
possesses a naval station near by, called Emporium. Near it is also the Metaurus
River, and a mooring-place bearing the same name. Off this coast lie the
islands of the Liparaei, at a distance of two hundred stadia from the
Strait. According to some, they are the islands of Aeolus,
of whom the Poet makes mention in the Odyssey.22
They are seven in number and are all within view both from Sicily
and from the continent near Medma.
But I shall tell about them when I discuss Sicily.
After the Metaurus
River comes a second Metaurus.23
Next after this river comes Scyllaeum,
a lofty rock which forms a peninsula, its isthmus being low and affording
access to ships on both sides. This isthmus Anaxilaüs,
the tyrant of the Rhegini, fortified against the Tyrrheni,
building a naval station there, and thus deprived the pirates of their
passage through the strait. For Caenys,24
too, is near by, being two hundred and fifty stadia distant from Medma;
it is the last cape, and with the cape on the Sicilian side, Pelorias,
forms the narrows of the Strait. Cape Pelorias is one of the three capes
that make the island triangular, and it bends towards the summer
sunrise,25
just as Caenys
bends towards the west, each one thus turning away from the other in the
opposite direction. Now the length of the narrow passage of the Strait
from Caenys
as far as the Poseidonium,26
or the Columna
Rheginorum, is about six stadia, while the shortest passage across is
slightly more; and the distance is one hundred stadia from the Columna
to Rhegium,
where the Strait begins to widen out, as one proceeds towards the east,
towards the outer sea, the sea which is called the Sicilian
Sea.
[6] Rhegium
was founded by the Chalcidians
who, it is said, in accordance with an oracle, were dedicated, one man out
of every ten Chalcidians,
to Apollo,27
because of a dearth of crops, but later on emigrated hither from Delphi,
taking with them still others from their home. But according to Antiochus,
the Zanclaeans sent for the Chalcidians
and appointed Antimnestus their founder-in-chief.28
To this colony also belonged the refugees of the Peloponnesian Messenians
who had been defeated by the men of the opposing faction. These men were
unwilling to be punished by the Lacedaemonians
for the violation of the maidens29
which took place at Limnae,
though they were themselves guilty of the outrage done to the maidens, who
had been sent there for a religious rite and had also killed those who
came to their aid.30
So the refugees, after withdrawing to Macistus,
sent a deputation to the oracle of the god to find fault with Apollo
and Artemis if such was to be their fate in return for their trying to
avenge those gods, and also to enquire how they, now utterly ruined, might
be saved. Apollo
bade them go forth with the Chalcidians
to Rhegium,
and to be grateful to his sister; for, he added, they were not ruined, but
saved, inasmuch as they were surely not to perish along with their native
land, which would be captured a little later by the Spartans.
They obeyed; and therefore the rulers of the Rhegini down to Anaxilas31
were always appointed from the stock of the Messenians.
According to Antiochus,
the Siceli and Morgetes
had in early times inhabited the whole of this region, but later on, being
ejected by the Oenotrians, had crossed over into Sicily.
According to some, Morgantium
also took its name from the Morgetes
of Rhegium.32
The city of Rhegium
was once very powerful and had many dependencies in the neighborhood; and
it was always a fortified outpost threatening the island, not only in
earlier times but also recently, in our own times, when Sextus
Pompeius caused Sicily
to revolt. It was named Rhegium,
either, as Aeschylus
says, because of the calamity that had befallen this region, for, as both
he and others state, Sicily
was once "rent"33
from the continent by earthquakes, "and so from this fact," he adds, "it
is called Rhegium."
They infer from the occurrences about Aetna
and in other parts of Sicily,
and in Lipara
and in the islands about it, and also in the Pithecussae and the whole of
the coast of the adjacent continent, that it is not unreasonable to
suppose that the rending actually took place. Now at the present time the
earth about the Strait, they say, is but seldom shaken by earthquakes,
because the orifices there, through which the fire is blown up and the
red-hot masses and the waters are ejected, are open. At that time,
however, the fire that was smouldering beneath the earth, together with
the wind, produced violent earthquakes, because the passages to the
surface were all blocked up, and the regions thus heaved up yielded at
last to the force of the blasts of wind, were rent asunder, and then
received the sea that was on either side, both here34
and between the other islands in that region.35
And, in fact, Prochyte and the Pithecussae are fragments broken off from
the continent, as also Capreae,
Leucosia,
the Sirenes, and the Oenotrides.
Again, there are islands which have arisen from the high seas, a thing
that even now happens in many places; for it is more plausible that the
islands in the high seas were heaved up from the deeps, whereas it is more
reasonable to think that those lying off the promontories and separated
merely by a strait from the mainland have been rent therefrom. However,
the question which of the two explanations is true, whether Rhegium
got its name on account of this or on account of its fame (for the
Samnitae might have called it by the Latin word for "royal,"36
because their progenitors had shared in the government with the Romans
and used the Latin
language to a considerable extent), is open to investigation. Be this
as it may, it was a famous city, and not only founded many cities but also
produced many notable men, some notable for their excellence as statesmen
and others for their learning; nevertheless, Dionysius37
demolished it, they say, on the charge that when he asked for a girl in
marriage they proffered the daughter of the public executioner;38
but his son restored a part of the old city and called it Phoebia.39
Now in the time of Pyrrhus
the garrison of the Campani broke the treaty and destroyed most of the
inhabitants, and shortly before the Marsic war much of the settlement was
laid in ruins by earthquakes; but Augustus
Caesar, after ejecting Pompeius
from Sicily,
seeing that the city was in want of population, gave it some men from his
expeditionary forces as new settlers, and it is now fairly populous.
[7] As one sails from Rhegium
towards the east, and at a distance of fifty stadia, one comes to Cape Leucopetra40
(so called from its color), in which, it is said, the Apennine Mountain
terminates. Then comes Heracleium,
which is the last cape of Italy
and inclines towards the south; for on doubling it one immediately sails
with the southwest wind as far as Cape Iapygia,
and then veers off, always more and more, towards the northwest in the
direction of the Ionian
Gulf.41
After Heracleium
comes a cape belonging to Locris,
which is called Zephyrium;
its harbor is exposed to the winds that blow from the west, and hence the
name. Then comes the city Locri
Epizephyrii,42
a colony of the Locri
who live on the Crisaean Gulf,43
which was led out by Evanthes only a little while after the founding of Croton
and Syracuse.44
Ephorus
is wrong in calling it a colony of the Locri
Opuntii. However, they lived only three or four years at Zephyrium,
and then moved the city to its present site, with the cooperation of Syracusans
[for at the same time the latter, among whom . . .]45
And at Zephyrium
there is a spring, called Locria, where the Locri
first pitched camp. The distance from Rhegium
to Locri
is six hundred stadia. The city is situated on the brow of a hill called
Epopis.
[8] The Locri
Epizephyrii are believed to have been the first people to use written
laws. After they had lived under good laws for a very long time, Dionysius,
on being banished from the country of the Syracusans,46
abused them most lawlessly of all men. For he would sneak into the
bed-chambers of the girls after they had been dressed up for their
wedding, and lie with them before their marriage; and he would gather
together the girls who were ripe for marriage, let loose doves with
cropped wings upon them in the midst of the banquets, and then bid the
girls waltz around unclad, and also bid some of them, shod with sandals
that were not mates (one high and the other low), chase the doves
around--all for the sheer indecency of it. However, he paid the penalty
after he went back to Sicily
again to resume his government; for the Locri
broke up his garrison, set themselves free, and thus became masters of his
wife and children. These children were his two daughters, and the younger
of his two sons (who was already a lad), for the other, Apollocrates, was
helping his father to effect his return to Sicily
by force of arms. And although Dionysius--both
himself and the Tarantini on his behalf--earnestly begged the Locri
to release the prisoners on any terms they wished, they would not give
them up; instead, they endured a siege and a devastation of their country.
But they poured out most of their wrath upon his daughters, for they first
made them prostitutes and then strangled them, and then, after burning
their bodies, ground up the bones and sank them in the sea. Now Ephorus,
in his mention of the written legislation of the Locri
which was drawn up by Zaleucus
from the Cretan, the Laconian, and the Areopagite usages, says that Zaleucus
was among the first to make the following innovation--that whereas before
his time it had been left to the judges to determine the penalties for the
several crimes, he defined them in the laws, because he held that the
opinions of the judges about the same crimes would not be the same,
although they ought to be the same. And Ephorus
goes on to commend Zaleucus
for drawing up the laws on contracts in simpler language. And he says that
the Thurii,
who later on wished to excel the Locri
in precision, became more famous, to be sure, but morally inferior; for,
he adds, it is not those who in their laws guard against all the wiles of
false accusers that have good laws, but those who abide by laws that are
laid down in simple language. And Plato
has said as much--that where there are very many laws, there are also very
many lawsuits and corrupt practices, just as where there are many
physicians, there are also likely to be many diseases.47
[9] The Halex
River, which marks the boundary between the Rhegian and the Locrian
territories, passes out through a deep ravine; and a peculiar thing
happens there in connection with the grasshoppers,
that although those on the Locrian bank sing, the others remain mute. As
for the cause of this, it is conjectured that on the latter side the
region is so densely shaded that the grasshoppers,
being wet with dew, cannot expand their membranes, whereas those on the
sunny side have dry and horn-like membranes and therefore can easily
produce their song. And people used to show in Locri
a statue of Eunomus,
the cithara-bard, with a locust seated on the cithara. Timaeus
says that Eunomus
and Ariston
of Rhegium
were once contesting with each other at the Pythian
games and fell to quarrelling about the casting of the lots;48
so Ariston
begged the Delphians
to cooperate with him, for the reason that his ancestors belonged49
to the god and that the colony had been sent forth from there;50
and although Eunomus
said that the Rhegini had absolutely no right even to participate in the
vocal contests, since in their country even the grasshoppers,
the sweetest-voiced of all creatures, were mute, Ariston
was none the less held in favor and hoped for the victory; and yet Eunomus
gained the victory and set up the aforesaid image in his native land,
because during the contest, when one of the chords broke, a grasshopper
lit on his cithara and supplied the missing sound. The interior above
these cities is held by the Brettii; here is the city Mamertium,
and also the forest that produces the best pitch, the Brettian. This
forest is called Sila,
is both well wooded and well watered, and is seven hundred stadia in
length.
[10] After Locri
comes the Sagra,
a river which has a feminine name. On its banks are the altars of the Dioscuri,
near which ten
thousand Locri,
with Rhegini,51
clashed with one hundred and thirty thousand Crotoniates and gained the
victory--an occurrence which gave rise, it is said, to the proverb we use
with incredulous people, "Truer than the result at Sagra."
And some have gone on to add the fable that the news of the result was
reported on the same day52
to the people at the Olympia
when the games were in progress, and that the speed with which the news
had come was afterwards verified. This misfortune of the Crotoniates is
said to be the reason why their city did not endure much longer, so great
was the multitude of men who fell in the battle. After the Sagra
comes a city founded by the Achaeans,
Caulonia,
formerly called Aulonia, because of the glen53
which lies in front of it. It is deserted, however, for those who held it
were driven out by the barbarians to Sicily
and founded the Caulonia
there. After this city comes Scylletium,
a colony of the Athenians
who were with Menestheus
(and now called Scylacium).54
Though the Crotoniates held it, Dionysius
included it within the boundaries of the Locri.
The Scylletic Gulf, which, with the Hipponiate Gulf forms the
aforementioned isthmus,55
is named after the city. Dionysius
undertook also to build a wall across the isthmus when he made war upon
the Leucani, on the pretext, indeed, that it would afford security to the
people inside the isthmus from the barbarians outside, but in truth
because he wished to break the alliance which the Greeks
had with one another, and thus command with impunity the people inside;
but the people outside came in and prevented the undertaking.
[11] After Scylletium
comes the territory of the Crotoniates, and three capes of the Iapyges;
and after these, the Lacinium,56
a temple
of Hera, which at one time was rich and full of dedicated offerings.
As for the distances by sea, writers give them without satisfactory
clearness, except that, in a general way, Polybius
gives the distance from the strait to Lacinium
as two thousand three hundred stadia,57
and the distance thence across to Cape Iapygia
as seven hundred. This point is called the mouth of the Tarantine Gulf. As
for the gulf itself, the distance around it by sea is of considerable
length, two hundred and forty miles,58
as the Chorographer59
says, but Artemidorus
says three hundred and eighty for a man well-girded, although he falls
short of the real breadth of the mouth of the gulf by as much.60
The gulf faces the winter-sunrise;61
and it begins at Cape Lacinium,
for, on doubling it, one immediately comes to the cities62
of the Achaeans,
which, except that of the Tarantini, no longer exist, and yet, because of
the fame of some of them, are worthy of rather extended mention.
[12] The first city is Croton,
within one hundred and fifty stadia from the Lacinium;
and then comes the River Aesarus, and a harbor, and another river, the Neaethus.
The Neaethus
got its name, it is said, from what occurred there: Certain of the Achaeans
who had strayed from the Trojan
fleet put in there and disembarked for an inspection of the region, and
when the Trojan
women who were sailing with them learned that the boats were empty of
men, they set fire to the boats, for they were weary of the voyage, so
that the men remained there of necessity, although they at the same time
noticed that the soil was very fertile. And immediately several other
groups, on the strength of their racial kinship, came and imitated them,
and thus arose many settlements, most of which took their names from the
Trojans;
and also a river, the Neaethus,
took its appellation from the aforementioned occurrence.63
According to Antiochus,
when the god told the Achaeans
to found Croton,
Myscellus departed to inspect the place, but when he saw that Sybaris
was already founded--having the same name as the river near by--he judged
that Sybaris
was better; at all events, he questioned the god again when he returned
whether it would be better to found this instead of Croton,
and the god replied to him (Myscellus64
was a hunchback as it happened): "Myscellus, short of back, in searching
else outside thy track, thou hunt'st for morsels only; 'tis right that
what one giveth thee thou do approve;"65
and Myscellus came back and founded Croton,
having as an associate Archias,
the founder of Syracuse,
who happened to sail up while on his way to found Syracuse.66
The Iapyges used to live at Croton
in earlier times, as Ephorus
says. And the city is reputed to have cultivated warfare and athletics; at
any rate, in one Olympian festival the seven men who took the lead over
all others in the stadium-race were all Crotoniates, and therefore the
saying "The last of the Crotoniates was the first among all other Greeks"
seems reasonable. And this, it is said, is what gave rise to the other
proverb, "more healthful than Croton,"
the belief being that the place contains something that tends to health
and bodily vigor, to judge by the multitude of its athletes. Accordingly,
it had a very large number of Olympic victors, although it did not remain
inhabited a long time, on account of the ruinous loss of its citizens who
fell in such great numbers67
at the River Sagra.
And its fame was increased by the large number of its Pythagorean
philosophers, and by Milo,
who was the most illustrious of athletes, and also a companion of Pythagoras,
who spent a long time in the city. It is said that once, at the common
mess of the philosophers, when a pillar began to give way, Milo
slipped in under the burden and saved them all, and then drew himself from
under it and escaped. And it is probably because he relied upon this same
strength that he brought on himself the end of his life as reported by
some writers; at any rate, the story is told that once, when he was
travelling through a deep forest, he strayed rather far from the road, and
then, on finding a large log cleft with wedges, thrust his hands and feet
at the same time into the cleft and strained to split the log completely
asunder; but he was only strong enough to make the wedges fall out,
whereupon the two parts of the log instantly snapped together; and caught
in such a trap as that, he became food for wild beasts.
[13] Next in order, at a distance of two hundred stadia, comes
Sybaris,
founded by the Achaeans;
it is between two rivers, the Crathis
and the Sybaris.
Its founder was Is of Helice.68
In early times this city was so superior in its good fortune that it ruled
over four tribes in the neighborhood, had twenty- five subject cities,
made the campaign against the Crotoniates with three hundred thousand men,
and its inhabitants on the Crathis
alone completely filled up a circuit of fifty stadia. However, by reason
of luxury69
and insolence they were deprived of all their felicity by the Crotoniates
within seventy days; for on taking the city these conducted the river over
it and submerged it. Later on, the survivors, only a few, came together
and were making it their home again, but in time these too were destroyed
by Athenians
and other Greeks,
who, although they came there to live with them, conceived such a contempt
for them that they not only slew them but removed the city to another
place near by and named it Thurii,
after a spring of that name. Now the Sybaris
River makes the horses that drink from it timid, and therefore all herds
are kept away from it; whereas the Crathis
makes the hair of persons who bathe in it yellow or white, and besides it
cures many afflictions. Now after the Thurii
had prospered for a long time, they were enslaved by the Leucani, and when
they were taken away from the Leucani by the Tarantini, they took refuge
in Rome,
and the Romans
sent colonists to supplement them, since their population was reduced, and
changed the name of the city to Copiae.
[14] After Thurii
comes Lagaria,
a stronghold, bounded by Epeius and the Phocaeans; thence comes the
Lagaritan wine, which is sweet, mild, and extremely well thought of among
physicians. That of Thurii,
too, is one of the famous wines. Then comes the city Heracleia,
a short distance above the sea; and two navigable rivers, the Aciris
and the Siris.
On the Siris
there used to be a Trojan
city of the same name, but in time, when Heracleia
was colonized thence by the Tarantini, it became the port of the
Heracleotes. It is Twenty-four stadia distant from Heracleia
and about three hundred and thirty from Thurii.
Writers produce as proof of its settlement by the Trojans
the wooden image of the Trojan
Athene
which is set up there--the image that closed its eyes, the fable goes,
when the suppliants were dragged away by the Ionians
who captured the city; for these Ionians
came there as colonists when in flight from the dominion of the Lydians,
and by force took the city, which belonged to the Chones,70
and called it Polieium; and the image even now can be seen closing its
eyes. It is a bold thing, to be sure, to tell such a fable and to say that
the image not only closed its eyes (just as they say the image in Troy
turned away at the time Cassandra
was violated) but can also be seen closing its eyes; and yet it is much
bolder to represent as brought from Troy
all those images which the historians say were brought from there; for not
only in the territory of Siris,
but also at Rome,
at Lavinium,
and at Luceria,
Athene
is called "Trojan
Athena,"
as though brought from Troy.
And further, the daring deed of the Trojan
women is current in numerous places, and appears incredible, although
it is possible. According to some, however, both Siris
and the Sybaris
which is on the Teuthras71
were founded by the Rhodians.
According to Antiochus,
when the Tarantini were at war with the Thurii
and their general Cleandridas, an exile from Lacedaemon,
for the possession of the territory of Siris,
they made a compromise and peopled Siris
jointly, although it was adjudged the colony of the Tarantini; but later
on it was called Heracleia,
its site as well as its name being changed.
[15] Next in order comes Metapontium,
which is one hundred and forty stadia from the naval station of Heracleia.
It is said to have been founded by the Pylians
who sailed from Troy
with Nestor;
and they so prospered from farming, it is said, that they dedicated a
golden harvest72
at Delphi.
And writers produce as a sign of its having been founded by the Pylians
the sacrifice to the shades of the sons of Neleus.73
However, the city was wiped out by the Samnitae. According to Antiochus:
Certain of the Achaeans
were sent for by the Achaeans
in Sybaris
and resettled the place, then forsaken, but they were summoned only
because of a hatred which the Achaeans
who had been banished from Laconia
had for the Tarantini, in order that the neighboring Tarantini might not
pounce upon the place; there were two cities, but since, of the two, Metapontium
was nearer74
to Taras,75
the newcomers were persuaded by the Sybarites to take Metapontium
and hold it, for, if they held this, they would also hold the territory of
Siris,
whereas, if they turned to the territory of Siris,
they would add Metapontium
to the territory of the Tarantini, which latter was on the very flank of
Metapontium;
and when, later on, the Metapontians were at war with the Tarantini and
the Oenotrians of the interior, a reconciliation was effected in regard to
a portion of the land--that portion, indeed, which marked the boundary
between the Italy
of that time and Iapygia.76
Here, too, the fabulous accounts place Metapontus,77
and also Melanippe
the prisoner and her son Boeotus.78
In the opinion of Antiochus,
the city Metapontium
was first called Metabum and later on its name was slightly altered, and
further, Melanippe
was brought, not to Metabus,
but to Dius,79
as is proved by a hero-temple of Metabus,
and also by Asius
the poet, when he says that Boeotus
was brought forth
"in the halls of Dius
by shapely Melanippe,"80
meaning that Melanippe
was brought to Dius,
not to Metabus.
But, as Ephorus
says, the colonizer of Metapontium
was Daulius, the tyrant of the Crisa
which is near Delphi.
And there is this further account, that the man who was sent by the Achaeans
to help colonize it was Leucippus,
and that after procuring the use of the place from the Tarantini for only
a day and night he would not give it back, replying by day to those who
asked it back that he had asked and taken it for the next night also, and
by night that he had taken and asked it also for the next day.
Next in order comes Taras
and Iapygia;
but before discussing them I shall, in accordance with my original
purpose, give a general description of the islands that lie in front of Italy;
for as from time to time I have named also the islands which neighbor upon
the several tribes, so now, since I have traversed Oenotria
from beginning to end, which alone the people of earlier times called Italy,
it is right that I should preserve the same order in traversing Sicily
and the islands round about it.
1 Now
Licosa.
2 Poseidium,
now Punta Della Licosa.
3 Antiochus
Syracusanus, the historian. Cp. Hdt.
1.167.
4 The
Latin form is "Hales" (now the Alento).
5 The
Greek
inhabitants of Italy
were called "Italiotes."
6 There
is a word-play here which cannot be brought out in translation: the word
for "people" in Greek
is "laos."
7 Literally,
"laoi."
8 The
Adriatic.
9 The
old name of Tarentum.
10 "Barbarized,"
in the sense of "non-Greek"
(cp. 5. 4. 4 and 5. 4. 7).
11 That
is, his work entitled "On the (Homeric) Catalogue
of Ships" (cp. 1. 2. 24).
12 Also
spelled Segesta
and Egesta.
13 Between
the coastlines on the Tyrrhenian and Sicilian Seas.
14 According
to Paus.
6.6.2 the oracle bade the people annually to give the hero to wife the
fairest maiden in Temesa.
15 "Merciless"
is an emendation. Some read "disagreeable." According to Aelian Var. Hist.
8.18, the popular saying was applied to those who in pursuit of profit
overreached themselves (so Plutarch
Prov. 31). But Eustathius
(note on Iliad 1.185) quotes "the geographer" (i.e., Strabo;
see note 1, p. 320) as making the saying apply to "those who are unduly
wroth, or very severe when they should not be."
16 Hom.
Od. 1.184
17 Cp.
6. 3. 4 and footnote.
18 The
oracle, quoted by Casaubon
from some source unknown to subsequent editors was:
Aiakidê,
prophulaxo molein
Acherousion hudôr Pandosiên d'
hothi
toi
thanatos
peprômenos
esti Source
unknown. "Son of Aeacus,
beware to go to the Acherusian
water and Pandosia,
where it is fated you will die."
19 i.e.,
Persephone.
20 The
"Siciliotes" were Sicilian Greeks,
as distinguished from native Sicilians.
21 Now
Tropea. But in fact the turn towards the west begins immediately after Hipponium.
22 Hom.
Od. 10.2ff.
23 Strabo's
"Metaurus"
and "second Metaurus"
are confusing. Kramer, Meineke, and others wish to emend the text so as to
make the "second" river refer to Crataeis
or some other river. But we should have expected Strabo
to mention first the Medma
(now the Mesima), which was much closer to Medma
than the Metaurus
(now the Marro), and to which he does not refer at all. Possibly he
thought both rivers were called Metaurus
(cp. Müller,
Ind. Var. Lectionis, p. 975), in which case "the second Metaurus"
is the Metaurus
proper. The present translator, however, believes that Strabo,
when he says "second Metaurus,"
alludes to the Umbrian Metaurus
(5. 2. 10) as the first, and that the copyist, unaware of this fact,
deliberately changed "Medma"
to Metaurus"
in the two previous instances.
24 Now
Cape Cavallo.
25 North-east
(cp. 1. 2. 21).
26 Altar
or temple of Poseidon.
27 Cp.
6. 1. 9.
28 Zancle
was the original name of Messana
(now Messina)
in Sicily.
It was colonized and named Messana
by the Peloponnesian Messenians
(6. 2. 3).
29 Cp.
6. 3. 3. and 8. 4. 9.
30 Cp.
Paus.
4.4.1.
31 Anaxilas
(also spelled Anaxilaüs)
was ruler of Rhegium
from 494 to 476 B.C. (Diod.
Sic. 11.48).
32 Cp.
6. 2. 4. The Latin name of this Sicilian city was "Murgantia."
Livy
10.17 refers to another Murgantia
in Samnium.
33 Cp.
1. 3. 19 and the footnote on "rent."
34 At
the Strait.
35 Cp.
1. 3. 10 and the footnote.
36 Regium.
37 Dionysius
the Elder (b. about 432 B.C., d. 367 B.C.)
38 Diod.
Sic. 14.44 merely says that the Assembly of the Rhegini refused him a
wife.
39 Apparently
in honor of Phoebus
(Apollo);
for, according to Plut. De Alexandri Virtute, (338 B.C.) Dionysius
the Younger called himself the son of Apollo,
"offspring of his mother Doris
by Phoebus."
40 Literally,
"White Rock."
41 The
"Ionian
Gulf" was the southern "part of what is now called the Adriatic
Sea" (2. 5. 20); see 7. 5. 8-9.
42 Literally,
the "western Locrians,"
both city and inhabitants having the same name.
43 Now
the Gulf of Salona
in the Gulf of Corinth.
44 Croton
and Syracuse
were founded, respectively, in 710 and 734 B.C. According to Diod.
Sic. 4.24, Heracles
had unintentionally killed Croton
and had foretold the founding of a famous city on the site, the same to be
named after Croton.
45 The
Greek
text, here translated as it stands, is corrupt. The emendations thus far
offered yield (instead of the nine English words of the above rendering)
either (1) "for the latter were living" (or "had taken up their abode")
"there at the same time" or (2) "together with the Tarantini." There seems
to be no definite corroborative evidence for either interpretation; but
according to Pausanias,
"colonies were sent to Croton,
and to Locri
at Cape Zephyrium,
by the Lacedaemonians"
(3.3); and "Tarentum
is a Lacedaemonian colony" (10. 10). Cp. the reference to the Tarantini in
Strabo's next paragraph.
46 Dionysius
the Younger was banished thence in 357 B.C.
47 This
appears to be an exact quotation, but the translator has been unable to
find the reference in extant works. Plato
utters a somewhat similar sentiment, however, in the Plat.
Rep. 404e-405a.
48 Apparently
as to which should perform first.
49 Cp.
6. 1. 6.
50 From
Delphi
to Rhegium.
51 The
Greek,
as the English, leaves one uncertain whether merely the Locrian or the
combined army amounted to 10,000 men. Justin 20.3 gives the number of the
Locrian army as 15,000, not mentioning the Rhegini; hence one might infer
that there were 5,000 Rhegini, and Strabo
might have so written, for the Greek
symbol for 5,000 (,e), might have fallen out of the text.
52 Cicero
De Natura
Deorum
2.2. refers to this tradition.
53 "Aulon."
54 Cp.
Vergil Aen. 3.552.
55 6.
1. 4.
56 The
Lacinium
derived its name from Cape Lacinium
(now Cape Nao), on which it was situated. According to Diod.
Sic. 4.24, Heracles,
when in this region, put to death a cattle-thief named Lacinius. Hence the
name of the cape.
57 Strabo
probably wrote "two thousand" and not "one thousand" (see Manner,
t. 9. 9, p. 202), and so read Gosselin, Groskurd, Forbiger, Müller-Dübner,
and Meineke. Compare Strabo's other quotation (5. 1. 3) from Polybius
on this subject. There, as here, unfortunately, the figures ascribed to Polybius
cannot be compared with his original statement, which is now lost.
58 240
Roman
miles=1,920, or 2,000 (see 7. 7. 4), stadia.
59 See
5. 2. 7, and the footnote.
60 This
passage ("although . . . much") is merely an attempt to translate the Greek
of the manuscripts. The only variant in the manuscripts is that of
"ungirded" for "well-girded." If Strabo
wrote either, which is extremely doubtful, we must infer that Artemidorus'
figure, whatever it was pertained to the number of days it would take a
pedestrian, at the rate, say of 160 stadia (20 Roman
miles) per day, to make the journey around the gulf by land. Most of the
editors (including Meineke) dismiss the passage as hopeless by merely
indicating gaps in the text. Groskurd and C. Müller
not only emend words of the text but also fill in the supposed gaps with
seventeen and nine words, respectively. Groskurd makes Artemidorus
say that a well-girded pedestrian can complete the journey around the gulf
in twelve days, that the coasting-voyage around it is 2,000 stadia, and
that he leaves for the mouth the same number (700) of stadia assigned by
Polybius
to the breadth of the mouth of the gulf. But C. Müller
writes: "Some make it less, saying 1,380 stadia, whereas Artemidorus
makes it as many plus 30 (1,410), in speaking of the breadth of the mouth
of the gulf." But the present translator, by making very simple
emendations (see critical note 2 on page 38), arrives at the following: Artemidorus
says eighty stadia longer (i.e., 2,000) although he falls short of the
breadth of the mouth of the gulf by as much (i.e., 700 - 80 = 620). It
should be noted that Artemidorus,
as quoted by Strabo,
always gives distances in terms of stadia, not miles (e.g., 3. 2. 11, 8.
2. 1, 14. 2. 29, et passim), and that his figures at times differ
considerably from those of the Chorographer (cp. 6. 3. 10).
61 i.e.,
south-east.
62 As
often Strabo
refers to sites of perished cities as cities.
63 The
Greek
"Neas aethein" means "to burn ships."
64 Ovid
Met. 15.20 spells the name "Myscelus,"
and perhaps rightly; that is, "Mouse-leg" (?).
65 For
a fuller account, see Diod.
Sic. 8. 17. His version of the oracle is: "Myscellus, short of back,
in searching other things apart from god, thou searchest only after tears;
what gift god giveth thee, do thou approve."
66 The
generally accepted dates for the founding of Croton
and Syracuse
are, respectively, 710 B.C. and 734 B.C. But Strabo's account here seems
to mean that Syracuse
was founded immediately after Croton
(cp. 6. 2. 4). Cp. also Thucydides
6. 3. 2.
67 Cp.
6. 1 10.
68 The
reading, "Is of Helice,"
is doubtful. On Helice,
see 1. 3. 18 and 8. 7. 2.
69 Cp.
"Sybarite."
70 Cp.
6. 1. 2.
71 The
"Teuthras"
is otherwise unknown, except that there was a small river of that name,
which cannot be identified, near Cumae
(see Propertius
1. 11.11 and Silius
Italicus 11.288). The river was probably named after Teuthras,
king of Teuthrania
in Mysia
(see 12. 8. 2). But there seems to be no evidence of Sybarites in that
region. Meineke and others are probably right in emending to the "Trais"
(now the Trionto), on which, according to Diod.
Sic. 12.22, certain Sybarites took up their abode in 445 B.C.
72 An
ear, or sheaf, of grain made of gold, apparently.
73 Neleus
had twelve sons, including Nestor.
All but Nestor
were slain by Heracles.
74 The
other, of course, was Siris.
75 The
old name of Tarentum.
76 i.e.,
the Metapontians gained undisputed control of their city and its
territory, which Antiochus
speaks of as a "boundary" (cp. 6. 1. 4 and 6. 3. 1).
77 The
son of Sisyphus.
His "barbarian name," according to Stephanus
Byzantinus and Eustathius,
was Metabus.
78 One
of Euripides'
tragedies was entitled Melanippe
the Prisoner; only fragments are preserved. She was the mother of Boeotus
by Poseidon.
79 A
Metapontian.
80 Asius
Fr.
There are a total of 5 comments on and cross references to this page.
Cross references from The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical
Sites (eds. Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland
McAllister): incoronata
[INCORONATA
(Pisticci) Basilicata, Italy.] kroton
[KROTON
(Crotone) Calabria, Italy.] sybaris
[SYBARIS
Italy.] trikastron
[TRIKASTRON
(“Pandosia”) Greece.]
Cross references from Perseus Building
Catalog: Foce
del Sele, Temple of Hera [Foce del Sele, Temple of
Hera]
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This text is based on the following book(s): Strabo. ed. H. L.
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Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. OCLC: 40176101 ISBN:
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