Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/416

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400 NAEOXA. mouth, for a distance of 80 stadia up to its " em- porium " now Fort Opus, where there are some vestiges of Roman buildings. The Manii occupied this district. In tlie interior was a vast lalce, ex- tending to the AuTAKiATAE. A fertile island of 180 stadia in circuit was in the lake {Pahido Utovo, or Popovo). From this lake the river flowed, at a distance of one day's sail from the river Arion {'kp'iuiv, Scylax, I. c: OruUa; comp. Pouqueville, Vorjuge dans la Grace, vol. i. p. 25.) This river formed the S. boundary of Dalmatia, and its banks were occupied by the Daorizi, Ardiaei and Paraei. (Strab. vii. pp. 315, 317.) These banks were famous in former times among the professors of pharmacy, who are advised by Nicander ( Theriaca, V. 607) to gather the "Iris" there. (Phn. xiii. 2, xxi. 19 ; Theophr. ap. Athe?i.^v. p. 081.) Strabo (vii. p. 317) rejects the statement of Theopompus that the potters' clay of Chios and Thasos was found in the bed of the river. For the valley of the Narenta, see Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. ii. pp. 1—93. [E. B. J.] NARO'NA {'HapSuva, a mistake for Napajra, Ptol. ii. 17. § 12, viii. 7. § 8), a town in Dalmatia, and a Roman " colonia." It appears from the letters of P. Vatinius to Cicero {ad Fam. v. 9, 10), dated Narona, that the Romans made it their head-quarters dur- ing their conquest of Dalmatia. (Comp. Pomp. Mela, ii. 3. § 13 ; Itin. Anton. ; Pent. Tab. ; Geog. Rav. iv. 1 6.) Narona was a " conventus," at which, according to M. Varro (ap PUn. iii. 26) 89 cities assembled ; in the time of Pliny {I. c.) this number had diminished, but he speaks of as many as 540 " decuriae " submitting to its jurisdiction. The ancient city stood upon a hill now occupied by the village of Vido, and extended probably to the marsh below ; from the very numerous inscriptions that have been found there, it appears that there was a temple to Liber and Libera, as well as other buildings dedicated to Jupiter and Diana. (Lanza, sopra I'antica cittd di Narona, Bologna, 1842; Neigebaur, Die Sud-Slaven, pp. 116, 122.) A coin of Titus has been found with the epigraph Col. Narona. (Goltz, Themurus, p. 241 ; Rasche, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 1048.) When the Serbs or W. Slaves occupied this country in the reign of Heraclius, Narenta, as it was called, was one of the four " banats " into which the Servians were divided. The Narentine pirates, who for three centuries had been the terror of Dal- matia and the Venetian traders, were in A. D. 997 entirely crushed by the fleet of Venice, commanded by the Doge in person. (Schafarik, Slav. Alt. vol. ii. p. 266.) [E. B.J.I NARTHA'CIUM (yiapdaKiov: Etli. -^apQaKiivs), the name of a city and mountain of Phthiotis in Thessaly, in the neighbourhood of which Agesilaus, on his return from Asia in b. c. 394, gained a victory over the Thessalian cavalry. The Thes- salians, after their defeat, took refuge on ]Iount Narthacium, between which and a place named Pras, Agesilaus set up a trophy. On the follow- ing day he crossed the mountains of the Achaean Phthiotis. (Xen. IMl. iv. 3. §§ 3—9 ; Ages. 2. §§ 3—5 ; Plut. Apophth. p. 211 ; Diod, xiv. 82.) Narthacium is accordingly placed by Leake and Kiepert south of Pharsalus in the valley of the Enipeus ; and the mountain of this name is probably the one which rises immediately to the southward of Fei:iala. Leake supposes the town of Narthacium to have been on the mountain not far from upper NASAMONES. Tjaterli, and Pras near lower Tjaterli. (Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 471, seq.) The town Narthacium is mentioned by Ptolemy (iii. 13. § 46), and should probably be restored in a passage of Strabo (ix. p. 434), where in the MS. there is only the ter- mination lov. (See Groskurd and Kramer, ad loc.^ NARTHE'CIS (NapOrjKi's), a small island in the east of Samos, in the strait between Mount Mycale and the island of Samos. (Strab. xiv. p. 637 ; Steph. B. s. v.; Suid. s. v. Ndp67j|.) [L. S.] NA'RYCUS, NARYX or NARY'CIUM (Na- pvKos, Strab. ix. p. 425 ; tidpv^, Steph. B. s. v. ; Narycium, Plin. iv. 7. s. 12 ; in Diod. xiv. 82 and xvi. 38, "ApvKas and "ApvKa are false readings for NapuKo : Eth. Napy/cios), a town of the Opuntian Locrians, the reputed birthplace of Ajax, son of Oileus (Strab. Steph. B. II. cc), who is hence called by Ovid (Met. xiv. 468) Narycius heros. In b. c. 395, Ismenias, a Boeotian commander, undertook an expedition against Phocis, and defeated the Phocians near Naryx of Locris, whence we may conclude with Leake that Naryx was near the frontier ot Phocis. (Diod. xiv. 82.) In 352 Naryx was taken by Phayllus, the Phocian commander. (Diod. xvi. 38.) It is placed by some at Tdlanda, but by Leake at the small village of Kalapodhi, where there are a few ancient remains. (Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 187.) As Locri in Bruttium iu Italy was, ac- cording to some of the ancients, a colony of Naryx (Virg. Aen. iii. 399), the epithet of Narycian is frequently given to the Bruttian pitch. (Virg. Georg. ii. 438 ; Colum. x. 386 ; Plin. xiv. 20. s. 25.) NASAMO'NES (Natrojuii/es, Herod, ii. 32, iv. 172 ; Ptol. iv. 5. §§21. 30 ; Phn. xxxvii. 10. s. 64 ; Dionys. Periegetes, v. 209; Scylax, p. 47; Steph. B. s. r.) were, according to Herodotus, the most powerful of the Nomadic tribes on the northern coast of Libya. There is some discrepancy in his ac- count of their situation, as well as in those of other ancient writers. (Comp. ii. 32, iv. 172.) They appear, however, to have occupied at one time part of Cyrenaica and the Syrtes. Strabo (xvii. p. 857) places them at the Greater Syrtis, and beyond them the Psylli, whose territory, according to both Herodotus and Strabo, they appropriated to themselves. Pliny (v. 5. s. 5) says that the Nasamones were originally named Mesamones by the Greeks, because they dwelt between two quicksands — the Syrtes. Ptolemy (iv. 5. §21) and Diodorus (iii. 3) again remove them to the inland region of Augila : and all these descriptions may, at the time they were written, have been near the truth; since not only were the Nasamones, as Nomades, a wandering I'ace, but they were also pressed upon by the Greeks of Cyrene, on the one side, and by the Carthaginians, on the other. For when, at a later period, the boundaries of Carthage and the Regiu Cyrenaica touched at the Philenian Altars, which were situated in the inmost recesses of the Syrtes, it is evident that the Nasamones must have been dis- placed from a tract which at one time belonged to them. When at its greatest extent, their territory, including the lands of the Psylli and the oasis of Augila, must have reached iidand and along the shore of the Mediterranean about 400 geographical miles from E. to W. So long as they had access to the sea the Nasamones had the evil reputation of icreckers, making up for the general barrenness of their lands by tlie plunder of vessels stranded on the Syrtes. (Lucan. Pharsal. x. 443 ; Quint. Curt.