and proceeded from place to place with him, coming at length to Colophon. It was there that Melesigenes was again attacked by the disease, which, raging more malevolently, left him totally blind. This misfortune determined him to depart from Colophon, and to return to Smyrna, where he studied the art of poetry and harmonics with much attention.
IX. After some time, the bad state of his affairs induced him to go to Cumæ. Setting out, he travelled over the Hermæan plain, and arrived at Neon-teichos,[1] a colony of Cumæ. It is related, that being at that city near an armourer's[2] workshop, he recited these, his first verses:
"O ye, citizens of the amiable daughter of Cumæ,[3] who cover the feet of Mount Sædena with your habitations, whose summit is shaded by refreshing woods, and whence flow the waters of divine Hermus, create of Zeus, respect the misfortunes of a stranger, who possesses no refuge for shelter."
- ↑ See Herod. i. 149.
- ↑ Literally, "a currier's yard," but Larcher has been followed in the translation of the phrase, as the terms are almost synonymous, for the arms of the Greeks of that period were made of ox-hides, stretched on a metal frame, and faced with the same material. Thus, in ancient times the trades were exercised simultaneously. See the description of the shield of Ajax, (Ιλ. vii. 219,) and Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.
- ↑ See Isaiah xxiii. 12. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, also says, in speaking of Massilia, the present Marseilles, founded by the Phocæans, (Thucyd. i. 13. Herod. i. 166,) "Massilia Granum filia." It serves to heighten the poetic effect of the verses. These verses are to be found in the Aldine and Florentine editions. The text of the third verse is corrupt, it runs, "ναίετ' ἐς ᾅδην, ἧς πόδα." Bernard Martin proposes the following emendation, "ναίετε Σαιδηνῆς πόδα." Stephen of Byzantium (Ἐθνικά, edit. Westermann, Lips. 1839, 8vo) mentions Mount Sædena, which makes the reading more probable. Sædena may be a corruption of Sardena mentioned by older authors, therefore to restore Sardena, as Larcher does, would be to destroy a proof of the late origin of the Life. This is a fact worthy of notice in dating the composition of this treatise. Stephen of Byzantium lived under the reign of Justinian II., therefore this treatise must have been written some where about the same time.
