Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/82

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

STRABO. CASAUB. 387. present it is very well peopled, since it is a colony of the Romans. It has also a tolerably good shelter for vessels. Next is Dyme, 1 a city without a harbour, the most westerly of all the cities, whence also it has its name. It was formerly call- ed Stratos. 2 It is separated from Eleia at Buprasium by the river Larisus, 3 which rises in a mountain, called by some per- sons Scollis, but by Homer, the Olenian rock. Antimachus having called Dyme Cauconis, some writers suppose that the latter word is used as an epithet derived from the Caucones, who extended as far as this quarter, as I have said before. Others think that it is derived from a river Caucon, in the same way as Thebes has the appellation of Dircaean, and Asopian ; and as Argos is called Inachian, and Troy, Simuntis. 4 A little before our time, Dyme had received a colony con- sisting of a mixed body of people, a remnant of the piratical bands, whose haunts Pompey had destroyed. Some he settled at Soli in Cilicia, and others in other places, and some in this .spot. Phara borders upon the Dymaean territory. The inhabit- ants of this Phara are called Pharenses ; those of the Mes- senian Phara, Pharata3. In the territory of Phara there is a fountain Dirce, of the same name as that at Thebes. Olenus is deserted. It lies between Patras and Dyme. The territory is occupied by the Dymasi. Next is Araxus, 5 the promontory of the Eleian district, distant from the isth- mus 1000 stadia. CHAPTER VIII. 1 . ARCADIA is situated in the middle of Peloponnesus, and contains the greatest portion of the mountainous tract in that 1 Sun-set. 3 Gossellin suggests that the name Stratos was derived from a spot called the Tomb of Sostratus, held in veneration by the inhabitants of Dyme. 3 The Risso or Mana. 4 From the fountain Dirce, and the rivers Asopus, Inachus, and Simois. 4 Cape Papa.