Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/349

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

Chap. 20.] ACCOrXT OF COTJNTEIES, ETC. 315 Peloponnesus, are the two isles knoAvn as Corycse, and the two called Myla}^ On the north side, having Crete on the right, and opposite to Cydonia, is Leuce"', and the two islands known as Budrope^. Opposite to Matium lies Dia^ ; opposite to the promontory of Itauum^, Onisia and Leuce ; and over against Hierapytna, Chrysa and Gaudos^. In the same neighbourhood, also, are Ophiussa, Butoa, and Aradus ; and, after doubling Criumetopon, we come to the three islands known as Musagorus. Before the promontory of Sam- monium lie the islands of Phocoe, the Platise, the Sirnides, Xaulochos, Armedon, and Zephyre. Belonging to Hellas, but still in the ^gean Sea, we have the Lichades, consisting of Scarphia, Coresa, Phocaria, and many others which face Attica, but have no towns upon them, and are consequently of little note. Opposite Eleusis, however, is the lar-famed Salamis^ ; before it, Psytta- lia^; and, at a distance of five miles from Sunium, the island of Helene^^. At the same distance from this last is Ceos' which some of our countrpnen have called Cea, and the Grreeks Hydrussa, an island which has been torn away from Euboea. It was formerly 500 stadia in length ; but more recently four-fifths of it, in the direction of Boeotia, have been swallowed up by the sea. The only towns it now has ^ According to Hardouin, all of these are mere rocks rather than islands. 2 ji^q rnodern Ilajrhios Theodhoros. 3 According to Hoeck, they are now called Tm-lui'e. ■* Now called Standiu. 5 Now Capo Xacro, on the east, though Cape Salomon, further north, has been suggested. In the latter case, the Grandes islands woidd cor- respond with Onisia and Leuce, mentioned by Pliny. 6 Now Graidurognissa. Noneof the other islands here mentioned seem to have been iden tided. 7 Between Euboea and Locris. They arc now called Ponticoncsi. 8 Now Koluri. It is memorable for the naval battle fought off* its coast, when Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks, B.C. 480. 9 Now called Lyjisokutali. ^^ Now Makronisi, or " the Long Island." Its ancient name was also IMacris. Strabo identifies it with the Homeric Cranac, to which Paris fled with Helen. ^1 Usually called Cea, one of the Cyclades, about thirteen miles S.E. of Smiium. Its modern name is Zea. lulis was the most important to^^l, and the birth-i)laee of the poets Simonides and Baeehylides, of the sophist Prodicus, the physician Erasistratus, and the Peripatetic philo- sopher Ariston. Extensive remains of it still exist.