Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/254

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

240 STRABO. CASAUB. 160. distant from the Pyrenees, and the confines of Iberia and Keltica. This is a very fine region, and possesses good ports. Here also is Rhodope, 1 a small town of the Emporitae, but some say it was Joujid^,^yjybe^iiodians. Both here and in Emporium they revejnce the Ephesian Diana. The cause of this we will explain when we come to speak of Massalia. 2 In former times the Emporita3 dwelt on a small island opposite, now called the old city, but at the present day they inhabit the mainland. The city is double, being divided by a Avail, for in past times some of the Indiceti dwelt close by, who, although they had a separate polity to themselves, desired, for the sake of safety, to be shut in by a common enclosure with the Grecians ; but at the same time that this enclosure should be two- fold, being divided through its middle by a wall. In time, however, they came to have but one government, a mix- ture of Barbarian and Grecian laws ; a result which has taken place in many other [states^]. 9. A river 3 flows near to it, which has its sources in the Pyrenees ; its outlet forms a port for the Emporitas, who are skilful workers in flax. Of the interior of their country some parts ^re fertile, others covered with spartum, a rush which flourishes in marshes, and is entirely useless : they call this the June Plain. There are some who inhabit the Pyrenean mountains as far as the Trophies of Pompey, on the route which leads from Italy into Ulterior Iberia, 4 and par- ticularly into Bastica. This road runs sometimes close to the sea, sometimes at a distance therefrom, particularly in the western parts. From the Trophies of Pompey it leads to Tarraco, 5 through the June Plain, the Betteres, 6 and the plain called in the Latin tongue [the plain] of Marathon, on account 4 to 400, have been conjectured as the true reading. Gosselin and Gros- kurd are in favour of 200. 1 Sic text. Siebenkees and Coray propose to read 'Po^of , and Casau- bon also 'Pod?;, now Rosas. a Marseilles. 3 Probably the river Fluvia, the Alba of the ancients. 4 Iberia, or Spain, was anciently divided into two grand divisions, to which the Romans gave the names of Citerior and Ulterior Iberia. Augus- tus subdivided this latter into the two provinces of Baetica and Lusitania, giving the name of Tarraco to Citerior Iberia. Nevertheless the ancient names of Citerior and Ulterior continued in use long after this division. 5 Tarragona. 6 We are not exactly acquainted with this place, it is probably Vidre- ras; though others suppose it to be Colonia Sagerra.