B. vi. c. ii. 10. SICILY. LIPARI ISLANDS. 417 copiousness as to form the Eurotas and the Alpheus, 1 whence has arisen a fable extensively credited, that if a certain charm is uttered over each of two crowns on their being cast into the stream where the two rivers flow in a common channel, each crown will make its appearance in its respective river accord- ing to the charm. As for what we might add with reference to the Timao, 2 it has already been particularized. 10. Phenomena, similar to these, and such as take place throughout Sicily, 3 are witnessed in the Lipari Islands, and especially in Lipari itself. These islands are seven in number, the chief of which is Lipari, a colony of the Cnidians. 4 It is nearest to Sicily after Thermessa. 5 It was originally named Meligunis. It was possessed of a fleet, and for a considerable time repelled the incursions of the Tyrrheni, 6 The islands now called Liparasan were subject to it, some call them the islands of JEolus. The citizens were so successful as to make frequent offerings of the spoils taken in war to the temple of Apollo at Delphi. 7 It possesses a fertile soil, 8 even at the edge of the road, that of the Eurotas. . . . [At a short distance] the two rivers unite and run as one for about 20 stadia ; they then both cast themselves into a chasm, and, continuing their under-ground course, they afterwards reappear; one (the Eurotas) in Laconia, the other in the territory of Megalopolis." Such is what Pausanias relates in one place. But when, in this account, he fixes the source of the Alpheus at about 5 stadia from Asea, we must understand him to allude to a second source of the river; for further on (book viii. cap. 54, p. 709) he says distinctly that the main source of the Alpheus is seen near Phylace in Arcadia ; then adds that that river, on coming to the district of Tegea, is absorbed under the ground, to re-issue near Asea. See 4 of this chapter, page 408. The ancient Timavus. See book v. chap. i. 8, page 319. The French translation, " en divers endroits de V Italic." Some manuscripts read 'IraXiav. We have followed Kramer and Groskurd. Founded about B. c. 580. Thermessa, at present called Vulcano, is doubtless the same men- tioned in Pliny's Nat. Hist. lib. iii. 14, torn. i. p. 164, as Therasia, by the error of the copyist. Paulus Orosius, lib. iv. cap. 20, says that it rose from the bed of the sea, B. c. 571. It is however certain that it was in existence B. c. 427, confer. Thucyd. lib. iii. 88, and was for a consider- able time called Hiera. 6 See Pausan. Phoc. or lib. x. cap. 16, p. 835. 7 See Pausan. Phoc. or lib. x. cap. 2, p. 824. 8 M. le Comm. de Dolomieu, in his Voyage aux iles de Lipari, ed. 1783, p. 75 et seq., supports the character here given of the fertility of this island, and praises the abundance of delicious fruits it produces. 2
