Natural History — Book V

Pliny the Younger & Pliny the Elder · a new plain-English translation from the Latin

1| The Greeks called Africa Libya, and the sea that lies before it the Libyan sea. It is bounded by the Egyptian sea, and no other part of the world has fewer gulfs, its shores running obliquely a long way from the west. The names of its peoples and towns are for the most part quite unpronounceable except in their own languages, and in any case they mostly live in fortified strongholds.

2| At the beginning of its lands are the Mauretanias, which were kingdoms up to the time of Gaius Caesar, son of Germanicus, and were divided by his cruelty into two provinces. The outermost promontory on the ocean is named Ampelusia by the Greeks. There were once the towns of Lissa and Cottae beyond the Pillars of Hercules; now there is Tingi, founded long ago by Antaeus and afterwards named Traducta Iulia by Claudius Caesar when he made it a colony. It is 30,000 from Baelo, the nearest town of Baetica, by the crossing. 25,000 from it, on the coast of the ocean, is a colony of Augustus, Iulia Constantia Zulil, exempted from the rule of the kings and ordered to seek justice in Baetica. 35,000 from there is Lixos, made a colony by Claudius Caesar, about which the ancients told the most fabulous tales:

3| there, they said, were the palace of Antaeus, his contest with Hercules, and the gardens of the Hesperides. An estuary pours in from the sea along a winding course, and this is now interpreted as the dragons that stood on guard. It encloses an island which is the only part of the neighboring tract that the tides of the sea do not flood, although the tract is somewhat higher. On it there is also an altar of Hercules, and nothing remains of that famous gold-bearing grove except wild olives.

4| Less, surely, would people marvel at the monstrous lies of Greece told about these places and the river Lixus, if they reflected that our own writers too, quite recently, have handed down things about them only a little less prodigious: that this city was very powerful and larger than Great Carthage, and moreover that it lay opposite Carthage, and was separated from Tingi by a stretch of almost boundless length, and all the other things that Cornelius Nepos believed so eagerly.

5| 40,000 from Lixus, inland, is a second colony of Augustus, Babba, called Iulia Campestris, and a third, Banasa, at 75,000 paces, surnamed Valentia. 35,000 from it is the town of Volubile, which is equally distant from both seas. On the coast, 50 from Lixus, is the river Sububus, a magnificent and navigable river, which flows past the colony of Banasa. The same number of thousands of paces from it is the town of Sala, set on a river of the same name, already close to the deserts and infested by herds of elephants, but much more by the tribe of the Autololes, through whose land runs the road to Atlas, the most fabulous mountain of Africa.

6| They have recorded that it rises into the sky from the midst of the sands, rugged and barren on the side that slopes toward the ocean's shores, to which it gave its name, but shady, wooded and watered by gushing springs on the side that looks toward Africa, with fruits of every kind springing up of their own accord so abundantly that pleasure never lacks its fill.

7| None of its inhabitants is seen by day; everything is silent with nothing other than the dread of desert places; a wordless awe steals over the minds of those who come nearer, and over and above the dread, at the sight of it lifted above the clouds and close to the circle of the moon. At night the same mountain glitters with frequent fires, is filled with the revels of Aegipans and Satyrs, and resounds with the music of reed pipes and panpipes and the noise of drums and cymbals. Famous authors have recorded these things, besides the labors performed there by Hercules and Perseus. The distance to it is immense and uncertain.

8| There were also the commentaries of Hanno, a Carthaginian commander, who at the height of Punic power was ordered to explore the circuit of Africa. Most of the Greeks and of our own writers have followed him, and have recorded, among other things that are certainly fabulous, many cities founded there by him, of which neither any memory nor any trace survives.

9| While Scipio Aemilianus was campaigning in Africa, Polybius, the writer of annals, was given a fleet by him for the sake of exploring that part of the world and sailed round it. He recorded that from that mountain westward there are forests full of the wild beasts that Africa breeds; that it is 396,000 to the river Anatis, and from there to Lixus 205,000. Agrippa says that Lixus is 112,000 from the strait of Gades; that next comes a gulf called Sagigi, a town on the promontory of Mulelacha, the rivers Sububa and Salat, and the port of Rutubis, 224,000 from Lixus; then the Sun's promontory, the port of Rhysaddir, the Gaetulian Autoteles, the river Quosenus, the tribes of the Selatiti and Masati, the Masathat river, and the Darat river, where crocodiles are born.

10| Then, he says, a gulf of 616,000 is enclosed by a promontory of Mount Braca running out to the west, which is called Surrentium. After that comes the river Salsus, beyond which are the Perorsi Ethiopians, and behind them the Pharusii. Joined to these inland are the Gaetulian Darae, and on the coast the Daratite Ethiopians and the river Bambotus, full of crocodiles and hippopotamuses. From it unbroken mountains run all the way to the one we shall call Theon Ochema. From there to the promontory of Hesperu the sailing takes ten days and nights. In the middle of that stretch he placed Atlas, which all the other writers report to be at the furthest edge of Mauretania.

11| Roman arms first made war in Mauretania under the emperor Claudius, when the freedman Aedemon was avenging King Ptolemy, whom Gaius Caesar had put to death; and it is agreed that, as the barbarians fled, our forces reached Mount Atlas. And it was a point of glory, not only for the former consuls and commanders from the senate who conducted the campaign at that time, but also for the Roman knights who governed there afterwards, to have penetrated Atlas.

12| There are five Roman colonies in that province, as we have said, and it may seem passable to report, but this, in the great majority of cases, is found by experience to be most deceptive, because men of rank, if it is a trouble to track down the truth, do not mind lying through shame at their ignorance, and trust slips no more readily than when a weighty authority for a false thing appears. For my part I wonder less that certain things are unascertained by men of the equestrian order, and now even by those who enter the senate from there, than that they are unknown to luxury, whose force is felt as the most effective and the greatest, when forests are searched for ivory and citrus-wood, and all the Gaetulian rocks for murices and purpurae.

13| The natives report, however, that on the coast, 150,000 from Sala, there is the river Asana, with sea-water to drink but notable for its harbour, and soon the river which they call Fut; from it to the Dyris (for it is agreed that this is the name of Atlas in their language) is 200,000, with a river intervening whose name is Ivor. There, around it, few traces survive of ground once inhabited, remains of vines and palm-groves.

14| Suetonius Paulinus, whom we have seen as consul, the first of the Roman commanders to cross even the Atlas, over a space of some thousands, reported about its height what the others have, and that its lowest roots are filled with dense, tall forests of a kind of tree unknown, of notable height, with a smooth, knotless gloss; that the leaves are like cypress, except for the strength of their smell, and are covered with a fine down, from which by the application of art garments like those from the silkworm can be made. He said the summit is covered with deep snows even in summer.

15| He said that he had reached it by the tenth camp, and farther, to a river called the Ger, through deserts of black dust, with cliffs jutting out from time to time as though burnt, and places uninhabitable by reason of the heat, though he experienced them in winter time. Those who inhabit the nearest woodlands, which are filled with elephants and wild beasts and serpents of every kind, are called Canarii, since their diet is shared with that animal and they divide the flesh of wild beasts.

16| It is agreed well enough that a nation of Ethiopians, whom they call Perorsi, adjoins. Juba, father of Ptolemy, the first man to rule both Mauretanias, more memorable even for the fame of his studies than for his kingdom, reported similar things about the Atlas, and besides that a plant grows there, named euphorbea, called after his physician who discovered it. He celebrates its milky juice with marvellous praises, for clearness of sight and, on the other hand, against serpents and all poisons, in a volume dedicated to it alone. And enough and more than enough about the Atlas.

17| The length of the province of Tingitana is 170,000. The peoples in it: once the chief was that of the Mauri, from whom the name comes, whom most have called Maurusii; worn down by wars it has dwindled to a few families. Next to it had been that of the Masaesyli; it has died out in a similar way. Gaetulian peoples now hold the land, the Baniurae and the much the strongest Autololes, and a part of these formerly the Nesimi, who, torn away from them, made a people of their own, turned toward the Ethiopians.

18| The province itself, mountainous on the east, bears elephants, in Mount Abila also, and in those which they call the Seven Brothers, from their similar height. Joined to Abila, they overhang the strait. From them comes the coast of the inner sea: the navigable river Tamuda, once also a town; the river Laud, itself able to carry vessels. The town and harbour Rhysaddir; the navigable river Malvane.

19| The town Siga, opposite Malaca, situated in Spain, was the royal seat of Syphax, belonging now to the other Mauretania. For the names of kings were long retained, so that the farthest was called Bogudian, and likewise that of Bocchus, which is now Caesariensis. From it comes the Great Harbour, so called from its extent, with a town of Roman citizens. The river Mulucha, the boundary of Bocchus and the Masaesyli. Quiza Cenitana, a town of foreigners; Arsennaria, of Latins, 3,000 from the sea;

20| Cartenna, a colony of Augustus, with the second legion; likewise Gunugu, a colony of the same, settled with a praetorian cohort. The promontory of Apollo, and there the very celebrated town Caesarea, formerly called Iol, the royal seat of Juba, granted by the deified Claudius the rights of a colony; by his order, with veterans settled, Oppidum Novum, and, with Latin rights given, Tipasa, and likewise, by the Emperor Vespasian, Icosium, granted the same gift; the colony of Augustus Rusguniae; Rusucurium, honoured with the status of a state by Claudius; Rusazus, a colony of Augustus; Saldae, a colony of the same; likewise Igilgili;

21| the town Tucca, set upon the sea and the river Ampsaga. Inland, the colony Augusta, which is also Succhabar, likewise Tubusuptu, the states Timici and Tigavae. The rivers Sardabal, Aves and Nabar. The people Macurebi; the river Usar; the people Nababes. The river Ampsaga is 322,000 from Caesarea. The length of both Mauretanias is X. X̅X̅X̅V̅I̅I̅I̅, the breadth 467,000.

22| From the Ampsaga Numidia begins, famous for the name of Masinissa, called by the Greeks the land of Metagonitis; the Numidians are Nomads, from their changing of pastures, carrying round their mapalia, that is, their houses, on wagons. The towns Chullu and Rusicade, and from it, 48,000 inland, the colony Cirta, surnamed of the Sittiani, and another inland, Sicca, and the free town Bulla Regia. On the coast, however, Tacatua, Hippo Regius, the river Armua, the town Thabraca of Roman citizens, the river Tusca, the boundary of Numidia. Nor has it anything else notable besides the produce of Numidian marble and of wild beasts.

23| From the Tusca the Zeugitana region begins, and that which is properly called Africa. Three promontories, the White, then that of Apollo, opposite Sardinia, and that of Mercury, opposite Sicily, running out into the deep, form two gulfs, the Hipponian, the nearer, from the town which they call Hippo Dirutum, called Diarrhytum by the Greeks on account of its watering streams. Bordering it is Theudalis, an untaxed town, farther from the shore.

24| Then the promontory of Apollo, and on the other gulf Utica of Roman citizens, renowned for Cato's death; the river Bagrada; the place Castra Cornelia; the colony Carthago Magna on the remains of Carthage; the colony Maxula; the towns Carpi and Missua, and the free Clypea on the promontory of Mercury; likewise the free Curubis and Neapolis. Soon another division of Africa itself. Those who inhabit Byzacium are called Libyphoenices. So the region is named, 250,000 paces in circuit, of exceptional fertility, the land returning to the farmers a hundredfold yield as interest.

25| Here are the free towns Leptis, Hadrumetum, Ruspina and Thapsus. Then Thenae, Aves, Macomades, Tacape and Sabrata, touching the Lesser Syrtis, up to which Numidia and Africa extend 580,000 in length from the Ampsaga, and in breadth, so far as it is known, 200,000. That part which we have called Africa is split into two provinces, the old one and the new, separated by a ditch carried between the later Africanus's side and the kings' as far as Thenae, a town which is 216,000 from Carthage.

26| The third gulf is divided into twin gulfs, the dread of the two Syrtes with their shoaling and ebbing sea. To the nearer, which is the lesser, from Carthage Polybius gives 300,000; the Syrtis itself has an entrance of a hundred thousand paces and a circuit of three hundred thousand. By land, moreover, the way to it is by observation of the stars through deserts [….] with sands and through serpents. Next come woodlands filled with a multitude of wild beasts, and inland the solitudes of elephants, soon vast deserts, and beyond them the Garamantes, distant from the Augilae by a journey of 12 days.

27| Above them were the people of the Psylli, above whom is the lake of Lycomedes, surrounded by deserts. The Augilae themselves are situated at about the midpoint, at an equal interval on either side from Ethiopia, which inclines to the west, and from the region that lies between the two Syrtes, but the shore between the two Syrtes is 250,000. There are the state of Oea, the river and region Cinyps, the towns Neapolis, Taphra, Habrotonum, and a second Leptis, which is surnamed Magna. Then the Greater Syrtis, 625,000 in circuit, with an entrance of 312,000; [then] the people of the Cisippades dwell beside it.

28| In the innermost bay stood the shore of the Lotophagi, whom certain people have called Machroae, as far as the altars of the Philaeni; these are of sand. Not far from them, away from the mainland, a vast marsh takes the river Triton and from it receives its name; Callimachus called it Pallantias, and said it was on this side of the Lesser Syrtis, though many say it is between the two Syrtes. The promontory that closes the Greater is called Borion. Beyond is the province of Cyrenaica.

29| To this boundary Africa, from the river Ampsaga, has 516 peoples that obey Roman rule, among them six colonies, besides Uthina and Thuburbi already mentioned. There are 15 towns of Roman citizens, of which those to be named in the interior are the Absuritanum, Abutucense, Aboriense, Canopicum, Chiniavense, Simithuense, Thunusidense, Thuburnicense, Thinidrumense, Tibigense, the two Ucitana, the Greater and the Lesser, and the Vagense. One Latin town, the Uzalitanum. One tributary town, Castra Cornelia.

30| The free towns are 30, of which those to be named inland are the Achollitanum, Accaritanum, Avittense, Abziritanum, Canopitanum, Melizitanum, Materense, Salaphitanum, Tusdritanum, Thisicense, Tunisense, Theudense, Tagesense, Tigiense, Ulusubburitanum, another Vagense, [….]ense, and Zamense. Of the remaining number, not only states but most of them may also rightly be called nations, such as the Nattabutes, Capsitani, Musulami, Sabarbares, Massyli, Nicives, Vamacures, Cinithi, Musuni, Marchubi, and the whole of Gaetulia as far as the river Niger, which divides Africa from Ethiopia.

31| Cyrenaica, also called the Pentapolitan region, is made illustrious by the oracle of Hammon, which is 400,000 paces from Cyrene, by the Fountain of the Sun, and chiefly by five cities, Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia and Cyrene itself. Berenice is on the outermost horn of the Syrtis, once called that of the Hesperides mentioned above, as the wandering fables of Greece have it. Not far before the town is the river Lethon, a sacred grove, where gardens are recorded. It is 375,000 from Leptis.

32| From it Arsinoe, called Teuchira, is 43,000, and then Ptolemais, with the ancient name Barce, 22,000. Soon after, 40,000 away, the promontory Phycus runs out through the Cretan sea, distant 350,000 paces from Taenarum, a promontory of Laconia, and from Crete itself 125,000. After that comes Cyrene, 11,000 paces from the sea; from Phycus the distance to Apollonia is 24,000, to Cherronesus 88,000, from where to Catabathmus is 216,000.

33| The Marmaridae dwell there, stretching from about the region of Paraetonium as far as the Greater Syrtis. After them are the Acrauceles, and now on the Syrtis coast the Nasamones, whom the Greeks earlier named Mesammones, from a feature of the place, situated in the middle of the sands. The Cyrenaic land is held fertile in trees for 15,000 paces in breadth from the shore, inland for the same space in grain only, and soon for 30,000 in breadth and 250,000 in length in laser alone.

34| After the Nasamones live the Asbytae and the Macae; beyond them the Amantes, an 11 days' journey from the Greater Syrtes to the west, themselves too surrounded by sands, yet they find wells without difficulty at a depth of about two cubits, the waters of Mauretania standing back up there. They build their houses of salt cut from their own mountains, like stone. From them to the Trogodytae is a journey of seven days toward the quarter of the winter sunset; with them the only trade is in the gem, which we call carbunculus, brought in from Ethiopia.

35| Between, turned toward the deserts of Africa said to lie above the Lesser Syrtis, lies Phazania, where we subdued the nation of the Phazanii and the cities Alele and Cilliba, likewise Cidamus, opposite Sabrata. From them a mountain stretches for a long space from east to west, called Ater by our people from its nature, like something burnt or set alight by the reflection of the sun.

36| Beyond it are deserts; the town Mathelgae of the Garamantes, and likewise Debris, where a spring pours out waters boiling from midday to midnight and the same number of hours freezing cold from midnight to midday; and the most famous Garama, the capital of the Garamantes, all subdued by Roman arms and triumphed over by Cornelius Balbus, the only man of all to be granted a triumphal chariot, though a foreigner, and the rights of a Roman citizen; for to him, born at Gades, citizenship was given together with the elder Balbus, his father's brother. And this is remarkable, that our authorities have reported the towns mentioned above as captured by him, but that in his triumph he led, besides Cidamus and Garama, the names and images of all the other nations and cities, which went in this order:

37| the town Tabudium; the nation Niteris; the town Miglis Gemella; the nation or town Bubeium; the nation Enipi; the town Thuben; the mountain named Niger; Nitibrum and Rapsa, towns; the nation Viscera; the town Decri; the river Nathabur; the town Thapsagum; the nation Tamiagi; the town Boin; the town Pege; the river Dasibari; then towns in succession, Baracum, Buluba, Alasit, Galsa, Balla, Maxalla, Cizania; the mountain Gyri, on which, the inscription had said, gems are produced.

38| The journey to the Garamantes was until now impassable, the robbers of that people covering the wells with sand (wells that need not be dug deep, if knowledge of the places is at hand). In the latest war, which they waged with the people of Oea at the start of the Emperor Vespasian's reign, a short cut of four days' journey was discovered. This route is called Past the Head of the Rock. The boundary of Cyrenaica is called Catabathmos, a town and a valley suddenly sloping down. To that limit Cyrenaic Africa extends from the Lesser Syrtis X.L̅X̅ in length, and in breadth, so far as it is known, 910,000.

39| The following region is called Libya Mareotis, bordering Egypt. The Marmaridae, Adyrmachidae, and then the Mareotae hold it. The measure from Catabathmus to Paraetonium is 86,000. In that tract inland lies Apis, a place famous for its religious cult in Egypt. From it to Paraetonium is 62,500, from there to Alexandria 200,000. The breadth is 169,000. Eratosthenes gives from Cyrene to Alexandria by the overland route 525,000.

40| Agrippa gave the whole of Africa's length, from the Atlantic sea with Lower Egypt, as 3,040,000; Polybius and Eratosthenes, reckoned the most careful, made it from the ocean to Carthage the Great 1,100,000, and from it to Canopus, the Nile's nearest mouth, 1,688,000; Isidorus gives from Tingi to Canopus 3,697,000; Artemidorus, 40,000 less than Isidorus.

41| These seas contain not so many islands. The most famous is Meninx, 25,000 in length and 22,000 in breadth, called Lotophagitis by Eratosthenes; it has two towns, Meninx on the side facing Africa and, on the other, Thoar; it lies 1,500 paces from the right-hand promontory of the Lesser Syrtis. From it, 100 paces away, opposite the left-hand one, is Cercina, with a free city of the same name, 25,000 long and half as wide where widest, but at the end not more than 5. Joined to this by a bridge, toward Carthage, is a very small island, Cercinitis.

42| From these, about 50 paces, lies Lepadusa, 6,000 long; then Gaulos, and Galata, whose soil kills scorpions, the dread creature of Africa. They are also said to die at Clupea, opposite which is Cossyra with a town. But opposite the gulf of Carthage are two Aegimoerae, and the Arae, rocks rather than islands, chiefly between Sicily and Sardinia. There are authorities who say that these also were once inhabited and have sunk.

43| In the inner circuit of Africa, however, toward the south and above the Gaetulians, with deserts intervening, the first of all to live there are the Libyan Egyptians, then the white Ethiopians. Above them are the Ethiopian nations, the Nigritae, named from the river, the Gymnetes and Pharusi, now touching the ocean, whom we called Perorsi at the end of Mauretania. Beyond all these lie vast solitudes toward the east as far as the Garamantes, Augilae and Trogodytae, in agreement with the very true opinion of those who place two Ethiopias above the deserts of Africa, and before all with Homer, who reports that the Ethiopians are divided in two, turned toward the east and the west.

44| The river Niger has the same nature as the Nile. It produces reed and papyrus and the same animals, and rises in flood at the same times. It rises between the Ethiopian Tarraelii and the Oechalicae. Their town is Magium. Some have set the Atlantes among the solitudes, and beside them the Aegipanes, half-beasts, the Blemmyae, the Gamphasantes, the Satyrs and the Himantopodes. The Atlantes are degenerate from human custom, if we believe it.

45| For they have no naming of any names among themselves, and they look upon the rising and setting sun with a dread imprecation, as deadly to themselves and their fields, and they do not see in sleep such things as other mortals. The Trogodytae dig out caves; these are their homes; their food is the flesh of serpents, and they make a squeaking, not a voice: so completely do they lack the commerce of speech. The Garamantes, having no marriages, live promiscuously with their women. The Augilae worship only the powers below. The Gamphasantes, naked and without experience of battles, gather with no outsider.

46| The Blemmyae are reported to have no heads, with mouth and eyes fixed to the chest; the Satyrs, apart from their shape, have nothing of human custom; the Aegipanes have the form commonly painted; the Himantopodes are some loose-footed folk, whose nature is to move by creeping; the Pharusi, once Persians, are said to have been companions of Hercules on his way to the Hesperides. Nor is there more to be recalled about Africa.

47| Asia adjoins it. Timosthenes reports that it extends from the Canopic mouth to the mouth of the Pontus 2,638,000 paces, and from the mouth of the Pontus to the mouth of the Maeotis, Eratosthenes 1,545,000; the whole, with Egypt, to the Tanais, Artemidorus and Isidorus give as L.X̅I̅I̅I̅.DCCL. Its many seas have taken their names from the dwellers on the shores; therefore they will be indicated together.

48| Next to Africa is inhabited Egypt, receding inland toward the south, where the Ethiopians stretch behind it. Its lower part the Nile, divided on the right and left, bounds with its embrace, separating it from Africa by the Canopic mouth and from Asia by the Pelusiac, over an interval of 170,000 paces. For this reason some have counted Egypt among the islands, since the Nile splits itself so as to form a triangular shape of land, and therefore many have called Egypt by the name of the Greek letter, Delta. The measure from the single bed of the river, where it first splits into its sides, to the Canopic mouth is 146, to the Pelusiac 156,000. The uppermost part, bordering Ethiopia, is called the Thebais.

49| It is divided into prefectures of towns, which they call nomoi: the Ombite, Apollonopolite, Hermonthite, Thinite, Phaturite, Coptite, Tentyrite, Diospolite, Antaeopolite, Aphroditopolite and Lycopolite. The region beside Pelusium has the nomoi Pharbaethite, Bubastite, Sethroite and Tanite. The remaining ones are the Arabian, the Hammoniac, extending to the oracle of Jupiter Hammon, the Oxyrynchite, Leontopolite, Athribite, Cynopolite, Hermopolite, Xoite, Mendesian, Sebennyte, Cabasite, Latopolite, Heliopolite, Prosopite, Panopolite, Busirite, Onuphite, Saite, Ptenethum, Ptemphum, Naucratite, Metelite, Gynaecopolite and Menelaite, the region of Alexandria, and likewise that of Libya, Mareotis.

50| The Heracleopolite nome is on an island in the Nile 50 paces long, on which is also a town, called that of Hercules. The Arsinoitae are two; these and the Memphite reach as far as the top of the Delta, on which the two Oasitae border, from Africa. Some of them change certain names and substitute other nomes, such as the Heroopolite and Crocodilopolite. Between the Arsinoite and the Memphite there was a lake, 250,000 in circuit or, as Mucianus reports, 450,000, and fifty paces in depth, made by hand, and called Moeris after the king who made it. From there Memphis is 62,000 paces distant, once the stronghold of Egypt's kings, from where to the oracle of Hammon is a journey of 12 days, and to the splitting of the Nile, which we called the Delta, 15,000.

51| The Nile, rising from uncertain sources, as it walks through deserts and burning lands over an immense space of length, and is sought only by unarmed report, without wars, which have found out all other lands, has its origin, as King Juba was able to discover, on a mountain of lower Mauretania not far from the ocean, in a lake immediately stagnant, which they call Nilis. There are found fishes called alabetae, coracini and siluri. A crocodile from there, too, dedicated by him as evidence of this in the temple of Isis at Caesarea, is on view today. It has been observed, besides, that according as snows or rains have saturated Mauretania, so the Nile increases.

52| Poured out from this lake, it disdains to flow through sandy and squalid lands, and hides itself for a journey of some days; soon it bursts out in another, larger lake, among the people of the Masaesyli of Caesariensian Mauretania, and, as it were, looks around at gatherings of men, with the same evidence of animals. Taken again into sands it is hidden once more for 20 days' deserts to the nearest Ethiopians, and, where it first senses a man again, it leaps forth, from a spring, as is likely, which they have called the Niger.

53| From there, dividing Africa from Ethiopia, though not yet thronged with peoples, yet full of wild beasts and monsters and the maker of forests, it cuts through the middle of the Ethiopians, named Astapus, which in the language of those peoples means water flowing out of darkness. It scatters islands so countless, and some of such vast size, that although with rapid speed it still flies past in a course of 5 days, not shorter; around the most famous of them, Meroe, the left channel is called Astabores, that is, branch of water coming from darkness, and the right Astosapes, which adds the signification of a side; nor is it Nile before it has joined itself entire with waters once more at one, and even so it was still named Giris for some thousands of paces beforehand, and in the whole by Homer Aegyptus and by others Triton.

54| Soon dashed upon islands, spurred on by as many provocations, at last shut in by mountains, and nowhere else more torrential, carried by hurrying waters to the place of the Ethiopians that are called Catadupi, at the last cataract, among rocks that stand in its path, it is believed not to flow but to rush headlong, with an immense roar. Afterwards gentle, its waters broken and its violence tamed, and also somewhat wearied by the distance, although it pours itself out through many mouths into the Egyptian sea, yet on fixed days, with a great increase, it spreads over the whole of Egypt and floats fertile over the land.

55| They have given various causes for this increase, but the most probable are the repulse of the Etesian winds blowing at that season from the opposite quarter, the sea being driven farther onto the coast, or the summer rains of Ethiopia, the same Etesian winds carrying clouds there from the rest of the world. Timaeus the mathematician put forward a hidden explanation: that its source is called Phiala, and that the river itself, panting with heat, is plunged into tunnels, in smoking rocks, where it hides. But the sun, brought close in those days, draws it out by the force of its heat, and it rises and overflows, and is hidden so that it may not be swallowed up.

56| This happens from the rising of the Dog Star, through the sun's entrance into Leo, the star standing perpendicular to the source, since shadows are consumed in that region; most hold the opposite view, that it flows more abundantly toward the north when the sun departs, which happens in Cancer and Leo, and that therefore it is then less dried up; that, again, when the sun has gone back to Capricorn and the southern pole, it is swallowed up and for that reason flows more sparingly. But if anyone should believe, with Timaeus, that it can be drawn out, there is a lack of shadows on those days and in those places without end.

57| It begins to rise at the new moon, whichever follows the solstice, gradually and modestly while the sun passes through Cancer, but most abundantly in Leo, and it subsides in Virgo in the same ways in which it grew. In Libra, as Herodotus relates, it is called back entirely within its banks on the hundredth day. While it is rising, it has been judged sacrilege for kings or prefects to sail on it. Its increases are ascertained by marks of measure in wells. The just rise is 16 cubits.

58| Lesser waters do not irrigate everything; greater ones detain it by receding more slowly. The latter use up the time for sowing while the soil is wet, the former give none because it is thirsty. The province reckons with both. At 12 cubits it feels famine, at 13 it still hungers, 14 cubits bring cheerfulness, 15 security, 16 delights. The greatest rise to this age was 18 cubits under the emperor Claudius, the least, 5, in the Pharsalian war, as if the river, by a kind of portent, turned away from the murder of Pompey. When the waters have stood, they are let in by opening the dams. As each part of the land is freed, it is sown. The same river alone of all breathes out no breezes.

59| The dominion of Egypt begins at the end of Ethiopia with Syene; so is called a peninsula of 1,000 paces in circuit, on which is a camp, on the Arabian side, and opposite is an island, 4,000 paces, Philae, 600,000 paces from the splitting of the Nile, from which we have said it is called the Delta. This space was set out by Artemidorus, who says that in it there were 250 towns; Juba gives 400,000 paces; Aristocreon, from Elephantis to the sea, 750,000. The island Elephantis, within the last cataract, 4,000 paces away and 16,000 above Syene, is inhabited; it is the end of Egyptian navigation, 585,000 paces from Alexandria: so greatly have the authors cited above erred. There Ethiopian ships are sold; for they carry them folded on their shoulders each time they reach the cataracts.

60| Egypt, besides its general glory of antiquity, boasts that in the reign of Amasis it was inhabited by 20,000 cities, and even now it is crowded with many, though undistinguished. Celebrated, however, are the city of Apollo, then that of Leucothea, Diospolis Magna, which is also Thebes, famed for its hundred gates, Coptos, the emporium for Indian and Arabian wares nearest the Nile, then the town of Venus, and again that of Jupiter, and Tentyris, below which is Abydus, the royal seat of Memnon and renowned for the temple of Osiris, 7,500 paces away from the river in the direction of Libya.

61| Then Ptolemais and Panopolis, and again the town of Venus, and in the Libyan part Lycon, where mountains end the Thebais. After these come the towns of Mercury, Alabastron, Canum and the Hercules town mentioned above. Then the city of Arsinoe and Memphis, already mentioned, between which and the Arsinoite nome, on the Libyan side, are the towers that are called pyramids, and the labyrinth, built on the lake of Moeris with no timber added, and the town Crialon. One more, inland and bordering Arabia, of great fame: the town of the Sun.

62| But Alexandria, on the shore of the Egyptian sea, may rightly be praised, founded by Alexander the Great in the part of Africa 12,000 paces from the Canopic mouth, beside the lake Mareotis, a place which was formerly called Rhacotes. Its plan was laid out by the architect Dinochares, of memorable talent in many ways; it was a space of 15,000 paces occupied, with a circuit curved to the likeness of a Macedonian cloak, fringed with a jagged outline, with angular projections on right and left, a fifth part of the site even then being dedicated to the palace.

63| The lake Mareotis, on the southern side of the city, sends commerce from the interior by a channel from the Canopic mouth, embracing also several islands; it is 30,000 across and 250,000 in circuit, as Claudius Caesar reports. Others make the schoeni extend 40 in length, and the schoenus 30 stades: thus the length would be 150,000 paces, and the same for the breadth.

64| There are also held in honour many towns within the courses of the Nile, especially those that gave their names to the mouths: not to all (for 12 are found, and four more, which they themselves call false mouths), but to the 7 most celebrated, the Canopic, nearest to Alexandria, then the Bolbitine, Sebennytic, Phatmitic, Mendesian, Tanitic, and last the Pelusiac. Besides these there are Butos, Pharbaethos, Leontopolis, Athribis, the town belonging to Isis, Busiris, Cynopolis, Aphrodites, Sais, and Naucratis, whence some name the mouth Naucratitic, which others call Heracleotic, preferring it to the Canopic, to which it is nearest.

65| Beyond the Pelusiac is Arabia, extending to the Red Sea and that fragrant and rich land renowned by the surname of the Blessed. This part is called that of the Catabani, the Esbonitae and the Scenite Arabs, barren except where it touches the borders of Syria, and famous only for Mount Casius. To these the Arabs are joined, on the east the Canchlei, on the south the Cedrei, both of whom then border the Nabataeans. One gulf of the Red Sea inclining toward Egypt is called the Heroopolitic, and another the Laeanitic or Aelanitic, 150,000 being the interval between two towns, Laeana and, on our sea, Gaza. Agrippa gives from Pelusium to Arsinoe, a town of the Red Sea, through deserts 125,000 paces: so slightly apart is there so great a diversity of nature.

66| Next Syria occupies the shore, in former times the largest of countries, and marked out by a great many names. For it was called Palaestine where it touches the Arabs, and Judaea, and Coele; then Phoenice, and where it recedes inland, Damascena; and, still more, southward, Babylonia, which is also Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and where the Taurus passes, Sophene; on this side of it Commagene, and beyond Armenia, Adiabene, called Assyria earlier; and where it touches Cilicia, Antiochia. Between Cilicia and Arabia its length is 470,000 paces.

67| The breadth, from Seleucia Pieria to the town of Zeugma on the Euphrates is 175,000. Those who divide more finely wish that Phoenice is poured around by Syria and is the maritime coast of Syria, of which Idumaea and Judaea would be a part, then Phoenice, then Syria. The sea that lies before it is all called the Phoenician. The Phoenician people itself has great glory for the invention of letters and of the arts of the stars, of navigation and of war.

68| From Pelusium come the camp of Chabrias, Mount Casius, the shrine of Jupiter Casius, and the tomb of Pompey the Great. Arabia is bounded at Ostracine, 65,000 paces from Pelusium. Soon Idumaea begins, and Palaestina, from the emergence of the lake Sirbonis, which some have given as 150,000 in circuit. Herodotus attached it to Mount Casius; now it is a modest marsh. The towns are Rhinocolura and, inland, Rhaphea, Gaza and, inland, Anthedon, and Mount Argaris. The region along the coast is Samaria; the free town Ascalo, Azotos, two Iamneae, one of them inland.

69| Iope of the Phoenicians, older than the flooding of the earth, as they say, sits on a hill, with a rock lying before it on which it shows the traces of Andromeda's chains. There the fabulous Ceto is worshipped. Then Apollonia, and Strato's Tower, which is also Caesarea, founded by King Herod, now the colony Prima Flavia, settled by the Emperor Vespasian, the end of Palaestine, 189,000 paces from the border of Arabia. Then Phoenice; and inland, of Samaria, the towns Neapolis, which was formerly called Mamortha, Sebaste on a mountain, and the higher Gamala.

70| Above Idumaea and Samaria Judaea spreads far and wide. Its part joined to Syria is called Galilaea; the part nearest Arabia and Egypt is Peraea, scattered with rugged mountains and separated from the rest of Judaea by the river Jordan. The remaining Judaea is divided into ten toparchies, in the order in which we shall name them: Hiericus, planted with palm-groves and watered by springs; Emmaus; Lydda; Iopica; Acrabatena; Gophanitica; Thamnitica; Betholeptephene; Orine, in which stood Hierosolyma, far and away the most famous of the cities of the East, and not of Judaea alone; and Herodium, with a notable town of the same name.

71| The river Jordan rises from the spring Paneas, which gave its name to Caesarea, of which we shall speak. A pleasant river and, as far as the lie of the places allows, courting, offering itself to the dwellers on its banks, as if unwilling it seeks the Asphaltite lake, dreadful by nature, by which it is drunk up in the end, and loses its praised waters, mixed with pestilential ones. So where the first opportunity of the valleys occurred, it pours itself into a lake which many call Genesara, 16,000 paces in length and 6,000 in breadth, fenced about with pleasant towns: on the east Julias and Hippos, on the south Tarichea (by which name some also call the lake), on the west Tiberias, wholesome for its warm waters.

72| The Asphaltite produces nothing but bitumen, from which it also has its name. It receives no body of living creatures; bulls and camels float; hence the report that nothing sinks in it. It exceeds 100 paces in length, and fills 75,000 at its greatest breadth and 6,000 at its least. Arabia of the Nomads looks upon it from the east, and from the south Machaerus, once the second fortress of Judaea after Hierosolyma. On the same side is a warm spring of medicinal healing, Callirhoe, displaying the glory of its waters in its very name.

73| On the west the Essenes keep away from the shores as far as they are harmful, a people alone and, in all the world, beyond all others marvellous, without any woman, having renounced all sexual love, without money, with the palm-trees for company. Day by day the throng of newcomers is born again in equal number, since those weary of life, whom fortune's waves drive to their ways, resort to them in large numbers. Thus through thousands of ages (incredible to say) a people is eternal in which no one is born. So fruitful for them is other men's weariness of life! Below these was the town Engada, second to Hierosolyma in fertility and groves of palm-trees, now another ash-heap. Then Masada, a fortress on a rock, itself also not far from the Asphaltite. And thus far is Judaea.

74| Joined to it, on the side of Syria, is the Decapolitan region, so called from the number of towns, in which not all observe the same ones; first, however, Damascus, fertile from the river Chrysorroas drained off for irrigation; Philadelphia; Rhaphana, all of them receding toward Arabia; Scythopolis, formerly Nysa, named from Father Liber having buried his nurse there, Scythians having been settled there; Gadara, with the Hieromices flowing past; Hippos, already mentioned; Dion; Pella, rich in waters; Garasa; Canatha. Tetrarchies run among and surround these cities, each like a kingdom, and kingdoms are joined to them: Trachonitis, Paneas, in which is Caesarea with the spring mentioned above, Abila, Arca, Ampeloessa, Gabe.

75| From here we must return to the coast and Phoenice. There was a town Crocodilon; there is a river. A memory of cities: Dorum, Sycaminum. The promontory Carmelus, and on the mountain a town of the same name, once called Acbatana. Near by, Getta and Geba; the stream Pacida or Belus, mixing sands fertile for glass into a small shore; it itself flows from the marsh Cendebia at the foot of Carmelus. Near by is the colony of Claudius Caesar, Ptolemais, which was formerly Acce. The town Ecdippa; the promontory Album.

76| Tyre, once an island divided from the mainland by 700 paces of very deep sea, but now linked with it by the works of Alexander in his assault; once famous for its offspring, having given birth to the cities Leptis, Utica, and that rival of the lands and greedy of the world, Carthage, and even Gades, founded outside the world: now all its renown consists in conchylium and purple. Its circuit is 19,000, with Palaetyrus enclosed within; the town itself occupies 22 stades. Then the towns Sarepta and Ornithon, and Sidon, maker of glass and parent of Boeotian Thebes.

77| Behind it the mountain Libanus, beginning, extends for 1,500 stades as far as Zimyra, which is surnamed Coele Syria. Equal to it, with a valley lying between, the opposing mountain Antilibanus stretches out, once joined to it by a wall. Behind this, inland, lie the Decapolitan region, the tetrarchies mentioned with it, and the whole expanse of Palaestine.

78| But on the coast likewise beneath Libanus are the river Magoras, the colony Berytus, which is called Felix Julia, the town Leontos, the river Lycos, Palaebyblos, the river Adonis, the towns Byblos, Botrys, Gigarta, Trieris, Calamos, Tripolis (so called because the Tyrians, Sidonians and Aradians hold it), Orthosia, the river Eleutheros, the towns Zimyra and Marathos, and opposite, Arados, a town of seven stades and an island two hundred paces distant from the mainland, the region in which the aforesaid mountains end, and, with plains lying between, the mountain Bargylus.

79| From here Syria begins again, Phoenice ending. The towns Carne, Balanea, Paltos, Gabala; the promontory on which is the free Laodicea; Dipolis, Heraclea, Charadrus, Posidium. Then the promontory of Antiochian Syria. Inland, the free Antiochia itself, surnamed Epi Daphnes; the river Orontes runs through and divides it. And on the promontory stands the free Seleucia, called Pieria.

80| Above it is a mountain with the same name as another, Casius. Its lofty height sees the sun rising through the darkness at the fourth watch, showing day and night alike by a short turning of the body. The circuit to the summit is 19,000 paces; the height straight up 4,000. But on the coast is the river Orontes, born between Libanus and Antilibanus near Heliopolis. The towns Rhosos, and behind, the Gates, which are called those of Syria, in the interval between the Rhosian mountains and the Taurus. On the coast the town Myriandros, the mountain Amanus, on which is the town of the Bomitae. It separates Cilicia from the Syrians.

81| Now let the interior be told. Coele has Apamea, which the river Marsyas separates from the Nazerini's tetrarchy; Bambyce, which by another name is called Hierapolis but by the Syrians Mabog, where the wondrous Atargatis, whom the Greeks call Derceto, is worshipped; Chalcis, surnamed At Belus, from which comes the Chalcidene region, the most fertile of Syria; and from there Cyrrestica: Cyrrum, the Gazetae, the Gindareni, the Gabeni, two tetrarchies which are called Granucomatitae, the Hemeseni, the Hylatae, the people of the Ituraei and those of them who are called Baethaemi, the Mariamnitani,

82| the tetrarchy which is called Mammisea, Paradisus, the Pagrae, the Penelenitae, the Seleucias besides the one mentioned, two, which are called At Euphrates and At Belus, and the Tardytenses. The remainder of Syria has, apart from those that will be told with the Euphrates, the Arethusii, Beroeenses, Epiphanenses at the Orontes, the Laodiceni who are surnamed At Libanus, the Leucadii and Larisaei, besides 17 tetrarchies divided into kingdoms with barbarous names.

83| And it will be most fitting to speak of the Euphrates in this place. It rises in the prefecture of Greater Armenia, Caranitis, as is reported by those who have most recently seen it: Domitius Corbulo says on the mountain Aga; Licinius Mucianus, under the foot of the mountain which they call Capotes, 12,000 paces above Zimara, at first named Pyxurates. It flows first through Derzene, then Anaetica, shutting the regions of Armenia off from Cappadocia. Dascusa is 75,000 paces from Zimara;

84| from there it is navigable to Sartona 50, to Melitene of Cappadocia 24,000, to Elegea of Armenia 10, having received the rivers Lycus, Arsanias and Arsanus. At Elegea the mountain Taurus meets it and does not resist, although stronger by a breadth of 12,000 paces. They call it Omma as it bursts in, and soon, when it has broken through, Euphrates, beyond too rocky and violent.

85| From there on the left it separates Arabia, the region called Orroea, by a measure of three schoeni, and on the right Commagene, but bears a bridge, even where it storms the Taurus. At Claudiopolis of Cappadocia it directs its course to the setting sun. At first the Taurus there carries it off in battle, and, beaten and cut apart, conquers in another way and drives it, broken, to the south. So that contest of nature is evened, the river going where it will, the mountain forbidding it to go where it would. From the cataracts it is again navigable. From there 40,000 paces away is Samosata, the capital of Commagene.

86| The Arabia mentioned above has the towns Edessa, which was once called Antiochia, Callirrhoe, named from a spring, and Carrhae, famous for the disaster of Crassus. Joined to it is the prefecture of Mesopotamia, which draws its origin from the Assyrians, in which are the towns Anthemusia and Nicephorium. Soon the Arabs who are called Praetavi; their capital is Singara. From Samosata, on the Syrian side, the river Marsyas runs in. Cingilla ends Commagene; the state of the Imenei begins. The towns washed are Epiphania and Antiochia, which are called At Euphrates, likewise Zeugma, 72,000 paces from Samosata, famous for the crossing of the Euphrates. Opposite it Seleucus, the founder of both, had joined Apamea to it by a bridge.

87| Those who adjoin Mesopotamia are called Rhoali. But in Syria are the towns Europum, once Thapsacum, now Amphipolis; the Scenite Arabs. So it is carried as far as the place Sura, where, turning to the east, it leaves to Syria the deserts of Palmyra, which reach as far as the city Petra and the region called Arabia Felix.

88| Palmyra, a city famous for its situation, the wealth of its soil and its pleasant waters, shuts its fields in on every side with a vast circuit of sands and, as if removed from the lands by nature, has its own fate between the two mighty empires of the Romans and Parthians, and is the first concern on each side whenever there is discord. It is distant from Seleucia of the Parthians, called At Tigris, 337,000 paces, from the nearest shore of Syria 203,000, and from Damascus 27,000 less.

89| Below the deserts of Palmyra lies the Telendene region, and the towns already named, Hierapolis, Beroea and Chalcis. Beyond Palmyra, too, Hemesa holds something out of these deserts, and likewise Elatium, nearer to Petra by half than Damascus is. From Sura, the nearest place is Philiscum, which belongs to the Parthians and lies on the Euphrates. From it to Seleucia is a voyage of ten days, and about as many to Babylon.

90| For the Euphrates divides at 594,000 paces from Zeugma, around the village Masice, and on the left side goes into Mesopotamia, flowing through Seleucia itself and around it, poured into the Tigris; but by its right-hand channel it makes for Babylon, once the capital of Chaldaea, and, passing through the middle of it, and likewise the place they call Mothris, is drawn off into marshes. It rises also itself, in the manner of the Nile, on fixed days, differing a little, and floods Mesopotamia when the sun holds the 20th part of Cancer. It begins to diminish when the sun has passed from Leo into Virgo, and returns entirely within its bed at the 29th part of Virgo.

91| But let us return to the coast of Syria, which Cilicia adjoins. The Diaphanes river, Mount Crocodilus, the Gates of the mountain Amanus, the streams Androcus, Pinarus and Lycus, the Issic gulf, the town Issos, likewise Alexandria, the river Chlorus, the free town Aegaeae, the Pyramus river, the Cilician Gates, the towns Mallos, Magirsos and, inland, Tarsos. The Aleian plains, the towns Casyponis, the free Mopsos, set upon the Pyramus, Tyros, Zephyrium, Anchiale.

92| The rivers Sarus and Cydnus, which cuts through the free city Tarsus far from the sea. The Celenderitis region with a town, the place Nymphaeum, Soloe of the Cilicians, now Pompeiopolis, Adana, Cibyra, Pinare, Pedalie, Alae, Selinus, Arsinoe, Iotape, Dorion, and beside the sea Corycos, the town of the same name, and a harbour and a cave. Then the river Calycadnus, the promontory Sarpedon, the towns Holmoe and Myle, the promontory and town of Venus, nearest to which is the island of Cyprus.

93| But on the mainland are the towns Mysanda, Anemurium and Coracesium, and the ancient boundary of Cilicia, the river Melas. Inland, however, the following are to be named: the Anazarbeni, who are now Caesarea, Augusta, Castabala, Epiphania, which was formerly Oeniandos, Eleusa, Iconium, and Seleucia above the river Calycadnus, surnamed Tracheotis, moved back from the sea from where it was called Hermia. Besides, inland, the rivers Liparis, Bombos and Paradisus, and the mountain Imbarus.

94| All have joined Pamphylia to Cilicia, neglecting the Isaurian people. Its inland towns are Isaura, Clibanus and Lalasis; it runs down to the sea at Anemurium, opposite the place mentioned above. In a similar way, all who have composed the same account have overlooked the people of the Omanades, which borders it, whose inland town is Omana. The remaining forts, 44, lie hidden among rugged valleys. On the summit dwell the Pisidae, once called Solymi, whose colony is Caesarea, also called Antiochia. The towns Oroanda and Sagalessos.

95| These Lycaonia encloses, turned toward the Asian jurisdiction, with which the Philomelienses, Tymbriani, Leucolithi, Pelteni and Tyrienses assemble. A tetrarchy is also given out of Lycaonia, on the side where it borders Galatia, of 14 states, with the very celebrated city Iconium. Of Lycaonia itself, Thebasa in the Taurus is celebrated, and Ide on the border of Galatia and Cappadocia. On its side, above Pamphylia, come the Milyae, offspring of the Thracians, whose town is Arycanda.

96| Pamphylia was formerly called Mopsopia. The Pamphylian sea is joined to the Cilician. The towns are Side and, on a mountain, Aspendum, Plantanistum, and Perga. The promontory Leucolla, the mountain Sardemisus. The rivers Eurymedon, flowing beside Aspendum, and Catarractes, beside which are Lyrnesus and Olbia, and, last on its coast, Phaselis.

97| Joined to it is the Lycian sea and the Lycian people, whence a vast gulf. The mountain Taurus, coming from the eastern shores, marks it off with the promontory Chelidonium, immense itself and the arbiter of countless peoples, on its right side northern, where it first rises from the Indian sea, on the left southern, and, stretching to the west, would split Asia in the middle, were it not that seas meet it as it presses on the lands. It therefore recoils to the north and, bent, seeks an immense road, nature, as if on purpose, setting seas against it from time to time, here the Phoenician, here the Pontic, there the Caspian and Hyrcanian, and opposite, the Maeotic lake.

98| It is therefore twisted, dashed among these barriers, and yet comes out victorious and winding as far as the kindred ridges of the Ripaean mountains, distinguished by numerous and new names wherever it advances: called Imaus in its first part, then Emodus, Paropanisus, Circius, Cambades, Pariades, Choatras, Oreges, Oroandes, Niphates, Taurus, and Caucasus where it surpasses even itself; where it sends out arms, like one repeatedly feeling out the seas, Sarpedon, Coracesius,

99| Cragus, and again Taurus, even where it gapes and opens itself to peoples, still claiming unity for itself under the name of Gates, which are called in one place of Armenia, in another of the Caspian, in another of Cilicia. Indeed even broken and fleeing the seas it fills itself with a great many names of peoples here and there, on the right called Hyrcanian, Caspian, on the left Parihedrus, Moschic, Amazonian, Coraxic, Scythian, and in the whole, in Greek, Ceraunian.

100| In Lycia, then, from its promontory, there are the town Simena, the Chimaera mountain, blazing at night, the state Hephaestium, itself also with ridges often blazing. The town Olympus was there; now there are the mountain places Gagae, Corydalla, Rhodiopolis. Near the sea Limyra with the river into which the Arycandus flows, the mountain Masicytus, the state Andria, Myra, the towns Aperlae and Antiphellos, which was formerly Habesos, and, in a recess, Phellos. Then Pyrrha, likewise Xanthus, 15,000 from the sea, and a river of the same name. Then Patara, which was earlier Pataros, and on a mountain Sidyma, the promontory Cragus.

101| Beyond is a gulf equal to the former; there are Pinara and Telmesus, which ends Lycia. Lycia once had 70 towns; now it has 36. Of these the most celebrated, besides those named above, are Canae, Candyba, where the grove of Eunias is praised, Podalia, Choma, with the Aedesa flowing past, Cyaneae, Ascandiandalis, Amelas, Noscopium, Tlos and Telandrus. In the interior it includes also Cabalia, whose three cities are Oenianda, Balbura and Bubon.

102| From Telmesus is the Asiatic sea, or Carpathian, and that which is properly called Asia. Agrippa divided it into two parts: one he enclosed: by Phrygia and Lycaonia in the east, by the Aegean sea in the west, on the south by the Egyptian, on the north by Paphlagonia; its length he made 470,000, its breadth 320,000. The other he bounded on the east by Lesser Armenia, on the west by Phrygia, Lycaonia and Pamphylia, on the north by the province of Pontus, on the south by the Pamphylian sea, 575 long and 325,000 broad.

103| The nearest coast has Caria, then Ionia, with Aeolis beyond it. Caria is poured around the middle of Doris, embracing it on both sides down to the sea. In it are the promontory Pedalium, the river Glaucus, bringing down Telmedium, the towns Daedala and Crya of the Fugitives, the river Axon, the town Calynda. The river Indus, rising in the ridges of the Cibyratae, receives 60 perennial rivers and more than a hundred torrents.

104| The free town Caunos, then Pyrnos. The harbour Cressa, from which the island Rhodes is 20,000 paces. The place Loryma, the towns Tisanusa, Paridon, Larymna, the gulf Thymnias, the promontory Aphrodisias, the town Hydas, the gulf Schoenus, the region Bubassus. There was a town Acanthus, by another name Dulopolis. On a promontory is the free Cnidos, Triopia, later called Pegusa and Stadia. From it Doris begins.

105| But it is fitting first to have indicated the back country and the inland jurisdictions. One is called Cibyratic; the town itself belongs to Phrygia. 25 states assemble there, with the very celebrated city of Laodicea. It is set upon the river Lycus, with the Asopus and Capros washing its sides, called first Diospolis, then Rhoas. The others in that assize, whom it may not be tedious to name, are the Hydrelitae, Themisones and Hierapolitae. A second assize took its name from Synnas; there assemble the Lycaones, Appiani, Corpeni, Dorylaei, Midaei, Iulienses and the remaining 15 obscure peoples.

106| The third goes to Apamea, formerly called Celaenae, then Ciboton. It is situated at the foot of Mount Signia, poured around by the rivers Marsyas, Obrimas and Orbas, which fall into the Maeander. There the Marsyas comes to light again, having risen and then been hidden a little way on. Where he competed with Apollo in the playing of the pipes is Aulocrene; so the valley is called, 10 paces from Apamea for those making for Phrygia. From this assize it is fitting to name the Metropolitae, Dionysopolitae, Euphorbeni, Acmonenses, Pelteni and Silbiani. The remaining 9 are obscure.

107| On the gulf of Doris are Leucopolis, Hamaxitos, Eleus and Etene. Then the towns of Caria: Pitaium, Eutane, Halicarnasus. Six towns were joined to it by Alexander the Great: Theangela, Side, Medmassa, Vranium, Pedasum and Telmisum. It is inhabited between two gulfs, the Ceramic and the Iasian. Then Myndos and where Palaemyndus was, Nariandos, Neapolis, Caryanda, the free Termera, Bargylia, and the town Iasus, which gave the Iasian gulf its name.

108| Caria shines forth in the fame of its inland names. For there are the free town Mylasa, Antiochia, where there were the towns Symmaethos and Cranaos; now the Maeander and Morsynus flow around it. In that tract there was also Maeandropolis; there is Eumenia, set on the river Cludrus, the river Glaucus, the town Lysias and Orthosia, the Berecynthian tract, Nysa, Trallis, also called Euanthia, Seleucia and Antiochia; the river Eudon washes it and the Thebaites waters it.

109| Some report that Pygmies lived there. There are besides Thydonos, Pyrrha, Eurome, Heraclea, Amyzon, the free Alabanda, which gave its name to that assize, the free Stratonicea, Labrayndos, Ceramus, Troezene and Phorontis. The more distant plead in the same court: the Orthronienses, Alindienses, Euhippini, Xystiani, Hydissenses, Apolloniatae, Trapezopolitae, and the free Aphrodisienses. Besides these there are Coscinus and Harpasa, set on the river Harpasus, by which Trallicon also was washed when it existed.

110| Lydia, however, poured around by the winding returns of the river Maeander, advances above Ionia, neighbouring Phrygia on the side of the sun's rising, bordering Mysia to the north, and embracing Caria on the southern part; it was formerly called Maeonia. It is most celebrated for Sardis, founded on the flank of Mount Tmolus, which was formerly called Timolus; from it flows the Pactolus, which is also the Chrysorroas, and from the spring Tarne by the Maeonians the city itself was called Hyde, famous for the Gygaean lake.

111| That jurisdiction is now called Sardiana, and there assemble in it, besides those named, the Macedonian Cadieni, the Philadelphini, and, themselves at the foot of Tmolus, set on the river Cogamus, the Maeonii, the Tripolitani (who are also the Antoniopolitae, washed by the Maeander), the Apollonhieritae, the Mysotimolitae and other obscure peoples.

112| Ionia, beginning at the Iasian gulf, is bent with a more numerous circuit of shores. In it first is the gulf Basilicus; the promontory and town Posideum; the Oracle of the Branchidae, so called, now of Apollo of Didyma, 20 stades from the shore; and from there 180 to Miletus, the capital of Ionia, formerly called Lelegeis and Pityusa and Anactoria, mother of over 90 cities throughout all seas, and not to be cheated of her citizen Cadmus, who first undertook to compose prose speech.

113| The river Maeander, rising from a lake on Mount Aulocrene, and flowing past very many towns and filled by numerous rivers, so winding in its bends that it is often believed to turn back, passes first through the Apamene region, then the Eumenetic and then the Hyrgaletic plains, last Caria, placid, irrigating all those fields with the richest silt, and gently glides into the sea at the tenth stade from Miletus. Then come the mountain Latmus; the towns Heraclea; Carice, of the mountain of that same name; Myus, which the Ionians are said to have founded first, having set out from Athens; Naulochum; Priene; on the coast called Troglea, the river Gaesus; a region sacred to all the Ionians and therefore called Panionia;

114| near by, founded by fugitives, as the name indicates, there was Phygela, and the town Marathesium. Above these lies Magnesia, marked out by the surname of the Maeander, sprung from Thessalian Magnesia. It is 15,000 paces from Ephesus and 3,000 more from Tralles. It was earlier named Thessaloche and Mandrolytia, and, set upon the shore, carried off with it the Derasidae islands from the sea.

115| Inland also Thyatira, washed by the Lycus, sometimes surnamed Pelopia and Euhippia. On the coast is Matium, and Ephesus, the work of the Amazons, sought earlier under many names: Alope, when the battle at Troy was fought, soon Ortygia, Amorges. It was also called Smyrna, with the surname Trachia, and Haemonion and Ptelea. It is raised on Mount Pion, and the Caystrus washes it, which rises in the Cilbian ridges and brings down many rivers and the Pegasaean lake, which the river Phyrites drives out. From these comes a great quantity of silt, by which it extends the lands, and already in the middle of the plains it has added the island Syrie. In the city are the spring Callippia and the temple of Diana, embraced from different regions by two Selenuntes.

116| After Ephesus comes another Matium, of the Colophonians, and inland Colophon itself, with the Halesus flowing by. Then the shrine of Apollo Clarius; Lebedos (there was also a town Notium); the Cyrenaean promontory; the mountain Mimas, 150,000 paces, running out and settling down on the plains of the mainland. In that place Alexander the Great had ordered that plain to be cut through, over a length of 7,500 paces, to join two gulfs and to surround Erythrae and Mimas with water.

117| Near them were the towns Pteleon, Helos and Dorion; now the river Aleon is there; Corynaeum; the promontory of Mimas; Clazomenae; Parthenie and Hippi, called Chytrophoria when they were islands. The same Alexander had ordered it to be joined to the mainland by two stades; inland Daphnus and Hermesta have perished, and Sipylum, which was formerly called Tantalis, the capital of Maeonia, where now is the lake Sale. Archaeopolis also perished, put in place of Sipylum, and in turn Colpe was put in place of it, and Libade in place of that.

118| Going back from there, 12,000 paces off, on the coast, is Smyrna, founded by an Amazon, restored by Alexander, delighting in the river Meles, which rises not far away. The most famous mountains of Asia for the most part unfold themselves in this tract: Mastusia, behind Smyrna, joined to the roots of Olympus and Termetis, ends in Draco, Draco in Tmolus, Tmolus in Cadmus, and that in the Taurus.

119| From Smyrna the river Hermus cuts the plains and adopts them to its own name. It rises near Dorylaum, a state of Phrygia, and collects many rivers, among them the Phryx, which, having given its name to the people, separates it from Caria, and the Hyllus and Cryon, themselves filled with rivers of Phrygia, Mysia and Lydia. At its mouth there was a town, Temnos; now at the extreme of the gulf are the rocks Myrmeces, the town Leucae on a promontory which was an island, and Phocaea, the end of Ionia.

120| A large part of Aeolis, which will soon be told, frequents the Smyrnaean assize, and besides, the Macedonian Hyrcani so called and the Magnetes from Sipylus. To Ephesus, however, the other light of Asia, the more distant assemble: the Caesarienses, Metropolitae, Lower and Upper Cilbiani, Mysomacedones, Mastaurenses, Briullitae, Hypaepeni and Dioshieritae.

121| Aeolis is nearest, formerly called Mysia, and the Troad which lies beside the Hellespont. There, from Phocaea, is the harbour Ascanius. Then there had been Larisa; there are Cyme, Myrina, which calls itself Sebastopolis, and inland Aegaeae, Itale, Posidea, Neon Tichos and Temnos. On the coast is the river Titanus and a city named from it (there was also Grynia, now only a harbour, once an island, taken hold of), the town Elaea, and the river Caicus coming from Mysia, the town Pitane, and the river Canaitis.

122| Canae, Lysimachea, Atarnea, Carene, Cisthene, Cilla, Cocylium, Thebe, Astyre, Chrysa, Palaescepsis, Gergitha and Neandros have perished; now there is the state Perperene, the Heracleotic tract, the town Coryphas, the rivers Grylius and Ollius, the region Aphrodisias, which was formerly Politice Orgas, the region Scepsis, the river Euenus, on whose banks Lyrnesos and Miletos have perished. In this tract is Mount Ida, and on the coast, which gave its name to the gulf and the assize, Adramytteos, once called Pedasus, the rivers Astron, Cormalos, Crianos, Alabastros and Hierus from Ida; inland the mountain Gargara and a town of the same name.

123| Again on the shore, Antandros, formerly called Edonis, then Cimmeris; Assos, which is also Apollonia (there was also a town Palamedium); the promontory Lectum, dividing Aeolis from the Troad. There was also a state Polymedia, Chrysa and another Larisa. The temple Zminthium endures. Inland Colone has perished. The Apolloniatae, from the river Rhyndacus, the Eresi, Miletopolitae, Poemaneni, the Macedonian Asculacae, Polichnaei, Pionitae, the Cilician Mandacandeni, the Mysian Abretteni and the people called Hellespontii, and other obscure peoples, bring their business to Adramytteum.

124| The first place in the Troad is Hamaxitus, then Cebrenia and Troas itself, called Antigonia, now Alexandria, a Roman colony; the town Nee; the navigable river Scamander; and on a promontory the town once called Sigeum; then the harbour of the Achaeans, into which the Xanthus flows, joined with the Simois and first forming a lake, Palaescamander. The others celebrated by Homer, the Rhesus, Heptaporus, Caresus and Rhodius, have no traces. The Granicus flows by a different course into the Propontis. There is, however, as before, the small state Scamandria, and Ilium, untaxed, 2,500 paces distant from the harbour, the source of all that fame. Outside the gulf are the Rhoetean shores,

125| inhabited by the towns Rhoeteum, Dardanium and Arisbe. There was also a town Achilleon, founded beside the tomb of Achilles by the Mytilenaeans and soon by the Athenians, where his fleet had stood at Sigeum. There was also Aeantion, founded by the Rhodians on the other horn, Ajax being buried there at an interval of 30 stades from Sigeum, and he himself at the station of his own fleet. Above Aeolis and part of the Troad, in the interior, is what is called Teuthrania, which the Mysians held in ancient times. There the river Caicus, already mentioned, rises. A people great by itself, even when the whole was called Mysia.

126| In it are Pioniae, Andera, Idale, Stabulum, Conisium, Teium, Balce, Tiare, Teuthranie, Sarnaca, Haliserne, Lycide, Parthenium, Cambre, Oxyopum, Lygdamum, Apollonia, and, by far the most famous in Asia, Pergamum, through which the Selinus flows and past which the Cetius runs, poured from Mount Pindasus. Not far off is Elaea, which we mentioned on the shore. The jurisdiction of that tract is called Pergamene. To it assemble the Thyatireni, Mossyni, Mygdones, Bregmeni, Hierocometae, Perpereni, Tiareni, Hierolophienses, Hermocapelitae, Attalenses, Panteenses, Apollonidienses, and other undistinguished states.

127| From Rhoeteum the small town Dardanium is 70 stades distant. Then 18,000 away is the promontory Trapeza, from which the Hellespont first stirs itself. Eratosthenes reports that the peoples of the Solymi, Leleges, Bebryces, Colycantii and Tripsedi have perished out of Asia, and Isidorus the Arienei and Capreatae, where Apamea, between Cilicia, Cappadocia, Cataonia and Armenia, was founded by King Seleucus and, because he had subdued very fierce peoples, was at first called Damea.

128| The first of the islands before Asia is at the Canopic mouth of the Nile, named, as they say, from Canopus, the helmsman of Menelaus; another, joined by a bridge to Alexandria, a colony of Caesar the dictator, is Pharos, once a day's sail distant from Egypt, now directing the course of ships by night fires from a tower; for Alexandria is approached from the sea by only three channels through deceptive shallows, Stegane, Posideum and Taurus. Then in the Phoenician sea, before Iope, is Paria, entirely a town, on which Andromeda is said to have been exposed to the monster, and the Arados already mentioned, between which and the mainland, at 50 cubits depth of open sea, fresh water, as Mucianus is our authority, is drawn from a spring through a pipe made of hides, all the way from the bottom.

129| The Pamphylian sea has obscure islands; the Cilician has, among the five greatest, Cyprus, lying before the east and west of Cilicia and Syria, once the seat of nine kingdoms. Its circuit Timosthenes gave as 427,500 paces, Isidorus as 375,000. The length between the two promontories, Clides and Acamas, which is on the west, Artemidorus gives as 162,500, Timosthenes as 200,000; Philonides says it was earlier called Acamantis, Xenagoras Cerastis and Aspelia and Amathusia and Macaria, Astynomus Crypton and Colinia. There are 15 towns in it,

130| Nea Paphos, Palaepaphos, Curias, Citium, Corinaeum, Salamis, Amathus, Lapethos, Soloe, Tamasos, Epidaurum, Chytri, Arsinoe, Carpasium and Golgoe. There were also Cinyria, Mareum and Idalium. It is 50 from Anemurium in Cilicia. The sea which stretches before it they call the Cilician Aulon. In the same region lies the island Elaeusa, and four before the promontory opposite Syria, the Clides, and again at the other end Stiria, opposite Nea Paphos Hiera Cepia, opposite Salamis the Salaminiae,

131| and in the Lycian sea Idyris, Telendos, Attelebussa, three sterile Cypriae, and Dionysia, formerly called Charaeta, then, opposite the promontory of the Taurus, an equal number of Chelidoniae, deadly to sailors; from them, with a town, Leucolla, Pactyae, Lasia, Nymphais, Macris, and Megista, whose city has perished. Then many obscure ones, but opposite the Chimaera Dolichiste, Choerogylion, Crambusa, Rhoge, eight Xenagorae, two Daedalea, three Cryeon, Strongyle, and opposite Sidyma the islands of Antiochus, and toward the river Glaucus Lagusa, Macris, Didymae, Helbo, Scope, Aspis, and Telandria, on which a town has perished, and Rhodusa, nearest to Caunos.

132| But the most beautiful is the free Rhodes, 125,000 in circuit or, if we prefer to believe Isidorus, 103,000, inhabited by the cities Lindus, Camirus and Ialysus, now Rhodes. It is distant from Alexandria in Egypt, as Isidorus reports, 583,000; as Eratosthenes, 469,000; as Mucianus, 500; from Cyprus 176,000. It was formerly called Ophiusa, Asteria, Aethria, Trinacrie, Corymbia, Poeeessa, Atabyria (after a king), then Macaria and Oloessa.

133| The islands belonging to the Rhodians are Carpathus, which gave the sea its name, Casos, Hagne, Eulimna, and Nisyros, distant from Cnidos 15,500, formerly called Porphyris, and in the same tract, midway between Rhodes and Cnidos, Syme; it is encircled by 37,500 and offers 8 harbours generously. Besides these, around Rhodes are Cyclopis, Teganon, Cordylusa, four Diabatae, Hymos, Chalce with a town, Teutlusa, Narthecusa, Dimastos, Progne, and from Cnidos Cisserusa, Therionarcia, Calydne with three towns, Notium, Nisyrus and Mendeterus, and on Arconnesos the town Ceramus. On the coast of Caria are those called the Argiae, 20 in number, and Hyetusa, Lepsia and Leros.

134| The most famous in that gulf is Coos, 15,000 distant from Halicarnasus, 100 in circuit, as most think, called Merope, Cea according to Staphylus, Meropis according to Dionysius, then Nymphaea. There is a mountain there, Prion; and they think that Nisyros was broken off from it, which was earlier called Porphyris. Caryanda with a town, and not far from Halicarnasus Pidossus; in the Ceramic gulf Priaponesos, Hipponesos, Pserima, Lampsa, Aemyndus, Passala, Crusa, Pyrraethusa, Sepiusa, Melano, and, a little distant from the mainland, the one which was called Cinaedopolis, since the shameless were left there by King Alexander.

135| The coast of Ionia has Aegeae and Corseae and Icaros, of which we have spoken, Lade, which was earlier called Late, and, among some obscure ones, two Camelitae neighbouring Miletus, the three Trogiliae of Mycale, Philion, Argennon, Sandalion, and the free Samos, 87,500 in circuit or, as Isidorus says, 100. Aristotle reports that it was first called Parthenia, afterwards Dryusa, then Anthemusa; Aristocritus adds Melamphyllus, then Cyparissia, others Parthenoarrhusa, Stephane. Rivers in it are the Imbrasus, Chesius and Hibiethes; springs, Gigartho and Leucothea; the mountain Cercetius. Adjacent are the islands Rhypara, Nymphaea and Achillea.

136| Equal in fame, 94,000 away from it, is the free Chios with a town, which Ephorus calls by the ancient name Aethalia, and Metrodorus and Cleobulus Chia, from the nymph Chione, some from snow, and Macris and Pityusa. It has the mountain Pelinnaeum, and Chian marble. In circuit it makes up 125,000, as the ancients reported; Isidorus adds 9,000. It is placed between Samos and Lesbos, most nearly opposite Erythrae.

137| Neighbouring are Tellusa, which others write Daphnusa, Oenusa, Elaphitis, Euryanassa, and Arginusa with a town. Now these are around Ephesus, and the ones called Pisistratus's, the Anthinae, Myonnesos and Diarrheusa (in both, towns have perished); Poroselene with a town; Cerciae, Halone, Commone, Illetia, Lepria, Aethre, Sphaeria, the Procusae, Bolbulae, Pheate, Priapos, Syce, Melane, Aenare, Sidusa, Pele, Drymusa, Anhydros, Scopelos, Sycusa, Marathusa, Psile, Perirrheusa, and many obscure ones.

138| Famous, however, in the open sea is Teos with a town, 72,500 from Chios and as far from Erythrae. Near Smyrna are the Peristerides, Carteria, Alopece, Elaeusa, Bacchina, Pystira, Crommyonesos, Megale; before the Troad the Ascaniae, three Plateae, then the Lamiae, two Plitaniae, Plate, Scopelos, Getone, Arthedon, Coele, the Lagusae and the Didymae.

139| Most famous, however, is Lesbos, 65,000 from Chios, called Himerte and Lasia, Pelasgia, Aegira, Aethiope, Macaria. It was renowned for nine towns: of these Pyrrha was swallowed by the sea, Arisbe overturned by an earthquake, Methymna drew Antissa into itself, itself a neighbour of nine cities of Asia at 37,000 paces. Agamede has perished too, and Hiera; there remain Eresos, Pyrrha and the free Mytilene, powerful for 1,500 years.

140| The whole island is compassed, according to Isidorus, 168,000, according to the ancients 195,000. It has the mountains Lepetymnum, Ordymnum, Macistum, Creon and Olympus. It is 7,500 paces from the nearest mainland. Islands placed beside it: Sandalium, five Leucae, among them Cydonea with a hot spring. The Arginusae are 4,000 paces distant from Aege. Then Phellusa and Pedna. Outside the Hellespont, facing the Sigean shore, lies Tenedus, called Leucophrys and Phoenice and Lyrnesos; it is 56,000 from Lesbos and 12,500 from Sigeum.

141| Then the Hellespont takes its onset, and the sea bears down, digging a boundary with eddies, until it breaks Asia off from Europe. That promontory we called Trapeza. From it 10 paces to the town Abydus, where the narrows are of 7 stades. Then the town Percote and Lampsacum, earlier called Pityussa, the colony Parium, which Homer called Adrastia, the town Priapos, the river Aesepus, Zelia, the Propontis (so it is called where the sea widens), the river Granicus, and the harbour Artace, where there was a town.

142| Beyond, Alexander joined to the mainland an island on which is the town of the Milesians, Cyzicus, formerly called Arctonnesus and Dolionis and Didymis, from whose summit rises the mountain Didymus. Soon the towns Placia, Ariace and Scylace, behind which is Mount Olympus, called Mysian, the state Olympena, the rivers Horisius and Rhyndacus, formerly called Lycus; it rises in the lake Artynia near Miletopolis, receives the Macestus and very many others, and divides Asia from Bithynia.

143| That country was called Cronia, then Thessalis, then Malianda and Strymonis. Homer called these people Halizones, since the nation is girdled by the sea. There was an immense city named Atussa; now there are 12 states, among them Gordiu Come, which is called Iuliopolis. On the coast Dascylos, then the river Gelbes, and inland the town Helgas, which is Germanicopolis, by another name Booscoete, like Apamea, which is now Myrlea of the Colophonians; the river Echeleos, the old boundary of the Troad and the beginning of Mysia.

144| Afterwards the gulf in which are the river Ascanium, the town Bryalion, the Hylas and Cios rivers, with a town bearing the same name, which was an emporium not far from the Phrygia that adjoins it, founded by the Milesians, in a place however which was called Ascania of Phrygia. Therefore it could not be more fittingly spoken of anywhere else.

145| Phrygia, lying above the Troad and the peoples mentioned from the promontory Lectum to the river Echeleus, borders Galatia on its northern side, Lycaonia, Pisidia and Mygdonia on the south, and touches Cappadocia on the east. The most celebrated towns there, apart from those already mentioned, are Ancyra, Andria, Celaenae, Colossae, Carina, Cotiaïum, Ceraine, Conium and Midaïum. There are authorities that the Moesi, Bryges and Thyni crossed over from Europe, from whom come the names Mysians, Phrygians and Bithynians.

146| It seems right to speak at the same time of Galatia too, which lies above and holds lands that for the most part belonged to Phrygia, together with Gordium, once its capital. The Gauls who settled that part are called the Tolostobogi, the Voturi and the Ambitouti; those who settled the region of Maeonia and Paphlagonia, the Trogmi. Cappadocia stretches along it on the north and the east, and its richest part has been occupied by the Tectosages. These, then, are the tribes over the whole tract, but the peoples and tetrarchies number 195 in all. The towns are Ancyra of the Tectosages, Tavium of the Trogmi, and Pisinuus of the Tolostobogii.

147| Besides these, well known are the Attalenses, Arassenses, Comenses, Dictienses, Hierorenses, Lystreni, Neapolitani, Oeandenses, Seleucenses, Sebasteni, Timoniacenses and Thebaseni. Galatia also touches Cabalia in Pamphylia, the Milyae who live around Baris, the Cyllanican and Oroandican tract of Pisidia, and likewise Obizene, a part of Lycaonia. Its rivers, besides those already mentioned, are the Saggarius and the Gallus, from which the priests who serve the Mother of the Gods took their name.

148| Now for the rest of the coast. From Cius, inland in Bithynia, is Prusa, founded by Hannibal below Olympus (from there to Nicaea is 25,000 paces, with Lake Ascanius in between); then Nicaea, at the far end of the Ascanian gulf, which was formerly Olbia; and Prusias, and likewise another below Mount Hypius. There were once Pythopolis, Parthenopolis and Coryphanta. On the coast are the rivers Aesius, Bryazon, Plataneus, Areus, Aesyros, and Geudos, which is also called Chrysorroas; and a promontory on which the town of Megarice once stood. From it the gulf used to be called Craspedites, because that town lay as it were on its hem. There was also Astacum, from which the same gulf is also called Astacenus; there was also the town of Libyssa, where there is now only the tomb of Hannibal. At the innermost point of the gulf is Nicomedia, the glory of Bithynia.

149| The promontory of Leucatas, which closes the Astacenus gulf, is 37,500 paces from Nicomedia; and then, as the lands draw together again, the narrows reach all the way to the Thracian Bosporus. On them is Calchadon, a free town, 62,500 paces from Nicomedia, earlier called Procerastis, next Colpusa, and afterwards the Town of the Blind, because its founders had not known how to choose a site, since Byzantium lies only 7 stadia away, on a site so much happier in every respect. Farther inland in Bithynia lie the colony of Apamea, the Agrippenses, the Iuliopolitae and Bithynion. The rivers are the Syrium, Laphias, Pharnacias, Alces, Serinis, Lilaeus, Scopas, and the Hieros, which divides Bithynia from Galatia.

150| Beyond Calchadon was Chrysopolis, then Nicopolis, from which the gulf still keeps its name, and on it is the port of Amycus. Then come the promontory of Naulochum, Estiae, and a temple of Neptune. The Bosporus, which once again severs Asia from Europe by a gap of 500 paces, is 12,500 paces from Calchadon, and from there to the first narrows is 8,750 paces, where the town of Spiropolis once stood. The whole shoreline is held by the Thyni, the inland parts by the Bithyni. This is the end of Asia, and of the 282 peoples counted from the boundary of Lycia up to this point. We have given the length of the Hellespont and the Propontis to the Thracian Bosporus as 239 paces. Isidorus gives 322,500 paces from Calchadon to Sigeum.

151| The islands in the Propontis are, off Cyzicus, Elaphonnesus, the source of Cyzicene marble, which is also called Neuris and Proconnesus. Then follow Ophiusa, Acanthus, Phoebe, Scopelos, Porphyrione, Halone with its town, Delphacie, Polydora, and Artacaeon with its town. There is also Demonnesos opposite Nicomedia, and likewise, beyond Heraclea and facing Bithynia, Thynias, which the barbarians call Bithynia. There are also Antiochia and, opposite the mouth of the Rhyndacus, Besbicos, 18,000 paces in circuit. There are also Elaea, the two Rhodusae, Erebinthote, Megale, Chalcitis and Pityodes.

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