Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/349

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Chap. 20.]
ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC.
315

Peloponnesus, are the two isles known as Coryeæ, and the two called Mylæ[1]. On the north side, having Crete on the right, and opposite to Cydonia, is Leuce[2], and the two islands known as Budroæ[3]. Opposite to Matium lies Dia[4]; opposite to the promontory of Itanum[5], Onisia and Leuce; and over against Hierapytna, Chrysa and Gaudos[6]. 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 Phocœ, the Platiæ, the Sirnides, Xaulochos, Armedon, and Zephyre.

Belonging to Hellas, but still in the Ægean Sea, we have the Lichades[7], 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[8]; before it, Psyttalia[9]; and, at a distance of five miles from Sunium, the island of Helene[10]. At the same distance from this last is Ceos[11] which some of our countrpnen have called Cea, and the Grreeks Hydrussa, an island which has been torn away from Eubœa. 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

  1. ↑ According to Hardouin, all of these are mere rocks rather than islands.
  2. ↑ The rnodern Haghios Theodhoros.
  3. ↑ According to Hoeck, they are now called Tulure.
  4. ↑ 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 would correspond with Onisia and Leuce, mentioned by Pliny.
  6. ↑ Now Graidurognissa. None of the other islands here mentioned seem to have been identified.
  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.
  10. ↑ Now Makronisi, or "the Long Island." Its ancient name was also Macris. Strabo identifies it with the Homeric Cranaë, to which Paris fled with Helen.
  11. ↑ Usually called Cea, one of the Cyclades, about thirteen miles S.E. of Sunium. Its modern name is Zea. Iulis was the most important town, and the birth-place of the poets Simonides and Baeehylides, of the sophist Prodicus, the physician Erasistratus, and the Peripatetic philosopher Ariston. Extensive remains of it still exist.
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