Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/105

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CHAP. III. § 18.
INTRODUCTION.
91

and says we must reckon the failing of the hot spring as the cause. He goes on to relate certain catastrophes recorded by Democles, how formerly in the reign of Tantalus[1] there were great earthquakes in Lydia and Ionia as far as the Troad,[2] which swallowed up whole villages and overturned Mount Sipylus;[3] marshes then became lakes, and the city of Troy was covered by the waters.[4] Pharos, near Egypt, which anciently was an island, may now be called a peninsula, and the same may be said of Tyre and Clazomenæ.[5]

During my stay at Alexandria in Egypt the sea rose so high near Pelusium[p 1] and Mount Casius[p 2] as to overflow the land, and convert the mountain into an island, so that a journey from Casius into Phœnicia might have been undertaken by water. We should not be surprised therefore if in time to come the isthmus[p 3] which separates the Egyptian sea[6] from the Erythræan,[p 4] should part asunder or subside, and becoming a strait, connect the outer and inner seas,[p 5] similarly to what has taken place at the strait of the Pillars.

At the commencement of this work will be found some other narrations of a similar kind, which should be considered at the same time, and which will greatly tend to strengthen our belief both in these works of nature and also in its other changes.

18. The Piræus having been formerly an island, and lying πέραν, or off the shore, is said to have thus received its name. Leucas,[p 6] on the contrary, has been made an island by the Corinthians, who cut through the isthmus which connected it with the shore [of the mainland]. It is concerning this place that Laertes is made to say,

  1. ↑ Tantalus lived about 1387, B. C.
  2. ↑ Lydia and Ionia form the modern provinces of Aidin and Sarukan in Anadoli. A part of the Troad still preserves the name of Troiaki.
  3. ↑ A mountain in Mæonia, close to the city of Magnesia.
  4. ↑ Ilus, who ascended the throne about 1400 years before the Christian era, founded the city, to which he gave the name of Ilium. The old city of Troy stood on a hill, and was safe from the inundation.
  5. ↑ These two cities were built on little islets adjoining the continent. Alexander connected them with the mainland by means of jetties. Clazomenæ was situated on the Gulf of Smyrna, near to a place now called Vurla or Burla. The present appellation of Tyre, on the coast of Phœnicia, is Sur.
  6. ↑ That part of the Mediterranean adjoining Egypt.
  1. ↑ Tineh.
  2. ↑ El-Kas.
  3. ↑ Of Suez.
  4. ↑ The Red Sea.
  5. ↑ The Red Sea and Mediterranean.
  6. ↑ Sta. Maura.
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