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

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240
STRABO.
CASAUB. 160.

distant from the Pyrenees, and the confines of Iberia and Keltica. This is a very fine region, and possesses good ports. Here also is Rhodope,[1] a small town of the Emporitæ, but some say it was founded by the Rhodians. Both here and in Emporium they reverence the Ephesian Diana. The cause of this we will explain when we come to speak of Massalia.[p 1] In former times the Emporitæ dwelt on a small island opposite, now called the old city, but at the present day they inhabit the mainland. The city is double, being divided by a wall, for in past times some of the Indiceti dwelt close by, who, although they had a separate polity to themselves, desired, for the sake of safety, to be shut in by a common enclosure with the Grecians; but at the same time that this enclosure should be two-fold, being divided through its middle by a wall. In time, however, they came to have but one government, a mixture of Barbarian and Grecian laws; a result which has taken place in many other [states].

9. A river[2] flows near to it, which has its sources in the Pyrenees; its outlet forms a port for the Emporitæ, who are skilful workers in flax. Of the interior of their country some parts are fertile, others covered with spartum, a rush which flourishes in marshes, and is entirely useless: they call this the Junc Plain. There are some who inhabit the Pyrenean mountains as far as the Trophies of Pompey, on the route which leads from Italy into Ulterior Iberia,[3] and particularly into Bætica. This road runs sometimes close to the sea, sometimes at a distance therefrom, particularly in the western parts. From the Trophies of Pompey it leads to Tarraco,[p 2] through the Junc Plain, the Betteres,[4] and the plain called in the Latin tongue [the plain] of Marathon, on account

    4 to 400, have been conjectured as the true reading. Gosselin and Groskurd are in favour of 200.

  1. ↑ Sic text. Siebenkees and Coray propose to read Ῥόδος, and Casaubon also Ῥόδη; now Rosas.
  2. ↑ Probably the river Fluvia, the Alba of the ancients.
  3. ↑ Iberia, or Spain, was anciently divided into two grand divisions, to which the Romans gave the names of Citerior and Ulterior Iberia. Augustus subdivided this latter into the two provinces of Bætica and Lusitania, giving the name of Tarraco to Citerior Iberia. Nevertheless the ancient names of Citerior and Ulterior continued in use long after this division.
  4. ↑ We are not exactly acquainted with this place, it is probably Vidreras; though others suppose it to be Colonia Sagerra.
  1. ↑ Marseilles.
  2. ↑ Tarragona.
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