Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/389

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BOOK VI.

ITALY.
SUMMARY.

The Sixth Book contains the remainder of Italy, and the regions within the Adriatic, as far as Macedonia; likewise a description of Apulia, Calabria, the country by the Ionian Gulf, together with the adjacent islands, from Sicily to the Ceraunian mountains, and on the other side as far as Carthage, and the small islands lying near to it.

CHAPTER I.

1. AFTER the mouth of the Silaro,[p 1] is Leucania, and the temple of Argive Juno, founded by Jason. Near to this, within 50 stadia, is Posidonia.[p 2] Sailing thence, towards the high sea, is the island of Leucosia,[1] at a little distance from the main-land. It bears the name of one of the Sirens, who according to the mythology was cast up here, after having been precipitated with her companions into the deep. The promontory[p 3] of the island projects opposite the Sirenussæ,[p 4] forming the bay of Posidonium.[p 5] After having made this cape there is another contiguous bay, on which is built the city which the Phocæans called Hyela when they founded it, but others Ela from a certain fountain. People in the present day call it Elea. It is here that Parmenides and Zeno, the Pythagorean philosophers, were born. And it is my opinion that through the instrumentality of those men, as well as by previous good management, the government of that place was well arranged, so that they successfully resisted the Leucani and the Posidoniatæ, notwithstanding the smallness of their district and the inferiority of their numbers. They are

  1. ↑ It is now called Licosa, and sometimes Isola piana; several vestiges of buildings were discovered on the island in 1696. Antonin. della Lucan. p. ii. disc. 8.
  1. ↑ The ancient Silaris.
  2. ↑ Pesti.
  3. ↑ Capo della Licosa.
  4. ↑ Punta della Campanella.
  5. ↑ Golfo di Salerno.
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