Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/396

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382
STRABO.
CASAUB. 256.
   “in quest of brass
To Temesa.”[q 1]

and certain copper-mines are pointed out near to the place, which are now exhausted. Contiguous to it is Terina,[p 1] which Hannibal destroyed, when he found he could no longer retain it; at the time when he took refuge in the country of the Bruttii.[1] Next in order comes Cosentia,[2] the metropolis of the Bruttii. A little above it is Pandosia, which is strongly fortified, before which Alexander the Molossian king was overthrown. This prince was led astray by the oracle of Dodona, which commanded him to avoid Acheron and Pandosia;[3] for places with names like these being pointed out in Thesprotia, caused him to lose his life[y 1] here. The position has three summits, and the river Acheron flows by it. He was also mistaken in another oracle,

“O Pandosia, thou three-topp’d hill,
Hereafter many people thou shalt kill;”

for he thought that it foreshowed the destruction of his enemies, and not of his own people. They say that Pandosia[4]

    “Evincitque fretum, Siculique angusta Pelori,
    Hippotadæque domos regis, Temesesque metalla.”

    And Fast. v. 441,
    “… Temesæaque concrepat æra.”

    And Statius, Silv. i. 42,
    “Et cui se toties Temese dedit hausta metallis.”

  1. ↑ Hannibal took refuge in Calabria about 209 years before the Christian era.
  2. ↑ Cosenza, near the source of the Crathis, now Crati, represents Cosentia. It was taken by Hannibal after the surrender of Petilia, but towards the end of the war the Romans regained it.
  3. ↑
    Αἰακίδη, προφύλαξο μολεῖν Ἀχερούσιον ὕδωρ
    Πανδοσίην δ᾽ ὅθι τοι θάνατος πεπρωμένος ἐστί.

    Son of Æacus, beware of approaching the Acherusian water and Pandosia, where death is destined for thee. (See note)
  4. ↑ Commentators generally agree that this is the Pandosia memorable for the defeat and death of Alexander, king of Epirus. The early Calabrian antiquaries have placed it at Castel Franco. D’Anville, in his map, lays it down near Lao and Cirella. Modern investigators have sought its ruins near Mendocino, between Cosenza and the sea, a hill with three summits having been remarked there, which answers to the fatal height pointed out by the oracle,
    Πανδοσία τρικόλωνε, πολύν ποτε λαὸν ὀλέσσεις·
  1. ↑ Odyssey i. 184.
  1. ↑ Nocera.
  1. ↑ About B. C. 330.
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