Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/411

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
B. VI. C. I. § 14.
ITALY. THE BRUTTII. GRECIAN CITIES.
397

been found salutary for the cure of many disorders. Thurii, after having flourished for a long time, became a continual prey to the aggressions of the Leucani,[y 1] and afterwards the Tarentini troubling them, they appealed to the Romans for succour, who, in course of time, sent a colony[y 2] when it was nearly deserted, and changed the name of the city to Copiæ.[1]

14. After Thurii is Lagaria,[p 1] a garrison fort; it was originally settled by Epeius[2] and the Phocenses; hence is derived the Lagaritan wine, sweet and delicate, and much recommended by the physicians, as is likewise the Thurian wine, which is reckoned among the best. Then comes the city of Heraclea,[3] a little way from the sea, and two navigable rivers, the Agri[g 1] and the Sinno,[g 2] on which was the city Siris, founded by a Trojan colony, but in course of time, when Heraclea was peopled with the citizens of Siris by the Tarentini, it became the harbour of Heraclea. Its distance from Heraclea was 24 stadia, and from Thurii about 330.[4] They point out the statue of the Trojan Minerva, which is erected there, as a proof of its colonization by the Trojans. They also relate as a miracle how the statue closed its eyes when the suppliants, who had fled for sanctuary to her shrine, were dragged away by the Ionians after they had taken the city;[y 3] they say that these Ionians came to settle here, when they fled from the yoke of the Lydians, and took the town of the Trojans[5] by force, calling its name Polieum. They show, too, at the present time

  1. ↑ Cæsar however calls it Thurii, and designates it a municipal town. Civ. Bell. iii. 22.
  2. ↑ It is not ascertained whether this leader were the architect of the Horse of Troy.
  3. ↑ Antiquaries seem agreed in fixing the site of this town at Policoro, about three miles from the mouth of the Agri, where considerable remains are still visible. The city is famous as the seat of the general council of the Greek states, and the celebrated bronze tables on which the learned Mazzocchi bestowed so much labour were discovered near its site. Its coins represent Hercules contending with the lion, and bear the epigraph ΗΡΑ or ΗΡΑΚΛΗΙΩΝ.
  4. ↑ This accords very well with the distance given in the Itinerary of Antoninus.
  5. ↑ Kramer reads χώνων in the text. We have followed the opinion of the French translators, who have rendered it “possedée par des Troyens.” MSS. give various readings.
  1. ↑ Ἄκιρις.
  2. ↑ Σῖρις.
  1. ↑ Now La Nucara.
  1. ↑ From B. C. 390 to 290.
  2. ↑ About B. C. 194.
  3. ↑ About B. C. 580.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.