Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/415

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B. VI. C. II. § 1.
SICILY.
401

further twenty. Of the others, that extending to Pachynus from Lilybæum is the longer, while the shortest faces the Strait and Italy, extending from Pelorias to Pachynus, being about 1120 or 1130 stadia. Posidonius shows that the circumference is 4400 stadia, but in the Chorography the distances are declared to exceed the above numbers, being severally reckoned in miles. Thus from Cape Pelorias to Mylæ,[p 1] 25 miles; from Mylæ to Tyndaris,[p 2] 25; thence to Agathyrnum,[1] 30; from Agathyrnum to Alæsa,[2] 30; from Alæsa to Cephalœdium,[p 3] 30; these are but insignificant places; from Cephalœdium to the river Himera,[3] which runs through the midst of Sicily, 18; from thence to Panormus,[p 4] 35; [thence] to the Emporium[p 5] of the Ægestani, 32; leaving to Lilybæum[p 6] a distance of 38; thence having doubled the Cape and coasting the adjacent side to Heracleum,[4] 75; and to the Emporium[5] of the Agrigentini, 20; and to[6]

  1. ↑ The MSS. of Strabo read Agathyrsum, but the town is more commonly called Agathyrnum. Livy, book xxvi. cap. 40, and Silius Italicus, book xiv. ver. 260, call it Agathyrna. Cluverius considers it to have been situated near S. Marco; others would place it nearer to Capo d’Orlando; while D’Anville is in favour of Agati.
  2. ↑ I Bagni, or S. Maria de’ Palazzi. Groskurd gives it as Torre di Pittineo by Tusa, or Torre di Tusa. Cicero writes the name without a diphthong, “statim Messana litteras Halesam mittit.” Cic. in Verr. ii. c. 7. Diodorus spells it Αλαισος. Silius Italicus, lib. xiv. ver. 219, makes the penultimate long:

    “Venit ab amne trahens nomen Gela, venit Halæsa.”

    And the inscription in Gruter, p. 212, gives the name of the river near it, Αλαισος.
  3. ↑ Modern critics consider this to be the Fiume-Grande, which takes its rise near Polizzi and the Fiume Salso, the latter flows from a source within a few miles of the Fiume-Grande, and after a course of about 80 miles, falls into the sea near Alicata. The Fiume Salso was also called Himera, and both rivers taken to be one.
  4. ↑ Probably ruins at the embouchure of the Platani. Groskurd also gives for it Bissenza.
  5. ↑ At the mouth of the Fiume di Girgenti. Virgil calls Agrigentum by the Greek name, Æn. iii. 703,
    “Arduus inde Acragas ostentat maxima longe
    Mœnia, magnanimum quondam generator equorum.”
  6. ↑ As the distance from Agrigentum to Camarina greatly exceeds another 20 miles, Kramer supposes that the words, “and to Gela, 20,” have been omitted by the copyist.
  1. ↑ Milazzo.
  2. ↑ S. Maria di Tindaro.
  3. ↑ Cefalù.
  4. ↑ Palermo.
  5. ↑ Castel-à-Mare.
  6. ↑ Capo Boeo.
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