Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/520

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STRABO.
FRAGM. 11—13.

Rhodope,[p 1] and Hæmus.[p 2] For these mountains extend in a straight line, beginning from the Adriatic, to the Euxine, forming towards the south a great peninsula, which comprehends Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and Achaia. On the south, Macedonia is bounded by the Egnatian Way, which goes from Dyrrachium eastwards to Thessalonica, and thus has very nearly the form of a parallelogram. EPIT.

11. The country now called Macedonia was formerly called Emathia. It acquired this name from Macedon, one of its ancient princes. There was also a city Emathia near the sea. The country was occupied by some of the Epirotæ and Illyrians, but the greatest part by Bottiæi and Thracians. The Bottiæi were of Cretan origin, and came under the command of Botton; the Pieres, who were Thracians, inhabited Pieria and the parts about Olympus; the Pæonians, the borders of the river Axius, from whence the region was called Amphaxitis; the Edoni and Bisalti, the rest of the country as far as the Strymon. The Bisalti retained their name, but the Edoni went under the various names of Mygdones, Edoni, (Odones?) and Sithones. Of all these people, the Argeadæ and the Chalcidenses of Eubœa became the chief. The Chalcidenses came from Eubœa into the territory of the Sithones, and there founded about thirty cities. They were subsequently driven out by the Sithones, but the greater part of them collected together into a single city, namely, Olynthus.[1] They had the name of Chalcidenses-in-Thrace. E.

12. The Peneus separates Lower Macedonia and the seaboard from Thessaly and Magnesia. The Haliacmon is the boundary of Upper Macedonia; and the Haliacmon, the Erigon, the Axius, and other rivers, form the boundary between Macedonia and the Epirotæ and the Pæonians. E.

13. If a line is drawn from the recess of the Thermaic Gulf, on the sea-coast of Macedonia, and from Thessalonica, southwards, to Sunium, and another eastwards, towards the Thracian Chersonese, an angle will be made in the recess. Macedonia extends in both directions, and we must begin with the line first mentioned. The first part of it has beyond it Attica with Megaris to the Crissæan Bay. Next succeeds the sea-coast of Bœotia near Eubœa. Above Eubœa on the

  1. ↑ Despotodagh.
  2. ↑ Velikidagh.
  1. ↑ Above Agios-Mamas, in the Bay of Cassandra.
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