Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/327

ATHENOPOLIS.

ATHENO'POLIS, a city on the coast of Gallia Narbonensis, dependent on Massilia. (Mela, ii. 5 ; Plin. iii. 4.) Stephanus (s. v. Αθήνοπ) mentions an Athenae of the Ligystii, which may be the place. There are no measures for determining the position of Athenopolis. D'Anville observes, that Pliny and Mela seem to place the Massaliot settlement south of Forum Julii (Fréjus); and yet in his map he fixes it north of Fréjus, at a place called Agay. Walckenser, at a guess, places it at St. Tropez, which is on a bay nearly due south of Fréjus. The Athenaeopolitae of Varro (L. L. viii. 35) are as- sumed to be the inhabitants of this place.[ G. L. ]

A'THESIS CAnjiTii^J, Strab.; 'Aruri&y, Pint), one of the principal livers of Northern Italy, now called the Adiffe, It rises in the Rhaetian Alps, in a small lake near the modern vilkge of Bescherif and alter a course of about 50 miles in a SE. direc- tioo, receires the waters of the Ataqis or Eitach^ a stream almost as considerable as its own, which de- sooids from the pass of the Brenner, Their united waters flow nearly due S. through a broad and deep valley, passing under the walls of Tridentum ( Trenio), until they at length emerge into the plains of Itafy, close to Verona, which stands on a kind of peninsnla almost encircled by the Athesis. (Verona Ath£sl circomflua, SiL Ital. viii. 597.) From hence it pannes its course, first towards the S£., and afterwards due E. through the plains of Venetia to the Adriatic, which it enters only a few miles Axvm the Dorthemmoet mouth of the Padus, but without having ever joined that river. From its source to the sea it has a course of not less than 200 miles; and in the volume of its waters it is inferior only to the Padns among the rivem of Italy. (Strab. iv. pi 207, where there is little doubt that the names

• Arri4ny6s and 'ladpas have been transposed; Plin.

iiL 16. a. 20; Vixg. Aen, iz. 680; Claudian, de VI. Cmt. Hon. 196.) Servius (ad Aen. I c.) and Vi- bins Sequester (p. 3) erroneously describe the Athesis as fulling into the Padus; a very natural mistake, as the two rivers run parallel to each other at a very short interval, and even communicate by various side branches and artificial channels, but their nuiin streama continue perfioctly distinct It vras in the plains on the banks of the Athesis, probably not very fiir firom Verona, that Q. Catulus was defeated by the Cimbri ins. dOl. (lAY.Epit. IxviiL; Flor. iiL3; Plut Mar. 23.)

ATHMO'NIA, ATHMONUM. [Attica.]

ATHOS C^evs/ABuv, Ep. 'ABdaSj gen. *A06<io: Etk. 'Atftf^Tiit), the lofty mountain at the extremity of the long peninsula, running out into the sea firom Chakidice in Macedonia, between the Stngitic gulf and the Aegaean. This peninsula was properly called Acte CAkH, Thuc. iv. 109), but the name of Athos was also given to it, as well as to the mountain. (Herod, vii. 22.) The peninsula, as well as the mountain, is now called the Holy MomUain {"Ayiop "Opof , Monte Santo), from the great mimber of monasteries and chapels with which It is covered. There an 20 of these monasteries, moet of which were founded during the Byzantine empire, and some of them trace their origin to the time of Constantine the Great Each of the difierent natiaaa belonging to the Greek Church, has one or more monasteries of its own ; and the spot is visited periodically by pilgrims from Russia, Servia, Bui* garia, as well as Cram Greece and Asia Minor. No female, even of the animal kind, is permitted to enter the peninsula.

ATHOS.

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According to Pliny (iv. 10. s. 17. § S7, Sillig), the length of the peninsula is 75 (Roman) miles, and the circumference 150 (Roman) miles. Its real length is 40 English miles, and its average breadth about four miles. The general aspect of the peninsula is described in the following terms by a modern tra- veller: — ** The peninsula is rugged, being intersected by innumerable ravines. The ground rises almost im- mediately and rather abruptly from the isthmus at the northern end to about 300 feet, and for the first twelve miles maintains a table -land elevation of about 600 feet, for the most part beautifully wooded. At this spot the peninsula is narrowed into rather less than two miles in breadth. It immediately afterwards expands to its average breadth of about four miles, which it retains to its southern extremity. From this point, also, the land beccones mountainous rather than hilly, two of the heights reaching respectively 1700 anid 1200 feet above the sea. Four miles &rther south, on the eastern slope of the mountain ridge, and at a nearly equal distance from the east and west shores, is situated the town of Karyes, picturesquely placed amidst vineyards and gardens. Immediately to the southward of Karyee the ground rises to 2200 feet, whence a rugged broken country, covered with a forest of dark-leaved foliage, extends to the foot of the mountain, which rears itself in solitary magnificence, an insulated cone of white limestone, rising abruptly to the height of 6350 feet above the sea. Close to the cli£^ at the southern extremity, we learn &om Captain Cope- land's late survey, no bottom was found with 60 fathoms of line." (Lieut Webber Smith, in Journal of Royal Geogr. Soc vol. vii. p. 65.) The lower bed of the mountun is composed of gneiss and argil- laceous slate, and the upper part (^ grey limestone, more or less inclined to white. (Sibtiiorp, in Wal pole's TraveUj ^c. p. 40.)

Athos is first menticmed by Homer, who represents Hera as resting on its summit on her flight from Olympus to Lemnos. (//. xiv. 229.) The name, however, is chiefly memorable in history on account of the canal which Xerxes cut through the isthmus, connecting the peninsula with Chalcidioe. (Herod, vii. 23, seq.) This canal was cut by Xerxes fear the passage of lus fleet, ia order to escape the gales and high seas, which sweep around the promontoiy, and wlach haid vnecked the fleet of Mardonius in b. c. 492. The cutting of this canal has been rejected as a falsehood by many writers, both ancient and modern ; and Juvenal (x. 174) speaks of it as a specimen of Greek mendacity:

"creditur olim Velificatus Athos, et quidquid Graecia mendax Audet in historia."

Its existence, however, is not only attested by Herodotus (L c), Thucydides (/. c), and other ancient writers, but distinct traces of it have been discovered by modern travellers. The modern name of the isthmus is Pr6vlakaj evidenUy the Romaic form of Xlpoa^Xo^, the canal «n /ront of the penin- sula of Athos. The best description of the present condition of the canal is given by Lieut Wolfe : —

• ^ The canal of Xerxes is still most distinctly to be

traced all the way across the isthmus from the Gulf o/MonU Santo (the ancient Singitic Gulf) to the Bay of Erao in the Gvlf of ConUua^ with the exception of about 200 yards in the middle, where the ground bears no appearance of having ever been

touched. But as there is no doubt of the whole