Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/65

AELANA. to be calM Ae^^rtae. The podtlon of Aegys is naorrtaxa. Leake plaeea it at Kamtaru, near the «oiin» of the river Xtriloj the ancient Garnion. (PttJL in. 2. § 5, viiL 27. § 4, 34. § 5; Strab. p. 416: PoL tL 54; Leake, Pdopormesiaca^ p. 234.) AELANA (rd AXxara, Strab. p. 768; AIAoj^, JastfLAuL TiiLG. §4; 'EAdra, PtoL T. 17. § 1; ASXawr, Steph. B. «.«.; AiAds, Procop. B. Pen. i. 19: in 0. T. Eulth, in LXX. A2ii0, ASxAv: Eth, AlAayinff : AttAay^ an Idomaean town in Arabia IMnea, sitaated at the head of the eastern golf of the Red Sea, which was called after this town Aela- M&cos Smns. It was situated 10 miles E. of Petra (Ett^eh. Oaom. 4^ v. 'HAotf), and 150 miles S£. of Gaza (Pfin. v. 11. s. 12). It was annexed to the kisgdoD of Jndah, together with the other cities of IdBooaea, by DaTid (2 Sam, Tiii. 14), and was one «f the haxbomrs on the Red Sea, from which the fleet rfSokumiit aaikd to Ophir (1 ATci^^fix. 26; 2 Chron. viL 17); bat it sobseqaentlj revolted from the Jews, and bwame independent. (2 Kinga^ ziv. 22.) It eaodnned to be a place of commercial unportance ander the Bomans, and was the head quarters of the teoCh fegion. (Hieron. Onom.; Notlmp.) It was the lendeooe of a Christian bishop, and is mentioned by Pnoojans in the sixth century as inhabited by Jews, win, after baring been for a long time independent, bad become subject to the Romans in the reign of Jortinian. (Procop. B. Pen. L 19.) The site of Aelana is now oompied by a fcvtress called Akaboj im vhleh a garrison is stationed, because it lies on the rente of the Egyptian pilgrims to Mecca. (Nie- bohr, Betekreibtmg von Arabten, p. 400; Bilppel, Sate m Aafrtoi, p. 248 ; Laborde, Journey through Arahia Petraea, voL L p^ 116.) AELANITICUS SINUS. [Arabicus Sinus.] AEXLA CAPITOLFKA. [lTminaatyiiii..]-y» AEHODAE or H^EHODAE, the Shetland bhDds (Mda, iiL 6), described by Plmy (iv. 16. I 30), as a groop of seren. The islands Ocitis ('Ocrrif), and Dumna (Aov^a) mentioned by Pto- laoy (b. 3. § 31) were apparently part of this poiqi, ami answer respectively to St. Ronaldtha and Ee§. Camden and the elder antiquaries, however, Rier the Aemodae to the Baltic Sea. [W.B.D.] AEMONA, HAEMCXNA, EMO^A ("H/iwva, "SlMM. Oidli, Jnecript. 72 ; 'H/ua, Herodian. vSL 1 : £tlL Aemonensis : LagbacK)^ a strongly fciti&d town with a well-finequented market in haxMoia, atnated on the river Saave and on the foad finm Aqoileia to Celeia, answering to the nafan Lajbach, the capital of Illjria. Laybach, Kawerer, as the Rcnnan remains around its vt'aUs attest, does not equal in extent the ancient Aemona. Aceoiifing to tr^diticni, the Argonauts were the IboBden of Aemona (jUi&utL v. 29). It subsc- i|«atlf became a Roman colony with the title of Joiia Aogustn (Plin. iv. 21. § 28), and its name eecan on coins and inscriptions (PtoL ii. 15. § 7; QevIE, Imeer^fL na& 71, 72, et alib.). [W.B.D.] AEXAIUA (Airopta, App.), called by the Greeks PITHECU'SA (Ilitfiiirowrira), or PITHECU'SAE (Ili9i|K*Mrirai), and by the Latin poets INAltlME, Mw /jdUo, is an island of conaderable size, which Ea off the eoaet of Campania, nearly opposite to C^ MiseDum, and forms, in conjunction with that JtfmAlm^ the northern boundary cf the Bay of K^ki. It is about 15 miks in drcurofcrence, and m dbtant between five and six miles from the nearest of the mainland, and 16 from Capri, which the Boatbem boondary of the bay. The small AENARIA. 49 island of Prochyta (Procida) lies between it and Cape ACsenum. The whole idand is of volcanic origin, and though it contains no regular crater, or other vent of igneous action, was subject in ancient, as it has continued in later, times, to violent earth- quakes and paroxysmal outbursts of volcanic agencj. It was first colonized by Greek settlers from Chalcis and Eretria, either simultaneously with, or even previous to, the foundation of Cumae on the neigh- bouring mainland; and the colony attained to great prosperity, but afterwards suffered severely from internal diissensions, and was ultimately compelled to abandon the island in consequence of violent earth* quakes and volcanic outbreaks. (Liv. viii. 22; Strab. V. p. 248.) These are evidentiy the same de- scribed by Timaeus, who related that Mt. Epomeus, a hill in the centre of the island, vomited forth flames and a vast mass of ashes, and that a part of the island, between this mountain and the coast, was driven forcibly into the sea. (Timaeus ap. Sh'ob, v. p. 248.) The same phenomena are re- lated with some variation by Pliny (ii. 88). At a later period, a fresh colony was estabUslied there by Uieron, the tyrant of Syracuse (probably after bis great naval victory over the Tyrrhenians in B.C. 474), but these were also compelled to quit the island for similar reasons. (Strab. Lc.f Mommsen, Unter^ Italischen DiakkUy p. 1 98.) After their departure it was occupied by the Neapolitans, and Scylax (§ 10. p. 3) speaks of it as containing, in his time, a Greek dty. It probably continued from henceforth a dependency of Neapolis, and the period at which it fell into tiie hands of the Romans is unknown; btit we find it in later times forming a port of the public property of the Roman state, until Augustus ceded it once more to the Neapolitans, in exchange for the island of Capreae. (Suet. Aug. 92.) We have scarcely any further information concerning its condition; but it seems to have effectually re- covered from its previous disasters, though still sub- ject to earthquakes and occasional phenomena of & volcanic character. It was indebted to the same causes for its warm springs, which were fret^uented for their medical properties. (Strab. v. pp. 248. 258 ; Plin. xxxi. 5; Stat. Silv. iii. 5. 104; Lndl. Aetna, 430 ; Jul. Obseq. 1 14.) Strabo notices the fertility of the soil, and speaks of gold mines having been worked by the first setUers ; but it would seem never to have enjoyed any considerable degree of prosperity or im- portance imder the Romans, as its name is rarely mentioned. At the present day it is a fertile and flourishing island, with a population of 25,000 in- habitants, and contains two considerable towns, lechia and Foria, The position of the ancient town is uncertain, uo antiquities having been dis- covered, except a few inscriptions. The Monte di San Niooloj which rises in the centre of the island to an elevation of 2500 feet, and bears unquestion- able traces of volcanic action, is clearly the same with the Epomeus of Timaeus (/. c.) which is called by Pliny MoNS Epopus. (Concerning the present state of the island, and its volcanic phenomena, see Description Topogr. et Hietor. dea Ilea dischiay dePoma, fc., Naples, 1822; Scropc, On the VoU conic Diatrict of Naples j in the Trana. of the GeoL Soc. 2nd series, vol. ii. ; Daubeny on VolcanoeSf p. 240, 2nd edit.) Tlie name of Pithecusae appears to have been sometimes applied by the Greeks to the twor islands of Aenaria and Prochyta collectively, but the plural form as well as the singular is often used to designate the larger island alone. Strabo, ^/C'ru^<!vu:.c,,