Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/513

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Chap. 34]
ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC.
479

Colycantii, and the Tnpsedri. Isidorus adds to these the Ariimi[1], as also the Capretae, settled ou the spot where Apamea[2] stands, which was founded by King Seleucus, between Cilicia, Cappadocia, Cataonia, and Aemenia, and was at first called Damea[3] from the fact that it had conquered nations most remarkable for their fierceness.

CHAP. 34. (31.) — THE ISLANDS WHICH LIE IN FEONT OF ASIA.

Of the islands which lie before Asia the first is the one situate in the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, and which received its name, it is said, from Canopus, the pilot of Menelaiis. A second, called Pharos, is joined by a bridge to Alexandria, and was made a colony by the Dictator Caesar. In former times it was one day's sail[4] from the mainland of Egypt; at the present day it directs ships in their course by means of the fires which are lighted at night on the tower[5] there; for in consequence of the insidious nature of the shoals, there are only three channels by which Alexandria can be approached, those of Steganus[6], Posideum[7] and Taurus.

In the Phœnician Sea, before Joppe there is the island of Paria[8], the whole of it forming a town. Here, they say, Andromeda was exposed to the monster: the island also of Arados, already mentioned[9], between which and the continent, as we learn from Mucianus, at a depth of fifty cubits in the sea, fresh water is brought up from a spring at the very bottom by means of leather pipes[10].

  1. By some supposed to have been a people of Phrygia.
  2. Mentioned in C. 29 of the present Book.
  3. From the Greek (Symbol missingGreek characters), "to subdue." Hardouin thinks that this appellation is intended to be given by Pliny to Asia in general, and not to the city of Apamea in particular, as imagined by Ortelius and others.
  4. It is so described by Homer.
  5. This was the light-house built upon it by Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, whence the name of pharus came to be applied to similar structures. It was here also that, according to the common story, the seventy Translators of the Greek version of the Old Testament, hence called the Septuagint, were confined while completing their work.
  6. The narrow or fortified channel.
  7. The Neptunian channel.
  8. Mentioned also m C. 14 of the present Book.
  9. In C. 17 of the present Book.
  10. The boatmen of Ruad, the ancient Aradus, still draw fresh water