Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/401

B. vi. c. i. 6. ITALY. THE BRUTTII. GRECIAN CITIES. 387 Pithecussae, as well as Caprene, Leucosia, the Sirenes, and the (Enotrides, are but so many detached fragments from the continent, but other islands have risen from the bottom of the sea, a circumstance which frequently occurs in many places ; for it is more reasonable to think that the islands in the midst of the sea have been raised up from the bottom, and that those which lie off headlands and are separated merely by a strait were broken off from them. Still it is beside our purpose to investigate thoroughly whether the name were given to the city for these causes, or whether it were named by the Samnites from the Latin word regium, which, signifies royal, on account of its importance, 1 for their chieftains par- ticipated in the privileges of citizenship with the Romans, and generally used the Latin language. But Dionysius (the elder), having been treated with contempt by them, destroyed the illustrious city which had founded many towns and produced many distinguished characters, whether statesmen or men of letters, 2 for when he sought a consort from their city, they offered him the hangman's daughter; 3 but his son (Dionysius the younger) partly restored it, 4 and called it Phoebia. Dur- ing the war with Pyrrhus, a body of Campanians destroyed most of the citizens against the faith of treaties, 5 and a little 1 It appears from the more ancient coins of Rhegium, that the original name was REGION. In these the epigraph is REG. RECI. RECINOS, in characters partaking more of the Oscan than the Greek form ; those of more recent date are decidedly Greek, PH1 PHFINQN, being inscribed on them. A note in the French translation shows that the inhabitants of Rhegium did not participate in the rights of Roman citizens till about 90 years before the Christian era. 2 Among these were many followers of Pythagoras, also Theagenes Hippys, Lycus surnamed Butera, and Glaucus, who were historians; Ibicus, Cleomenes, and Lycus the adoptive father of Lycophron, who were poets ; Clearchus and Pythagoras, who were sculptors. 3 The Rhegians firmly opposed the designs of this tyrant ; and when, under pretence of courting their alliance, he sought a consort from their city, they replied with independent feeling that he might have their hang- man's daughter. (See Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 44.) Had the other states of Magna Grecia displayed the same energy, the ambitious views of this artful prince might have been frustrated ; but after the defeat of their forces on the Elleporus, now Callipari, they succumbed, and Rhegium, after a gallant defence which lasted nearly a year, was compelled to yield, about the year 398 B. c. The insulting tyrant sentenced the heroic Phyton, who had commanded the town, to a cruel death, and removed the few inhabitants that remained to Sicily. 4 B.C. 360. 5 B.C." 280. 2 c 2