Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/403

This page needs to be proofread.

B. xin. c. in. $ 2. LELEGES. CILICIANS. 395 their forming a body of people of themselves, since their king still survived, " Altes, king of the war-loving Leleges," l nor was the city entirely razed, for he adds, " who commanded the lofty city Pedasus." 2 He has passed them over in the Catalogue, not considering the body of people large enough to have a place in it ; or he comprised them among the people under the command of Hector, as being allied to one another. For Lycaon, the brother of Hector, says, " my mother Laothoe, daughter of the old Altes, brought me into the world to live but a short time ; of Altes, king of the war-loving Leleges." 3 Such is the reasoning, from probability, which this subject admits. 2. We reason from probability when we endeavour to de- termine by the words of the poet the exact bounds of the territory of the Cilicians, Pelasgi, and of the people situated between them, namely, the Ceteii, who were under the com- mand of Eurypylus. We have said of the Cilicians and of the people under the command of Eurypylus what can be said about them, and that they are bounded by the country near the Cai'cus. It is agreeable to probability to place the Peiasgi next to these people, according to the words of Homer and other his- tories. Homer says, " Hippothous led the tribes of the Pelasgi, who throw the spear, who in- habited the fertile -Larisa ; their leaders were Hippothous and Pylaeus, a son of Mars, both sons of Lethus the Pelasgian, son of Teutamis."* He here represents the numbers of Pelasgi as considerable, for he does not speak of them as a tribe, but " tribes," and specifies the place of their settlement, Larisa. There are many places of the name of Larisa, but we must understand some one of those near the Troad, and perhaps we might not be wrong in supposing it to be that near Cyme ; for of three places of the name of Larisa, that near Hamaxitus is quite in sight of Ilium and very near it, at the distance of about 200 stadia, so that Hippothous could not be said consistently with probability to fall, in the contest about Patroclus, 1 II. xxi. 86. 2 II. xxi. 87. 3 II. xxi. 84. 11. ii. 840.