Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/405

B. xni. c. in. 4, 5. J30LIC CITIES. 397 their founders. The Pelasgi, however, were a nation disposed to wander, ready to remove from settlement to settlement, and experienced both a great increase and a sudden diminution of strength and numbers, particularly at the time of the ^olian and Ionian migrations to Asia. 4. Something peculiar took place among the Larisseans in the plain of Cayster, in the Phriconis, and in Thessaly. All of them occupied a country, the soil of which has been accu- mulated by rivers, by the Cayster, 1 the Hermus, 2 and the Peneus. 3 At Larisa Phriconis Piasus is said to receive great hon- ours. He was chief of the Pelasgi, and enamoured, it is said, of his daughter Larisa, whom he violated, and was pun- ished for the outrage. She discovered him leaning over a cask of wine, seized him by his legs, lifted him up, and drop- ped him down into the vessel. These are ancient accounts. 5. To the present ^Eolian cities we must add ^Egae and Temnus, the birth-place of Hermagoras, who wrote a book on the Art of Rhetoric. These cities are on the mountainous country which is above the district of Cyme, and that of the Phocaeans and Smyrnseans, beside which flows the Hermus. Not far from these cities is Magnesia under Sipylus, made a free city by a decree of the Romans. The late earthquakes have injured this place. To the opposite parts, which incline towards the Cai'cus to Cyme from Larisa, in passing to which the river Hermus is crossed, are 70 stadia ; thence to Myrina 40 stadia ; thence to Grynium 40 stadia, and thence to Ela?a. But, according to Artemidorus, next to Cyme is Ada3 ; then, at the distance of 40 stadia, a promontory, which they call Hydra, that forms the Ela'itic Gulf with the opposite promon- tory Harmatus. The breadth of the entrance is about 80 stadia, including the winding of the bays. Myrina, situated at 60 stadia, is an .^Eolian city with a harbour, then the harbour of Acha3ans, where are altars of the twelve gods ; next is Grynium, a small'city [of the Myrinosans], a temple of Apollo, an ancient oracle, and a costly fane of white marble. To Myrina are 40 stadia ; then 70 stadia to Elaea, which has a harbour and a station for vessels of the Attalic kings, founded 1 Kara-su, or Kutschuk-Meinder, 2 Sarabat. 3 Salambria.