Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/65

B. vni. c. vi. 16. JEGINA. 57 but it was not these people ; but the Macedonians, according to Theopompus, who refused the levy of men ; besides, it is not probable that those, who were in the neighbourhood of Agamemnon, would disobey his orders. 16. ^Egina is a place in the territory of Epidaurus. There is in front of this continent, an island, of which the poet means to speak in the lines before cited. Wherefore some write, " and the island JSgina," instead of " and they who occupied ^Egina," making a distinction between the places of the same name. It is unnecessary to remark, that this island is among the most celebrated. It was the country of ^Eacus and his de- scendants. It was this island which once possessed so much power at sea, and formerly disputed the superiority with the Athenians in the sea-fight at Salamis during the Persian war. 1 The circuit of the island is said to be about 180 stadia. It has a city of the same name on the south-west. Around it are Attica, and Megara, and the parts of Peloponnesus as far as Epidaurus. It is distant from each about 100 stadia. The eastern and southern sides are washed by the Myrtoan and Cretan seas. Many small islands surround it on the side towards the continent, but Belbina is situated on the side towards the open sea. The land has soil at a certain depth, but it is stony at the surface, particularly the plain country, whence the whole has a bare appearance, but yields large crops of barley. It is said that the JEginetae were called Myrmi- dones, not as the fable accounts for the name, when the ants were metamorphosed into men, at the time of a great famine, by the prayer of ^Eacus ; but because by digging, like ants, they threw up the earth upon the rocks, and were thus made able to cultivate the ground, and because they lived in ex- cavations under-ground, abstaining from the use of bricks and sparing of the soil for this purpose. Its ancient name was CEnone, which is the name of two of the demi in Attica, one near Eleutherae ; "to inhabit the plains close to CEnone, (CEnoe,) and Eleutherae;" and another, one of the cities of the Tetrapolis near Marathon, to which the proverb is applied, " CEnone (CEnoe?) and its torrent." 1 Herodotus, b. v. c. 83, and b. viii. c. 93.