After Scylletium comes the territory of the Crotoniates, and three capes of the Iapyges; and after these, the Lacinium, The Lacinium derived its name from Cape Lacinium (now Cape Nao), on which it was situated. According to Diod. Sic. 4.24 , Heracles, when in this region, put to death a cattle-thief named Lacinius. Hence the name of the cape. a temple of Hera, which at one time was rich and full of dedicated offerings. As for the distances by sea, writers give them without satisfactory clearness, except that, in a general way, Polybius gives the distance from the strait to Lacinium as two thousand three hundred stadia, Strabo probably wrote “two thousand” and not “one thousand” (see Manner, t. 9. 9, p. 202), and so read Gosselin, Groskurd, Forbiger, Müller-Dübner, and Meineke. Compare Strabo’s other quotation (5. 1. 3) from Polybius on this subject. There, as here, unfortunately, the figures ascribed to Polybius cannot be compared with his original statement, which is now lost. and the distance thence across to Cape Iapygia as seven hundred. This point is called the mouth of the Tarantine Gulf. As for the gulf itself, the distance around it by sea is of considerable length, two hundred and forty miles, 240 Roman miles=1,920, or 2,000 (see 7. 7. 4), stadia. as the Chorographer See 5. 2. 7, and the footnote. says, but Artemidorus says three hundred and eighty for a man well-girded, although he falls short of the real breadth of the mouth of the gulf by as much. This passage (“although . . . much”) is merely an attempt to translate the Greek of the manuscripts. The only variant in the manuscripts is that of “ungirded” for “well-girded.” If Strabo wrote either, which is extremely doubtful, we must infer that Artemidorus’ figure, whatever it was pertained to the number of days it would take a pedestrian, at the rate, say of 160 stadia (20 Roman miles) per day, to make the journey around the gulf by land. Most of the editors (including Meineke) dismiss the passage as hopeless by merely indicating gaps in the text. Groskurd and C. Müller not only emend words of the text but also fill in the supposed gaps with seventeen and nine words, respectively. Groskurd makes Artemidorus say that a well-girded pedestrian can complete the journey around the gulf in twelve days, that the coasting-voyage around it is 2,000 stadia, and that he leaves for the mouth the same number (700) of stadia assigned by Polybius to the breadth of the mouth of the gulf. But C. Müller writes: “Some make it less, saying 1,380 stadia, whereas Artemidorus makes it as many plus 30 (1,410), in speaking of the breadth of the mouth of the gulf.” But the present translator, by making very simple emendations (see critical note 2 on page 38), arrives at the following: Artemidorus says eighty stadia longer (i.e., 2,000) although he falls short of the breadth of the mouth of the gulf by as much (i.e., 700 - 80 = 620). It should be noted that Artemidorus, as quoted by Strabo, always gives distances in terms of stadia, not miles (e.g., 3. 2. 11, 8. 2. 1, 14. 2. 29, et passim), and that his figures at times differ considerably from those of the Chorographer (cp. 6. 3. 10). The gulf faces the winter-sunrise; i.e., south-east. and it begins at Cape Lacinium, for, on doubling it, one immediately comes to the cities As often Strabo refers to sites of perished cities as cities. of the Achaeans, which, except that of the Tarantini, no longer exist, and yet, because of the fame of some of them, are worthy of rather extended mention. The first city is Croton , within one hundred and fifty stadia from the Lacinium; and then comes the River Aesarus, and a harbor, and another river, the Neaethus. The Neaethus got its name, it is said, from what occurred there: Certain of the Achaeans who had strayed from the Trojan fleet put in there and disembarked for an inspection of the region, and when the Trojan women who were sailing with them learned that the boats were empty of men, they set fire to the boats, for they were weary of the voyage, so that the men remained there of necessity, although they at the same time noticed that the soil was very fertile. And immediately several other groups, on the strength of their racial kinship, came and imitated them, and thus arose many settlements, most of which took their names from the Trojans; and also a river, the Neaethus, took its appellation from the aforementioned occurrence. The Greek “Neas aethein” means “to burn ships.” According to Antiochus, when the god told the Achaeans to found Croton , Myscellus departed to inspect the place, but when he saw that Sybaris was already founded—having the same name as the river near by—he judged that Sybaris was better; at all events, he questioned the god again when he returned whether it would be better to found this instead of Croton , and the god replied to him (Myscellus Ovid Met. 15.20 spells the name “Myscelus,” and perhaps rightly; that is, “Mouse-leg” (?). was a hunchback as it happened): “Myscellus, short of back, in searching else outside thy track, thou hunt’st for morsels only; ’tis right that what one giveth thee thou do approve;” For a fuller account, see Diod. Sic. 8. 17 His version of the oracle is: “Myscellus, short of back, in searching other things apart from god, thou searchest only after tears; what gift god giveth thee, do thou approve.” and Myscellus came back and founded Croton , having as an associate Archias, the founder of Syracuse , who happened to sail up while on his way to found Syracuse. The generally accepted dates for the founding of Croton and Syracuse are, respectively, 710 B.C. and 734 B.C. But Strabo’s account here seems to mean that Syracuse was founded immediately after Croton (cp. 6. 2. 4). Cp. also Thucydides 6. 3. 2 The Iapyges used to live at Croton in earlier times, as Ephorus says. And the city is reputed to have cultivated warfare and athletics; at any rate, in one Olympian festival the seven men who took the lead over all others in the stadium-race were all Crotoniates, and therefore the saying “The last of the Crotoniates was the first among all other Greeks” seems reasonable. And this, it is said, is what gave rise to the other proverb, “more healthful than Croton ,” the belief being that the place contains something that tends to health and bodily vigor, to judge by the multitude of its athletes. Accordingly, it had a very large number of Olympic victors, although it did not remain inhabited a long time, on account of the ruinous loss of its citizens who fell in such great numbers Cp. 6. 1 10. at the River Sagra. And its fame was increased by the large number of its Pythagorean philosophers, and by Milo , who was the most illustrious of athletes, and also a companion of Pythagoras, who spent a long time in the city. It is said that once, at the common mess of the philosophers, when a pillar began to give way, Milo slipped in under the burden and saved them all, and then drew himself from under it and escaped. And it is probably because he relied upon this same strength that he brought on himself the end of his life as reported by some writers; at any rate, the story is told that once, when he was travelling through a deep forest, he strayed rather far from the road, and then, on finding a large log cleft with wedges, thrust his hands and feet at the same time into the cleft and strained to split the log completely asunder; but he was only strong enough to make the wedges fall out, whereupon the two parts of the log instantly snapped together; and caught in such a trap as that, he became food for wild beasts. Next in order, at a distance of two hundred stadia, comes Sybaris , founded by the Achaeans; it is between two rivers, the Crathis and the Sybaris . Its founder was Is of Helice. The reading, “Is of Helice,” is doubtful. On Helice, see 1. 3. 18 and 8. 7. 2. In early times this city was so superior in its good fortune that it ruled over four tribes in the neighborhood, had twenty- five subject cities, made the campaign against the Crotoniates with three hundred thousand men, and its inhabitants on the Crathis alone completely filled up a circuit of fifty stadia. However, by reason of luxury Cp. “Sybarite.” and insolence they were deprived of all their felicity by the Crotoniates within seventy days; for on taking the city these conducted the river over it and submerged it. Later on, the survivors, only a few, came together and were making it their home again, but in time these too were destroyed by Athenians and other Greeks, who, although they came there to live with them, conceived such a contempt for them that they not only slew them but removed the city to another place near by and named it Thurii , after a spring of that name. Now the Sybaris River makes the horses that drink from it timid, and therefore all herds are kept away from it; whereas the Crathis makes the hair of persons who bathe in it yellow or white, and besides it cures many afflictions. Now after the Thurii had prospered for a long time, they were enslaved by the Leucani, and when they were taken away from the Leucani by the Tarantini, they took refuge in Rome , and the Romans sent colonists to supplement them, since their population was reduced, and changed the name of the city to Copiae. After Thurii comes Lagaria, a stronghold, bounded by Epeius and the Phocaeans; thence comes the Lagaritan wine, which is sweet, mild, and extremely well thought of among physicians. That of Thurii , too, is one of the famous wines. Then comes the city Heracleia, a short distance above the sea; and two navigable rivers, the Aciris and the Siris . On the Siris there used to be a Trojan city of the same name, but in time, when Heracleia was colonized thence by the Tarantini, it became the port of the Heracleotes. It is Twenty-four stadia distant from Heracleia and about three hundred and thirty from Thurii . Writers produce as proof of its settlement by the Trojans the wooden image of the Trojan Athene which is set up there—the image that closed its eyes, the fable goes, when the suppliants were dragged away by the Ionians who captured the city; for these Ionians came there as colonists when in flight from the dominion of the Lydians, and by force took the city, which belonged to the Chones, Cp. 6. 1. 2. and called it Polieium; and the image even now can be seen closing its eyes. It is a bold thing, to be sure, to tell such a fable and to say that the image not only closed its eyes (just as they say the image in Troy turned away at the time Cassandra was violated) but can also be seen closing its eyes; and yet it is much bolder to represent as brought from Troy all those images which the historians say were brought from there; for not only in the territory of Siris , but also at Rome , at Lavinium , and at Luceria, Athene is called “Trojan Athena,” as though brought from Troy . And further, the daring deed of the Trojan women is current in numerous places, and appears incredible, although it is possible. According to some, however, both Siris and the Sybaris which is on the Teuthras The “Teuthras” is otherwise unknown, except that there was a small river of that name, which cannot be identified, near Cumae (see Propertius 1. 11.11 and Silius Italicus 11.288 ). The river was probably named after Teuthras, king of Teuthrania in Mysia (see 12. 8. 2). But there seems to be no evidence of Sybarites in that region. Meineke and others are probably right in emending to the “Trais” (now the Trionto ), on which, according to Diod. Sic. 12.22 , certain Sybarites took up their abode in 445 B.C. were founded by the Rhodians. According to Antiochus, when the Tarantini were at war with the Thurii and their general Cleandridas, an exile from Lacedaemon , for the possession of the territory of Siris , they made a compromise and peopled Siris jointly, although it was adjudged the colony of the Tarantini; but later on it was called Heracleia, its site as well as its name being changed. Next in order comes Metapontium, which is one hundred and forty stadia from the naval station of Heracleia. It is said to have been founded by the Pylians who sailed from Troy with Nestor; and they so prospered from farming, it is said, that they dedicated a golden harvest An ear, or sheaf, of grain made of gold, apparently. at Delphi . And writers produce as a sign of its having been founded by the Pylians the sacrifice to the shades of the sons of Neleus. Neleus had twelve sons, including Nestor. All but Nestor were slain by Heracles. However, the city was wiped out by the Samnitae. According to Antiochus: Certain of the Achaeans were sent for by the Achaeans in Sybaris and resettled the place, then forsaken, but they were summoned only because of a hatred which the Achaeans who had been banished from Laconia had for the Tarantini, in order that the neighboring Tarantini might not pounce upon the place; there were two cities, but since, of the two, Metapontium was nearer The other, of course, was Siris . to Taras, The old name of Tarentum . the newcomers were persuaded by the Sybarites to take Metapontium and hold it, for, if they held this, they would also hold the territory of Siris , whereas, if they turned to the territory of Siris , they would add Metapontium to the territory of the Tarantini, which latter was on the very flank of Metapontium; and when, later on, the Metapontians were at war with the Tarantini and the Oenotrians of the interior, a reconciliation was effected in regard to a portion of the land—that portion, indeed, which marked the boundary between the Italy of that time and Iapygia. i.e., the Metapontians gained undisputed control of their city and its territory, which Antiochus speaks of as a “boundary” (cp. 6. 1. 4 and 6. 3. 1). Here, too, the fabulous accounts place Metapontus, The son of Sisyphus. His “barbarian name,” according to Stephanus Byzantinus and Eustathius, was Metabus. and also Melanippe the prisoner and her son Boeotus. One of Euripides’ tragedies was entitled Melanippe the Prisoner ; only fragments are preserved. She was the mother of Boeotus by Poseidon. In the opinion of Antiochus, the city Metapontium was first called Metabum and later on its name was slightly altered, and further, Melanippe was brought, not to Metabus, but to Dius, A Metapontian. as is proved by a hero-temple of Metabus, and also by Asius the poet, when he says that Boeotus was brought forth “in the halls of Dius by shapely Melanippe,” Asius Fr. meaning that Melanippe was brought to Dius, not to Metabus. But, as Ephorus says, the colonizer of Metapontium was Daulius, the tyrant of the Crisa which is near Delphi . And there is this further account, that the man who was sent by the Achaeans to help colonize it was Leucippus, and that after procuring the use of the place from the Tarantini for only a day and night he would not give it back, replying by day to those who asked it back that he had asked and taken it for the next night also, and by night that he had taken and asked it also for the next day. Next in order comes Taras and Iapygia; but before discussing them I shall, in accordance with my original purpose, give a general description of the islands that lie in front of Italy ; for as from time to time I have named also the islands which neighbor upon the several tribes, so now, since I have traversed Oenotria from beginning to end, which alone the people of earlier times called Italy , it is right that I should preserve the same order in traversing Sicily and the islands round about it.