Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1358

 1334 XOIS. XOIS (s.6ts, Strab. xvii. p. 802 ; Ptol. iv. 5. § 50 ; S(5t)s, Stejjh. B. s. v.), a town of great antiquity and considerable size, was situated nearly in the centre of the Delta, upon an island formed by the Sebennytic and Phatnitic branches of the Nile. It belonged to the Sebennytic Nome. The 14th dynasty, accord- ing to Manetho, consisted of 76 Xoite kings. This dynasty immediately preceded that of the shepherd kings of Aegypt. It seems probable, therefore, that Xois, from its strong position among the marshes formed by the intersecting branches of the river, held out during the occupation of the Delta by the Hyksos, or at least compromised with the iuvaders by paying them tribute. By some geographers it is supposed to be the Papremis of Herodotus (ii. 59, iii. 12). Champollion (JEijypte sous les Pharaons, vol. ii. p. 214) believes its site to have been at Sakkra. which is the Arabian synonyms of the Coptic Xeos and of the old Aegyptian Skhoo (Niebuhr. Travels, vol. i. p. 75.) The road from Tamiatbis to Memphis passed through Xois. [W.B.D.] XYLENO'POLIS, a town said by Pliny, on the authority it would seem of Onesicritus or Nearchus, to Lave been founded by Alexander the Great (vi. 23. s. 26). It must have been in the southern part of Sinde ; but its position cannot be recognised, as Pliny himself states that the authors to whom he refers did not say on what river it was situated. [V.] XYLICCENSES (ol B.vAtKKeTs AlOiones, Ptol. iv. 6. § 23), an Aethiopian people in Libya Interior, be- tween the mountains Arangas and Arualtes. [T.H.D.] XYLINE COME, a village in Pisidia, between Corbasa and Termessus, is mentioned only by Livy (xxxviii. 15). A place called Xyline, in the country of the Cissians in Pontus, is noticed bv Ptolemy (v. 6. § 6). " [L. S.] XYLO'POLIS (EvnoAis), a town of IMygdonia in Macedonia (Ptol. iii. 13. § 36), whose inhabitants, the Xvlopolitae, are mentioned by Pliny also (iv. 10. s. 17)'. XY'NIA or XY'NIAE (Hwi'o : Etk. Hwiew), a town near the southern confines of Thessaly, and the district of the Aenianes (Liv. xsxiii. 3), which gave its name to the lake Xynias (HuJ'ios), which Ste- phanus confounds with the Boebeis (Apollon. Ehod. i. 67 ; Catull. Ixiii. 287 ; Steph. B. s. v. avvia). Xynia, having been deserted by its inhabitants, was ]ilundered by the Aetolians in b. c. 198 (Liv. xxxii. 13). In the following year Flamininus arrived at this place in three days' march from Heraclea (Liv. xxxiii. 3; comp. Liv. xxxix. 26). The lake of Xy- nias is now called Tankli, and is described as 6 miles in circumference. The site of the ancient city is marked by some remains of ruined edifices upon a promontory or peninsula in the lake. (Leake, North- ern Greece, vol. i. p. 460, vol. iv. p. 517.) XY'PETE. [Attica, p. 325, a.] Z. ZABA (Zd€a), a small place on the northern coast of Taprobane or Ceylon, noticed by Ptolemy (vii. 4. § 13). It has not been identified with any modern site. [V.] ZABAE (Zagai, Ptol. i. 14. §§ 1, 4, 6, 7, vii. 2. § 6, viii. 27. § 4), a town of some importance in India intra Gangem, on the sinus Gangeticus, perhaps thw modern Ligor. [J. R.] ZA'BATUS (ZagoToj), a river of Assyria, first noticed by Xenopbon (^Anab. ii. 5. § 1, iii. 3. § 6), and the same as the Lycus of Poly bins (v. 51), ZACYNTHUS. Anian (^Anah. iii. 15), and Strabo (ii. p. 79, svi. p. 737). It is called Zabas by Ammianus (xviii. 14) and Zerbis by Pliny (vi. 26. s. 30). There can be no doubt that it is now represented by the Greater Zdb, a river of considerable size, which, rising in the mountains on the confines oi Armenia and Kurdistan, flows into the Tigris a little to the S. of the great mound of Nimriid (Tavernier, ii. c. 7 ; Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, i. p. 192.) [V.] ZABR. [Beuzabda.] ZABE (Za§7j, Procop. B. Vand. ii. 20, p. 501, ed. Bonn), a district in Mauretania Sitifensis. Ac- cording to the Not. Imp. it contained a town of the same name, which must be that called Zabi in the [tin. Ant. (p. 30). Lapie identifies it with the present Msilah. [T. H. D.] ZACATAE (ZaKarai, Ptol. y. 9. § 16), a people of Asiatic Sarmatia. [T. H. D.] ZACYNTHUS (ZaKweos : Eth. ZaKwOios : Zante), an island in the Sicilian sea, lying off the western coast of Peloponnesus, opposite the promon- tory Chelonatas in Ehs, and to the S. of the island of Cephallenia, from which it was distant 25 miles, according to Pliny, (iv. 12. s. 19) but according to Strabo, only 60 stadia (x. p. 458). The latter is very nearly correct, the real distance being 8 En- glish miles. Its circumference is stated by Pliny at 36 M. p., by Strabo at 160 stadia ; but the island is at least 50 miles round, its greatest length being 23 English miles. The island is said to have been originally called Hyrie (Plin. I. c), and to have been colonized by Zacynthus, the son of Dardanus, from Psophis in Arcadia, whence tlie acropolis of the city of Zacynthus was named Psophis. (Pans. viii. 24. § 3 ; Staph. B. s. v.) We have the express state- ment of Tlmcydides that the Zacynthians were a colony of Achaeans from Peloponnesus (ii. 66). In Homer, who gives the island the epithet of " woody " {uArifts and vKrieffcra), Zacynthus forms part of the dominions of Ulysses. {II. ii. 634, Od. i. 246, ix. 24, xvi. 123, 2.50 ; Strab. x. p. 457.) It appears to have attained considerable importance at an early period ; for according to a very ancient tradition Saguntum in Spain was founded by the Zacynthians, in conjunction with the Rutuli of Ardea. (Liv. xxi. 7 ; Plin. xvi. 40. s. 79 ; Strab. iii. p. 1.59.) Bocchus stated that Saguntum was foimded by the Zacyn- thians 200 years before the Trojan War (n;;. Plin. /. c.) In consequence probably of their Achaean origin, the Zacynthians were hostile to the Lacedae- monians, and hence we find that fugitives from Sparta fled for refuge to this island. (Herod, vi. 70, ix. 37.) In the Peloponnesian War the Zacynthians sided with Athens (Thuc. ii. 7, 9) ; and in B. c. 430 the Lacedaemonians made an unsuccessful attack upon their city. {lb. 66.) The Athenians in their ex- pedition against Pylus found Zacynthus a conve- nient station for their fleet. (Id. iv. 8, 13.) The Zacynthians are enumerated among the autonomous allies of Athens in the Sicilian expedition. (Id. vii. 57.) After the Peloponnesian War, Zacynthus seems to have passed under the supremacy of Sparta ; for in B.C. 374, Timotheus, the Athenian commander, on his return from Corey ra, landed some Zacynthian exiles on the island, and assisted them in establishing a fortified post. These must have belonged to the anti- Spartan party ; for the Zacynthian government ap- plied for help to the Spartans, who sent a fleet of 25 sail to Zacynthus. (Xen. Hell. vi. 2. § 3 ; Diodor. xv. 45, seq.; as to the statements of Diodorus, see Grote, JJist. oj" Greece, vol. x. p. 192.) The Zacynthians I