Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/401

 the river Longanus, on the banks of which the ac- tion WHS fought, cannot be identified with certainty. [LONGANUS.] It is probable that, even after the Roman conquest of Sicily, My}ae continued to be a dependency of Jlessana, as long as that city enjoyed its privileged condition as a " foederata civitas : " hence no mention is found of its name in the Vei-rine orations of Cicero ; but in the time of Pliny it had acquired the ordinary municipal privileges of the Sicilian towns. (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 2.) It never, however, seems to have been a place of importance, and was at this period whollj' eclipsed by the neighbouring colony of 'I'yndaris. But the strength of its position as a fortress caused it in the middle ages to be an object of attention to the Norman kings of Sicily, as well as to the emperor Frederic II.; and though now much neglected, it is still a military position of import- tunce. The modern city of MHazzo is a tolerably flourishing place, with about 8000 inhabitants ; it is built for the most part on a low sandy neck of land, connecting the peninsula, which is bold and rocky, with the mainland. But the old town, which pro- bably occupied the same site with the ancient city, stood on a rocky hill, forming the first rise of the rocky ridge that constitutes the peninsula or head- land of Capo di Milazzo. The modern castle on a hill of greater elevation, commanding both the upper and lower town, is probably the site of the ancient Acropolis. (Thuc. iii. 90; Smyth's -S«c%, pp. 103, 104; Hoare's Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 215.) The promontory of Mylae, stretching out abruptly into the sea, forms the western boundary of a bay of considerable extent, affording excellent anchorage. This bay was memorable in ancient history as the scene of two great naval actions. The first of these was the victory obtained by the Roman fleet under C. Duillius, over that of the Carthaginians in the First Punic War, b. c. 260, in which the Roman consul, by means of the engines called Corvi (then used for the first time), totally defeated the enemy's fleet, and took fifty of their ships. (Pol. i. 23.) iSIore than two centuries later, it was in the same bay that Agrippa, who commanded the fleet of Octavian, defeated that of Sextus Pompeius, b. c. 36. Agrippa advanced from the island of Hiera, where his fleet liad been before stationed, while the ships of Pompey lined the shores of the bay of Jlylae. After their defeat they took refuge at the mouths of the nume- rous small rivers, or rather mountain torrents, which here descend into the sea. After this battle, Agrippa made himself master of Mylae as well as Tyndaris ; and some time afterwards again defeated the fleet of Pompeius in a second and more decisive action, between Mylae and a place called Naulochus. The latter name is otherwise unknown, but it seems to have been situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of Cape Rasoculmo, the Phalacrian promontory of Ptolemy. (Appian, B. C. v. 195—109, 115—122; Dion Cass. xhx. 2—11; Veil. Pat. ii. 79; Suet. Atig. 16.) In the account of this campaign Appian speaks of a small town named Aktemisium, which is no- ticed also by Dion Cassius, and must have been situ- ated a little to the E. of Mylae, but is not mentioned by any of the geographers. (Appian, B. C. v. 116 ; Dion Cass. xlix. 8.) It is, however, obviously the same place alluded to by Silius Italicus as the " sedes Facelina Dianae " (Sil. Ital. xiv. 260), and called by Lucilius, in a fragment of his satires, "Facelitis templa Dianae." (Lucil. Sat. iii. 13.) VOL. II. MYLASSA. 385 Vibius Sequester also mentions a river which he calls PnACELiNUS, and describes as " juxta Pe- loridem, confinis templo Dianae." (Vib. Seq. p. 16.) It is, however, obvious, from Appian, that the temple was not situated in the neighbourhood of Pelorus, but at a short distance from Mylae, though the precise site cannot be determined. It was desig- nated by popular tradition as the spot where the sacred cattle of the Sun had been kept, and were slaughtered by the comfxinions of Ulysses. (Appian, I.e.; Plin. ii. 98. s. 101.) The Mons Thorax, mentioned by Diodorus in his account of the battle of the Longanus (Diod. sxii. 13), must have been one of the underfalls of the Neptunian Mountains, which throughout this part of Sicily descend close to the sea-shore ; but the particular mountain meant is wholly uncertain. [E. H. B.] MYLAE. Pliny (iv. 12) speaks of two islands of this name, lying oS" the coast of Crete. They belonged to the group of three islands off Phalasarna (Kutri), called by the Anonymous Coast-describer JusAGORA, Mese, SIyle (^Stadiasm). Petalidha is the name of the northernmost of the three little islands; the second, opposite to which is Kavusi, is called Megalonesi, in spite of its very moderate size; and the third Prasonesi. (Pashley, Trav. vol. ii. p. 61.) [E. B.J.] MYLAE (MvAa'i: Eth. Mva7os), a town of Per- rhaebia in Thessaly, taken by Perseus in B. c. 171. (Liv. xlii. 54; Steph. B. s. v.) As Livy describes it as a strong place near Cyretiae, it is placed by Leake at Bhamdsi, " which is not only strong in itself, but very important, as commanding the pass of the Titaresius, leading into Perrhaebia from the Pelasgiotis." {Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 311.) MYLAS, or MYLE (MuAas), a promontory on the coast of Cilicia, between cape Aphrodisias in the west and cape Sarpedon in the east. On or close to it was a small town of the same name (Plin. v. 22; Stadiasm. 3Iar. Mag. §§ 165, 166.) As the Stadiasmus calls Mylas a cape and chersone.-e, Leake {Asia Minor, p. 205) is inclined to identify it with cape Cavaliere, which answers exactly to that description. [L. S.] MYLASSA or MYLASA {ra MvXaaaa, or Mv- Aacro: Eth. MvAacrevs), the most important town of Caria, was situated in a fertile plain, in the west of the country, at the foot of a mountain, abounding in beautiful white marble, of which its buildings and temples were constructed. Hence the city was ex- ceedingly beautiful on account of its white marble templesand porticoes, and many wondered that so fine a city was built at the foot of a steep overhanging mountain. The two most splendid temples in the city were those of Zeus Osogos and Zeus Labrandcnus, the latter of which stood in the neighbouring village of Labranda, on a hill, and was connected with the city by a road called the sacred, 60 stadia in length, along which the processions used to go to the temple. The principal citizens of Iilylassa were invested with the office of priests of Zeus for life. The dty was very ancient, and is said to have been the birthplace and residence of the Carian kings before llalicar- na^sus was raised to the rank of a capital. Its nearest point on the coast was Physcus, at a dis- tance of 80 stadia, which was the port of Mylassa; though Stephanus B. calls Passala its port-town. (Strab. xiv. p. 658, &c.; Aeschyl. Fragm. 48, where it is called Mylas ; Steph. B. s. v. ; Herod. 5. 171. Ptol. V. 2. § 20; Plin. v. 29; Pans. viii. 10. § 3.) The splendour of Mylassa is attested by an c c