Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/421

 NAXOS. probable that enmity to their neighbours at Slessana was a strong motive in inducing them to join the Athenians; and during the hostilities that ensued, the Me.ssanians having on one occasion, in B.C. 425, made a sudden attack upon Nasos both by land and sea, the Naxians vigorously repulsed them, and in their turn inflicted heavy loss on the assailants. (Id. iv. 25.) On occasion of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily (B.C. 415), the Naxians from the first espoused their alliance, even while their hindred cities of Khegium and Catana held aloof; and not only fur- nished them with supplies, but received them freely into their city (Diod. xiii. 4; Thuc. vi. 50). Hence it was at Kaxos that the Athenian fleet first touched after crossing the straits ; and at a later period the Naxians and Catanaeans are enumerated by Thu- cydides as the only Greek cities in Sicily which sided with the Athenians. (Thuc. vii. 57.) After the failure of this expedition the Chalcidic cities were naturally involved for a time in hostilities with Syracuse; but these were suspended in B.C. 409, by the danger which seemed to threaten all the Greek cities alike from the Carthaginians. (Diod. xiii. 56.) Their position on this occasion preseiwed the Naxians from the fate which befell Agrigentum, Gela, and Camarina; but they did not long enjoy this immu- nity. In B.C. 403, Dionysius of Syracuse, deeming himself secure from the power of Carthage as well as from domestic sedition, determined to turn his arms against the Chalcidic cities of Sicily ; and having made himself master of Naxos by the treachery of their general Procles, he sold all the inhabitants as slaves and destroyed both the walls and buildings of the city, while he bestowed its territory upon the neighbouring Siculi. (Diod. xiv. 14, 15, 66, 68.) It is certain that Naxos never recovered this blow, nor rose again to be a place of any consideration : but it is not easy to trace precisely the events which followed. It appears, however, that the Siculi, to ■whom the Naxian territory was assigned, soon after formed a new settlement on the hill called Mount Taurus, which rises immediately above the site of Naxos, and that this gradually grew up into a con- siderable town, which assumed the name of Tauro- menium. (Diod. xiv. '58, 59.) This took place about B.C. 396; and we find the Siculi still in possession of this stronghold some years later. {lb. 88.) Jlean- while the exiled and fugitive inhabitants of Naxos and Catana formed, as usual in such cases, a con- siderable body, who as far as possible kept together. An attempt was made in b. c. 394 by the Ehegians to settle them again in a body at iilylae, but without success; for they were speedily expelled by the Mes- sanians, and from this time appear to have been dispersed in various parts of Sicily. (Diod. xiv. 87.) At length, in b. c. 358, Andromachus, the father of the historian Timaeus, is said to have collected together again the Naxian exiles from all parts of the island, and established them on the hill of Tau- rnmenium, which thus rose to be a Greek city, and became the successor of the ancient Naxos. (Diod. xvi. 7.) Hence Pliny speaks of Tauromenium as having been formerly called Naxos, an expression which is not strictly correct. (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14.) The fortunes of the new city, which quickly rose to be a place of importance, are related in the article Tauromenium. The site of Naxos itself seems to have been never again inhabited ; but the altar and shrine of Apollo Ai-chcgetes continued to mark the spot where it had stood, and are mentioned NAXOS. 405 in the war between Octavian and Sextus Pompey in Sicily, B. c. 36. (Appian, B. C. v. 109.) There are no remains of the ancient city now extant, but the site is clearly marked. It occupied a low but rocky headland, now called the Capo di Schisb, formed by an ancient stream of lava, im- mediately to the N. of the Alcantara, one of the most considerable streams in this part of Sicily. A small bay to the N. affords good anchorage, ami separates it from the foot of the bold and lofty hill, still occupied by the town of Taormina ; but the situation was not one which enjoyed any peculiar natural advantages. The coins of Naxos, which are of fine workman- ship, may almost all be referred to the period from B. c. 460 to B. c. 403, which was probably the most flourishing in the history of the city. [E. II. B.] COIN OF NAXOS IN SICILY. NAXOS or NAXUS (Na^os, Suid. s. v.), a town of Crete, according to the Scholiast {ad Find. Isth. vi. 107) celebrated for its whetstones. Hock (Kreta, vol. i. p. 417) considers the existence of this city very problematical. The islands Crete and Naxos were famed for their whetstones (Plin. xxxvi. 22 ; comp. xviii. 28), and hence the confusion. In Mr. Pashley's map the site of Naxos is marked near Spina Lmga. [E. B. J.] NAXOS or NAXUS (Nc{|os: Eth. Nd|<oj : Naxia), the largest and most fertile of the Cyclades, situated in the middle of the Aegean sea, about halfway between the coasts of Greece and those of Asia Minor. It lies east of Paros, from which it is separated by a channel about 6 miles wide. It is described by Pliny (iv. 12. s. 22) as 75 Roman miles in circumference. It is about 19 miles in length, and 15 in breadth in its widest part. It bore several other names in an- cient times. It was called Strongyle {iTpoyyvX-r}) from its round shape, Dionysias {i^iovvaias) from its excellent wine and its consequent connection with the worship of Dionysus, and the Smaller Sicily (/j-iKpa SiK-eAia) from the fertility of its soil (Flin. iv. 12. s. 22: Diod. v. 50— 52);' but the poets fre- quently give it the name of Dia (Ai'o; c</mp. Ov. Met. ii. 690, viii. 174.) It is said to have been originally inhabited by Thracians, and then by Ca- rians, and to have derived its name from Naxos, the Carian chieftain. (Diod. v. 50, 51 ; Stcph. R. «. v. Na|oj.) In the historical ages it was colonised by lonians from Attica (Herod, viii. 46), and in con- sequence of its position, size, and fertility, it became the most powerful of the Cyclades. The govern- ment of Naxos was orignally an oligarchy, but was overthrown by Lygdamis, who made himself tyrant of the island. (Aristot. ap. Ath. viii. p. i348.) Lygdamis, however, appears not to have retained hi.s power long, for we find him assisting Peisistratus in his third restoration to Athens, and the latter in re- turn subduing Naxos and committing the tyranny to Lygdamis. (Herod, i. 61, 64; comp. Aristot. Pol. v. 5.) But new revolutions fuUowed. The D D 3