Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/423

 NAZAEETH. tory, and connected, by tradition, with the first ha- bitation of Noah, and the descent of the patriarch from the ark. (Comp. Joseph. Antig. i. 35 ; St. Martin, Mim. siir V Armenie, vol. i. p. 131 ; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 363 ; Ciiesney, Expecl. Eujihrat. vol.i. p. 145.) [E. B. J.] NAZARETH (Nafape'e : Eth. T^aCaprji'ds, Na- (oipalos), a city of Galilee, celebrated in the New Testament as the residence of our Lord for thirty years, before He commenced His public ministry (S. 3Iark, i. 9; S. Luke, iv. 16, 29), from which circumstance he was called a Nazarene. (5. Mark, i. 24, xiv. 67; S. Matt. xxvi. 71.) It was appa- rently in bad repute, even among the despised Gali- leans themselves. (S. John, i. 46.) It was visited by ourLord immediately on His enterinffonHis ministry, when an attempt was made upon His life {S. Luke, iv. 1 6 — 30) ; and He appears only to have visited it once subsequently, again to exemphfy the proverb, that " no prophet is accepted in his country." (S. Matt. xiii. 54—58 ; S. Mark, vi. 1—6.) Its site is well described by Eusebius as over against Legio, 15 miles distant from it towards the E., near to Mount Tabor. Its site has never been lost in Christian times, and in all ages travellers have made mention of it. (Reland, Palaestina, pp. 905 — 907.) " The town of Nazareth, called in Arabic En-Nasirah, lies upon the western side of a narrow oblong basin, extending about from SSW. to NNE., perhaps 20 minutes in length by 8 or 10 in breadth. The houses stand on the lower part of the slope of the western hill, which rises steep and high above them. Towards the N. the hills are less high ; on the E. and S. they are low. In the SE. the basin contracts, and a valley runs out narrow and winding to the great plain." The precipitous rocky wall of this valley is culled the Mount of Precipitation. The elevation of the valley of Nazareth is given as 821 Paris feet above the sea, and that of the mountains above Nazareth 1500 or 1600 feet; but Dr. Robin- son thinks this estimate too high. The houses of the town are well built of stone. The population amounts to about 780 taxable males, of whom 170 are Moslems ; the remainder. Christians of various denominations. (^Biblical Res. vol. iii. pp. 183 — 185.) [G. W.] NAZIANZUS (Na^iwios), a town in the south- west of Cappadocia, in the district called Gar- sauria, 24 miles to the south-east of Arche- lais. The place is not mentioned by the early writers, and owes its celebrity to the fact that it was the place where Gregory of Nazianzus was edu- cated, and where he afterwards became bishop. (Hierocl. p. 700; Socrat. Hist. Eccles. iv. 11; Greg. Naz. Vita Cariii. v. 25, Epist. 50 ; Cone. Const. ii. p. 97; It. Ant. p. 144; It. Ilieros. p. 577, where it is miswritten Nathiangus; comp. Diocaesareia.) Hamilton {Researches, vol. ii. p. 228) is inclined to believe that the modern place called Euran Sheher, near Haval Dere, marks the site of Nazianzus, though others identify the village of Mimisu with it. [L. S.] NEAE (Ne'ai), a small island near Lemnos, in which Philoctetes, according to some authorities, was bitten by a water-snake. (Steph. B. s. v.; comp. Antig. Caryst. Mirah. c. 9.) Pliny places it be- tween Lemnos and the Hellespont (ii. 87. s. 89). It is called in the charts Stratia, and by the modem Greeks " kyios (TTparTiyds, the holy war- rior, that is, St. Michael. (Walpole, Travels, (jc p. 55.) NEAPOLIS. 407 NEAE PATRAE. [Hypata.] NEAETHUS (Neaiflos, Strab. ; N:7aieo9, Theocr. ; 'Navaidos, Lycophr.), a river on the E. coast of Bruttium, falling into the gulf of Ta- rentum about 10 miles N. of Crotona, still called the Nieto or Neto. Strabo derives its name from the circumstance that it w-as here that the Trojan women who were conducted as captives by a Greek fleet, set fire to the ships of the victors, and thus compelled them to settle in this part of Italy. (Strab. vi. p. 262; Plin. iii. ll.s. 15.) It is well known that the same legend is transferred by other writers to many different localities, and appears to have been one of those which gradually travelled along the coast of Italy, in the same manner as the myths relating to Aeneas. The form of the name NavaiOos employed by Lycophron (^Alex. 921) points evi- dently to the same fanciful derivation (from vavs and aWuj). Theocritus alludes to the rich and va- ried herbage which grew on its banks (/d. iv. 24), and for which, according to a modern traveller, it is still remarkable. (Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 313.) [E. H. B.] NEANDREIA. NEA'NDRIUM, NEANURUS (NewSpfia, 'NedvSpLOP, NfOfSpos : Eth. Neaj'Spcuj or Nfavdpieus), a town in Troas, probably founded by Aeolians ; in the time of Strabo it had disappeared, its inhabitants, together with those of other neigh- bouring places, having removed to Alexandreia. (Strab. xiii. pp. 604, 606.) According to Scylax (p. 36) and Stephanus Byz. (s. v.^, Neandreia was a maritime town on the Hellespont ; and Strabo might perhaps be supposed to be mistaken in placing it in the interior above Hamaxitus ; but he is so explicit in his description, marking its dis- tance from New Ilium at 130 stadia, that it is scarcely possible to conceive him to be in the wrong. Hence Leake {Asia Minor, p. 274), adopting him as his guide, seeks the site of Neandreia in the lower valley of the Scamander, near the modern town of Ene. [L. S.] NEANDRIA. [Nea.] NEANISSUS (NeacifTcrds or Nai/effcro's), a town in Armenia Minor, on the south-east of Phreata, and between this latter town and Diocaesareia. (Ptol. v. 6. § 14.) No further particulars are known about the place. [L. S.] NEA'POLIS, i. e. " the New City." ^ I. In Eu- rope. 1. (NeaTToAis ; Eth. NeaTroAiTTjs, Strab. and Steph. B. ; but coins have NeoiroAiTTjs, Neapo- litanus: Napoli ; in French and English Naples), one of the most considerable cities of Campania, situated on the northern shore of the gulf called the Crater or Sinus Cumanus, which now derives from it the name of Bay of Naples. All ancient writers agree in representing it as a Greek city, and a colony of the neighbouring Cumae; but the circum- stances of its foundation are very obscurely related. Scymnus Chius tells us it was founded in pursuance of an oracle; and Strabo calls it a Cumaean colony, but adds that it subsequently received an additional body of Chalcidic and Athenian colonists, with some of the settlers from the neighbouring islands of the Pithecusae, and was on this account called Neapolis, or the New City. (Strab. v. p. 246 ; Scymn. Ch. 253 ; Veil. Pat. i. 4.) Its Chalcidic or Eubocan origin is repeatedly alluded to by Statius, who was himself a native of the city (Silv. i. 2. 263, ii. 2. 94, iii. 5. 12); but these expressions probably refer to its being a colony from the Chalcidic city of Cumae. The name itself sufficiently points to the fact that it was U I) -i