Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/457

 NISYRUS. X. p. 488; Steph. B. s. v.) It also bore the name of Porph3'i1s, on account of its rocks of porphyry. The island is almost circular, and is only 80 stadia in circumference; it is said to have been formed by Poseidon, with his trident, knocking off a portion of Cos, and throwing it upon the giant Polybotes- (Strab. X. p. 489; Apollod. i. 6. § 2; Paus. i. 2. §4; Eustatb. ad Dion. Perieg. 530, ad Horn. II. ii. 676.) The island is evidently of vulcanic origin, and was gradually formed by volcanic eruptions of lava from a central crater, which in the end collapsed, leaving at its top a lake strongly impregnated with sulphur. The highest mountain in the north-western part is 2271 feet in height; another, a little to the north- east, is 1800, and a third in the south is 1700 feet high. The hot springs of Nisyrus were known to the ancients, as well as its quarries of millstones and its excellent wine. The island has no good harbour; but near its north-western extremity it had, and still has, a tolerable roadstead, and there, on a small bay, was situated the town of Nisyrus. The same spot is still occupied by a little town, at a dis- tance of about 10 minutes' walk from which there are very considerable remnants of the ancient acropolis, consisting of mighty walls of black trachyte, with square towers and gates. From the acropolis two walls run down towards the sea, so as to embrace the lower town, which was built in terraces on the slope of the hill. Of the town itself, which possessed a temple of Poseidon, very little now remains. On the east of the town is a plain, which anciently was a lake, and was separated from the sea by a dike, of which considerable remains are still seen. The hot springs (bipfxa) still exist at a distance of about half an hour's walk east of the town. Stephanus B. (.9. «.) mentions another small town in the south-west of Nisyrus, called Argos, which still exists under its ancient name, and in the neighbourhood of which hot vapours are constantly issuing from a chasm in the rock. As regards the histoi-y of Nisyrus, it is said ori- ginally to have been inhabited by Carians, until Thessalus, a son of Heracles, occupied the island with his Dorians, who were governed by the kings of Cos. (Diod. V. 54; Hom. II. ii. 676.) It is pos- sible that, after Agamemnon's return from Troy, Argives settled in the island, as they did in Calymnus, which would account for the name of Argos occurring in both islands; Herodotus (vii. 99), moreover, calls the inhabitants of Nisyrus Epidaurians. Subsequently the island lost most of its inhabitants during repeated earthquakes, but the population was restored by in- habitants from Cos and Rhodes settling in it. Durinj^ the Persian War, Nisyrus, together with Cos and Calymnus, was governed by queen Artemisia (Herod. I. c). In the time of the Peloponnesian War it be- longed to the tributary allies of Athens, to which it had to pay 100 drachmae every month: subsequently it joined the victorious Lacedaemonians ; but after the victory of Cnidos, b. c. 394, Conon induced it to revolt from Sparta. (Diod. xiv. 84.) At a later period it was for a time probably governed by the Ptolemies of Egypt. Throughout the historical period the inhabitants of Nisyrus were Dorians; a fact which is attested by the inscriptions found in the island, all of which are composed in the Doric dialect. An excellent account of Nisyrus, which still bears its ancient name tiiavpos or Nioupa, is found in L. Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. ii. pp. 67--8L [;,. S.] NISYRUS, a town in the island of Cakpathus. NriRIAE. 441 NITAZI {It. Ant. p. 144), Nitazo (Geogr. Rav. ii. 17; Tab. Peut), or Nitalis {It. Eieros. p. 576), a town in Cappadocia, on the road between Jlocissus and Archelais, but its site is uncertain. [L. S.] NITIOBRIGES {liniuSpiy^s), a i«ople of Aqui- tania. In Pliny (iv. 19) the name Antobroges occurs: " rursus Narbonensi provinciae contermini Ruteni, Cadurci, Antobroges, Tarneque amne discreti a Tolosanis Petrocori." There is no doubt that Antobroges is an error, and that the true reading is Nitiobroges or Nitiobriges. The termination hriges appears to be the same as that of the word Alio- Ijroges. The chief town of the Nitiobriges, Aginnum {Affen), is mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 7. § 4), who places them next to the Petrocorii on one side, and to the Vasatii on the other. Strabo enumerates them between the Cadurci and the Petrocorii (Strab. iv. p. 190): " the Petrocorii, and next to them the Nitiobriges, and Cadurci, and the Bituriges, who are named Cubi." The position of the Nitiobriges is determined by these facts and by the site of Aginnum, to be on the Garonne, west of the Cadurci and south of the Petrocorii. D'Anville makes their territory extend beyond the then limits of the diocese of Afjen, and into the diocese of Condom. When Caesar {B. G. vii. 46) surprised the Galli in their encampment on the hill which is connected with the plateau of Gergovia, Teutomatus king of the Nitiobriges narrowly escaped being made pri- soner. The element Teut in this king's name is the name of a Gallic deity, whom some authorities suppose to be the Gallic Mercurius (Lactant. De falsa Relig. i. 21; and the Schol. on Lucan, i. 445, ed. Ouden- dorp). Others have observed that it is the same element as Teut in the Teutonic language, and as Dis, from whom the Galli pretended to spring (Pel- loutier, Hist, des Celtes, Liv. i. c. 14). The Nitio- briges sent 5000 men to the relief of Alesia when it was blockaded by Caesar {B. G. vii. 75). [G. L.] NITRA (Nirpa), a place which Ptolemy calls an f/xirupioi', on the W. coast of Hkulostdn, in the province of Limyrica. There can be no doubt that it is the same as that called by Pliny Nitrias (i. 23. s. 26), which he states was held by a colony of pirates. The author of the Periplus speaks of a place, in this immediate neighbourhood, named Naura, and which is, in all probability, the same as Nitrae. {Peripl. Mar. Erythr. § 58, ed. Muller.) It is most likely the present Honaver. [V.] NI'TRIAE (NiTpi'ai, Strab. xvii. p. 803; So'zomen, H. E. vi. 31 ; Socrat. H. E. iv. 23 ; Steph. B. s. v. ; Ni- TpiuTai, Ptol. iv. 5. § 25; Nitrariae, Plin. xxxi. 10. s. 1 6 : Eth. NiTpiT?;? and 'NiTpicoT7)s), the Natron Lakes {Birket-el-Ditarali), were six in number, lying in a valley SW. of the Aegyptian Delta. The valley, which is bounded by the limestone terrace which skirts the edge of the Delta, rans in a NW. direction for about 12 miles. The sands which stretch around these lakes were formerly the bed of the sea, and were strongly impregnated with saline matter, e. g. mu- riate, sulphate, and carbonate of soda. Rjiin, though rare in Aegypt, falls in this i-egion during the months of December, January, and February; and, consequently, when the Nile is lowest, the lakes are at high water. The salt with which the sands are encrusted as with a thin coat of ice (Vitruv. viii. 3), is carried by the rains into the lakes, and held there in solution during the wet season. But in the sum- mer months a strong evaporation takes place, and a glaze or crust is deposited upon the surface and edges of the water, which, when collected, is employed by