Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/678

 662 POSEIDONIUM. nortli of Cap Creux, is in Gallia [CERVAniA]. It appears then that there is no authority for placing this temple of Venus at Portus Veneris except the passage of Phny, which leads to this conclusion, if the distance xl. is right. The passage of Mela has heen corrupted by Vossius. It is even doubtful I if " inter Pyrenaei proinuntoria" is the true reading. Some editions have '' in Pyrenaei promuntorio," but if that reading is right, the promuntorium of Mela is not Cap Creux. [G. L.] POSEIDO'NIUM, or POSI'DIUM {UoffuUvLov, Thuc. iv. 129 ; Posidium, Liv. xliv. 11), the SW. cape of Pallene, probably so called from a temple to Posei- don, which still retains its name vulgarly pronounced Posidhi. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 156.) Miiller {Geog. Grace. Min. vol. i. p. 52) identifies it with the TiiR^VJiBiiis of Scylax (p. 26; comp. ©epa^goi, Herod, vii. 123; @pa.fi.Sos: Eth. Qpa/x- Sovcrios, Steph. B. ; Lycophr. 1405), which Leake and Kiepert place near the Canastraeum Prom.; but as Scylax interposes Scione between them, Thram- beis corresponds better with Posidhi. [E. B. J.] POSI'DIUJI or POSEI'DIUM (nocreiSior), the name of several promontories sacred to Poseidon. 1. fn Europe. 1. A promontory on the coast of Lucania, opposite to the little island of Leucosia, from which it is still called Punta della Licosa. [Leucosia.] 2 The SW. cape of Pallene in Macedonia, also called Poseidonium. [Poseidonium.] 3. A promontory in Chaonia in Epeirus, between Onchesmus and Buthrotum, opposite the NE. of Corcyra. (Strab. vii. p. 324; Ptol. iii. 14. § 4; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 92.) 4. A promontory in Thessaly, in the district Phthiotis, described by Strabo as lying between the Maliac and Pagasaean gulfs, is the promontory closing the Pagasaean gulf on the S. It is called Zelasium by Livy, now C. Stavi-os (Strab. vii. p. 330, Fr. 32; Ptol. iii. 13. §17; Liv. xxxi. 46; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 351). POSI'DIUM or POSEI'DIUM (Jlocni^iov). II. In Asia. 1. The easternmost promontory of the island of Samos. (Strab. xiv. p. 637.) 2. A promontory on the eastern coast of the island of Chios (Strab. xiv. p. 644; Ptol. v. 2. § 30), now called Cape Uelene. 3. A. promontory of Bithynia, at the northern ex- tremity of the bay of Cios or iMyrleia, forming the termination of Mount Arganthonius, is now called Cape Bozburun, in the Sea of ^[armora. (Ptol. v. 1. § 4; Marcian, p. 70; Scylax, p. 35, where it is called simply aKpuTTjpiov tov Kiavov kSXttov.') 4. A promontory on the coast of Cilicia, 7 stadia to the West of the town of Mandane, is now called C. Kizliman. (Stadiasm. Mar, Magn. § 175.) 5. A promontory on the south-west coast of Caria, south of Miletus, to the temtory of which it be- longed. It forms the northern extremity of the lasian bay, and also contamed a small town of the same name. (Polyb. xvi. 1 ; Strab. xiv. pp. 632, 651, 658; Plin. v. 31; Pomp. Mela, i. 17; Stadi- asin. Mar. Magn. §§ 273, 275, 276.) Its modern name is C. Baha or del Arhura. [L. S.] 6. A promontory in Arabia, on the eastern side of the entrance of the gulf of Heroopolis, where was a grove of palm-trees, and an altar to Poseidon, which was erected by Ariston, whom one of the Ptolemies had sent to explore the Arabian gulf. This pro- montory is now called Has Mohammed. (Artemid. ap. Strab. xvi. p. 776; Diod. iii. 42.) Strabo, or POTENTIA. his copyist, erroneously says that it lies within the Aelanitic recess. (See the notes of Groskurd and Kramer.) 7. A promontory in Arabia, E. of the Straits of the Red Sea {Bab-el-Mandeb, Ptol. vi. 7. § 8), which must not be confounded with No. 6, as some modern writers have done. 8. A town on the coast of Syria, in tlie district Cassiotis, lying S. of Mt. Casius. There are still remains of this town at Posseda. (Strab. xvi. pp. 751, 753 ; Ptol. v. 15. § 3 ; Plin. v. 20. s. 18.) POSIDOXIA,POSIDONIATES SINUS. [Pae- STL"3I.] POSTU'MIA or POSTUMIA'NA CASTRA, a fortress in Hispania Baetica, seated on a hill near the river Salsum (Hirt. B. Hisp. 8); probably the modern Salado, between Osuna and Anteqiiera. (Mariana, iii. 2; Florez, Esp. S. x. p. 150, xii. p. 14.) [T. H.D.] PO'TAMI (noTOiRoi), a fort on the north-eastern part of the coast of Paphlagonia, with a harbour for small craft. According to Arrian (^Peripl. P. E. p. 15) it was 150 stadia to the NE. of Ste- phana, but according to others only 120. (Mar- cian, p. 72; Anonym. Peripl. P. E. p. 7, who places it 100 stadia to the SW. of Cape Syrias.) [L.S.] POTA'MIA (JloTaixia), a district in the SW. of Paphlagonia mentioned by Strabo (xii. p. 562), but without defining its extent or limits. [L. S.] PO'TAMUS, or PO'TAMI. [Attica, p. 331, b.] PO'TANA (Jldrava, Agatharch. de Mar. Erythr. § 104, ed Paris, 1855), a place mentioned by Aga- tharchides, which Alexander the Great founded at the mouth of the Indus. Diodorus calls it Yloravai. (iii. 46). It has been suspected, with some reason, that the name in both of these authors is an error for Pattala (the present Tatta), which is spoken of in similar terms by Arrian (Anab. v. 4, vi. 17, Lidic. c. 2) and by Pliny (ii. 75). On the other hand, the name may readily be conceived as a Graecism for Patau, a common Indian word for a town or city. [V.] POTE'NTLA. 1. (UoTfVTia: Efh.Fotentmns: Sta Maria a Potenza), a town of Picenum, situated on the coast of the Adriatic, at the mouth of the river of the same name, still called the Potenza, and 18 miles S. of Ancona. We have no means of de- termining whether or not there was an ancient tovm on the spot previous to the Roman conquest of Picenum ; but in B. c. 184 a Roman colony was settled there, at the same time with that at Pisau- rum in Umbria. (Liv. xxxix. 44; Veil. Pat. i. 15. The older editions of Livy have Pollentia, but there seems no doubt that the true reading is Potentia.) It was, as well as the latter, a " colonia civium," but does not seem to have ever risen to a posi- tion of importance ; and with the exception of an incidental notice in Cicero of an earthquake that occurred in its teiTitoiy (Cic. de Ilarusp. Resp. 28), no mention of its name is found in his- tory. It is, however, mentioned by all the geogra- phers as one of the towns of Picenum, and at a later period its name is still found in the Itineraries. (Strab. V. p. 241 ; Mel. ii. 4. § 6 ; Plin. iii. 13. s. 18 ; Ptol. iii. 1. §21; Itin. Ant. pp. 101, 313 ; Tab. Pent.) From the Liber Coloniarum we learn that it had received a fresh body of colonists, though it is uncertain at what period (Lib. Colon, pp 226, 257); but there is no evidence of its having retained the rank of a colony under the Roman Em- pire. (Zumpt, de Col. p. 336). It became an