Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/897

 SALAMIS. Evagoras with his son Pnytagonis was assassinated by a euniicli, slave of Nicocreon (Aristot. Pul. v. 8. § 10; Diodor. xv. 47; Theopoinp. Fr. iii. ed. DiJot), and was succeeded by another son of the name of Nicocles. The Graeco-Aesryptian fleet un- der Jlenelaus and his brother Ptolemy Soter was utterly defeated ofl' the harbour of Sahunis in a sea- fight, the greatest in all antiquity, by Demetrius Poliorcetes, b. c. 306. (Diodor. xx. 45 — 53.) The famous courtezan Lamia formed a part of the booty of Demetrius, over whom she soon obtained un- bounded influence. Finally, Salamis came into the hands of Ptolemy. (Plut. Demetr. 35 ; Polyaen. Strateg. 5.) Under the Koman Empire the Jews were numerous in Salamis (^Acts, xiii. 6), where they had more than one synagogue. The farm- ing of the copper mines of the island to Herod (Joseph. Antiq. xv. 14. § 5) may have swelled the numbers who were attracted by the advantages of its harbour and trade, especially its manufactures of embroidered stuffs. (Athen. ii. p. 48.) In the memorable revolt of the Jews in the reign of Trajan this populous city became a desert. (Mihnan, Hist, of the Jetus, vol. iii. pp. Ill, 112.) Its demolition was cumpleted by an earthquake; but it was rebuilt by a Christian emperor, from whom it was named CoNST.us'TiA. It was then the metropolitan see of the island. Epiphanius, the chronicler of the heretical sects, was bishop of Constantia in A. d. 367. In the reign of Heraclius the new town was destroyed by the Saracens. The ground lies low in the neighbourhood of Salamis, and the town was situated on a bight of the coast to the N. of the river Pediaeus. This -low land is the largest plain — Salaminia — in Cypnis, stretching inward between the two mountain ranges to the veiy heart of the country where the modern Turkish capital — Nicosia — is situated. In the Life and Epistles of St. Paul, by Coneybeare and How- son (vol. i. p. 169), will be found a plan of the har- bour and ruins of Salamis, from the sun-ey made by Captain Graves. For coins of Salamis, see Eckhel, vol. iii. p. 87. [E. B. J.] SA'LAMIS C2,aafjiis, -7vo5: Eth. and Adj. 2a- AauiVios, Salaminius : Adj. 'ZaAafj.tfiaicds, Sala- niiniacus: Kuluri), an island lying between the western coast of Attica and the eastern coast of Jlegaris, and forming the southern boundary of the bay of Eleusis. It is separated from the coasts botii of Attica and of Megaris by only a narrow channel. Its form is that of an irregular semicircle towards the west, with many small indentations along the coast. Its greatest length, from N. to S., is about 10 miles, and its width, in its broadest part, from E. to W., is a little more. Its length is correctly given by Strabo (ix. p. 393) as from 70 to 80 stadia. In ancient times it is said to have been called Pityussa (riiTiioOffo-a), from the pines which gravj there, and also SciUAS (^Kipai) and Cychukia (Kuxpf"), from the names of two he- roes Scirus and Cychreus. The ibrmer was a native hero, and the latter a seer, who came from Dodona to Athens, and perished along with Erecli- theus in fighting against Eumolpus. (Strab. ix. p. 393; Paus. i. 36. § 1 ; Philochor. aj). Plut. T/ies. 17.) The latter name was perpetuated in the island, for Aesciiylus (Pers. 570) speaks of the aicral Kvxpelat, and Stephanus B. mentions a Kvxpews -ndyos. The island is said to have ob- tained the name of Salamis from the mother of Cychreus, who was also a daughter of Asopus. SALAJIIS. 877 (Paus. i. 35. § 2.) It was colonised at an early period by the Aeacidae of Aegina. Telamon, the son of Aeacus, fled thither after the murder of his half-brother Phocus, and became sovereign of the island. (Paus. i. 35. § 1.) His son Ajax accom- panied the Greeks with 12 Salaminian ships to the Trojan War. (Hom. //. ii. 557.) Salamis con- tinued to be an independent state till about the beginning of the 40th Olympiad (b. c. 620), when a dispute arose for its possession between the Athenians and Megarians. After a long struggle, it first fell into the hands of the Megarians, but was subsequently taken possession of by the Athenians through a stra- tagem of Solon. (Plut. Sul. 8, 9 ; Paus. i. 40. § 5.) Both parties appealed to the arbitration of Sparta. The Athenians supported their claims by a line in the Iliad, which represents Ajax ranging his ships with those of the Athenians {II. ii. 558), but this verse was suspected to have been an interpolation of Solon or Peisistratus ; and the Jlegarians cited another version of the line. The Athenians, more- over, asserted that the island had been made over to them by Philaeus and Eurysaces, sons of the Telamonian Ajax, when they took up their own residence in Attica, These arguments were con- sidered sufficient, and Salamis was adjudged to the Athenians. (Plut. Sol. 10; Strab. ix. p. 394.) It now became an Attic demus, and continued in- corporated with Attica till the times of Macedonian supremacy. In B.C. 318, the inhabitants volun- tarily received a JIacedonian garrison, after having only a short time before successfully resisted Cas- sander. (Diod. xviii. 69; Polyaen. Strut, iv. 11. § 2 ; Paus. i. 35. § 2.) It continued in the hands of the Macedonians till b. c. 232, when the Athenians, by the assistance of Aratus, purchased it from the JIacedonians together with llunychia and Sunium. Thereupon the Salaminians were expelled from the island, and their lands divided among Athenian cleruchi, (Plut. Arat. 34 ; Paus. ii. 8. § 6; Bockh, hiscr. vol. i. p. 148, seq.) From that time Salamis probably continued to be a dependency of Athens, like Aegina and Oropus; since the grammarians never call it a 5^/xos, which it had been originally, but generally a Tr6ts. The old city of Salamis, the residence of the Te- lamonian Ajax, stood upon the southern side of tiie island towards Aegina (Strab. ix. p. 393), and is identified by Leake with the remains of some Hellenic walls upon the south-western coast near a small port, where is the only rivulet in the island, perliaj)s answering to the Bocauus or BocAi.iAS of Strabo (ix. p. 394; Leake, iJemi, p. 169). The Bocarus is also mentioned by Lycophron (451). In another passage, Strabo (ix. p. 424) indeed speaks of a river Cephissus in Salamis; but as it occurs only in an enumeration of various rivers of lliis name, and innnediately follows the Athenian Cephissus without any mention being made of tlic Eleusinian Cephissus, we ought probably to read with Leake eV 'E(va7vt instead of eV 2aAa/xrn. When Salamis became an Athenian demus, a new city w^as built at tiie head of a bay upon the eastern side of the island, and opposite the Attic coast. In the lime of Pausanias this city also had fallen into decay. There remained, however, a ruined agora and a temple of Ajax, containing a statue of the hero in ebony; also a temple of Artemis, the trojihy erected in honour of the victoiy gained over the Persians, and a temple of Cychreus. (Paus. i. 35. § 3,36. § 1.) Pausanias has not mentioned the