Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/909

 SAMBULOS. SAMBULOS. [Ragist.vnus IIons.] SAMBUS (2a^i§os), a small river which funns one of the tributaries of the Jumna. It is men- tiimed by Arrian in his list of Indian rivers (/»rf. c. 4.). [V.] SAME or SAMOS (Sa^l, SoVos ; Eth. "Xafialos : Samo), the most ancient city in Cephallenia, which is also the name of this island in the poems of Homer. [Cepiiallknia.] The city stood upon the eastern coast, and upon the channel separating Cephallenia and Ithaca. (Strab. x. p. 455.) Along with the other Cephallenian towns it joined the Athenian alliance in b. c. 43). (Thuc. ii. 30.) When M. Fulvius passed over into Cephallenia in b. c. 189, Samos at first submitted to the Romans along with the other towns of the island ; but it shortly after- wards revolted, and was not taken till after a siege of four months, when all the inhabitants were sold as slaves. (Liv. xsxviii. 28, 29.) It appears from Livy's narrative that Same had two citadels, of which the smaller was called Cyatis ; the larger he designates simply as the major arx. In the time of Strabo there existed only a few vestiges of the ancient city. (Strab. I. c. ; comp. Plin. iv. 12. s. 19.) Same has given its name to the modern town of Samo, and to the bay upon which it stands. Its position and the remains of the ancient city are described by Leake. It stood at the northern ex- tremity of a wide valley, which borders the bay, and which is overlooked to the southward by the Icifiy summit of Mount Aenus (^Elato). It was built upon the north-western face of a bicipitous height, which rises from the shore at the northern end of the modern town. " The ruins and vestiges of the ancient walls show that the city occupied the two summits, an intermediate hollow, and their slope as far as the sea." On the northern of the two summits are the ruins of an acropolis, which seems to have been the major arx mentioned by Livy. On the southern height there is a monastery, on one side of which are some remains of a Hellenic wall, and which seems to be the site of the Cyatis, or smaller citadel. There are considerable remains of the town walls. The whole circuit of the city was barely two miles. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 55.) A COIN OF S^VME. SA'MIA. [Samicum.] iSA'MlCUM {•S.a.fjLLKdv: Eth. SctjUi/ceus), a town of Triphylia in liiis, situated near the coast about half-way between the mouths of the Alpheius and the Neda, and a little north of the Anigrus. It stood upon a projecting spur of a lofty mountain, which here approaches so near the coast as to leave only a narrow pass. From its situation commanding thi.s pass, it is probable that a city existed here from the earliest times; and it was therefore identi- fied with the Arene of Homer (//. ii. 591, xi. 723), which the poet places near the mouth of the Jlinycius, a river supposed to be the same as the Anigrus [Auknk.] According to Strabo the city was originally called Samo.s {"Zafios), from its being situated upon a hill, because this word formerly .M;^'nificd "heights." Samicum was at first the SAMINTHUS. 889 name of the fortress, and the saine name was al.-,o given to the surrounding plain. (Strab. viii. pp. 340, 347; Pans. v. 5. § 3.) Pausanias speaks (v. 6. § 1) of a city Samia (2a|Ui'a), which he apparently distinguishes froin Samicum; but Samicum is the iinly place mentioned in history. [See some remarks under Macistus.] Samicum was occupied by the Aetolian Polysperchon against the Arcadians, and was taken by Philip, b. c. 219. (Paus. v. 6. § 1 ; Polyb. iv. 77, 80.) The ruins of Samicum are found at Khaidffa (written XaXdmra), which is only the name of the guarded pass. The ruined walls are 6 feet thick, and about 1|- mile in circumfe- rence. They are of the second order of Hellenic masonry, and are evidently of great antiquity. The towers towards the sea belong to a later age. Near Samicum upon the coast was a celebrated temple of the Samian Poseidon, surrounded by a grove of wild olives. It was the centre of the religious worship of the six Triphylian cities, all of whom contributed to its support. It was under the superintendence of Macistus, the most powerful of the Triphylian cities. (Strab. viii. pp. 344, 346, 347.) In a corrupt passage of Strabo (p. 344) this temple is said to be 100 stadia equidistant from Lepreum and the Annius (toC 'Avilov') ; for the latter name we ought to read Alpheius and not Anigrus, as some editors have done. In the neighbourhood of Samicum there were celebrated medicinal springs, which were said to cure cutaneous diseases. Of the two lagoons which now stretch along the coast, the larger, which ex- tends as far as the mouth of the Alpheius, begins at the northern foot of the hill upon which Samicum stands ; the southern extends along the precipitous .sides of the hill, which were called in antiquity the Achaean rocks. (Strab viii. p. 347.) The river Anigrus flows into the latter of these lagoons, and from thence flows out into the sea. The lagoon is deep, being fed with subterraneous sources ; in summer it is said to be very fetid, and the air ex- tremely unwholesome. Strabo relates that the waters of the lake were fetid, and its fish not eat- able, which he attributes to the Centaurs washing their wounds in the Anigrus. Pausanias mentions the same circumstances; and both writers describe the efficacy of the water in curing cutaneous diseases. There were two caves, one sacred to the Nymphs Anigrides ('Ai'i7pi'5es, Paus.; 'Auiypid^es, Strab.), and the other to the Atlantides; the former was the more important, and is alone mentioneil by Pau- sanias. It was in the cave of the Anigrides that the persons who were goitjg to use the waters first offered up their prayers to the Nymphs. (Strab. viii. p. 346, seq.; Paus. v. 5. §§ 7 — 11.) These two caves are still visible in the rocks; but they are now accessible only by a boat, as they are innncdiately above the surface of the lake. General Gordon, who vLsited these caverns in 1835, found in one of tluni water distilling from the rock, and bringing with it a pure yellow sulphur. (Leake, Morea,o. i, p. 54, seq., Peloponnesiaca, p. 108; Boblayc, L'echerches, (J'c, p. 133, seq.; Curtius, Pelopo/inesos, vol. ii. p. 78, seq.) SAMINTHLTS (2dfj.iv6os), a town in the Argeia, on the western edge of the Argive jiiain, which wa.s taken by Agis, when he marched from I'hlius into the territory of Argos in n. c. 418. (Thuc. v. 58.) Its position is uncertain. Leake, who supposes Agis to have marched over Mt. Lyrceium and the adjoining hills, places it at Kutzopodhi (J/orea,