Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/264

 248 ASTABORA^. 'vrheUier the name of the r^on and its inhabitants ought not to be Artabene and Artabeni respectively. According to Ptolemy the Astabeni were a people of Hjrcania, on the coast of the Casjnan. The AsTACENi dT Plin. (ii. 105, 109) are probably the same people. [V.] ASTABOKAS. [NilusJ A'STACUS fAffTOifos : Eth. 'Aaraienvis, 'ktrri- Kios^y a town on the W. coast of Acarnania, on the bay now called DragaiMsti, one side of which is fonn<^ by the promontory anaently named Crithote. The ruins of Astacns are probably those described by Leake as below a monastery of St. Elias, and which he supposes to be those of Crithote. There was, however, no town Crithote, but only a promontory of this name; and Leake has mismuierstood the pas- sage of Strabo (p. 459), in which Crithote is men- tioned.* Astacus is said to have been a colony of Cephallenia. At the commencement of the Pelo- ponnesian war, it was governed by a tyrant, named ,£varchus, who was deposed by the Athenians (b.c. 431), but was shortly afterwards restored by the Corintliians. It is mentioned as one of the towns of Acamania in a Greek inscription, the date of which is subsequent to B.C. 219. (Strab. ^c; Steph. Byz. 8. v. Thuc. ii. 30, 33, 102; Scyla.x, p. 13; Ptol. iii. 14; BSckh, Corpw Inscript.. No. 1793; Leake, Northern Greece^ vol. iv. p. 4, seq.) A'STACUS ('Airraids: Eth.'A(rraKiivoSf'AL 224) says that the first co- lonists came from Megara, in the beginning of the seventeenth Olympiad, and those from Athens came afterwards. Mela (i. 19) calls it a colony of M^ara. It appears that tliis city was also called Olbia; for Scylas (p. 35), who mentions the gulf of Olbia and Olbia, does not mention Astacus; and Strabo, who names Astacus, does not mention Olbia. The mythical story of Astacus being founded by Astacus, a son of Poseidon and the nymjdi Olbia, favours the sup- position of the identity of Astacus and Olbia. (Steph. s. V. AtfToxi^t.) Astacus was seized by Doedalsus, the first king <^ Bithynia. In the war between Zi- poetes, one of his successors, and Lysimachus, the place was destroyed or damaged. Nioomedes II., the son of Zipoetes, transferred the inhabitants to his city of Nioomedia {Ismid), b. c. 264. Astacus appears to have been near the head of the gulf of Astacns, and it is placed by some geographers at a spot called Ovatchtk, and also BashJxU. Nicomedia was not built on the site of Astacus [Nicomedia] ; it is described by Memnon as oppo- site to Astacus. [G. L.] A'STAPA(*A(rTair<£ : Eth. AirrairaiOi, Astapenses : Est^My Ru.), an inland city of Hispanla Baetica, in an open plain on the S. margin of the valley of the Baetis, celebrated for its &te in the Second Punic War. Its firm attachment to Carthage had made it so obnoxious to the Romans, that, though it was perfectly indefensible, its inhabitants resolved to hold out to the last, when besieged by Marcius, the Heu- tenant of Scipio, and destroyed themselves and their city by fire, rather than fiUl into his hands. (Appian, Bisp. 33 ; Liv. xxviii. 22.) A coin is extant, bear- place of this name in the Thradan Chersonesus, which Strabo mentions cursorily, on account of its bearing the same name as the promontory in Acar- jiaoia. (Hofimann, Griechenlandy p. 450.) ASTIGI. ing its name, the genuineness of which, however, ia questionable. It was not, as Hardouin thought, the OsTiFPO of Pliny: its total destruction accounts finr the absence of its name from the Itineraries and the pages of the geographers. (Morales, AnL vi. 28; Florez, vol. iii. p. 16; Sestini, p. 38; Eckhel, vol. L p. 15 ; Ukert, i. 2, p. 360.) [P. S.] ASTAPUS. [NiLUS.] ASTE'LEPHUS ^Airr^Ac^f), one of the small rivers of Colchis, rising in the Caucasus, and falling into the Euxine 120 stadia S. of Dioscorias or Se- bastopolis, and 30 stadia N. of the river Hippos. (Arrian. Perip. PonL Eux. 9, 10; Plin. vi. 4.) It is also called Stelippon (jGeogr. Rav,^ and Stempeo (T(d>, PeuL). Different modem writers attempt to identify it with different streams of the many on this coast: namely, the Markhoula or Tamu9chf the Mokri or AJuu^ the Shijam or Kdeuhol, and the Kodor. (Ukert, vol. iii. pt 2, p. 204 ; Mannert, voL iv. p. 394; Forbiger, vol. ii. p. 443.) [P.S.] ASTE'RLA.. [Dblos.] ASTE'RION. [Argos, p. 201, a.] A'STERIS CAffTfpfs, Hom.,'A<rrfp£o), an island between Ithaca and Cephallenia, where tiie suitors laid in wait for Telemadius on his return from Pe- loponnesus (Horn. Od. iv. 846). This ishind gave rise to considerable dispute among the ancient com- mentators. Demetrius of Scepsis maintained that it was no longer in existence; but this was denied by Apollodorus, who stated that it contained a town called Alalcomenae.' (Strab. i. p. 59, x. pp. 456, 457). Some modem writers identify Asteris with a rocky islet, now called Dyscattio; but as this island lies at tlie northern extremity of the stnut between Ithaca and Cephallenia, it would not have answered the purpose of the suitors as a place of ambush for a vessel coming from the south. (Mure, Tour in Greece^ vol. i. p. 62 ; Kruse, Mettat, vol. ii. pL ii. p. 454.) ASTETttUM CAcrr^pioi': Eth. 'Affrtpu&nis^^ a town of Thessaly, mentioned by H(nner, who speaks of " Asterium and the white summits of Titanns." (^AffTfptoy Tirauoid re Aci/k& K<l(pi|va, IL ii. 735.) Asterium was said to be the same ci^ as Peiresia or Peiresiae (Steph. B. s. f. ^AiFripiov which is de- scribed by ApoUonins Rhodius (i. 35) as placed near the junction of the Apidanus and Enipeus, and by the author of the Or]^ca as near the confluence of the Apidanus and Enipeus. (Orphic. Argon. 164.) Leake nanarks that both these descriptions may be applied to the hill of Vlohhdy which is situated be- tween the junction of the Apidanus and the Enipeus and that of the united stream with the Peneins, and at no great distance from either confluenoe. There are some ruins at Vlohhoy which represent Asterium or Peiresiae; while the white calcareous rocks cS the hill explain and jnstify the epithet which Homer gives to Titanus. Strabo (ix. p. 439), who places Titanus near Ame, also speaks of its white ooloor. Peiresiae is said by Apollonius (1. e.) to have been near Mount Phylleium, which Leake supposes to be the heights separated by the river from the hill of Vlokhd. Near Mount Phylleium Stnbo (ix. p. 435) places a city PhyUus, noted for a temple of Apollo Phylleius. Statius (Jhth. ir. 45) calls this city Phylli. The town of Irrsiae, mentioned by Livy (xzxii. 13), is perhaps a false reading for Peiresiae. (Leake, Northam Greecty vol. iv. p. 322, seq.) ASTI'GI, ASTI'GIS (^Atrnyii, Ptol. ii. 4. § 14; Strab. iii. p. 141,conrupted into 'Atrr^vas in all th^
 * The word iroXix*^ in this passage refers to the