Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/268

 252 ATABYRIS, Bonmns, a great number of the Jews took refuge in this fortress; against whom Vespasian sent Pla- cidua with 600 horsemen. B7 a feint he induced the great body to pursue him into the plain, where he slew many, and cut off the return of the multi- tude to the mountain; so that the inhabitants, who were suffering from want of water, made terms, and surrendered themselves and the mountain to Placi- dus. (Joseph. I. c.) Nothing further is heard of Mount Taboo* till the 4th century, when it is often mentioned by Eusebius (jOnomast. s. y. Thabor Ita- byrium), but without any allusion to its being re- garded as the scene of the Transfiguration. About the middle of this century, the first notice of Tabor as the place where our Lord was transfigured ap- }ear8 as a passing remark by Cyiil of Jerusalem XCat. xii. 16, p. 170); and Jerome twice mentions the same thing, though he implies that there was not yet a church upon the summit. (Hieron. Ep. 44, ad Marcett. p. 522, Ep. 86; Epitaph. Paulae, p. 677.) Lightfoot {Hor, Hebr. in Marc. ix. 2) and Beland (Palaest. pp. 334 — 336) have inferred, from the narrative of the Evangelists, that the Mount of Transfiguration is to be sought somewhere in the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi. BosenmQIler (^BUd. AU. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 107) adheres to the an- cient traditions connected vrith tiiis mountain. The existence of a fortified city upon the spot so long before and after the event of the Transfiguration would seem, as Robinson {Palestine, vol. iiL p. 224) argues, to decide the question. At the foot of this mountain, in the time of the Crusades, many battles were fought between the Christians and Moslems; and in modem times a victory was here gained by Napoleon over the Turks. Mount Tabor, consists wholly of limestone; standing out isolated in the plain, and rising to a height of about 1,000 feet, it presents a beautiful appearance. Seen from the SW., its form is that of the s^ment of a sphere; to the NW. it more resembles a truncated cone. The sides are covered up to the summit with the valonia oak, wild jnatadiios, myrtles, and other shrubs. Its crest is table-land of some 600 or 700 yards in height from N. to S., and about half as much across. Upon this crest are remains of several small half- ruined tanks. Upon the ridges which enclose the small plain at Uie summits are some ruins belonging to different ages; some are of large bevelled stones, which cannot be of later date t]ban the Romans. (Robinson, Palestine, vol. iiL p. 213; Burkhardt, Traveis, p. 332.) Lord Nugent describes the view as the most splendid he had ever seen from any na- tural height, (^Lands Classical and Sacred, voL iL p. 204; Ritter, Erdkunde, West Asien, voL zv. p. 391 ; Raumer, Palestina, p. 37.) [E. B. J.] ATABYRIS MONS. [Rhodub.] A'TAGIS. [Athesis.] ATALANTA ( hroKMrrn : Eih. 'KraXamtuos.) 1. {TaUmdonisi), a small island off Locris, in the Opuntian gulf, said to have been torn asunder from the mainland by an earthquake. In the first year of the Peloponneidan war it was fortified by the Athenians for the purpose of checking the Locrians in their attacks upon Euboca. In the sixth year of the war a part of the AUienian works was destroyed by a great inundation of the sea. (Strab. i. p. 61, ix. pp. 395, 425; Thuc ii. 32, iii. 89; Diod. xii. 44, 59; Pans. x. 20. § 3; Liv. xxxv. 37; Plin. ii. 88, iv. 12; Sen. Q. N. vi. 24; Steph. B. s, v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 1 72.) 2. A small island off the western coast of Attica, ATARNEUS. between Salamis and Pdraeeus. (Strab. ix. pp. 39J?, 425; Steph. B. s.v.) 3. A town in Macedonia, in the upper part of the valley of the Axius. (Thuc ii. 100.) Cramer (^Ancient Greece, vol. i. p. 230) suggests that the Atalanta of Thucydides is probably the town called Allante by Pliny (iv. 12), and Stephanus B. («. v. 'AAAiKTi)); the latter says that Theopranpus named it Allantium. ATARANTES (Ardpairrts), a people of Inner Libya, in the N. part of the Great Desert (SoAora), in an oasis formed by salt hiUs, between the Gan- mantes and Atlantes, at a distance of ten days' jour- ney from each (Herod, iv. 184), apparently in Fezzan. They used no individual names; and they were accustomed to curse the Sun for its boraing heat (fi^^fp ^€p€d}iOifTi, the sun as it passes over their heads, or when its heat is excessive ; the com- mentators differ about the meaning). In all the MSS. of Herodotus, the reading is "ArXayrts. Bat, as Herodotus goes on to speak separately of the At- lantes, the editors are agreed that the ruuiing in the first passage has beoi corrupted by the oommoo confusion ai a name comparatively unknown with one well known; and this view is confirmed bjr tlie ^t that Mela (i. 8. § 5) and Pliny (v. 8) give an account of the Atlantes, copied from the abo?e state- ments of Herodotus, with the addition of what He- rodotus a£Srms in the second passage of the Atlantca (where the name is right), that they saw no visions in then* sleep^ The reading ^Ardpayrfs b a correc- tion 0^ Salmasius (act SoUn. p. 292), on the autho- rity of a passage from the Achaica of the Alexan- drian writer Rhianus (^ap. Enstath. ad Dion. Perieg. 66: comp.Steph. B.«.p.''ATAArrcs; Nicd. Damasc ap. Stob. Tit. xliv. vol. ii. p. 226, Gaisf.; Diod. Sic iii. 8; Solin. /. c; Baehr, ad Herod. L c; Heineke, Anal. Alex. pp. 181, 182.) [P. S.] ATARNEUS or ATARNA ('ATo^w^r, "An^a: Eth. ^Arapvtifs, ^AraptftirTis), a city of Mysia, op* posite to Lesbos, and a strong place. It was on the road from Adramyttium to the plain of the Caicus. (Xen. An(d>. vii. 8. § 8.) Atameus seems to be the genuine originiU name, though Atama, or Atainea, and Ateme (Pliny) may have prevailed afterwards. Stei^ianus, who only gives the name Atama, cod- sistently niakes the ethnic name Atameus. Herodo- tus (i. 160) tells a story of the dty and its territory, both of which were named Atameus, being given toi the Chians by Cyrus, for their having surrendered, to him Pactyes the Lydian. Stephanus {s. v. "Amu- ffosy and other ancient authorities consider Atameus to be the Tame of Homer (//L v. 44); but perhaps incorrectly. The territory was a good com country. Histiaeus the Milesian was defeated by the Persians at Malene in the Atamdtis, and taken prisono*. (Herod, vi. 28, 29.) The phu» was occupied at a later, time by some exiles from Chios, who from this strong position sallied out and plundered Ionia. (Diod.xiiL 65; Xen. EelL iii. 2. § 11.) This town was oik* the residence of Hermeias the tyrant, the friend of Aristotle. Pausanias (vii. 2. § 11) says that the same calamity befel the Atameitae which drove the Myusii from their city [Mycs] ; but as the position of the two cities was not similar, it is not quite clear what he means. They left the place, however, if his statement is trae; and Pliny (v. 30), in his time, mentions Atameus as no longer a city. Pausanias (iv. 35. § 10) speaks of hot springs at Astyra, op- posite to Lesbos, in the Atameus. [AsmrKA.] The site of Atameus is generally fixed at Dihdir