Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/392

 874 BALEAl^S. probably right. The root bal points to a Phoe- nician origin; perhaps the islanda were sacred to the deitj of that name; and the accidental resemblanoe to the Greek xxwt BAA (in fidKKu)^ conpled with the occupation of the people, would be qnite a suf- ficient foundation for the usual Greek practice of assimilating the name to their own language. That it was not, however, Greek at first, may be infezred with great probabilltj from the &ct that the common Greek name of the islands is not BaA«ap«25, but rvfxyjiaiaif the former being the name used by the nativetf as well as bj the CartJiaginians and Uomans. (Plin.; Agathem.; DionCas8.aj9.Tzetz.adXycpAr. 533; Eustath. {. c.) The latter name, of which two fancied etymolc^es hare been already referred to, is probably derived from the light equipment of the Balearic troops (yu/AV^ros). (Stnb. xiv. p. 654; Plin. Z.C.) The islands were taken possession of in very early times by the Phoenicians (Strab. ill. pp. 167, 168); a remarkable trace of whose colonisation is preserved in the town of Mago {Mahon in Minorca)^ which still gives the name of a princely fiunily of Carthage to a noble house of England. After the fall of Car- thage, the islands seem to have been virtually inde- pendent. Notwithstanding their cdebrity in war, the people were generally very quiet and inoffenrive. (Strab.; but Floms gives them a worse character, iii. 8.) The Romans, however, easily found a pre* text for charging them with complvdty with the Mediterranean pirates, and they were conquered by Q. Gaecilius Metellus, thence sumamed Balearious, B. c. 123. (Liv. EpiL Ix. ; Freinsh. Supp, Ix. 37 ; Florus, Strab. II cc.) Metellus settled 3,000 Roman and Spanish colonists on the larger island, and founded the cities of Palma and PoU^tia. (Strab., Mel., Plin.) The islands belonged, under the em- pire, to the convcntus of Carthago Nova, in the pro- vince of Hispania Tarraoonensis, of which province they formed, with the Pityusae, the fourth district, under the government of a praefechu pro legeUo. An inscriptbn of the time of Nero mentions the PR.EP. PBAE LEGATO IVSUIAR. BALXARUM. (Orelli, No. 732, who, with Muratori, reads pro for prae,) They were afterwards made a separate pro* vince, probably in the dirision of the empire under Constantino. (Not, Dig. Occid. c. xx. vol. ii. p. 466, Bocking.) The ancient writers describe the Balearic islands s>metimes as (^ the coast of Tyrrhenia (vtpl t^v TvpaJiyiHa, Steph. B.), sometdmes as the first islands, excent the Pityusae, to one entering the Mediterr»- Bean from Gades. (Plin. /. c.) The larger island, Balearis Major (MaUorctC)^ or Columba (/(m. Ant. p. 511) was a day's sail from the coast of Spain: it is, in &ct, 43 miles NE. of Iviza^ which is 50 miles E. of C. St Martin. Pliny makes the distance from Dianinm Pr. (C S, Martin)^ on the coast of Spain to the Pityusae (Jviza, &c.), 700 stadia, and the Baleares the same distance fhrther out at sea. The Antonine Itinerary (/. c.) places the Baleares 300 stadia from Ebusus (Jviea). The •mailer island, Balearis Minor (Menarca)^ or Nuba {Itm, Ant, p. 512), lies to the E. of the larger, from which it is separated by a strait 22 miles wide. The little island of Cabrera^ S. of MaUorca, is the Cafraria of the ancients. In magnitude the islands were described by Timaeus {ap. Diod. t c; Strab. xiv. p. 654) as the largest in the world, except seven — namely, Sardinia, Kcily, Oyprns, Crete, Euboea, Corsica, and Lesbos } but BALEARES. • Strabo rightly observes that there are others largef. Strabo makes the larger island nearly 600 stadia long by 200 wide (iii. p. 167); Artemidonis gave it twice that siz^e (Agathem. i. 5); and Pliny (jL c) makes its length 100 M. P. and its circuit 375 : its area is 1,430 square miles. Besides the colonies of Palma (JPdlma) and Pollehtia (PoLlenta)^ al- ready mentioned, of which the former lay on the SW., and the hitter on the NE., it had the smaller towns of Cinium (Smeu), near the centre of the isknd, with the Jm Latii (Plin. I. c); Cnnici {Al- cudia /), also a civitas Latma (PIin« L c, where Sillig now reads Tucm); and Gigunta (/iwer. ap. Grater, p. 378. No. 1.) The smaller island MnvoR (Menorca) is described by Stnibo ss lying 270 stadia E. of Pollentia on the larger: the Antonine Itinerary (p. 512) assigns 600 stadia for the interval between the blaiiads, which is more than twice the real space: Pliny makes the distance 30 M. P. (240 stadia), the ko^gth cf the island 40 M. P„ and its circuit 150. Its true length is 32 miles, average breadth 8, area about 260 square miles. Besides Maoo {Port Malum), and Jamxo or jAMifA {Cwdadda), at the £. and W. ends respectively, both Phoenician settlements, it had the inland town of Sanisera {Alajor, Plin. I. c). Both ishuids had numerous excellent harbours, though rocky at their mouth, and requiring care in entering them (Strab., Eustath. ^ oe. : PortMahon is one of the finest harbours in the world). Both were extremely fertile in all produce, except wine and olive oil. (Aristot. de Mir, Atuc 89 ; Diod., but Pliny praises their wine as well as their com, xiv. 6. s. 8, xviii. 7. s. 12 : the two writers are speaking, in fact, of difierent periods.) They were celebrated for their cattle, especially for the mules of the lesser island; they had an immense number of rabbits, and were free fitom all venomous reptiles. (Strab., Mel., Ic; Plin. I c, viii. 58. s. 83, xxxv. 19. s. 59; Varro, R, JLiu. 12 ; Aelian, H. A, xiii. 15 ; Solin. 26.) Among the snails valued by the Romans as a diet, was a species from the Balearic isles, called cavaHcaef from their being bred in caves. (Plin. XXX. 6. s. 15.) Thdr chief mineral product was the red earth, called rinope, which was used by painters. (Plin. xxxv. 6. s. 13; Vitruv. vii. 7.) Their resin and jHtch are mentioned by Dioscorides (Mat. Med. I 92). The population of the tw0 islands is stated by Diodorus (L c.) at 30,000. Twelve Roman miles S. of the larger island (9 miles English) in the open sea (xii. M. P. in altum) lay the little uland of Capraria (Cabrera^, a tiva- cherous cause of shipwrecks (intidioga naufroffiiSf Plin. Lc; naufragalia. Mart. Cap. de Nvpt. PkiL ri.); and opposite to Pahna the islets called Mi/-<-' j^ariae, Tiquadra, and piurva Hannibalis. (PHn.) / ^ / The part of the Mediterranean E. of Spain, around ^ the Balearic isles, was called Mare Balearicum (rh BaA.ca/Mic^y rcActyoi, Ptd. ii 4. § 3), or Sinus Balearicus. (Fbr. iii. 6. § 9.) For further informati(xi respecting the islands and the people, see the following passages, in addition to t hose a lready quoted. (Polyb. i. 67, iii. 113; liM; i43M; Liv. xxi. 21, 55, xxiL 37, xxviil 37; Hirt. B.A.2S; Lucan, i. 229, iii 710; Suet. Galb. 10; Oros. i. 2; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. viL 661.) The islands still contain some mmmments of thdr original inhabitants, in the shape of tumuli, such as those which Diodorus describes them as raising over their dead. !fh^rttmmli consist of large nnhewii'^Tr /^ stones, and are surrounded by a fence of flat stones