Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/584

 5«6 CASYSTEa Carpatliiifl and Crete, is, according to Strabo, 70 stadia firom Carpathofl, 250 from Cape Sammoniora in Crete, and is itself 80 stadia in circumference. (Strab. z. p. 489.) Pliny (i7. 12. s. 23) makes it 7 M. P. from Carpatfans, and 30 M. P. from Sanmio- ninm. It is mentioned by Homer (/2L ii. 676). It is said to have been formerly called Amphe (Achne) and Astrabe; and it was supposed in antiquity that the name of Mt Casium in Syria was derived from this island. (Steph. B. $, w, Kieros, Yiairto¥ ; Plin. V. 31. s. 36.) Casus has been visited by Boss, who describes it as consisting of a single ridge of mountains of con- siderable height. On the N. and W. sides there are several rocks and small islands, which Stiabo calls (/. c.) al KoxtImv vriaoi. Boss found the remains of the ancient town, which was also called Casus, in the interior of the isbmd, at the village of PoUn (a diminutive instead of USKiov or UoKl^iiow), The ancient port-town was at JEmporekm^ where Boss also discovered some ancient remains : among others, ruins of sepulchral chambers, partly built in the earth. He found no autonomous coins, since the island was probably always dependent either upon Cos or Bhodes. In the southern part of the island there is a small and fertile plain surrounded by mountains, called Argos, a name which it has retained from the most ancient times. We find also an Argos in Ca- lymna and Kisyrus. Before the Greek revolution, Casus contained a population of 7500 souls; and though during the war with the Turks it was at one time almost deserted, its population now amounts to 5000 Its inhabitants possessed, in 1843, as numy as 75 large merchant vessels, and a great part of the commerce of the Christian subjects in Turkey was in their hands. (Boss, Reiaen in den Griech. Instln^ vol. iii. p. 32, seq.) CASYSTES (YiMriHmii), a port of Ionia. Strabo (p. 644), whose description proceeds from south to north, fliter describing Teos, says, " before you come to Erythnie, first is Gerae, a small city of the Teians, then Corycus, a lofty mountain, and a harbour under it, Casystes; and another harbour called Erythras" (see Groskurd's Traml vol. iii. p. 24, 25, and notes). It is probably the Cyssus of Livy (zzzvL 43), the port to which the fleet of Antiochus sailed (b. c. 191) before the naval engagement in which the king was defieated by Eumenes and the Bomans. Leake supposes this port to be Latzdta, the largest on this part of the coast. [G. L.] CATABANI (KaTogovm), a people of Arabia, named by Pliny (vi. 28. s. 32), and Strabo (xvi. p. 768), and placed by the latter at the mouth of the Bed Sea, i. e., on the east of the Straits of Bab-el- Mandeb^ and west of the Chatramotitae. Their ca- pital was Catabania, perhaps the same as the Bana of Ptolemy. Forster takes the name to be simply the classical inversion of Bent Kahtan, tlie great tribe which mainly peoples, at this day, Central and Southern Arabia (^Arahia^ vol. ii. p. 155, more fully proved in vol. L pp. 83, 84, 131, 132), and finds in them the descendants of the patriarch Jok- tan ((?en. x. 25, 26), the recognised father of the primitive tribes of Arabia (76. i. p. 77). [G. W.] CATACECAU'MENE (^ Karoiceicau^eVij, or Strabo (p. 628), after describing Philadelphia, says, " Next is the country called Catacccaumene, which is about 500 stadia in length, and 400 in width, whether we must call it Mysia or Maoonia, for it is CATAEA. called both names. It is all without trees, exeept the vine, which produces the wine called Cataoe- caumenites, which is inferior in quality to n<»ie of the wines that are in repute. The sm-faoe of the plain country is of ashes, but the mountainous part is rocky, and black, as Lf it had been burnt" Be- jecting certain fanciful conjectures the geographer concludes that this appearance had been caosed by internal fires, which were then quenched. He adds, " three pits, or cavities, are pointed out, which they call bhist-holes (i^mtoi), about 40 stadia from one another; rough hills rise above them, which it is probable have been pled up from the liquid matter that was ejected." Strabo correctly dLtinguishes the ashes or cinders of this country from the hard rugged lava. The volcanic r^on is traversed by the upper Hermus, and contains the modem town of Koula. There are three cones, which are more recent than others. They are about five miles apart, and answer to Strabo*s description. They are " three remaiiL- able bhick conical hills of scoriae and ashes, all with deep craters, and well defined. From each of them a sea of black vesicular lava has flowed forth, bursting out at the foot of the cones, and after endrding their bases, rushing down the inclined surface of the country through pre-existing hollows and valleys, until it has reached the bed of the Hermus, flowing from E. to W. to the north of the volcanic hills" (Hamilton). The cones, and their lava streams, seem to be of comparatively recent origin ; the sur- faces are not decomposed, and contrast witii the rich surrounding vegetation. The most eastern of theese cones, Kara Devlity near KotUoj is 2,500 it. above the sea, and 500 feet above the town of Koula. The second is seven miles distant from this cone to the west, in the centre of a large plain. The enter of this cone is perfect. In a ridge between these two CMies is a bed of crystalline limestone^ which has been subject to the influence of the lava stream. The third, and most westerly of these recent craters, has a cone consisting chiefly of loose cinders, sccuiae and ashes ; and the crater, which is the best preserved of the three, is about half a mile in circumference, and 300 or 400 feet deep. These three cratera lie in a straight line in the tract of conntiy between the Hermus and its branch the Cogamus. Streams of lava have issued from all these cones; and the stream from this third crater, after passing through a narrow opening in the hills, has made its way into the valley of the Hermus, and run down the narrow bed until it has emerged into the great plain of Sardis. There are numerous cones of an older period, and lavas that lie beneath those of the mom recent period. This country still produces good wine. Major Keppel found at Koula an inscription with the name Mfjtovcs, said to have been brought from Megnij which lies between the second cone and the most westerly; and Hamilton saw there a large stone built into the walls of a mosque with Mawptiw in rude characters. The country, as we learn from Strabo, was called Maeonia, and there was a town of the same name, which Megni may represent. (Hamilton, Researches^ ^^ vol. i. p. 136, ii. p. 131 &c.) [G. L.] CATADUPA. [NiLus.] CATAEA (Karofa, Arrian, Ind, 37), an island on the western limit of Carmania, about 12 miles from the shore. It was, according to Arrian, low and desert; a character which it still retains, accord^ ing to Thevenot, though more modem authorities
 * ' the burnt country "), a tract in Asia Minor.