Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/605

 CEOS. K. CEPHALLENIA. 587 " ■» w of PoeSessa to Carthjiea. ( Stntb><<li r p. 486 ; comp. Plin. /. c.) ^= ■ » luLis ('Ioui5: Elh. *lovvfiTnSj *lovw6s)j the most important town in Ceos, is celebrated as the birthplace of the two great lyric poets Simonides and Bacchylides, of the sophist Prodicus, of the physician Erasistratns, and of the peripatetic phi- loflopher Ariston. From the great celebrity of Simonides he was frequently called einpliatically the Cean; and Horace, in like manner, alladee to his poetry under the name of Ceae Camenae (Cam. It. 9. 8), and Cea Nenia {Carm, ii. 1. 38). lolis was situated on a hill about 25 stadia from the sea, in the northern part of the bland, on the same site as the modem Zeo, which is now the only town in the ishind. There are several remains of lulls; the most important is a colossal Hod, about 20 feet in length, which lies a quarter of an hour east of the town. The legend already quoted from Heraclides Pont probably has a reference to this lion; and the more so as there is a fountain of water gushing from the spot where the lion stands. The laws of lulis were veiy celebrated in anti- quity; and hence " Cean Laws'* were used pro- verbiidly to indicate any excellent institutions. (Comp. Plat. Prot. p. 341, Leg, i. p. 638; B<3ckh, (ui Min, p. 109.) The&e kws related to the moraht of the citizens and their mode of life. One of them quoted by Menander was particularly celebrated: — It was said that every citizen above 60 yeare of age was obliged to put an end to his life by poison, fur which we find two reasons assigned; one that there might be a sufficient maintenance left for the other inhabiUnts, and the other that they might not suffer fxxMii sickness or weakness in their old age. Lej Steph. B. «. v. *louKls; Aelian, V. H. in. 3 'Val! Max- ii. 6. § 8 ; Hemcl. Pont. /. c.) Other Cean laws are mentioned by Heraclides -Pont, (^.c.) and Athenaeus (xiii. p. 610; comp. Mttller, Aegiaetica, p. 132). CoRESSiA (Kopii<nyfa, Strab. /. c; Coressus, Plin. U c), was the harbour of lulis. Near it was a temple of Apollo Smhitheus, and the small stream Elixus flowed by it into the sea. There are a very few remains of the town on the heights upon the west side of the bay. The harbour is krge and commodious. Cakthaba (KdpBoM: Eth. Kop«o«^f), was si- tdlUd on the s6uth-eastem side of the island. There an still considerable ruins of tins town, called V reus n6tus. (Pol. xvi. 41; Strab. Plin. ILcc.; Steph. B. S.V.; Anton. Lib. I; Ov. Ifci.vii. 368, x. 109.) The ancient road from lulis toCeos, broad and level, and supported in many places by a strpng wall, may still be tracedv^ ^ '.,... COIN OF CARTHABA IN CEOS. PoBKBasA (Tloffitiraa) was situated on the south- western side of the island, on a high and steep pro- montory. Its ruins are inconsiderable and still pre- serve their ancient name. (Strab. Plin. II cc. ; St«ph. B. s. V.) The population of the island in 1837 did not much exceed 3,000 souls. Its principal article of commerce is the Valonia acorn (the acorn of the Quercus Aegilope), which is exported in large quan- tities for the use of tanners. (Toumefbrt, Ttxivelsj vol. i. pu 252, transl.; Boss, JR^itm au/den Griech. Insein, vol. i. p. 127; and especially Brunsted, Jiei- ten find Untersuckungen in GriedtetUand, vol. i., who has given a very detailed account of every thing relating to the island.) CE'PHALAE (K€a(dJbcpoif: Cefaio or Msa- raia^ vulgo Menirata)^ a lofty and well-wooded promontory of the Begio Syrtica on the N. coast of Africa, forming the western headland, as Borbum Pr. fbrmed the eastern cape of the Greater Syrtis. [Syrtbs.] Strabo makes it a little more than 5000 stadiia from Carthage. (Strab. xvii. pp. 835, 836; PtoL iv. 3. § 13; Blaquifere, LeUers from the MedUerranean^ vol. i. p. 18; Delia Cella, Viaggio, &c p. 61 ; Barth, Wandenmgen, p. 322.) [P.S.] CEPHALE. [Attica, p. 332, b.] CEPHALLE'NL^ (Kf^^tcAAiji^ta, KtipaXifulai Eth. Kc^KxAA^v, pL KfipaXXrjvfSf K€<paXX'fivt05 : Cephaionia% called by Homer Same {^dfiti, Od. L 246, ix. 24) or Samos (2<Wj, II ii. 634, Od. iv. 671), the largest isknd in the Ionian Sea, opposite the Corinthian gulf and the coast of Acamania. Along the northern half of the eastern coast of Cephallenia lies the small island of Ithaca, which is separated from it by a narrow channel about three miles in breadth. (Comp. Ham. Od. iv. 671.) Strabo says that Cephallenia was distant from the promontory Leucata in the island of Leucas about 50 stadia (others said 40), and from the promon- tory Chelonatas, the nearest point in the Pelopon- nesus, about 80 stadia. (Strab. x. p. 456.) Pliny describes it as 25 (Roman) miles from Zacynthus. (Plin. iv. 12. s. 19.) The first of these distances is tolerably correct; but the other two are erroneous. From C. Viacardo^ the moet northerly point of Ce- phallenia, to C. Dukaio (the ancient Leucata), the distance is 5 English miles, or about 40 stadia; but from C. Scala, the most southerly point in Cephal- lenia, to C. Tomeee, the nearest point in the Morea, the distance is 23 miles, or about 196 stadia; while from C. Scala to the northernmost part of 2^yu- thus the real distance is only 8 miles. The size of Cephallenia is variously stated by the ancient writers. Strabo (I. c.) makes it only 300 stadia in circuit. Pliny (/. c, according to Sillig's edition) says that it is 93 miles in circumference; and Agathemerus (i. 5) that it is 400 stadia in length, both of which measurements are nearer the troth, though that of Agathemerus is too great. The greatest length of the island is 31 English miles. Its breadth is very unequal : in the middle of the island, where a bay extends oight miles into the land, the breadth is about 8 miles, but in the northern part it is nearly double that distance. The area of tlie island is about 348 square miles. Cephallenia is correctly described by Strabo as a mountainous country. Homer in like manner gives to it tlie epithet of iraiTa?io4a<ni (^Od. iv. 671). A ridge of calcareous mountains runs across the island from NW. to SE., the lower declivities of which cover nearly the whole island. The highest summit of this range, which rises to the height of about 4000 fleet, was called Abnus (ATi'os), and upon it was a temple of Zeus Aeuesius. (Strab. /. c.) From this