Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/609

 CERAUNII. part immeduitelj above Iberia CancaiiuA in a narrower M^niie. (Ptol. V. 9. §§ 14, 15, 20, 22.) On the whole, it would Keem that the Greek name Ceraanius and the native Caucasus (^Katckas) were applied lat first indifferently to the highest mountains in the centre of the Caucasian isthmus, and afterwards extended, in a somewliat confused manner, to the whole, or portions, of the chain; and that the more accurate writers, such asStrabo and Ptolemy, adopted a specific distinction of a somewhat arbitrary cha- racter. The Ceraunii M. of Strabo seem to be the great NE. branch which meets the Caspian at the pass of Derbend, or perhaps the whole system of NE. spurs ai which that is only one. It may fairly be conjectured that Mela and Pliny were ignorant how soon tliese spurs meet the Caspian, and hence their error in extending to meet the Rhipaei M. [P. S.] CERAU'NII MONTES (Ktpawta 6f>Vy Strab. pp. 21, 281, 285, 316, seq., 324, et alibi: Khi- fiulra), a lofty range of mountains in the northern part of Epeirus, said to have derived their name irom the frequent thunder storms with whidi they were vi- sited. (Eustath. a«{i>»OR^.389 ; Serv. ad Virg.Aen. iii. 508.) They are sometimes also called Acroce- RAUNii or AcROCBRAUNiA, though this is properly the name of the promontory (rh Axpa Kcpavria, Dion Cass. xli. 44) running out into the Ionian sea, now called Glouaj and by the Italians Lingtietta. The Ceraunian mountains extended several miles along the coast from the Acroceraunian promontory southwards, and rendered the navigation very dan- gerous. Hence Horace (^Carm. i. 3. 20) »p^&ks of infamea teopuloi Acroceraunia (comp. Lucan, v. 652 ; ^1. Ital. viii. 632). Inland the Ceraunian mountains were connected by an eastern branch with the mountains on the northern frontier of Thessaly. The inhabitants of the mountains were called Ce- raunii. (Caes. B. C. iii. 6; Plin. iii. 22. s. 26; PtoL ii. 16. § 8.) (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. pp 2, seq., 88.) CERAUSIUM. [Ltcaeus.] CEKBALUS, a river of Apulia, mentioned only by Pliny (iii. 11. s. 16), who makes it the northern boundary of the Daunians. It is now called the CervarOf a considerable stream, which rises in the Apennines on the confines of Sanmium, near Ariano^ flows by Bovino (Vibiuum), and after traversing the pUn of Apulia, receives the waters of the Candehro just before it entera the Adriatic near Sipontum. Procopius {B. G. iii. 18) speaks of a place called Cen^arium (KtpSdptov) in Apulia, which derived its name from this river. [E.H.B.] CERBANI. [Cariiae.] CEKBERION. [Cimmebium.] CERBE'SII (K€/J*if(rtot), a Phrygian tribe men- tioned in a verse of Alcman, quoted by Strabo (p. 580), but the people were unknown in Strabo^s time. He mentions also a hole or chasm, called Cerbnius, which emitted pestilential vapours; but he does not say where it is. [G. L.] CE'RBIA (K€p«((a, Ktpnia, Const. Porph. de Them. i. 39 ; Kip^oio, Kip€o<a, Hierocl.), a town of Cyprus, which D'Anville places near the promontory of Crommyon. Wesseling (ap. HierocL $. v. Kip- €ota) supposes it to be the same place as the Cre- maseia of the poet Nonnus (^Dionyt. xiiL 455). (En- gel. KfproB, vol. i, pp. 77, 158.) [E. B. J.] CERCASOTRUM, or CERCASO'RA (K*pK«£- 0'«por, Herod, ii. 15, 17, 97 ; Ke/wcdirowpo, Strab. xviii. p. 806 ; Mela, i. 9. § 2 : El Aria*), was, from its position, as the key of Middle aud Lower CERCIN1T1& 591 Eirypt, a town of great importance, both in a military and a commercial point of view. Cerca- sorum stood in lat. 30° 3' K., at the apex of the Delta, and on the western or Canobic arm of the Nile. At this point, about ten miles below Memphis, the Kile ceases to be a simple stream, and branches off into numerous channels, while the hills which throughout the Thebaid and the Heptanomis embosom or skirt its banks, here diverge right and left, and sink gently down upon the Deltaic level. The Delta, in the presoit day, commences 6 or 7 mUes lower down the river, at Batr^el-Baharah. (Ren- neU's Geog. of Herod, vol. ii. p. 133.) [W.B.D.] CEHCETAE (Kcpjccrai. Strab. &c.; KfpKtrioi, Dion, Perieg. 682 ; Kcpir«Tiubt, Hellanic. fr. 91), one of the peoples of Sannatia Asiatica, who occupied the NE. shore of the Euxine, between the Cinunerian Bosporus and the frontier ai Colchis, but whose relative positions are not reiy exactly determined : their coast abounded in roadsteads and villages. (Hellanic. L c. ; Strab. zi. pp. 496, 497 ; Ptol. v. 9. § 25 ; Steph. B. «. v.; Mela, i. 19. § 4 ; PUn. vi. 5.) Their name is now applied to the whole western district of the Caucasus, in the well known fonns of Cherkas for the people^ and Cherkaskaia, or Ctr- coBsia, for the country. [P. S.] CERCrNA, or CERCENNA (K^fuciva, KdpKivva: Karkenah, or Bamlah); and CERCINI'TIS (Kcp- KmrtSf KcpiruKyrris : Gherba) ; two islands off the E. coast of Africa Propria, at the NW. extremity of the Lesser Syrtis, the opposite extremity of which was formed by the island of Meninx, which Strabo reckons about equal in dze to Cercinna. The two islands lie NE. and SW. as to the direction of their length, Cerdnna being on the NE. and Cercinitis on the SW. They were joined by a mole. Cercina, which was much the larger, is reckoned by Pliny 25 M. P. long, and half as broad. Upon it was a city of the same name. The Maritime Itinerary makes Cerceuna (Cercina) 622 stadia from Tacape at the bottom of the Syrtis (Strab. ii. p. 123, xvii. pp. 831, 834 ; Ptol. iv. 3. § 45 ; Dion. Perieg. 480; Slctdiaam. p. 456 ; Itm. Ant p. 518 ; Mela, ii. 7. § 7 ; Plin. v. 7). Cercina, to which the smaller island seems to have been considered a mere ap- pendage, is often mentioned in history. (Pint. Dion, 43 ; Diod. v. 12 ; Polyb. iii. 96 ; Liv. xxxiii. 48 ; Hirt BeU. Afr. 34, comp. Strab. xvii. p. 831 ; Tac. Awn. i. 55, iv. 13 ; comp. Cyraunis.) [P. S.] CERCINE (Kcpird^, T)iuc.ii. 98; KcpKcr^tov or BfpiceT^iriov, Ptol. iii. 13. § 19: KcaradagK), the uninhabited mountain chain which branched off from Haemus in a SE. direction, and formed the water-shed to the streams which feed the rivera Axius and Strymon. Sitalces, in his route from Thrace into Macedonia, crossed this mountain, leav- ing the Paecmians <m his right, and the Sinti and Maedi on his left descending upon the Axius at Idomene. [E. B. J.] CERCINITIS (KcpKiwTts Xf/uT?, Arrian, Anoh. 1 1. § 3 : TViM^no), the large lake lying at the N. foot of the hill of Amphipolis, which Thucydides (v. 7) accurately describes by the words rh At/uywJc; tov ^irfWfiSvos, as it is, in fact, nothing more than an enlargement of the river Strymon, varying in size according to the season of the year, but never re- duced to that of tlie river only, according to its dimensions above and below the lake. Besides the Strymon, the Angitas contributes to the inundation as well as some other smaller streams finom the mountains on either side.