Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/622

 604 CHARCHA. son of Sogdonaeus, the chief of the Arabs who lived in the neighbourhood, from whom it acqalred the name by which it has been best known. Pliny states that the original town was only 10 miles from the sea, but that in his time the existing place was as much as 120. These numbers are certainly ex- aggerated; but Pliny correctly ascribes the advance of the coast into the Persian Gulf to the rivers which iiowed into it It appears to have been a place of considerable extent in Pliny's time. It was the birthplace of Dionysius Periegetes and of Isidorus, both geographers of eminence. [V.] CHABCHA, a fortress of Mygdonia, which the Bomans, in the retreat under Jovian, passed, after leaving Meiacarire. (Amm. Marc zzv. 6. § 8 ; comp. zviii. 10. § 1.) The name which in Syria signijSeB a town, was probably applied to several localities (Le Beau, Bos Empire^ vol. iii. p. 1 55 ; D'Anville, L'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 95). This fortress (Xop- X^iy Evagr. H,E.yi,2) was situated in a fertile and populous district (Theophylact. Simocat. v. 1), and was the scene of the death of Zadesprates, the general of Banim, a. d. 591. (Le Bean, vol. x. p. 317.) The ruin, now called Kdsr Serjdn, of which only the foundations, and parts of two oc- tagonal towers remain, may possibly represent Charcha. {Joum, Gtog, Soc. vol. x. p. 526 ; '^it- buhr, Reitey vol. ii. p. 388 ; Bitter, Erdkundej voL xi. pp. 150, 380, 389.) [E. B. J.] CHARIDE'MI PB. (Xapi^fiov iuepifrfiptoy i C. de Goto), one of the principal headlands of the Spa- nish peninsula, forming the termination of the S. coast, where it first turns to the NE., and being also the S. point of Hispania Tarraconensis. It was di- rectly opposite to the mouth of the river Malva in Mauretania. (PtoL ii. 4. § 7.) [P. S.] CHABIEIS (Xopiefy, Arrian, Peripl p. 10; Charien, Plin. vi. 4. s. 4), a river of Colchis, flow- ing into the Euxine Sea, 90 stadia north of the Phasis. Whether it is the same river as the Chares (Xdpus) of Strabo (xi. p. 499) is doubtful. CHARINDA {Xapiv^asy Ptol. vL 2. § 2; Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6), a small river on the western boundary of Hyrcania, which flowed into the Caspian Sea. By Ptolemy and Ammianus it is reckoned to be a river of NorUiem Media or Atropatene. A people are met with who are called Chrendi {Xp^v^ioi^ PtoL vi. 9. § 5). These ought probably to be called Charindi, from the river. [V.] CHARI'SIA. [Arcadia, p. 193, a.] CHABMANDE (Xapiidy^, Xen. Anab, i. 5. § 10; Steph. B. 8. v.), a large and prosperous town according to Xenophon, between the river Mascas and the northern boundary of Babylonia, on the edge of the desert Xenophon mentions that the soldiers of Cyrus crossed the Euphrates to it, on skins stufied with light hay, and bout^ht there palm, wine, and com. [V.] CHABU'DES (XopovScs), a tribe mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 12) among the inhabitants <^ the Chersonesus Cimbrica. They are no doubt the same as the Chariides mentioned in the Monum. Ancyr. (Suet. vol. ii. p. 375, ed. Wolf.) It is not equally certain as to whether they were the same as the Harudes who served in the army of Ariovistus (Caes. B, G. i. 31, 37, 51). [L. S.] CUABYBDIS (Xdpve^is), a celebrated whirlpool in the Sicilian Straits, between Messana and Bhe- gium, but much nearer to the former. The promi- nent part which it assumes (together with the rock of Scylla on the opposite coast) in the Homeric nar- CHABYBDI& rative of the wanderings of Odysseus (Horn. Od. xiL) sufSdently proves the alarm which it excited in tlie minds of the earliest navigators of these seas, and the exaggerated accounts of its dangers which they brought home. But with full allowance for sncfa exaggeration, there can be no doubt that the tales of Charybdis and Scylla were really associated with the dangers that beset the navigation of the Sicilian Straits, and that in this instance the identificadon of the localities menti<xied in the Odyssey may be safely relied on. Nor were these perils by any means imaginary: and in the case of Charybdis espedally had more foundation than in regard to Scylla. Cap- tain Smyth says of it: — ** To £e undecked boats of the Greeks it must have been formidable : for even in the present day small craft are sometimes endan- gered by it, and I have seen several men-of-war, ai^ even a seventy-four gun ship, whirled round <m its sur&ce : but by using due cauti<Hi there is generally very little danger or inconvenience to be apprehended. It appears to be an agitated water, of from 70 to 90 fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies. It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the opposite point of PgboP (Smyth's SicUy, p. 123.) Thucydides appears not to have been aware e£ the existence of this local vortex or whirlpool, and regards the Homeric Charybdis as only an exag- gerated account of the fluctuations and agitations caused in the Straits of Messana generally by the alternations of the currents and tides from the two seas, the Tyrrhenian and Sicilian, communicating by so narrow an opening. (Thuc. iv. 24.) The agitations arising from this cause are no doubt oon- siderable, and might often be attended with danger to the fhiil vessels of the ancient navigators, hat the actual whirlpool is a completely local pheno- menon, and is situated, as described by Stnbo, a short distance from the town of Messana, just outside the low tongue of land that forms the harbour of that city. It is now called the Galofairo, (Strah. vi. p. 268 ; Smyth's Sicily, I c.) Homer indeed appears to describe the two dangera of Scylla and Charybdis as lying immediately op- posite one another, on the two sides of the actual strait, and on this account some writers have sup- posed that the whirlpool was in ancient times situated near Cape Pelorus, or the Faro Pointy which is full 9 miles from Messana. Local ac- curacy on such a point is certainly not to be ex- pected from Homer, or the poets who have adopted bis description. But it is not impossible that there was really some foundation for this view. Cluver^ who made careful inquiries on the spot, and has given a very accurate description of the Gakfaro, off the port of Messina, adds that there existed another vortex immediately on the S. mde of Cape Peloms, which had been known to produce similar effects. (Cluver, SidL p. 70.) It is evident, however, that Strabo knew only c^ the whirlpool off Messana, and this seems to be much the most consider- able and permanent phenomenon of the kind : and must therefore be regarded as the true Charybdis. Strabo supposed its fluctuations to be periodical, and connected with the tides (the influence of which is strongly felt in the Straits), and that Homer only erred in describing them as occurring three times a day instead of tmce (Strab. i. pp. 43, 44): hut this is erroneous. The action of Uie whirlpool depends much more upon the wind than the tides, and is very irregular and uncertain. Seneca alludes to its