Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/68

 52 AEOLIAE INSULAE. .to the hammers and forges of tiie god and his work- jnen the Cyclopes. (Thuc. iii. 88 ; Scymn. Ch. 257 —261; Schol. ad ApoU, Mod, iii. 41; Virg. Aen. viiL 418). According to Strabo there were three craters on this island, the Uugest of which was in a j}tate of the most violent eruption. Polybius (ap. Strab. vi. p. 276), who appears to have visited it himself, described the principal crater as five stadia in curcnmferencc, but diminishing gradually to a width of only fifty feet, and estimated its depth at a stadium. From this crater were vomited forth sometimes fiames,atother8 redhot stones, cinders and ashes, which were carried to a great di&tance. No ancient ^Titer mentions streams of lava (pvtucts^ Mmilar to those of Aetna. The intensity and cha- racter of these eruptions was said to vary very much according to the direction of the wind, and from these indications, as well as the gathering of mists nnd clouds around the summit, the inhabitants of the neighbouring island of Lipara professed to fore- tell the winds and weather, a circumstance which was believed. to have given rise to the fable of Aeolus ruling the winds. The modem Lipariots still maintain the same pretenhion. (Strab. I. c. ; Smytli's Sicily, p. 270.) At a later period Hiera seems to have abated much of its activity, and the younger Lucilius (a contemporary of Seneca) speaks of its fires as in a great measure cooled. (LuciU Aetn. 437.) We hear much less from ancient authors of the volcanic phenomena of Strongyle than those of Hiera: but Diodorus describes them as of similar character, while Strabo tdls us that the eruptions were less violent, but produced a more brilliant light Pliny says nearly the same thing: and Mela speaks of both Uicra and Strongyle as " burning with per- petual fire." Lucilius on the contrary (^AetnOf 434) describes the latter as merely smoking, and occa- sionally kindled into a blaze, but for a short time. Diodorus tells us that the eruptions both of Hiera and Strongyle were observed for the most part to alternate with those of Aetna, on which account it was supposed by many that there was a subter- ranean conununication between them. Besides these* ordinary volcanic phenomena, which appear to have been in ancient times (as they still are in the case of StromboU) in almost constant operation, we find mention of several more remark- able and unusual outbursts. The earliest of these is the one recorded by Aristotle (^MeUoroL ii. 8), where he tells us that " in the island of Hiera the earth swelled up with a loud noise, and rose into the form of a considerable hillock, which at length burst and sent forth not only vapour, but hot cinders and ashes in such quantities that they covered the whole city of Lipara, and some of them were carried even to the coast of Italy." The vent from which they issued (he adds) remained still visible : and this was ])robably one of the craters seen by Polybius. At a later period Poddonius dcs<;{^bod an eruption that took place in tiie sea between Uicra and Euonymus, which after producing a violent agitation of tlio waters, and destroying all the fish, continued to pour forth mild, fire and smoke for several days, and ended with giving rise to a small island of a rock like millstone (lava), on which the praetor T. Fla- mininus landed and offered sacrifices. Posidon. ap. Strab. vi. p. 277.) Tins event is me.-tioned by Poiddonius as occurring within his own memory; and from the mention of Flamininus as praetor it is Ahr.oet certain that it is the same drcumbtance AEOLL^E IXSULAE. recorded by Pliny (ii. 87) as occurring in 01. 163. 3, or B.C. 126. The same phcnomencm is less accurately described by Julius Obsequens (89) and Orodus (v. 10), both of whom confiim the above date: but the last author narrates (iv. 20) at a much earlier period (b.c. 186) the sudden crner* gence from the sea of an island, which he erroneously supposes to have been the Vulcani Insula itsdf : but which was probably no other than the rock now called VulcandlOj situated at the KE. extremity of VulcanOy and united to that island only by a narrow isthmus formed of volcanic sand and aishes. It still emits smoke and vapour and contains two small craters.* None of the Aeolian islands, except Lipara, appear to have been inhabited in andent times to any ex- tent. Thncydides expressly tells us (iii. 88) that in his day Lipara alone was inhabited, and the other islands, Strongyle, Didyme, and Hiera, were cul- tivated by the Liparaeans; and this statement is confirmed by Diodorus (v. 9). Strabo however speaks of Euonymus as uninhabited in a manner that seems to imply that the huger islands were not 80: and the remains of ancient buildings which have been found not only on Salina and StromboU^ but even on the little rock of BasiluzzOy prove that thej w^re resorted to by the Bomans, probably for the sake of medical baths, for which tlio volcanic vapours afibrded every facility. }£era on the contrary ap- parently remained always uninhabited, as it does at the present day. But the exceUenoe of its port (Ludl. Aetn, 442) rendered it of importance as a naval station, and we find both Hiera and Strongyle occupied by the fieet of Augustus during the war with Sex. Pompeius in b. c. 36. (Appian. B. C. v. 105.) All the islands suffered great disadvantage, as they still do, from the want oif water, consequent on the light and porous nature of the volcanic soil. (Thuc, iii. 88; Smyth's Siciiy, p. 249.) But though little adapted for agriculture they possessed great t&- sources in their stores of alum, sulphur, and pumice, which were derived both from Hiera and Strongyle, and exported in large quantities. The sea also alx)unded in fish ; and produced coral of the finest quality. (PUn. xxxii. 2. § 11, xxxv. 15. §§ 50, 52, xxxvi. 21. § 42; Ludl. Aetn. 432.) It is scarcely necessary to inquire which of the Aeolian islands has the most claim to be considered as the residence of Aeolus himself. Homer certainly speaks only of one island, and is followed in this respect by Vu-gil. But the " floating island " of the elder poet, " girt all around with a wall of brass,** is scarcely susceptible of any precise gec^raphical de- termination. The common tradition among the later Greeks seems to have chosen the island of Lipara itself as the dwdling of Aeolus, and the explanation of the fable above alluded to is evidently adapted to this assumption. But Strabo and Pliny both place the abode of the ruler of the winds in Strongyle, and the latter transfers to that island what others related of Hicm. Ptolemy on the contrary, by a strange confusion, mentions the island of Aeolus {Ai6ov vijaosj iii. 4. § 17) as something altogether distinct from the Aeolian islands, which he had previonslj enumerated separately: while Eustathius {ad Ilonu Odi/ss. X. 1) reckons it as one of the seven, omitting Euonymus to make room for it, though in another alluded to by Livy (xxxix. 56).
 * The same event appears to be more' obsctirelj