Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/99

 ALALCOMENAE. thfro^LacoDes, onntaimng tempfes of Dionjsns and Tlds town was dbtant 30 stadia fixnn but its site is luJuiown. (Paua. iu. 21. S7,nLS6. 1 11.) ALAlXXnfENAE. 1. (^AKaXxofitni, Strab., PfeBi.: *AKaXjtofUrto¥, Steph. B.; Eth. 'AXoXjco- ^HPim,*AAaAjrefMyaZM, 'AAoAJCofifrtof: Sulindri)^ la mdtsA town in Boeotia, situated at the foot of Ml TilpbosBinra, a little to the E. of Coroneia, and BBv the lake Cofpeaa. It was celebrated for the wonfaip of Athena, who was said to have been bom thm, and ^sbo is hence called AlalcomenCis (*AAaA- oyur^) in Homer, The temple of the goddess itonil, at a little distance from the town, on the TritoQ, a smdl stivam flowing into the bke Copats. Berand the modem Tillage of StiUmxrif the site d Abkomenae, are some polygonal fonndations, sftputntly those of a single building, which are pnUiIj' remains of the peribolos of the temple. Bath the town and the temple were plundered hj SvHa, who carried off the statue of the goddess. (Son. It ir. 8; Psns. iz. a § 4, ix. 33. § 5, seq.; Slab. pp. 410, 411, 413; Steph. B. «. v.; Leake, Ktfikem Greece, voL iL p. 135; Forchhanuner, HtOemieOy ^ 185.) % Or aLoomksiab CAXicofieyaf), said to be a tm in Ithaca (Phit. QvaesL Grate 43; StepL B. 9.w. «r in the anall island Asteris in the neigh- boBihaod of Ithaca. (Strsb. p. 456.) ALAXIA. ' [Aleria.] ALANDER, a river of Phiygia (Liv. xaomiL 15, 18X whidh is twice mentioncMl by Livy, in his aoeooBt of the march of Cn. Manlin^. It was pn>- biUj a branch of the Sangarins, as Hamilton (i2s- Sfonka m Ana MimoTj voL i. pp. 458, 467) oon- jertaras, and the stream which flows in the vallej of Biiad; bat he gives no modem name to iL [G.L.] ALATn (^AXoyof, *AAa0M>i), a people, found both in Asia and in Eurc^, whose precise geogra- pinl padtiais and ethnograj^ical relations are diffi- ralt to ilrtn minr They probably became first known to the Bomaas thrragh the MithridaUc war, sad the expedition of Porapey into the countries abooi the Gancasos; when they were found in the E. part of Caucasus, in the region which was called AJhaaiabythe Bcmans, but Alania by Greek writers, aad where Akni are found down to a hite period of the Greek empire. (Joseph. Ani. Jud. xviii. 4. s. (Lttcan, x. 454; Procop. Per», ii. 29, Gotk. iv. 4; Const. Porph. de A An. Imp. 42.) Valerius Flaceus (Ary. vL 42) mentions them among the of the Caucasus, near the HeniochL Am- Maxcelhnns, who teUs us more about the than any other ancient writer, makes Julian hb sokHers by the example of Pom- vho, breaking hb way through the Albani the Haasagetae, whom we now call Alani, saw the waters of the Caspian "* (xxiii. 5). In the ktier half of the first centary we hear of the Alani in two very remote poations. On the one hand, J es ephn s, who describes them as Scythians dwelling about the river Tanals {Don) and the Lake Maeotis {Sea 9fAM09 relates ^yw, in the time of Vespasian, bosg pemntted by the king of Hyrcania to traverse " the pass which Alexander had closed with iron pies,** they ravaged Media and Armenia, and re- tamed bonne again. On the other hand, they are amiaiwl by Seneca (rAjfeft 629) as dwelling on the later (AiM6e); and Martial {Epigr. vit. 30) ex- pRssiy calk them Samiatians; and Pliny (iv. 12. %, 25) neotiaM Ahad and Boialani (i. e. Run- ALANL 83 jwy. AJam) among the generic names applied at diflerent times to the inhabitants of the European Scythia or Sarmatia. Thus there wore Alani both in Asia, iu the Caucasus, and in Europe, on the Maeotis and the Enxine; and also, according to Josephus, between these two positions, in the great plains N. of the Caucasus; so that they seem to have been spread over all the S. part of Rusna tn Europe. Under Hadrian and the Antonines we find tlie European Alani constantly troubling the frontier of the Da- nube (Ael. Spart. Had, 4. s. 6; Jul. Capit. Ant. PL 6. 8. 8, Marc. 22, where they are mentioned with the Bozalani, Bastamae, and Peucini); while the Alani of the E. again overran Media and Armenia, and threatened Cappadoda. (Dion Cass. Ixix. 15.) On this occasion the historian Arrian, who was go- vernor of Cappadocia under Hadrian, composed a work on the Tactics to be observed against the Alani {fm-a^is Kar* *AXayc»y), which is mentioned by Photius {Cod. Iviii. p. 15, a., Bekker), and of which a considerable fragment is preserved (Arrian. ed. Dtlhner, in Didot's ScripL Graec. BibL pp. 250 — 253). Their force consisted in cavalry, like that of the European Alani (the ToXvtinrwy ^vov fought without armour for themselves or their horses. Ab another mark of resemblance, though Arrian speaks of them as Scythians, a name vddch was vaguely used in his time for all the barbarians of NW. Asia {oonL Alanoe^ 30), he speaks of them elsewhere {Tact. 4) in close connection with the Sauromatae (Sarmatians), as practising the same mode of fighting for which the Polish lancere, de- scendants of the Sarmatians, have been renowned. Ptolemy, who wrote under the Antonines, mentions the European Alani, by the name of 'AAovrot 2<c^- 0CU, as one of the seven chief peoples of Sarmatia Europaea, namely, the Venedae, Peudni, Bastamae, lazyges, Boxolani, Hamaxobii, and Akuni Scythae ; of whom he places the lazyges and Boxolani along the whole shore of the Maeotis, and then the last two further inland (iiL 5. § 19). He also mentions (iL 14. § 2) Alauni in the W. of Pannonia, no doubt a body who, in course of invasion, had established themselves on the Soman side of the Danube. Pto- lemy speaks of a Mt. Alaunus (t^ 'AAavvoy Spor) in Sarmatia, and Eustothius {ad Dion. Perieg. 305) says that the Alani probably derived their name from the Alanus, a mountain of Sarmatia. It is hard to find any range of mountains answering to Ptolemy's M. AJaunus near the position he assigns to the Alauni : some geographers suppose the term to describe no mountotfw, properly so called, but the elevated tract of land which forms the watershed between tiie Dniester and the Dnieper. The Euro- pean Alani are found in the geographers who fol- lowed Ptolemy. Dionysins Periegetes (v. 305) mentions them, first vaguely, among the peoples N. of the Palus Biaeotis, with the Germans, Sarmatians, Getae, Bastamae, and Dacians; and then, more spe- cifically, he says (308) that their land extends N. of the Tauri, '* where are the Melanchlaeni, and Ge- loni, and Uippemolgi, and Neuri, and Agathyr&i, where the Borysthenes mingles with the Euxine." Some suppose the two passages to refer to diflerent bodies of the Aloni. (Bemhsu^y, ad loc.) They are likewise called Sarmatians by Marcian of Hcra- cleia {rwf 'AAarwy Sopfidrwv ffhfos: PeripL p. 100, ed. Miller; Hudson, Geog. Min. vol. i. p. 56). The Asiatic Alani ('AXoi'ol 2Ki$ai) are placed by Ptolemy (vi. 14. § 9) in tho extreme K. of Scythia q2
 * hXmmy of Dionysins Periegetes, ▼. 308); and they