Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/147

 888 EUXIXUS. ultimately come to pass. But when wo consider how great the accumalation is from the numerous streams that empty themselves into this basin, — that is, how powerful and active is tlie operation of the cause — then it is manifest that not only at some indefinite time, but speedily, what has been said will come to pass. He then strengthens his position thus assumed, by stating that, aociardlng to all tradition, the Palus Maeotis, having been formerly a salt sea conjoined, as it were, in the same basin {aitj^vi) with the Eoxine, had then become a fresh-water lake of no greater depth of water than from five to seven fathoms, and no longer therefore navigable for lai^e ships, without the assistance of a plot; and he further instances, as an evidence cf the pn^gress of his cause, tlie great bank (jaaria) 1,000 stadia long, which appears in his time to have existed one day's sail off the mouths of the Danube, and upon which the sailors, while they thought themselves still out at sea, vexy often ran aground by night, and which was familiarly called by them artfiyi^ or the breast, as in Latin the word " dorsum " was applied to the same formation. (Comp. Strab. i. p. 50 ; Amm. Marc zxvL 8. § 46.) Arrian makes no mention q£ this bank, nor can any traces of it be found now. Either, therefore, the weight of water has been suf< ficicnt, at some time w other, to disperse thb accu- mulation which it had before assisted to form, or the land at the mouth of the river has so increased since the time when Polybius and Strabo wrote, that what was then a bank at a distance of thirty- five or forty miles (a moderate computation for a day's sail), has now become an int^ral part of the main- land. This opinion of Polybius was not altogether new. Straton of Lampsacus (Strab. i. pp. 49, 50) held the same view ; indeed, he said more. According to him the Euxine is very shallow, — was then filling up with mud from the deposit of the rivers (IXovs wrpowr9(u)^ its water was perfectly fresh, and would shortly be choked up ; and its west side was already nearly in that state. However plausible *^^ theory of Polybius may be, there seems no probability of his anticipation being realitsed. The depth of the Eiutine itself, and the ^ constant and vigorous rush of water through the comparatively straight, narrow, and deep passage of Constantinople, will always be sufficient to contain, or rather to carry off, any deposit, however large, which the Danube, the drainage of so large a portion of Europe, or the Phasis, the Halys and other Asiatic streams, or the mighty rivers of the North can bring down from the countries through which they flow. (Joum. Geoff. Soc. vol. L pp. 101 — 122; Lyell, Princ. of Geology^ vol. i. p. 24.) It has been thought that, at an epoch long an- terior to the historical ages, the Caspian and the Euxine were united (comp. Humboldt, Asie Cen- trales vol. ii. p. 146). The physical traces of this may easily have given rise to the fancies of the ancients connecting the Caspian with the Euxine by means of Uie river Phasis (Hecat p. 92, Ed. Klausen), or through the Palus Maeotis (Strab. xi. p. 509), as well as their traditions about the over- pourings of the swollen higher seas into those that were lower. [£. B. J.] EVA. [Cysuiua.] EVAN. [MESSBaiiA.] EVARCHUS (EffapxoO. » n^er in Asia Minor, which, according to Steph. B. («. v, Kawird8oiic(a), 4f. ' J' .' ^^ t •^ / t r' "'Atr t ^': <• « • t EXAMPAEU& formed the boundary between Paf^lagonia and Gap- padocia. (Comp. Plin. vL 2; Menippus, p. 176, foL ed. Hoffmann.) [L. S.] EVAS. [Lac»nia.] EVE'NUS (E^rat, less frequently, Evqn^r : Fidhari or Fidharo originally cslled LTOOiuiAfl (JivK^piAos), an impcutant river of Aetolia, rinn^ in the highest summit of ML Oeta in the tenitory of the Bomienses, a subdivision of the Aetolian tribe of the Ophienses. (Strab. p. 451.) Dicaearchns (61) was m'istaken in saying that ^e Evenua rises in Pindus: Ptolemy (ili. 16. § 6) more comctly places its source in CalUdrorous, whldi is a part of Oeta. Strabo relates that the Evenus does not flow at first through the territoiy of the Curetes, which is the same as Pleuxonia, but more to the £. by Chalcis and Calydon, that it afterwards tnms ta the W. towards the plains in which Old Pleuron was situated, and that it finally flows in a soatberly di- rection into the sea, at the distance of 120 «tadia from the promontory of Antirrhiunu (Strab. pp. 451, 460 ; comp. Thuc. iL 83 ; Mel ii. 3 ; Plin. iv. 3.) Its real direction however is first westerly, and afterwards south-west. It neceiTes numerous torrents firom the moimtains through which it flows, and in winter It becomes a consider- able river, flowing with great raindity, and difikuit to cross on account of the great stones which axe carried down by its stream. (" Eveni rai»dae nndae," Ov. Jl/e<. Ix. 104; IToTOfiby voAA^ tcvfjutipoyra «a2 Mp riis 6xBcLS <up6fjuyo¥, Philostr. Jun. /aicy. 16.) The Evenus is celebrated in, mythology oo account of the death of the centaur Nessus, who was slain by Hercules because he offered violence to Del- noeira, as he carried her across thb riv«r. (Si^th. Track. 557.) This tale is, perhaps, only a figure of the impetuosity of the river, and of the danger to which unwary travellers are exposed in crossing its channel from the rise of the waters when swollen by sudden showers. (Mure, Tour in Greece, vcL L p. 170.) The river is said to have derived its name from Evenus, the son of Ares, and the fiither id l^Iarpessa. When his daughter was carried off by Idas, the son of Aphareus, he pursued the ravisher; but being unable to overtake him he threw himself into the Lycormos, which was henceforward called after him. (Apollod. i. 7. § 8; Ov. Ibis, 515 ; Profx. i. 2. 18.) Its modem name of Fidharo or Fidkari is deriv^ from 4t8i, the Romwc form of 'O^tf, and is therefore supposed by Leake to be a vest^e oT '0^i(?$, the ancient people in whose territory the river rose. (Leake, Northern Greece, voL ii. p. 625; comp. p. 599.) From Evenus is formed the adjective Evenimu. (" Matres Calydonides £*e- ninae," Ov. Met. viii. 527.) EVE'NUS (Ed/ws), a small river of Mysia, flowing in a southern direction from Mount Temnos into the Elaeos Sinus, near Pitane. An aqueduct from it supplied the town of Adramyttinm with water. (Strab. xiii. p. 614; Plin. v. 32.) [L. Sl] EVORAS. [Tayoetus.1 EX, EXITANL [Httxi]. EXAMPAEUS CE^a/i»cttoT, Herod, iv. 52, 81^ a district of W. Scythia, between the Boiysthenes and the Hypanis. Among the Greeks it was calkd the "Sacred Way** Ocd ^oi, some read *I^ia 'OSoi). The Greek is probably not a translation of the Scythian word, which may be connected with the Indo-European pani jpe»» = " water." (Sclia- farik, Slav. Alt. vol. i. pp. 284. 605.) Potocki ( Voyage dans let SUpt lyAttraUuin et du Caucate^
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