Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/298

 BELLI. be a wide mer flowing through thickly wooded banks iuto the sea. (Comp. Herod, vii. 85 ; Wal- pule, Turkey and Greece^ vol. i. p. 101 ; Schlich- thoTKt, Geogr, Homer, p. 127.) Herodotus (iv. 85), Strabo (ziii. p. 591), and Plinj (iv. 13, Ti. 1) give 7 stadia as the breadth of the Hellespont in its narrowest part. Toamefbrt (vol. iL letL iv.) and Hobhouse (^Albania, vol. ii. p. 805) allow about a mile. Some modem French admeasurements give the distance as much greater. The Due de Raguae ( Voyage en TVir^nie, vol. ii. p. 164) nearly coincides with Herodotus. The bridge, or rather two separate bridges, which Xerxes threw across the Hellespont, stretched from the neighbourhood of Abydos, on the Asiatic coast, to the coast between Sestus and Madytus, on the European side; and consisted of 360 vetisels in the bridge higher up the stream, and 314 in the lower one. If the breadth be estimated at a mile oi* 5280 feet, 360 vessels, at an average of 14] feet each, would exactly fill up the space. (Grote, Hist of Greece, vol. v. p. 26 ; comp. Keimell, Geog. of He- rod, vol. i. p. 158; Kruse, Uber die SchiffMcken der Perser, Bresku, 1820; Choiaeul-Gooffier, Voy- age Pittore$qu6j vol. ii. p. 449; BShr, ad Herod. ▼ii. 36.) The length of the strait was estimated by Herodotus (iv. 85) at 400 stadia. This admeasure- ment of course depends upon the point aasigned by the ancients to the extremity of the Hellespont, a pmnt which is discussed by Hubhouse {Albania^ vol. ii. p. 791). In the Uter years of the Peloponnesian War the Hellespont was the scene of the memorable battles of Cynossema and Aeoospotami. In B. c. 334 the Hellespont was crossed by Alex- ander, with an army of about 35,000 men. (Arrian, Anab. i. 11 ; Diod. Kc xvii. 1.) The Hellespont issues from the Propontis near GaUipoli [Callipolis], the road of which is the anchorage for the Ottoman fleet A little lower, on the Asiatic side, is Lampeaki [Lampsacus], close to which the current sweeps as before, nearly SW. to the bay of Sestos, a distance of about 20 miles, with an ordinary width of from 2^ to 3 miles. At Skstos the stream becomes narrower, and takes a SSE. direction as it passes Abydos, and proceeds to the town of Chamdk KoTeh-Si; from the last point it flows SW. for 3 miles to Poini Berber^ and from thence onward in the same direction, but rather in- creasing in width, for a distance of 9| miles to the Aegaean sea. About 1 ^ miles below the W. point of the bay of Madytus are the famous castles of the Dardanelles, which give their name to the straits ; or the old castles of Anatoli and Rum-iU: TchaHnak-Ka'kh- Si^ on the Asiatic side, and Kiltdu l-Bahr, on the European. (Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 318.) [E.B.J.] HELLI, HELLCPIA. [Dodona ; Gbakcia, p. 1011 a.] HELMA'NTICA. [Salmahtica.] HELORUS. 1039 COIN or HSUCAHTICA. HELOTIUM, HELCKBUS, or ELOTtUS (TEAi*- pos or 'EAvpot, Ptol., Steph, B. ; 'EAfl^poy, Scyl. : Eth. the £. coast, about 25 miles S. of Syracuse, and on the banks of the river of the same name. (Steph. B. s. ff.; Vib. Seq. p. U.) We have no account of its origin, but it was probably a colony of Syracuse, of which it appears to have continued always a dependency. The name is first found in Scylax (§ 13. p. 168); for, though Thucydides repeatedly mentions ** the road leading to Helorus** from Syra- cuse (H)!' *Evpi>nntf Mif, vi. 66, 70, vii. 80), which was that followed by the Athenians in their disastrous retreat, he never speaks of the town itself. It was one of the cities which remained under the government of Hieron II. by the treaty concluded with him by the Rumans, in B. a 263. (Diod. xxiii. £xc H. p. 50, where the name is cumiptly written AiAc&pwy): and, having during the Second Punic War declared in favour of the Carthaginians, was t^ecovered by Marrellus in b. c. 214 (Liv. xxiv. 35). Under the Romans it ap> pears to have been dependent on Syracuse, and had perhaps no separate municipal exi^tence, though in a passage of Cicero ( Verr. iii. 48) it appears to be noticed as a " civitas.'' Its name is again mentioned by the orator ( /b. v. 34) as a maritime town where the squadron fitted out by Verres was attacked by pimtes : but it does not occur in Pliny's list of the towns of Sicily; though he else* where (xxxii. 2), mentions it as a " castellum " on the river of the same name : and Ptolemy (iii. 4. § 1 5) speaks of a city of Heloms. Its ruins were still vi&ible in the days of Fazello ; a little to the N. of the river Heloms, and about a mile frcxn the sea-coast. The most conspicuous of them were the remains of a theatre, called by the country people CoUseeo: but great part of the walls and other buildings could be traced. The extent of them was, however, inconsiderable. These are now t^aid to have disappeared, bnt there still remains between this site and the t>ea a curious column or monu- ment, built of large stones, rising on a square pedes- tal This is commonly regarded as a kind of tro- phy, erected by the Syracusans to commemorate their victory over the Athenians. Bnt there is no foundation for this belief : had it been so designed, it would certainly have been erected on the banks of the river Asinarus, which the Athenians never succeeded in crossing. (Fazell. iv. 2. p. 215; Cluver. Sicil. p. 186 ; Smyth, Sicily, p. 179; Hoare, Classical Tour, vol ii. p. 136.) [E.H.B] HELO'RUS or ELO'RUS CEAwpot or 'EKwpos), a river in the SE. of Sicily, the most a)nsiderable which occurs between Syracnse and Cape Pachynum. It is now called the Abtsso, but in the upper part of its course is known as the Tellaro or Telloro, evi- dently a corruption of Helorns. It rises in the bills near Palazzolo (Acrae), and flows at first to the S., then tnms eastward, and enters the sea about 25 miles S. of Syracuse. Near its mouth stood the town of the same name. [Heix>rum.] In the upper part of its course it is a mountain stream, flowing over a rugged and rocky bed, whence Silius Italicus calls it ** undae damosus Helorus" (xiv. 269); but near its mouth it becomes almost perfectly stagnant, and liable to frequent inundations. Hence Virgil justly spealEs of " praepingue solum stagnantis He- lori" (^Aen. iii. 698). Ovid praises the beauty of the valley through which it flows, which he terms " Heloria Tempo" (Fast ir. 476). Several ancient
 * £Awpiyof, Helcmnus), a city of Sicily, situated near