Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/50

 32 HISTORY OF GREECE. opinion prevalent among his Kyrenaean informants, that Irasa with its fountain Theste was a more inviting position than Ky- rene with its fountain of Apollo, and ought in prudence to have been originally chosen ; out of which opinion, according to tho general habit of the Greek mind, an anecdote is engendered and accredited, explaining how the supposed mistake was committed. What may have been the recommendations of Irasa, we are not permitted to know : but descriptions of modern travellers, no less than the subsequent history of Kyrene, go far to justify tin.' choice actually made. The city was placed at the distance of about ten miles from the sea, having a sheltered port called Apollonia, itself afterwards a considerable town, it was about twenty miles from the promontory Phykus, which forms the northernmost projection of the African coast, nearly in the loi.y- itude of the Peloponnesian Cape Taenarus (Matapan). Kyrene was situated about eighteen hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean, of which it commanded a fine view, and from which it was conspicuously visible, on the edge of a range of hills which slope by successive terraces down to the port. The soil immediately around, partly calcareous, partly sandy, is de- scribed by Captain Beechey to present a vigorous vegetation and remarkable fertility, though the ancients considered it inferior in this respect both to Barka 1 and Hesperides, and still more infe- rior to the more westerly region near Kinyps. But the abun- dant periodical rains, attracted by the lofty heights around, and justifying the expression of the " perforated sky," were even of greater importance, under an African sun, than extraordinary richness of soil. 2 The maritime regions near Kyrene and Barka, 1 Herodot iv, 198. Herodot. iv, 199; Kallimachus (himself a Kyrenrcan), Hymn, ad Apoll. 63, with the note of Spanheini; Pindar, Pyth. iv, with the Scholia ;><;.s.s,'w ; l)iodor. iii, 49: Arrian. Indica, xliii, 13. Strabo (xvii, p. 837) saw Kyrne from the sea in sailing by, and was struck with the view, he iocs not fcppear to have landed. The results of modem observation in tl at country are given in the Viag- gio of Delia Cella and in the exploring expedition of Captain Bt-cchey ; see an interesting summaiy in the History of the Barbary States, by Dr. Russell (Ediuburgh, 1835), ch. v, pp. 160--171. The chapter on this subject (c. 6)
 * See, about the productive powers of Kyrene and its surrounding region,