Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/354

 320 plikt's KATUEAL HISTOET. [Book ly. and after that, Minois. At a distance of seven miles from this last island is Naxos with a town of the same name; it is eighteen miles distant from Delos. This island was formerly called Strongyle^ then Dia, and then Dionysias^, in consequence of the fruitfulness of its vineyards ; others again have called it the Lesser Sicily, or Callipolis"'. It is seventy-five^ miles in circumference — half as large again as Paros. CHAP. 23. THE SPOHADES. The islands thus far are considered as helonging to the Cyclades ; the rest that follow are the Sporades^. These are, Helene", Phacussa, Nicasia, Schinussa, Pholegandros, and, at a distance of thirty-eight miles from Naxos, Icaros^, which has given its name to the surrounding sea, and is the same number of miles in length^, with two cities, and a third now no longer in existence : this island used formerly to be called Doliche, Macris, and Ichthyoessa^°. It is situate fifty miles to the north-east of Delos, and thirty-five from the island of Samos. Between Euboea and Andros, there is an arm of the sea ten miles in width, and from Icaros to Geraestus is a distance of 112^ miles. ^ jSTow ISTaxia, famous both in ancient and modem times foi' its re- markable fertility. 2 From arpoyyvXo?, "round," its shape being somewhat inchned to cu'cular, though by Eustathius it is compared to the shape of a vine-leaf. It is commonly called Dia by the poets. Tournefort says that it is distant forty miles from Delos. ^ From Ai6vv(tos, or Bacchus, the god of wine. '^ Or " Fine City." It took its other name from the fact of its rivalling the fertihty of Sicily. ^ According to Brotier, the Jesuit Babin, on visiting it, found its cir- cumference estimated at tliirty-six miles only. ^ So called from lying scattered at random as it were, cnropd^ "scattered." 7 Helene is supposed to be the modern Pu^a ; Phacussa, Fecussa ; Nicasia, Rachia ; Scliinussa, Scliinusa ; and Pholegandros, Pohcandro. 8 Now Nikaria, to the west of Samos. According to tradition, it derived its name from Icarus, the son of Dsedalus, who was believed to have fallen into the sea in its vicinity. were Drepanum, or Dracanum, Qilnoe, and Isti. ^^ The first two names are from the Greek, in allusion to its long, narrow shape, and the last bears reference to the fact of its shores aboimding in fish.
 * Its length is not so gi-eat as is here mentioned by Pliny. Its tovms