Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/359

 Chap. 23.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 325 distant from Lemnos ; it formerly had the name of Aeria, or ^Ethria. Abdera on the mainland, is distant from Thasos twenty-two miles, Athos sixty-two^. The island of Samothrace^, a free state, facing the river Hebrus, is the same distance from Thasos, being also tliirty-two^ miles from Imbros, twenty-two from Lemnos, and thirty-eight' from the coast of Thrace ; it is thirty-two miles in circum- ference, and in it rises Mount Saoce*', ten miles in height. This island is the most inaccessible of them all. Callimachus mentions it by its ancient name of Dardania. Between the Chersonesus and Samothrace, at a distance of about fifteen miles from them both, is the island of Halonnesos'', and beyond it Gethone, Lamponia, and Alo- peconnesus^, not far from Coelos, aport^ of the Chersonesus, besides some others of no importance. The following names may be also mentioned, as those of uninhabited islands in this gvdf, of which we have been enabled to discover the names: — Desticos, Sarnos, Cyssiros, Charbrusa, Calathusa, Scylla, Draconon, Arconnesus, Dietliusa, Scapos, Capheris, Mesate, ^antion, Pateronnesos, Pateria, Calate, Neriphus, and Polendos'". ^ Mentioned in C. 17 of this Book. - Ansart says that " forty-two" would be the coiTcct reading here, that being also the distance between Samothrace and Thasos. ^ Its modern name is Saiuothraki. It was the chief seat of the mys- terious worship of the Cabii'i, ^ Barely eighteen, according to Brotier. ^ Now Monte Nettuno. Of course the height liere mentioned by Pliny is erroneous ; but Homer says that h*om this mountain Troy coidd be seen. • 7 Now called Skopelo, if it is the same island which is mentioned by Ptolemy imder the name of Scopelus. It exports wine in largo quantities. " Or the Fox Island, po called from its first settlers having been directed by an oracle to cstabli!«li a colony where they should first meet a fox with its cub. Like many otlicrs of the islands here mentioned, it appears not to have been identified. « See C. 18 of this Book. ^^ None of these islands appear to have been identified by modern gcograpliers.
 * Only twelve, according to Ansart.