Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/513

 Chap. 34] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 479 Colyeantii, and the Tnpsedri. Isidorus adds to these the Ariiiii', as also the Capretae, settled ou the spot where Apa- mea" stands, which was founded by King Seleucus, between Cilicia, Cappadocia, Cataonia, and Ai-meuia, and was at first called Damea^ from the fact that it had conquered nations most remarkable for their fierceness. CHAP. 34. (31.) — THE ISLANDS WHICH LIE IN FEONT OF ASIA. ^ Of the islands which lie before Asia the first is the one situate in the Canopic Moutli of the Nile, and which received its name, it is said, from Canopus, the pilot of Menelaiis. A second, called Pharos, is joined by a bridge to Alexandria, and was made a colony by the Dictator Caesar. In former times it was one day's *saiP from the mainland of Bg}-pt ; at the present day it directs ships in their course by means of the fii-es which are lighted at night on the tower^ there ; for in consequence of the insidious nature of the shoals, there are only three channels by which Alexandria can be ap- proached, those of Steganus*', Posideum'' and Taurus. In the Phoenician Sea, before Joppe there is the island of Paria^, the whole of it forming a town. Here, they say, Andromeda was exposed to the monster : the island also of Arados, already mentioned^, between which and the con- tinent, as we learn from Mucianus, at a depth of fifty cubits in the sea, fresh water is brought up from a spriug at the very bottom by means of leather pipes *°. ^ By some supposed to have been a ]>eople of Phrygia. 2 Mentioned in C. 29 of the present Book. 3 From the Greek dcifiao}, " to subdue." Ilardouin thinks that this appellation is intended to be given by Pliny to Asia in getu'ral, and not to the city of Apamea in ]-)articidar, as imagined by Ortehus and others. ^ It is so described by Homer. 5 This was the hght-house built upon it by Ptolemy TI. Philadelphus, whence the name of pharus came to be a]>i)lied to similar structures. It was here also that, according to the common story, the seventy 'IVanslatora of the Greek version of the Old Testament, hence called the Septuagint, were confined wliile com^ileting their work. ^ The narrotv or fortijied channel. ^ The Neptunian channel. ^ Mentioned also m C. 14 of the present Book. ^ In C. 17 of the present Book. ^^ The boatmen of Ruad, the ancient Aradus, still draw fresh wat^r