Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/522

 488 PLINT's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book V. Hiera have also perished. Eresos Pyrrlia, and the free city of Mitylene^, still survive, the last of which was a powerful city for a space of 1500 years. The circumference of the whole island is, according to Isidorus, 168 miles^, but the older writers say 195. Its mountains are, Lepe- thymnus, Ordymnus, Macistus, Creon, and Olympus. It is distant seven miles and a half from tlie nearest point of the mainland. The islands in its vicinity are, Sandaleon, alid the five called Leucae"* ; Cydonea^, which is one of them, contains a warm spring. The Arejinussre^ are four miles distant from Mge'^ ; after them come Phellusa^ and Pedna. Beyond the Hellespont, and opposite the shore of Sigeum, lies Tenedos^, also known by the names of Leucophrys^°, Phcenice, and Lyrnesos. It is distant from Lesbos fifty-six miles, and twelve and a half from Sigeum. CHAP. 40. (32.) — THE HELLESPOTfT ATfD MTSIA, The tide of the Hellespont now begins to run with greater violence, and the sea beats against the shore, undermining with its eddies the barriers that stand in its way, until it has succeeded in separating Asia from Europe. At this spot is the promontory which we have already mentioned as Trapeza" ; ten miles distant from which is the city of ^ Or Eressus, according to Strabo. It stood on a HU, reacliing down to the sea. Its ruins are said to be near a place still called Eresso. It was the birth-place of the phUosoplier Theopln-astus, the disciple of Aristotle. 2 g^in called Mitylene, or MeteUn. 3 Strabo makes it about only 137 miles. ^ Or the White Islands. 5 So caUed fi-om its fruitfulness in quinces, or " Mala Ci/donia." ^ These were three small islands, near the mainland of yEolis. It was off these islands that the ten generals of the Athenians gaiued a victory over the Spartans, B.C. 406. The modern name of these islands is said to be Janot. 7 One of the Leuca?, previously mentioned. 8 So called from the (peWbs, or " cork," which it produced. 9 Still known as Tenedos, near the mouth of the Hellespont. Here the Grreeks were said to have concealed their fleet, to induce the Trojans to think that they had departed, and then introduce the wooden horse within their walls. ^0 " Having white eve-brows ;" probably from the wliiteness of its cliffs. " In C. 33 of the present Book.