Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/249

 B. in. c. iv. 2, 3. SPAIN. 235 a small portion of the Edetani, and the rest by a people named the Indicetes, divided into four cantons. 2T^ Commencing our particular description from Calpe, there is [first] the mountain-chain of Bastetania and the Oretani. This is covered with thick woods and gigantic trees, and separates the sea-coast from the interior. In many places it also contains gold and other mines. The first city along the coast is Malaca, 1 which is about as far distant from Calpe as Calpe. is from Gades. 2 It is a maxtet for the nomade tribes from the opposite coast, and there are great stores of salt-fish there. Some suppose it to be the same as Mamaca, which tradition reports to be the farthest west of the cities of the Phocaei ; but this is not the case, for Maenaca, which was situated at a greater distance from Calpe, is in ruins, and preserves traces of having been a Grecian city, whereas Malaca is nearer, and Pho3nician in its configuration. Next in order is the city of the Exitani, 3 from which the salted fish 4 bearing that name takes its appellation. 3. After these comes Abdera, 5 founded likewise by the Phoenicians. Above these places, in the mountains, the city / oTUlyssea 6 is shown, containing atf-rnplp. t Minerva t ac- rr cording to the testimony of PojiiJonius^ Artemidorus, and Asclepiades the Myrlean, 7 a man who taught literature in Turdetania, and published a description of the nations dwell- ing there. He says that in thft *pmp1<Ljyn nprva were hung up spears and prows of vessels, monuments of the_jyjLndrings 1 Malaga. 2 Cadiz. 3 Pomponius Mela gives this city the name of Hexi, or Ex, according to another reading; Pliny names, it Sexi, with the surname of Firmum Julium ; and Ptolemy, Sex. This is merely a difference relative to the aspiration of the word, which was sometimes omitted, at other times ex- pressed by the letters H or S indifferently. 4 Mentioned by Pliny, Athenaeus, Galen, and also by Martial, lib. vii. Epigramm. 78, Cum Saxetani ponatur cauda lacerti ; Et bene si coenas, conchis immcta tibi est ; Sumen, aprum, leporem. boletos, ostrea, mullos, Mittis ; habes nee cor, Papile, nee genium. 5 Adra. 6 Lisbon. ? ^~A~sclepiades of MyrTea^a city of Bithynia, was a grammarian, and dis- Jiipte of the celebrated grammarian, ApoUomjis. According to Suidas he taught literature at Rome, under Pompey the Great. And it is probable that it was with Pompey he afterwards passed into Spain.