Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/392

 378 STRABO. CASATJB. 253. versal geography, to speak both of things as they now are, and of some of those that have been, and especially when they are important. Of the Leucani, who border upon the Tuscan Sea, mention has already been made ; those who possess the midland regions dwell above the Gulf of Tarentum, but these, as well as the Bruttii, and the Samnites them- selves, the progenitors of both, have been so maltreated [by the Romans], that it is difficult to determine the bound- aries of each people. The reason of this is, that there no longer remains separately any of the institutions common to these nations ; and their peculiarities of language, of military and civil costume, and such particulars, have passed away ; besides, even their places of abode, considered separately and apart, possess nothing worthy of observation. 3. We will narrate in a general manner what we have gathered concerning the Leucani, who dwell in the interior, without too much care in distinguishing them from their neighbours, the Samnites. Petilia 1 is considered as the metropolis of the Leucani, and is still well peopled. It owes its foundation to Philoctetes, who was compelled to quit Meli- boea on account of civil dissensions. Its position is so strong, that the Samnites were formerly obliged to construct forts around it for the defence of their territory. The ancient Crimissa, situated near these places, was also founded by Philoc- tetes. Apollodorus, in his description of the ships [of the Greeks], narrates concerning Philoctetes, that, according to certain writers, this prince having disembarked in the district of Crotona, settled on the promontory of Crimissa, and built the city of Chone 2 above it, from which the inhabitants were called Chones ; and that certain colonists being sent by him into Sicily, to the neighbourhood of Eryx, 3 with .ZEgestus the 1 It has been well observed by Cramer in his Ancient Italy, that Strabo confused this Petilia of the Leucani with another better known of the Bruttii, the foundation of which was attributed to Philoctetes. It is observed by Antonini that Strabo contradicts himself, by ascribing to Philoctetes the origin of a town in Leucania, for he states a few lines further on that that hero occupied a part of the coast near Crotona, which was in the territory of the Brnttii. Strabo's account, however, of the existence of a Leucanian Petilia is confirmed by many inscriptions of early date. The ruins of the town remain on the Monte della Stella. Antonin. della Lucan. p. i. disc. 8. Romanelli, torn. i. p. 350. 2 According to some judicious antiquaries, the site of Chone is located at Casabuona, near Strongoli. 3 Trapani del Monte.