Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/395

 B. vi. c. i. $ 5. ITALY. THE BRUTTII. GRECIAN CITIES. 381 5. From the Lao the first city is the Temesa 1 of the Bruttii, which at present is called Tempsa. It was founded by the Au- sonians; afterwards the ./Etolians, under the command of Thoas, gained possession of it. These were expelled by the Bruttii ; Hannibal and the Romans have overthrown the Bruttii. 2 In the vicinity of Temesa is the Heroum of Polites, one of the companions of Ulysses. It is surrounded by a thick grove of wild olives. He was treacherously slain by the barbarians, and became in consequence very wrathful, arid his shade so tormented the inhabitants that they submitted to pay him a tribute, according to the direction of a certain oracle. Thus it became a proverb amongst them, " Let no one offend the hero of Temesa," for they said that [for a long time he 3 ] had tormented them. But when the Epizephyrian Locrians took the city, they feign that Euthymus the pugilist went out against him, and having overcome him in fight, constrained him to free the inhabitants from tribute. 4 They say that the poet intended this Temesa, and not the Tamassus 5 in Cyprus, (for it is said that the words are suitable to either, 6 ) when he sings, against every bodv." It is conceived that the hostilities of the Bruttii were fomented by Dion in order to prevent the tyrant Dionysius from deriving any aid from his Leucanian allies. The advancement of the Bruttii to independence is computed by Diodorus Siculus to have taken place about 397 years after the foundation of Rome, that is, 356 before the Christian era. 1 The situation of Temesa has not yet been fully determined. Cluve- rius fixes it about ten miles south of Amantea, near Torre Loppa. Ro- manelli observes, however, that Cluverius has not allowed fof the difference between the ancient and modern computation of distance. To rectify this oversight, he makes choice of Torre del piano del Casale, nearly two miles north of Torre Loppa, as the locality of this ancient site. The silver coins of Temesa are scarce. They have the Greek epigraph, TEM. 2 After the second Punic war it was colonized by the Romans, who called it Tempsa, B. c. 195. 3 We concur with Kramer in approving the proposition of Groskurd to understand the words iicflvov ptv ovv Sid TTOOV as having been originally written in the text immediately before i-jriKtloOai avrolt;. 4 They had been compelled to sacrifice a virgin annually in order to appease his disturbed spirit. 6 These words in parenthesis seem to have been interpolated by the transcribers of our author. Both Temesa and Tamassus were rich in metal, but the spelling of the name in Homer is more in accordance with Temesa than Tamassus, and other poets have alluded to it, as Ovid. Met. xv. 706,
 * Borgo di Tamasso.