Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/405

 B.VI. c. i. 10. ITALY. THE .BRUTTII. GRECIAN CITIES. 391 of Delphi ought to take part with him, because his ancestors were consecrated to the god, and sent out to found the colony ; but Eunomus said that they could have no claim to contend for melody with any one, because that among them even the grasshoppers, who are the most gifted of all creatures, were mute. Nevertheless Aristo was applauded, and had hopes of obtaining the victory, but Eunomus was declared victorious, and dedicated the said statue in his country, because that at the contest one of the chords of his harp having broken, a grasshopper taking his stand on it supplied the sound. Above these towns the Bruttii possess the interior, and there is the city Mamertium, 1 and the forest which they call Sila, which produces the best or Bruttian pitch. 2 It yields fine trees, and is well watered, extending over a length of 700 stadia. 10. After the Locri is the [river] Sagras, 3 in the feminine gender, on which is situated the altar of the Dioscuri, near which ten thousand Locrians, with a small body of Rhegians gained a victory over 130,000 Crotoniatre, whence they say arose the proverb applied to incredulous people, " It is more true than the victory of the Sagras." Some people add to the mysterious account, that it was announced the same day at the Olympic games to the people there assembled, and this speedy news was found perfectly correct. They say that this mischance was so unfortunate an event to the Crotoniatae, that after it they did not long remain as a nation, on account 1 Although Strabo ascribes Mamertium to the Bruttii, it is more pro- bable that it -was a colony of Campanian mercenaries, deriving their name from Mamers, the Oscan Mars, who served under Agathocles, and other princes of Sicily. The Mamertini were employed by the Romans against Pyrrhus, whom they attacked in the woods and defiles about Rhegium. Barrio (lib. ii. c. 10) and Maraf. (lib. iii. c. 25, f. 222) have identified the site of this ancient town with Martorano, but it seems too distant from Locri and Rhegium to accord with Strabo's description. Cluverius, D'Anville, and Romanelli place it at Oppido, a bishop's see above Reggio, and Gerace, where old coins are said to have been discovered. Cramer (vol. ii. p. 439) thinks that the Mela? mentioned by Thucydides may have been identical with Mamertium. Several remains of antiquity exist on the site called Mela, in the vicinity of Oppido. 2 The pix Bruttia is noticed by Pliny, Columella. Dioscorides, and other authorities mentioned by Bochart, Canaan, p. 595. Bochart looks upon the Bruttii as a people known to the Phoenicians at a very remote period. 3 Geographers differ much as to the modern river which corresponds to this stream. Romanelli and Swinburne consider it to be the Alaro.