Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/417

 B. vi. c. ii. 2. SICILY. 403 nus to Tnenarum 1 it is 4600, and from the Alpheus to the Pamisus is 1130 stadia, 2 he appears to me to lie open to the objection of having given distances which do not accord with the 4000 stadia from Pachynus to the Alpheus. The line run from Pachynus to Lilybseum (which is much to the west of Pelorias) is considerably diverged from the south to- wards the west, having at the same time an aspect looking towards the east and towards the south. 3 On one side it is washed by the sea of Sicily, and on the other by the Libyan Sea, extending from Carthage to the Syrtes. The shortest run is 1500 stadia from Lilybaaum to the coast of Africa about Carthage ; and, according to report, a certain very sharp-sighted person, 4 placed on a watch-tower, announced to the Carthaginians besieged in Lilybseum the number of the ships which were leaving Carthage. And from Lily- baeum to Pelorias the side must necessarily incline towards the east, and look in a direction towards the west and north, having Italy to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea with the islands of JEolus to the west. 5 2. The cities situated on the side which forms the Strait are, first Messana, then Tauromenium, 6 Catana, and Syracuse ; between Catana and Syracuse were the ruined cities Naxos 7 and Megara, 8 situated where the rivers descending from ^Etna fall into the sea, and afford good accommodation for shipping. Here is also the promontory of Xiphonia. They say that Ephorus founded these first cities of the Greeks in Sicily in 1 Cape Matapan. * The French translation gives 11 GO stadia. 3 Gossellin observes, that from Pachynus to Lilybaeum the coast runs from the south to the north-west, and looks towards the south-west. 4 This person, according to Varro, was named Strabo. See Varr. ap. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vii. 21, page 386. 5 This coast of Sicily rises very little as it advances towards the east, and looks almost continually towards the north, with the exception of a very short space near Lilybasum. The JEolian islands lie to the north. 6 Taormina. 7 Naxos was not situated between Catana and Syracuse, but was most probably built on the left bank of the Fiume Freddo, the ancient Asines, near Taormina. It is possible that Strabo originally wrote, between Mes- sina and Syracuse. Naxos was founded about 734 B. c., and destroyed by Dionysius the elder about the year 403. Naxos is thought by some to be the modern Schisso. 8 Megara was founded on the right of the Cantaro, the ancient Alabus. It was destroyed about 214 years B. c. 2 D 2