Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/420

 406 STRABO. CASAUB. 269. and Anapias set the example of filial piety so greatly cele- brated, for they, seizing their parents, carried them on their shoulders 1 to a place of safety from the impending ruin ; for whenever, as Posidonius relates, there is an eruption of the mountain the fields of the Catana3ans are buried to a great depth. However, after the burning ashes have occasioned a temporary damage, they fertilize the country for future seasons, and ren- der the soil good for the vine and very strong for other pro- duce, the neighbouring districts not being equally adapted to the produce of wine. They say that the roots which the districts covered with these ashes produce, are so good for fattening sheep, that they are sometimes suffocated, wherefore they bleed them in the ear every four or. five days, 2 in the same way as we have related a like practice at Erythia. When the stream of lava cools 3 it covers the surface of the earth with stone to a considerable depth, so that those who wish to uncover the original surface are obliged to hew away the stone as in a quarry. For the stone is liquefied in the craters and then thrown up. That which is cast forth from the top is like a black moist clay and flows down the hill-sides, then congealing it becomes mill-stone, preserving the same colour it had while fluid. The ashes of the stones which are burnt are like what would be produced by wood, and as rue thrives on wood ashes, so there is probably some quality in the ashes of jEteia which is appropriate to the vine. 4. Archias, sailing from Corinth, founded Syracuse about the 'same period 4 that Naxos and Megara were built. They say that Myscellus and Archias having repaired to Delphi at the same time to consult the oracle, the god demanded whether they would choose wealth or health, when Archias lib. iii. cap. 8, Colonia Catina ; Pomponius Mela, lib. ii. cap. 7, Catina ; Cicero, Catina; and on ancient coins we find KATANAIQN. 1 This feat was recorded by divers works of art set up in different places : it must have taken place in one of the eruptions, 477, 453, or 427, before the Christian era. The place where they lived was called Campus Piorum. 9 Si rjntp&v Tfffffapwv TJ Trsvre, in Kramer's text ; in his notes he par- ticularizes the readings of the different manuscripts and editions, some reading forty or fifty. He also records his sorrow at having preferred the reading of fifty days to thirty, in the passage relating to the fat beasts of Erythia, book iii. cap. 5, 4, (page 255). 3 Literally, changes into coagulation. * About 758 or 735 B. c.