Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/422

 408 STRABO. CAS ATJ B. 270. the first of the barbarians that are considered to have been settlers in Sicily. It seems probable that Morgantium l was founded by the Morgetes. Formerly it was a city, but now it is not. When the Carthaginians 2 endeavoured to gain possession of the island they continually harassed both the Greeks and the barbarians, but the Syracusans withstood them ; at a later period the Romans expelled the Carthagi- nians and took Syracuse after a long siege. 3 And [Sextus] Pompeius, having destroyed Syracuse in the same way as he had done by the other cities, 4 Augustus Ca3sar in our own times sent thither a colony, and to a great extent restored it to its former importance, for anciently it consisted of five towns 5 enclosed by a wall of 180 6 stadia, but there being no great need that it should fill this extensive circle, he thought it expedient to fortify in a better way the thickly inhabited portion lying next the island of Ortygia, the circumference of which by itself equals that of an important city. Ortygia is connected to the mainland by a bridge, and [boasts of] the fountain Arethusa, which springs in such abundance as to form a river at once, and flows into the sea. They say that it is the river Alpheus 7 which rises in the Peloponnesus, and that it flows through the land beneath the sea 8 to the place 1 It is probable that Morgantium was situated on the right bank of the Giaretta, below its confluence with the Dattaino, but at some little distance from the sea ; at least such is the opinion of Cluverius, in opposition to the views of Sicilian topographers. Sic. Ant. book ii. cap. 7, pp. 325 and 335. 2 The first settlement of the Carthaginians in Sicily was about 560 B. c. 3 212 years B. c. * 42 years B. c. 5 They were called Nesos, [the island Ortygia,] Achradina, Tycha, Neapolis, and Epipolae. Ausonius applies the epithet fourfold, " Quis Catinam sileat ? quis quadruplices Syracusas ? " Dionysius however fortified Epipolee with a wall, and joined it to the city. 6 Twenty-two miles four perches English. Swinburne spent two days in examining the extent of the ruins, and was satisfied as to the accuracy of Strabo's statement. 7 A river of Elis. 8 Virgil thus deals with the subject : " Sicanio praetenta sinu jacet insula contra Plemmyrium undosum : nomen dixere priores Ortygiam. Alphetim fama est hue, Elidis amnem, Occultas egisse vias subter mare ; qui nunc Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis." Jn. iii. 692.