Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/523

 FHAGM. 22, 23. MACEDONIA. 509 of a spring called Ja which runs into it, the water of which is of surpassing clearness. This is sufficient to prove that the present reading in the poem is erroneous. After the Axius is the Echedorus, 1 20 stadia distant. Then Thessa- lonica, founded by Cassander, 40 stadia farther on, and the Egnatian Way. He named the city after his wife Thessa- lonice, the daughter of Philip Amyntas, and pulled down nearly 26 cities in the district of Crucis, and on the Ther- mcean Gulf, collecting the inhabitants into one city. It is the metropolis of the present Macedonia. The cities transferred to Thessalonica were Apollonia, Chalastra, Therma, Gares- cus, ^Enea, and Cissus. Cissus, it is probable, belonged to Cisseus, who is mentioned by the poet. " Cisseus educated him," meaning Iphidamas. E. 22. After the city Drium is the river Haliacmon, which discharges itself into the Thermaean Gulf. From hence to the river Axius the sea-coast on the north of the gulf bears the name of Pieria, on which is situated the city Pydna, now called Citrum. Then follow Methone and the river Alorus ; then the rivers Erigon and Ludias. From Ludias to the city Pella the river is navigated upwards to the distance of 20 stadia. Methone is distant from Pydna 40 stadia, and 70 stadia from Alorus. Pydna is a Pierian, Alorus a Bottiaean city. In the plain of Pydna the Romans defeated Perseus, and put an end to the Macedonian empire. In the plain of Methone, during the siege of the city, Philip Amyntas acci- dentally lost his right eye by an arrow discharged from a catapult. EPIT. 23. Philip, who was brought up at Pella, formerly a small city, much improved it. In front of the city is a lake, out of which flows the river Ludias. The lake is supplied by a branch of the river Axius. Next follows the Axius, which separates the territory of Bottiasa and Amphaxitis, and after receiving the river Erigon, issues out between Chalestra and Therme. On the river Axius is a place which Homer calls Amy don, and says that the Peeones set out thence as auxili- aries to Troy : " From afar, from Amydon, from Axius' wide stream." The Gallico.