Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/524

 510 STRABO. FRAGM. 24,25. The Axius is a turbid river, but as a spring of clearest water rises in Araydon, and mingles with the Axius, some have altered the line 'A^iov, oil KaXXiaTOv vdwp tTruddvarai Alav, " Axius, whose fairest water o'erspreads ya," to 'Aiov. $ Kaiarov vdwp tTriicidvaTai Afyc. " Axius, o'er whom spreads ^Ea's fairest water." For it is not the " fairest water " which is diffused over the spring, but the " fairest water " of the spring which is dif- fused over the Axius. 1 EPIT. 24. After the river Axius is the city Thessalonica, formerly called Therma. It was founded by Cassander, who called it after the name of his wife, a daughter of Philip Amyntas. He transferred to it the small surrounding cities, Chalastra, ^Enea, Cissus, and some others. Probably from this Cissus came Iphidamas, mentioned in Homer, "whose grandfather Cisseus educated him," he says, " in Thrace," which is now called Macedonia. EPIT. 25. Somewhere in this neighbourhood is the mountain Ber- mius, 2 which was formerly in the possession of the Briges, a Thracian nation, some of whom passed over to Asia and were called by another name, Phrygians (Phryges). After Thes- salonica follows the remaining part of the Therma?an Gulf, 3 extending to Canastrj-eum. 4 This is a promontory of a penin- sula form, and is opposite to Magnesia. Pallene is the name of the peninsula. It has an isthmus 5 stadia in width, with a ditch cut across it. There is a city on the peninsula, formerly 1 Kramer quotes the following passage from Eustathius : " In the pas- sage tTriKicWrai aiy, or alav, (for there are two readings,) some have understood alav not to mean the earth, but a spring, as is evident from the words of the geographer, where he says that the Amydon of Homer was afterwards called Abydos, but was razed. For there is a spring of clearest water near Amydon, called ^Ea, running into the Axius, which is itself turbid, in consequence of the numerous rivers which flow into it. There is, therefore, he says, an error in the quotation, 'AZiov KO.KT- rov vdwp iTTiKidvarai aty, as it is clearly not the Axius which diffuses its water over the spring, but the contrary. The geographer rather in- temperately finds fault with the supposition of alav meaning the earth, and seems anxious to reject altogether this reading in the Homeric poem." 2 Buneus. 3 Gulf of Salonica. * Cape Pailuri.