Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/217

 B. x. c. v. 4, 5. THE CYCLADES. 209 deputed to apply for an abatement of the tribute, for they were required to pay 150 drachmae, when it was with diffi- culty they could pay 100. Aratus, 1 in his Details, intimates how poor they were ; " O Latona, thou art shortly going to pass by me [an insignificant is- land] like to the iron-bound Pholegandrus, or to unhappy Gyarus. 4. Although Delos 2 was so famous, yet it became still more so, and flourished after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans. 3 For the merchants resorted thither, induced by the immunities of the temple, and the convenience of its har- bour. It lies favourably 4 for those who are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival held there serves the purposes of commerce, and the Romans particularly frequented it even before the destruction of Corinth. 5 The Athenians, after having taken the island, paid equal attention to the aifairs both of religion and of commerce. But the generals 6 of Mithridates, and the tyrant, 7 who had occasioned the defection of (Athens from the Romans), ravaged it en- tirely. The Romans received the island in a desolate state on the departure of the king to his own country ; and it has continued in an impoverished condition to the present time. 8 The Athenians are now in possession of it. o. Rheneia 9 is a small desert island 4 stadia from Delos, where are the sepulchral monuments of the Delians. For it is not permitted to bury the dead in Delos, nor to burn a 1 The title (which has been much questioned by critics) of this lost work of Aratus appears to have been, from this passage, Td Kara XSTTTOV, which Latin translators have rendered, Minuta, or Details. Casaubon is of opinion that it is the same as referred to by Callimachus, under the title 'Prjcrac XsTrrat, Clever Sayings. Ernest, ad Callira. Ep. 29. T. 1. p. 333. The translation of the lines quoted follows the corrections of Coray. 2 In the middle of the Cyclades, and by far the most remarkable, is Delos, celebrated for the temple of Apollo, and for its commerce. Pliny iv. 12. 3 Under L. Mummius, B. c. 146. 4 Thucyd. i. 36. 5 Kai ore avvEffTrjKEi r) KopivOoQ. 6 Archelaiis and Metrophanes. 7 Aristion, B. c. 87. 8 Pausanias, viii. 33, 2, (writing in the time of Hadrian,) says of Delos, that with the exception of the persons who came from Athens, for the purpose of protecting the temple and to perform the Delian cere- monies, it was deserted. 9 Rhena, called also Dhiles ; but it is the largest of the two islands now bearing that name. Pliny says it was anciently called also Celadussa, from the noise of the waves, KtXadelv. VOL. II. P