Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/343

 B. xii. c. vin. 18. PHRYGIA. 335 a village, where there are inns for the reception of travellers, and springs of boiling water, some of which rise in the river Maeander, and others on its banks. There is a story, that a pimp had lodgings in the inns for a great company of women, and that during the night he and all the women were over- whelmed by an earthquake and disappeared. Nearly the whole of the country about the Maeander, as far as the inland parts, is subject to earthquakes, and is undermined by fire and water. For all this cavernous condition of the country, be- ginning from the plains, extends to the Charonia ; it exists like- wise in Hierapolis, and in Acharaca in the district Nysceis, also in the plain of Magnesia, and in Myus. The soil is dry and easily reduced to powder, full of salts, and very inflammable. This perhaps is the reason why the course of the Mseander is winding, for the stream is diverted in many places from its direction, and brings down a great quantity of alluvial soil, some part of which it deposits in various places along the shore, and forcing the rest forwards occasions it to drift into the open sea. It has made, for example, Priene, which was formerly upon the sea, an inland city, by the deposition of j banks of alluvial earth along an extent of 40 stadia. 18. Phrygia Catacecaurnene, (or the Burnt,) which is oc- cupied by Lydians and Mysians, obtained this name from some- thing of the following kind. In Philadelphia, 1 a city adjoining to it, even the walls of the houses are not safe, for nearly every day they are shaken, and crevices appear. The inhabitants are constantly attentive to these accidents to which the ground is subject, and build with a view to their occurrence. Apameia among other cities experienced, before the invasion of Mithridates, frequent earthquakes, and the king, on his arrival, when he saw the overthrow of the city, gave a hun- dred talents for its restoration. It is said that the same thing happened in the time of Alexander ; for this reason it is prob- able that Neptune is worshipped there, although they are an inland people, and that it had the name of Celaense from Celse- nus, 2 the son of Neptune, by Celasno, one of the Dan aides, or from the black colour of the stones, or from the blackness which is the effect of combustion. What is related o/ Sipylus and its overthrow is not to be regarded as a fable. For earth- quakes overthrew the present Magnesia, which is situated 1 Ala Schehr. 2 The Black.