Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/413

 B. xiii. c. iv. 7-9. SARDES. 405 Callisthenes says, that the Arimi from whom the mountains in the neighbourhood have the name of Arima, are situated near the Calycadnus, 1 and the promontory Sarpedon close to the Corycian cave. 7. The monuments of the kings lie around the lake Coloe. At Sardes is the great mound of Alyattes upon a lofty base, the work, according to Herodotus, 2 of the people of the city, the greatest part of it being executed by young women. He says that they all prostituted themselves ; according to some writers the sepulchre is the monument of a courtesan. Some historians say, that Coloe is an artificial lake, designed to receive the superabundant waters of the rivers when they are full and overflow. Hypsepa 3 is a city situated on the descent from Tmolus to the plain of the Cayster. 8. Callisthenes says that Sardes was taken first by Cim- merians, then by Treres and Lycians, which Callinus also, the elegiac poet, testifies, and that it was last captured in the time of Cyrus and Croesus. When Callinus says that the incursion of the Cimmerians when they took Sardes was directed against the Esioneis, the Scepsian (Demetrius) sup- poses the Asioneis to be called by him Esioneis, according to the Ionian dialect ; for perhaps Meonia, he says, was called Asia, as Homer describes the country, "in the Asian mea- dows about the streams of Caystrius." 4 The city, on account of the fertility of the country, was afterwards restored, so as to be a considerable place, and was inferior to none of its neighbours ; lately it has lost a great part of its buildings by earthquakes. But Sardes, and many other cities which partici- pated in this calamity about the same time, have been repaired by the provident care and beneficence of Tiberius the present emperor. 9. The distinguished natives of Sardes were two orators of the same name and family, the Diodori ; the elder of whom was called Zonas, who had pleaded the cause of Asia in many suits. But at the time of the invasion of Mithridates the king, he was accused of occasioning the revolt of the cities from him, but in his defence he cleared himself of the charge. The younger Diodorus was my friend ; there exist of his 1 Kelikdni. 2 Herod, i. 93. 3 Pyrgela. 4 II. ii. 461.