Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/64

 56 STRABO. CASATTB. 374. mosthenes, although he had received orders from Antipater to bring him alive, and all other orators he could find, who were accused of the same crimes. He attempted persuasion, but in vain, for Demosthenes deprived himself of life by taking poison in the temple. 1 Troezen and Pittheus, the sons of Pelops, having set out from Pisatis to Argos, the former left behind him a city of his own name ; Pittheus succeeded him, and became king. An- thes, who occupied the territory before, set sail, and founded Halicarnassus. We shall speak of him in our account of Caria and the Troad. 15. Epidaurus was called Epitaurus [Epicarus?]. Aris- totle says, that Carians occupied both this place and Hermione, but upon the return of the Heracleidae those lonians, who had accompanied them from the Athenian Tetrapolis to Argos, settled there -together with the Carians. Epidaurus 2 was a distinguished city, remarkable particu- larly on account of the fame of JEsculapius, who was sup- posed to cure every kind of disease, and whose temple is crowded constantly with sick persons, and its walls covered with votive tablets, which are hung upon the walls, and con- tain accounts of the cures, in the same manner as is practised at Cos, and at Tricca. The city lies in the recess of the Saronic Gulf, with a coasting navigation of 15 stadia, and its aspect is towards the point of summer sun-rise. It is sur- rounded with lofty mountains, which extend to the coast, so that it is strongly fortified by nature on all sides. Between Troezen and Epidaurus, there was a fortress Me- thana, 3 and a peninsula of the same name. In some copies of Thucydides Methone is the common reading, 4 a place of the same name with the Macedonian city, at the siege of which Philip lost an eye. Hence Demetrius of Scepsis is of opinion, that some persons were led into error by the name, and sup- posed that it was Methone near Trcezen. It was against this town, it is said, that the persons sent by Agamemnon to levy sailors, uttered the imprecation, that " they might never cease to build walls," 1 Plutarch, Life of Demosthenes. 2 Pidauro. 8 Methana is the modern name. 4 Thucyd. b. ii. c. 34. Methone is the reading of all manuscripts and editions.