Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/99

 B. ix. c. ii. 1. BCEOTIA. 91 a bad return to their labour, committed to the furnace the old refuse and scoria, and hence obtained very pure silver, for the former workmen had carried on the process in the furnace unskilfully. Although the Attic is the best of all the kinds of honey, yet by far the best of the Attic honey is that found in the country of the silver mines, 1 which they call acapniston, or un- smoked, from the mode of its preparation. 24. Among the rivers is the Cephissus, having its source from the Trinemeis, it flows through the plain (where are the Gephyra, and the Gephyrismi) between the legs or walls ex- tending from the Asty to the Piraeus, and empties itself into the Phalericum. Its character is chiefly that of a winter torrent, for in the summer time it fails altogether. Such also, for the most part, is the Ilissus, which flows from the other side of the Asty to the same coast, from the parts above Agra, and the Lyceium, and the fountain celebrated by Plato in the Pha3drus. So much then respecting Attica. CHAPTER II. 1. NEXT in order is Bo3otia. When I speak of this country, and of the contiguous nations, I must, for the sake of per- spicuity, repeat what I have said before. We have said, that the sea-coast stretches from Sunium to the north as far as Thessalonica, inclining a little toward the west, and having the sea on the east, that parts situated above this shore towards the west extend like belts 2 parallel to one another through the whole country. The first of these belts is Attica with Megaris, the eastern side of which extends 1 As Mount Hymettus was always celebrated for producing the best honey, it would appear from this passage that there were silver mines in it. It appears however that the Athenians had failed to discover silver in Hymettus. It is not impossible that Strabo has adopted literally some proverb or saying of the miners, such as, " Ours is the best honey." 2 In the following description of Greece, Strabo employs the term belts or bands (raivi'ac) for the territory intercepted between the lines forming the peninsulas. See note, chap. i. 1, of this book.