[197] We learn from _Curtius_ (iv. 34) that Alexander released these prisoners at the request of ambassadors from Athens, who met him in Syria after his return from Egypt. [198] The other cities of Lesbos were Methymna, Antissa, Eresus, and Pyrrha. [199] Now called Cape Sigri, the west point of the island. [200] The southern point of Euboea, now called Cape Mandili. Cf. Homer (_Odyss._, iii. 177). [201] The south-eastern point of Laconia, now called Cape Malia di St. Angelo. It was dreaded by ancient mariners; see Homer (_Odyssey_, ix. 80); Ovid (_Amores_, ii. 16, 24); Vergil (_Aeneid_, v. 193). There was a saying:—Μαλέας δὲ κάμψας ἐπιλάθου τῶν οἴκαδε (_Strabo_, viii. p. 250). [202] In accordance with the convention of Corinth. Compare next chapter. For the pillars compare _Herodotus_ (ii. 102, 106); _Thucydides_ (v. 18, 47, 56); Aristophanes (_Acharnians_, 727; _Lysistrata_, 513). [203] This treaty was concluded by the Spartans with the king of Persia, B.C. 387. It was designed to break up the Athenian supremacy. It stipulated that all the Grecian colonies in Asia were to be given to the Persian king; the Athenians were to retain only Imbros, Lesbos, and Scyros; and all the other Grecian cities were to be autonomous. See Xenophon (_Hellenics_, iv. 8; v. 1). [204] Cf. ii. 13 infra. [205] “Cyclades ideo sic appellatae, quod omnes ambiunt Delon partu deorum insignem.”—_Ammianus_, xxii. 8, 2. Cf. Horace (_Carm._, i. 14, 19; iii. 28, 14). [206] Cf. Vergil (_Aeneid_, ii. 21). [207] The regent of Macedonia and Greece during Alexander’s absence. [208] One of the Cyclades, a little to the north-east of Melos. It was noted for the low morality of its inhabitants. See Aristophanes (_Fragment_, 558; on the authority of Suidas). [209] Euripus properly means any narrow sea, where the ebb and flow of the tide is violent. The name was especially applied to the strait between Boeotia and Euboea, where the ancients asserted the sea ebbed and flowed seven times in the day (_Strabo_, ix. 1). Modern observers have noticed these extraordinary tides. The present name of the island, Negropont, is the Italian name formed from Egripo, the modern corruption of Euripus. Cf. Cicero, _pro Muraena_, xvii.:—Quod fretum, quem Euripum tot motus, tantas, tam varias habere putatis agitationes fluctuum, quantas perturbationes et quantos aestus habet ratio comitiorum. Aristotle, _Ethica Nicomachea_, ix. 6:—τῶν τοιούτων γὰρ μένει τὰ βουλήματα, καὶ οὐ μεταῤῥεῖ ὥσπερ Εὔριπος. [210] One of the Cyclades, about half-way between Attica and Siphnus. [211] ἐπιπτῆναι, a poetical form for ἐπιπτέσθαι. [212] Cf. _Justin_, xi. 7. [213] Cf. _Curtius_, iii. 2 (Zumpt’s edition); Plutarch (_Alexander_, 18). [214] Now called Angora. In the time of Alexander the country was named Great Phrygia, the term Galatia being afterwards applied to it, from the fact that it was conquered by the Gauls in the 3rd century B.C.