The Geography of Strabo, Volume 1 (of 3): Literally Translated, with NotesStrabo
History
The Geography of Strabo, Volume 1 (of 3): Literally Translated, with Notes
Strabo
Geography -- Early works to 1800
14. After Thurii is Lagaria,[2199] a garrison fort; it was originally
settled by Epeius[2200] and the Phocenses; hence is derived the
Lagaritan wine, sweet and delicate, and much recommended by the
physicians, as is likewise the Thurian wine, which is reckoned among the
best. Then comes the city of Heraclea,[2201] a little way from the sea,
and two navigable rivers, the Agri[2202] and the Sinno,[2203] on which
was the city Siris, founded by a Trojan colony, but in course of time,
when Heraclea was peopled with the citizens of Siris by the Tarentini,
it became the harbour of Heraclea. Its distance from Heraclea was 24
stadia, and from Thurii about 330.[2204] They point out the statue of
the Trojan Minerva, which is erected there, as a proof of its
colonization by the Trojans. They also relate as a miracle how the
statue closed its eyes when the suppliants, who had fled for sanctuary
to her shrine, were dragged away by the Ionians after they had taken the
city;[2205] they say that these Ionians came to settle here, when they
fled from the yoke of the Lydians, and took the town of the
Trojans[2206] by force, calling its name Polieum. They show, too, at the
present time [CAS. 264] the statue that closes its eyes. It must,
however, require a good courage, not to assert that it appeared to have
closed its eyes, as that at Troy turned away its eyes from beholding the
violence offered to Cassandra, but to show it in the act of winking:—but
it is much more daring to make so many statues of the Minerva rescued
from Ilium, as those who describe them affirm, for there is a Minerva
said to be Trojan in the sense of having been rescued from that city,
not only at Siris, but at Rome, at Lavinium, and at Luceria. The scene,
too, of the daring of the Trojan female captives is assigned to many
different places and appears incredible, although it is by no means
impossible. There are some who say that Siris, and also that Sybaris on
the Trionto,[2207] were founded by the Rhodians. Antiochus says that the
site of Siris having become the subject of a contention between the
Tarentini and the Thurii, on that occasion commanded by Cleandridas the
general who had been banished from Lacedæmon, the two people came to a
composition, and agreed to inhabit it in common, but that the
colony[2208] should be considered as Tarentine; however, at a subsequent
period both the name and the locality were changed, and it was called
Heraclea.[2209]
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