The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3): Literally Translated, with NotesStrabo
History
The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3): Literally Translated, with Notes
Strabo
Geography -- Early works to 1800
“My father determined that I should go away to Acte, having
assigned to me, as the elder, the best part of the land; to
Lycus, the opposite garden of Eubœa; for Nisus he selects the
irregular tract of the shore of Sciron; and the rugged Pallas,
breeder of giants, obtained by lot the part to the
south.”[288]
Such are the proofs which are adduced to show that Megaris was a part of
Attica.
7. After the return of the Heraclidæ, and the partition of the country,
many of the former possessors were banished from their own land by the
Heraclidæ, and by the Dorians, who came with them, and migrated to
Attica. Among these was Melanthus, the king of Messene. He was
voluntarily [CAS. 393] appointed king of the Athenians, after having
overcome in single combat, Xanthus, the king of the Bœotians. When
Attica became populous by the accession of fugitives, the Heraclidæ were
alarmed, and invaded Attica, chiefly at the instigation of the
Corinthians and Messenians; the former of whom were influenced by
proximity of situation, the latter by the circumstance that Codrus, the
son of Melanthus, was at that time king of Attica. They were, however,
defeated in battle and relinquished the whole of the country, except the
territory of Megara, of which they kept possession, and founded the city
Megara, where they introduced as inhabitants Dorians in place of
Ionians. They destroyed the pillar also which was the boundary of the
country of the Ionians and the Peloponnesians.
8. The city of the Megarenses, after having experienced many changes,
still subsists. It once had schools of philosophers, who had the name of
the Megaric sect. They succeeded Euclides, the Socratic philosopher, who
was by birth a Megarensian, in the same manner as the Eleiaci, among
whom was Pyrrhon, who succeeded Phædon, the Eleian, who was also a
Socratic philosopher, and as the Eretriaci succeeded Menedemus the
Eretrean.
Megaris, like Attica, is very sterile, and the greater part of it is
occupied by what are called the Oneii mountains, a kind of ridge, which,
extending from the Scironides rocks to Bœotia and to Cithæron, separates
the sea at Nisæa from that near Pagæ, called the Alcyonian Sea.
9. In sailing from Nisæa to Attica there lie, in the course of the
voyage, five small islands. Then succeeds Salamis, which is about 70,
and according to others, 80, stadia in length. It has two cities of the
same name. The ancient city, which looked towards Ægina and to the
south, as Æschylus has described it;
“Ægina lies towards the blasts of the south:”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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