[3] Originally, there were said to be twelve Cyclades, but many others were added to them. Artemidorus enumerates (fifteen?) where he is speaking of the island Helena,1 and of which he says that it extends from Thoricus2 to Sunium,3 and is about 60 stadia in length; it is from this island, he says, the Cyclades, as they are called, begin. He names Ceos,4 as the nearest island to Helena, and next to this Cythnus, Seriphus,5 Melos, Siphnus, Cimolus, Prepesinthus,6 Oliarus,7 and besides these Paros,8 "Naxos,9 Syros,10 Myconus,11 Tenos,12 Andros,13 Gyarus.14 The rest I consider as belonging to the Twelve, but not Prepesinthus, Oliarus, and Gyarus. When I put in at the latter island I found a small village inhabited by fishermen. When we left it we took in a fisherman, deputed from the inhabitants to go to C$esar, who was at Corinth on his way to celebrate his triumph after the victory at Actium.15 He told his fellow-passengers, that he was deputed to apply for an abatement of the tribute, for they were required to pay 150 drachmæ, when it was with difficulty they could pay 100. Aratus,16 in his Details, intimates how poor they were; “"O Latona, thou art shortly going to pass by me [an insignificant is- land] like to the iron-bound Pholegandrus, or to unhappy Gyarus.”
1 Isola Longa, or Macronisi.
2 It was situated in the bay of Mandri.
3 C. Colonna.
4 Zia.
5 Serpho.
6 Polino.
7 Antiparos.
8 Bara.
9 Naxia.
10 Syra.
11 Myconi.
12 Tino.
13 Andro.
14 Jura. Pliny, viii. 29, says the inhabitants were driven from the island by mice.
15 B. C. 31.
16 The title (which has been much questioned by critics) of this lost work of Aratus appears to have been, from this passage, τά κατὰ λεπτόν, which Latin translators have rendered, Minuta, or Details. Casaubon is of opinion that it is the same as referred to by Callimachus, under the title ῾ρήσεις λέπται, Clever Sayings. Ernest. ad Callim. Ep. 29. T. 1. p. 333. The translation of the lines quoted follows the corrections of Coray.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.