[3] After these comes Abdera,1 founded likewise by the Phœnicians. Above these places, in the mountains, the city of Ulyssea2 is shown, containing a temple to Minerva, according to the testimony of Posidonius, Artemidorus, and Asclepiades the Myrlean,3 a man who taught literature in Turdetania, and published a description of the nations dwelling there. He says that in the temple of Minerva were hung up spears and prows of vessels, monuments of the wanderings of Ulysses. That some of those who followed Teucer in his expedition settled among the Gallicians;4 and that two cities were there, the one called Hellenes,5 the other Amphilochi; but Amphilochus6 having died, his followers wandered into the interior. He adds, that it is said, that some of the followers of Hercules, and certain also of the inhabitants of Messene, settled in Iberia. Both he and others assert that a portion of Cantabria was occupied by Laconians. Here is the city named Opsicella,7 founded by Ocela,8 who passed into Italy with Antenor and his children. Some believe the account of the merchants of Gades, asserted by Artemidorus, that in Libya there are people living above Maurusia, near to the Western Ethiopians, named Lotophagi, because they feed on the leaves and root of the lotus9 without wanting to drink; for they possess [no drink], being without water. These people they say extend as far as the regions above Cyrene. There are others also called Lotophagi, who inhabit Meninx,10 one of the islands situated opposite the Lesser Syrtes.11
1 Adra.
2 Lisbon.
3 Asclepiades of Myrlea, a city of Bithynia, was a grammarian, and disciple of the celebrated grammarian, Apollonius. According to Suidas he taught literature at Rome, under Pompey the Great. And it is probable that it was with Pompey he afterwards passed into Spain.
4 Teucer, the son of Telamon, king of the island of Salamis, being driven out of the country by his father, founded in Cyprus the city of Salamis. Justin adds, that after the death of his father he returned to the island of Salamis; but being prevented by the son of Ajax, his brother, from debarking, he went into Iberia, and took up his abode on the spot where Carthagena was afterwards built: that subsequently he removed into the country of the Gallicians, and settled amongst them.
5 The Hellenes derived their name from Hellen the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. This name, which at first designated only a small people of Thessaly, became afterwards the general appellation of the inhabitants of the whole of Greece.
6 Amphilochus, on his return from Troy, founded with Mopsus the city of Mallos in Cilicia. He afterwards retired to Argos, but not being contented there he rejoined Mopsus, who however would no longer divide with him the government of their common colony. This dispute resulted in a remarkable combat, which cost the life of both. (Compare Strabo, 1. xiv. c. 4.) Sophocles and other tragic poets have taken advantage of this tradition. Herodotus likewise speaks of the voyages of Amphilochus into Cilicia, and of the city of Posideium which he founded there, but he tells us nothing of his death. Thucydides merely says that Amphilochus on his return home after the Trojan war, being discontented with his compatriots, founded in the Gulf of Ambracia a city which he named after his fatherland, Argos. None of these traditions mention a voyage to Iberia.
7 Siebenkees suspects that this name should be read Ocella. The Oce- lenses in Lusitania are commended by Pliny.
8 Some MSS. read Opsicella.
9 Strabo, or rather Artemidorus, seems to have confused the two kinds of lotus mentioned by the ancients. That whereof they ate the roots and the grain is the lotus of the Nile, and a plant of the species nymphtœa. The lotus alluded to in this instance is a shrub, (the rhamnus lotus of Linnæcus,) named seedra by the inhabitants of Barbary, with whom the fruit is an article of food. Herodotus mentions both kinds, (lib. ii. c. 92, and iv. c. 177,) and Polybius describes the second, as an eye-witness.
10 The Island of Zerbi.
11 The Gulf of Cabes.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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