Strabo, Geography, Horace Leonard Jones (Translator), 12.8.17

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[17] Carura forms a boundary between Phrygia and Caria. It is a village; and it has inns, and also fountains of boiling-hot waters, some in the Maeander River and some above its banks. Moreover, it is said that once, when a brothel-keeper had taken lodging in the inns along with a large number of women, an earthquake took place by night, and that he, together with all the women, disappeared from sight. And I might almost say that the whole of the territory in the neighborhood of the Maeander is subject to earthquakes and is undermined with both fire and water as far as the interior; for, beginning at the plains, all these conditions extend through that country to the Charonia,¹ I mean the Charonium at Hierapolis and that at Acharaca in Nysaïs and that near Magnesia and Myus. In fact, the soil is not only friable and crumbly but is also full of salts² and easy to burn out.³ And perhaps the Maeander is winding for this reason, because the stream often changes its course and, carrying down much silt, adds the silt at different times to different parts of the shore; however, it forcibly thrusts a part of the silt out to the high sea. And, in fact, by its deposits of silt, extending forty stadia, it has made Priene, which in earlier times was on the sea, an inland city.⁴

Geography. Strabo. Horace Leonard Jones (Translator). London. 1924-1929.

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Current edition Perseus

Geography (Books 6-14) (English) (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 3-6. Jones, Horace Leonard, translator. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924-1929 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 12.8.17 focus

[17] ὅριον δέ ἐστι τῆς Φρυγίας καὶ τῆς Καρίας τὰ Κάρουρα· κώμη δʼ ἐστὶν αὕτη πανδοχεῖα ἔχουσα καὶ ζεστῶν ὑδάτων ἐκβολάς, τὰς μὲν ἐν τῷ ποταμῷ Μαιάνδρῳ τὰς δʼ ὑπὲρ τοῦ χείλους. καὶ δή ποτέ φασι πορνοβοσκὸν αὐλισθέντα ἐν τοῖς πανδοχείοις σὺν πολλῷ πλήθει γυναικῶν νύκτωρ γενομένου σεισμοῦ συναφανισθῆναι πάσαις. σχεδὸν δέ τι καὶ πᾶσα εὔσειστός ἐστιν ἡ περὶ τὸν Μαίανδρον χώρα καὶ ὑπόνομος πυρί τε καὶ ὕδατι μέχρι τῆς μεσογαίας. διατέτακε γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν πεδίων ἀρξαμένη πᾶσα ἡ τοιαύτη κατασκευὴ τῆς χώρας εἰς τὰ Χαρώνια, τό τε ἐν Ἱεραπόλει καὶ τὸ ἐν Ἀχαράκοις τῆς Νυσαΐδος καὶ τὸ περὶ Μαγνησίαν καὶ Μυοῦντα· εὔθρυπτός τε γάρ ἐστιν ἡ γῆ καὶ ψαθυρὰ πλήρης τε ἁλμυρίδων καὶ εὐεκπύρωτός ἐστι· τάχα δὲ καὶ ὁ Μαίανδρος διὰ τοῦτο σκολιὸς ὅτι πολλὰς μεταπτώσεις λαμβάνει τὸ ῥεῖθρον, καὶ πολλὴν χοῦν κατάγων ἄλλοτʼ ἄλλῳ μέρει τῶν αἰγιαλῶν προστίθησι· τὸ δὲ πρὸς τὸ πέλαγος βιασάμενος ἐξωθεῖ. καὶ δὴ καὶ τὴν Πριήνην ἐπὶ θαλάττῃ πρότερον οὖσαν μεσόγεων πεποίηκε τετταράκοντα σταδίων προσχώματι.

Translations (1)

Geography Perseus (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 1-3. Hamilton, Hans Claude, translator; Falconer, William, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854-1857.) — 12.8.17 focus

[17] Carura¹ is the boundary of Phrygia and Caria. It is a village, where there are inns for the reception of travellers, and springs of boiling water, some of which rise in the river Maeander, and others on its banks. There is a story, that a pimp had lodgings in the inns for a great company of women, and that during the night he and all the women were overwhelmed by an earthquake and disappeared. Nearly the whole of the country about the Maeander, as far as the inland parts, is subject to earthquakes, and is undermined by fire and water. For all this cavernous condition of the country, beginning from the plains, extends to the Charonia; it exists likewise in Hierapolis, and in Acharaca in the district Nysaeis, also in the plain of Magnesia, and in Myus. The soil is dry and easily reduced to powder, full of salts, and very inflammable. This perhaps is the reason why the course of the Maeander is winding, for the stream is diverted in many places from its direction, and brings down a great quantity of alluvial soil, some part of which it deposits in various places along the shore, and forcing the rest forwards occasions it to drift into the open sea. It has made, for example, Priene, which was formerly upon the sea, an inland city, by the deposition of banks of alluvial earth along an extent of 40 stadia.

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. See 5. 4. 5, and the note on “Plutonia.”

2. i.e., sodium chloride (salt), and perhaps other salts found in soil, as, for example, sodium carbonate and calcium sulphate—unless by the plural of the word Strabo means merely “salt-particles,” as Tozer takes it.

3. On “soil which is burnt out,” see Vol. II, p. 454, footnote 1.

4. “At the present day the coastline has been advanced so far, that the island of Lade, off Miletus, has become a hill in the middle of a plain” (Tozer, op. cit., p. 288).

Strabo Geography 12.8.17

Horace Leonard Jones (Translator)

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