Notes on the current edition
Geography
1.
The translator must here record his obligations to Dr. Walter Leaf for his monumental works on the Troad: his
Troy, Macmillan and Co.,
1912, and his
Strabo on the Troad, Cambridge,
1923, and his numerous monographs in classical periodicals. The results of his investigations in the Troad prove the great importance of similar investigations, on the spot, of various other portions of Strabo’s “Inhabited World.” The reader will find a map of Asia Minor in Vol. 5. of the Loeb edition.
2.
On the position of this promontory, see Leaf,
Ann. Brit. School of Athens, XXII, p. 37, and
Strabo on the Troad, p. xxxviii.
3.
See Leaf,
Strabo on the Troad, p. xli.
4.
Pausanius (3. 2. 1) spells his name “Echelas.”
5.
Hom. Il. 2.824
See section 9 following.
6.
See Leaf,
Strabo on the Troad, p. 47.
7.
Whether city or river (see 13. 1. 21).
8.
See Leaf’s definition of the Troad. (
Troy, p. 171).
9.
See Leaf,
Strabo on the Troad, p. 48.
10.
On the meaning of the term Hellespont, see Book VII, Frag. 57(58), and Leaf (
Strabo on the Troad, p. 50.
11.
A genus of myriapods including some of the largest centipedes.
12.
Hom. Il. 14.283
13.
Hom. Il. 12.19
14.
The Granicus, Aesepus, Scamander, and Simoeis.
15.
Hom. Il. 14. 284
16.
Hom. Il. 2.824
17.
Hom. Il. 14.292, 352; 15.152
18.
See Leaf,
Strabo on the Troad, p. xliv.
19.
13. 1. 2 (see Leaf’s article cited in footnote there).
20.
Strabo refers to his discussion of the meridian line drawn by Eratosthenes through Byzantium, Rhodes, Alexandria, Syene, and Meroe (see 2. 5. 7 and the Frontispiece in Vol. I of the Loeb text).
21.
Strabo refers to Demetrius of Scepsis and his followers.
22.
Hom. Il. 9.328
23.
Hom. Il. 20.92
24.
Hom. Od. 11.518
25.
Hom. Il. 9.129
26.
Hom. Il. 20.92
27.
Hom. Il. 2.691
28.
Hom. Il. 2.690
29.
Hom. Il. 19.295
30.
Hom. Il. 1.366
31.
Hom. Il. 1.369
32.
The epithet means “’neath Placus.”
33.
Hom. Il. 6.395
34.
Hom. Il. 22.477
35.
Hom. Il. 21.86
36.
Hom. Il. 2.816
37.
Hom. Il. 2.819
38.
Hom. Il. 20.83
39.
Aphneiï is now taken merely as an adjective, meaning “wealthy” men, but Strabo seems to concur in the belief that the people in question were named “Aphneiï” after Lake “Aphnitis” (see 13. 1. 9).
40.
Hom. Il. 2.824
41.
Whether city or river (see 13. 1. 21).
42.
On Arisbe, see Leaf,
Troy, 193 ff.
43.
Hom. Il. 2.835
44.
Hom. Il. 4.499
45.
i.e., the kine belonged to Priam. This son of Hicetaon, a kinsman of Hector (
Hom. Il. 15.545
), “dwelt in the house of Priam, who honored him equally with his own children” (
Hom. Il. 15.551
).
46.
Hom. Il. 15.546
47.
Hom. Il. 2.831
48.
The Trojan Cilicia (see 13. 1. 70).
49.
See 13. 1. 60-61.
50.
The eight dynasties were (1) that of Mynes, (2) that of Eëtion, (3) that of Altes, (4) that of Hector, (5) that of Aeneias, (6) that of Pandarus, (7) that of Asius, and (8) that of the two sons of Merops. If, however, there were nine dynasties (see 13. 1. 2), we may assume that the ninth was that of Eurypylus (see 13. 1. 70), unless, as Choiseul-Gouffier (
Voyage Pittoresque de Ia Grèce, vol. ii, cited by Gossellin think, it was that of the island of Lesbos.
51.
Hom. Il. 24.534
The quotation is incomplete without the following words of Homer: “o’er all these, old sire, thou wast preeminent, they say, because of thy wealth and thy sons.
52.
Leaf (
Strabo on the Troad, p. 61 makes a strong case for emending “Dryopes” to “Doliones,” but leaves the Greek text (p. 7) unchanged.
53.
See 13. 1. 1, and p. 40 of Leaf’s article cited in footnote there.
54.
See footnote on Aphneii in 13. 1. 7.
55.
Hom. Il. 2.824
56.
See 13. 1. 7.
57.
On the site of Zeleia, see Leaf,
Strabo on the Troad, p. 66.
58.
Hom. Il. 2.828
59.
The places in question appear to have belonged to Zeleia. Leaf (op. cit., p. 65 translates: “are commanded by Zeleia”; but the present translator is sure that, up to the present passage, Strabo has always used
ὑποπίπτω in a purely geographical sense (e.g., cf. 9. 1. 15, and especially 12. 4. 6, where Strabo makes substantially the same statement concerning Zeleia as in the present passage). But see Leaf’s note (op. cit.), p. 67.
60.
On this river see Leaf, work last cited p. 67.
61.
Strabo does not mean that the Heptaporus was crossed twenty times. The name itself means the river of “seven fords” (or ferries).
62.
Hom. Il. 12. 20
63.
i.e., Elis, in the Peloponnesus.
64.
The text is corrupt; and “Scarthon,” whether it applies to a river or a people, is otherwise unknown. However, this whole passage, “And the river that flows from Nicomedeia . . . crossed seventy-five times,” appears to be a gloss, and is ejected from the text by Kramer and Meineke (see Leaf’s
Strabo and the Troad, p. 65, note 4).
65.
The number of stadia has fallen out of the MSS.
66.
See Leaf, work last cited, p. 70.
67.
The root “harpag-” means “snatch away.”
68.
On the site of Priapus, see Leaf, p. 73.
69.
On the site of Adrasteia, see Leaf, p. 77.
70.
Three words in the Greek text here are corrupt. Strabo may have said that this temple was “on the shore,” or “in the direction of Pityeia” (the same as Pitya; see section 15 following), or “in the direction of Pactye”.
71.
This altar was a stadium (about 600 feet) in length (10. 5. 7).
72.
A not uncommon appellation of the gods.
73.
Note the variant spelling of the name.
74.
“Serpent-born.”
75.
See Leaf, work last cited, p. 85.
76.
See 17. 1. 44.
77.
See Fraser,
Totemism and Exogamy, 1. 20, 2. 54 and 4. 178.
78.
According to the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (
1933), cited by Leaf (
Troy, p. 187, “Lampsacus was formerly called Pityeia, or, as others spell it, Pitya. Some say that Phrixus stored his treasure there and that the city was named after the treasure, for the Thracian word for treasure is ‘pitye’” (but cf. the Greek word “pitys,” “pine tree”). Strabo, however, places Pitya to the east of Parium, whereas Lampsacus lies to the west (see Leaf, l.c., pp. 185 ff.; and his
Strabo on the Troad, p. 87). In section 18 (following) Strabo says that “Lampsacus was formerly called Pityussa.”
79.
Leaf (l.c.) translates, “hill shaped like a pine tree,” adding (p. 187) that “the resemblance to a pine tree, so far as my personal observation went, means no more than that the hill slopes gently up to a rounded top.” However, the Greek adjective probably means in the present passage “pine covered” (cf. the use of the same adjective in 8. 6. 22, where it applies to a sacred precinct on the Isthmus of Corinth).
80.
i.e., buildings, statues, and other marble structures (see 5. 2. 5 and 5. 3. 8, and the footnotes on “works of art”).
81.
See 1. 2. 10, and
Hdt. 4.13
82.
The mountain mentioned in the
Hom. Il. 2.829
83.
Xen. Hell. 4.1.15
speaks of royal hunting grounds, “some in enclosed parks, others in open regions.”
84.
Now Lapsaki. On the site, see Leaf, p. 92.
85.
Hom. Il. 2.828
86.
Hom. Il. 5.612
87.
On the site of Colonae, see Leaf (
Strabo on the Troad), p. 101.
88.
King of Colonae, slain by Achilles in the Trojan War.
89.
On Gergithium, see Leaf, p. 102.
90.
Fl. in the Alexandrian period; author of works entitled
Glosses and
On Epigrams.
91.
Early historian; author of
Persian History and
Annals of the Lampsaceni.
92.
Known only as courtier of Demetrius Poliorcetes.
93.
See Frazer’s note on
Paus. 6.18.2
94.
“The Lake” seems surely to be the Stagnum Agrippae mentioned by
Tac. Ann. 15.37
, i.e., the Nemus Caesarum on the right bank of the Tiber (see A. Häbler,
Hermes 19 (
1884), p. 235). “The Stagnum Agrippae was apparently a pond constructed by Agrippa in connection with the Aqua Virgo and the canal called Euripus in the neighborhood of the Pantheon” (C. G. Ramsay,
Annals of Tacitus, 15.37), or, as Leaf (op. cit., p. 108 puts it, “The Euripus is the channel filled with water set up by Caesar round the arena of the Circus Maximus at Rome to protect the spectators from the wild beasts.”
95.
Hom. Il. 2.835
96.
i.e., Arisbe, Percote, and the Sellëeis. Strabo himself locates the Practius (13.1. 4, 7, 8, 21). On the sites of these places, see Leaf’s
Troy, pp. 188 ff., his note in
Jour. Hellenic Studies, XXXVII (
1917), p. 26, and his
Strabo on the Troad, pp. 108 ff.
97.
Homer’s Percote, on the sea.
98.
i.e., as well as the Sellëeis.
99.
Hom. Il. 2.522
100.
Hom. Il. 2.854
101.
Obviously in the lost portion of Book VII.
102.
Hom. Il. 16.717
103.
On the site of Abydus, see Leaf,
Strabo on the Troad, p. 117.
104.
i.e., “Strait of seven stadia.”
105.
i.e., “Land-island” or “Peninsula.”
106.
On its site, see Leaf, work last cited, p. 119.
107.
i.e., “Place of Disembarkation.”
108.
See Book 7 Frags. 51, 55b, and 51a, 52, and 53.
109.
i.e., about 200 feet (in breadth).
110.
According to Leaf (l.c., p. 135, the shortest course of a vessel between Abydus and the mouth of the Aesepus measures just about 700 stadia. Hence Strabo’s authorities for his statement are in error if, as usual, the longer voyage is a coasting voyage, following the sinuosities of the gulfs, as against the shorter, or more direct, voyage. Leaf, however, forces the phrase “by straight sailing” to mean “a straight course wholly over the land,” adding that “the meaning must be that it would be shorter if one would sail straight,” and that “the expression is singularly infelicitous as applied to a journey by land in contrast to one by sea.”
111.
Hom. Il. 2.819
112.
Hom. Il. 8.173
113.
Hom. Il. 20.215
114.
On the boundaries of Dardania, see Leaf (l.c., p.137).
115.
Plat. Laws 677-679
116.
Plat. Laws 3.680
117.
Hom. Od. 9.109-114
(quoted by Plato in
Plat. Laws 3.680
).
118.
Hom. Il. 20.216
(quoted by
Plat. Laws 3.681
).
119.
Plat. Laws 3.682
120.
Hom. Il. 11.166
121.
Schliemann’s excavations, however, identify Hissarlik as the site of Homer’s Troy. Hence “the site of Homer’s Troy at ‘the village of Ilians’ is a mere figment” (Leaf, l.c., p. 141).
122.
King of Lydia,
560-546 B.C.
123.
The first of the three battles by which he overthrew the Persian empire (
334 B.C.).
124.
e.g., like the Olympic Games. But his untimely death prevented the fulfillment of this promise.
125.
Either Strabo, or his authority, Demetrius of Scepsis, or the Greek text as it now stands, seems guilty of inconsistency in the passage “devoted especial attention to the city . . . and then cities bearing their own.” Grote (Vol. I, chapter xv rearranges the Greek text in the following order: “devoted especial attention to Alexandreia” (not Ilium), “which had indeed already been founded by Antigonus and called Antigonia, but changed its name (for it was thought to be . . . then cities bearing their own name), and he built a temple . . . forty stadia in circuit.” He omits “at that time he had already devoted attention to Alexandreia,” and so does Leaf (op. cit., p. 142; but the latter, instead of rearranging the text, simply inserts “Alexandreia” after “city” in the first clause of the passage. Leaf (p. 143) adds the following important argument to those of Grote: “There is no trace whatever of any great wall at Ilium, though remains of one 40 stades in length could hardly have escaped notice. But there is at Alexandreia such a wall which is exactly the length mentioned by Strabo, and which is clearly referred to.”
126.
i.e., in
86 B.C. by Cinna the consul, the leader of the popular party at Rome.
127.
Julius Caesar.
128.
According to
Plut. Alexander 8
, “Alexander took with him Aristotle’s recension of the poem, called the Iliad of the Casket, and always kept it lying beside his dagger under his pillow, as Onesicritus informs us”; and “the casket was the most precious of the treasures of Dareius” (ibid. 26).
129.
i.e., of the Julians gens.
130.
13. 1. 11.
131.
See “Cyno-Sema.”
132.
Hom. Il. 12.20
133.
On the site of Ophrynium, see Leaf, p. 153.
134.
Leaf, p. 154, following Calvert, emends “Lake” to “Harbor.”
135.
Cleopatra.
136.
“Mouth-of-the-marsh.”
137.
“Eleussa” appears to be an error for “Eleus.”
138.
Book 7, Fr. 51, 54, 55.
139.
Hom. Il. 5.642
140.
Hom. Il. 5. 640
141.
To appease the anger of Poseidon, Laomedon exposed his daughter Hesione on the promontory Agameia (see Stephanus s.v.) to be devoted by a sea-monster. Heracles promised to kill the monster and save Hesione if Laomedon would give him his immortal horses. Laomedon agreed. Heracles fulfilled his promise, but Laomedon refused to give up the horses, and hence the war.
142.
Hom. Il. 5.641
143.
12. 8. 7, 13. 1. 7.
144.
So the name is spelled in section 47, but “Cebren” in section 52.
145.
Paris.
146.
Hom. Il. 16.738
147.
“Fig-tree.”
Hom. Il. 6.433
148.
Hom. Il. 2.793
149.
Hom. Il. 2.813
150.
Hom. Il. 10.415
151.
See 13. 1. 31 and footnote.
152.
These spurs forming a semi-circular line, as stated above.
153.
i.e., the uncial letter written backwards. See Leaf’s diagram, p. 175.
154.
i.e., a little further inland than the country which has the shape of the letter in question.
155.
Hom. Il. 20.51
156.
Hom. Il. 10.430
157.
See footnote on “Erineus,” section 34 above.
158.
Hom. Il. 6.433
159.
Oak tree.
160.
Hom. Il. 9.352
161.
Hom. Od. 14.469
162.
Hom. Od. 14.496
163.
Hom. Il. 10.209
164.
Hom. Il. 18.254
165.
Hom. Il. 2.792
166.
See
Hom. Il. 2.812
167.
The Athenian general.
168.
Only this fragment (Bergk.) of Alcaeus’ poem, addressed to Melanippus (see
Hdt. 5.95
), is preserved. But the text has been so badly mutilated by the copyists that none of the conjectural restorations can with certainty be adopted; and hence the translator can give only the general sense of the passage. However, the whole reference to Alcaeus appears to be merely a note that has crept into the text from the margin (Meineke and Leaf omit the whole passage).
169.
See 13. 1. 4.
170.
i.e., the campaign of Paches, the Athenian general, who in
427 B.C. captured Mitylene (see
Thuc. 3.18-49
).
171.
To appease the wrath of Athena, caused after the Trojan War by the sacrilege of Aias the Locrian in her temple (he dragged Cassandra away from the altar of the Palladium), the Locrians were instructed by an oracle from Delphi to send to her temple (as temple slaves) at Ilium two maidens every year for a thousand years. It appears that the servitude of the maidens lasted for only one year, each pair being released at the end of the year when the next pair arrived, but that upon their return home they were forced to remain unmarried (see Leaf,
Annual of the British School at Athens, XXI, p. 148-154).
172.
Idomeneus, son of Minos and King of Crete; one of the bravest heroes of the war.
173.
Or perhaps “in quest of war’s renown” (Leaf).
174.
Hom. Il. 13.363
. Homer mentions Cassandra in only two other places,
Hom. Il. 24. 699 and Odyssey 11. 422
175.
Hom. Od. 4.502
176.
Hom. Od. 4.500 ff
177.
Hom. Il. 6.448
178.
Hom. Od. 3.130
179.
This phrase is not found in the Iliad or Odyssey, but once before (1. 2. 4) Strabo has ascribed it to Homer.
180.
Hom. Il. 12.15
181.
Hom. Il. 6.92
182.
Hom. Il. 9.455
183.
i.e., the Greek preposition
ἐπί, which more naturally means “upon” rather than “beside.”
184.
Hom. Od. 6.305
185.
“Knees.”
186.
They obviously took
γουνάσιν, if there ever was such a word, to mean “female suppliants.”
187.
“Maenads.”
188.
Against Leocrates, 62.
189.
i.e., of Ilium.
190.
13. 1. 26.
191.
A quotation from
Hom. Il. 15.94
192.
Cf. 13. 1. 5.
193.
Hom. Il. 22.147
194.
Hom. Il. 22.149
195.
i.e., of Troy.
196.
Hom. Il. 12.20
197.
About 225 feet.
198.
See end of section 32.
199.
“Aenius” appears to be an error for “Aesepus,” as suggested by Kramer. See Leaf, p. 207.
200.
i.e., by Demetrius.
201.
12. 3. 20-27.
202.
The Caresus, of course.
203.
Leaf emends “Nea” (“New”) to “Aenea”.
204.
Silvertown.
205.
Hom. Il. 2.857
206.
See 12. 3. 21.
207.
i.e., to make them red and thus conceal their blushes of shame.
208.
i.e., Demetrius of Scepsis.
209.
Hom. Il. 2.816-877
210.
“Old Scepsis”.
211.
See end of section 32.
212.
Hom. Il. 1.38
213.
For this myth, see
Paus. 10.14.1
214.
On the myth of Cycnus, see Leaf, p. 219.
215.
Sminthian means “Mouse-god.”
216.
The Greek for these four words seems to be corrupt.
217.
See 13. 1. 7, 60.
218.
Coryphantis and Heracleia are named in section 51.
219.
Hom. Il. 10.429
220.
13. 1. 7.
221.
Hom. Il. 21.86
222.
i.e.,
ὑπό for
ἐπί in the Homeric passage quoted.
223.
Hom. Il. 14.443
224.
Hom. Il. 6.34
225.
Alcaeus Fr. 65 (Bergk)
. Leaf translates: “Antandros, first city of the Leleges”.
226.
Leaf translates: “But Demetrios puts it in the district adjacent (to the Leleges), so that it would fall within the territory of the Kilikes”; and in his commentary (p. 255) he says: “as the words stand, Strabo says that ‘Demetrios places Antandros (not at Antandros but) in the neighborhood of Antandros.’ That is nonsense however we look at it.” Yet the Greek cannot mean the Demetrius transfers Antandrus, “a fixed point,” to “the adjacent district,” as Leaf interprets, but that he includes it among the cities (
ταῖς παρακειμέναις) which he enumerates as Cilician.
227.
The interpretation of the Greek for this last sentence is somewhat doubtful. Cf. translation and commentary of Leaf (pp. 254-255, who regards the text as corrupt.
228.
i.e., eighty stadia from Polymedium, not from Lectum, as thought by Thatcher Clark (
American Journal of Archaeology, 4. 291 ff., quoted by Leaf. His interpretation, neither accepted nor definitely rejected by Leaf (p. 257, is not in accordance with Strabo’s manner of enumerating distances, a fact apparently overlooked by both scholars.
229.
See preceding footnote.
230.
So Clark; or “on a height,” as Leaf translates (see his note).
231.
Temple of Aphrodite.
232.
The Greek word “scepsis” means “a viewing,” “an inspection.”
233.
Leaf emends to “two hundred and sixty stadia”.
234.
See 14. 1. 6.
235.
Hom. Il. 20.188
236.
Hom. Il. 13.460
237.
Soph. Fr. 10 (Nauck)
238.
As distinguished from that in Paphlagonia (see 5. 1. 4).
239.
Hom. Il. 20.306
240.
The son of Hector, who, along with Ascanius, was said to have been king of Scepsis (section 52).
241.
i.e., they emend “Trojans” (
Τρώεσσιν to “all” (
πάντεσσιν) in the Homeric passage.
242.
Strabo refers to Eumenes II, who reigned
197-159 B.C.
243.
Died about
84 B.C.
244.
i.e., errors in the available texts of Aristotle.
245.
i.e., at Rome.
246.
For the story see
Plut. Lucullus 22
247.
Tigranes.
248.
i.e., zinc.
249.
The Latin term is orichaleum.
250.
A precise quotation of
Hom. Il. 6.143
except that Homer’s
ἆσσον (“nearer”) is changed to
Ἄσσον (“to Assus”).
251.
Eubulus.
252.
The historian of Methymna, who appears to have flourished about
300 B.C.; only fragments of his works remain.
253.
Hom. Il. 10.428
254.
Cf. 7. 7. 2.
255.
King of Caria
377-353 B.C. The first “Mausoleum” was so named after him.
256.
1. 175, 8. 104.
257.
13. 1. 7, 49.
258.
But cf. 13. 1. 70.
259.
Hom. Il. 1.366
260.
Hom. Il. 1.366 ff
261.
Hom. Il. 2.691
262.
sc. “weep.”
263.
Hom. Il. 19.295
264.
The site of Thebe has been definitely identified with that of the modern Edremid (see Leaf, p. 322). But that of Lyrnessus is uncertain. Leaf (p. 308, regarding the text as corrupt, reads merely “eighty” instead of “eighty-eight,” and omits “in opposite directions”.
265.
Cf 14. 4. 1.
266.
Hom. Il. 1.432
267.
Hom. Il. 1.438
268.
Hom. Il. 1.37
269.
See
Hom. Il. 1.430 ff
270.
i.e., the “Sminthian” Apollo (
Hom. Il. 1.39
).
271.
“Parnopes.”
272.
“Ips-slayer.”
273.
A kind of cynips.
274.
“Mildew.”
275.
Hom. Il. 6.396
276.
This Diodorus is otherwise unknown.
277.
This Xenocles is otherwise unknown except for a reference to him by
Cicero Brutus 91
.
278.
The Roman Senate.
279.
i.e., “Old Settlement.”
280.
“Rotten-stone.”
281.
i.e.,
Ἄιξ, “goat.”
282.
It is not clear in the Greek whether Strabo says that the Aegean Sea got its name from Aega or vice versa. Elsewhere (8. 7. 4) he speaks of “Aegae in Boeotia from which it is probable that the Aegean Sea got its name.”
283.
A fragment otherwise unknown (
Sappho Fr. 131 (Bergk)
).
284.
Eur. Fr. 696 (Nauck)
285.
Cf. 12. 8. 2, 4.
286.
Hom. Od. 11.521
287.
On the variant myths of Auge and Telephus see Estathius Hom. Od. 11.521; also Leaf’s note and references (p. 340).
288.
Cf. 13. 1. 7, 67.
289.
A fragment otherwise unknown (
Bacchyl. Fr. 66 (Bergk)
).
290.
Eur. Fr. 1085 (Nauck)
291.
Aesch. Fr. 143 (Nauck)