Strabo, Geography, Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator), 13.1.58

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[58] Myrsilus says that Assus was founded by Methymnaeans; but according to Hellanicus it was an Aeolian city, like Gargara and Lamponia of the Aeolians. Gargara¹ was founded from Assus; it was not well peopled, for the kings introduced settlers from Miletopolis,² which they cleared of its inhabitants, so that Demetrius the Scepsian says that, instead of being Aeolians, the people became semi-barbarians. In the time of Homer all these places belonged to Leleges, whom some writers represent as Carians, but Homer distinguishes them,

Near the sea are Carians, and Poeonians with curved bows, Leleges, and Caucones.³

The Leleges were therefore a different people from the Carians, and lived between the people subject to Aeneas and the Cilicians, as they are called by the poet. After being plundered by Achilles, they removed to Caria, and occupied the country about the present Halicarnassus.

Geography. Strabo. Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator). London. 1854-1857.

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Current edition Perseus

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

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 13.1.58 focus

[58] φησὶ δὲ Μυρσίλος Μηθυμναίων κτίσμα εἶναι τὴν Ἄσσον, Ἑλλάνικός τε καὶ Αἰολίδα φησίν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ Γάργαρα καὶ ἡ Λαμπωνία Αἰολέων. Ἀσσίων γάρ ἐστι κτίσμα τὰ Γάργαρα, οὐκ εὖ συνοικούμενα· ἐποίκους γὰρ οἱ βασιλεῖς εἰσήγαγον ἐκ Μιλητουπόλεως ἐρημώσαντες ἐκείνην, ὥστε ἡμιβαρβάρους γενέσθαι φησὶ Δημήτριος αὐτοὺς ὁ Σκήψιος ἀντὶ Αἰολέων. καθʼ Ὅμηρον μέντοι ταῦτα πάντα ἦν Λελέγων, οὓς τινὲς μὲν Κᾶρας ἀποφαίνουσιν, Ὅμηρος δὲ χωρίζει

πρὸς μὲν ἁλὸς Κᾶρες καὶ Παίονες ἀγκυλότοξοι

καὶ Λέλεγες καὶ Καύκωνες.

¹ ἕτεροι μὲν τοίνυν τῶν Καρῶν ὑπῆρξαν, ᾤκουν δὲ μεταξὺ τῶν ὑπὸ τῷ Αἰνείᾳ καὶ τῶν καλουμένων ὑπὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ Κιλίκων· ἐκπορθηθέντες δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως μετέστησαν εἰς τὴν Καρίαν, καὶ κατέσχον τὰ περὶ τὴν νῦν Ἁλικαρνασὸν χωρία.

Translations (1)

Geography (Books 6-14) Perseus (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 3-6. Jones, Horace Leonard, translator. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924-1929 (printing).) — 13.1.58 focus

[58] Myrsilus¹ says that Assus was founded by the Methymnaeans; and Hellanicus too calls it an Aeolian city, just as also Gargara and Lamponia belonged to the Aeolians. For Gargara was founded by the Assians; but it was not well peopled, for the kings brought into it colonists from Miletopolis when they devastated that city, so that instead of Aeolians, according to Demetrius of Scepsis, the inhabitants of Gargara became semi-barbarians. According to Homer, however, all these places belonged to the Leleges, who by some are represented to be Carians, although by Homer they are mentioned apart:

Towards the sea are the Carians and the Paeonians of the curved bow and the Leleges and the Cauconians.

²They were therefore a different people from the Carians; and they lived between the people subject to Aeneias and the people whom the poet called Cilicians, but when they were pillaged by Achilles they migrated to Caria and took possession of the district round the present Halicarnassus.³

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. Gargara is the same town called above by Strabo Gargaris, unless he meant by the latter name the territory of Gargara, a distinction we find made below between Pedasa and Pedasis. The author of the Etymolo. gicum Magnum calls the place Gargarus, and informs us that the inhabitants abandoned it on account of the cold, it being situated on Mount Ida; that they founded a new town in the plain, and that the town abandoned afterwards received the name of Old Gargara.

The town called Lamponia by Strabo is called Lamponium by Hellanicus and Herodotus.

2. By the kings, we must probably understand the kings of Bithynra rather than the kings of Persia, as understood by Rambach (De Mileto ejusque colonize); for if we suppose that colonists are here meant who came to Gargara from Miletus after the destruction of this latter town by the Persians, how could Demetrius of Scepsis say of the Gargareans that, Eolians as they were, or instead of Aeolians they became semibarbarians? He ought at least to have said, that they became Ionians, for Miletus, a Greek city of Ionia, at the time of its destruction by the Persians, was far from being barbarous. But Miletopolis, although from its name and position in the territory of Cyzicus was probably, like Cyzicus, a colony of Miletus, yet might have been peopled with barbarians at the time Gargara received colonists. Mualitsh is the modern name of Miletopolis.

3. Il. x. 428.

Strabo Geography 13.1.58

Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator)

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