Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/489

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Chap, 28.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 455 CHAP. 28. — LYCIA.

In Lycia, after leaving its promontory[1] we come to the town of Simena, Mount Chimæra[2], which sends forth flames by night, and the city of Hephaestium[3], the heights above which are also frequently on fire. Here too formerly stood the city of Olympus[4] ; now we find the mountain places known as Gagæ[5], Corydalla[6], and Khodiopolis[7]. Near the sea is Limyra[8] with a river of like name, into which the Arycandus

    gives precisely the same representation, with the additional error of making the Ceraunii (i. e. the Caucasus of others) part of the Great Taurus Chain. He seems to apply the name of Caucasus to the spurs which spread out both to the north-east and the south-east from the main chain near its eastern extremity, and which he regarded as a continuous range, bordering the western shores of the Caspian. See B. vi. c. 10." — Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography.

  1. Of Chelidonium, now Khelidonia, formed by the range of Taurus.
  2. See B. ii. c. 116. The flame which continually burned on this mountain has been examined by Beaufort, the modern traveller. The name of the mountain is now Yanar : it is formed of a mass of scaglia with serpentine. Spratt says that the flame is nothing more than a stream of inflammable gas issuing from a crevice, such as is seen in several places in the Apennines. By Homer it is represented as a fabulous monster, which is explained by Servius, the commentator of Virgil, in the following manner. He says that flames issue from the top of the mountain, and that there are hons in the vicinity; the middle part abounds in goats, and the lower part with serpents. Simena appears to be unknown.
  3. So called from (Symbol missingGreek characters), the Greek name of Vulcan. Pliny mentions this spot also in B. ii. c. 110. The flame probably proceeded from an inflammable gas, or else was ignited by a stream of naphtha.
  4. More generally known as Phænicus, a flourishing city on Mount Olympus; now Yanar Dagh, a volcano on the eastern coast of Lycia, with which it often exchanged names. Having become the head quarters of the pirates, it was destroyed by the Roman general Servilius Isauricus. Its ruins are to be seen at a spot called Deliktash.
  5. Mentioned again in B. xxxvi. c. SI, as the spot whence the qagales lapis or ' agate ' took its name. The ruins at Aladja are regarded by Leake as marking the site of Gagæ; but Sir Charles Fellowes identifies the place with the modem village of Hascooe, the vicinity of which is covered with ruins.
  6. On the road from Phasehs in Lycia to Patara. Its site is a village called Hadgivella, about sixteen miles south-west of Phaselis. The remains are very considerable.
  7. The remains of Rhodiopolis were found by Spratt and Forbes in the vicinity of Corydalla.
  8. On the Limyrus, probably the modem Phineka; the ruins to the north of which are supposed to be those of Limyra.