282 . PLINT's NATURAL HISTOET. [Book IV. 



CHAP. 7. — MESSENIA. 



Purther soutli is the Grulf of Cjparissus, witli the city of 

 Cyparissa^ on its shores, the line of which is seventy-two 

 miles in length. Then, the towns of Pylos- and Methone^, 

 the place where Helos stood, the Promontory of Acritas"*, 

 the Asinaean Grulf, which takes its name from the town of 

 Asine", and the Coronean, so called from Corone ; which gulfs 

 terminate at the Promontory of Tsenarum^. These are all in 

 the country of Messenia, which has eighteen mountains, and 

 the river Pamisus'^ also. In the interior are Messene^, Ithome, 

 CEchalia, Arene^, Pteleon, Thryon, Dorion^", and Zancle^^ 

 all of them known to fame at different periods. The margin 

 of this gulf measures eighty miles, the distance across being 

 thirty. 



^ This city survived tlirough the middle ages, when it was called 

 Arkaclia. In 1525 it was destroyed by the Turks, and whea rebuilt 

 resumed nearly its ancient name as Cyparissia, by which it is now called. 

 The bay or gulf is called the Grulf of Ai-kadia. 



2 Messenian Pylos probably stood on the site of the modem Erana ; 

 Pouqueville says however that it is still called Pilo, and other writers 

 place it at Zonchio. It stood on the modern Bay of Navarino. 



2 Its site was at the spot called Palseo Kastro, near the modern town of 

 Modon. The site of Messenian Helos, so called £i*om its position in the 

 marshes, to eXo?, is now unknown. 



^ Now Capo Gallo. 



^ It stood on the western side of the Messenian Gulf, which from 

 it was called the Asinsean Gulf. Grisso, or, according to some, laratcha, 

 occupies its site. Ivoroni however is most probably the spot where it 

 stood, the inhabitants of ancient Corone having removed to it. PetaUdlii 

 stands on the site of Corone. A small portion of the Messenian Gulf 

 was probably called the Coronean. 



^ Now Cape Matapan. " Now the Pymatza. 



^ Its ruins, which are extensive, are to be seen in the vicinity of the 

 modem village of Mavromati. Ithome was the citadel of Messene, on 

 a mountam of the same name, now called Vourcano. 



" It is supposed that in ancient times it occupied the site of the 

 more modern Samos or Samia in Triphyha. The modem Sareni is 

 thought to occupy its site. 



^^ Dorion or Dorium, the spot where, according to Homer, the Muses 

 punished Thamyris with blindness, is supposed to have been situate on 

 the modern plain of Svdima. 



^^ Nothing seems to be known of this place ; but it is not improbable 

 that it gave its name to the place so called in Sicily, originally a Mes* 

 eenian colony. 



