Chap. 17.] ACCOUNT OF COTH^TEIES, ETC. 301 



the level plain of the adjacent country into the sea, a distance 

 of seventy-five^ miles ; its circumference at its base being 150 

 miles in extent. There was formerly upon its summit the 

 town of Acroathon^ : the present towns are Uranopolis', 

 Palaeorium, Thyssus, CleonsB'', and ApoUonia, the inhabitants 

 of which have the surname of Macrobii*. The town also of 

 Cassera, and then the other side of the Isthmus, after wliich 

 come Acanthus^, Stagira', Sithone*, Heraclea^, and the coun- 

 try of Mygdonia that lies below, in which are situate, at some 

 distance from the sea, ApoUonia*" and Arethusa. Again, upon 

 the coast we have Posidium", and the bay with the town of 

 Cermorus, Amphipolis*^, a free town, and the nation of tlie 



* This is a mistake. It is only forty miles in length. From Lieut. 

 Smith {Journal of Royal Geogr. Soc. vol. vii. p. 65) we leam that its 

 average breadth is about four miles ; consequently PUny's statement as to 

 its circumference must be greatly exaggerated. Juvenal, Sat. x. 1. 174, 

 mentions the story of the canal as a specimen of Greek falsehood ; but 

 distinct traces have survived, to be seen by modem travellers, all the way 

 from the Gulf of Monte Santo to the Bay of Erso in the Gulf of Con- 

 tessa, except about 200 yards in the middle, which has been probably 

 filled up. 



2 Or Acrothbum. Pliny, with Strabo and Mela, errs in thinking that 

 it stood on the mountain. It stood on the peninsula only, probably on 

 the site of the modem Lavra. 



3 Or the ' Heaven City,' from its elevated position. It was founded 

 by Alexarchus, brother of Cassander, king of Macedon. 



^ Probably on the west side of the peninsula, south of Thyssus. 



6 Or " long-lived." 



* Now Erisso ; on the east side of the Isthmus, about a mile and a half 

 from the canal of Xerxes. There are ruins here of a large mole. 



7 A Uttle to the north of the Isthmus now called Stavro. It was the 

 birth-place of Aristotle the philosopher, commonly called the Stagi- 

 rite, and was, in consequence, restored by PhUip, by whom it had been 

 destroyed ; or, as Pliny says in B. vii. c. 30, by Alexander the Great. 



8 The name of the central one of the three peninsulas projecting from 

 Clialcidice. The poets use the word Sithonius frequently as signifying 

 * Thracian.* 



^ Possibly not the same as the Heraclea Sintica previously mentioned. 



^0 Now called Pollina, south of Lake Bolbe, on the road from Thes- 

 salonica to Amphipolis. 



" Sacred to Poseidon or Neptune. Now Capo Stavros in Thessaly, 

 the west front of the GuK of Pagasa, if indeed this is the place here 

 meant. 



^2 On the left or eastern bank of the river Strymon, which flowed round 

 it, whence its name Amphi-pohs, " round the city." Its site is now oc- 

 cupied by a village called Neokhorio, in Turkish Jeni-Keni or " New- 



