AND THE PASSAGE OF THE EURIPUS. 



547 



the Coela a situation between Aulis and Geraestus, and the latter 

 placing them between Geraestus and Caphareus. 



To prove how groundless the former supposition is, it will be only 

 necessary to remark, that the coast of Euboea on this side presents a 

 series of noble harbours and roadsteads, without a shoal or sunken 

 rock, and that in most winds it is distinguished by the smoothness of 

 its water. 



There is a passage indeed, in Valerius Maximus (lib. i. c. 8.) which 

 countenances the idea of the Coela having been on this side. " In 

 earn regionem secessit, quce inter Rhamnunta nobilem Attici soli partem, 

 Caristumque Chalcidis freto vicinam interjacens, Ccelce Eubceoe nomen 

 obtinet." But the situation here assigned, as I have already observed, 

 so far from being dangerous to shipping, which was the character of 

 the Coela, affords every where the securest anchorage-ground. 



The epitomiser of Strabo, too, must be equally mistaken ; for the 

 Coela could not have been on a coast of so convex a form as that 

 between the the promontories of Geraestus and Caphareus. A much 

 better authority in favour of this hypothesis is adduced by Larcher, 

 in a passage of the Troad of Euripides, v. 84. U.\vi<rov h venpuv koIXov 

 'EvjSoiag pvxov ; in allusion to the vessels of Ajax, which, on their return 

 from Troy, were shipwrecked on the promontory of Caphareus*; and 

 in the words cited by him from the scholia of Tzetzes on Lycophron, 

 we find the Coela actually placed in the neighbourhood of f Capha- 

 reus. It is remarkable that both Philostratus and Euripides, make 

 use of the expressions, rvjv KciXqv "Evfiotuv and xoTXov 'Evfioiag ^x° v > 

 which are more agreeable to the hypothesis that I have ventured to 

 propose. Having now proved how ungrounded every other idea of 

 their position has been, I shall produce two ancient authorities which 

 place the Coela in that which I have assigned to them. 



The first is Ptolemy, who 'in his description of the coast of Euboea 



* Homer says only on the Gyrse, without mentioning where they were situated. Odyss. 

 lib. iv. The coast of Cavo d'Oro is bristled with rocks and islets. 



f 'H\J/s tpqvxTov wsgi rot xoiXx Ttjs Eu/3o/«f v.cti ov sho^sv Kottyeea* Scholia Tzetzae, Ed. 

 Miiller. p. 573. 



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