t 
302 pliistt's natueal histoet. [Book ly. 
Eisaltse. "We then come to the river Strymon^ which takes 
its rise in Mount Hsemus^ and forms the boundary of Ma- 
cedonia : it is worthy of remark that it first discharges itself 
into seven lakes before it proceeds onward in its course. 
Such is Macedonia, which was once the mistress of the 
world, which once extended^ her career over Asia, Armenia, 
Iberia, Albania, Cappadocia, Syria, Egypt, Taurus, and Cau- 
casus, which reduced the whole of the East under her power, 
and triumphed over the Bactri, the Modes, and the Persians. 
She too it was who proved the conqueror of India, thus 
treading in the footsteps of Father Liber^ and of Hercules ; 
and this is that same Macedonia, of which our own general 
Paulus ^milius sold to pillage seventy-two^ cities in one day. 
So great the difference in her lot resulting from the actions 
of two^ individuals ! 
CHAP. 18. (11.) — THEACE ; THE JEQEAIS- SEA. 
Thrace now follows, divided into fifty strategies^, and to 
be reckoned among the most powerful nations of Europe. 
Among its peoples whom we ought not to omit to name are 
the Denseletse and the Medi, dwelling upon the right bank 
of the Strymon, and joining up to the Bisaltse above ^ men- 
tioned ; on the left there are the Digerri and a number of 
tribes of the Bessi^, with various names, as far as the river 
Mestus^^, which winds around the foot of Mount Pan- 
town." A few remains are stiU to be seen. The bay at the mouth of 
the Strymon, now Struma or Kara-Sou, is called the Gulf of Orphano. 
1 A Thracian people, extending fi*om the river Strymon on the east 
to Crestonica on the west. 
2 In Mount Scomius namely, one of the Hsemus or Balkan range. 
3 Under Alexander the Great. On his death his empire was torn in 
pieces by the contentions of his generals. 
^ In allusion to the legendary accounts of the Indian expeditions of 
Bacchus and Hercules. 
^ On the conquest of Perseus. Plutarch says that these seventy cities 
were pillaged in one and the same hour. They were thus punished for 
their support of Perseus. 
6 Alexander the Great and Paulus ^miHus. 
5^ Or prsefectures, as the Romans called them. ^ In the last Chapter. 
^ An extensive tribe occupying the country about the rivers Axius, 
Strymon, and Kestus or Mestus. 
10 This river is now called the Mesto or Kara-Sou. 
