Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 162

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The next gulf, which extends as far as Scyllæum2228, is called the Argolic Gulf, being fifty miles across, and 162 in circuit. The towns upon it are, Bœa2229, Epidaurus2230, surnamed Limera, Zarax2231, and the port of Cyphanta2232. The rivers are the Inachus2233 and the Erasinus, between which lies Argos, surnamed Hippium2234, situate beyond the place called Lerna2235, and at a distance of two miles from the sea. Nine miles farther is Mycenæ2236, and the place where, it is said, Tiryns2237 stood; the site, too, of Mantinea2238. The mountains are, Artemius, Apesantus2239, Asterion2240, Parparus, and some others, eleven in number. The fountains are those of Niobe2241, Amymone, and Psamathe.

From Scyllæum to the Isthmus of Corinth is a distance of 177 miles. We find here the towns of Hermione2242, Trœzen2243, Coryphasium2244, and Argos, sometimes called “Inachian,” sometimes “Dipsian”2245 Argos. Then comes the port of Schœnites2246, and the Saronic Gulf, which was formerly encircled with a grove of oaks2247, from which it derives its present name, oaks in ancient Greece having been so called. Upon this gulf is the town of Epidaurus, famous for its temple of Æsculapius2248, the Promontory of Spiræum2249, the port of Anthedus2250, Bucephalus2251, and then Cenchreæ, previously mentioned, on this side of the Isthmus, with its temple of Neptune2252, famous for the games celebrated there every five years. So many are the gulfs which penetrate the shores of the Peloponnesus, so many the seas which howl around it. Invaded by the Ionian on the north, it is beaten by the Sicilian on the west, buffeted by the Cretan on the south, by the Ægean on the S.E., and by the Myrtoan on the N.E.; which last sea begins at the Gulf of Megara, and washes all the coast of Attica.