Geography

​The Carians also, who were formerly islanders and, as they say, Leleges, became continentals with the assistance of the Cretans, who also founded Miletus, having taken Sarpedon from the Cretan Miletus as founder; and they settled the Termilae in what is now Lycia; and they say Sarpedon, who was a brother of Minos and Rhadamanthys, led these people as colonists from Crete, and named those who were formerly Milyae, and still earlier Solymi, as Termilae, as Herodotus says, but when Lycus, the son of Pandion, came, he named these same people Lycians after himself. This account, then, represents the Solymi and the Lycians as the same, but the poet distinguishes them; Bellerophon, at any rate, having set out from Lycia, “”fought with the glorious Solymi.”” And likewise Ares, as the poet says, slew his son Peisander, “”fighting with the Solymi.”” And he speaks of Sarpedon also as a native of the place.

​But that the fertility of the country of which I speak was proposed as a common prize to those who were strong is confirmed by many things even after the Trojan War; where even the Amazons made bold against it, against whom both Priam and Bellerophon are said to have campaigned; and ancient cities are agreed to be named after them; and in the Trojan plain there is a certain hill “”which men indeed call Batieia, but the immortals the tomb of the swift-bounding Myrina,”” whom they relate to be one of the Amazons, inferring this from the epithet; for they say that horses are called “euskarthmoi” because of their speed; and she, therefore, was called “polyskarthmos” because of her speed in charioteering; and Myrina, therefore, is said to be named after her. And the neighboring islands also suffered the same fate because of their fertility, of which Rhodes and Cos are clearly testified by Homer to have been already inhabited by Greeks before the Trojan War.

​But after the Trojan War, the colonies of the Greeks, the incursions of the Treres and the Cimmerians, and of the Lydians, and after these of the Persians and Macedonians, and finally of the Galatians, disturbed and confused everything. And the obscurity arose not only because of the changes, but also because of the disagreements of the writers, who do not say the same things about the same subjects, calling the Trojans Phrygians, as do the tragic poets, and the Lycians Carians, and others in like manner. And the Trojans, having risen from such small beginnings as to become even kings of kings, gave occasion both to the poet and to those who explain him to discuss what ought to be called Troy. For he speaks of all those who fought with them collectively as Trojans, just as he calls their opponents Danaans and Achaeans; but we shall surely not call Paphlagonia also Troy; by Zeus, nor Caria, nor its neighbor Lycia. I mean when he says: “”The Trojans indeed went with clamor and cry,”” but of their opponents: “”And the Achaeans went in silence, breathing strength.”” And he speaks in many other ways besides. Nevertheless, although things are so, we must try to distinguish each detail as far as possible; and whatever escapes our ancient history must be left alone (for the task of geography is not here), but we must speak of things as they now are.