Geography

​After Colophon comes Mount Korakion and a small island sacred to Artemis, to which they believe the hinds swim across to give birth. Then comes Lebedos, which is one hundred and twenty stadia distant from Colophon; here is the association and settlement of the artists of Dionysus in Ionia as far as the Hellespont, in which a general festival and games are celebrated yearly in honor of Dionysus. They formerly used to dwell in Teos, the next city of the Ionians, but when a sedition broke out they fled to Ephesus; and when Attalus established them in Myonnesus, between Teos and Lebedos, the Teians sent an embassy entreating the Romans not to allow Myonnesus to be fortified as a stronghold against them. The Romans then transferred them to Lebedos, since the Lebedians welcomed them gladly because of the scarcity of population that possessed them. Teos also is one hundred and twenty stadia distant from Lebedos, and between them is the island of Aspis, which some call Arconnesus; and Myonnesus also is inhabited on a peninsula-like height.

​Teos also is situated on a peninsula, having a harbor; from here came Anacreon the lyric poet, in whose time the Teians abandoned their city and migrated to Abdera, a Thracian city, not enduring the insolence of the Persians, whence also this has been said: “Abdera, a beautiful colony of the Teians.” But some of them returned again some time later; and it has been said also of Apellicon that he too was a Teian; and the historian Hecataeus was also from the same city. There is also another harbor, Gerraeidae, situated to the north, thirty stadia from the city.

​Then comes Chalcideis, the isthmus of the peninsula of the Teians and Erythraeans; within the isthmus these people dwell, and on the isthmus itself dwell the Teians and Clazomenians; for the Teians have the Chalcideis on the southern side of the isthmus, and the Clazomenians have the northern side, along which they border on the Erythraean territory. The place Hypocremnus lies at the beginning of the isthmus, enclosing the Erythraean territory on the inside and that of the Clazomenians on the outside. Above Chalcideis lies a grove consecrated to Alexander the son of Philip, and a game called Alexandreia is proclaimed by the common assembly of the Ionians, being celebrated there. The crossing of the isthmus from the Alexandreion and Chalcideis as far as Hypocremnus is fifty stadia, but the circumnavigation is more than a thousand. Near the middle of this circumnavigation lies Erythrae, an Ionian city having a harbor and four small islands lying in front of it called the Hippoi.

​Before coming to Erythrae, first there is Erae, a small town of the Teians; then Mount Corycus, which is high, and under it the harbor Casystes, and another called the harbor of Erythra, and several others next in order. They say that the whole coastal voyage of Corycus was once a pirate stronghold of those called the Corycaeans, who found a new way of plotting against those who sailed; for scattering themselves in the harbors, they would approach the merchants who were putting in and eavesdrop on what they were carrying and where they were sailing, and then, coming together, they would attack the men after they had put to sea and plunder them. From this indeed we call everyone who is a busybody and attempts to eavesdrop on those who are speaking in secret and in private a Corycaean, and in a proverb we say: “And so the Corycaean was listening to him,” whenever someone thinks he is acting or speaking in secret, but does not escape notice because of those who spy and pry into things that do not concern them.

​After Corycus comes Halonnesus, a small island; then Argennum, a cape of the Erythraean territory, which comes closest to the Poseidium of the Chians, making a strait of about sixty stadia. Between Erythrae and Hypocremnus is Mimas, a high mountain, rich in game and heavily wooded; then the village Cybeleia, and a cape called Melaena which has a quarry for millstones.