Geography

​From Erythrae came the Sibyl, an inspired and prophetic woman of ancient times; and in the time of Alexander there was another woman prophetic in the same manner, called Athenaïs, from the same city; and in our own time Heracleides, the physician of the school of Herophilus, a fellow-student of Apollonius Mys.

​As for Chios, its circumnavigation is nine hundred stadia for one who sails along the coast; it has a city with a good harbor and a naval station for eighty ships. In making the circumnavigation, keeping the island on the right, as one starts from the city, first there is the Poseidium; then Phanai, a deep harbor, and a temple of Apollo and a grove of palm trees; then Notion, an anchorage beach; then Laius, this too being an anchorage beach, whence there is an isthmus of sixty stadia to the city, but the circumnavigation, which we traversed, is three hundred and sixty stadia. Then comes Cape Melaena, opposite to which is the island of Psyra, fifty stadia from the cape, high and having a city of the same name; the circumference of the island is forty stadia. Then comes the Ariousian country, rugged and without harbors, extending about thirty stadia, producing the best of Greek wines. Then Mount Pelinaeon, the highest of those in the island. The island also has a quarry of marble stone. Distinguished Chian men have been Ion the tragic poet, Theopompos the historian, and Theocritus the sophist; these latter two also opposed each other in politics. The Chians also claim Homer as theirs, producing as a major testimony the so-called Homeridae descended from his family, whom Pindar also mentions: “ὅθεν περ καὶ Ὁμηρίδαι ῥαπτῶν ἐπέων τὰ πόλλʼ ἀοιδοί” The Chians also once possessed a navy, and aspired to maritime empire and freedom. From Chios to Lesbos, with a south wind, it is about four hundred stadia.

​After Hypocremnus comes Chytrium, a place where Clazomenae was formerly situated; then the present city, having eight cultivated small islands lying in front of it; a distinguished Clazomenian man was Anaxagoras the natural philosopher, a disciple of Anaximenes of Miletus; and Archelaus the natural philosopher and Euripides the poet were pupils of his. Then there is a temple of Apollo and hot springs, and the Gulf of Smyrna and the city.

​Next comes another gulf, in which is Old Smyrna, twenty stadia distant from the present city. After the Lydians destroyed Smyrna, for about four hundred years it continued to be inhabited in villages; then Antigonus rebuilt it, and after him Lysimachus, and now it is the most beautiful of all, having a certain part fortified on a mountain, but the greater part on the plain near the harbor, the Metroum, and the gymnasium. The division of the streets is excellent, being straight as far as possible, and the roads are paved with stone, and there are great rectangular porticoes, both on the ground level and upstairs. There is also a library and the Homereium, a rectangular portico having a temple of Homer and a wooden statue; for they also claim the poet with special insistence, and indeed a certain bronze coin among them is called Homereium. The river Meles flows near the wall. In addition to the other construction of the city, there is also a closed harbor. But there is one not small defect of the architects, that when paving the streets they did not give them underground drainage, so that refuse floats on the surface, and especially during rains, when the waste is discharged. Here Dolabella, having besieged and captured Trebonius, killed him, who was one of those who assassinated the divine Caesar, and he destroyed many parts of the city.