§13.3.6μεγίστη δέ ἐστι τῶν Αἰολικῶν καὶ ἀρίστη Κύμη καὶ σχεδὸν μητρόπολις αὕτη τε καὶ ἡ Λέσβος τῶν ἄλλων πόλεων περὶ τριάκοντά που τὸν ἀριθμόν, ὧν ἐκλελοίπασιν οὐκ ὀλίγαι.
\nCyme is the largest and best of the Aeolian cities, and this city and Lesbos are, so to speak, the metropolises of the other cities, which are about thirty in number, of which not a few have disappeared.
σκώπτεται δʼ εἰς ἀναισθησίαν ἡ Κύμη κατὰ τοιαύτην τινά, ὥς φασιν ἔνιοι, δόξαν, ὅτι τριακοσίοις ἔτεσιν ὕστερον τῆς κτίσεως ἀπέδοντο τοῦ λιμένος τὰ τέλη, πρότερον δʼ οὐκ ἐκαρποῦτο τὴν πρόσοδον ταύτην ὁ δῆμος· κατέσχεν οὖν δόξα ὡς ὀψὲ ᾐσθημένων ὅτι ἐπὶ θαλάττῃ πόλιν οἰκοῖεν.
Cyme is ridiculed for its senselessness according to some such reputation, as some say, namely because they farmed out the harbor tolls three hundred years after the foundation, and before that the people did not enjoy this revenue; thus a reputation prevailed as if they had only late realized that they inhabited a city by the sea.
ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλος λόγος, ὅτι δανεισάμενοι χρήματα δημοσίᾳ τὰς στοὰς ὑπέθεντο, εἶτʼ οὐκ ἀποδιδόντες κατὰ τὴν ὡρισμένην ἡμέραν εἴργοντο τῶν περιπάτων· ὅτε μέντοι ὄμβρος εἴη, κατʼ αἰδῶ τινα κηρύττοιεν οἱ δανεισταί, κελεύοντες ὑπὸ τὰς στοὰς ὑπέρχεσθαι· τοῦ δὴ κήρυκος οὕτω φθεγγομένου
ὑπὸ τὰς στοὰς ὑπέλθετε,
ἐκπεσεῖν λόγον ὡς Κυμαίων οὐκ αἰσθανομένων ὡς ἐν τοῖς ὄμβροις ὑπὸ τὰς στοὰς ὑπελθετέον, ἂν μὴ σημάνῃ τις αὐτοῖς διὰ κηρύγματος.
There is also another story, that having borrowed money publicly they mortgaged their colonnades, and then, not paying it back by the appointed day, they were barred from their walks; however, whenever it rained, out of some sense of shame the lenders would have it proclaimed, bidding them to go under the colonnades; and since the herald cried out thus, "Go under the colonnades," a story spread abroad that the Cymaeans did not realize that they had to go under the colonnades during rains, unless someone indicated it to them by herald.
ἀνὴρ δʼ ἄξιος μνήμης ἐκ τῆσδε τῆς πόλεως ἀναντιλέκτως μέν ἐστιν Ἔφορος, τῶν Ἰσοκράτους γνωρίμων τοῦ ῥήτορος, ὁ τὴν ἱστορίαν συγγράψας καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν εὑρημάτων· καὶ ἔτι πρότερος τούτου Ἡσίοδος ὁ ποιητής· αὐτὸς γὰρ εἴρηκεν ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ Δῖος μετῴκησεν εἰς Βοιωτοὺς Κύμην Αἰολίδα προλιπών
"
νάσσατο δʼ ἄγχʼ Ἑλικῶνος ὀιζυρῇ ἐνὶ κώμῃ
Ἄσκρῃ, χεῖμα κακῇ, θέρει ἀργαλέῃ, οὐδέ ποτʼ ἐσθλῇ. "
Ὅμηρος δʼ οὐχ ὁμολογουμένως· πολλοὶ γὰρ ἀμφισβητοῦσιν αὐτοῦ.
A man worthy of memory from this city is indisputably Ephorus, one of the disciples of the orator Isocrates, who wrote the History and the work On Inventions; and even earlier than him, Hesiod the poet, for he himself has said that his father Dios migrated to Boeotia, leaving behind Aeolian Cyme:\n"And he settled near Helicon in a wretched village, Ascra, bad in winter, painful in summer, never good."\n Homer is not agreed upon, for many dispute his origin.
τὸ δʼ ὄνομα ἀπὸ Ἀμαζόνος τῇ πόλει τεθεῖσθαι, καθάπερ καὶ τῇ Μυρίνῃ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν τῷ Τρωικῷ πεδίῳ κειμένης ὑπὸ τῇ Βατιείᾳ
"
τὴν ἤτοι ἄνδρες Βατίειαν κικλήσκουσιν,
ἀθάνατοι δέ τε σῆμα πολυσκάρθμοιο Μυρίνης
"
σκώπτεται δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἔφορος, διότι τῆς πατρίδος ἔργα οὐκ ἔχων φράζειν ἐν τῇ διαριθμήσει τῶν ἄλλων πράξεων, οὐ μὴν οὐδʼ ἀμνημόνευτον αὐτὴν εἶναι θέλων, οὕτως ἐπιφωνεῖ
"κατὰ δὲ τὸν αὐτὸν καιρὸν Κυμαῖοι τὰς ἡσυχίας ἦγον. "
Ἐπεὶ δὲ διεληλύθαμεν τὴν Τρωικὴν ἅμα καὶ τὴν Αἰολικὴν παραλίαν, ἐφεξῆς ἂν εἴη τὴν μεσόγαιαν ἐπιδραμεῖν μέχρι τοῦ Ταύρου, φυλάττοντας τὴν αὐτὴν τῆς ἐφόδου τάξιν.
And they say that the name was given to the city after an Amazon, just as Myrina was named after the one who lies in the Trojan plain under Batieia:\n"Which indeed men call Batieia, but the immortals the tomb of bounds-abounding Myrina."\nAnd Ephorus too is ridiculed, because, having no deeds of his native city to relate in his enumeration of other transactions, and yet not wishing her to be unmentioned, he adds this concluding remark:\n"And at the same time, the Cymaeans remained quiet."\nSince we have gone through the Trojan and at the same time the Aeolian coast, next would be to traverse the inland country as far as the Taurus, keeping the same order of approach.