§6.1.1μετὰ δὲ τὸ στόμα τοῦ Σιλάριδος Λευκανία καὶ τὸ τῆς Ἥρας ἱερὸν τῆς Ἀργῴας, Ἰάσονος ἵδρυμα, καὶ πλησίον ἐν πεντήκοντα σταδίοις ἡ Ποσειδωνία.
After the mouth of the Silaris is Lucania and the temple of Argive Hera, a foundation of Jason, and nearby, at fifty stadia, Poseidonia.
Συβαρῖται μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ θαλάττῃ τεῖχος ἔθεντο, οἱ δʼ οἰκισθέντες ἀνωτέρω μετέστησαν, ὕστερον δὲ Λευκανοὶ μὲν ἐκείνους, Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ Λευκανοὺς ἀφείλοντο τὴν πόλιν.
Now the Sybarites built a wall on the sea, but those who settled there moved further inland, and later the Lucanians took the city from them, and the Romans from the Lucanians.
ποιεῖ δʼ αὐτὴν ἐπίνοσον ποταμὸς πλησίον εἰς ἕλη ἀναχεόμενος.
A river nearby, spreading out into marshes, makes the city unhealthy.
ἐντεῦθεν δʼ ἐκπλέοντι τὸν κόλπον νῆσος Λευκωσία, μικρὸν ἔχουσα πρὸς τὴν ἤπειρον διάπλουν, ἐπώνυμος μιᾶς τῶν Σειρήνων, ἐκπεσούσης δεῦρο μετὰ τὴν μυθευομένην ῥῖψιν αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν βυθόν.
And for one sailing out of the gulf from there, there is the island Leucosia, which has a short passage to the mainland, named after one of the Sirens, who cast herself up here after their mythical throwing of themselves into the deep.
τῆς δὲ νήσου πρόκειται τὸ ἀντακρωτήριον ταῖς Σειρηνούσσαις ποιοῦν τὸν Ποσειδωνιάτην κόλπον.
In front of the island lies the promontory which, being opposite to the Sirenussae, forms the Poseidonian Gulf.
κάμψαντι δʼ ἄλλος συνεχὴς κόλπος, ἐν ᾧ πόλις ἣν οἱ μὲν κτίσαντες Φωκαιεῖς Ὑέλην οἱ δὲ Ἔλην ἀπὸ κρήνης τινὸς οἱ δὲ νῦν Ἐλέαν ὀνομάζουσιν, ἐξ ἧς Παρμενίδης καὶ Ζήνων ἐγένοντο ἄνδρες Πυθαγόρειοι.
For one who has doubled this promontory, there is another continuous gulf, in which is a city which the Phocaeans who founded it called Hyele, others Ele from a certain spring, and people now call Elea, from which came Parmenides and Zeno, Pythagorean men.
δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ διʼ ἐκείνους καὶ ἔτι πρότερον εὐνομηθῆναι· διὸ καὶ πρὸς Λευκανοὺς ἀντέσχον καὶ πρὸς Ποσειδωνιάτας καὶ κρείττους ἀπῄεσαν καίπερ ἐνδεέστεροι καὶ χώρᾳ καὶ πλήθει σωμάτων ὄντες.
And it seems to me that, both because of those men and even before them, it was well-governed; wherefore they also held out against the Lucanians and against the Poseidoniatae, and came off victorious, although they were inferior both in territory and in population.
ἀναγκάζονται γοῦν διὰ τὴν λυπρότητα τῆς γῆς τὰ πολλὰ θαλαττουργεῖν καὶ ταριχείας συνίστασθαι καὶ ἄλλας τοιαύτας ἐργασίας.
At any rate, because of the poverty of their land, they are compelled for the most part to work on the sea, and to establish fish-salting industries and other such trades.
φησὶ δʼ Ἀντίοχος Φωκαίας ἁλούσης ὑφʼ Ἁρπάγου τοῦ Κύρου στρατηγοῦ, τοὺς δυναμένους ἐμβάντας εἰς τὰ σκάφη πανοικίους πλεῦσαι πρῶτον εἰς Κύρνον καὶ Μασσαλίαν μετὰ Κρεοντιάδου, ἀποκρουσθέντας δὲ τὴν Ἐλέαν κτίσαι· διέχει δὲ τῆς Ποσειδωνίας ὅσον διακοσίους σταδίους ἡ πόλις.
And Antiochus says that when Phocaea was taken by Harpagus, the general of Cyrus, those who were able embarked on their boats with all their households, and sailed first to Cyrnus and Massalia with Creontiades, but being repulsed, they founded Elea; and the city is about two hundred stadia distant from Poseidonia.
μετὰ δὲ ταύτην ἀκρωτήριον Παλίνουρος.
After this is the promontory Palinurus.
πρὸ δὲ τῆς Ἐλεάτιδος αἱ Οἰνωτρίδες νῆσοι δύο ὑφόρμους ἔχουσαι.
And in front of the territory of Elea are the two Oenotrides islands, having anchorage grounds.
μετὰ δὲ Παλίνουρον Πυξοῦς ἄκρα καὶ λιμὴν καὶ ποταμός· ἓν γὰρ τῶν τριῶν ὄνομα· ᾤκισε δὲ Μίκυθος ὁ Μεσσήνης ἄρχων τῆς ἐν Σικελίᾳ, πάλιν δʼ ἀπῆραν οἱ ἱδρυθέντες πλὴν ὀλίγων.
After Palinurus is Pyxus, a promontory, a harbor, and a river—for there is one name for the three; and Micythus, the ruler of Messene in Sicily, founded it, but those who settled there departed again, except for a few.
μετὰ δὲ Πυξοῦντα Λᾶος κόλπος καὶ ποταμὸς καὶ πόλις, ἐσχάτη τῶν Λευκανίδων, μικρὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς θαλάττης, ἄποικος Συβαριτῶν, εἰς ἣν ἀπὸ Ἔλης στάδιοι τετρακόσιοι· ὁ δὲ πᾶς τῆς Λευκανίας παράπλους ἑξακοσίων πεντήκοντα.
After Pyxus is the Laüs gulf, river, and city, the last of the Lucanian cities, slightly above the sea, a colony of the Sybarites, to which the distance from Elea is four hundred stadia; and the entire voyage along the coast of Lucania is six hundred and fifty stadia.
πλησίον δὲ τὸ τοῦ Δράκοντος ἡρῷον ἑνὸς τῶν Ὀδυσσέως ἑταίρων, ἐφʼ οὗ ὁ χρησμὸς τοῖς Ἰταλιώταις ἐγένετο
"
Λάιον ἀμφὶ Δράκοντα πολύν ποτε λαὸν ὀλεῖσθαι.
Nearby is the hero-shrine of Dracon, one of the companions of Odysseus, concerning which the oracle was given to the Italiotes: "Around the Laïan Dracon a vast host shall one day perish.
"
ἐπὶ γὰρ ταύτην Λᾶον στρατεύσαντες οἱ κατὰ τὴν Ἰταλίαν Ἕλληνες ὑπὸ Λευκανῶν ἠτύχησαν ἐξαπατηθέντες τῷ χρησμῷ.
"For the Greeks of Italy, having marched against this city Laüs, met with disaster at the hands of the Lucanians, having been deceived by the oracle.
§6.1.2κατὰ μὲν δὴ τὴν Τυρρηνικὴν παραλίαν ταῦτʼ ἐστὶ τὰ τῶν Λευκανῶν χωρία, τῆς δʼ ἑτέρας οὐχ ἥπτοντο θαλάττης πρότερον, ἀλλʼ οἱ Ἕλληνες ἐπεκράτουν οἱ τὸν Ταραντῖνον ἔχοντες κόλπον.
Now these are the places of the Lucanians along the Tyrrhenian coast, but they did not touch the other sea formerly, rather the Greeks who held the Tarentine Gulf had control.
πρὶν δὲ τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐλθεῖν οὐδʼ ἦσάν πω Λευκανοί, Χῶνες δὲ καὶ Οἰνωτροὶ τοὺς τόπους ἐνέμοντο.
And before the Greeks came, the Lucanians did not even exist yet, but Chones and Oenotrians inhabited the regions.
τῶν δὲ Σαυνιτῶν αὐξηθέντων ἐπὶ πολὺ καὶ τοὺς Χῶνας καὶ τοὺς Οἰνωτροὺς ἐκβαλόντων, Λευκανοὺς δʼ εἰς τὴν μερίδα ταύτην ἀποικισάντων, ἅμα δὲ καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων τὴν ἑκατέρωθεν παραλίαν μέχρι πορθμοῦ κατεχόντων, πολὺν χρόνον ἐπολέμουν οἵ τε Ἕλληνες καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι πρὸς ἀλλήλους.
But when the Samnites grew greatly in power and expelled both the Chones and the Oenotrians, and sent the Lucanians as colonists into this portion, while at the same time the Greeks held the coast on both sides as far as the strait, for a long time the Greeks and the barbarians waged war against one another.
οἱ δὲ τῆς Σικελίας τύραννοι καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα Καρχηδόνιοι, τοτὲ μὲν περὶ τῆς Σικελίας πολεμοῦντες πρὸς Ῥωμαίους τοτὲ δὲ περὶ αὐτῆς τῆς Ἰταλίας, ἅπαντας τοὺς ταύτῃ κακῶς διέθηκαν, μάλιστα δὲ τοὺς Ἕλληνας, πρότερον μέν γε καὶ τῆς μεσογαίας πολλὴν ἀφῄρηντο, ἀπὸ τῶν Τρωικῶν χρόνων ἀρξάμενοι, καὶ δὴ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ηὔξηντο ὥστε τὴν μεγάλην Ἑλλάδα ταύτην ἔλεγον καὶ τὴν Σικελίαν·
And the tyrants of Sicily, and after them the Carthaginians, at one time warring with the Romans for Sicily and at another time for Italy itself, treated all the people in this region badly, and especially the Greeks.
νυνὶ δὲ πλὴν Τάραντος καὶ Ῥηγίου καὶ Νεαπόλεως ἐκβεβαρβαρῶσθαι συμβέβηκεν ἅπαντα καὶ τὰ μὲν Λευκανοὺς καὶ Βρεττίους κατέχειν τὰ δὲ Καμπανούς, καὶ τούτους λόγῳ, τὸ δʼ ἀληθὲς Ῥωμαίους· καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ Ῥωμαῖοι γεγόνασιν.
Previously, indeed, they had taken away much of the interior, beginning from the times of the Trojan War, and indeed had increased in power to such an extent that they called this region Great Greece, and Sicily as well; but now, except for Tarentum, Rhegium, and Neapolis, it has come about that all have been barbarianized, and some parts are held by the Lucanians and the Bruttians, and others by the Campanians—and even these only in name, but in truth by the Romans, for they themselves have become Romans.
ὅμως δὲ τῷ πραγματευομένῳ τὴν τῆς γῆς περίοδον καὶ τὰ νῦν ὄντα λέγειν ἀνάγκη καὶ τῶν ὑπαρξάντων ἔνια, καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν ἔνδοξα ᾖ.
Nevertheless, for one who busies himself with the description of the earth, it is necessary to speak of the things that exist now and also of some of the things that existed in the past, especially when they are famous.
τῶν δὲ Λευκανῶν οἱ μὲν ἁπτόμενοι τῆς Τυρρηνικῆς θαλάττης εἴρηνται, οἱ δὲ τὴν μεσόγαιαν ἔχοντες εἰσὶν οἱ ὑπεροικοῦντες τοῦ Ταραντίνου κόλπου.
Of the Lucanians, those who touch the Tyrrhenian Sea have been mentioned, and those who hold the interior are those who dwell above the Tarentine Gulf.
οὕτω δʼ εἰσὶ κεκακωμένοι τελέως οὗτοι καὶ Βρέττιοι καὶ αὐτοὶ Σαυνῖται οἱ τούτων ἀρχηγέται, ὥστε καὶ διορίσαι χαλεπὸν τὰς κατοικίας αὐτῶν· αἴτιον δʼ ὅτι οὐδὲν ἔτι σύστημα κοινὸν τῶν ἐθνῶν ἑκάστου συμμένει, τά τε ἔθη διαλέκτων τε καὶ ὁπλισμοῦ καὶ ἐσθῆτος καὶ τῶν παραπλησίων ἐκλέλοιπεν, ἄλλως τε ἄδοξοι παντάπασίν εἰσιν αἱ καθʼ ἕκαστα καὶ ἐν μέρει κατοικίαι.
But these people, and the Bruttians, and the Samnites themselves who were their originators, have been so completely ruined that it is difficult even to distinguish their settlements; and the cause is that no common political system of each of the tribes still survives, and their customs in speech, armor, clothing, and the like have disappeared, and besides, their individual and particular settlements are altogether without renown.