A Geographical Note on Thucydides Iv
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THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 221 i) TTJV <f>av(pdv . 8te\&h>v 68bv If we turn aside into the path which bears Svairopov, Arrian An. 3. 17. 3), and the us away from our onward and upward philosophers (OVK) lovres TTJV Iprjv 6Sbv, CKTpa-march, we shall have to retrace our steps, irovTai (Hdt. 6. 34). There must be a and, as Plotinus says (En. 1. 6. 7), 'we must detachment of the body; otherwise the mount again to the Good which every soul vision of the absolute will not dawn upon craves,' and with pure self behold pure the soul. The soul must go Deity. J. E. HARRY. ' The way, which from this dead and dark abode Leads up to God.' University of Cincinnati, 0., U.S.A. NOTES A GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON Laconian Asine (e.g. Xen. Hell. vii. 1. 25), THUCYDIDES IV. 54. because it was at that time under Spartan rule, and, for the same reason, Neon, one of oi 'AOr/vaTot . Ttav KvOrjpiov <£uA Xenophon's fellow-generals, who is called Troirfa-d/ievoi cirkevaav is ri/v 'Ao-ivrjv xat'EAos indiscriminately o 'Ao-iraios and o AaKtaiuKos Kal Ta ir\.ei<TTa rwv irtpl ddXaxruav Kal diro- (Anab. vii. 2. 1 and 29), may quite as Pda-ets TTOiovfievoi Kal €vavki£6fi£voi rwv \h>pifav probably have belonged to Asine in Messenia 0$ Kaiphi fir) (Srgovv TTJV yrjv rj/xipas fidkurra as to a Laconian place of that name. It is hrrd. also true that Pausanias, who gives a very THE Athenians under Nicias, in 424 B.C., full account of the W. coast of the Laconian captured Cythera and thence made descents Gulf, does not mention any place of the upon the Spartan territory on the mainland. name of Asine as situated in that district. The two places which Thucydides mentions Leaving Pausanias for the moment, we as having been attacked are Helos, a city may turn to the evidence of Strabo and and district at the mouth of the Eurotas Polybius. Polybius (v. 19) relates how (Paus. iii. 22. 3), arid Asine. The question Philip V. of Macedon when invading arises where the Asine here mentioned is to Laconia was repulsed at Asine, which, he be placed. It would be natural to conclude implies, was not far from Gythion: an from its mention here in conjunction with engagement which Pausanias (iii. 24. 6) Helos and the fact that the whole raid represents as taking place near Las. This occupied only seven days, that it lay some- has been explained away on the theory that where on the coast of the Laconian Gulf; there is some confusion with the hill of Asia, and the object of this note is to attempt to which lay near the city of Las (Paus. loc. prove that there was such a place on the cit.); and the fact that Strabo (viii. p. 363) W. coast of the Laconian Gulf and to mentions Asine in conjunction with Gythion suggest the site where it stood. as lying on the Laconian Gulf has been It has been held generally (see Smith, explained as due to copying the mistake of Diet of Geogr. sub. voc. Asine, Leake, Morea Polybius. i. p. 279) that Thucydides here refers to This mistake of Polybius and Strabo Asine on the W. coast of the Messenia Gulf: does not, however, recommend itself as and attempts have been made (e.g. Curtius, probable, and the theory must rely for its Pelop. ii. 279, 324) to explain away the chief support on the silence of Pausanias. passages which imply the existence of a The key to this silence on the part of Laconian Asine. This, I think, is im- Pausanias and at the same time to the possible. probable site of Asine is to be found, I It is true that Asine in Messenia is called think, from a study of the route taken by 222 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW Pausanias in his journeys in S. Laconia. points on the Laconian Gulf—at Helos, What his route was is quite clear from an which lay on the old road from Gythion to examination of his account of this district. Sparta and which was worth devastating He started south from Gythion (iii. 24. 6) since it was probably a district which and visited Las, the temple of Artemis supplied corn to Sparta, and at Asine, on Dictynna and Arainus on the coast south of the site of the modern village of Skoutari, Las. From there he turned inland by the which was the nearest convenient landing- pass through which the modern road runs place on the W. coast of the Laconian from Gythion to Areopolis and visited Gulf, facing the Athenian base at Cythera. Pyrrhicus (iii. 25. 3), the modern Kavalos (see B.S.A. x. p. 160). From thence he EDWARD S. FORSTER. made another journey to the coast of the The University, Sheffield. Laconian Gulf and visited Teuthrone (iii. 25. 4), the modern Kotrones, whence he probably took ship to Taenarum. By turn- ing inland to Pyrrhicus and then doubling TERENCE, ANDRIA V. iv. 37^8 back to the coast at Teuthrone, he missed (940-1). the inlet known at the present day as the CH. At scrupulus mi etiam unus restat qui Gulf of Skoutari, which is separated from me male habet. PA. Dignus es : the bay of Teuthrone (Kotrones) on the south by a high range of hills running cum tua religione, odium, nodum in scirpo down to the sea. quaeris. Professor J. S. Phillimore in C.R. for June Now it is extremely improbable that the would emend above thus (on the analogy of shores of such a splendid bay as that of Eun. 651): Skoutari should not have been the site of CH. At scrupulus mi etiam unus restat a settlement of some kind in antiquity.1 . PA. in' malam rem, ubi dignus And indeed in the village of Skoutari at es (or quo dignus es, or ut dignus es) the head of the bay there are vestiges of cum tua religione, odium! nodum in scirpo antiquity in the form of columns built into houses and remains of Roman masonry quaeris. near the sea shore. I would suggest there- This emendation is ingenious but seems to fore that the site of Laconian Asine was me quite unnecessary. Only the punctuation on the Gulf of Skoutari—a position which requires alteration, as follows : corresponds with the accounts given by PA. Dignus es cum tua religione, odium ! Strabo and Polybius, and which would also The meaning then would be : account for the silence of Pausanias. Asine CH. But I have still one scruple remain- was clearly a common place-name in Greece, ing which makes me very uneasy. since, beside Messenian Asine, there were PA. (aside) Serve you right, you other places of the same name in Argolis confounded old ass, with your and (according to Steph. Byz. sub. voc.) in fiddle-faddles! Cyprus and in Cilicia: so there can be no This" seems quite good sense and quite objection to adding to the list. good Latin, Phor. 465 multimodis cum The theory here proposed, if accepted, istoc animo es vituperandus, affording a fairly suits the passage of Thucydides excellently. close parallel. Nicias, instead of attacking Gythion, which Secondly, it seems improbable that all the was probably too strong, made raids at two MSS. should have altered such a perfectly natural phrase as that suggested by Professor 1Leake (Morea i. p. 278) thought it probable that Phillimore, and should all have transferred there was an ancient site on the bay of Skoutari and the words called in question from one speaker conjecturally placed Aegila here, a Laconian town to another. mentioned incidentally by Pausanias (iv. 17. 1); but there is no evidence at all in what part of Laconia it A. SLOMAN. Godmanchester. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 223 NOTES ON TACITUS, Histories iv. 24. HISTORIES. Lectos e legionibus Dillio voculae duoetvi- censimae legionis legato tradit, ut quam Histories i. 15. maximis per ripam itineribus celeraret, ipse Fidem libertatem amicitiatn, praecipua navibus, invalidus corpore, invisus militibus. humani animi bona, tu quidem eadem con- The Medicean page ends with the inva of stantia retinebis, sed alii per obsequium invalidus, and I would suggest that the true imminuent; inrumpet adulatio blanditiae et reading is ipse navibus invadit, invalidus etc. (blanditiae Medicean) pessimum veri adfectus Reuz in his Alliterationen bet Tacitus gives venenum sua cuique utilitas. This passage examples of such triple alliteration. occurs in the speech of Galba to Piso on adoption: ' in hunc modum locutus fertur. C. D. FISHER. There is a remarkable parallel in Pliny, Panegyricus 85, quoted by Meiser, but with- out comment: lam et in privatorum anitnis A NOTE ON THE 'DIONYSIACA' OF exoleverat priscum mortalium bonum, amia'tia, NONNUS. cujus in locum migraverant adsentationes, IN the Album Gratulatorium in Honorem blanditiae et pejor odio amoris simulatio. H. van Herwerden (Utrecht, 1902), pp. 137- The resemblance can hardly be accidental. 142, Kenyon described and in part published From the point of view of chronology it is some-papyrus fragments of a late epic on the more likely that Tacitus copied from Pliny. Indian expedition of Dionysus (B.M. Pap- The date of the Panegyric is 100 A.D. The 273). Suggesting that the epic, as the date notes of the 1st and 2nd books of the of the papyrus shows that its author must Histories are supposed by Mommsen to have have been 'a precursor of Nonnus, not a been in circulation about 105, 106 A.D.