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A Note on Φοωίκη in Thucydides 2.69.1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. W. Dickinson
Affiliation:
The Open University

Extract

In Thucydides' account of Melesander's expedition with six ships to Caria and Lycia (2.69.1) there appears to me to be a difficulty which is universally ignored by commentators and fudged by translators. Thucydides describes the purpose of the expedition

Type
Shorter Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1979

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References

page 213 note 1 Cf. St. Paul's voyage from Sidon to Myra (Acts 27: 4–5) by the northerly route, although Luke's language seems to indicate that in the first century A.D. the southerly was more usual.

page 213 note 2 This is apparent from any translation which does not gloss over the difficulty by being more definite in its geography than the Greek would appear to permit. Cf. Smith, (London, 1753)Google Scholar, Jowett, (Oxford, 1881)Google Scholar, Crawley, (London, 1874), and, more recently, Warner's translation in the Penguin Classics. series (Harmondsworth, 1954).Google Scholar

page 213 note 3 I note a similar suggestion by Stark, Freya (JHS (1958), 114)Google Scholar that the of Plutarch, , Vit. Alex. 17. 2 is Phoenix/Finike rather than Phoenicia.Google Scholar

page 213 note 4 Fellows, C., Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, more particularly in the province of Lycia (London, 1852), p. 159.Google Scholar

page 213 note 5 Cf. P. M. Fraser and G. E. Bean, The Rhodian Peraea and Islands (London, 1954), pp. 33–4, 58: for other ‘Phoenix’’ placenames, cf. Livy 37.16, Strabo 14.666, Quintus Smyrnaeus 8.106.

page 213 note 6 The town, Phoenix, on a river of the same name is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Thematibus, 1. 16Google Scholar). It appears to have been the port for Myra (Vita Nicolai Sionitae, 37. 4Google Scholar) and a station for the Roman fleet in the seventh century A.D. (Theophanes, , Chronographia, p.345 de Beer). It was also the seat of a bishopric (RE, s.v. Phoinix).Google Scholar

page 213 note 7 It should be noted against the common translation that Thucydides nowhere else uses when referring to Phoenicia, but always refers to

page 214 note 1 Reference to the index of the O.C.T. Thucydides throws up, among others, Alope, (2. 26. 2)Google Scholar, Boucolion, (4. 134. 2)Google Scholar, Gigonos, (1. 61. 5)Google Scholar, Caryae, (5. 55. 3)Google Scholar, Oesyme, (4. 107. 3)Google Scholar, Scolus, (5. 18. 5)Google Scholar, and Physca, (2. 99. 5)Google Scholar, as well as such more famous cities as Abdera, (2. 97. 1)Google Scholar and Sardis, (1. 115. 4).Google Scholar

page 214 note 2 The generally accepted connection between Cimon and Thucydides might have kept some names from the period of the Eurymedon campaign in the historian's memory. If the accounts of Cimon's activities in Caria and Lycia (admitting the doubtful nature of the Ephoran account of the Eurymedon campaign) are in essence correct as to his achievements, we may conjecture that Phoenice might have had some temporary fame as the first ‘liberated’’ port west of the Chelidonian Islands, traditionally the eastern limit of the Delian League's naval control.

page 214 note 3 Fellows, C., op. cit., p.160.Google Scholar

page 214 note 4 Fellows, C., op. cit., pp. 159, 361.Google Scholar

page 214 note 5 Cf. Plato, , Laws 705 c.Google Scholar

page 214 note 6 Theophanes, , Chronographia, p.385 de Beer.Google Scholar