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Contributions to the History of Southern Aeolis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

The journey which Aelius Aristides made in the year 167 A.D. from Smyrna to Pergamus, and which he relates with much detail in the opening of the fifth book of his Hieroi Logoi, is the most valuable evidence left as to the relative situation of Smyrna, Larissa, Cyme, Myrina, and Gryneion: and a careful study of it is the best foundation of a knowledge of Southern Aeolis. The main facts are as follows (Arist. ed. Dind. i. p. 534). On the first day his baggage was sent on in front to Myrina to be ready when he arrived in the evening. When carriages had been got ready and he himself was prepared to start, noon had arrived. In the great heat he did not like to undergo the fatigue of travelling at this hour, and waited at his house in the suburbs of Smyrna till the heat passed. The comfort of his villa was seductive, and some matters of business detained him, so that he lost a great deal of time, and when he reached the khan before the Hermus, the sun was setting. He deliberated whether he should spend the night there, but the discomfort consequent on passing the night in a bad inn without his baggage made him resolve to go on. As he was crossing the Hermus, night had just set in, which shows that it was about one hour after sunset. A cool wind invigorated him, and he was glad on reaching Larissa, ἤδη βαθείας ἑσπέρας, that the baggage was still in front, and that the inn was no better than the previous one. A little after midnight he reached Cyme. Every place was shut up, and he encouraged his followers, who apparently were anxious to stop here, to go on. On the journey the cold became more severe. About cock-crow he reached Myrina, and found his baggage in the street, as it had reached the town after every place was shut. After in vain trying to get admission to any inn, they at last were received into the house of a friend. As they entered it was still quite dark, but after a fire had been kindled the morning star had arisen, and the light of day began to appear. He resolved, therefore, not to go to sleep by day. His road then lay through Gryneion, where he stayed some time to sacrifice to Apollo, to Elaea, where he spent the night; but in these cases no indication is given of the time required for the journey.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1881

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References

page 48 note 1 A few pages further on Aristides says that next year in the same month he went to Cyzicus in the hieromenia there; but I have no means in Smyrna of following up this clue to the exact season. Canter, in his introduction, argues that the festival was in honour of Zeus Olympius, and was celebrated in the great Temple of Cyzicus built by Hadrian; this temple he considers to be the temple of Zeus. If this be so, the festival would probably, like the Olympia at Pisa, be celebrated in the height of summer. The speech which Aristides delivered at this festival is preserved, and may be found in Dindorf's Edition, vol. i.

page 49 note 1 It would be tedious to give the reasons which support each stage given; I have worked out the several steps from actual experience, and I believe that the account given cannot be far wrong. The coincidence of the results with the Peutinger distances was not observed till the whole calculations had been made.

page 49 note 2 There are, of course, many other crossings, but according to my conception of the course taken by the road, it would pass not far from this point.

page 50 note 1 On this distance see below.