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Strabo Geography 7 f36Author Information | Change Greek displayGo to Previous section; Next section [7.f36] From the Peneius, he says, to Pydna
is one hundred and twenty stadia. Along the seaboard of the Strymon
and the Dateni are, not only the city Neapolis,
but also DatumAppian
Bellum Civile 4.105 and also Harpocration say the Datum
was the earlier name of Philippi
and that Crenides was the name of the same place in still earlier times.
Leake (Northern Greece,
Vol. III, pp. 223-4), Kiepert (Alte Geographic 315), Forbiger (Strabo
Vol. II, p. 140, footnote, 175), Besnier (Lexique Geog. Ancienne s.v. "Neapolis"),
Lolling (Hellenische Landeskunde, 220, 230) identify Datum
with Neapolis.
But Heuzey (quoted by Philippson, Pauly-Wissowa s.v. "Datum") tries to
reconcile these disagreements and the above statement of Strabo
by assuming that originally Datum
was that territory east of Mt. Pangarum which comprised the Plain of Philippi,
the basin of the Angites
River (including Drabescus
now Drama),
and the adjacent coast; and that later Neapolis
(now Kavala)
was founded on the coast and Datum
was founded on the site of Crenides, and still later the city of Datum
was named Philippi.
itself, with its fruitful plains, lake, rivers, dock-yards, and profitable
gold mines; and hence the proverb, "a Datum
of good things," like that other proverb, "spools of good things." Now
the country that is on the far side of the Strymon,
I mean that which is near the sea and those places that are in the neighborhood
of Datum,
is the country of the Odomantes and the Edoni
and the Bisaltae,
both those who are indigenous and those who crossed over from Macedonia,
amongst whom Rhesus
reigned. Above Amphipolis,
however, and as far as the city Heracleia,Heracleia
Sintica (now Zervokhori). is the country of the Bisaltae,
with its fruitful valley; this valley is divided into two parts by the
Strymon,
which has its source in the country of the Agrianes
who live round about Rhodope;
and alongside this country lies Parorbelia, a district of Macedonia,
which has in its interior, along the valley that begins at Eidonene, the
cities Callipolis,
Orthopolis,
Philippopolis,
Garescus.If one goes up the Strymon,
one comes to Berge;Now Tachyno (Leake, Northern Greece,
Vol. III, p. 229). it, too, is situated in the country of the Bisaltae,
and is a village about two hundred stadia distant from Amphipolis.
And if one goes from Heracleia
towards the north and the narrows through which the Strymon
flows, keeping the river on the right, one has Paeonia
and the region round about Doberus,The site of the city Doberus is uncertain
(see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.), though it appears to have been somewhere near
Tauriana. Rhodope,
and the Haemus
Mountain on the left, whereas on the right one has the region round about
the Haemus.The
text, which even Meineke retains, is translated as it stands, but Strabo
probably wrote as follows: "one has Paeonia
and the region round about Doberus on the left, whereas on the right one
has the parts round about Rhodope
and the Haemus
Mountain. This side the Strymon
are Scotussa,
near the river itself, and Arethusa,
near lake Bolbe.Now Beschikgoel. Furthermore, the name Mygdones
is applied especially to the people round about the lake. Not only the
Axius
flows out of the country of the Paeonians,
but also the Strymon,
for it flows out of the country of the Agrianes
through that of the Medi and Sinti and empties into the parts that are
between the Bisaltae
and the Odomantes.
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