Greek Texts & Translations

the first of the barbarians that are considered to have been settlers in Sicily. It seems probable that Morgantium ^note was founded by the Morgetes. Formerly it was a city, but now it is not. When the Carthaginians ^note endeavoured to gain possession of the island they continually harassed both the Greeks and the barbarians, but the Syracusans withstood them; at a later period the Romans expelled the Carthaginians and took Syracuse after a long siege. ^note And [Sextus] Pompeius, having destroyed Syracuse in the same way as he had done by the other cities, ^note Augustus Caesar in our own times sent thither a colony, and to a great extent restored it to its former importance, for anciently it consisted of five towns ^note
enclosed by a wall of 180 ^note stadia, but there being no great need that it should fill this extensive circle, he thought it expedient to fortify in a better way the thickly inhabited portion lying next the island of Ortygia, the circumference of which by itself equals that of an important city. Ortygia is connected to the mainland by a bridge, and [boasts of] the fountain Arethusa, which springs in such abundance as to form a river at once, and flows into the sea. They say that it is the river Alpheus ^note which rises in the Peloponnesus, and that it flows through the land beneath the sea ^note




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