Greek Texts & Translations

upon the same base. Antony took them all away, but Augustus Caesar replaced two, the Minerva and the Hercules, upon the same base. He transported the Jupiter to the Capitol, having built a chapel for its reception. 15

The voyage round the island Sarnos is 600 stadia. ^note Formerly, when the Carians inhabited it, it was called Parthenia, then Anthemus, then Melamphylus, ^note then Samos, either from the name of some native hero, or from some one who conducted a colony thither from Ithaca and Cephallenia. In it is a promontory looking towards Drepanum in Icaria, which has the name of Ampelos, (the Vine,) but the whole mountain, which spreads over the island, has the same name. The island is not remarkable for good wine, ^note although the islands around, as Chios, Lesbos, Cos, and almost all the adjacent continent, produce wines of the best kind. The Ephesian and the Metropolites are good wines, but the Mesogis, the Tmolus, the Catacecaumene, Cnidos, Smyrna, and other more obscure places, are distinguished for the excellence of their wines, whether for gratification or dietetic purposes.

Samos is not very fortunate as regards the production of wine, but in general it is fertile, as appears from its possession being a subject of warlike contention, and from the language of its panegyrists, who do not hesitate to apply to it the proverb, It produces even birds' milk, as Menander somewhere says. This was the cause also of the tyrannies established there, and of the enmity of the Athenians. 16

The tyrannies were at their height in the time of Polycrates and his brother Syloson. The former was distinguished for his good fortune, and the possession of such a degree of power as made him master of the sea. It is related as an instance of his good fortune, that having purposely thrown into the sea his ring, which was of great value both on account of