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Perseus Project Index. Total results on 27/4/2001: 5 for Asinarus.
Crimisus or Crimissus (Krimisos, Lycophr., Dion. Hal.; Krimesos, Plut.; Krimissos, Ael.), a river of Sicily, in the neighbourhood of Segesta, celebrated for the great battle fought on its banks in B.C. 339, in which Timoleon, with only about 11,000 troops, partly Syracusans, partly mercenaries, totally defeated a Carthaginian army of above 70,000 men. This victory was one of the greatest blows ever sustained by the Carthaginian power, and secured to the Greek cities in Sicily a long period of tranquillity. (Plut. Timol. 25-29; Diod. xvi. 77-81; Corn. Nep. Tim. 2.) But though the battle itself is described in considerable detail both by Plutarch and Diodorus, they afford scarcely any information concerning its locality, except that it was fought in the part of the island at that time subject to Carthage (en tei ton Karchedonion epikrateiai). The river Crimisus itself is described as a considerable stream, which being flooded at the time by storms of rain, contributed much to cause confusion in the Carthaginian army. Yet its name is not found in any of the ancient geographers, and the only clue to its position is afforded by the fables which connect it with the city of Segesta. According to the legend received among the Greeks, Aegestes or Aegestus (the Acestes of Virgil), the founder and eponymous hero of Egesta, was the son of a Trojan woman by the river-god Crimisus, who cohabited with her under the form of a dog. (Lycophr. 961; Tzetz. ad loc.; Virg. Aen. v. 38; and Serv. ad Aen. i. 550.) For this reason the river Crimisus continued to be worshipped by the Segestans, and its effigy as a dog was placed on their coins (Ael. V. H. ii. 33; Eckhel, vol. i. p. 234): Dionysius also distinctly speaks of the Trojans under Elymus and Aegestus as settling in the territory of the Sicani, about the river Crimisus (i. 52); hence it seems certain that we must look for that river in the neighbourhood, or at least within the territory of Segesta, and it is probable that Fazello was correct in identifying it with the stream now called Fiume di S. Bartolommeo or Fizmne Freddo, which flows about 5 miles E. of Segesta, and falls into the Gulf of Castellamare at a short distance from the town of that name. Cluverius supposed it to be the stream which flows by the ruins of Entella, and falls into the Hypsas or Belici, thus flowing to the S. coast: but the arguments which he derives from the account of the operations of Timoleon are not sufficient to outweigh those which connect the Crimisus with Segesta. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. vii. p. 299; Cluver. Sicil. p. 269.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Siculum Mare (to Sikelikon pelagos, Pol. Strab. &c.), was the name
given in ancient times to that portion of the Mediterranean sea which bathed the
eastern shores of Sicily. But like all similar appellations, the name was used
in a somewhat vague and fluctuating manner, so that it is difficult to fix its
precise geographical limits. Thus Strabo describes it as extending along the eastern
shore of Sicily, from the Straits to Cape Pachynus, with the southern shore of
Italy as far as Locri, and again to the eastward as far as Crete and the Peloponnese;
and as filling the Corinthian Gulf, and extending northwards to the Iapygian promontory
and the mouth of the Ionian gulf. (Strab. ii. p. 123.) It is clear, therefore,
that he included under the name the whole of the sea between the Peloponnese and
Sicily, which is more commonly known as the Ionian sea, but was termed by later
writers the Adriatic. Polybius, who in one passage employs the name of Ionian
sea in this more extensive sense, elsewhere uses that of the Sicilian sea in the
same general manner as Strabo, since he speaks of the island of Cephallenia as
extending out towards the Sicilian sea (v. 3); and even describes the Ambracian
gulf as an inlet or arm of the Sicilian sea (iv. 63, v. 5). Eratosthenes also,
it would appear from Pliny, applied the name of Siculum Mare to the whole extent
from Sicily to Crete. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10.) The usage of Pliny himself is obscure;
but Mela distinguishes the Sicilian sea from the Ionian, applying the former name
to the western part of the broad sea, nearest to Sicily, and the latter to its
more easterly portion, nearest to Greece. (Mel. ii. 4. § 1.) But this distinction
does not seem to have been generally adopted or continued long in use. Indeed
the name of the Sicilian sea seems to have fallen much into disuse. Ptolemy speaks
of Sicily itself as bounded on the N. by the Tyrrhenian sea, on the S. by the
African, and on the E. by the Adriatic; thus omitting the Sicilian sea altogether
(Ptol. iii. 4. § 1); and this seems to have continued under the Roman Empire to
be the received nomenclature.
Strabo tells us that the Sicilian sea was the same which had previously
been called the Ausonian (Strab. ii. p. 133, v. p. 233); but it is probable that
that name was never applied in the more extended sense in which he uses the Sicilian
sea, but was confined to the portion more immediately adjoining the southern coasts
of Italy, from Sicily to the Iapygian promontory. It is in this sense that it
is employed by Pliny, as well as by Polybius, whom he cites as his authority.
(Plin. l. c.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Halycus (Halukos: Platani), a considerable river of Sicily, which rises nearly in the centre of the island, and flows towards the SW. till it enters the sea close to the site of Heracleia Minoa. Its name was evidently derived from the salt or brackish quality of its waters, a circumstance common to those of the Platani and of the Fiume Salso (the ancient Himera), and arising from the salt springs which abound in this part of Sicily. It obtained considerable historical importance from the circumstance that it long formed the eastern boundary of the Carthaginian dominions in Sicily. This was first established by the treaty concluded, in B.C. 383, between that people and Dionysius of Syracuse (Diod. xv. 17): and the same limit was again fixed by the treaty between them and Timoleon (Id. xvi. 82). It would appear, however, chat the city of Heracleia, situated at its mouth, but on the left bank, was in both instances retained by the Carthaginians. The Halycus is again mentioned by Diodorus in the First Punic War (B.C. 249), as the station to which the Carthaginian fleet under Carthalo retired after its unsuccessful attack on that of the Romans near Phintias, and where they awaited the approach of a second Roman fleet under the consul L. Junius. (Diod. xxiv. 1.; Exc. Hoesch. p. 508.) Polybius, who relates the same events, does not mention the name of the river (Polyb. i. 53): but there is certainly no reason to suppose (as Mannert and Forbiger have done) that the river here meant was any other than the well-known Halycus, and that there must therefore have been two rivers of the name. Heracleides Ponticus, who mentions the landing of Minos in this part of Sicily, and his alleged foundation of Minoa, writes the name Lycus, which is probably a mere false reading for Halycus. (Heracl. Pont. § 29, ed. Schneidewin.) Though a stream of considerable magnitude and importance, it is singular that its name is not mentioned by any of the geographers.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pachynus (Pachunos: Capo Passaro), a celebrated promontory of Sicily,
forming the extreme SE. point of the whole island, and one of the three promontories
which were supposed to have given to it the name of Trinacria. (Ovid, Fast. iv.
479, Met. xiii. 725; Dionys. Per. 467-472; Scyl. p. 4. § 13; Pol. i. 42; Strab.
vi. pp. 265, 272, &c.; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 8; Mela, ii. 7. §
15.)
All the ancient geographers correctly describe it as extending out
towards the S. and E. so as to be the point of Sicily that was the most nearly
opposite to Crete and the Peloponnese. It is at the same time the southernmost
point of the whole inland. The headland itself is not lofty, but formed by bold
projecting rocks (projecta saxa Puchyni, Virg. Aen. iii. 699), and immediately
off it lies a small rocky island of considerable elevation, which appears to have
been generally regarded as forming the actual promontory. This explains the expression
of Nonnus, who speaks of the island rock of the seagirt Pachynus. (Dionys. xiii.
322.) Lycophron also has a similar phrase. (Alex. 1181.)
We learn from Cicero (Verr. v. 34) that there was a port in the immediate
neighbourhood of the promontory to which he gives the name of Portus Pachyni:
it was here that the fleet of Verres was stationed under his officer Cleomenes,
when the news that a squadron of pirates was in the neighbouring Port of Ulysses
(Portus Odysseae) caused that commander to take to flight with precipitation.
The Port of Ulysses is otherwise unknown; but Ptolemy gives the name of Promontory
of Ulysses (Odusseia akra, Ptol. iii. 4. § 7) to a point on the S. coast of the
island, a little to the W. of Cape Pachynus. It is therefore probable that the
Portus Pachyni was the one now called Porto di Palo, immediately adjoining the
promontory, while the Portus Odysseae may be identified with the small bay or
harbour of La Marza about 6 miles distant. There are, however, several rocky coves
to which the name of ports may be applied, and the determination must therefore
be in great measure conjectural. (Smyth's Sicily, pp. 181,185,186.) The convenience
of this port at the extreme SE. point of the island caused it to be a frequent
place of rendezvous and station for fleets approaching Sicily; and on one occasion,
during the Second Punic War the Carthaginian commander Bomilcar appears to have
taken up his post in the port to the W. of the promontory, while the Roman fleet
lay immediately to the N. of it. (Liv. xxiv. 27, xxv. 27, xxxvi. 2.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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