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SARDINIA (Island) ITALY
Sardoum or Sardonium Mare (to Sardoon pelagos, Strab., Pol., but to
Sardonion pelagos, Herod. i. 166), was the name given by the ancients to the part
of the Mediterranean sea adjoining the island of Sardinia on the W. and S. Like
all similar appellations it was used with considerable vagueness and laxity; there
being no natural limit to separate it from the other parts of the Mediterranean.
Eratosthenes seems to have applied the name to the whole of the sea westward of
Sardinia to the coast of Spain (ap. Plin. iii. 5. s. 10), so as to include the
whole of what was termed by other authors the Mare Hispanum or Balearicum; but
this extension does not seem to have been generally adopted. It was, on the other
hand, clearly distinguished from the Tyrrhenian sea, which lay to the E. of the
two great islands of Sardinia and Corsica, between them and Italy, and from the
Libyan sea (Mare Libycumn), from which it was separated by the kind of strait
formed by the Lilybaean promontory of Sicily, and the opposite point (Cape Bon)
on the coast of Africa. (Pol. i. 42; Strab. ii. pp. 105, 122; Agathem. ii. 14;
Dionys. Per. 82.) Ptolemy, however, gives the name of the Libyan sea to that immediately
to the S. of Sardinia, restricting that of Sardoum Mare to the W., which is certainly
opposed to the usage of the other geographers. (Ptol. iii. 3. § 1.) Strabo speaks
of the Sardinian sea as the deepest part of the Mediterranean; its greatest depth
was said by Posidonius to be not less than 1000 fathoms. (Strab. ii. pp. 50, 54.)
It is in fact quite unfathomable, and the above estimate, is obviously a mere
guess.
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
Thyrsus or Tyrsus (Thursos potamos, Ptol.; Thorsos, Paus.: Tirso), the most considerable river of Sardinia, which still retains its ancient name almost unaltered. It has its sources in the mountains in the NE. corner of the island, and flows into the Gulf of Oristano on the W. coast, after a course of above 75 miles. About 20 miles from its mouth it flowed past Forum Trajani, the ruins of which are still visible at Fordungianus; and about 36 miles higher up are the Bagni di Benetutti, supposed to be the Aquae Lesitanae of Ptolemy. The Itineraries give a station ad Caput Tyrsi (itin. Ant. p. 81), which was 0 M.P. from Olbia by a rugged mountain road: it must have been near the village of Beuduso. (De la Marmora, Voy. en Sardaigne, vol. ii. p. 445.) Pausanias tells us that in early times the Thyrsus was the boundary between the part of the island occupied by the Greeks and Trojans and that which still remained in the hands of the native barbarians. (Paus. x. 17. § 6.)
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
Insani Montes (ta Mainomena ore, Ptol. iii. 3. § 7), a range of mountains in Sardinia, mentioned by Livy (xxx. 39) in a manner which seems to imply that they were in the NE. part of the island; and this is confirmed by Claudian, who speaks of them as rendering the northern part of Sardinia rugged and savage, and the adjoining seas stormy and dangerous to navigators. (Claudian, B. Gild. 513.) Hence, it is evident that the name was applied to the lofty and rugged range of mountains in the N. and NE. part of the island: and was, doubtless, given to them by Roman navigators, on account of the sudden and frequent storms to which they gave rise. (Liv. 1. c.). Ptolemy also places the Mainomena ore - a name which is obviously translated from the Latin one - in the interior of the island, and though he would seem to consider them as nearer the W. than the E. coast, the position which he assigns them may still be referred to the same range or mass of mountains, which extends from the neighbourhood of Olbia (Terra Nova) on the E. coast, to that of Cornus on the W.
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
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