Book 12
3.21
Some persons alter the word to Alazones, others to Amazons, and Alybe to Alope, or Alobe, calling the Scythians above the Borysthenes Alazones and Callipidae, and by other names, about which Hellanicus, Herodotus, and Eudoxus have talked very absurdly; some say that the Amazons were situated between Mysia, Caria, and Lydia near Cyme, which is the opinion also of Ephorus, who was a native of the latter place. And this opinion may not be unreasonable, for he may mean the country which in later times was inhabited by the Aeolians and Ionians, but formerly by Amazons. There are some cities, it is said, which have their names from the Amazons; as Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyme, and Myrina. But would any one think of inquiring in these places after Alybe, or, according to some writers, Alope, or Alobe; what would be the meaning of from afar, or where is the silver mine?
3.22
These objections he solves by an alteration in the text, for he writes the verses in this manner, But Odius and Epistrophus led the Amazons, Who came from Alope, whence the tribe of the Amazonides. But by this solution he has invented another fiction. For Alope is nowhere to be found in that situation, and the alteration in the text, itself a great change, and contrary to the authority of ancient copies, looks like an adaptation formed for the occasion.
