Book 14
2.3
The cityCaunus. has dockyards, and a harbor that can be closed. Above the city, on a height, lies Imbrus, a stronghold. Although the country is fertile, the city is agreed by all to have foul air in summer, as also in autumn, because of the heat and the abundance of fruits. And indeed little tales of the following kind are repeated over and over, that Stratonicus the citharist, seeing that the Caunians were pitiablyAn attempt to translate ἐπιμελῶς, which seems to be corrupt. Others translate the word either “somewhat” or “very.” pale,Or more strictly, “pale green.” said that this was the thought of the poet in the verse,Even as is the generation of leaves, such is that also of men;Hom. Il. 6.146and when people complained that he was jeering at the city as though it were sickly, he replied, “Would I be so bold as to call this city sickly, where even the corpses walk about?” The Caunians once revolted from the Rhodians, but by a judicial decision of the Romans they were restored to them. And there is extant a speech of MolonAppollonius Molon of Alabanda, the rhetorician and orator; ambassador of the Rhodians at Rome (81 B.C.), and teacher Cicero and Julius Caesar. entitled Against the Caunians. It is said that they speak the same language as the Carians, but that they came from Crete and follow usages of their own.On their origin, language, and usages, cf. Hdt. 1.172
2.4
Next one comes to Physcus, a small town, which has a harbor and a sacred precinct of Leto; and then to Loryma, a rugged coast, and to the highest mountain in that part of the country; and on top of the mountain is Phoenix, a stronghold bearing the same name as the mountain; and off the mountain, at a distance of four stadia, lies Elaeussa, an island, which is about eight stadia in circuit.
