Book 14
2.15
Then to Cnidus, with two harbors, one of which can be closed, can receive triremes, and is a naval station for twenty ships. Off it lies an island which is approximately seven stadia in circuit, rises high, is theatre-like, is connected by moles with the mainland, and in a way makes Cnidus a double city, for a large part of its people live on the island, which shelters both harbors. Opposite it, in the high sea, is Nisyrus. Notable Cnidians were: first, Eudoxus the mathematician, one of the comrades of Plato; then Agatharchides, one of the Peripatetics, a historian; and, in my own time, Theopompus, the friend of the deified Caesar, being a man of great influence with him, and his son Artemidorus. Thence, also, came Ctesias, who served Artaxerxes as physician and wrote the works entitled Assyrica and Persica. Then, after Cnidus, one comes to Ceramus and Bargasa, small towns situated above the sea.
2.16
Then to Halicarnassus, the royal residence of the dynasts of Caria, which was formerly called Zephyra. Here is the tomb of Mausolus,Hence “mausoleum.” one of the Seven Wonders, a monument erected by Artemisia in honor of her husband; and here is the fountain called Salmacis, which has the slanderous repute, for what reason I do not know, of making effeminate all who drink from it. It seems that the effeminacy of man is laid to the charge of the air or of the water; yet it is not these, but rather riches and wanton living, that are the cause of effeminacy. Halicarnassus has an acropolis; and off the city lies Arconnesus. Its colonizers were, among others, Anthes and a number of Troezenians. Natives of Halicarnassus have been: Herodotus the historian, whom they later called a Thurian, because he took part in the colonization of Thurii; and Heracleitus the poet, the comrade of Callimachus; and, in my time, Dionysius the historian.
