Book 9
1.22
Oropus has frequently been a subject of contention, for it is situated on the confines of Attica and Boeotia.
1.22
In front of this coast, before Thoricum and Sunium, is the island Helena; it is rocky and uninhabited, extending in length about 60 stadia, which, they say, the poet mentions in the words, in which Alexander addresses Helen, Not when first I carried thee away from the pleasant Lacedaemon, across the deep, and in the island Cranaë embraced thee.Il. iii. 443. For Cranaë, from the kind of intercourse which took place there, is now called Helena. Next to Helena,Macronisi. EulboeaNegropont. lies in front of the following tract of coast. It is long and narrow, and stretching along the continent like Helena. From Sunium to the southern point of Euboea, which is called Leuce Acte,From C. Colonna to C. Mantelo. [or, the white coast,] is a voyage of 300 stadia, but we shall speak hereafter of Euboea.
1.22
It would be tedious to recite the names of the Demi of Attica in the inland parts, on account of their number.Smith gives an alphabetical list of 160 demi.
1.23
Among the mountains which are most celebrated, are the Hymettus, Brilessus, Ly$cabettus, Parnes, and Corydallus.Monte San Giorgio. Near the city are excellent quarries of Hymettian and Pentelic marble. The Hymettus produces also the finest honey. The silver mines in Attica were at first of importance, but are now exhausted. The workmen, when the mines yielded a bad return to their labour, committed to the furnace the old refuse and scoria, and hence obtained very pure silver, for the former workmen had carried on the process in the furnace unskilfully.
