Contributions to the History of Southern Aeolis

Abstract

The journey which Aelius Aristides made in the year 167 A.D. from Smyrna to Pergamus, and which he relates with much detail in the opening of the fifth book of his Hieroi Logoi, is the most valuable evidence left as to the relative situation of Smyrna, Larissa, Cyme, Myrina, and Gryneion: and a careful study of it is the best foundation of a knowledge of Southern Aeolis. The main facts are as follows (Arist. ed. Dind. i. p. 534). On the first day his baggage was sent on in front to Myrina to be ready when he arrived in the evening. When carriages had been got ready and he himself was prepared to start, noon had arrived. In the great heat he did not like to undergo the fatigue of travelling at this hour, and waited at his house in the suburbs of Smyrna till the heat passed. The comfort of his villa was seductive, and some matters of business detained him, so that he lost a great deal of time, and when he reached the khan before the Hermus, the sun was setting. He deliberated whether he should spend the night there, but the discomfort consequent on passing the night in a bad inn without his baggage made him resolve to go on. As he was crossing the Hermus, night had just set in, which shows that it was about one hour after sunset. A cool wind invigorated him, and he was glad on reaching Larissa, ἤδη βαθείας ἑσπέρας, that the baggage was still in front, and that the inn was no better than the previous one. A little after midnight he reached Cyme. Every place was shut up, and he encouraged his followers, who apparently were anxious to stop here, to go on. On the journey the cold became more severe. About cock-crow he reached Myrina, and found his baggage in the street, as it had reached the town after every place was shut. After in vain trying to get admission to any inn, they at last were received into the house of a friend. As they entered it was still quite dark, but after a fire had been kindled the morning star had arisen, and the light of day began to appear. He resolved, therefore, not to go to sleep by day. His road then lay through Gryneion, where he stayed some time to sacrifice to Apollo, to Elaea, where he spent the night; but in these cases no indication is given of the time required for the journey.