212 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY. [CHAP.
regions1. His descriptions of cities are numerous and graphic.
When they are brief, as is sometimes the case, the
salient points at least are mentioned which deter-
mine the character of the site. Such, for instance,
is his account of Sinope, the striking position of which on the
southern coast of the Euxine has been noticed in an earlier
chapter3:—
"Sinope lies on the right-hand shore of the Pontus as one
sails to Phasis, and is built upon a peninsula jutting
Smope. ^^ .^^ ^ gea; jt jg on tjie ^^ Qf tkjs penjnsuiaj
connecting it with Asia, which is not more than two stades wide,
that the city is so placed as to entirely close it up from sea to
sea; the rest of the peninsula stretches out into the open sea,—a
piece of flat land from which the town is easily accessible, but
surrounded by a steep coast offering very bad harbourage, and
having exceedingly few spots admitting of disembarcation8."
Somewhat fuller than this is his description of Agrigentum,
the accuracy of which will be recognised by everyone who has
visited that place :-—
"The city of Agrigentum is not only superior to most cities
in the particulars I have mentioned, but above all
in beauty and elaborate ornamentation. It stands
within eighteen stades of the sea, so that it participates in every
advantage from that quarter; while its circuit of fortification is
particularly strong both by nature and art. For its wall is placed
on a rock, steep and precipitous, on one side naturally, on the
other made so artificially. And it is enclosed by rivers: for along
the south side runs the river of the same name as the town, and
along the west and south-west side the river called Hypsas. The
citadel overlooks the city exactly at the north-east, gut on the
outside by an impassable ravine, and on the inside with only one
approach from the town. On the top of it is a temple of Athene
and of Zeus Atabyrius, as at Rhodes: for as Agrigentum was
founded by the Rhodians, it is natural that this deity should have
the same appellation as at Rhodes. The city is sumptuously
1 Polyb., 5. 44. * v. supra, p. 47.
* Ibid.y 4. 56. 5, 6 (Shuckburgh's translation, from which also the other
passages here quoted are taken).