8.

This was, anciently, a peninsula belonging to the territory of the Acarnanians. The poet calls it the coast of Epirus, meaning by Epirus the country on the other side of Ithaca,618 and Cephallenia,619 which country is Acarnania; so that by the words of the poet,

“the coast of Epirus,”

we must understand the coast of Acarnania.

To Leucas also belonged Neritus, which Laertes said he took—

“as when I was chief of the Cephallenians, and took Nericus, a well-built city, on the coast of Epirus,”620

and the cities which he mentions in the Catalogue,

“and they who inhabited Crocyleia, and the rugged Ægilips.”621

But the Corinthians who were despatched by Cypselus and Gorgus, obtained possession of this coast, and advanced as far as the Ambracian Gulf. Ambracia and Anactorium were both founded. They cut through the isthmus of the peninsula, converted Leucas into an island, transferred Neritus to the spot, which was once an isthmus, but is now a channel connected with the land by a bridge, and changed the name to Leucas from Leucatas, as I suppose, which is a white rock, projecting from Leucas into the sea towards Cephallenia, so that it might take its name from this circumstance.

[Pg 162]

[CAS. 452]