6.

Ceos863 once contained four cities. Two remain, Iulis and Carthæ, to which the inhabitants of the others were transferred; those of Pœëessa to Carthæ, and those of Coressia to Iulis. Simonides the lyric poet, and Bacchylides his nephew, and after their times Erasistratus the physician, and Ariston the Peripatetic philosopher, the imitator of Bion,864 the Borysthenite, were natives of this city.

There was an ancient law among these people, mentioned by Menander.

“Phanias, that is a good law of the Ceans; who cannot live comfortably (or well), let him not live miserably (or ill).”865

For the law, it seems, ordained that those above sixty years old should be compelled to drink hemlock, in order that there might be sufficient food for the rest. It is said that once when they were besieged by the Athenians, a decree was passed to the effect that the oldest persons, fixing the age, should be put to death, and that the besiegers retired in consequence.

The city lies on a mountain, at a distance from the sea of about 25 stadia. Its arsenal is the place on which Coressia was built, which does not contain the population even of a village. Near the Coressian territory and Pϑessa is a temple of Apollo Sminthius. But between the temple and the ruins of Pϑessa is the temple of Minerva Nedusia, built by Nestor, on his return from Troy. The river Elixus runs around the territory of Coressia.