13. CARIA.
CARIA is bounded on the East, with Lycia; on the North, with Lydia and Ionia; on the West, with the Icarian or Aegean Sea; and on the South, with the Carpatian. So called from Cares the Sonne of Phoroneus King of Argos, once the Lord hereof; Who is said to have invented the Science of Divination by the flying of Birds, called Augury, though others ascribe it to the Phrygians.
In this Countrey is the Hill called Latmus, the dwelling or rather retiring place of Endymion, who being much addicted to the study of Astronomy, found out the changes and courses of the Moon, and is therefore by the Poets feigned to have been her Paramour. Others adde, that Jupiter hid him him in a cave under this Hill, and cast him into a dead sleep; (which notwithstanding, she descended sometimes to kiss him) whence came the old By-word, of Endymionis somnium dormit. Here is also in this Countrey the River Salmacis, said to inseeble all such as either drink of it, or bath in it: from whence the Poets raise their fiction of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus described by Ovid; and the Proverb of Salmacida spolia sine sanguine & sudore, mentioned by Tully in his book of Offices, and there used for effeminate and wan∣ton exercises.
Places of most note in it, 1. Miletus, not far from the hill Latmus, the birth-place of Thales one of the seven wife-men of Greece, from hence called Milesius, and the Mother of no fewer than 75. (or as Pliny faith of 80.) Colonies, dispersed in severall places of Greece and Asia; antiently honoured with the Oracle of Apollo surnamed Didymoeus, whose Temple being burnt by Xerxes, was again rebuilt by the ••Milisians, to so vast a greatness that it remained without roof, compassed about with a Grove, and dwelling houses, and sumptuously ser out with costly workmanship. This is that Mileties mentioned Acts XX. to which Saint Paul called together the Bishops of Ephesus, and other the adjoining Cities, ab Epheso & reliquis proximis Civitatibus, faith Saint Irenoeus the renowned Bishop of Lions, Lib. 3. cap. 14. Antiently it was called Lelegis and Anactoria. 2. Mindus, which being but a small Town, had so great Gates, that Diogenes the Cynick cryed out and said, Ye men of Mindus take heed that your Ci∣ty run not out at your Gates. 3. Heraclea ad Latmum, so called because situate at the foot of that Mountain, to difference it from many others of that name. 4. Borgylia, or Borgylos, as Plinie calleth it, where antiently Diana had another Temple, though not to be compared to that of Ephesus. 5. Mi∣lisa, in old times famous for two Temples sacred unto Jupiter; the way to which for 60 furlongs was paved with stone for the easier travelling of Pilgrims, and the better ordering of Procession; the principall of the Citizens serving there as Priests, which office they held unto their deaths. 7. Primassus, me∣morable for the Stratagem by which it was taken by Philip of Macedon, the Father of Perseus. Who meaning to force it by Maine, and finding the earth so stony that it would not work, commanded the Pyoneers notwithstanding to make a noise under the ground, and caused great mounts of rubbish to be raised secretly in the night at the mouth of the Mine, as if the work went very well forwards: At last he sent word unto the Towns-men, that two parts of their wall stood only upon wooden props, to which if he gave fire, they should find no mercy; which heard, the Citizens yielded up the Town unto him. So use∣full in the Art of warre is a piece of wit, that it prevailes sometimes more than Mines or Batteries.
In the South-west of this Province, thrusting it self into the Sea like a spacious Promontory, stands the Countrey of DORIS, so called of the Dores, a Greek people, who there inhabited. The prin∣cipal Cities whereof were, 1. Cnidus, not farre from a foreland or Promontory of the same name, fa∣mous of old times for the marble Image of Venus, called hence Dea Cnidia. 2. Cressa, a noted Haven∣Town in the time Ptolomy. 3. Halicarnassus (now called Nesi) the birth-place of Herodotus, and Dtonysius named hence Halicarnasseus; two famous Historians: and the seat-Royall of Artemisia Queen of the Carians, (called from hence sometimes the Queen of Harlicarnassus,) who in the honour of her husband Mausolus, built a stately monument, accounted one of the worlds seven wonders; of which thus Martiall, speaking of the Roman Amphitheatre erected by Domitian••
Aere nec vacuo pendentia Mausolaea Laudibus immodicis Cares ad astra ferant.That is to say,
Mausolus tomb filling the empty Aire, Let not the Carians praise beyond compare.
That the Carians were so called from Cares the sonne of Phoroneus, King of Argos, hath been said