Strabo

Geography
 

[Translation from The Geography of Strabo, with an English translation by Horace Leonard Jones, London: William Heinemann, New York: G.P. Putnam's Soncs, 1929, volume 6.]
 

13.1.57. Assus is by nature strong and well-fortified; and the ascent to it from the sea and the harbour is very steep and long, so that the statement of Stratonicus the citharist in regard to it seems appropriate: "Go to Assus, in order that thou mayest quickly come to the doom of death." The harbour is formed by a great mole. From Assus came Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher who succeeded Zeno of Citium as head of the school and left it to Chrysippus of Soli. Here too, Aristotle tarried, because of his relationship by marriage with the tyrant Hermeias. Hermeias was a eunuch, the slave of a certain banker; and on his arrival at Athens he became a pupil of both Plato and Aristotle. On his return he shared the tyranny with his master, who had already laid hold of the districts of Atarneus and Assus; and then hermeias succeeded him and sent for both Aristotle and Xenocrates and took care of them; and he also married his brother's daughter to Aristotle. Memnon of Rhodes, who was at that time serving the Persians as general, made a pretence of friendship for Hermeias, and then invited him to come for a visit, both in the name of hospitality and at the same time for pretended business reasons; but he arrested him and sent him up to the king, where he was put to death by hanging. But the philosophers safely escaped by flight from the districts above-mentioned, which were seized by the Persians.
 
 

13.1.59. ...These are the Pedasians of whom Herodotus [1.175; 8.104] says that when any misfortune was about to come upon them and their neighbours, the priestess of Athena would grow a beard; and that this happened to them three times.
 
 

13.2.3. ...And along with these flourished also Sappho, a marvellous woman; for in all the time of which we have record i do not know of the appearance of any woman who could rival Sappho, even in a slight degree, in the matter of poetry.
 
 

13.4.1. ...[?] was entrusted to Philetaerus, a man [aneèr] of Tieium, who was a crushed eunuch [thlibias] from boyhood; for it came to pass at a certain burial, when a spectacle was being given at which many people were present, that the nurse who was carrying Philetaerus, still an infant, was caught in the crowd and pressed so hard that the child was incapacitated. He was a eunuch [eunouchos], therefore, but he was well-trained, and proved worthy of this trust.  Now for a time he continued loyal to Lysimachus, but he had differences with Arsinoe, the wife of Lysimachus, who slandered him, and so he caused Pergamum to revolt, and governed it to suit the occasion, since he saw that it was ripe for a change; for Lysimachus, beset with domestic troubles, was forced to slay his son Agathocles, and Seleucus Nicator invaded his country and overthrew him, and then he himself was overthrown and treacherously murdered by Ptolemy Ceraunus. During these disorders, the eunuch continued to be in charge of the fortress and to manage things through promises and courtesies in general, always catering to any man who was powerful or near at hand. At any rate, he continued lord of the strnghold and the treasure for twenty years.
 
 

14.1.23. ... after the completion of the temple, he says, the great number of dedications in general were secured by means of the high honour they paid their artists, but the whole of the altar was filled, one might say, with the works of Praxiteles. They showed me also some of the works of thrason, who made the chapel of hecate, the waxen image of Penelope, and the old woman Eurycleia. They had eunuchs [eunoúchous] as priests, whom they called Megabyzoi. And they were always in quest of persons from other places who were worthy of this preferment, and they held them in great honour. And it was obligatory for maidens to serve as colleagues with them in their priestly office. But though at present some of their usages are being preserved, yet others are not; but the temple remains a place of refuge, the same as in earlier times, although the limits of the refuge have often been changed; for example, when Alexander extended them for a stadium, and when Mithridates shot an arrow from the corner of the roof and thought it went a little farther than the stadium, and when Antony doubled this distance and included within the refuge a part of the city. But this extension of the refuge proved harmful, and put the city in the power of criminals; and it was therefore nullified by Augustus Caesar.