Book 17
1.17
Canobus is a city, distant by land from Alexandreia 120 stadia. It has its name from Canobus, the pilot of Menelaus, who died there. It contains the temple of Sarapis, held in great veneration, and celebrated for the cure of diseases; persons even of the highest rank confide in them, and sleep there themselves on their own account, or others for them. Some persons record the cures, and others the veracity of the oracles which are delivered there. But remarkable above everything else is the multitude of persons who resort to the public festivals, and come from Alexandreia by the canal. For day and night there are crowds of men and women in boats, singing and dancing, without restraint, and with the utmost licentiousness. Others, at Canobus itself, keep hostelries situated on the banks of the canal, which are well adapted for such kind of diversion and revelry.
1.18
Next to Canobus is Heracleium, in which is a temple of Hercules; then follows the Canobic mouth,The Canobic mouth was situated in the bay of Aboukir; the Bolbitine is the Rosetta mouth; the Sebennytic is the Burlos mouth; the Phatnitic, the Damietta mouth; the Mendesian is that at Dibeh; the Tanitic, that at Omm. Faregeh; the Pelusiac, that at Terraneh. and the commencement of the Delta.
1.18
On the right of the Canobic canal is the Menelaïte Nome, so called from the brother of the first Ptolemy, but certainly not from the hero (Menelaus), as some writers assert, among whom is Artemidorus.
