Book 22
8.3
From there, with back-flowing current,Cf. Hor., Odes, i. 2, 13, retortis violenter undis. it laves the temple of Apollo Sminthius,On Tenedos; Iliad. i. 38; Strabo, xiii. 1, 46. The god had this epithet from σμίνθος, a kind of field-mouse destructive to the crops, destroyed by Apollo. the Troad, and Ilium, famed for the death of heroes, and forms the bay of Melas,The Bay of Saros, west of the Thracian Chersonese and the Hellespont. facing the west wind, at the entrance of which is seen Abdera, the home of Protagoras and Democritus, and the bloodstained dwelling of the Thracian Diomedes,According to the myth, he fed his horses on human flesh, and was slain by Hercules. and the vales through which the HebrusTo-day the Maritza. flows into it, and Maronea and Aenos,Modern Marogna. The identification of this town with the city founded by Aeneas in Thrace is doubtful, since Homer says that auxiliaries came from there to Ilium, and Apollodorus represents Heracles as landing there on his return from Troy; see Heyne, Excursus to Aen. iii. p. 416; and xxviii. 4, 13, below. a city which Aeneas began under unfavourable auspices, but presently abandoned it and hastened on to ancient Ausonia under the guidance of the gods.
