Stephanus of Byzantium, Book of Nations Δ 150
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/219
Context
Stephanus of Byzantium was a polymath who compiled the magnificent
Book of Nations (Ἐθνικά) in the eastern capital during the age of
prosperity under the emperor Justinian I. This geographical dictionary was a treasury of
geographical, literary, and historical data collected from myriad ancient works, which
Stephanus often directly cited. Consequently, Stephanus has been greatly valued by scholars
from medieval to modern times. The long entry under “Doros”, rich with quotations from
Classical to Late Roman sources, attests to the Phoenician settlement and natural
environment of the area around Dor. The passage on Strato’s Tower derives from Artemidorus
of Ephesus, Geographical Description fr. 111, written roughly six to seven
centuries before Stephanus’s work, and Marcian of Heraclea, Epitome of Artemidorus’
Geography 576.19-27, written roughly one to two centuries before Stephanus’s
work.
Text
Δῶρος· πόλις Φοινίκης. Ἑκαταῖος Ἀσίᾳ “μετὰ δὲ ἡ πάλαι Δῶρος, νῦν δὲ Δῶρα
καλεῖται.” καὶ οὕτως Ἰώσηπος αὐτὴν καλεῖ ἐν εʹ τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς ἱστορίας “ἀπὸ μέν Ἰορδάνου
μέχρι Δώρων πόλεως.” καὶ πάλιν “Ἀζώτῳ καὶ Δώροις ὁριζόμενοι.” καὶ ἐν ϛʹ “εἶναί τι
γύναιον ἐν πόλει Δώρῳ.” καὶ πάλιν “ὅτε ἤνεγκεν εἰς τὴν Δῶρον.” καὶ Κλαύδιος Ἰόλαος ἐν γʹ
Φοινικικῶν “μετὰ Καισάρειαν Δῶρα κεῖται βραχεῖα πολίχνη, Φοινίκων
αὐτὴν οἰκούντων, οἳ διὰ τὸ ὑπόπετρον τῶν {τε} αἰγαλῶν καὶ τὸ πορφύρας γόνιμον
συνελθόντες καλιὰς αὐτοῖς ᾠκοδομήσαντο καὶ περιβαλόμενοι χάρακας, ὡς ὑπήκουεν αὐτοῖς τὰ
τῆς ἐργασίας, τεμνόμενοι τὰς πέτρας διὰ τῶν ἐξαιρουμένων λίθων τα τείχη κατεβάλοντο καὶ
τὴν εὔορμον χηλὴν ὅπως <οἷόν> τε ἀσφαλῶς ἔθεντο, ἐπώνυμον αὐτὴν τῇ πατρίῳ γλῴσσῃ Δὼρ
καλοῦντες. Οἱ δ’ Ἕλληνες χάριν τοῦ τῆς φωνῆς εὐπροφόρου καλεῖν ἀρκοῦνται Δῶρα τὴν πόλιν.
καί τινες ἱστοροῦσι Δῶρον τὸν Ποσειδῶνος οἰκιστὴν αὐτῆς γεγονέναι.” καὶ Ἀρτεμίδωρος Δῶρα
τὴν πόλιν οἶδεν ἐν Ἐπιτομῇ τῶν ιαʹ “συνεχῶς δʼ ἐστὶ Στράτωνος
πύργος, εἶτα ἔνι Δῶρα, ἐπὶ χερσονησοειδοῦς τόπου κείμενον πολισμάτιον,
ἀρχομένου τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ Καρμήλου.” καὶ ἐν θʹ Γεωγραφουμένων τὸ αὐτό. Ἀπολλόδωρος δὲ
Δῶρον καλεῖ ἐν Χρονικῶν δʹ “εἰς Δῶρον οὖσαν ἐπιθαλάττιον πόλιν.” καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος ἐν Ἀσίᾳ·
“Δῶρός τ’ ἀγχίαλος τ’ Ἰόπη προύχουσα θαλάσσης.” καὶ Χάραξ ιαʹ “Τρύφων ἐν Δώρῳ τῆς κοίλης
Συρίας πόλει πολιορκούμενος ὑπ’ Ἀντιόχου ἔφυγεν εἰς Πτολεμαΐδα τὴν Ἄκην λεγομένην.”
1
Textual Note
Ed. Billerbeck and Zubler 2011Translation
Doros. City in
Phoenicia. Hecataeus in (his book on) Asia: “After that is the city called Doros in the old
times but today Dora.” So Josephus called it this in Jewish Antiquities 5:
“from the Jordan to the city Doros”; and “bordered by Azotos and Doros”; and in
Jewish Antiquities 6: “there is a woman in the city Doros”; and “when he
came to Doros.” Claudius Iolaus in Phoenicica 3: “Behind
Caesarea is located Dor, a small settlement. Phoenicians inhabit it
who, because of the rocky seabed and the fertile conditions for purple-dye shellfish, came
together and built huts for themselves and erected a palisade all around. When the fruits of
their labor brought them success, quarrying the bedrock, they founded walls out of the
extracted stones and established a breakwater for good mooring, as safe as possible. They
gave it an eponymous name, Dor, in the language of their homeland, but the Greeks just
called the city Dora for easy pronunciation. And some report that Doros the son of Poseidon
was the city’s founder.” Artemidorus knows the city Dora in Epitome of 11
books: “Continuing on is Straton’s Tower, and then Dora, a town
situated on the peninsula where Mount Carmel begins.” Τhe same thing in
Geography 9. But Apollodoros calls it Doros in Chronicle 4: “to Doros, a
coastal city.” Alexander in [his book on] Asia: “both Doros and waterside Iope projecting
into the sea.” And Charax (in book) 11: “Tryphon, beseiged by Antiochus at Dor, a city in
Koile Syria, fled to Ptolemaïs, also called Ake.”
Translation Note
Trans. J. L. Rife with ref. to Billerbeck and Zubler 2011Works Cited
- 1 Stephan of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnica II: Δ-Ι, ed. Margarethe Billerbeck et al., vol. 2, Corpus fontium historiae Byzantinae 43 (Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter, 2011), letter: Δ, entry: 150.
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How to Cite This Entry
Joseph L. Rife, “Stephanus of Byzantium, Book of Nations Δ 150,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/219.
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Bibliography:
Joseph L. Rife, “Stephanus of Byzantium, Book of Nations Δ 150.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2023. Entry published June 30, 2023. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/219.About this Entry
Entry Title: Stephanus of Byzantium, Book of Nations Δ 150
Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:
- Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
- Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
- David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editor, “Stephanus of Byzantium, Book of Nations Δ 150”
- Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “Stephanus of Byzantium, Book of Nations Δ 150”
Additional Credit:
- TEI encoding by William L. Potter
- Electronic text added by Joseph L. Rife
- Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife