Full text: Vitruvius: The architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, in ten books

ever, this error is general, it will not be amiss to correct 
the impréssion. It is not only impossible that the water 
should have the effect of rendering men effeminate and 
unchaste ; but, on the contrary, that alluded to is clear as 
crystal, and of the finest flavour. The origin of the 
story, by which it gained the reputation of the above 
quality, is as follows. When Melas and Arevanias 
brought to the place a colony from Argos and Trœzene, 
they drove out the barbarous Carians and Lelegæe. 
These, betaking themselves to the mountains in bodies, 
committed great depredations, and laid waste the neigh- 
bourhood. Some time afterwards, one of the colonists, 
for the sake of the profit likely to arise from it, established 
close to the fountain, on account of the excellence 
of its water, a store where he kept all sorts of merchan¬ 
dize ; and thus it became a place of great resort of the 
barbarians who were drawn thither. Coming, at first, in 
small, and at last in large, numbers, the barbarians by de¬ 
grees shook off their savage and uncivilized habits, and 
changed them, without coercion, for those of the Greeks. 
The fame, therefore, of this fountain, was acquired, not by 
the effeminacy which it is reputed to impart, but by its 
being the means through which the minds of the barbari¬ 
ans were civilized. I must now, however, proceed to finish 
my description of the city. On the right summit we have 
described the temple of Venus and the above named 
fountain to have been placed: on the left stood the roval 
palace, which was planned by Mausolus himself. This 
commanded, on the right, a view of the forum and har¬ 
bour, and of the whole circuit of the walls: on the left, it 
overlooked a secret harbour, hidden by the mountains, 
into which no one could pry, so as to be aware of what
	        
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