Gell, William: The geography and antiquities of Ithaca (London, 1807)

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down the river, whereas no such cause can be assigned for
any thing which may have happened in the channel of Ce-
phallonia.

Apollodorus, however, says that it did remain,' and had
a little city, called AlalcomenEe, situated on the isthmus.
Now we know from Plutarch1 that Alalcomenge was a city
not of Asteris, but of Ithaca, and consequently Apollodo-
rus must have mistaken Ithaca for Asteris, or have been
misinformed on the subject, for it is scarcely possible that
a city should be lost without our having some account of
such a catastrophe in some of the authors of antiquity.

The city on the hill of Aito was situated upon an isth-
mus, but in the time of Homer it certainly was known by
the name of the island. There was a second city, how-
ever, between Ports Polis and Frichies, also standing upon
a neck of land, though not so narrow as the isthmus of
Aito, and that was probably the city alluded to by Apol-
lodorus, for that must have been the only city in his time,
as the ruins of Aito are of much higher antiquity, and
the town could never have been inhabited, except in very

» Vid. Strabo. * Plut. Qucest Gr.

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