Note (5) — Chapter V · OF THE ANCIENT PLACES ON THE SOUTHERN COAST OF ASIA MINOR.
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There is no variation in the MSS. of Strabo in this place, and Isocrates also names Κισθήνη in a manner which leads one to believe that he is speaking of a place on this coast[220]. Later writers, however, make no mention of Cisthene; and Ptolemy[221], Pliny[222], and Stephanus[223], agree in showing that Megiste and Dolichiste were the two principal islands on the coast of Lycia: the former word (greatest) well describing the island of Kastelóryzo, or Castel Rosso, as the latter word (longest) does that of Kákava. Nor is Scylax less precise in pointing out Kastelóryzo as Megiste; which name is found in an inscription copied by Mr. Cockerell from a rock at Castel Rosso[224]. It would seem, therefore, that this island was anciently known by both names (Megiste and Cisthene), but in later times perhaps chiefly by that of Megiste. Its convenience to maritime war and commerce must have secured its importance in every age; whence its mention in the narrative, by Livy[225], of the transactions of the Rhodian fleet against Antiochus, would alone perhaps have been sufficient, without other evidence, to identify Castel Rosso with Megiste, although the historian describes Megiste as a port only, not as an island. The anonymous Periplus, or Stadiasmus, has accurately enumerated the islands between Antiphellus and Patara, in the passage cited in a following Note. His Rhope and islands of Xenagoras are evidently the Rhoge and Enagora of Pliny. Rhoge is now called St. George. The two islands of Xenagoras, now named Volo and O’khendra, are situated at the mouth of the bay of Kalamáki; the situation of which harbour, two miles eastward of the ruins of Patara, accords, no less than its steep rocky shore, with the description of Port Phœnicus, from whence, in the course of the operations against Antiochus, C. Livius made an unsuccessful attempt upon Patara[226].