Note 2 — Chapter XV

Και το σιλφιον αρχεται απο τουτου (the harbours of Menelaus and Aziris), παρηκει δε απο Πλατεης νησου μεχρι του στοματος της Συρτεος το Σιλφιον.—(Melp. ρξθʹ).

Mr. Beloe is of opinion that Herodotus intended in this passage to point out the limits of a place or province called Silphium, so named originally without any reference to the plant; and in his remarks on another passage in the same book—εισι δε και γαλαι εν τω σιλφιω γινομεναι . . . (ρϟβʹ.) he observes—“I cannot help thinking that the herb was named from the place and not the place from the herb.” But the space here included by Herodotus comprehends the whole of the Cyrenaica, and there is no mention on other occasions of this term as substituted either for Pentapolis or Cyrenaica, with which it would, however, be synonymous if the reading proposed were adopted. We will not venture to dispute a point of this nature with a writer of Mr. Beloe’s talents and judgment; but there does not (on the whole) appear to be, in our estimation, any reason why το Σιλφιον, in the first passage quoted, should not be translated Silphium, (the plant;) or why the words τω σιλφιω in the one last mentioned should not be supposed to mean exclusively the place, or region, in which silphium is produced[a].