Crambusa

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography

CRAMBU´SA(Κράμβουσα, Eth. Κραμβούσιος, Κραμβουσαῖος,).

1. A small island off the south-east coast of Lycia, which Strabo (p. 666) places between the Sacred Promontory and Olbia. It is NE. of the Insulae Chelidoniae, and is easily identified by its modern name Grambousa. It is a sharp and barren ridge of rock, and yet a small stream of excellent water bursts out on the eastern side. As it does not seem possible that such a rock can contain a sufficient quantity of rain to supply the spring, it is conjectured that the water comes from the mountains on the mainland, and it must therefore pass under the sea, which is 170 feet deep between the island and the land. (Beaufort, Karamania, p. 39.) The Stadiasmus makes the distance between Phaselis and Crambusa to be 100 stadia, but it is more. Leake and others take it to be the Dionysia of Scylax (p. 39) and of Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.31); but Pliny mentions Crambussa, and though his text is confused by a number of names heaped together, he seems to mean the island of which we are speaking. Ptolemy (Ptol. 5.5) mentions Crambusa as an island adjacent to Pamphylia; but this does not agree with the position of the Crambusa of Lycia.


2. The Stadiasmus mentions a Crambusa on the Cilician coast. The description of the Stadiasmus proceeds from east to west. The text seems to mean as follows: from Crauni to the Pisurgia, having on the left the Crambusa, 45 stadia.The next place to the west is Berenice, 50 stadia. [BERENICE] Beaufort ( Karamania, p. 210) describes two small islands east of Celenderis, named Papadoula;and it has been conjectured that these may represent the Crambusa of the Stadiasmus. But this is only a guess.


3. Strabo (p. 670) mentions another Crambusa on the Cilician coast. [CORYCUS] [G.L]