Hesiod, THE THEOGONY

In his book De Natura Animalium, Claudius Ĉlianus (170-230 A.D.), often called Ĉlian, mentioned fly fishing for trout for the first time . He explained that it was practiced on the river Astrĉus in Macedonia; a Roman province at the time. The only clue to the river's position was that it was "Between Berœa and Thessalonica." During the past few decades there have been many attempts to identify which modern river can claim to be Ĉlian's Astrĉus, but this research has been difficult and from a reading of published work it is still not clear which river it might be. This is our attempt to summarize the literature to date and to bring more light to the subject.

The name Astrĉus in Greek mythology

The river Astrĉus probably got its name from Greek mythology. One candidate is the mythical god called Astrĉus, a son of a king Hippotes. His other name was Aeolus, and his wife was Eos, the goddess of dawn. By him she bore the stars and the winds: Notus, the south wind; Boreas, the north wind; Euras, the east wind; and Zephyr or Zephyrus, the west wind .

However, the most probable explanation was given by Hammond , who wrote that the name Astrĉus originated from the name of the nymph Astrĉa who was the protector of river headsprings that are common in limestone karst formations . She was one of Naiads, one of the nymphs of flowing water. Astrĉa ("the star-maiden") was the daughter of Zeus and Themis. She was, as was her mother, a goddess of justice and she was selected as the nurse of the lady Beroe, the patroness of Berœa. Key features of this myth fall within the area denoted by Ĉlian: near the city of Berœa.

Theories about the Astrĉus location

There are several theories about the modern location of the Astrĉus, but before we begin it should be mentioned that there was both an area of ancient Macedonia called Astrĉa and a city of Astraeum (and possibly there were two separate locations with the same name). It is usually assumed that those places were in Poeonia near the present city of Strumica, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. From this information it is tempting to conclude that the modern day river Strumica, which flows through the area, was the Astrĉus. However, that river had a different name in Ĉlian’s time - it was known as the Pontus (Findlay map, 1849) and therefore it is almost certain that it was not the Astrĉus .

A second theory was given briefly and without references by Jardine . He identified Berœa as Stara Zagora, which today is in the Republic of Bulgaria, and explained that the Astrĉus was probably a river on Rodopi Mountain massif in south Bulgaria. Possible sources for Jardine’s theory are the “Atlas of the Roman World” by Cornell and Matthews or Encyclopedia Britannica where Stara Zagora is mentioned as a place formerly called Beroea. It is worth mentioning that on Findlay’s historical map yet another place called Berœa can be found in an area which is a part of modern Bulgaria, but this is far from Stara Zagora and both places are very distant from Thessalonica (Stara Zagora, for example is more than 300 km away). Jardine’s Berœa was in fact an ancient Thracian, rather than Macedonian settlement that in Roman times became Augusta Trajana and was subsequently called Irenopolis by the Byzantines. There is also no evidence that there was ever a river named the Astrĉus in this area. On the basis that it is improbable that Ĉlian would have located a river by naming two places separated by several hundred kilometers, Jardine’s theory doesn't seem very likely, although there are many streams in the Rodopi Mountains which support trout. more>