River
Fluvius Niranus
Anapo (Barrington) · Anapo o. Ciani (Miller)
Listen to the story
Near Syracuse in south-eastern Sicily, the river known today as the Anapo is probably the one the map calls Fluvius Niranus, though the name Niranus turns up nowhere else. The map draws it reaching the sea close to Syracuse, just as the real Anapo does, running about fifteen kilometres from the hills near ancient Akrai into the city's harbour. Scholars have also wondered whether the name belongs to its small tributary, the Ciani, which brings in the water of the Cyane spring shortly before the mouth. The Greek historian Thucydides already knew the river, whose lower banks were marshy and unhealthy.