Βράβηλα

What are called Damaskenes.¹ Theocritus [writes]: "...shoots weighed down to the ground with sloes."² Athenaeus in Book 2 of the Deipnosophists³ says that Seleucus uses the words 'plums'⁴ and 'sloes' and ba/drua.⁵ It has been said that they are bora/bhla, 'that which expels [e)k-ba/llonta] the food [bora/n]',⁶ since they are soothing to the stomach. It has also been said that they are ma/drua, since they are 'tree apples' [malo/drua].⁷ They are called Damaskenes from the region, because in the city of Damascus they are cultivated to be more productive and finer.