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The modern Balkans. A lofty range of mountains separating Thrace
and Moesia. The pass over them most used in antiquity was in the western part
of the range, called Succi or Succorum Angustiae, also Porta Traiani (Sulu Derbend),
between Philippopolis and Serdica. The fabulous origin of the range is that Haemus
and his wife Rhodope were changed into mountains for daring to call themselves
Zeus and Here.
Haemus or Aemus (ho Aimos, to Aimon oros, or Aimos: Balkan), a large
range of mountains in the north of Thrace, which in its widest sense is said to
extend from the Adriatic in the west to the Euxine in the east. (Anonym. Peripl.
Pont. Eux. p. 13); Amm. Marc. xxi. 10.) Herodotus (iv. 49) does not describe the
extent of the range, though he applies the name to heights west of mount Rhodope,
where the river Cius, a tributary of the Ister, is represented as dividing mount
Haemus into two halves. But most other writers apply the name Haemus, like the
modern Balkan, only to the eastern part of this range from mount Scomius in the
west to the Euxine, where it terminated between the towns of Naulochus and Mesembria.
Its western beginning is about the sources of the rivers Isker and Maritza. (Strab.
vii. pp. 319, 320; Arrian, Peripl. p. 24; Plin. iv. 18.) The range of Haemus is
in no part particularly high, although there was a notion among the ancients,
that from its highest peak both the Adriatic and the Euxine could be seen. (Pomp.
Mel. ii. 2.) But even Strabo (vii. pp. 313 and 317) has refuted this error, which
apparently originated with Theopompus and Polybius, though the last author admitted
that a person might ascend the mountain in one day. Pliny (iv. 18), who estimates
its height at 6000 paces, states that on its summit there existed a town called
Aristaeum. The highest parts of the mountain are described as covered with snow
during the greater part of the year. (Hom. Il. xiv. 227; Theocrit. vii. 76.) Modern
travellers estimate the height of the great Balkan, between Sofia and Keczanlik,
at 3000 feet, and that of the little Balkan at 2000. The northern side of mount
Haemus is less precipitous than the southern one. (Amm. Marc. xxi. 10.) The mountain
has altogether six passes by which it may be crossed without much difficulty,
but the principal one, which was best known to the ancients, is the westernmost,
between Philippopolis and Serdica, and is called by Amm. Marcellinus the pass
of Succi or Succorum angustiae (xxi. 10, xxii. 2, xxvi. 10, xxvii. 4, xxxi. 16);
it now bears the name of Ssulu Derbend, and is sometimes called Porta Trajani.
The people dwelling on and about mount Haemus are generally called
Thracians, but the following tribes are particularly mentioned: the Crobyzi (Herod.
l. c.; Strab. vii. p. 318), the Coralli (Strab. vii. p. 301), the. Bessi, and
some less known tribes. All of them were regarded by the Romans as robbers, and
the Asti in particular are described as pirates infesting the coasts of the Euxine,
until they were transplanted by Philip of Macedonia. The name Haemus seems to
be connected with the Greek cheima, cheimon, and the Sanscrit himan and heman,
according to which it would signify the cold or stormy mountain; but it is possible
also that the name is of Thracian origin. (Comp. Boue in Berghaus, Geogr. Almanach,
1838, pp. 26, foll., and by the same author La Turquie d'Europe, Paris, 1840,
in 4 vols. 8vo.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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