Listed 100 (total found 304) sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "MARMARA Region TURKEY" .
TROAS (Ancient country) TURKEY
Troas was located on the NW side of Asia Minor. In the 8th century BC, the region was bounded by the Hellespont to the north, Phrygia to the NE, the Mt. Ida to the E, which was the boundary with Mysia, the Aegean Sea to the W and Aeolis to the S. The Scamander river flew through the ancient country. Troy was its capital.
ADRIANOUPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Pages of Municipality of Orestiada
KARAMURSEL (Town) TURKEY
ACHILLION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Achilleum (Achilleion), a small town near the promontory Sigeum in the Troad (Herod. v. 94), where, according to tradition, the tomb of Achilles was. (Strab. p. 594.) When Alexander visited the place on his Asiatic expedition, B.C. 334, he placed chaplets on the tomb of Achilles. (Arrian, i. 12.)
ADRAMYTION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Adramyteum (Adramuttion, Adramutteion, Atramutteion: Eth. Adramuttenos,
Adramyttenus: Adramiti or Edremit). A town situated at the head of the bay, called
from it Adramyttenus, and on the river Caicus, in Mysia, and on the road from
the Hellespontus to Pergamum. According to tradition it was founded by Adramys,
a brother of Croesus, king of Lydia; but a colony of Athenians is said to have
subsequently settled there. (Strab. p. 606.) The place certainly became a Greek
town. Thucydides (v. 1; viii. 108) also mentions a settlement here from Delos,
made by the Delians whom the Athenians removed from the island B.C. 422. After
the establishment of the dynasty of the kings of Pergamum, it was a seaport of
some note; and that it had some shipping, appears from a passage in the Acts of
the Apostles (xxvii. 2). Under the Romans it was a Conventus Juridicus in the
province of Asia, or place to which the inhabitants of the district resorted as
the court town. There are no traces of ancient remains.
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Lyrnessus (Lurnessos: Eth. Lurnessios or Lurnaios, Aeschyl. Pers.
324).
1. A town often mentioned by Homer (Il. ii. 690, xix. 60, xx. 92, 191), and described
by Stephanus B. (s. v.) as one of the eleven towns in Troas; and Strabo (iii.
p. 612) mentions that it was situated in the territory of Thebe, but that afterwards
it belonged to Adramyttium. Pliny (v. 32) places it on the river Evenus, near
its sources. It was, like Thebe, a deserted place as early as the time of Strabo.
(Comp. Strab. xiii. p. 584; Diod. v. 49.) About 4 miles from Karavaren, Sir C.
Fellows (Journ. of an Exc. in Asia Minor, p. 39) found several columns and old
walls of good masonry; which he is inclined to regard as remnants of the ancient
Lyrnessus.
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ADRIANOU THIRES (Ancient city) MYSIA
Hadrianutherae (Hadrianou therai), a town of Mysia, on the road from
Ergasteria to Miletopolis, was built by the emperor Hadrian to commemorate a successful
hunt which he had had in the neighbourhood. (Dion Cass. lxix. 10; Spartian, Hadr.
20.) This town, of which we possess coins from the reign of Hadrian onwards, is
identified by Sestini (Viaggi Diversi, p. 135) with the village of Trikala, one
hour and a half from Soma. (Comp. G. Cedren. i. p. 437, ed. Bonn; Aristid. i.
p. 500.) It seems to have been a place of some note; for it was the see of a bishop,
and on its coins a senate is mentioned. (Hierocl. p. 6.)
ADRIANOUPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Hadrianopolis (Hadrianoupolis) (Adrianople or Edrene), the most important
of the many towns founded by the emperor Hadrian, was situated in Thrace, at the
point where the river Tonzus joins the Hebrus, and where the latter river, having
been fed in its upper course by numerous tributaries, becomes navigable. From
Ammianus Marcellinus (xiv. 11, xxvii. 4) it would appear that Hadrianopolis was
not an entirely new town, but that there had existed before on the same spot a
place called Uscudama, which is mentioned also by Eutropius (vi. 8). But as Uscudama
is not noticed by earlier writers, some modern critics have inferred that Marcellinus
was mistaken, and that Uscudama was situated in another part of the country. Such
criticism, however, is quite arbitrary, and ought not to be listened to. At one
time Hadrianopolis was designated by the name of Orestias or Odrysus (Lamprid.
Heliog. 7; Nicet. pp. 360, 830; Aposp. Geog. ap. Hudson, iv. p. 42); but this
name seems afterwards to have been dropped. The country around Hadrianople was
very fertile, and the site altogether very fortunate, in consequence of which
its inhabitants soon rose to a high degree of prosperity. They carried on extensive
commerce and were distinguished for their manufactures, especially of arms. The
city was strongly fortified, and had to sustain a siege by the Goths in A.D. 378,
on which occasion the workmen in the manufactories of arms formed a distinct corps.
Next to Constantinople, Hadrianopolis was the first city of the Eastern empire,
and this rank it maintained throughout the middle ages; the Byzantine emperors,
as well as the Turkish sultans, often resided at Hadrianopolis. (Spart. Hadr.
20; Amm. Marc. xxxi. 6, 12, 15; It. Ant. 137, 175, 322; Procop. B. G. iii. 40;
Ann. Comn. x. p. 277; Zosim. ii. 22; Cedren. ii. pp. 184, 284, 302, 454; Hierocl.
p. 635; Nicet. p. 830.)
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AGORA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Agora (Hagora), a town situated about the middle of the narrow neck
of the Thracian Chersonesus, and not far from Cardia. Xerxes, when invading Greece,
passed through it. (Herod. vii. 58; Scylax, p. 28; Steph. B. s. v.)
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ALOPEKONISSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Alopeconnesus (Alopekonnesos), a town on the western coast of the
Thracian Chersonesus. It was an Aeolian colony, and was believed to have derived
its name from the fact that the settlers were directed by an oracle to establish
the colony, where they should first meet a fox with its cub. (Steph. B. s.v.;
Scymnus, 29; Liv. xxxi. 16; Pomp. Mela, ii. 2.) In the time of the Macedonian
ascendancy, it was allied with, and under the protection of Athens. (Dem. de
Coron. p. 256, c. Aristocr. p. 675.)
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AMAXITOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Hamaxitus (Hamaxitos), a town on the southwestern coast of Troas,
50 stadia south of Larissa, and close to the plain of Halesion. It was probably
an Aeolian colony, but had ceased to exist as early as the time of Strabo. (Scyl.
p. 36; Thucyd. viii. 101; Xenoph. Hellen. iii. 1. § 13; Strab. x. p. 473, xiii.
pp. 604, 612, 613.) According to Aelian (Hist. An. xii. 5), its inhabitants worshipped
mice, and for this reason called Apollo, their chief divinity, Smintheus (from
the Aeolian smintha, a mouse). Strabo relates the occasion of this as follows:
When the Teucrians fled from Crete, the oracle of Apollo advised them to settle
on the spot where their enemies issued from the earth. One night a number of field-mice
destroyed all their shields, and, recognising in this occurrence the hint of the
oracle, they established themselves there, and called Apollo Smintheus, representing
him with a mouse at his feet. Daring the Macedonian period, the inhabitants were
compelled by Lysimachus to quit their town and remove to the neighbouring Alexandria.
(Comp. Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. v. 33.) No ruins of this town have yet been discovered
(Leake, Asia Minor, p. 273); but Prokesch (Denkwurdigk. iii. p. 362) states that
architectural remains are still seen near Cape Baba, which he is inclined to regard
as belonging to Hamaxitus.
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ANDIRA (Ancient city) TROAS
Andeira (Andeira: Eth. Andeiranos), as it is written in Pliny (v.
32), a town of the Troad, the site of which is uncertain. There was a temple of
the Mother of the Gods here, whence she had the name Andeirene. (Steph. B. s.
v. Andeira.) As to the stone found here (Strab. p. 610), which, when burnt, becomes
iron, and as to the rest of this passage, the reader may consult the note in Groskurd's
translation of Strabo (vol. ii. p. 590).
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ANTANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Antandrus (Antandros: Eth. Antandrios: Antandro), a city on the coast
of Troas, near the head of the gulf of Adramyttium, on the N. side, and W. of
Adramyttium. According to Aristotle (Steph. B. s. v. Antandros), its original
name was Edonis, and it was inhabited by a Thracian tribe of Edoni, and he adds
or Cimmeris, from the Cimmerii inhabiting it 100 years. Pliny (v. 30) appears
to have copied Aristotle also. It seems, then, that there was a tradition about
the Cimmerii having seized the place in their incursion into Asia, of which tradition
Herodotus speaks (i. 6). Herodotus (vii. 42) gives to it the name Pelasgis. Again,
Alcaeus (Strab. p. 606) calls it a city of the Leleges. From these vague statements
we may conclude that it was a very old town; and its advantageous position at
the foot of Aspaneus, a mountain belonging to Ida, where timber was cut, made
it a desirable possession. Virgil makes Aeneas build his fleet here (Aen. iii.
5). The tradition as to its being settled from Andros (Mela, i. 18) seems merely
founded on a ridiculous attempt to explain the name. It was finally an Aeolian
settlement (Thuc. viii. 108), a fact which is historical.
Antandros was taken by the Persians (Herod. v. 26) shortly after the
Scythian expedition of Darius. In the eighth year of the Peloponnesian war it
was betrayed by some Mytilenaeans and others, exiles from Lesbos, being at that
time under the supremacy of Athens; but the Athenians soon recovered it. (Thuc.
iv. 52, 75.) The Persians got it again during the Peloponnesian war; but the townspeople,
fearing the treachery of Arsaces, who commanded the garrison there for Tissaphernes,
drove the Persians out of the acropolis, B.C. 411. (Thuc. viii. 108.) The Persians,
however, did not lose the place. (Xen. Hell. i. 1. 25)
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APAMIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Apameia (Medania, Mutania). In Bithynia, was originally called Murleia
(Steph. B. s. v. Apameia), and was a colony from Colophon. (Plin. v. 32.) Philip
of Macedonia, the father of Perseus, took the town, as it appears, during the
war which he carried on against the king of Pergamus, and he gave the place to
Prusias, his ally, king of Bithynia. Prusias gave to Myrlea, which thus became
a Bithynian town, the name of his wife Apameia. The place was on the S. coast
of the Gulf of Cius, and NW. of Prusa. The Romans made Apameia a, colony, apparently
not earlier than the time of Augustus, or perhaps Julius Caesar; the epigraph
on the coins of the Roman period contains the title Julia. The coins of the period
before the Roman dominion have the epigraph Apameon Murleanon. Pliny (Ep. x. 56),
when governor of Bithynia, asked for the directions of Trajan, as to a claim made
by this colonia, not to have their accounts of receipts and expenditure examined
by the Roman governor. From a passage of Ulpian (Dig. 50. tit. 15. s. 11) we learn
the form Apamena: est in Bithynia colonia Apamena.
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ARISVI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Arisba (Arisbe: Eth. Arisbaios), a town of Mysia, mentioned by Homer
(Il. ii. 837), in the same line with Sextus and Abydus. It was (Steph. B. s. v.
Arisbe) between Percote and Abydos, a colony of Mytilene, founded by Scamandrius
and Ascanius, son of Aeneas; and on the river Seilleis, supposed to be the Moussa-chai;
the village of Moussa may represent Arisba. The army of Alexander mustered here
after crossing the Hellespont. (Arrian. Anab. i. 12.) When the wandering Galli
passed over into Asia, on the invitation of Attalus, they occupied Arisba, but
were soon defeated (B.C. 216) by King Prusias. (Pol. v. 111) In Strabo's time
the place was almost forgotten. There are coins of Arisbe of Trajan's time, and
also autonomous coins.
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ARPAGION (Ancient city) MYSIA
Harpageia (ta Harpageia), a district between Priapus and Cyzicus,
about the mouth of the river Granicus in Mysia, whence Ganymede is said to have
been carried off. (Strab. xiii. p. 587.) Thucydides (viii. 107) also mentions
a town Harpagion, which is otherwise unknown. (Comp. Steph. B. s. v. Harpagia.)
ARTAKI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Artace (Artake: Eth. Artakenos, Artakios, Artakeus: Artaki or Erdek),
a town of Mysia, near Cyzicus (Herod. iv. 14), and a Milesian colony. (Strab.
pp. 582, 635.) It was a sea-port, and on the same peninsula on which Cyzicus stood,
and about 40 stadia from it. Artace was burnt, together with Proconnesus, during
the Ionian revolt, in the reign of Darius I. (Herod. vi. 33.) Probably it was
not rebuilt, for Strabo does not mention it among the Mysian towns: but he speaks
of a wooded mountain Artace, with an island of the same name near to it, the same
which Pliny (v. 32) calls Artacaeum. Timosthenes, quoted by Stephanus (s. v. Artake),
also gives the name Artace to a mountain, and to a small island, one stadium from
the land. In the time of Procopius, Artace had been rebuilt, and was a suburb
of Cyzicus. (Bell. Pers. i. 25.) It is now a poor place. (Hamilton, Researches,
vol. ii. p. 97.)
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ASSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Assus (Assos: Eth. Assius and Asseus: Asso), a city of Mysia, on the
gulf of Adramyttium, between Cape Lectum and Antandros. It was situated in a strong
natural position, was well walled, and connected with the sea by a long, steep
ascent. (Strab. p. 610.) The harbour was formed by a great mole. Myrsilus stated
that Assus was a settlement of the Methymnaei. Hellanicus calls it an Aeolic city,
and adds that Gargara was founded by Assus. Pliny (v. 32) gives to Assus also
the name Apollonia, which it is conjectured that it had from Apollonia, the mother
of Attalus, king of Pergamus. That Assus was still a place visited by shipping
in the first century of the Christian aera, appears from the travels of St. Paul.
(Acts, xx. 13.)
The neighbourhood of Assus was noted for its wheat. (Strab. p. 735.)
The Lapis Assius was a stone that had the property of consuming flesh, and hence
was called sarcophagus: this stone was accordingly used to inter bodies in, or
was pounded and thrown upon them. (Steph. B. s. v. Assos; Plin. ii. 96.)
Hermeias, who had made himself tyrant of Assus, brought Aristotle
to reside there some time. When Hermeias fell into the hands of Memnon the Rhodian,
who was in the Persian service, Assus was taken by the Persians. It was the birthplace
of Cleanthes, who succeeded Zeno of Citium in his school, and transmitted it to
Chrysippus.
The remains of Assus, which are very considerable, have often been
described. The name Asso appears to exist, but the village where the remains are
found is called Beriam Kalesi, or other like names. From the acropolis there is
a view of Mytilene. The wall is complete on the west side, and in some places
is thirty feet high: the stones are well laid, without cement. There is a theatre,
the remains of temples, and a large mass of ruins of great variety of character.
Outside of the wall is the cemetery, with many tombs, and sarcophagi, some of
which are ten or twelve feet long. Leake observes, the whole gives perhaps the
most perfect idea of a Greek city that any where exists. (Asia Minor, p. 128;
see also Fellows's Asia Minor, p. 46.)
Autonomous coins of Assus, with the epigraph ASSION, are rare. The
coins of the Roman imperial period are common.
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ASTAKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Astacus (Astakos: Eth. Astakenos, Astakios), a city of Bithynia, on
the gulf of Astacus, and a colony from Megara and Athens. (Strab. p. 563.) Memnon
(Phot. Bibl. 224) says that the first colonists came from Megara, in the beginning
of the seventeenth Olympiad, and those from Athens came afterwards. Mela (i. 19)
calls it a colony of Megara. It appears that this city was also called Olbia;
for Scylax, who mentions the gulf of Olbia and Olbia, does not mention Astacus;
and Strabo, who names Astacus, does not mention Olbia. The mythical story of Astacus
being founded by Astacus, a son of Poseidon and the nymph Olbia, favours the supposition
of the identity of Astacus and Olbia. (Steph. s. v. Astakos.) Astacus was seized
by Doedalsus, the first king of Bithynia. In the war between Zipoetes, one of
his successors, and Lysimachus, the place was destroyed or damaged. Nicomedes
II., the son of Zipoetes, transferred the inhabitants to his city of Nicomedia
(Ismid), B.C. 264. Astacus appears to have been near the head of the gulf of Astacus,
and it is placed by some geographers at a spot called Ovaschik, and also Bashkele.
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ASTYRA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Astyra (Astura, Asturon: Eth. Asturenos), a small town of Mysia, in
the plain of Thebes, between Antandros and Adramyttium. It had a temple of Artemis,
of which the Antandrii had the superintendence. (Strab. p. 613.) Artemis had hence
the name of Astyrene or Astirene. (Xen. Hell. iv. 1. 41) There was a lake Sapra
near Astyra, which communicated with the sea. Pausanias, from his own observations
(iv. 35. § 10), describes a spring of black water at Astyra; the water was hot.
But he places Astyra in Atarneus. There was, then, either a place in Atarneus
called Astyra, with warm springs, or Pausanias has made some mistake; for there
is no doubt about the position of the Astyra of Strabo and Mela (i. 19). Astyra
was a deserted place, according to Pliny's authorities. He calls it Astyre. There
are said to be coins of Astyra.
Strabo mentions an Astyra above Abydus in Troas, once an independent
city, but in Strabo's time it was a ruined place, and belonged to the inhabitants
of Abydus. There were once gold mines there, but they were nearly exhausted in
Strabo's time.
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AVYDOS (Ancient city) MARMARA
Abydus (he Abudos, Abydum, Plin. v. 32: Eth. Abudenos, Abydenus),
a city of Mysia on the Hellespontus, nearly opposite Sestus on the European shore.
It is mentioned as one of the towns in alliance with the Trojans. (Il. ii. 836.)
Aidos or Avido, a modern village on the Hellespont, may be the site of Abydos,
though the conclusion from a name is not certain. Abydus stood at the narrowest
point of the Hellespontus, where the channel is only 7 stadia wide, and it had
a small port. It was probably a Thracian town originally, but it became a Milesian
colony. (Thuc. viii. 61.) At a point a little north of this town Xerxes placed
his bridge of boats, by which his troops were conveyed across the channel to the
opposite town of Sestus, B.C. 480. (Herod. vii. 33.) The bridge of boats extended,
according to Herodotus, from Abydus to a promontory on the European shore, between
Sestus and Madytus. The town possessed a small territory which contained some
gold mines, but Strabo speaks of them as exhausted. It was burnt by Darius, the
son of Hystaspes, after his Scythian expedition, for fear that the Scythians,
who were said to be in pursuit of him, should take possession of it (Strab. p.
591); but it must soon have recovered from this calamity, for it was afterwards
a town of some note; and Herodotus (v. 117) states that it was captured by the
Persian general, Daurises, with other cities on the Hellespont (B.C. 498), shortly
after the commencement of the Ionian revolt. In B.C. 411, Abydus revolted from
Athens and joined Dercyllidas, the Spartan commander in those parts. (Thuc. viii.
62.) Subsequently, Abydus made a vigorous defence against Philip II., king of
Macedonia, before it surrendered. On the conclusion of the war with Philip (B.C.
196), the Romans declared Abydus, with other Asiatic cities, to be free. (Liv.
xxxiii. 30.) The names of Abydus and Sestus are coupled together in the old story
of Hero and Leander, who is said to have swam across the channel to visit his
mistress at Sestus. The distance between Abydus and Sestus, from port to port,
was about 30 stadia, according to Strabo.
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BOZCAADA (Island) TURKEY
Tenedos (Eth. Tenedios: Tenedo, Turk. Bogdsha-Adassi). An island off
the coast of Troas, from which its distance is only 40 stadia, while from Cape
Sigeum it is 12 miles distant. (Strab. xiii. p. 604; Plin. ii. 106, v. 39.) It
was originally called Leucophrys, from its white cliffs, Calydna, Phoenice, or
Lyrnessus (Strab. l. c.; Paus. x. 14. § 3; Steph. B. s. v. Tenedos; Eustath. ad
Hom. Il. p. 33; Plin. l. c.), and was believed to have received the name of Tenedos
from Tennes, a son of Cycnus (Strab. viii. p. 380; Diod. v. 83; Conon, Narrat.
28; Cic. in Verr. i. 1. 9). The island is described as being 80 stadia in circumference,
and containing a town of the same name, which was an Aeolian settlement, and situated
on the eastern coast. (Herod. i. 149; Thucyd. vii. 57.) The town possessed two
harbours, one of which was called Boreion (Arrian, Anab. ii. 2. § 2; Scylax, p.
35, who, however, notices only one), and a temple of the Smynthian Apollo. (Strab.
l. c.; Hom. Il. i. 38, 452.) In the Trojan legend, the island plays a prominent
part, and at an early period seems to have been a place of considerable importance,
as may be inferred from certain ancient proverbial expressions which owe their
origin to it, such as Tenedios pelekus (Steph. B. s. v.; Apostol. xviii. 28; Diogenian.
viii. 58; comp. Cic. ad Quint. Frat. ii. 1. 1), Tenedios anthropos (Zenob. vi.
9; Eustath. ad Dionys. 536), Tenedios hauletes (Steph. B. s. v.; Plut. Quaest.
Gr. 28), Tenedion kakon (Apostol. x. 80), and Tenedios xunegoros (Steph. B. s.
v.). The laws and civil institutions of Tenedos seem to have been celebrated for
their wisdom, if we may credit Pindar, whose eleventh Nemean ode is inscribed
to Aristagoras, a prytanis or chief magistrate of the island. We further know
from Stephanus B. that Aristotle wrote on the polity of Tenedos. During the Persian
wars the island was taken possession of by the Persians (Herod. vi. 31), and during
the Peloponnesian War it sided with Athens and paid tribute to her (Thuc. l. c.
ii. 2), which seems to have amounted to 3426 drachmae every year. (Franz, Elem.
Epigraph. n. 52.) Afterwards, in B.C. 389, Tenedos was ravaged by the Lacedaemonians
for its fidelity to Athens (Xen. Hist. Gr. v. 1. 6); but though the peace of Antalcidas
gave up the island to Persia, it yet maintained its connection with Athens. (Demosth.
c. Polycl. p. 1223, c. Theocr. p. 1333.) In the time of Alexander the Great, the
Tenedians threw off the Persian yoke, and, though reconquered by Pharnabazus,
they soon again revolted from Persia. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 2, iii. 2.) During the
wars of Macedonia with the Romans, Tenedos, owing to its situation near the entrance
of the Hellespont, was an important naval station. (Polyb. xvi. 34, xxvii. 6;
Liv. xxxi. 16, xliv. 28.) In the war against Mithridates, Lucullus fought a great
naval battle near Tenedos. (Plut. Luc. 3; Cic. p. Arch. 9, p. Mur. 15.) In the
time of Virgil, Tenedos seems to have entirely lost its ancient importance, and,
being conscious of their weakness, its inhabitants had placed themselves under
the protection of Alexandria Troas (Paus. x. 14. § 4). The favourable situation
of the island, however, prevented its utter decay, and the emperor Justinian caused
granaries to be erected in it, to receive the supplies of corn conveyed from Egypt
to Constantinople. (Procop. de Aed. v. 1.) The women of Tenedos are reported to
have been of surpassing beauty. (Athen. xiii. p. 609.) There are but few ancient
remains in the island worthy of notice.
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CHALKIDON (Ancient city) TURKEY
Chalcedon (Chalkedon: Eth. Chalkedonios or Chalkideus), a city of
Bithynia, at the entrance of the Pontus, opposite to Byzantium, as Stephanus (s.
v. Chalkedon) describes it; and a colony of the Megareis. (Thuc. iv. 75.)
The tract about Chalcedon was called Chalcedonia. (Herod. iv. 85.)
According to Menippus, the distance along the left-hand coast from the temple
of Zeus Urius and the mouth of the Pontus to Chalcedon was 120 stadia. All the
coins of Chalcedon have the name written Kalchedon, and this is also the way in
which the name is written in the best MSS. of Herodotus, Xenophon, and other writers,
by whom the place is mentioned. The distance from Chalcedon to Byzantium was reckoned
seven stadia (Plin. v. 32), or as it is stated by Pliny elsewhere (ix. 15), one
Roman mile, which is eight stadia. Polybius (iv. 39) makes the distance between
Chalcedon and Byzantium 14 stadia; which is much nearer the mark. But it is difficult
to say from what points these different measurements were made. The distance from
Scutari (Chrysopolis) to the Seraglio point in Constantinople (according to a
survey in the Hydrographical office of the Admiralty) is nearly one nautical mile.
In the same chart a place Caledonia is marked, but probaby the indication is not
worth much. Chalcedon, however, must have been at least two miles south of Scutari,
perhaps more; and the distance from Chalcedon to the nearest point of the European
shore is greater even than that which Polybius gives. Chrysopolis, which Strabo
calls a village, and which was in the Chalcedonia (Xenophon, Anab. vi. 6, 38),
was really at the entrance of the Bosporus on the side of the Propontis, but Chalcedon
was not. It is stated that the modern Greeks give to the site of Chalcedon the
name Chalkedon, and the Turks call it Kadi-Kioi. The position of Chalcedon was
not so favourable as that of the opposite city of Byzantium, in the opinion of
the Persian Megabazus (Herod. iv. 144), who is reported to have said that the
founders of Chalcedon must have been blind, for Chalcedon was settled seventeen
years before Byzantium; and the settlers, we must suppose, had the choice of the
two places. It was at the mouth of a small river Chalcedon (Eustathius ad Dionys.
Perieg. v. 803) or Chalcis. Pliny (v. 32) states that Chalcedon was first named
Procerastis, a name which may be derived from a point of land near it: then it
was named Colpusa, from the form of the harbour probably; and finally Caecorum
Oppidum, or the town of the blind. The story in Herodotus does not tell us why
Megabazus condemned the judgment of the founders of Chalcedon. Strabo (p. 320)
observes that the shoals of the pelamys, which pass from the Euxine through the
Bosporus, are frightened from the shore of Chalcedon by a projecting white rock
to the opposite side, and so are carried by the stream to Byzantium, the people
of which place derive a great profit from them. He also reports a story that Apollo
advised the founders of Byzantium to choose a position opposite to the blind;
the blind being the settlers from Megara, who chose Chalcedon as the site of their
city, when there was a better place opposite. Pliny (ix. 15) has a like story
about the pelamys being frightened from the Asiatic shore; and Tacitus (Ann. xii.
63) has the same story as Strabo. The remarks of Polybius on the position of Byzantium
and Chalcedon are in his fourth book (c. 39, &c.).
Chalcedon, however, was a place of considerable trade, and a flourishing
town. It contained many temples, and one of Apollo, which had en oracle. Strabo
reckons his distances along the coast of Bithynia from the temple of the Chalcedonii
(p. 643, and p. 546). When Darius had his bridge of boats made for crossing over
to Europe in his Scythian expedition, the architect constructed it, as Herodotus
supposes, half way between Byzantium and the temple at the entrance of the Pontus,
and on the Asiatic side it was within the territory of Chalcedon (Herod. iv. 85,
87). But the Chalcedonia extended to the Euxine, if the temple of the Chalcedonii
of Strabo (pp. 319, 563) is the temple of Zeus Urius as it seems to be. The territory
of Chalcedon therefore occupied the Asiatic side of the Bosporus. Strabo, after
speaking of Chalcedon and Chrysopolis and the temple of the Chalcedonii, adds,
and the country has, a little above the sea, the fountain Azaritia, which contains
small crocodiles: then follows the sea-coast of the Chalcedonii, named the bay
of Astacus, a part of the Propontis. According to this the Chalcedonii had once
the bay of Astacus, which is very unlikely, for there was Astacus, a colony of
the Megareis and of the Athenians, in this bay. The passage of Strabo is probably
corrupt, and might easily be corrected. It is not likely at any rate that they
had more than the north side of the bay of Astacus. Chalcedon was taken by the
Persian Otanes, after the Scythian expedition of Darius (v. 26). When Lamachus
led his men from the river Calex in Bithynia (B.C. 424), where he lost his ships
by a flood in the river, he came to Chalcedon (Thucyd iv. 75), which must then
have been on friendly terms with the Athenians. It afterwards changed sides, and
received a Lacedaemonian Harmost (Plut. Alcib. c. 29); but the Athenians soon
recovered it. However, at the time of the return of the Ten Thousand, it seems
to have been again in the possession of the Lacedaemonians (Xenophon, Anab. vii.
1, 20). Chalcedon was the birth-place of the philosopher Xenocrates.
Chalcedon was included in the limits of the kingdom of Bithynia, and
it came into the possession of the Romans under the testament of Nicomedes, B.C.
74. When Mithridates invaded Bithynia, Cotta, who was the governor at the time,
fled to Chalcedon, and all the Romans in the neighbourhood crowded to the place
for protection. Mithridates broke the chains that protected the fort, burnt four
ships, and towed away the remaining sixty. Three thousand Romans lost their lives
in this assault on the city. (Appian. Mithrid. 71; Plut. Lucull. 8.) Under the
empire Chalcedon was made a free city. The situation of Chalcedon exposed it to
attack in the decline of the empire. Some barbarians whom Zosimus (i. 34) calls
Scythians, plundered it in the reign of Valerian and Gallienus. It was taken by
Chosroes the Persian in A.D. 616, and a Persian camp was maintained above ten
years in the presence of Constantinople. (Gibbon, Decline, &c. c. 46.) But Chalcedon
still existed, and its final destruction is due to the Turks, who used the materials
for the mosques and other buildings of Constantinople. Chalcedon, however, seems
to have contributed materials for some of the edifices of Constantinople long
before the Turks laid their hands on it. (Amm. Marc. xxxi. 1, and the notes of
Valesius.)
This place is noted for a General Council, which was held here A.D.
451.
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CHRYSOUPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
CHRYSSI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Chrysa (Chruse, Chrusa: Eth. Chruseus). Stephanus (s. v.) has a list of various
places so called. He does not decide which is the Chrysa of Homer (Il. i. 37,
390, 431). He mentions a Chrysa on the Hellespont, between Ophrynium and Abydus.
Pliny (v. 30) mentions Chryse, a town of Aeolis, as no longer existing in his
time. He also mentions a Chryse in the Troad, and apparently places it north of
the promontory Lectum, and on the coast. He says that Chrysa did not exist, but
the temple of Smintheus remained; that is, the temple of Apollo Smintheus. The
name Smitheus, not Smintheus, appears on a coin of Alexandria of Troas (Harduin?s
note on Plin. v. 30). The Table places Smynthium between Alexandria and Assus,
and 4 miles south of Alexandria. Strabo places Chrysa on a hill, and he mentions
the temple of Smintheus, and speaks of a symbol, which recorded the etymon of
the name, the mouse which lay at the foot of the wooden figure, the work of Scopas.
According to an old story, Apollo had his name Smintheus, as being the mouse destroyer;
for Sminthus signified mouse, according to Apion. Strabo has an argument to show
that the Chrysa of the Iliad was not the Chrysa near Alexandria, but the other
place of the same name in the plain of Thebe, or the Adramyttene. He says that
this Chrysa was on the sea, and had a port, and a temple of Smintheus, but that
it was deserted in his time, and the temple was transferred to the other Chrysa.
There is, however, little weight in Strabo's argument, nor is the matter worth
discussion.
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CORLU (Town) TURKEY
Tzurulum (Tzouroulon, Procop. B. Goth. iii. 38; Anna Comn. vii. p. 215, x. p.
279; Theophyl. vi. 5; in Geog. Rav. iv. 6, and Tab. Peut., Suralluhm and Syrallum;
in It. Ant. pp. 138, 230, Izirallum, but in p. 323, Tirallum; and in It. Hier.
p. 569, Tunorullum), a strong town on a hill in the SE. of Thrace, not far from
Perinthus, on the road from that city to Hadrianopolis. It has retained its name
with little change to the present day, being the modern Tchorlu or Tchurlu.
DARDANELLES (Sea strait) CANAKKALE
Hellespontus (ho Hellespontos, Horn. Il. ii. 845, Odyss. xxiv. 82;
Helles pontos, -hudor, -porthuos, Aesch. Pers. 722; Hellespontus, Pontus Helles,
Hellespontum Pelagus, Fretum Hellesponticum: Eth. Hellespontios, Hellespontias,
Hellespontis, Steph. B.: The Dardanelles; Golfo di Galippoli; Stambul Denghiz),
the strait which divides Europe from Asia and unites the Propontis with the Aegaean
sea.
The Greeks explained the origin of the name by the well-known legend
of Phryxus and Helle, and in the later poets (Ovid, Her. xviii. 117, 137; Prop.
i. 20. 19; Lucan v.56; Avien. 692) frequent allusion is made to this tradition.
The broad Hellespont of the Homeric poems (Il. vii. 86) - for the
interpretation of Mr. Walpole and Dr. Clarke (Trav. vol. iii. p. 91) of platus
Hellespontos by salt Hellespont is too unpicturesque to be adopted - was probably
conceived to be a wide river, flowing through thickly wooded banks into the sea.
(Comp. Herod. vii. 35; Walpole, Turkey and Greece, vol. i. p. 101; Schlichthorst,
Geogr. Homer. p. 127.)
Herodotus (iv. 85), Strabo (xiii. p. 591), and Pliny (iv. 12, vi.
1) give 7 stadia as the breadth of the Hellespont in its narrowest part. Tournefort
(vol. ii. lett. iv.) and Hobhouse (Albania, vol. ii. p. 805) allow about a mile.
Some modern French admeasurements give the distance as much greater. The Due de
Raguse (Voyage en Turquie, vol. ii. p. 164) nearly coincides with Herodotus.
The bridge, or rather two separate bridges, which Xerxes threw across
the Hellespont, stretched from the neighbourhood of Abydos, on the Asiatic coast,
to the coast between Sestus and Madytus, on the European side; and consisted of
360 vessels in the bridge higher up the stream, and 314 in the lower one. If the
breadth be estimated at a mile or 5280 feet, 360 vessels, at an average of 14
2/3 feet each, would exactly fill up the space. (Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol.
v. p. 26; comp. Rennell, Geog. of Herod. vol. i. p. 158; Kruse, Uber die Schiffbrucken
der Perser, Breslau, 1820; Choiseul-Gouffier, Voyage Pittoresque, vol. ii. p.
449; Bahr, ad Herod. vii. 36.) The length of the strait was estimated by Herodotus
(iv. 85) at 400 stadia. This admeasurement of course depends upon the point assigned
by the ancients to the extremity of the Hellespont, a point which is discussed
by Hoblouse (Albania, vol. ii. p. 791). In the later years of the Peloponnesian
War the Hellespont was the scene of the memorable battles of Cynossema and Aegospotami.
In B.C. 334 the Hellespont was crossed by Alexander, with an army
of about 35,000 men. (Arrian, Anab. i. 11; Diod. Sic. xvii. 1.)
The Hellespont issues from the Propontis near Gallipoli, the road
of which is the anchorage for the Ottoman fleet. A little lower, on the Asiatic
side, is Lampsaki, close to which the current sweeps as before, nearly SW. to
the bay of Sestos, a distance of about 20 miles, with an ordinary width of from
2 1/2 to 3 miles. At Sestos the stream becomes narrower, and takes a SSE. direction
as it passes Abydos, and proceeds to the town of Charnak Kal'eh-S&;acute; from
the last point it flows SW. for 3 miles to Point Berber, and from thence onward
in the same direction, but rather increasing in width, for a distance of 9 3/4
miles to the Aegaean sea.
About 1 1/2 miles below the W. point of the bay of Madytus are the
famous castles of the Dardanelles, which give their name to the straits; or the
castles of Anatoli and Rum-ili: Tchannak-Ka'leh-Si, on the Asiatic side, and Kilidu-l-Bahr,
on the European. (Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 318.)
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DARDANIA (Ancient country) TURKEY
Dardania (Dardania) or Dardanice, a territory in Mysia, the limits
of which are not very clearly defined. Strabo interprets Homer as placing Dardania
above Ilium, on the Paroreia of Troja; and in another place, after describing
the positions of Abydus, Dardanus, and the places on the coast of the Hellespont
as far as Sigeium, he says, above them lies the Trojan plain, which extends eastward
many stadia, as far as Ida. The Paroreia (mountain tract) is narrow: it extends
on one side south as far as the parts about Scepsis, and north to the Lycians
about Zeleia. Again, when he is describing the places about the promontory of
Lectum, and the river Satnioeis, he says that all these places are adjacent to
Dardania and Scepsis, being a kind of second and lower Dardania. There is really
no historical province Dardania, and all that Strabo says of it is derived from
his interpretation of the Iliad. The Dardani and Dardanii are mentioned in the
Iliad (ii. 819, xv. 425). Aeneas, in the Iliad, is the commander of the Dardani.
Dardanus, a son of Jupiter, settled in Dardania long before Ilium
was built in the plain. He was the ancestor of Priamus; and there were five generations
from Dardanus to Priamus. (Il. xx. 215, &c.) Dardanus was a wanderer into Asia;
and the legend seems to represent a tradition of the Dardani coming. from Europe
and seizing a part of Mysia. Dardanus found the country occupied by Teucri, who
had a king Teucer. According to the authority of Cephalon (Steph. B. s.vv. Arisbe
and Dardanos), Dardanus came from Samothrace and married a daughter of Teucer.
Cephalon and Hellanicus could, not agree about the woman's name.
Strabo mentions a promontory Dardanis or Dardanium, about 70 stadia
south of Abydus: it appears to be the Kephiz Burnu of the Turks, and the Punta
dei Barbieri of the Europeans (Strab.); and probably that which Pliny calls Trapeza.
There was a tradition that the descendants of Aeneas maintained themselves in
part of the inland territory of Dardania, after the war of Troy. Xenophon (Hell.
iii. 1. § 10) speaks of one Zenis a Dardaneus, who had a principality in Mysia,
and Scepsis and Gergitha were two of his strong places; but the territory that
he had was not the old Dardania. Xenophon calls it the Aeolis of Pharnabazus.
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DARDANOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Dardanus, Dardanum (he Dardanos, to Dardanon: Eth. Dardaneus), a city
of the Troad, originally named Teucris. According to the legend told by Mnaseas
(Steph. B. s. v. Dardanos), Dardanus built or settled Dardanus, and named the
country Dardania, which was called Teucris before. This old story of Dardanus
being the founder of the city, is reported by various other authorities. (Apollod.
iii. 12. § 1; Diod. iv. 75; Conon. apud Phot. Narr. 21.) It seems that the city
was sometimes called Dardania as well as the country. Pliny (v. 30) names it Dardanium.
It was situated on the Hellespont, about a mile south of the promontory Dardanis
or Dardanium (Map of the Plain of Troy, by Capt. Graves and T. A. B. Spratt, Esq.,
London Geog. Journal, vol. xii.), and 70 stadia from Abydus. Between Abydus and
Dardanus, says Strabo, is the Rhodius. There are two streams marked in the map:
one nearer Dardanus, which enters the Hellespont close to the promontory of Dardanis;
and another near Sultania, a little north of which is the site of Abydus. Dr.
Forchhammer, in the map referred to, which contains his determination of the ancient
sites, makes the stream at Sultania to be the ancient Rhodius; and this appears
to be right, according to Strabo, who says that it enters the sea opposite to
Cynossema in the Chersonesus. Strabo adds, however, some say that the Rhodius
flows into the Aesepus; but of course the Rhodius must then be a different river
from the stream that enters the sea between Abydus and Dardanus. Homer mentions
the Rhodius (Il. xii. 20).
Strabo observes that the Dardanus of his time, the town on the coast,
was not the old town of Dardanus, or Dardania, which appears from the Iliad to
have been at the foot of Ida. It was an older town than Ilium, and did not exist
in Strabo's time. The later town was an Aeolian settlement, and it is mentioned
among the towns on the Hellespont, which Daurises the Persian took after the burning
of Sardis. (Herod. v. 117.) In another place (vi. 43), Herodotus observes that
Dardanus bordered on the territory of Abydus; which might also be safely inferred
from the passage in the fifth book. It is mentioned by Scylax in his Periplus
of the Troad. In the battle between the Athenians and Peloponnesians in the twenty-first
year of the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 411), the line of the 68 ships of the Peloponnesians
extended from Abydus to Dardanus (Thuc. viii. 104); a statement that can hardly
be correct, for the ships that were outside of the promontory of Dardanis would
be completely separated from the rest. Strabo says that Dardanus was so weak a
place, that the kings, by whom he means Alexander's successors, some of them several
times removed all the people to Abydus, and others moved them back again to their
old place. On this spot L. Cornelius Sulla and Mithridates met, after Sulla had
crossed over from Europe, and here they came to terms about putting an end to
the war, B.C. 84. (Strab. p. 595; Plut. Sulla, c. 24.) It was at that time a free
city, having been declared such by the Romans after the peace with king Antiochus,
B.C. 190, in honour of the Trojan descent of the people. (Liv. xxxvii. 9, 37,
xxxviii. 39.)
There are many imperial coins of Dardanus; and the name of the river
Rhodius appears on a medal of Domna. Sestini, Mon. Vet. p. 76. (Cramer, Asia Minor,
vol. i. p. 82.) This seems to show that the stream which flows into the Hellespont
near the cape Dardanis, is the Rhodius, and not the river nearer Abydus; but it
is not decisive. The modern name Dardanelles is generally supposed to be derived
from the name of Dardanus.
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DASKYLION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Dascylium (Daskulion, Daskuleion, Dascylus: Eth. Daskulites). Stephanus
B. (s. v.) mentions several Asiatic cities called Dascylium. The only place of
any historical note is the town near the Propontis. Herodotus (iii. 120) mentions
Mitrobates, a Persian, as governor of the nome in Dascylium; and again (iii. 126),
he calls the same man the governor of Dascylium (ton ek Daskuleiou huparchon).
But in vi. 33, he speaks of the Cyziceni submitting to Oebares, son of Megabazus,
the governor in Dascylium. Agesilaus, in one of his campaigns, marched to Phrygia,
and came near Dascylium. (Xen. Hell. iii. 1. 13) Xenophon, who speaks of the Phrygia
of Pharnabazus, seems to place Dascylium in Phrygia (Hell. iv. 1. § 15); but his
narrative is confused, and nothing can be learned from it as to the position of
Daseylium. He says that Pharnabazus had his palace here, and there were many large
villages about it, which abounded with supplies; and there were hunting grounds,
both in enclosed parks and in the open country, very fine. A river flowed round
the place, and it was full of fish. There was also plenty of birds. The governor
spent his winter here; from which fact and the context we seem to learn that it
was in the low country. Alexander, after the battle of the Granicus, sent Parmeno
to take Dascylium (Arrian, Anab. i. 17. § 2); but there is nothing in Arrian which
shows its position. The town does not seem to have been a large place, but it
gave name to a Persian satrapy (ten Daskulitin satrapeian, Thucyd. i. 129), the
extent of which cannot be defined.
Strabo says that, above the lake Dascylitis, there are two large lakes,
the Apolloniatis and the Miletopolitis; and on the Dascylitis is the town of Dascylium.
We must therefore look for Dascylium and its lake between the shores of the Propontis
and the lakes Apolloniatis and Miletopolitis. Strabo also says that the Doliones
are a people about Cyzicus, from the river Aesepus to the Rhyndacus and the lake
Dascylitis; from which we might perhaps conclude that the Dascylitis is east of
the Rhyndacus; and another passage seems to lead to the same conclusion. In Strabo's
time the territory of the Cyziceni extended to the Miletopolitis and the Apolloniatis;
they had also one part of the Dascylitis, and the Byzantines had the other. From
this also we infer that it was east of the Rhyndacus. Mela (i. 19), in express
words, places Dascylos, as he calls it, east of the Rhyndacus. Pliny (v. 32) says
that it is on the coast. Hecataeus, quoted by Strabo, says that a river Odrysses
flows from the west out of the Dascylitis, through the plains of Mygdonia, into
the Rhyndacus. But this description applies to a lake west of the Rhyndacus. Strabo
further says that the lake Dascylitis was also called Aphnitis; and he again mentions
the Aphnitis, but without identifying it with the Dascylitis. Stephanus (s. v.
Aphneion) says that the lake near Cyzicus is Aphnitis, and that it was formerly
called Artynia. There is no lake nearer to Cyzicus than the lake of Maniyas, west
of the Rhyndacus, which is the ancient Miletopolitis. The Rhyndacus flows through
the Apolloniatis.
Leake, in his map of Asia Minor, marks a lake Dascylitis north of
the Apolloniatis, and consequently between it and the shore of the Propontis,
and east of the course of the Rhyndacus after it has flowed from the Apolloniatis.
Some authorities speak of a lake in this part called Diaskilli, or some name like
it; but this seems to require further confirmation. This town Dascylium must have
existed to a late time, for a bishop of Dascylia is mentioned. (Plin. v. 32, ed.
Harduin.)
What we can learn about Dascylium is very unsatisfactory. There is
a river marked in the newest maps, which rises near Broussa, and flows westward
towards the Rhyndacus, but its junction with the Rhyndacus is not marked. It is
called the Lufer Su, or Nifer. Cramer (Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 172) conjectures
that this may be the Odrysses of Hecataeus, though it does not run in the direction
described in Strabo's text; and that it is also the river described by Xenophon.
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ENOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Aenus (Ainos: Eth. Ainhiates, Aenius: Enos), a town of Thrace, situated
upon a promontory on the south-eastern side of the PaIns Stentoris, through which
one of the mouths of the Hebrus makes its way into the sea. According to Virgil
(Aen. iii. 18), it was founded by Aeneas when he landed there on his way from
Troy, but there does not seem any more authority for this statement than the similarity
of the names; but its antiquity is attested by the fact of its being mentioned
by Homer (Il. iv. 519). According to Herodotus (vii. 58) and Thucydides (vii.
57), Aenus was an Aeolic colony. Neither of them, however, mentions from what
particular place it was colonised. Scymnus Chius (696) attributes its foundation
to Mytilene; Stephanus Byzant. to Cumae, or, according to Meineke's edition, to
the two places conjointly. According to Strabo, a more ancient name of the place
was Poltyobria. Stephanus says it was also called Apsinthus.
Little especial mention of Aenus occurs till a comparatively late
period of Grecian history. It is mentioned by Thucydides that Aenus sent forces
to the Sicilian expedition as a subject ally of Athens. At a later period we find
it successively in the possession of Ptolemy Philopator, B.C. 222 (Pol. v. 34),
of Philip, king of Macedonia, B.C. 200 (Liv. xxxi. 16), and of Antiochus the Great.
After the defeat of the latter by the Romans, Aenus was declared free. (Liv. xxxviii.
60.) It was still a free city in the time of Pliny (iv. 11).
Athenaeus speaks of the climate of Aenus as being peculiarly ungenial.
He describes the year there as consisting of eight months of cold, and four of
winter.
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GARGARA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Gargara or Gargaron, one of the heights of Mount Ida in Troas (Hom. Il. viii.
48, xiv. 292), which continued to bear this name even in the time of Strabo (xiii.;
comp. Plin. v. 32; Macrob. Sat. v. 20; Steph, B. s. v.). Its modern name is said
to be Kazdag. A town of the same name existed from early times upon that height,
or rather on a branch of it forming a cape on the north of the bay of Adramyttium,
between Antandrus and Assus. In the earliest times it is said to have been inhabited
by Leleges, but afterwards to have received Aeolian colonists from Assus, and
others from Miletupolis (Strab.; Mela, i. 18; Ptol.v. 2. 5). The name of this
town is in some authors misspelt Iarganon, as in Ptolemy, and Sagara, as in Hierocles.
The territory round Gargara was celebrated for its fertility (Virg. Georg. i.
103; Senec. Phoen. iv. 608). The modern village of Ine probably occupies the site
of ancient Gargara.
GERGITHA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Gergis, Gergithus, Gergithes (Gerpsis, Gerpsithos, Gerpsithes: Eth.
Gerpsithios), a town in Troas, on the north of the river Scamnander, was inhabited,
according to Herodotus (v. 122, vii. 43), by descendants of the ancient Teucrians.
In the time of Xenophon (Hell. iii. 1. § 15) Gergis is called a strong place;
it had an acropolis and strong walls, and was one of the chief towns of the Dardanian
princess Mania. (Comp. Plut. Phoc. 18; Liv. xxxviii. 39; Strab. xiii. p. 589;
Plin. v. 32; Steph. B. s. v.; Athen. vi. p. 256, xii. p. 524.) King Attalus of
Pergamus transplanted the inhabitants of Gergis to a place near the sources of
the Caicus, whence we afterwards find a place called Gergetha or Gergithion, near
Larissa, in the territory of Cyme. (Strab. l. c. 616.) The old town of Gergis
was believed by some to have been the birthplace of the Sibyl, whence coins found
there have the image of the prophetess impressed upon them.
GOKCEADA (Island) TURKEY
Imbros (Imbros: Eth. Imbrios), an island in the Aegaean sea, off the
SW. coast of the Thracian Chersonesus, and near the islands of Samothrace and
Lemnos. According to Pliny (iv. 12. s. 23), Imbros is 62 miles in circumference;
but this is nearly double its real size. It is mountainous and well wooded, and
its highest summit is 1845 feet above the level of the sea. It contains, however,
several fertile valleys, and a river named Ilissus in antiquity. (Plin. l. c.)
Its town on the northern side was called by the same name, and there are still
some ruins of it remaining. Imbros was inhabited in early times by the Pelasgians,
and was, like the neighbouring island of Samothrace, celebrated for its worship
of the Cabeiri and Hermes, whom the Carians called Imbrasus. (Steph. B. s. v.
Imbros.) Both the island and the city of Imbros are mentioned by Homer, who gives
to the former the epithet of paipaloesse.. (Il. xiii. 33, xiv.281, xxiv. 78, Hymn.
in Apoll. 36.) The island was annexed to the Persian empire by Otanes, a general
of Dareius, at which time it was still inhabited by Pelasgians. (Herod. v. 26.)
It was afterwards colonised by the Athenians, and was no doubt taken by Miltiades
along with Lemnos. It was always regarded in later times as an ancient Athenian
possession: thus the peace of Antalcidas, which declared the independence of all
the Grecian states, nevertheless allowed the Athenians to retain possession of
Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. 15, v. 1. § 31); and at the end
of the war with Philip the Romans restored to the same people the islands of Lemnos,
Imbros, Delos, and Seyros. (Liv. xxxiii. 30.)
The coins of Imbros have the common Athenian emblem, the head of Pallas.
Imbros seems to have afforded good anchorage. The fleet of Antiochus first sailed
to Imbros and from thence crossed over to Sciathus. (Liv. xxxv. 43.) The ship
which carried Ovid into exile also anchored in the harbour of Imbros, which the
poet calls Imbria tellus. (Ov. Trist. i. 10, 18.) The island is still called by
its ancient name.
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
KARDIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cardia (Kardia: Caridia), one of the chief towns of the Thracian
Chersonesus, situated at the head of the gulf of Melas. It was originally a colony
of the Milesians and Clazomenians; but subsequently, in the time of Miltiades,
the place also received Athenian colonists. (Herod. vii. 58, vi. 33, ix. 115;
Scym. Chius, 699; Dem. c. Philip. i. p. 63, de Halon. pp. 87, 88, and elsewhere.)
The town was destroyed by Lysimachus (Paus. i. 9. § 10), and although it was afterwards
rebuilt, it never again rose to any degree of prosperity, as Lysimachia, which
was built in its vicinity and peopled with the inhabitants of Cardia, became the
chief town in that neighbourhood. (Strab. vii. p. 331; Pans. i. 10. § 5, iv. 34.
§ 6; Appian, B.C. iv. 88; Ptol. iii. 12. § 2; Steph. B. s. v.) Cardia was the
birthplace of king Eumenes (Nep. Eum. 1) and of the historian Hieronymus. (Paus.
i. 9. § 10.)
KEVRIN (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cebrene (KebreWe or Cebren, a town of Mysia, in a district Cebrenia
(KebreWia). There was a river Cebren (KebreW). The Ethnic names are KebreWos,
KebreWeus, and KebreWios (Steph. s. v. KebreWia); but the Ethnic name is properly
KebreWieus, as Strabo has it. Cebrenia was below Dardania, and a plain country
for the most part. It was separated from the Scepsia or territory of Scepsis by
the river Scamander. The people of Scepsis and the Cebrenii were always quarrelling,
till Antigonus removed both of them to his new town of Antigonia, afterwards called
Alexandria Troas. The Cebrenii remained there; but the Scepsii obtained permission
from Lysimachus to go home again. Strabo speaks of a tribe in Thrace called Cebrenii,
near a river Arisbus; but we cannot conclude any thing from this as to the origin
of the Cebrenii. Ephorus, in the first book of his history (quoted by Harpocrat.
s. v. KebreWa), says that the Aeolians of Cumae sent a colony to Cebren. The city
Cebren surrendered to Dercyllidas the Lacedaemonian (Xen. Hell. iii. 1. 17), who
marched from thence against Scepsis and Gergitha. Geographers have differed as
to the position of Cebrenia. Palaescepsis was near the banks of the Aesepus, and
the Scepsis of Strabo's time was 40 stadia lower down than Old Scepsis. Now, Old
Scepsis was higher up than Cebrenia, near the highest part of Ida, and its territory
extended to the Scamander, where Cebrenia began. Again, the territory of the Assii
and the Gargareis was bounded by Antandria (on the east), and the territory of
the Cebrenii, the Neandrieis, and the Hamaxiteis. Thus Cebrenia is brought within
tolerably definite limits. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 274) supposes Cebrenia to have
occupied the higher region of Ida on the west, and its plain to be the fine valley
of - the Mendere as far down as Ene, probably Neandria. This seems to agree with
Strabo's description. Leake also supposes that the town Cebren may be a place
called Kushunlu Tepe, not far from Baramitsh. Dr. E. D. Clarke found considerable
remains at Kushunlu Tepe; but remains alone do not identify a site.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KIOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cius (he Kios or Kios: Eth. Kianos: Kio or Ghio), a city in Bithynia,
at the head of a gulf in the Propontis, called the gulf of Cius, or Cianus Sinus.
Herodotus calls it Cius of Mysia; and also Xenophon (Hell. i. 4. § 7), from which
it appears that Mysia, even in Xenophon's time, extended at least as far east
as the head of the gulf of Cius. According to one tradition, Cius was a Milesian
colony. (Plin. v. 32.) It was at the foot of Mount Arganthonius, and there was
a myth that Hylas, one of the companions of Hercules on the voyage to Colchis,
was carried off by the nymphs, when he went to get water here; and also that Cius,
another companion of Hercules, on his return from Colchis, stayed here and founded
the city, to which he gave his name. (Strab. p. 564.) Pliny mentions a river Hylas
and a river Cius here, one of which reminds us of the name of the youth who was
stolen by the nymphs, and the other of the mythical founder. The Cius may be the
channel by which the lake Ascania discharges its waters into the gulf of Cius;
though Pliny speaks of the Ascanium flumen as flowing into the gulf, and we must
assume that he gives this name to the channel which connects the lake and the
sea. If the river Cius is not identical with this channel, it must be a small
stream near Cius. As Ptolemy (v. 1) speaks of the outlets of the Ascanius, it
has been conjectured that there may have been two, and that they may be the Hylas
and Cius of Pliny; but the plural ekbolai does not necessarily mean more than
a single mouth; and Pliny certainly says that the Ascanius flows into the gulf.
However, his geography is a constant cause of difficulty. The position of Cius
made it the port for the inland parts. Mela calls it the most convenient emporium
of Phrygia, which was at no great distance from it.
Cius was taken by the Persian general Hymees, after the burning of
Sardis, B.C. 499. (Herod. v. 122.) Philip V., of Macedonia, the son of Demetrius
and the father of Perseus, took Cius, which he gave to Prusias, the son of Zelas.
Prusias, who had assisted Philip in ruining Cius, restored it under the name of
Prusias (Prousias, Strab. p. 563; Polyb. xvi. 21, &c.). It was sometimes called
Prusias eprthalassie, or on the sea, to distinguish it from other towns of the
same name (Steph. B. s. v. Prousa; Memnon, ap. Phot. Cod. 224, c. 43), or thalassan.
In the text of Memnon (Hoeschel's ed. of Photius) the reading is Cierus; but Memnon,
both in this and other passages, has confounded Cius and Cierus. But it is remarked
that Cius must either have still existed by the side of the new city, or must
have recovered its old name; for Pliny mentions Cius, and also Mela (i. 19), Zosimus
(i. 35), and writers of a still later date.
There are coins of Cius, with the epigraph Kianon, belonging to the
Roman imperial period; and there are coins of Prusias with the epigraph, Prousieon
ton pros thalassan.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KOLONES (Ancient city) TURKEY
Colonae (Kolonai) or Colone, a town in the Troad, 140 stadia from
Ilium. (Strab. pp. 589, 604; Thuc. i. 131; Xen. Hell. iii. 1. 13; Paus. x. 14.
§ 1.) According to tradition, Colonae was in early times the residence of a Thracian
prince Cycnus, who possessed the adjoining country and the island of Tenedos,
opposite to which Colonae was situated on the mainland. Colonae was probably one
of the towns from which the inhabitants were removed to supply the population
of Alexandria in Troas. Pliny (v. 30) places it in the interior, and speaks of
it as one of the places that had disappeared.
KREMASTI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cremaste (Kremaste), a place mentioned by Xenophon (Hell. iv. 8. §
37). He speaks of the plain near Cremaste, where there are the gold mines of the
Abydeni. If Cremaste was a village, it was probably on a hill above the plain.
As Strabo speaks of gold mines at Astyra, it has been conjectured that Astyra
and Cremaste are either the same place, or two adjacent places. Gold mines belonging
to Lampsacus are mentioned by Pliny (xxxvii. 11) and by Polyaenus (ii. 1. § 26);
and they may be the same as those of Cremaste, if we suppose Cremaste to be between
Abydus and Lampsacus.
KYPSELA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cypsela (Kupsela), a town on the river Hebrus in Thrace, which was
once an important place on the via Egnatia. It is the same as the modern Ipsala,
or Chapsylar, near Keshan. (Strab. pp. 322, 329; Ptol. iii. 11. § 13; Steph. Byz.
s. v.; Ann. Comn. vii. p. 204; Liv. xxxi. 16, xxxviii. 40, 41; Mela, ii. 2; Plin.
iv. 18.)
KYZIKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cyzicus (he Kuzikos: Eth. Kuzikenos) and Cyzicum (Plin. v. 32; Mela,
i. 19), a city on the Propontis in Mysia, on the neck of a peninsula as Mela says.
The peninsula, which projects into the Propontis or sea of Marmora on the south
coast, is joined to the mainland by a sandy isthmus. Crossing this isthmus from
the mainland, a traveller finds on his left the miserable town of Erdek, the ancient
Artace. The site of Cyzicus is near the isthmus on the east side, hi 40° 22? 30?
N. lat. (Hamilton, Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 103.) The Turks call the ruins
of Cyzicus Bal Kiz, the second part of which seems to be a part of the ancient
name; and Bal is probably a Turkish corruption of the Greek Palaia. (Leake, Asia
Minor, p. 271.) There is a place called Aidinjik near the isthmus, on the mainland
side, where there are many marble fragments which have been brought from the neighbouring
site of Cyzicus.
Strabo (p. 575) says that Cyzicus is an island in the Propontis, which
is joined to the mainland by two bridges, and very fertile: it is about 500 stadia
in circuit, and contains a city of the same name close to the bridges, and two
closed harbours, and shiphouses (neosoikoi) above 200: one part of the city is
on level ground, and the other is close to a hill, which they call Bear Hill (Arkton
oros): there is another hill that lies above the city, a single height called
Dindymon, which contains a temple of Dindymene the mother of the gods, which was
founded by the Argonauts. Stephanus (s. v. Kuzikos) says that the town was also
called Arkton nesos. The junction of the island with the main is attributed to
Alexander by Pliny (v. 32), who does not say how the junction was made. Apollonius
Rhodius, who wrote after Alexander's time, still calls it an island (Argon. i.
936), but he also speaks of an isthmus. He names one of the ports Chytus; the
other was named Panormus, as the Scholiast tells us. It is said that there are
no signs of the bridges. The isthmus is above a mile long, and less than half
a mile broad. It seems probable that moles were pushed out some distance, and
then the opposite shores were connected by bridges. The whole passage is now a
sandy flat. Hamilton (Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 98) says, we crossed the sandy
isthmus which connects Cyzicus with the mainland; near the south end, many large
blocks of stone, dug up in clearing a neighbouring vineyard, had been collected
into a heap. The east side of the isthmus is now an extensive marsh, covered with
reeds, and probably marks the site of the principal port of Cyzicus, separated
from the sea-shore by a low ridge of sand hills thrown up by the united efforts
of the winds and waves. Near the northern extremity, a long ditch runs from E.
to W. full of water, with a wall of great strength, fortified by towers along
its northern bank; its opening towards the sea is choked up by drifted sand, but
it seems to be the entrance through which the galleys of Cyzicus were admitted
to her capacious port. (Hamilton.)
The ruins of Cyzicus are among cherry orchards and vineyards. There
is a heap of ruins covered with brushwood, where there are many subterraneous
passages, some of which may be explored to the length of more than a hundred feet.
These passages are connected with each other, and appear to be the substructions
of some large buildings. Cyzicus in Strabo's time had many large public buildings
(Strab. p. 575), and it maintained three architects to look after them and the
machinery (organa). It possessed three store-houses, one for arms, one for the
machinery or engines, and one for corn. The masonry of these substructions is
chiefly Hellenic, but in some places the walls are only cased with blocks of stone:
in the roof of one of the vaults is a small square opening, regularly formed with
a keystone, all belonging to the original construction. (Hamilton.) If these substructions
are not those of the public granary, they may belong, as Hamilton suggests, to
the great temple described by Aristides in his oration on Cyzicus (vol. i. p.
237, ed. Jebb); but the extravagant bombast of this wordy rhetorician diminishes
our confidence in what he says. The Agora, he says, contained a most magnificent
temple, and he speaks of the parts below ground being worthy of admiration. Xiphilinus
(Dion Cass. vol. ii. p. 1173, ed. Reimarus) says that the great temple of Cyzicus
was destroyed by an earthquake in the time of Antoninus Pius; but this must be
a mistake, and he means to speak of the great earthquake that destroyed Smyrna
and other cities in the time of Marcus, the successor of Pius. Aristides wrote
a letter on the calamity of the city of Smyrna, addressed to Aurelius and Commodus.
This temple is described by Xiphilinus as of extraordinary dimensions: the columns
were fifty cubits high, and of one stone. The Cyziceni used the white marble of
Proconnesus for building. (Strab. p. 588.) About a mile NE. by N. from these substructions
are the remains of an amphitheatre, built in a wooded valley to the north of the
plain, where are the principal ruins of the city. Many of the pilasters and massive
buttresses have yielded to the influence of time, but seven or eight are still
standing on the west side of the valley, by which the circular form of the building
may be distinctly traced. (Hamilton.) A small stream flows through the middle
of the arena; which circumstance, and the character of the masonry at the upper
end of the building, led Hamilton to suppose that the place was also used as a
Naumachia. On a wooded hill to the east of the city, situated above the ruins,
and near the apex of the city walls, there are only blocks of marble and broken
columns built into the walls of the cottages. The site of the theatre, which faces
the SW., is almost overgrown with luxuriant vegetation. It is very large, and
appears to be of Greek construction, but it is in a very ruined state. Some parts
of the substructions can be traced, but there is not a block of marble to be seen,
nor a single seat remaining in its place. There are vestiges of the city walls
in various parts, but it does not appear easy to trace their whole extent. Hamilton
in one place speaks of heaps of ruins, long walls, and indistinct foundations,
but so overgrown with vegetation that it was impossible to make them out. He only
found one inscription, a Greek one, of the Roman period. On the whole, says Hamilton,
I must say that the loose and rubbly character of the buildings of Cyzicus little
accords with the celebrity of its architects; and although some appear to have
been cased with marble, none of them give an idea of the solid grandeur of the
genuine Greek style. It seems likely that the larger blocks of marble have been
carried away, though there is no large modern town near Cyzicus; but the materials
of many ancient towns near the sea have doubtless been carried off to remote places.
There are quarries of fine marble on the hills about Cyzicus, and near Aidinjik
on the mainland; but granite was much used in the buildings of Cyzicus, and it
is of a kind which is rapidly decomposed. The consequence is, that a rich vegetation
has grown up, which itself destroys buildings and buries them. The sea-sand also
that has been blown up on both sides of the isthmus may have covered the basements
at least of many buildings. It seems likely, then, that excavations would bring
to light many remains of a rich city, of which Strabo says, that in his time it
rivals the first cities of Asia in magnitude, beauty, and its excellent institutions,
both civil and military, and it appears to be embellished in like fashion with
the city of the Rhodii, the Massaliotae, and the Carthaginians of old.
The origin of this town seems unknown. A people called Doliones or
Dolieis (Steph. s. v. Doliones) once lived about Cyzicus, but Strabo says that
it was difficult to fix their limits. Conon (Narrat. 41, apud Phot.) has a story
of Cyzicus being settled by Pelasgi from Thessaly, who were driven from Thessaly
by Aeolians. Their king and leader was Cyzicus, a son of Apollo, who gave his
name to the peninsula which he occupied; for it may be observed that it seems
somewhat doubtful, if we look at all the authorities, whether Cyzicus was considered
by the Greeks to have been originally an island or a peninsula. If it was originally
a peninsula, we must suppose that a canal was cut across it, and afterwards was
bridged. This king Cyzicus was killed by Jason on the voyage to Colchis, and after
the death of Cyzicus, perhaps some time after according to the legend, Tyrrheni
seized the place, who were driven out by Milesians. Cyzicus was reckoned among
the settlements of Miletus by Anaximenes of Lampsacus, and also Artace on the
same island or peninsula. (Strabo, p. 635.) Cyzicus is not mentioned in the Iliad.
The Cyziceni are said to have surrendered to the Persians after the
conquest of Miletus. (Herod. vi. 33.) The place afterwards became a dependency
on Athens; for it revolted from the Athenians, who recovered it after the battle
of Cynossema (B.C. 411),--at which time it was unwalled, as Thucydides observes
(viii. 107). These scanty notices of Cyzicus, and the fact of its having no fortifications
near the close of the Peloponnesian War, seem to show that it was still an inconsiderable
city. The Athenians, on getting the place again, laid a contribution on the people.
The next year (B.C. 410) the Cyziceni had the same ill luck. Mindarus the Spartan
admiral was there with his ships, and Pharnabazus the Persian with his troops.
Alcibiades defeated Mindarus, and the Cyziceni, being deserted by the Peloponnesians
and Pharnabazus, again received the Athenians, and again had to part with their
money. We learn from the notice of this affair in Xenophon (Hell. i. 1. § 16)
that Cyzicus had a port at this time. After the defeat of the Athenians at Aegospotami,
Cyzicus seems to have come again under the Lacedaemonians; but as the peace of
Antalcidas (B.C. 387) gave all the cities in Asia to the Persian king, Cyzicus
was among them.
Cyzicus appears to have obtained its independence after the time of
Alexander, but the notices of it are very scanty. Attalus I. of Pergamum, the
father of Eumenes, married a woman of Cyzicus, named Apollonias, who was distinguished
for her good sense (Polyb. xxiii. 18); and we read of the Cyziceni sending twenty
ships to join the fleet of Athenaeus, the brother of Attalus II., King of Pergamum.
(Polyb. xxxiii. 11.) We know nothing of the fortunate circumstances which gave
this town the wealth that it had, when Mithridates attempted to take it B.C. 74.
It is probable that it had become one of the outlets for the products of the interior
of the Asiatic peninsula, and it is said to have been well administered. The Cyziceni
sustained a great loss in a fight with Mithridates at Chalcedon, and soon after
the king attacked Cyzicus. He posted his troops on the mainland opposite to the
city, at the foot of the mountain range of Adrasteia; and with his ships he blockaded
the narrow passage that separated the city from the main. The strength of the
walls, which had been built in the interval since the Peloponnesian war, and the
abundant stores of the citizens enabled them to hold out against the enemy. The
Roman commander L. Lucullus was in the neighbourhood off Cyzicus, and he cut off
the supplies of Mithridates, whose army suffered from famine, and was at last
obliged to abandon the siege with great loss. (Plut. Lucull. c. 9, &c.; Appian,
Mithridat. c. 72, &c.; Strab. p. 575; Cic. pro Arch c. 9) The Romans rewarded
Cyzicus by making it a Libera Civitas, as it was in Strabo's time, who observes
that it had a considerable territory, part of it an ancient, possession and part
the gift of the Romans. He adds that they possessed on the Troad the parts beyond
the Aesepus about Zeleia; and also the plain of Adrasteia, which was that part
of the mainland that was opposite to Cyzicus. They had also part of the tract
on the Lake Dascylitis, and a large tract bordering on the Doliones and Mygdones,
as far as the Lake Miletopolitis and the Apolloniatis. Strabo (p. 587) speaks
of a place at the common boundary of the territory of Priapus and Cyzicus, from
which it appears that the possessions of these two towns bordered on one another,
on the coast at least, in the time of Strabo. Indeed Priapus, according to some
authorities, was a colony of Cyzicus. It appears that the greatest prosperity
of Cyzicus dates from the time of the defeat of Mithridates. It possessed a large
tract on the south side of the Propontis, and there were no other large cities
on this side of the Propontis in the Roman period, except Nicomedia and Nicaea.
The produce of the basin of the Rhyndacus would come down to Cyzicus. Tacitus
(Ann. iv. 36) says that Tiberius (A.D. 25) deprived Cyzicus of its privilege of
a free city (Dion Cass. liv. 7, 23; Sueton. Tib. c. 37) for not paying due religious
respect to the memory of Augustus, and for ill treating some Roman citizens. This
shows that Strabo must have written what he says of Cyzicus being Libera before
the revocation. The effect of the revocation of this privilege would be to place
Cyzicus altogether and immediately under the authority of the Roman governor of
Asia. Cyzicus, however, continued to be a flourishing place under the empire,
though it suffered from the great earthquake which has been already mentioned.
In the time of Caracalla it received the title of Metropolis. It also became a
bishop's see under the later empire.
Cyzicus produced some writers, a list of whom is given in a note on
Thucydides (viii. 107) by Wasse. (Cramer, Asia Minor, i. 47, note.) It had also
some works of art, among which Cicero (Verr. ii. 4. c. 60) mentions paintings
of Ajax and Medea, which the dictator Caesar afterwards bought. (Plin. viii. 38.)
At some period in their history the Cyziceni conquered Proconnesus, and carried
off from there a statue of the Meter Dindymene. It was a chryselephantine statue;
but the covering of the face, instead of being plates of ivory, was made of the
teeth of the hippopotamus. (Paus. viii. 46. § 4.) Cyzicus also produced a kind
of unguent or perfume that was in repute, made from a plant which Pliny calls
Cyzicena amaracus (Plin. xiii.; Paus. iv. 36. § 5); but Apollonius, quoted by
Athenaeus (xv. p. 688), speaks of it as made from an Iris. It was also noted for
its mint, which produced the gold coins or stateres called Cyziceni (Kuzikenoi),
which had a wide circulation. The Cyzicenus had on one side a female head, and
[p. 742] on the other a lion's head. (Hesychius, s. v. Kuzikenoi; Suidas, s. v.
Kuzikenoi stateres.) The head is supposed to be that of Cybele. The value of the
coin was 28 Attic drachmae. (Dem. in Phorm. p. 914.) The autonomous coins of Cyzicus
are said to be rare, but there is a complete series of imperial coins. It does
not appear where the Cyziceni got their gold from, but it is not improbable that
it was once found on the island or on the neighbouring mainland. Pliny (xxxvi.
15) says that there was in his time a temple at Cyzicus, in which the architect
had placed a golden thread along all the joinings of the polished stone. The contrast
between the gold and the white marble would probably produce a good effect. The
passage of Pliny contains something more about Cyzicus, and the story of the fugitivus
lapis, which was once the anchor of the Argonautae. The stone often ran away from
the Prytaneum, till at last they wisely secured it with lead.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LAMPONION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Lamponeia or Lamponeium (Lamponeia, Lamponion an Aeolian town in the south-west
of Troas, of which no particulars are known, except that it was annexed to Persia
by the satrap Otanes in the reign of Darius Hystaspis. It is mentioned only by
the earliest writers. (Herod. v. 26; Strab. xiii.; Steph. B. s. v.)
LAMPSAKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Lampsakenos: Eth. Lampsakenos. Sometimes also called Lampsacum (Cic.
in Verr. i. 2. 4; Pomp. Mela, i. 19), was one of the most celebrated Greek settlements
in Mysia on the Hellespont. It was known to have existed under the name of Pityusa
or Pityussa before it received colonists from the Ionian cities of Phocaea and
Miletus. (Strab. xiii. p. 589; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. v. 40; Hom. Il. ii. 829
; Plut. de Virt. Mul. 18.) It was situated, opposite to Callipolis, in the Thracian
Chersonesus, and possessed an excellent harbour. Herodotus (vi. 37) relates that
the elder Miltiades, who was settled in the Thracian Chersonesus, made war upon
the Lampsaceni, but that they took him by surprise, and made him their prisoner.
Being threatened, however, by Croesus, who supported Miltiades, they set him free.
During the Ionian revolt, the town fell into the hands of the Persians. (Herod.
v. 117.) The territory about Lampsacus produced excellent wine, whence the king
of Persia bestowed it upon Themistocles, that he might thence provide himself
with wine. (Thucyd. i. 138; Athen. i. p. 29; Diod. xi. 57; Plut. Them. 29; Nepos,
Them. 10; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8.) But even while Lampsacus acknowledged the supremacy
of Persia, it continued to be governed by a native prince or tyrant, of the name
of Hippocles. His son Aeantides married Archedice, a daughter of Pisistratus,
whose tomb, commemorating her virtues, was seen there in the time of Thucydides
(vi. 59). The attempt of Euagon to seize the citadel, and thereby to make himself
tyrant, seems to belong to the same period. (Athen. xi. p. 508.) After the battle
of Mycale, in B.C. 479, Lampsacus joined Athens, but revolted after the failure
of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily; being, however, unfortified, it was
easily reconquered by a fleet under Strombichides. (Thuc. viii. 62.) After the
time of Alexander the Great, the Lampsaceni had to defend their city against the
attacks of Antiochus of Syria; they voted a crown of gold to the Romans, and were
received by them as allies. (Liv. xxxiii. 38, xxxv. 42, xliii. 6; Polyb. xxi.
10.) In the time of Strabo, Lampsacus was still a flourishing city. It was the
birthplace of many distinguished authors and philosophers, such as Charon the
historian, Anaximenes the orator, and Metrodorus the disciple of Epicurus, who
himself resided there for many years, and reckoned some of its citizens among
his intimate friends. (Strab. 1. c.; Diog. Laert. x. 11.) Lampsacus possessed
a fine statue by Lysippus, representing a prostrate lion, but it was removed by
Agrippa to Rome to adorn the Campus Martius. (Strab. l. c.) Lampsacus, as is well
known, was the chief seat of the obscene worship of Priapus, who was believed
to have been born there of Aphrodite. (Athen. i. p. 30; Pans. ix. 31. § 2; Apollon.
Rhod. i. 983 ; Ov. Fast. vi. 345; Virg. Georg. iv. 110.) From this circumstance
the whole district was believed to have derived the name of Abarnis or Aparnis
(aparneisthai), because Aphrodite denied that she had given birth to him. (Theophr.
Hist. Plant. i. 6, 13.) The ancient name of the district had been Bebrycia, probably
from the Thracian Bebryces, who had settled there. (Comp. Hecat. Fragm. 207; Charon,
Fragm. 115, 119; Xenoph. Anab. vii. 8. § 1; Polyb. v. 77; Plin. iv. 18, v. 40;
Ptol. v. 2. § 2; Steph. B. s. v.) The name of Lamsaki is still attached to a small
town, near which Lampsacus probably stood, as Lamsaki itself contains no remains
of antiquity. There are gold and silver staters of Lampsacus in different collections
; the imperial coins have been traced from Augustus to Gallienus.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LARISSA (Ancient city) TROAS
A place on the coast of Troas, about 70 stadia south of Alexandria
Troas, and north of Hamaxitus. It was supposed that this Larissa was the one mentioned
by Homer (Il. ii. 841), but Strabo (xiii. p. 620) controverts this opinion, because
it is not far enough from Troy. (Comp. Steph. B. s. v.) The town is mentioned
as still existing by Thu cydides (viii. 101) and Xenophon (Hellen. iii 1. § 13;
comp. Scylax, p. 36; Strab. ix. p. 440, xiii. p. 604). Athenaeus (ii. p. 43) mentions
some hot springs near Larissa in Troas, which are still known to exist a little
above the site of Alexandria Troas.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LYSIMACHIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Lysimachia (Lusimachia or Lusimacheia). An important town on the north-western
extremity of the Thracian Chersonesus, not far from the Sinus Melas. It was built
by Lysimachus in B.C. 309, when he was preparing for the last struggle with his
rivals; for the new city, being situated on the isthmus, commanded the road from
Sestos to the north and the mainland of Thrace. In order to obtain inhabitants
for his new city, Lysimachus destroyed the neighbouring town of Cardia, the birthplace
of the historian Hieronymus. (Strab. ii. p. 134, vii. p. 331; Paus. i. 9. § 10;
Diod xx. 29; Polyb. v. 34; Plin. H. N. iv. 18.) Lysimachus no doubt made Lysimachia
the capital of his kingdom, and it must have rapidly risen to great splendour
and prosperity. After his death the city fell under the dominion of Syria, and
during the wars between Seleucus Callinicus and Ptolemy Euergetes it passed from
the hands of the Syrians into those of the Egyptians. Whether these latter set
the town free, or whether it emancipated itself, is uncertain, at any rate it
entered into the relation of sympolity with the Aetolians. But as the Aetolians
were not able to afford it the necessary protection, it was destroyed by the Thracians
during the war of the Romans against Philip of Macedonia. Antiochus the Great
restored the place, collected the scattered and enslaved inhabitants, and attracted
colonists from all parts by liberal promises. (Liv. xxxiii. 38, 40; Diod. Exc.
de Virt. et Vit. p. 574.) This restoration, however, appears to have been unsuccessful,
and under the dominion of Rome it decayed more and more. The last time the place
is mentioned under its ancient name, is in a passage of Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii.
8). The emperor Justinian restored it and surrounded it with strong fortifications
Procop. de Aed. iv. 10), and after that time it is spoken of only under the name
of Hexamilium (Hexamilion; Symeon, Logoth. p. 408). The place now occupying the
place of Lysimachia, Ecsemil, derives its name from the Justinianean fortress,
though the ruins of the ancient place are more numerous in the neighbouring village
of Baular.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MADYTOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Madytus (Madutos: Eth. Madutios), an important port town in the Thracian
Chersonesus, on the Hellespont, nearly opposite to Abydos. (Liv. xxxi. 16, xxxiii.
38; Mela, ii. 2; Anna Comn. xiv. p. 429; Steph. Byz. s. v.; Strab. vii. p. 331.)
Ptolemy (iii. 12. § 4) mentions in the same district a town of the name of Madis,
which some identify with Madytus, but which seems to have been situated more inland.
It is generally believed that Maito marks the site of the ancient Madytus.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MILITOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Miletopolis, a town in the north of Mysia, at the confluence of the
rivers Macestus and Rhyndacus, and on the west of the lake which derives its name
from it. (Strab. xii. p. 575, xiv. p. 681; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. v. 32, 40.)
Some modern geographers, as D'Anville and Mannert, have identified Miletopolis
with the modern Beli Kessr or Balikesri, but this place is situated too far S.
Leake, too, seems to place Miletopolis too far SW. of the lake, and identifies
it with Minias, which others regard as the site of the ancient Poemanenum. The
most probable view is, that the site of Miletopolis is marked by the modern Moalitsh
or Muhalitsch, or by the place Hamamli, near which many ruins of an ancient town
are found. (Hamilton, Researches, &c., vol. i. p. 81. &c., vol. ii. p. 91.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MYSIA (Ancient country) TURKEY
Mysia (Musia: Eth. Musos, Mysus), the name of a province in the north-west
of Asia Minor, which according to Strabo (xii. p. 572) was derived from the many
beech-trees which grew about Mount Olympus, and were called by the Lydians musoi.
Others more plausibly connect the name with the Celtic moese, a marsh or swamp,
according to which Mysia would signify a marshy country. This supposition is supported
by the notion prevalent among the ancients that the Mysians had immigrated into
Asia Minor from the marshy countries about the Lower Danube, called Moesia, whence
Mysia and Moesia would be only dialectic varieties of the same name. Hence, also,
the Mysians are sometimes mentioned with the distinctive attribute of the Asiatic,
to distinguish them from the European Mysians, or Moesians. (Eustath. ad Dion.
Per. 809; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 1115.)
The Asiatic province of Mysia was bounded in the north by the Propontis
and the Hellespont, in the west by the Aegean, and in the south by Mount Temnus
and Lydia. In the east the limits are not accurately defined by the ancients,
though it was bounded by Bithynia and Phrygia, and we may assume the river Rhyndacus
and Mount Olympus to have, on the whole, formed the boundary line. (Strab. xii.
pp. 564, &c., 571.) The whole extent of country bearing the name of Mysia, was
divided into five parts : - 1. Mysia Minor (Musia he mikra, that is, the northern
coast-district on the Hellespont and Propontis, as far as Mount Olympus; it also
bore the name of Mysia Hellespontiaca, or simply Hellespontus, and its inhabitants
were called Hellespontii (Ptol. v. 2. §§ 2, 3, 14; Xenoph. Ages. i. 14) ; or,
from Mount Olympus, Mysia Olympene (Musia he Olumpene (Strab. xii. p. 571). This
Lesser Mysia embraced the districts of Morene, Abrettene and the Apian plain (Apias
pedion; Strab. xii. pp. 574, 576.) 2. Mysia Major (Musia e megale), forming the
southern part of the interior of the country, including a tract of country extending
between Troas and Aeolis as far as the bay of Adramyttium. The principal city
of this part was Pergamum, from which the country is also called Mysia Pergamene
(Musia he Pergamene; Strab. l. c.; Ptol. v. 2. §§ 5, 14.) 3. Troas (he Troas),
the territory of ancient Troy, that is, the northern part of the western coast,
from Sigeium to the bay of Adramyttium. 4. Aeolis the southern part of the coast,
especially that between the rivers Caicus and Hermus. 5. Teuthrania (he Tenthrania),
or the district on the southern frontier, where in ancient times Teuthras is said
to have formed a Mysian kingdom. (Strab. xii. p. 551.)
These names and divisions, however, were not the same at all times.
Under the Persian dominion, when Mysia formed a part of the second satrapy (Herod.
iii. 90), the name Mysia was applied only to the north-eastern part of the country,
that is, to Mysia Minor; while the western part of the coast of the Hellespont
bore the name of Lesser Phrygia, and the district to the south of the latter that
of Troas. (Scylax, p. 35.) In the latest times of the Roman Empire, that is, under
the Christian emperors, the greater part of Mysia was contained in the province
bearing the name of Hellespontus, while the southern districts as far as Troas
belonged to the province of Asia. (Hierocl. p. 658.)
The greater part of Mysia is a mountainous country, being traversed
by the north-western branches of Mount Taurus, which gradually slope down towards
the Aegean, the main branches being Mount Ida and Mount Temnus. The country is
also rich in rivers, though most of them are small, and not navigable; but, notwithstanding
its abundant supply of water in rivers and lakes, the country was in ancient times
less productive than other provinces of Asia Minor, and many parts of it were
covered with marshes and forests. Besides the ordinary products of Asia Minor,
and the excellent wheat of Assus (Strab. xv. p. 725), Mysia was celebrated for
a kind of stone called lapis assius (sarkophagos), which had the power of quickly
consuming the human body, whence it was used for coffins (sarcophagi), and partly
powdered and strewed over dead bodies. (Dioscorid. v. 141 ; Plin. ii. 98, xxxvi.
27; Steph. B. s. v. Assos.) Near the coasts of the Hellespont there were excellent
oyster beds. (Plin. xxxii. 21; Catull. xviii. 4; Virg. Georg. i. 207; Lucan ix.959;
comp. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 13.) The country of Mysia was inhabited by
several tribes, as Phrygians, Trojans, Aeolians, and Mysians;. but we must here
confine ourselves to the Mysians, from whom the country derived its name. Mysians
are mentioned in the Iliad (ii. 858, x. 430, xiii. 5), and seem to be conceived
by the poet as dwelling on the Hellespont in that part afterwards called Mysia
Minor. Thence they seem, during the period subsequent to the Trojan, War, to have
extended themselves both westward and southward. (Strab. xii. p. 665.) Herodotus
(vii. 74) describes them as belonging to the same stock as the Lydians, with whom
they were always stationed together in the Persian armies (Herod. i. 171), and
who probably spoke a language akin to theirs. Strabo (vii. pp. 295, 303, xii.
pp. 542, 564, &c.) regards them as a tribe that had immigrated into Asia from
Europe. It is difficult to see how these two statements are to be reconciled,
or to decide which of them is more entitled to belief. As no traces of the Mysian
language have come down to us, we cannot pronounce a positive opinion, though
the evidence, so far as it can be gathered, seems to be in favour of Strabo's
view, especially if we bear in mind the alleged identity of Moesians and Mysians.
It is, moreover, not quite certain as to whether the Mysians in Homer are to be
conceived as Asiatics or as Europeans. If this view be correct, the Mysians must
have crossed over into Asia either before, or soon after the Trojan War. Being
afterwards pressed by other immigrants, they advanced farther into the country,
extending in the south-west as far as Pergamum, and in the east as far as Catacecaumene.
About the time of the Aeolian migration, they founded, under Teuthras, the kingdom
of Teuthrania, which was soon destroyed, but gave the district in which it had
existed its permanent name. The people which most pressed upon them in the north
and east seem to have been the Bithynians.
In regard to their history, the Mysians shared the fate of all the
nations in the west of Asia Minor. In B.C. 190, when Antiochus was driven from
Western Asia, they became incorporated with the kingdom of Pergamus; and when
this was made over to Rome, they formed a part of the province of Asia. Respecting
their national character and institutions we possess scarcely any information;
but if we may apply to them that which Posidonius (in Strab. vii. p. 296) states
of the European Moesians, they were a pious and peaceable nomadic people, who
lived in a very simple manner on the produce of their flocks, and had not made
great advances in [p. 390] civilisation. Their language was, according to Strabo
(xii. p. 572), a mixture of Lydian and Phrygian, that is, perhaps, a dialect akin
to both of them. Their comparatively low state of civilisation seems also to be
indicated by the armour attributed to them by Herodotus (vii. 74), which consisted
of a common helmet, a small shield, and a javelin, the point of which was hardened
by fire. At a later time, the influence of the Greeks by whom they were surrounded
seems to have done away with everything that was peculiar to them as a nation,
and to have draw n them into the sphere of Greek civilisation. (Comp. Forbiger,
Handbuch der alten Geographie, vol. ii. p. 110, &c.; Cramer, Asia Minor, i. p.
30, &c.; Niebuhr, Lect. on Anc. Hist. vol. i. p. 83, &c.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Placus (Plakos), a woody mountain of Mysia, at the foot of which Thebe is said
to have been situated in the Iliad (vi. 397, 425, xxii. 479); but Strabo (xiii.
p. 614) was unable to learn anything about such a mountain in that neighbourhood.
NEANDRIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Neandreia, Neandrium, Neandrus (Neandreia, NeandrioW, Neandros: Eth.
Neandreus or Neandrieus), a town in Troas, probably founded by Aeolians; in the
time of Strabo it had disappeared, its inhabitants, together with those of other
neigh-bouring places, having removed to Alexandreia. (Strab. xiii. pp. 604, 606.)
According to Scylax (p. 36) and Stephanus Byz. (s. v.), Neandreia was a maritime
town on the Hellespont ; and Strabo might perhaps be supposed to be mistaken in
placing it in the interior above Hamaxitus ; but he is so explicit in his description,
marking its distance from New Ilium at 130 stadia, that it is scarcely possible
to conceive him to be in the wrong. Hence Leake (Asia Minor, p. 274), adopting
him as his guide, seeks the site of Neandreia in the lower valley of the Scamander,
near the modern town of Ene.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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