Listed 15 sub titles with search on: Various locations for wider area of: "KOLCHIS Ancient country GEORGIA" .
FASSIS (Ancient city) KOLCHIS
(Chobos). A river of Colchis falling into the Euxine, north of the mouth of the Phasis.
Apsarus (Apsaros, Apsorros), or Absarum (Plin. vi. 4), a river and
a fort, as Pliny calls it, in faucibus, 140 M.P. east of Trapezus (Trebizond).
Arrian (Peripl. p. 7) places this military station 1000 stadia from Trapezus,
and 450 or 490 stadia south of the Phasis, and about the point where the coast
turns north. The distance of 127 miles in the Peutinger Table agrees with Arrian.
Accordingly several geographers place Absarum near a town called Gonieh. Its name
was connected with the myth of Medea and her brother Absyrtus, and its original
name was Absyrtus. (Stephan. s. v. Apsurtides.) Procopius (Bell. Goth. iv. 2)
speaks of the remains of its public buildings as proving that it was once a place
of some importance.
Arrian does not mention a river Apsarus. He places the navigable
river Acampsis 15 stadia from Absarum, and Pliny makes the Apsarus and Acampsis
two different rivers. The Acampsis of Arrian is generally assumed to be the large
river Joruk, which rises NW. of Erzerum, and enters the Euxine near Batun. Pliny
(vi. 9) says that the Absarus rises in the Paryadres, and with that mountain range
forms the boundary in those parts between the Greater and Less Armenia. This description
can only apply to the Joruk, which is one of the larger rivers of Armenia, and
the present boundary between the Pashalicks of Trebizond and Kars. (Brant, London
Geog. Journ. vol. vi. p. 193.) Ptolemy's account of his Apsorrus agrees with that
of Pliny, and he says that it is formed by the union of two large streams, the
Glaucus and Lyeus ; and the Joruk consists of two large branches, one called the
Joruk and the other the Ajerah, which unite at no great distance above Batun.
It seems, then, that the name Acampsis and Apsarus has been applied to the same
river by different writers. Mithridates, in his flight after being defeated by
Cn. Pompeius, came to the Euphrates, and then to the river Apsarus. (Mithrid.
c. 101.) It is conjectured that the river which Xenophon (Anab. iv. 8, 1) mentions
without a name, as the boundary of the Macrones and the Scythini, may be the Joruk;
and this is probable.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Bathys (Bathus), a small river on the coast of Pontus, 75 stadia north of the
Acampsis (Arr. p. 7), and of course between that river and the Phasis. It is also
mentioned by Pliny (vi. 4), who places only one stream between it and the Phasis.
KOLCHIS (Ancient country) GEORGIA
Phasis, has been made passable by one hundred and twenty bridges because of the windings of its course, flows down into Colchis with rough and violent stream, the region being cut into ravines by many torrents at the time of the heavy rains. The Phasis rises in the mountains that lie above it, where it is supplied by many springs; and in the plains it receives still other rivers, among which are the Glaucus and the Hippus. Thus filled and having by now become navigable, it issues forth into the Pontus; and it has on its banks a city bearing the same name; and near it is a lake.
Phasis (Phasis), a navigable river in Colchis, on the east of the Euxine, which was regarded in ancient times as forming the boundary between Europe and Asia, and as the remotest point in the east to which a sailer on the Euxine could proceed. (Strab. xi. p. 497; Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 687; Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 19; Herod. iv. 40; Plat. Phaed. p. 109; Anonym. Peripl. Pont. p. 1; Procop. Bell. Goth. iv. 2, 6.) Subsequently it came to be looked upon as forming the boundary line between Asia Minor and Colchis. Its sources are in the southernmost part of the Montes Moschici (Plin. vi. 4; Solin. 20); and as these mountains were sometimes regarded as a part of Mount Caucasus, Aristotle and others place its sources in the Caucasus. (Strab. xi. p. 492, xii. p. 548; Aristot. Met. i. 13; Procop. l. c.; Geogr. Rav. iv. 20.) Strabo (xi. p. 497; comp. Dionys. Per. 694; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 401) makes the Phasis in a general way flow from the mountains of Armenia, and Apollonius specifies its sources as existing in the country of the Amaranti, in Colchis. For the first part of its course westward it bore the name Boas (Procop. Bell. Pers. ii. 29), and after receiving the waters of its tributaries Rhion, Glaucus, and Hippus, it discharges itself as a navigable river into the Euxine, near the town of Phasis. (Strab. xi. pp. 498, 500; Plin. l. c.) Some of the most ancient writers believed, that the Phasis was connected with the Northern Ocean. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 259; Pind. Pyth. iv. 376, Isthm. ii. 61.) The length of its course was also erroneously estimated by some at 800 Roman miles (Jul. Honor. p. 697, ed. Gronov.), but Aethicus (Cosmogr. p. 719) states it more correctly to be only 305 miles. The fact is that its course is by no means very long, but rapid, and of such a nature as to form almost a semicircle; whence Agathemerus (ii. 10) states that its mouth was not far from its sources. (Comp. Strab. xi. p. 500; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 401; Ov. Met. vii. 6; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8; Prise. 673.) The water of the Phasis is described as very cold, and as so light that it swam like oil on the Euxine. (Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 7, &c.; Procop. Bell. Pers. ii. 30; comp. Hesiod. Theog. 340; Hecat. Fragm. 187; Herod. iv. 37, 45, 86; Scylax, p. 25; Polyb. iv. 56, v. 55; Ptol. v. 10. § § 1, 2.) The different statements of the ancients respecting the sources and the course of this river probably arose from the fact that different rivers were understood by the name Phasis; but the one which in later times was commonly designated by it, is undoubtedly the modern Rioni or Rion, which is sometimes also mentioned under the name Fachs, a corruption of Phasis. It has been conjectured with great probability that the river called Phasis by Aeschylus (ap. Arrian, l. c.) is the Hypanis; and that the Phasis of Xenophon (Anab. iv. 6. § 4) is no other than the Araxes, which is actually mentioned by Constantine Porphyr. (de Admin. Imp. 45) under the two names Erax and Phasis.
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
a fortress capable of admitting the population even of a city.
(ta Moschika ore). A range of mountains forming the boundary between Colchis and Iberia. They were named from the Moschi who dwelt among them.
Archaeopolis (Archaiopolis), a city of Colchis, on the borders of Iberia, in a
very strong position on a rock near the river Phasis. At the time of the Byzantine
empire, it was the capital of the Lazic kingdom. (Procop. B. G. iv. 13; Agath.
iii. 5, 8,17.)
Astelephus (Astelephos), one of the small rivers of Colchis, rising in the Caucasus,
and falling into the Euxine 120 stadia S. of Dioscurias or Sebastopolis, and 30
stadia N. of the river Hippus. (Arrian. Perip. Pont. Eux. 9, 10; Plin. vi. 4.)
It is also called Stelippon (Geogr. Rav.) and Stempeo (Tab. Peut.). Different
modern writers attempt to identify it with different streams of the many on this
coast: namely; the Markhoula or Tamusch, the Mokri or Aksu, the Shijam or Keleuhol,
and the Kodor. (Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2, p. 204; Mannert, vol. iv. p. 394; Forbiger,
vol. ii. p. 443.)
Cyaneus (Kuaneos, Ptol. v. 10. § 2; Plin. vi. 3. 4), a river of Colchis,
a little to the south of Dioscurias. According to Pliny, it must have been a river
of some size; and he designates both it and the Hippus, which fell into the Euxine
near it, as vasti amnes. It has been conjectured that it is the same river which
Scylax called the Gyenus (or, according to Gail's reading, Tyenus). Ritter (Erdk.
vol. ii. p. 915) speaks of a castle called Gonieh in the neighbourhood, which
perhaps confirms the original form of the word Gyenus.
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