CHAPTER XI. ASIA MINOR. Plate XIII. THE Country which we call Asia Minor (a term not in use among the antients, who called it simply Asia,) is now called Anatolia, or rather Anadoli, from dvaron, the East. It comprises the provinces between the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas. Along the shore of the Pontus Euxinus, adjoining the Propontis, is Bithynia; next to which is Paphlagonia; and East of it Pontus, reaching to the river Ophis. where the shore of the Pontus Euxinus begins to turn to the North. Below the Eastern part of Bythynia and Paphlagonia is Galatia. South of the Propontis is Mysia, below it Lydia, and below Lydia is Caria. These three provinces lie along the Eastern shores of the Ægean, but their coasts are chiefly occupied by Grecian colonies. Below the Hellespont, the coast of Mysia is called Troas, the celebrated scene of the Iliad of Homer. The South coast of Mysia and a little of the North of Lydia is called Æolis, or Æolia. The remaining coast of Lydia is called Ionia. There were also some Ionian cities on the coast of Caria; and the South-west coast of Caria was called Doris. East of Caria was Lycia; and East of Lycia, Pamphylia: with Pisidia to the North, and to the North-east Isauria and Lycaonia. East of Pamphylia was Cilicia. In the centre, East of Lydia, was the large province of Phrygia, and East of Phrygia was Cappadocia. Bithynia was originally called Bebrycia: two Thracian nations, the Thyni and Bithyni, who settled there, gave it the name of Bithynia. It is separated from Mysia by the Rhyndacus on the West and from Paphlagonia by the Parthenius on the East; on the north it is bounded by the Pontus Euxinus, and on the South by Phrygia and Galatia. On the Western frontier, the great mountain of Olympus gave the name of Olympena to the surrounding territory. At the foot of Olympus was the city Prusa, or Bursa, which gave the title of Prusias to the kings of Bithynia. the betrayer of Hannibal to the himself to escape falling into A.U.C. 571. The next city we shall mention is Nicæa. now Isnik, on the banks of the lake Ascanius, Northeast of Prusa. Here was the famous General Council held under Constantine the Great, when the Nicene One of this name was Romans, who poisoned their hands, B.C. 183, Creed was drawn up, A.D. 325. North of Nicæa is Nicomedia, now called Isnickmid; and West of it, towards the Bosporus, is Libyssa, now Gebise, which derived its name from containing the tomb of the great African general, Hannibal. At the point where the Propontis begins to contract was Chalcedon, called the city of the blind, in derision for its founders having overlooked the more delightful and advantageous situation of Byzantium; it is now Kadikeui. Opposite to Byzantium, or Constantinople, was, Chrysopolis, now Scutari. On the Bosporus was a celebrated temple of Jupiter Urius, the dispenser of favorable winds: it is now called Ioran. The Thyni, a Thracian nation were settled on this part of the shore of the Euxine, extending from the Bosporus to the river Sangarius, or Sagaris, now the Sakaria. On the East of the Sangarius were the Mariandyni, in the North-eastern part of whose district was the powerful city of Heraclea Pontica, now Erekli; a small peninsular promontory to the North-west is called Acherusia and it is said that Hercules dragged Cerberus from hell through a cavern in this promontory. North-east of the Mariandyni are the Caucones, adjoining Paphlagonia. Paphlagonia extends from the river Parthenius, or Partheni, to the great river Halys, now called KizilErmak, or the red river*. In the North were the Heneti, who are said to have passed over into Italy after the Trojan war, where they established themselves under The river Halys was the boundary of the dominions of Crœsus King of Lydia, to whom the celebrated oracle was given, Κροίσος Αλυν διαβς μεγάλην &ρ χὴν καταλύσει, a line which might well have been applied to the late Emperor of France when he crossed the Vistula. the name of Veneti. The principal cities were on the coast of the Euxine: Amastris*, now Amastreh, and Cytorus, now Kitros; North-east of which was the Promontory of Carambis, now Cape Karampi, which we have noticed as opposite to Criu Metopon in the Tauric Chersonese; and just as the shore has bent downwards is Sinope, a celebrated Grecian colony, founded by the Milesians, and the birth-place of the philosopher Diogenes; it was the capital of Pontus in the reign of the great Mithridates, and is still called Sinub. Under the Eastern part of Bithynia and Paphlagonia is Galatia. A colony detached from the great Gaulish emigration, under Brennus, B.C. 270, crossed the Hellispont, and settled themselves in the North of Phrygia and Cappadocia, where, mingling with some Grecian colonies, they caused the country to obtain the name of Gallo-Græcia, or Galatia; and, what is singular, they continued to speak the Celtic language even in the days of St. Jerome, 600 years after their emigration. On the confines of Phrygia and Bithynia was the city of Pessinus, originally Phrygian, and Mount Dindymus, remarkable for the worship of Cybele, hence called Dindymenet, whose image was brought from this place to Rome, with a remarkable miracle attending it‡, in the *Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer. Non Liber æque. Catull. IV. 13. Hor. Od. I. 16. 5. Claudia, a vestal, had been accused of incontinence, and the goddess was prevailed upon by her prayers to vouchsafe her testimony to her innocence, by enabling her to remove by her girdle the ship which had grounded in the Tiber.-Ovid Fast. IV. 315. second Punic war. A little East of Pessinus was Gordium, also originally in Phrygia, where Alexander cut to pieces the Gordian knot, respecting which there was an antient tradition, that the person who could untie it should possess the Empire of Asia. Still East was Ancyra, now Angora, from whence the celebrated shawls and hosiery made of goats' hair were originally brought. Near this place Bajazet was conquered and made prisoner by Timour the Great, A.D. 1402. North-east of this, on the confines of Paphlagonia, Gangra, now Kankiari, was the residence of Cicero's friend, Deiotarus, one of the tetrarchs or princes of Galatia, in whose favour we have an oration of Cicero's to the senate. This city, however, was also sometimes considered as one of the principal in Paphlagonia. It is not necessary to enter into the detail of the other cities in Galatia; but we may observe in proof of the Gaulish origin of the people, that the Northern part of them were called the Tectosages. East of Paphlagonia and Gallatia is Pontus, extending along the coast of the Euxine, from the mouth of the Halys to the Ophis. It was originally part of Cappadocia, and was formed first into a Satrapy, and then into an independent kingdom, about B.C. 300. Leaving the mouth of the Halys, the first important city we shall notice is Amisus, now Samsun, a Greek colony, aggrandised by Mithridates. The sea here forms a gulf called Amisenus Sinus, into which the river Iris flows, called now Jekil-Ermark, or the green river. Upon its banks, considerably inland, was Amasea, now Amasieh, the most considerable of the cities of Pontus, and the birthplace of the great Mithridates and Strabo the geographer. North of it was Magnopolis, built by Pompey the Great; |