Soon after their ſetting fail from Athenæ Ponticæ, the North or North-Eaſt wind, (Βοῤῥὰς) he tells us, calmed the ſea. This effect is much the ſame as is aſcribed to it by other Eaſtern writers. Thus it is ſaid in the Book of Job[1], that "fair weather cometh out of the North," and in The Proverbs[2], "that the North Wind driveth away rain." Boreas is called by Homer[3] Αἰθρηγενετῆς or ſerenitatem inducens, in ſeveral places.[4] Hippocrates, who may be regarded much in the ſame light with Homer, as an Oriental writer, obſerves, that the North wind produces fair weather, and clears the air, and is on that account the moſt healthy of all the Winds. We are next informed, that before noon they reached Apſarus, having, as he lays, ſailed more than five hundred ſtadia. There is ſome difficulty reſpecting this account of the diſtance. If it be meant of the whole diſtance from Trapezus, is much too ſmall, indeed nearly by one half, as he himſelf computes it to be an thouſand ſtadia. If it be meant to mark the interval between Athenæ Ponticæ and Apſarus, it is too great, as Arrian ſays it is only 280 ſtadia. Perhaps he might mean, that, by the wind being contrary, they were driven ſo far out of their courſe, that they were obliged to traverſe near double the real diſtance between Apſarus and Athenæ Ponticæ. At Apſarus Arrian took a ſurvey of the fortifications, and reviewed the troops ſtationed there; which circumſtance indicates, that he was one of the military governors, or [5] Proprætors, nominated by the Emperor,
- ↑ Job, chap. xxxviin ver. 22.
- ↑ Prov. chap. xxv. ver. 23.
- ↑ Il. xv. ver. 171 x. xix. ver. 3 58. Odyſſ ver, 296,
- ↑ Hippocr. de morbo ſacro, § 15. Tournefort however ſays, that the Turkiſh ſailors on the Black ſea were particularly afraid of the North wind: but he adds, that they were very unſkilful, and that the North wind cauſed little diſturbance to their navigation. Tournefort's Trav. vol. iii. p. 56. Eng. Tranſl.
- ↑ It was underſtood that the Emperor and the Senate, in their quality of partners in the ſovereignty, ſhould have the nomination of the governors
