Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/260

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ASSUS.

between Cape Lactum 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 Melhymnaei. Hellanicus calls it an Aeolic city, and adds that Gagara was founded by Assus. Pliny (v. 33) 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. Άσσες; Plin, ii. 96)

Hermeias, who had mads 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 Aseo 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 an 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 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 ΑΣΣΙΟΝ, are rare. The coins of the Roman imperial period are common. [ G. L. ]

ASSUS (Άσσος: Kinéta). a river of Boeotia flowing into the Cephissus on its left bank, near the city of the Parapotamii and Mount Edylium. (Plut. Sull. 16; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 195.)

ASSY'RIA (ή Άσσυρία, Herod, ii. 17, iv. 39: Ptol. vi. 1. § 1; Steph. B.; Arrian. Anab. vii. 21: Assyria, Tacit. Ann. xii. 13; Amm. Mare. xxiii. 6; Άτουρία, Strab. xvi. p. 736; Steph. s. v. Νίνος; Dion. Cass. lxviii.; Athura, on Pers. Cun. Inscr., and Assura, on the Median, Rawl. J. As. Soc. xi. pt. i. p. 10: Eth. Assyrii, Άσσύριοι, Steph.; Herod, i. 193; Άσσυρες, Steph.; Eustath. in Dion. de Situ Orbis, p. 70), a district of Asia, the boundaries of which are variously given in the Greek and Roman writers, but which, in the strictest and most original sense, comprehended only a long narrow territory, divided on the N. from Armenia by M. Niphates, on the W. and SW. from Mesopotamia and Babylonia by the Tigris; on the SE, from Susiana, and on the E.

ASSYRIA.

from Media, by the chain of the Zagrus. It was, in fact, nearly the same territory as the modern Pacha-lik of Mosil, including the plain land below the Kurdistan and Persian mountains. Its original name, as appears from the Cuneiform Inscriptions, is best represented by Aturia (Άτουρία), which Strabo (xvi. 736) says was part of Assyria (as understood at the time when he wrote): although Dion Cassius seems to consider that this form of the name was a barbarous mis-pronundatian. In later times, as appears from Pliny (vi. 13) and Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6), it bore the name of Adiabene, which was properly a small province between the Tigris, Lycus (or Zabatus), and the Gordiaean mountains. (Dion Cass. lxviii.; Ptol, vi. l. § 2.)

In the wider sense Assyria comprehended the whole country which was included in Mesopotamia and Babylonia (Strab. xvi. p. 736). while it was often confounded with adjoining nations by the Greek and Roman writers: thus, in Virg. (Georg. ii.. 465), "Assyrio veneno" is used for "Tyrio;" in Nonn. Dionys. (xii. 19) the Libanus is called Assyrian; and in Dion, Perieg. (v. 975) the Leuco-Syrians of Pontus and Cappadocia are termed Assyrians. It is curious that Scylax of Caryanda placed Assyria among the nations on the Pontus Enxinus, between the Chalybes and Paphlagonia, and includes in it the river Thermodon and the Greek towns of Thermodon, Sinope, and Harmene. (Scyl. Car. ap. Hudson. Geogr. Graec. Min. p. 33.) The author of the Etymologicum Magnum has preserved a tradition (Etym. Magn. is voc.) from Xenocrates, that this land was originally called Euphratis, then Chaldaea, and lastly, from Assyrus the son of Suses, Assyria; he appears also to consider it as the same as Babylonia.

The chief mountains of ancient Assyria an known under the general name of the chain of Zagros, which extended, under various denominations, along the whole of its eastern frontier from N. to S, and separated it from Media and Persia.

Its rivers may be all considered as feeders of the Tigris, and bore the names of Zabatus (Ζάβατος), Zabas, Zerbis, or Lycus, which rose in the N. mountains of Armenia; the Bumádus or Bumédu; the Caprus; the Tornadotus or Phyacus (Φίσκος); the Silla or Delas, — probably the same stream which elsewhere bears the names of Diabas, Durus (Δούρος), and Gorgus (Γοργυς); and the Gyndea. Its provinces are mentioned by Ptolemy and Strabo under the following names: Aturia, Calacene or Calachene, Chazene, Arthapachitis, Adiabene, Arbelitis, Apollomatis or Chalonitia, and Sittacene; though there extent and as to their positions.

Its chief cities were: Ninus (ή Νίνος), its most ancient and celebrated capital, Nineveh; Ctesiphon (ή Κτησιφών), the seat of government under the Parthian rulers; Arbela (Άρβηλα), Gaugamela (τά Γαυγαμήλα), Apollonia (Άπολλωνία), Artemita (Άρτίμιτα), Opis (Ώπις), Chala (Χάλα) or Celonae (Κέλωναι), and Sittace (Σιττάχη) or Sittia (Σίττα).

A full description of these mountains, rivers, provinces, and towns is given under their respective names.

It is of considerable importance to distinguish as accurately as we can between the land or territory comprehended under the name of Assyria, and the kingdom or empire which was established in that country. The former, as we have seen, was, strictly