Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/135

THEY KEACH TRAPEZUS. 113 their peltasts in such a way as to outflank the Kolchians, who accordingly weakened their centre in order to strengthen their wings. Hence the Arcadian peltasts and hoplites in the Greek centre were enabled to attack and disperse the centre with little resistance ; and all the Kolchians presently fled, leaving the Greeks in possession of their camp, as well as of several well-stocked villages in their rear. Amidst these villages the army remained to refresh themselves for several days. It was here that they tasted the grateful, but unwholesome honey, which this region still continues to produce, unaware of its peculiar proper- ties. Those soldiers who ate little of it were like men greatly intoxicated with wine ; those who ate much, were seized with the most violent vomiting and diarrhea, lying down like madmen in a state of delirium. From this terrible distemper some recovered on the ensuing day, others two or three days afterwards. It does not appear that any one actually died. 1 Two more days' march brought them to the sea, at the Greek maritime city of Trapezus or Trebizond, founded by the inhabit- ants of Sinope on the coast of the Kolchian territory. Here the Trapezuntines received them with kindness and hospitality, send- ing them presents of bullocks, barley-meal, and wine. Taking up their quarters in some Kolchian villages near the town, they now enjoyed, for the first time since leaving Tarsus, a safe and undisturbed repose during thirty days, and were enabled to re- cover in some degree from the severe hardships which they had undergone. While the Trapezuntines brought produce for sale into the camp, the Greeks provided the means of purchasing it by predatory incursions against the Kolchians on the hills. Those Kolchians who dwelt under the hills and on the plain were in a state of semi-dependence upon Trapezus ; so that the Trapezuntines mediated on their behalf and prevailed on the 1 Xen. Anab. iv, 8, 15-22. Most modern travellers attest the existence, in these regions, of honey intoxicating and poisonous, such as Xenophon describes. They point out the Azalea Pontica, as the flower from which the bees imbibe this peculiar quality. Professor Koch, however, calls in question the existence of any honey thus naturally unwholesome near the Black Sea. He states (Zug der Zehn Tausend, p. Ill) that after careful inquiries he could find no trace of any such. Not contradicting Xenophon, he thinks that the honey which the Greeks ate must have been stale 01 tainted. VOL. IX, 80C.