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PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
[Book IV.

Thus is Thrace bounded by the Ister on the north, by the Euxine, and the Propontis[1] on the east, and by the Ægean Sea on the south; on the coast of which, after leaving the Strymon, we come in turn to Apollonia[2], Œsyma[3], Neapolis[4] and Datos. In the interior is the colony of Philippi[5], distant from Dyrrhachium 325 miles; also Scotussa[6], the city of Topiris, the mouth of the river Mestus[7], Mount Pangæus, Heraclea[8], Olynthos[9], Abdera[10], a free city, the people of the Bistones[11] and their Lake. Here was formerly the city of Tirida, which struck such terror with its stables of the horses[12] of Diomedes. At the present day we find here Dicæa[13], Ismaron[14], the place where Parthenion stood,Phalesina, and Maronea[15], formerly called Orthagorea. We [16]

  1. The Sea of Marmora.
  2. It is difficult to conceive which place of this name is here alluded to, as there seem to have been four places on this coast so called, and all mentioned by Pliny in the present Book.
  3. Called Æsyma by Homer; between the rivers Strymon and Nestus.
  4. Now called Kavallo, on the Strymonic Gulf. The site of Datos appears to be unknown.
  5. Now called Filiba, or Felibejik, on a height of Mount Pangæus, on the river Gangites, between the Nestus and the Strymon. It was founded by Philip, on the site of the ancient town of Crenides, in the vicinity of the gold mines. Here Augustus and Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius, B.C. 42; and here the Apostle Paul first preached the Gospel in Europe, A.D. 53. See Acts xvi. 12.
  6. Its site seems unknown, but it is evidently a different place from that mentioned in the last Chapter.
  7. Also called Mestus.
  8. Sintica, previously mentioned.
  9. Now Aco Mamas, at the head of the Toronaic Gulf. It was the most important Greek city on the coast of Macedon. It was taken and destroyed by Philip, B.C. 347, and its inhabitants sold as slaves. Mecyberna, already mentioned, was used as its sea-port.
  10. On the coast, and east of the river Nestus. Its people were proverbial for their stupidity, though it produced the philosophers Democritus, Protagoras, and Anaxarchus. No traces of its site are to be found.
  11. Now called the Lagos Buru. The name of the Bistones is sometimes used by the poets for that of the Thracians in general.
  12. Or mares rather. Diomedes was the son of Ares, or Mars, and king of the Bistones. He was slain by Hercules.
  13. By some identified with the modern Curnu, by others with Bauron.
  14. Or Ismarus, at the foot of Mount Ismarus.
  15. Now Marogna.
  16. tioned dwelt about the mouth of the Ister, or Danube, and were a different people from those of Sithonia, in Chalcidice, referred to in a previous note.