Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/529

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Chap. 43.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTETES, ETC. 495 Thracian Bosporus. Upou these are situate Chalcedon^, a free town, sixty-two miles from ]S'icomedia, formerly called Proeerastis^j then Colpusa, and after that the " City of the Blind," from the circumstance that its founders did not know where to build their city, Byzantium being only seven stadia distant, a site which is preferable in every respect. In the interior of Bithj-nia are the colony of Apamea', the Agrippenses, the Juliopolita?, and Bithmion ; the rivers Syrium, Laphias, Pharnacias, Alces, Serinis, Lila^us, Scopius, and Ilieras^, which separates Bithynia from Galatia. Be- yond Chalcedon formerly stood Chrysopolis^, and then Ni- copolis, of which the gulf, upon which stands the Port of Amycus^, still retains the name ; then the Promontory of IS^aulochum, and Estise*, a temple of Neptune^. A^e then come to the Bosporus, which again separates Asia from Europe, the distance across being half a mile ; it is distant twelve miles and a half from Chalcedon. The first entrance of this strait is eight miles and three-quarters wide, at the

  • Its site is supposed to have been about two miles south of the

modem Scutari, and it is said that the modem Greeks call it Chalkodon, and the Turks Kadi-Kioi. Its destruction was completed by the Turks, who used its materials for the construction of the mosques and other buildings of Constantinople. 2 So called, Hardouin thinks, from its being opposite to the Golden Horn, or promontory on which Byzantium was built. 3 Or Myrlea, mentioned above in C. 40. See p. 490. ■* Or Bithyniiun, lying above Tins. Its vicinity was a good feeding coimtiy for cattle, and noted for the excellence of its cheese, as men- tioned by Pliny, B. xi. c. 42. Antinoiis, the favourite of the Emperor Adrian, was bom here, as Pausauias informs us. Its site does not appear to be known,

  • These rivers do not appear to have been identified by the modem

geographers. 6 The modem Scutari occupies its site. Dionysius of Byzantium states, that it was called Chr^sopohs, either because the Persians nia<le it the place of deposit for the gold which they levied from the citici", or else from Chrj'ses, a son of Agamemnon and Chryscis. 7 A king of the Bebrycians. For some further particulars relative to this place, see B. xvi. c. 89 of the present Book. 8 Situate on a promontory', which is represented by the modem Algiro, accorchng to Hardouin and Parisot. « Other writers say that it was erected in honour of the Twelve Greater Divinities.