Latin Texts & Translations

And now as to the remaining places on this coast. On the road from Cios into the interior is Prusa ^[Note], in Bithynia, founded by Hannibal at the foot of Olympus, at a distance of twenty-five miles from Nicæa, Lake Ascanius ^[Note] lying between them. We then come to Nicæa ^[Note], formerly called

Olbia, and situate at the bottom of the Ascanian Gulf; as also a second place called Prusa ^[Note], at the foot of Mount Hypius. Pythopolis, Parthenopolis, and Coryphanta are no longer in existence. Along the coast we find the rivers Æsius, Bryazon, Plataneus, Areus, Æsyros, Geodos, also called Chrysorroas ^[Note], and the promontory ^[Note] upon which once stood the town of Megarice. The gulf that here runs inland received the name of Craspedites from the circumstance of that town lying, as it were, upon its skirt ^[Note]. Astacum ^[Note], also, formerly stood here, from which the same gulf has received the name of the 'Astacenian': the town of Libyssa ^[Note] formerly stood at the spot where we now see nothing but the tomb of Hannibal. At the bottom of the gulf lies Nicomedia ^[Note], a famous city of Bithynia; then comes the Promontory of Leucatas ^[Note], by which the Astacenian Gulf is bounded, and thirty-seven miles distant from Nicomedia; and then, the land again approaching the other side, the straits ^[Note] which extend as far as the

Thracian Bosporus. Upon these are situate Chalcedon ^[Note], a free town, sixty-two miles from Nicomedia, formerly called Procerastis ^[Note], 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 Bithynia are the colony of Apamea ^[Note], the Agrippenses, the Juliopolitæ, and Bithynion ^[Note]; the rivers Syrium, Laphias, Pharnacias, Alces, Serinis, Lilæus, Scopius, and Hieras ^[Note], which separates Bithynia from Galatia. Beyond Chalcedon formerly stood Chrysopolis ^[Note], and then Nicopolis, of which the gulf, upon which stands the Port of Amycus ^[Note], still retains the name; then the Promontory of Naulochum, and Estiæ ^[Note], a temple of Neptune ^[Note]. We 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

place where the town of Spiropolis ^[Note] formerly stood. The Thyni occupy the whole of the coast, the Bithyni the interior. This is the termination of Asia, and of the 282 peoples, that are to be found between the Gulf of Lycia ^[Note] and this spot. We have already ^[Note] mentioned the length of the Hellespont and Propontis to the Thracian Bosporus as being 239 miles; from Chalcedon to Sigeum, Isidorus makes the distance 322 1/2.