Chapter V (2)

(27) The Arsinoe here mentioned by Strabo is the only place in Ptolemy between the mouth of the Arymagdus and Celenderis: it is named also by Pliny, Stephanus, and the geographer of Ravenna, the last of whom in giving the names in this order, Anemurium, Arsinoe, Sicæ, Celenderis, corroborates Strabo and Ptolemy, and justifies us in placing Arsinoe at or near the ruined modern castle called Sokhta Kálesi, below which is a port such as Strabo describes at Arsinoe, and a peninsula on the east side of the harbour covered with ruins. The relative distances in the Stadiasmus place Dionysiophanæ at the same spot. Possibly this may have been the name of the harbour or peninsula, and Arsinoe may have stood upon the hill of Sokhta Kálesi. The name of Syce or Sycea, the Sicæ of the geographer of Ravenna, is found as a Cilician town in Athenæus[254] and Stephanus of Byzantium; and if the emendation of Scylax by Gronovius may be followed, it was very near the promontory Poseidium.—Perhaps it possessed the fertile valley lying on the east side of the hills which end in Cape Kizliman.

One cannot but suspect at first sight that the Mandane of the Stadiasmus is the same place as the Melania of Strabo. The seven stades however of the Stadiasmus place Mandane very near Poseidium to the eastward. On the other hand there is a small bay only two or three miles to the westward of Kelénderi, where Captain Beaufort remarked some vestiges of antiquity: it remains doubtful therefore whether the distance in the Stadiasmus is correct, and whether Melania and Mandane were the same, or different places.

(28) As the Stadiasmus does not mention any distance between the Gulf of Berenice and Celenderis, there is reason to think that Berenice was the name of the _bay_ to the eastward of the little _port_ of Kelénderi. The following are the names and distances of the places in the Stadiasmus between the mouth of the Calycadnus and the Gulf of Berenice:

Ἀπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ (scil. Καλυκάδνου) ἐπὶ ἄκραν ἀμμώδη στενὴν
Σαρπεδονίαν καλουμένην. σταδ. π. (80.)

Ἀπ’ αὐτῆς ἀνατεινὸν τὰ βραχέα ὡς ἀπὸ τῆς Σαρπεδονίας σταδ. κ.
(20.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς ἄκρας ἔγγιστα πρὸς τὴν Κύπρον εἰς πόλιν Καρπασίου
νεωτάτου σταδ. υʹ. (400.)

Ἀπὸ Σαρπεδονίας ἄκρας εἰς Σελεύκειαν σταδ. ρκ. (120.) ὁμοίως καὶ
εἰς Σώλους (leg. Ὁρμοὺς sive Ὁλμοὺς) σταδ. ρκ. (120.)

Ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν Ὁρμῶν ἐπ’ ἄκραν καὶ κώμην καλουμένην Μύλας σταδ. μ.
(40.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς ἄκρας ἐπὶ λιμένα Νησούλιον καὶ ἄκραν ἐπινήσιαν σταδ. ξ.
(60.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς ἄκρας ἐπὶ χωρίον Φιλαίαν σταδ. κ. (20.) Οἱ πάντες ἀπὸ
Μυλαίων τὸν ἐπίτομον, σταδ. φ. (500.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς Φιλαίας ἐπὶ νῆσον Πιτυοῦσαν σταδ. ρλ. (130.) Ἀπέχει ἡ
Πιτυοῦσα ἀπὸ Χεῤῥονήσου τῇ πρὸς τὴν Μύλη σταδ. κ. (20.)

Ἀπὸ τῶν ἄκρων τῆς Πιτυούσης πρὸς τὴν Ἀφροδισιάδην σταδ. μεʹ. (45.)

Ἀπὸ Ἀφροδισιάδος ἐκ τῶν εὐωνύμων ὑμῶν εχον’ τὴν Πιτυοῦσαν ἐπὶ
πύργον κείμενον πρὸς ἄκραν ἡ προσονομάζεται Ζεφύριον σταδ. μ.
(40.)

Ἀπὸ τοῦ Ζεφυρίου ἐπ’ ἄκραν καὶ πόλιν Ἀφροδισιάδα σταδ. μ. (40.)

Ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς Σαρπεδονίας ἄκρας εἰς Ἀφροδισιάδα ὁ πλοῦς ἐπὶ τὴν κα
... δέθιν σταδ. ρκ. (120.) Ἡ δὲ Ἀφροδισιὰς κεῖται ἔγγιστα τῆς
Κύπρου πρὸς τὴν Αὐλιῶνα ἄκτην κατὰ πρύμναν ἔχουσα πρὸς τὰ μέρη
τῆς ἄρκτου σταδ. φ. (500.)

Ἀπὸ Ἀφροδισιάδος ἐπὶ χωρίον καλούμενον Κίφισον σταδ. λεʹ. (35.)

Ἀπὸ Μέλανος ποταμοῦ ἐπὶ ἄκραν Κραύνους σταδ. μ. (40.)

Ἀπὸ τῶν Κραύνων ἐπὶ τὰ Πισούργια εὐώνυμα ἔχοντα τὴν Κράμβουσαν
σταδ. με. (45.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀφροδισιάδος ἐπὶ τὰ Πισούργια σταδ. ρκ. (120.)

Ἀπὸ τῶν Πισουργίων εἰς κόλπον Βερνίκην (leg. Βερενίκην) σταδ. ν.
(50.)

Ἀπὸ Κελενδέρεως εἰς Μανδάνην σταδ. ρ. (100.) &c.

(29) Although there is not much to be learnt from the preceding passage of the Stadiasmus, one very important point is settled by it. The long sandy promontory of Lissan El Kahpeh is so accurately described by the words ἄκραν ἀμμώδη στενὴν, as to leave no doubt of its identity with Sarpedonia, celebrated as being the place beyond which the ships of Antiochus the Great were forbidden to sail by his treaty with the Romans[255]. Strabo has therefore justly described the mouth of the Calycadnus as occurring after turning Cape Sarpedon to the eastward; and the same relative situation of the places is indicated as well by the Stadiasmus, as by Ptolemy, whose names are in the following order: Celenderis, Aphrodisias, Sarpedon, the mouth of the Calycadnus, Zephyrium, Corycus. Although Ptolemy here describes the mouth of the Calycadnus and Zephyrium as separate places, I believe them to have been the same, and that Cape Zephyrium was nothing more than the remarkable projection of the sandy coast at the mouth of that river; for Polybius, Livy, and Appian, all speak of Calycadnus as a cape, and the two latter as a cape different from Sarpedon: it can hardly be doubted therefore that the projection at the mouth of the river was meant by them. In corroboration of this opinion, it is to be observed that the Stadiasmus does not notice any Zephyrium on this part of the coast, but names only the mouth of the Calycadnus at 80 stades to the east of Sarpedonia, which is nearly the distance of the mouth of the Ghiuk Su from Lissan El Kahpeh. Pliny[256] in like manner omits Cape Zephyrium, stating the order of names (from E. to W.) as follows: “Corycus eodem nomine oppidum et portus et specus; mox flumen Calycadnus, promontorium Sarpedon, oppida Holme, Myle promontorium et oppidum Veneris, a quo proxime Cyprus insula.”

The Aphrodisias or city of Venus which Ptolemy here names, although unnoticed by Strabo, is mentioned by Stephanus, by Diodorus[257], and by Livy[258]; from the last of whom it appears to have ranked in the time of Antiochus the Great among the chief towns of the coast. Its position, as indicated by Pliny, agrees with that ascribed to it by Ptolemy and the Stadiasmus; and it appears from their joint authority to have been situated between Celenderis and Sarpedon, on or very near a promontory, also called Aphrodisias, which lay about north of Cape Aulion the north-eastern extremity of Cyprus. These data, however precise, are not sufficiently so to decide the question between two adjacent capes on the coast westward of Sarpedon; and the confused account of the places in the Stadiasmus does not inspire much confidence in that authority. We perceive, however, that the Stadiasmus accords with Strabo and Pliny in naming Holmi as the first place to the westward of Cape Sarpedon, and Pliny confirms the Stadiasmus in placing Mylæ between Holmi and Aphrodisias. Mylæ in the Stadiasmus is called a Cape and Chersonese, a description precisely applicable to Cape Cavaliere, which is a peninsula connected with the continent by a very narrow isthmus. I am inclined to think, therefore, that cape Cavaliere was Mylæ, that the cape near the Papadúla rocks was the promontory of Venus, and that some vestiges of the town of Aphrodisias would be found near the harbour behind the cape. Captain Beaufort informs us that he did not observe many remains of Grecian antiquity on this part of the coast; they were probably converted into new buildings by the Crusaders, many marks of whose residence are found here, and among others the names of Cavaliere and Provençal attached to the most remarkable cape and island[259]. The island of Provençal, called by the Turks Menavát, is probably the Pityussa of the Stadiasmus; for the Papadúla islands, consisting of several small rocks, would hardly have been described by a Greek word in the singular. Holmi, the ancient residence of the people of Seleuceia before the time of its foundation by Seleucus Nicator[260], was probably at Aghalimán, the modern port of Seléfke. The observation of the Stadiasmus, that the distances were equal between Cape Sarpedonia and Seleuceia, and between the same promontory and Holmi, will be found accurate when applied to Aghalimán and Seléfke, relatively to the extreme point of the sandhills above the low sandy cape of Lissan el Kahpeh: for it may easily be credited that the point of the sandhills was the extreme cape at the date of the Stadiasmus; at which time the long low spit may have been the shoals which that authority notices as extending twenty stades beyond Sarpedonia. The distance, however, of 120 stades from Sarpedon to Seleuceia and to Holmi will be found too great, when measured from the point of the sandhills to Seléfke and Aghaliman.

The river which joins the sea at the bottom of the Bay of Papadúla, being the largest stream on the part of the coast under consideration, seems to be the Melas of the Stadiasmus; and the cape which lies midway between that stream and Celenderis may possibly be the Crauni of the same authority. The other places mentioned in the Stadiasmus, I shall not pretend to determine, but proceed to extract from it the names of the places on the whole extent of the coast of Cilicia Campestris, with their respective distances. As this authority proceeds in a contrary direction to Strabo, it will be found more convenient to examine the entire passage relating to the coast of Cilicia before we continue the immediate reference to the text of Strabo, followed in the numbers attached to these Notes.

Ἀπὸ Ἀλεξανδρείας εἰς τὰς Κιλικίας πύλας σταδ. σ. (200.) ὁμοῦ οἱ
πάντες ἀπὸ Πάλτου ἕως τῶν Κιλικίων πυλῶν σταδ. β͵φ. (2500.)

Λοιπὸν Κιλικία.

Ἀπὸ τῶν Κιλικίων πυλῶν εἰς τὸ Ἱερὸν σταδ. ρκ. (120.) τοῦτο ἐστὶν
ὑπερβῆναι εἰς τὸν τόπον εἰς πόλιν.

Ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἱεροῦ εἰς πόλιν Ἀμινσὸν σταδ. ψ. (700.)

Ἀπὸ Ἀμινσοῦ εἰς τὰς Ἀμμωνιακὰς (leg. Ἀμανικὰς) πύλας ἐντ’
κοιλοτάτου τοῦ κόλπου σταδ. ϛ. (6.)

Ἀπὸ τῶν πυλῶν εἰς κώμην Ἄλλην σταδ. ν. (50.)

Ἀπὸ τοῦ Μυριάνδρου οὐριοδρομοῦντος σταδ. ρ. (100.)

Ἀπὸ τῶν Ἄλλων εἰς πόλιν Αἰγαίας σταδ. ρ. (100.)

Ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ Μυριάνδρου εἰς Αἰγαίας εὐθυδρομοῦντι ἐπὶ τοῦ πολοῦ
νότου σταδ. ρ. (100.)

Ἀπὸ Αἰγαίων ὁ παράπλους Κρημύωδος ἐπὶ κώμην Σερετίλην σταδ. ρν.
(150.)

Ἀπὸ δὲ Ῥωσοῦ εὐθυδρομοῦντι ἐπὶ τὴν Σερετίλην ἐπὶ τοῦ πολοῦ
νότου σταδ. σν. (250.) κατὰ δὴ τὴν Σερετίλην κώμη ἐπάνω Πύραμος
καλεῖται· καὶ ὑπεράνω αὐτοῦ ὄρος καλούμενον Πάριον ἀπὸ σταδ. ξ.
(60.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς Σερετίλλεως εἰς κώμην ἐπ’ ἄκραν Ἰανουαρίαν σταδ. α͵.
(1000.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰανουαρίας ἄκρας ἐπὶ τὰς Διδύμους νήσους σταδ. λ. (30.)

Ἀπὸ τῶν Διδύμων νήσων εἰς πόλιν καλουμένην Μάλλον σταδ. ρ. (100.)

Ἀπὸ Μάλλου εἰς Ἀντιόχειαν ἐπὶ Πύραμον ποταμὸν σταδ. ρν. (150.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀντιοχείας ἐπὶ τὴν Ἰωνίαν, ἣν νῦν Κέφαλον καλοῦσι σταδ.
ο. (70.) παρὰ τὸ ἀκρωτήριον ποταμός ἐστι πλωτὸς Πύραμος καλεῖται.

Ἀπὸ τοῦ Σκοπέλου (scil. Ῥωσσικοῦ[261]) δὲ μὴ κατακολπίζοντι, ἀλλ’
ἐπ’ εὐθείας πλέοντι εἰς Ἀντιόχειαν· ἔπειτα πρὸς ἀνατολὴν τῆς
Ἠπείρου νότῳ τὰ εὐώνυμα μάκρον διαφάλλω σταδ. τν. (350.)

Ἀπὸ τοῦ Πυράμου ποταμοῦ εὐθυδρομοῦντι εἰς Σώλους ἐπὶ τὰ πρὸς
ἑσπέραν μέρη τῆς ἄρκτου νότῳ μίκρᾳ παρέλκας σταδ. φ. (500.)

Ἀπὸ τῆς κεφαλῆς τοῦ Πυράμου ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν Ἄρειον σταδ. ρκ.
(120.)

Ἀπὸ Ἀρείου ποταμοῦ ἐπὶ στόματος λίμνης, ὃ καλεῖται Ῥηγμοὶ σταδ.
ο. (70.)

Ἀπὸ Ῥηγμῶν εἰς Τάρσον σταδ. οʹ. (70.) ῥέει δὲ μέσης τῆς πόλεως
ποταμὸς Κύδνος.

Ἀπὸ Τάρσου ἐπὶ χωρίον Ζεφύριον σταδ. ρκ. (120.)

Ἀπὸ δὲ Σόλων ἐπὶ κώμην Καλάνθιαν σταδ. ν. (50.)

Ἀπὸ Καλανθίας κώμης εἰς Ἐλαιοῦντα σταδ. ρ. (100.)

Ἀπὸ Σεψαούσης (qu. Σεβάστης?) εἰς κώμην καλουμένην Κώρυκον σταδ.
κ. (20.)

Ἀπὸ δὲ Σόλων εἰς Κώρυκον σταδ. σπ. (280.) ὑπὲρ ὧν ἀπέχον ἐστὶν
ἀκρωτήριον Κωρύκιον καλούμενον σταδ. ρ. (100.)

Ἀπὸ τοῦ Κωρυκίου ἐπὶ λιμένα καλούμενον καλὸν Κορακήσιον σταδ.
ρκε. (125.)

Ἀπὸ τοῦ Κορακησίου ἐπὶ τὴν Ποικίλην Πέτραν, ἥτις ἔχει κλίμακα δι’
ἧς ἐστιν ὁδὸς εἰς Σελεύκειαν τὴν ἐπὶ Λύκου σταδ. οʹ. (70.) (lege
Καλυκάδνου sive Καλύδνου[262]).

Ἀπὸ τῆς κλίμακος ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν Καλύδιον (lege Καλυδνον) σταδ.
μ. (40.)

The reader will think, perhaps, that this long passage was hardly worth transcribing. Some of the distances indeed between the known points give us not much confidence in its authority: the number of stades, for instance, from Paltus on the coast of Syria to the Cilician pylæ is more than double, and that across the Gulf of Issus from Myriandrus to Ægæ is less than half the true distance. Nor will the shorter lines along the coast bear much examination. I have thought it worth while, however, to complete the comparison of this Periplus with the survey of Capt. Beaufort, because its minute description can be illustrated only by a delineation so detailed and accurate as that of Capt. B. In the part of the Gulf of Issus which has not yet been surveyed, the names and their order may be of use to future investigators of the comparative geography of these countries: and the Periplus may throw some light upon ancient topography, when it has itself received illustration from a correct delineation.

There are two points at the head of the Gulf of Issus besides Alexandreia, which have preserved the ancient name. These are Baiæ and Ægæ, both which words are still used in the _Romaic_ form (the accusative case), in which they were received by the Turks from the Byzantine Greeks. Βαιαί is now called Bayás, and Αἰγαί or Αἰγαῖαι, Ayás. The former stands in a small plain at the foot of Mount Amanus, which rises from the extremity of the Gulf; the latter occupies a point on the north side of the gulf, at the entrance of a bay, which is formed on the opposite or western side by a low cape, at the mouth of the Djihún, or Ghihún—the ancient Pyramus.

Strabo, Ptolemy[263], and the Stadiasmus agree in naming two pylæ, or passes, fortified with a wall and gate at the head of the gulf; namely, the gate of Amanus, which was in Cilicia, and the Cilician gate, which formed the division between Syria and Cilicia. The position of both these pylæ has been ascertained[264]; the northern or Amanic, between Ayás and Bayás, at the northern or innermost extremity of the gulf, ἐν τῷ κοιλοτάτῳ τοῦ κόλπου, as the Stadiasmus has well described it,——the southern or Cilician, between Bayás and Iskenderún, not far from, if not exactly at the place, where Pococke and other modern travellers observed some ruins vulgarly known by the name of the Pillars of Jonas. The pass of Beilan, leading from Iskenderún over the mountain into the plain of Antioch, was a third pylæ[265], which has been well distinguished by Ptolemy from the other two, and was justly called the Gate of Syria.

It will follow from the foregoing remarks, that I cannot agree with the author of the Illustrations of the Expedition of Cyrus, in thinking that Strabo, by the words Ἀμανίδες Πύλαι, and αἱ Πύλαι λεγόμεναι, ὅριον Κιλίκων τε καὶ Σύρων[266], meant one and the same pass; or that by either of these pylæ he meant the pass of Beilan. For it is to be observed, that his words Ἀμανίδες πύλαι occur in enumerating the places in their order, thus: Mallus, Ægæ, Amanides Pylæ, Issus. At Issus, after observing that the gulf took its name from that city, he suddenly breaks off from his former order, mentions several cities in the neighbourhood of the Gulf, and ends with naming the gate which formed the boundary of Syria and Cilicia; which, it is to be observed, could not have been the Pass of Beilan, because in that case Alexandria would have been included in Cilicia: whereas we know that Issus was the last town of that province. Nor is the meaning which Major Rennell gives to these words of Strabo supported by the other passage which he cites (from p. 751); the words of which are ... αἱ Πάγραι τῆς Ἀντιοχίδος, χωρίον ἐρυμνὸν κατὰ τὴν ὑπέρθεσιν τοῦ Ἀμανοῦ τὴν ἐκ τῶν Ἀμανίδων πυλῶν εἰς τὴν Συρίαν κείμενον. Ὑποπίπτει μὲν οὖν ταῖς Πάγραις τὸ τῶν Ἀντιοχέων πεδίον. The ruins of Pagræ are found under their ancient name, in the usual modern form of the accusative case (Pagras), on the southern slope of Mount Amanus eight or nine miles below Beilan on the road to Antioch. Had Beilan been the Amanic gate meant by Strabo, he would surely have described Pagræ simply as being on the descent from the gates of Amanus into the plain of Antioch, not as on the _passage over_ Mount Amanus, which leads from the Pylæ Amanides into Syria; for thus the passage should be translated, and not as Dr. Gillies has given it, “situate upon the _ascent_ of Mount Amanus leading from the gates of Amanus into Syria.” Beilan certainly was, as I have just observed, _a Pylæ_, and it was upon Mount Amanus, or rather exactly at the point which separated Mount Amanus from Mount Pieria; but it was not the Pylæ Amanides of Strabo, the position of which, as already described, is exactly confirmed by the Stadiasmus, as well as by Ptolemy. There was a fourth pass, as Major Rennell has justly observed, which crossing Mount Amanus from the eastward, descended upon the centre of the head of the gulf, near Issus. By this pass it was that Dareius marched from Sochus, and took up his position on the banks of the Pinarus; by which movement Alexander, who had just before marched from Mallus to Myriandrus, through the two maritime pylæ, was placed between the Persians and Syria. Cicero also alludes to this pass when he observes, that “nothing is stronger than Cilicia on the side of Syria, there being only two narrow entrances into it over the Amanus, the ridge of which mountain divides the two provinces: “qui Syriam a Cilicia aquarum divortio dividit[267].” The other pass to which he alludes was that of Beilan.

With regard to the military operations of Alexander and of Cyrus on this celebrated scene of action, I must be satisfied, until we have a more detailed and accurate map, with referring the reader to Major Rennell, who has ably confronted the various evidences upon the subject in his illustrations of the Expedition of Cyrus. The chief movements and the general situation of the places are sufficiently clear, and I fully subscribe to Major Rennell’s opinions, with the sole exception which I have just stated.

Having ascertained the eastern extremity of the line of coast comprehended between the mouth of the Calycadnus and the head of the gulf of Issus, I shall now return to the western extremity, and, proceeding according to the order of names in the extract from Strabo, examine how far the text of the Geographer can be illustrated by other authorities, particularly the Stadiasmus. The modern names of Kórgos, Lámas, and Tersús, which would probably be still nearer the original Corycus, Latmus, and Tarsus, when written by a Greek, are the principal landmarks, and together with the ruins of Pompeiopolis at Mezetlu, they render it not difficult, with the assistance of Captain Beaufort’s survey, to fix most of the intermediate places.

(30) Here it will be observed that the Stadiasmus exactly confirms Strabo’s description of the rock Pœcile, with its steps leading to Seleuceia. Its distance of 40 stades from the Calycadnus, if correct, will place it about Pershendi, at the north-eastern angle of the sandy plain of the Calycadnus, where a sheltered bight between the sandy beach and a projection of the mountains which constitute the coast from thence as far as the Lámas, serves as the harbour of Selefke towards the east, as Aghalimán is to the west. Instead of any steps in the rocks, Captain Beaufort here found the “extensive ruins of a walled town, with temples, arcades, aqueducts, and tombs built round a small level, which had some appearance of having once been a harbour, with a narrow opening to the sea.” An inscription copied by Captain Beaufort from a tablet over the eastern gate of the ruins, accounts for the omission of any notice of this _town_ by Strabo; for the inscription states it to have been entirely built by Fluranius, archon of the Eparchia of Isauria, in the reign of the Augusti Valentinian, Valens, and Gratianus[268]. It seems probable that it is the same place called Pœcile Petra by Strabo; and that being the eastern port of Seleuceia, it acquired under the Roman emperors a share of the importance to which Seleuceia then attained, and probably some new name, perhaps Zephyrium. As the Stadiasmus speaks of the place in the same terms as Strabo, it may be inferred that this Periplus is older than the ruins at Pershendi, or older than the 4th century.

(31) Between Pœcile Petra and Corycus, Strabo places Cape Anemurium and the island Crambusa; the Stadiasmus names only port Coracesium. Κώρυκος still preserves its name; but instead of being a promontory as described by Strabo, it is an island, upon which stands a castle similar in structure to another larger castle on the neighbouring shore of the continent. The castle on the island appears from the inscriptions which it preserves, to have been of the time of the Armenians, who possessed this country in the beginning of the 13th century. In 1432 Korgos belonged to the king of Cyprus[269]. In 1471 it was taken from the Turks of Mahomet the Second by the Venetians, who gave it up to the prince of Karaman[270]. The castle on the shore stands on the site of a Greek town, the ancient Corycus[271], which Strabo has not noticed. There does not appear to be any cape on the four miles of coast between this point and Pershendi that will readily identify itself with his cape Anemurium, nor any harbour that will agree with the Coracesium of the Stadiasmus; and the distances in the last authority are quite absurd. On the summit of the mountain, above the ruins of Corycus, ought to be found the Corycian cave, of which Strabo, Mela, and Solinus have related such wonders, that with regard to the greatest part of them we may use the words applied by Solinus himself to one of the circumstances reported of the cave—Qui volunt, credunt.

(32) Elæussa is no longer an island; and it is remarkable that Stephanus, though in one place[272] he calls it an island near Corycus, in another[273] describes it as a Chersonese. A sandy plain now connects Elæussa with the coast, and with the ruins of the city which derived its importance and its name of Sebaste from having been the residence of Archelaus king of Cappadocia[274]. These ruins consist of a temple, theatre, numerous sepulchres, and three aqueducts, one of which is derived from the river Lamus, six miles distant. The distance of Elæussa as well as of Soli from Corycus is tolerably exact in the Stadiasmus; consequently there must be some error either in the distance between Soli and Calanthia, or in that between Calanthia and Elæussa: and hence, as there are no conspicuous ruins upon this part of the coast, it becomes impossible to fix Calanthia.

(33) Soli, which like Aspendus and Rhodus was a colony from Argus, was at one time the chief city on the coast of Cilicia; but it had fallen into decay, chiefly by the ill treatment of Tigranes, when Pompey, having reduced Cilicia, rebuilt it and named it Pompeiopolis[275]. Captain Beaufort has published a plan of its ruins. The elliptical mole and artificial port seem to have been a magnificent structure, and may perhaps be only a repair of an ancient Greek work. The other remains, the walls, aqueduct, theatre, temples, and the long colonnade on either side of the main street, were probably erected by Pompey, as they resemble the skeletons of Roman cities seen at Antinoe in Egypt, at Gerasa in Syria, and less perfectly in many other places.

(34) The most projecting point between the ruins of Soli and the mouth of the Tersús-tshai, or Cydnus, is the sandy cape at the mouth of the river of Mersín. This cape, therefore, is probably the ancient Zephyrium, though its distance from Tarsus is somewhat greater than that which the Stadiasmus gives between these two places, namely 120 stades. The Stadiasmus agrees with Hierocles in showing that there was a town as well as a cape of Zephyrium.

(35) We naturally look for Anchiale, the port of Tarsus, at the nearest part of the coast at which there is shelter for shipping, or at that from whence the maritime traffic of Tarsus is now carried on. The shore opposite to Kazalú and Karaduar is in both these predicaments; and between these two villages is a river answering to the Anchialeus[276]. Anchiale boasted of an antiquity equal to that of Tarsus; but as early as the time of Alexander the Great it retained only the vestiges of its former importance, in its massy and extensive walls[277]. A large mound, not far from the Anchialeus, with some other similar tumuli near the shore to the westward, are the remains, perhaps, of the works of the Assyrian founders of Anchiale, which probably derived its temporary importance from being the chief maritime station of the Assyrian monarchs in these seas.

(36) The Cydnus, instead of flowing through Tarsus, as in former times[278], leaves the present city to the westward, and no longer forms the lake towards its mouth, which once served as a naval arsenal to Tarsus. The alluvion of the river itself has converted this lake into a sandy plain.

Although Strabo has omitted to mention the Sarus in this place, there is sufficient proof that it was the modern Sihún, which enters the sea at a short distance to the S.E. of the Cydnus; for the town of A´dana, the district of which adjoined to that of Tarsus, still retains its ancient name and situation on the western bank of the Sihún[279]; the course of which river is traced upwards through mount Taurus into the plains of Cappadocia, exactly as Strabo describes the Sarus[280].

(37) It is equally evident that the Ghihún is the Pyramus, whose origin, like the Sarus[281], was in Cappadocia, from whence it flowed through the Taurus; for the Pyramus was the next river eastward of the Sarus[282]; and at Mensís, the Ghihún flows within 20 miles of the Sihún at Adana, without any intermediate river of magnitude between them; from thence it winds to the east, and joins the sea in the middle of the Issic gulf. The Ghihún is larger than any other river in Cilicia, as Strabo describes the Pyramus, and it has deposited a large tract of alluvial land at its mouth, which, however, has not increased so rapidly as the ancients had predicted.

(38) The great plain situated between the lower course of these two rivers and the sea was called Aleium. The only hill which it contains rises from the shore of the gulf of Iskenderun, and forms at its southern extremity the northern cape of that gulf under the name of Karadash. Here Captain Beaufort observed the vestiges of an ancient town. This I believe to have been Megarsus, and that Mallus was situated on another hill which rises from the eastern bank of the Pyramus near its mouth; for these two situations accord perfectly with the evidence which the ancients have left respecting the position of Megarsus and Mallus. 1. Megarsus was a sea-beaten hill in the neighbourhood of Mallus and the mouth of the Pyramus[283], and Karadash is the only hill near the Aleian plain which borders the sea-coast. 2. Mallus was upon a height near the Pyramus, as Euphorion[284], Scylax[285], Strabo, Stephanus[286], and Mela[287], all indicate, and not far from the sea-coast, as appears from its being noticed in the Periplus of Scylax, as well as in the Stadiasmus. 3. Strabo and Ptolemy agree in naming the Pyramus before Mallus in proceeding from west to east. 4. This position of Megarsus, the Pyramus, and Mallus, agrees perfectly with the proceedings of Alexander, as related by Strabo, Arrian, and Curtius[288]. Alexander having sent his horse under Philotas from Tarsus across the Aleian plain to the Pyramus, marched the infantry from Soli along the sea-coast to Megarsus; from whence, after having sacrificed to Minerva Megarsis, he proceeded to Mallus, which it appears that his army did not enter until they had thrown a bridge across the Pyramus.

It is further remarkable, in reference to the site of Mallus, that the sailing distance in the Stadiasmus from Mallus to Soli, accords precisely with that of Artemidorus[289] from the Pyramus to Soli, namely 500 stades, which is very near the truth; and that the description which the Stadiasmus gives of the navigation is exactly confirmed by the form of the intermediate coast, namely, that it trended first to the southward, and then to the north-westward.

(39) Mopsuestia is represented to have stood on the Pyramus[290]. Its name under the Byzantine empire was corrupted to Mampsysta, or Mamista, or Mansista[291]; of which names the modern Mensís appears to be a further corruption. This town stands on the Ghihún, on the road from Baiás to A´dana, nearly at the distance from each at which the Jerusalem Itinerary places Mansista. The Peutinger Table, also, places Mopsuesta at 19 M. P. from A´dana. We cannot doubt, therefore, that Mensis occupies nearly, if not exactly, the site of the ancient city of Mopsus.

Above this place, on the same river, stood Anazarba, or Cæsareia at Mount Anazarbus, which has probably preserved some remains of antiquity, as it was the capital of the second or eastern Cilicia about the fifth century, Tarsus being at that time the metropolis of the western[292].

To the north-eastward of Ægæ was Epiphaneia[293], one day’s march from Mount Amanus[294], on the road from Alexandria to Anazarbus[295], which probably branched from the road to Mopsuestia, not far from the Amanic gates. In the mountains above Epiphania and Anazarbus towards Cappadocia were Pindenissus and Tibara, two strong towns of the Eleuthero-Cilices which were taken by Cicero[296]. Castabalum, placed by the Itineraries about 16 M. P. from Baiæ, and about 26 from Ægæ, appears from Curtius to have been very near the Pylæ Amanides, on the northern side[297]. According to the Table, Issus was 5 M. P. to the southward of Castabalum.

Below Mopsuestia, between that place and Mallus, there appears to have been a town upon the Pyramus called Antiocheia; for besides the evidence which the Stadiasmus affords of this fact, we find it exactly confirmed by Stephanus, who mentions it as one of ten cities of that name[298].

The Seretila, which the Stadiasmus places between Mallus and Ægæ, is probably an error for Serrepolis, which name is inserted by Ptolemy[299] in the same situation; and this conjecture is in some measure confirmed by the genitive Σερετίλλεως, in which form the Stadiasmus afterwards mentions the same name, and which nearly approaches to Σεῤῥεπόλεως.

I shall not pretend to explain the Stadiasmus any further, or to justify its distances, some of which may, however, be found accurate, when a better knowledge of the real geography and of the ancient sites shall have illustrated its meaning. With such a multitude of verbal and literal errors, we cannot be surprised at finding many of the numbers also inaccurate. It may be observed, however, that of the three distances which the author has drawn across the gulf of Issus,—namely, from Myriandrus to Ægæ, from Rhosus to Serrepolis, and from the Rhosic rock (now cape Hanzír) to Antiocheia on the Pyramus,—the two latter seem to be tolerably near the truth.