Chapter VI (1)

SOME REMARKS ON THE COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY OF THE WESTERN AND NORTHERN PARTS OF ASIA MINOR.

_Principal places in Peræa Rhodia—in Doris—in Caria—in the
valley of the Mæander—in the valley of the Caystrus—on the coast
of Ionia—in the valleys of the Hermus and Caicus, and in the
adjacent country—in Troas—in Bithynia—in Paphlagonia._

It remains to submit to the reader some observations in justification of the ancient names in the western and northern parts of the map which accompanies the present volume. It will not be necessary to enter into this part of the subject so fully as into those which have already been under consideration. The western provinces, in consequence of their celebrity and greater advantages of climate, soil, and situation, have been more fully described, both by ancient and modern writers; so that, in conducting the reader to the results recorded on the map, a general reference on the one hand to the travellers whose routes are there marked, and on the other to the ancient historians, geographers, and itineraries, will be sufficient. In those instances only, it may be necessary to be more particular, where the ancient positions are determined by less obvious authorities or by unpublished documents, or where the question is rendered doubtful by deficient or conflicting evidence. As to the north-eastern part of the peninsula, we must be contented with a brief notice of its geography, for a reason the reverse of that which induces me to abridge the geographical notice of the provinces bordering on the Ægæan sea. The distance of Paphlagonia and Eastern Bithynia from the centre of Grecian civilization, and the little attention which those countries have received from ancient history, have hardly tempted a single traveller to trust himself among their barbarous tribes, or to explore their mountains and forests; and hence the evidences of the geography of that country, both ancient and modern, are extremely imperfect.

I shall begin from the western extremity of Captain Beaufort’s Survey, and shall proceed to the westward and northward from the same point at which the remarks of the preceding chapter set out in the opposite direction. It so happens that Dædala is precisely the point at which Strabo also changes the course of his observations; and from which, after describing the coast of Caria with the adjacent islands and continent in a western direction, he proceeds, as we have seen in the translated extract at the beginning of the last chapter, to direct his description of Lycia, Pamphylia, and Cilicia, from west to east.

Captain Beaufort not having surveyed any part of the coast between Telmissus and Halicarnassus, excepting that near Cnidus; and no traveller having pretended to publish a delineation of it, except M. de Choiseul Gouffier, whose map is too obviously incorrect, both in construction and in detail, to merit much attention; this part of the coast-line of Asia is more subject to a suspicion of inaccuracy than any other. The important positions of Rhodus, Cnidus, Cos, and Halicarnassus, are indeed ascertained by the observations of Captain Beaufort, and I have derived some assistance from a few measurements taken with the compass and sextant from the same places, by Sir William Gell; but no reliance can yet be placed on the outline of the gulfs of Syme and Kos: even the extent of those magnificent bays is very uncertain, and nothing is known of the situation of the numerous towns and islands placed in them by the ancient authors, especially by Pliny: in short, the exploring of these two gulfs with that of the coast in the vicinity of Caunus, is now one of the most interesting desiderata in the geography of Asia Minor.

Strabo[300] describes Peræa as beginning at the fort and mountain Dædala, near Telmissus, and as ending at mount Phœnix, both places included. “Next to the gulf Glaucus occurs the cape and temple Artemisium, and then the grove of Latona; above which, 60 stades inland, is the city Calynda, then Caunus, a city with docks and a closed port; and near it the Calbis, navigable by boats. Between Caunus and the Calbis is Pisilis; and on a height above Caunus is a fort named Imbrus. The next place on the coast to Caunus is Physcus, a small city which has a harbour and a grove of Latona; then the rugged coast of Loryma, the highest mountain above which is named Phœnix, and has a castle of the same name on its summit. Before this coast lies Elæussa, 4 stades from the sea, 8 stades in circumference, and 120 stades distant from Rhodus. Beyond Loryma is the cape Cynossema and the island Syme.”

As it appears from another passage in Strabo[301], where he cites Artemidorus, that the common road from this coast to the northward, was from Physcus by Alabanda and Tralles, there seems little doubt that Physcus was at Mármara, which is still the usual place of debarkation from Ródos to those going towards Ghiuzel-hissár and Smyrna.

The distances of Elæussa and port Cressa from Rhodus, as given by Strabo and Pliny[302], are sufficiently accurate to identify those two places. The excellent harbour of Cressa is now called Aplothíka by the Greeks, and Porto Cavaliere by the Italians, and on its western shore are the ruins of a Hellenic fortress and town, which are undoubtedly those of Loryma; for Loryma is called a city by Seneca[303] and Stephanus, although not so designated by Strabo or by Pliny; and port Loryma is described by Livy as being opposite to Rhodus[304], at a little more than the distance[305] which Pliny assigns to Cressa. The order of names on this coast in Ptolemy[306] is in exact agreement with the other authorities which I have cited in proof of their position, as marked on the map, if we suppose his cape Onugnatus to be the same as the Cynosema of Strabo.

Although Choiseul Gouffier must have nearly crossed the sites of Dædala and Calynda, he did not ascertain the position of either of them: nor has that of Caunus, the chief city of Peræa, yet been explored. The promontory called by Strabo Artemisium, from the temple of Diana which stood upon it, appears to have been the same as the Pedalium of Pliny and the Stadiasmus, and to be the cape now called Bokomadhi.

The Clydæ, which the Stadiasmus[307] names between Pedalium and Crua (Crya) is evidently the same as the Chydæ, which Ptolemy places a little to the westward of Crya, and Crya is undoubtedly the Cryassus of Stephanus and Plutarch[308]. We are not surprised at finding in the modern town of Ródos an inscription[309], in which Cryassus and Chalce (the island still called Khalki) are alluded to, both these places having been dependencies of the Rhodian republic. The islands off the coast of Dædala and Crya are noticed by Pliny[310], who says there were two belonging to the Dædalenses; and three, two of which are by Stephanus[311] named Alina and Carysis, belonging to the Cryenses.

In consequence of our ignorance of the actual topography of the gulfs of Doris and Ceramus, I have not attempted to place any of their towns, even conjecturally, except Euthenæ, which is stated by Mela[312] to have been in a bay between Cnidus and the Ceramic gulf: Bargasa and Ceramus are described by Strabo[313] as being near the sea, between Cnidus and Halicarnassus; and Passala, an island in the same gulf, was the port of the Mylassenses[314]. The modern name Kéramo, which, if it exists, identifies the site of Ceramus, rests, I believe, solely upon the authority of D’Anville.

The Dorian colonies from the Peloponnesus, which settled in Halicarnassus, Cnidus, Cos, and in the three cities of Rhodus, introduced the use of Doric architecture, and of the Doric dialect, into this angle of Caria. Remains of Doric buildings are found at Lindus, Cnidus, and Halicarnassus[315]; and inscriptions in the Doric dialect have been found in most of the cities of the Hexapolis. It appears that they had not neglected the latter mark of their origin in the early ages of the Roman empire[316].

The conversion into a peninsula of the island on which Strabo and Stephanus represent Jasus (now Asýn Kale) to have stood, is probably a remote effect of the encroachments of the Mæander upon the sea. We find another instance of the same kind at Caryanda: for there can be little doubt that the large _peninsula_, towards the western end of which is the fine harbour called by the Turks Pasha Limáni, is the ancient _island_ of Caryanda, now joined to the main by a narrow sandy isthmus. Pasha Limáni (the port of the Pasha) is the _harbour_ of Caryanda, noticed by Strabo, Scylax, and Stephanus; its position according with that of the other places along this coast, as described by Strabo. “Next to Halicarnassus,” he says, “is Termerium, a cape of the Myndii, opposite to cape Scandaria of Cos.... Proceeding towards Myndus are the capes Astypalsæa and Zephyrium; and immediately beyond the latter, the city Myndus, with a harbour; then Bargylia, also a city, between which and Myndus is the harbour and the island of Caryanda[317]. Near Bargylia is the temple of Diana Cindyas. Next occurs Iasus.”

We can hardly doubt that Myndus stood in the small sheltered port of Gumishlú, where Captain Beaufort remarked the remains of an ancient pier at the entrance of the port, and some ruins at the head of the bay. The cape to the southward of this port will consequently be Zephyrium; and it is not improbable that the ruins which the same traveller observed at Kadí Kálesi, in a bay on the south side of that cape, are those of a small ancient town of the same name, which has not been noticed by the ancient authors.

Such having been the situation of Myndus and of Caryanda, Bargylia (called Andanus[318] in the Carian language) should be sought for on the coast between Pasha Limáni and Asýn Kálesi: this position, it may be added, agrees with that which Mela[319] ascribes to Bargylia, as well as with the fact that the gulf of Iasus was often called the gulf of Bargylia[320].

Of the interior cities of Caria, Stratoniceia is shown to have been at Eski-hissár, by the important ruins which have given rise to the modern name, in conjunction with an inscription[321] found there, which relates to Jupiter Chrysaoreus, the deity particularly worshipped at Stratoniceia.

The names of Lagina and Mylasa still subsist, slightly corrupted. Of the latter city there are many remains; but that which constituted its most remarkable antiquity in the time of Pococke, the temple of Rome and Augustus, was destroyed about the middle of the last century by the Turks, who built a new mosque with the materials[322].

The situation of Alabanda is still doubtful; and the ancient testimony on that of Labranda is so much connected with it, that the same uncertainty prevails as to the site of the latter. The following is the substance of what Strabo says of these places:

Labranda was a dependency of Mylasa, distant from thence 68 stades, and situated in the mountain over which lay the route from Mylasa to Alabanda. As far as Labranda there was a paved road, which, as leading to the temple of Jupiter Stratius, (otherwise named Labrandenus,) was called the Sacred Way[323]. Alabanda stood at the foot of a hill with a double summit, which resembled an ass bearing a pack-saddle. It was situated near a very winding river, and its territory was separated by a ridge of hills from that of Mylasa[324].

Pococke and Chandler supposed Alabanda to have been at Karpúsli, where they found sepulchres and the remains of public buildings, of a theatre, and of town walls; and Chandler was the first to describe the ruins (at Iakli, not far to the southward of Kizeljik or Mendeliat,) of a small fortified town containing a theatre, and a ruined temple of the Corinthian order, of which 16 columns of 2½ feet in diameter, with a part of the entablature, were standing in the year 1776. This, Chandler supposed to have been the temple of Jupiter of Labranda[325]. M. de Choiseul Gouffier[326] and M. Barbié du Bocage[327] were of a different opinion. Without pretending to determine the position of Alabanda, they agreed in thinking that the ruins at Iakli are those of Euromus, which we know from Polybius and Livy[328] to have been one of the most important places in this part of the country, at the time of the Roman wars; and from Strabo, to have been situated, as the ruins at Iakli are, near the eastern extremity of Mount Grium[329]. It appears, moreover, from a coin of the emperor Caracalla[330], that the Jupiter of Euromus had considerable celebrity; to him, therefore, the existing temple may have been sacred, and not to Jupiter of Labranda: in favour of which opinion, it may be added that the temple of Labranda was noted for its antiquity, whereas the architecture at Iakli is of Roman times.

On the other hand, it may be remarked that the distance of Iakli from Mylasa agrees tolerably with the 68 or 70 stades between that place and Labranda; that supposing Alabanda to have been at Karpúsli, the direction of Iakli from Mylasa is not much to the left of a line drawn from thence to Karpúsli: and that the deviation is a natural consequence of the projection westward of the range of hills, a part of which overhangs the temple at Iakli.

There are some reasons, however, for thinking that Alabanda was not at Karpúsli, but at Arabissár. 1. Pococke describes the ancient remains at Arabissár as consisting of town-walls, a theatre, and a large oblong Roman building with windows, which appeared to him to have been intended for public assemblies: he adds that the city occupied the slope and foot of two hills. Now the two hills accord with Strabo’s description of Alabanda; and the oblong building may have belonged to the Roman conventus of which Alabanda was the chief town[331]. 2. The river Tshina, near Arabissár, accords extremely well with the river upon which Alabanda was situated; as do the mountains which separate its valley from the plain of Mylasa, with the geographer’s words, ἡ μεταξὺ ὀρεινὴ, relating to the mountain between Mylasa and Alabanda.—3. The other words of Strabo, descriptive of the situation of the temple, ἐν τῷ ὄρει, and of the road which led to Labranda from Mylasa, tend to show that the temple was on a mountain, and that the road thither did not lead through a plain like that from Mylasa to Iakli. It may be added, 4. that the ancient gate at Mylasa, upon which Chandler observed the figure of a hatchet, the symbol of Jupiter Labrandenus, and from which he inferred that it was the gate leading to Labranda, does not open towards Iakli, but faces the east towards the mountain and Arabissár[332]. Upon the whole, therefore, I am inclined to think that Alabanda was at Arabissár, and Euromus at Iakli; and that the vestiges of Labranda will hereafter be found on the mountain to the north-eastward of Mylasa. The ancient remains at Karpúsli are perhaps those of Orthosia. This was a place of some importance; and we know that it was situated in the country to the southward of the Mæander, opposite to Tralles and Nysa; that it was not far from Coscinia[333], and that Coscinia was upon the same river as Alabanda[334].

If Alabanda was at Arabissár, Tshina, where Pococke[335] found considerable remains, may be the site of Coscinia, and its modern name may possibly be a corruption of the ancient.

M. Barbié du Bocage[336] has with great reason supposed that the river of Tshina was the branch of the Mæander called Marsyas by Herodotus[337]. The historian describes the Marsyas as flowing from the country of Idrias into the Mæander; and he relates that the Persians under Daurises having met the revolted Carians not far from the junction of the two streams, the Carians were defeated, and retired to Labranda, where they took up a position in the sacred grove, and were joined by the Milesii and others of their allies. They were defeated a second time, and the Persians continued to advance into Caria, until the Carians, attacking the invaders by night on the road to Pedasus, were in their turn victorious, and slew Daurises and several others of the Persian leaders. It is evident that the Marsyas of which the historian here speaks was a Carian river, totally different from the stream or fountain of the same name at Celænæ, the course of which was not longer than that city itself[338]. Idrias was one of the earlier names of the city, which under the Macedonians assumed the name of Stratoniceia, and its territory included Lagina, celebrated for a temple of Hecate[339]. The latter place still preserves its ancient name, and not far from it are the sources of the Tshina. It may be further observed, in confirmation of the identity of this river with the Marsyas of Herodotus, that the retreat of the Carians from its valley into the hills to the westward was a very natural movement, and perfectly conformable with the other circumstances of these transactions.

In opposition to the placing of Alabanda at Arabissár will perhaps be adduced the distances on the road which led from Physcus by Tralles to Smyrna, as stated by Artemidorus, and preserved by Strabo[340]. These distances are from Physcus to Lagina 850 stades, to Alabanda 250, to the Mæander, which was the boundary of Caria, 80, to Tralles 80, to Magnesia 140, to Ephesus 120, to Smyrna 320,—total from Physcus to Tralles 1260, from Tralles to Smyrna 580. The numbers from Tralles to Smyrna agree tolerably well with the reality: but it is sufficient to refer for a moment to the map, to perceive how totally unworthy of credit those on the road from Physcus to Tralles must be, both in the aggregate and in detail. The 1260 stades are represented on the map by only 60 geographical miles in direct distance, making more than 20 stades to a mile. Instead of 850 stades from Physcus to Lagina, there could not have been with all the windings of the road more than 300; nor are there more than 50, instead of 80, from the Mæander to the ruins of Tralles. The evidence of position derived from this passage may therefore be rejected, except inasmuch as it shows that Alabanda lay in the road from Physcus to Tralles.

The second-rate places of Caria, dependent upon the chief cities of the coast, or upon the three great towns of the interior, were Euromus, Chalcetor, Heracleia, and Amyzon[341].

As Mount Grium extended from the Milesia eastward to Chalcetor and Euromus[342], Chalcetor would perhaps be found, supposing Euromus to have been at Iakli, at the foot of the mountain which lies between that place and Asýn Kálesi.

The Heracleia mentioned by Strabo among the four smaller towns of the interior of Caria, is not the same as the Heracleia under Mount Latmus which he describes elsewhere, for this was a maritime town. It must therefore be the same which Ptolemy distinguishes from Heracleia of Latmus (πρὸς Λάτμῳ) by the name of Heracleia of Albanum (πρὸς Ἀλβάνῳ). Whether Albanum was the name of a river or mountain it is difficult to say;—but the traveller might perhaps seek for the site of this Heracleia, with some prospect of success, in the situation in which it stands in the enumeration of the towns of this country by Pliny[343], namely, between Euromus and Amyzon.

The ruins of the citadel and town-walls of Amyzon are to be seen on the eastern side of Mount Latmus on the road from Bafi to Tchisme, one hour short of the latter, and a little above some villages called Kafaslár. Mr. Hamilton here copied an inscription in a very defective state of preservation, of which however some of the expressions are distinguishable. Towards the beginning I observe ΑΜΥΤΟΝΕΩΝ and ΧΑΙΡΕΙΝ. When the letters of the inscription were perfect, the former word was undoubtedly , and it proves that these remains belonged to Amyzon[344]. Mixed with Hellenic ruins, there are others at this place, of the date of the Byzantine empire,—a circumstance which agrees with the mention made of Amyzon among the places of Caria in Hierocles, and in the list of Greek bishoprics.

The city of Latmus or Heracleia at Mount Latmus has preserved considerable remains of its walls, together with many sepulchres and a small temple. These ruins are found at the foot of a rocky mountain, the ancient Latmus, on the shore of a lake, which takes its name from the village of Báfi near the eastern extremity. This lake is the Latmic Gulf described by Strabo[345], but which since his time has been separated from the sea by the new plain formed at the mouth of the Mæander. Chandler, not adverting to this remarkable change, mistook the lake of Báfi for that of Myus, and consequently the ruins of Heracleia for those of Myus—an error which was corrected by M. de Choiseul Gouffier. With this adjustment, and the undoubted landmarks afforded by the fine ruins of Priene at Samsún[346], and by the theatre of Miletus at Palátia, we have accurate data for judging of the progress of the encroachments of the Mæander upon the sea, as well as for determining the sites of the two towns of Pyrrha and Myus, the situation of which relatively to Miletus is accurately described by Strabo[347].

The reader has perceived that in the question concerning the site of Alabanda, that of Tralles has been assumed to have been at Ghiuzel-hissár. It is now time to show that Smith, as well as Pococke and Chandler, who too blindly followed the opinion of Smith, were wrong in supposing that town to stand on the site of Magnesia—an error which infallibly led to others of equal importance. M. Barbié du Bocage in the notes to his translation of Chandler gave convincing reasons for thinking that Ghiuzel-hissár occupied the position of Tralles: but it was not until Mr. Hamilton explored the ruins of Magnesia at Inekbazar[348], and discovered the ruins of the celebrated temple of Diana Leucophryene, (which has since been measured and drawn by the Mission of the Society of Dilettanti,) that the question could be considered as satisfactorily determined. The decisive reasons in proof of the positions of Magnesia, Tralles and Nysa, as marked on the map at Inekbazar, Ghiuzel-hissár and Sultan-hissár, respectively, shall here be stated as briefly as possible.

1. Magnesia was according to Pliny 15 miles[349], and according to Artemidorus 120 stades[350] from Ephesus. This is about the real distance of Inekbazar, and not half that of Ghiuzel-hissár, from the ruins of Ephesus at Aiasolúk.

2. Tralles was on the road from Physcus to Ephesus[351]. But had Magnesia been at Ghiuzel-hissár, Tralles, which was 18 miles according to one author[352], or 140 stades according to another[353], to the eastward of Magnesia, must have been about Atshá, which is very much out of the direction from Mármara to Ephesus.

3. We are told by Strabo, that to the traveller going from Magnesia to Tralles, with Mount Messogis on his left hand, the plain on his right belonged to the Magnetes, and to the people of Myus and Miletus[354]. But the two last places were too distant to have possessed any part of the plain opposite to Ghiuzel-hissár and Atshá.

4. Strabo describes Magnesia as situated in a plain at the foot of a mountain called Thorax, not far from the Mæander, but nearer the Lethæus a stream flowing from Pactyas a mountain of the Ephesii[355]. This description agrees precisely with Inekbazar, in face of which are two insulated hills, which, when all the plain of the Mæander below Inekbazar was sea, were two islands called Derasidæ and Sophonia[356]. Besides the town-walls, theatre, stadium[357], and other indications of the site of a great city, are the vast prostrate fragments of an octastyle Ionic temple, the peristyle of which was near 200 feet in length, and was formed of columns more than 4 feet and a half in diameter. It agrees perfectly with the description given of the temple of Diana at Magnesia by Vitruvius[358] and Strabo[359]; the former of whom informs us that this building was a pseudodipterous octastyle of the Ionic order, and the latter that it was larger than any temple in Asia except those of Diana Ephesia and of Apollo Didymeus, and that it surpassed even the Ephesian temple in harmony and in the construction of the cell (τῇ εὐρυθμίᾳ καὶ τῇ τέχνῃ τῇ περὶ τὴν κατασκευὴν τοῦ σηκοῦ πολὺ διαφέρει). Among the ruins are seen inscribed pedestals which formerly supported statues of Nerva and Marcus Aurelius; one of these is dedicated by a high priest and scribe of the Magnetes; and on another fragment were found the names of some priestesses of Artemis Leucophryene[360].

5. The ruins of Tralles are found above the modern town of Ghiuzel-hissár, in a situation such as Strabo[361] has described—a table summit strong by nature (ἵδρυται ἐπὶ τραπεζίου τινὸς, ἄκραν ἔχοντος ἐρυμνήν). The only ruin well defined is that of the theatre and stadium, which formed one building. The Ionic temple of Æsculapius built by Argelius, which Vitruvius mentions[362], as well as the other works of the purer times of Grecian art, seem to have been buried by earthquakes beneath the ruins of later buildings; among which are many remains of the architecture of the Lower Empire, vestiges of the restoration of Tralles by Andronicus Palæologus[363]. Pococke copied a Latin inscription at Ghiuzel-hissár in which the name of Tralles occurs, but without having observed it. It is found also in two inscriptions copied at Ghiuzel-hissár by Sherard. The site of Tralles is traversed by a torrent answering to the ancient Eudon.

6. At Sultán-hissár, not far to the westward of Nasli, are the remains of a large city, corresponding with the description which Strabo has given of Nysa. Nysa was situated for the greater part on the slope of Mount Messogis, and was divided by a torrent so as to appear like two separate towns—a bridge traversed this torrent in one place, and in another the valley was occupied by an amphitheatre, beneath which flowed the torrent[364]. Chandler’s account of the ruins at Sultan-hissár is exactly conformable with this description of Nysa,—so perfectly in regard to the remark of Strabo on the appearance of a double city, that Chandler supposed the western division to be Tralles, and the eastern Nysa. Pococke has reported an inscription found at Nasli, which contains the words ΝΥΣΑΕΙΣ and ΜΑΣΤΑΥΡΕΙΤΟΥ. Possibly Nasli may have been the site of Mastaura.

The situation of the other dependencies of Nysa,—namely Briula, Aromata, celebrated for its vines, and Acharaca where was a Plutonium and cavern,—have not yet been discovered. The latter was not far from Nysa on the road to Tralles[365].

It may be inferred from Strabo that Hydrela also was in this part of the valley; and notwithstanding his remark[366]—that when the three towns founded by Hydrelus and his two brothers fell into decay, their united population formed the single one of Nysa,—Hydrela appears to have flourished at the time of the Roman wars in Asia[367].

To the eastward of the Marsyas, or river of Tshina, several other smaller streams join the Mæander on its southern bank. That which is nearly opposite to Nasli may perhaps be the Harpasus, which flowed near the town of Harpasa[368]; for we learn from Pococke[369], that some ruins in this situation are called Arpás-Kálesi. Not far to the eastward of this stream is another, which descends from Gheira and Karajasu. On the eastern side of its junction with the Mæander are the remains of an ancient city. This was probably Antiocheia, which stood at the junction of the Mosynus with the Mæander; having a bridge over the latter river, and a fertile territory on either bank[370]. At this bridge it appears that the great eastern road from Ephesus to Mazaca—which passed through Magnesia, Tralles, and Nysa—crossed the river, leading afterwards from Antiocheia along the left bank to Carura and Laodiceia[371].

Other ancient sites were observed in this region by Sherard[372] and Pococke: but all the ancient geography of the country to the southward of the Mæander is still involved in great uncertainty, there being no points absolutely certain except Laodiceia ad Lycum, Aphrodisias, and Mount Cadmus, now called Baba-dagh.

Aphrodisias is proved to have been at Gheira, by the numerous remains of antiquity still to be seen at that place. Among these are several inscriptions containing the name of the people; and ruins still exist of the temple of Venus[373], from whose worship was derived the name by which the city was most commonly known[374].

There can be little doubt that the hot springs observed by Pococke[375] and Chandler[376] on the south bank of the Mæander, about 12 miles west of Denizlú, mark the site of Carura, which was celebrated for its hot baths in the time of Strabo, and was then the boundary of Caria and Phrygia. It was the same place, probably, as the Cydrara of Herodotus; for either here, or at no great distance, must have been the meeting of the three great roads which the historian mentions[377], one leading into Lydia through the opening of Mount Messogis by Tripolis to Philadelphia; a second down the valley of the Mæander into Caria; and the third into Phrygia by the valley of the Lycus and Celænæ. Cydrara, in the time of Herodotus, was near the frontier of the three provinces.

Smith, in his Journey to the Seven Churches in 1671, was the first to describe the sites of Laodiceia, Hierapolis, Tripolis, and Colossæ. In all these places, except Tripolis, he has been followed by Pococke, or by Chandler; and at Hierapolis, recently, by Mr. Cockerell: the general topography and the antiquities which exist in these places are therefore known, although they have not yet been described to the public with sufficient accuracy or detail[378].

Laodiceia[379] preserves great remains of its importance as the residence of the Roman governors of Asia under the emperors; namely, a stadium in uncommon preservation, three theatres, one of which is 450 feet in diameter, and the ruins of several other buildings[380].

There are few ancient sites more likely than Laodiceia to preserve many curious remains of antiquity beneath the surface of the soil: its opulence, and the earthquakes to which it was subject[381], rendering it probable that valuable works of art were often there buried, beneath the ruins of the public and private edifices[382]. And a similar remark, though in a smaller degree perhaps, will apply to the other cities of the vale of the Mæander, as well as to some of those situated to the north of Mount Tmolus: for Strabo informs us that Philadelphia, Sardes, and Magnesia of Sipylus were not less than Laodiceia and the cities of the Mæander, as far as Apameia at the sources of that river, subject to the same dreadful calamity[383].

Hierapolis, now called Tabúk-Kale or Pambúk-Kale, owed its celebrity, and probably the sanctity indicated by its name, to its very remarkable sources of mineral water, the singular effects of which, caused by the rapid accumulation of its deposit, are shown by the narratives of Pococke and Chandler[384] to have been accurately described by Strabo[385]. A great number and variety of sepulchres are found on the different approaches to the site, which is a commanding hill overlooking the valleys of the Lycus and Mæander, and terminating on that side in a precipice. The town-walls are seen on the other sides, and the main street is traced in its whole length, bordered by three Christian churches, one of which is upwards of 300 feet long. About the middle of the street, just above the mineral sources, Pococke, in 1740, thought that he distinguished some remains of the temple of Apollo, which according to Damascius, quoted by Photius, was in this situation[386]. Chandler distinguished the area of a stadium in a recess of the mountain. But the principal ruins are a theatre and gymnasium, both in a state of uncommon preservation; the former 346 feet in diameter, the latter nearly filling a square space of 400 feet the side.

Of Tripolis we have a very imperfect description by Smith. Chandler saw at a distance the theatre which Smith mentions. Lucas, the only other traveller who has visited the site, was incompetent to give a description of its antiquities; and all that can be understood from his narrative is, that he really did pass by Tripolis, though he writes Kosh-Yenije, a village near the ruins of Tripolis, Kashashead, and Pambúk-Kálesi, Bambour-quezer.

The remains of Colossæ were found by Smith and Pococke below the modern Khónas; which name serves to identify the site, as we learn from Constantine Porphyrogennetus[387] that Colossæ was in his time called Chonæ (Χῶναι). Herodotus[388] mentions a subterraneous course of the Lycus for about half a mile near this place; but no traveller has yet verified this observation of the historian, or has ascertained the existence of the salt lake of Anava between Colossæ and Apameia[389].

M. Barbié du Bocage, in his notes to the French translation of Chandler’s Travels, has justly remarked that Chandler very improperly blames Pococke for having misunderstood the geography of this part of the country. It was Chandler himself who erred, in mistaking the river Caprus for the Lycus, and the Lycus for the Mæander. But although Pococke was right, he did no more than follow Smith, who clearly saw that the river which he crossed between Kosh-Yenije and Tabúk-Kálesi is the Mæander; that the stream between Tabúk-Kálesi and Eski-hissár (Laodiceia) is the Lycus; and that the small rivers which meet at the site of Laodiceia are the Caprus and the Asopus.

* * * * *

The valleys of four parallel rivers with the interjacent ridges of mountains, form the leading features of that beautiful and fertile country in the middle part of the western extremity of Asia Minor, which comprehended the ancient provinces of Ionia, Lydia, and Mysia.

The Mæander and Hermus, which (in proceeding from south to north) are the first and third of those rivers, are nearly equal as well in magnitude as in the length of their course, which is between two and three hundred miles. The fourth or northernmost river, the Caicus, although not so celebrated as the Caystrus, which is the second in the above-mentioned order, is much more considerable in size. Deriving its origin from the same mass of Olympene mountains which give rise to the Hermus and the Rhyndacus, it is formed of two large branches, either of which is as long in its course as the Caystrus. But the latter, although little more than 70 miles in length, collects all the waters from the adjacent slopes of the great mountains Tmolus and Messogis; and thus becomes a stream of considerable magnitude at Ephesus, where it joins the sea.

There is very little certainty as to the names and positions of the ancient cities which occupied the valley of the Caystrus. The evidences of ancient history are so scanty with regard to them, that it is only from the discovery of their ruins, and of ancient inscriptions, that we can hope to ascertain either their situations or their names.

The remains of antiquity at Beréki, on the southern side of Tmolus, seem from Strabo and Ovid to have belonged to Hypæpa[390]; and it is not improbable that, in the fertile and delightful region on the summit of the mountain between Beréki and Sart (Sardes), a part of which is occupied by a large lake, there might be found some remains of the city Tmolus; which, together with many of the surrounding places, was destroyed by an earthquake in the fifth year of the reign of Tiberius[391].

From the many remains of antiquity at Tyre, it appears that this large and advantageously-situated modern town is the successor of the chief Grecian city of that part of the country. It is known from Strabo and Pliny[392], that the valley of the Caystrus was divided into that of Ephesus towards the sea; the plain properly called Caystrian; and the Cilbian plain: above the last were the Cilbian mountains, in which the Caystrus had its sources. We find that the Caystriani, the lower Cilbiani, and the upper Cilbiani, coined each their own money, with the name of the people inscribed[393]; and they had undoubtedly each a chief town in which the coinage took place. As Tyre stands in the central part of the Caystrian valley, it probably occupies the site of the city of the Caystriani: whether this place had any other name cannot be discovered in ancient history. Larissa Ephesia, which possessed a temple of Apollo Larissenus, and was supposed to have been anciently a city of much greater importance than it was in the time of Strabo, stood in another part of the Caystrian plain, 180 stades from Ephesus, towards Mount Tmolus[394]. There was another Larissa, 30 stades distant from Tralles, on the road leading from thence across the Messogis into the plain of Caystrus, from whence the worship of Jupiter Larissius at Tralles had its origin[395].

Although the remains of Ephesus are still very considerable and of easy access, they have hardly yet been sufficiently explored, or at least they have not yet been described to the public with the accuracy and detail which they merit. The temple of Diana Ephesia, the largest and most celebrated of the Asiatic Greek buildings, is the only one of the great examples of the Ionic order, of which we do not now possess particulars more or less satisfactory. The temples at Samus, Branchidæ, Priene, Magnesia, and Sardes, have been measured and drawn by experienced architects;—but not a stone has yet been discovered that can with certainty be ascribed to the Ephesian temple, although very little doubt remains as to its exact situation[396].

There has been some difference of opinion with regard to the ancient maritime sites between Ephesus and Cape Trogilium, which was the extreme point of Mount Mycale. Strabo[397] describes this coast in the following terms: “Beyond the strait formed by Samus and Mycale, in sailing towards Ephesus, a part of the coast on the right hand belongs to the Ephesii and a part to the Samii;—the first place is Panionium, situated three stades above the sea. Here is held the common festival of the Ionians, who sacrifice to Neptune Heliconius; the priesthood belongs to the people of Priene. Next occurs Neapolis, which the Ephesii exchanged with the Samii for Marathesium, the latter being nearer to them; then Pygela, a small city; then the port Panormus, and the temple of Diana Ephesia.”

The uninhabitable aspect of the rocks and forests of Mycale from Cape Trogilium to the modern Tshanglí, is such as make it impossible to fix upon any spot, either on the face or at the foot of that mountain, at which Panionium can well be supposed to have stood. Tshanglí, on the other hand, situated in a delightful and well watered valley between two projecting points of the mountain, was admirably suited to the Panionian festival: and here Sir William Gell found, in a church on the sea-shore, an inscription in which he distinguished the name of Panionium twice. I conceive, therefore, that there can be little doubt of Tshanglí being on the site of Panionium.

Several travellers in passing from Ephesus to Skalanóva have remarked the ruins of a small town near the sea, at about one-third of the distance from the former place to the latter. These are probably the remains of Pygela; though I am not aware how far the neighbouring coast will answer to Livy’s description of Pygela as a harbour[398]. Between this spot and Tshanglí there are only two places which we can suppose to have been anciently occupied by towns: one is Skalanóva; the other is half-way between Skalanóva and Tshanglí; where, in a valley watered by a stream, is a source of hot water, near the ruins of a fortress, which, although it appears to have been a work of the Lower Greek Empire, contains some remains of an earlier age. This latter I take to be the site of Neapolis, which the Ephesii built, and afterwards exchanged with the Samii; and Skalanóva stands probably on the ancient Marathesium.

The survey by Captain Beaufort of the coast between Skalanóva and the canal of Khio, illustrates ancient history in the most satisfactory manner. There still exist on this coast some remains of two celebrated buildings—the Ionic temple of Bacchus at Teos, and the temple of Jupiter Clarius at Notium, the port of Colophon[399]. The chief written evidence is supplied by Livy and Strabo; and upon this the map will be found a sufficient commentary.

Although the ancient names to the westward of Teos are not so certainly fixed as those to the eastward of that place, one can hardly doubt that the harbour of Sykiá, on the west side of Cape Corycus, now Kóraka, was the port called Corycus; for Livy describes Corycus both as a promontory of the Teii and as a harbour. In the war between Antiochus and the Romans, in the year B.C. 193[400], Polyxenidas, commander of the fleet of Antiochus, hearing that the Roman fleet was approaching from Delus, and being desirous of coming to an engagement with them before they should be joined by Eumenes and the Rhodii, sailed from Phocæa with a hundred vessels of a small class, of which seventy were covered. Having passed through the channel of Chius, he anchored in Cyssus, a port of the Erythræi. The Romans sailed from Delus to Phanæ in Chius, and from thence, after taking in provision at the city of Chius, they proceeded to Phocæa; where they were joined by Eumenes from Elæa, the port of Pergamum, with twenty-four covered, and many open vessels. The combined fleet, amounting to 200 ships, (a fourth of which were uncovered,) then sailed along the shore, with the view of passing into port Corycus, which was beyond Cyssus. Polyxenidas, when he saw the enemy approach, advanced against them, and was defeated. Cyssus, from this transaction, seems to have been the harbour now called Latzáta, the largest on this part of the coast; and it is probably the same which Strabo calls Casystes[401]. Tshisme, noted for more than one Turkish disaster, seems to be the port Phœnicus of the Erythræi, in which the Romans anchored after the action, on their way to the city of Chius. The remains of Erythræ are found considerably to the northward of Tshisme, in a port sheltered by the islands, anciently called Hippi[402].

As Strabo[403] states the entrance into the canal of Chius on this side, between Cape Argennum of the main land and Cape Poseidium of Chius, to have been sixty stades in breadth, these two capes could be no others than the promontories marked with those names in the map; the real distance agreeing exactly with the ancient number.

The next place to Poseidium, in coasting the island with the shore on the light hand, was Phanæ[404], which is described by Livy as a harbour turned toward the Ægæan (portum Chiorum in Ægeum mare versum), and in another place as a promontory (promontorium Chiorum). We have already seen that it was the place at which the Roman fleet touched in proceeding from the isle of Delus to the Pergamenian coast; on another occasion they assembled at Phanæ, previously to their sailing to the same island[405]: it seems therefore to have been in the bay on the western side of the southernmost cape of Chius.

The other ancient names of this island have been placed on the map, as well as the information afforded by the ancient authors[406] compared with the blind accounts of the modern travellers Pococke and Heyman would admit.

* * * * *

The rivers Hermus and Caicus, each of which is formed by the union of two branches meeting at thirty or forty miles above the mouth, water two extensive valleys equal in natural advantages to those of the Mæander and Caystrus, and not exceeded in beauty and fertility by any in the world. Sardes was the chief city of the valley of the Hermus, and Pergamum in that of the Caicus. Both have retained the ancient name a little corrupted by the Turks: but while Pergamum continues to be the capital of the surrounding country, Sardes has yielded to Magnesia of Mount Sipylus, and has dwindled to a small village. This village however and its vicinity have to boast of two of the most interesting remains of antiquity in Asia; the colossal tumulus of Alyattes near the lake Gygæa[407], and the vast Ionic temple of Cybebe[408] or the Earth, on the bank of the Pactolus[409]. Here is also a theatre connected with a stadium, and the ruins of a large church, perhaps the only one of the Seven Churches of Asia of which there are any distinguishable remains.

Pergamum retained under the Romans that superiority over all the cities of Asia which it had acquired under the successors of Philetærus: and it still preserves many vestiges of its ancient magnificence. Remains of the Asclepium and of some other temples; of the theatre, stadium, amphitheatre, and several other buildings, are still to be seen[410].

There is a confusion of names in regard to the two branches of the Hermus, similar to that which I have already had occasion to notice in the instances of the Sangarius and Mæander. It seems clear from Homer[411] and from Strabo[412], that the branch of the Hermus which waters the plain of Ak-hissár, and which joins the main stream not far from Magnesia, is the ancient Hyllus, which in the time of Strabo was called Phrygius; for we find no mention in ancient history of any other tributary stream of the Hermus, with the exception of the Cogamus near Philadelphia, that of Sardes the famed Pactolus, and a third the Cryus, obscurely named by Pliny, and which was probably of no greater magnitude than the other two just mentioned. Nor in fact is there any stream of importance joining the main river now called Kodus or Ghedis, in the lower part of its course, except the river of Ak-hissár. The course of the main stream, moreover, agrees exactly with the description which Strabo has given of the Hermus. “It rises,” he says, “in the sacred mountain Dindymene, flows through the Catacecaumene into the district of Sardes, and from thence through the subjacent plains into the sea[413].”

From Livy however, in his narrative of the transactions which preceded the decisive victory gained by the Romans over Antiochus at Magnesia, it seems evident that Phrygius was the name by which the southern or main branch of the Hermus was better known to the Romans. Antiochus had collected his forces at Thyateira, when his opponent the Consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio crossed the Hellespont, and moved in six days from Ilium to the sources of the Caicus. Here he was joined by Eumenes from Elæa; and from hence, on the supposition that the king was still near Thyateira, he marched to meet him, and moved in five days into the Hyrcanian plain. But Antiochus in the mean time had quitted Thyateira, and after having _crossed the river Phrygius_, had entrenched himself at Magnesia. The Consul followed on the opposite side of the river, until he arrived in the enemy’s presence. When the armies had remained in this position, with the river between them, for two days, the Romans crossed it and took up a position with their left to the stream, consequently to the westward of the position of Antiochus, which was probably done for the sake of securing a communication with the fleet at Elæa, and a retreat in that direction in case of necessity. After his defeat Antiochus fled to Sardes and Apameia.

From these transactions it cannot well be doubted that Livy applies the name of Phrygius to the southern or main branch of the Hermus, in contradiction to Strabo, who identifies it with the northern. And in this the historian agrees with Pliny[414], who by distinguishing the Phryx from the Hyllus, and by observing that the Phryx gave name to Phrygia, and that it separated that province from Caria, shews clearly that he applied the name Phryx to the largest, and at the same time to the southernmost branch. This instance serves, like that of the Sangarius, to prove how easily a confusion of names occurs in regard to the branches of a river.

From the direction of Scipio’s route from Troy to the Hyrcanian plain, and from the proportion of his marches, it may be inferred that the north-eastern branch of the river of Bergma, which flows by Menduria and Balikesri, is that which was anciently called Caicus;—of the name of the southern branch I have not found any trace in ancient history.

Strabo[415] informs us that the Caicus was joined by the Mysius flowing from Temnum; and that this mountain separated the valley of the Caicus from the plain of Apia, which bordered on Thebe and Adramyttium. Such is our ignorance of the real structure of this part of the country, that it is only from the ancient geographer that we have any knowledge either of the mountain or the river.

Notwithstanding the facilities which were so long given to the researches of travellers by the favourable disposition of the ruling Turkish family of Kara-Osmán-Oglu, added to the influence of the European factories at Smyrna, even the most accessible parts of the valleys of the Hermus and Caicus and of their interjacent ridges are still very insufficiently explored. It seems strange to say, that of a coast so near to Smyrna as that between the mouths of the Hermus and Caicus, we possess no delineation that can be relied on; and consequently no satisfactory information upon the very interesting positions of Leucæ, Phocæa, Cyme, Ægæ, Neontichus, Myrina, and Grynium; the latter noted for a magnificent temple of Apollo, of white marble[416].

In short, with the exception of Temnus, which appears from the Peutinger Table to have been at Menimen; and of Nacrasa, which an inscription mentioned by Chishull[417] shews to have been at Bakír,—we have no accurate information on the sites of any of the second-rate towns of this part of Asia Minor—and all to the east and north of Philadelphia, Thyateira and Pergamum, as far as the Thymbres, Mount Olympus, and the coast of the Propontis, is little better than an unknown land, in which there are very few ancient names that I have been able to place with any degree of certainty.

The site of Cyzicus has been visited and imperfectly described by Pococke and Sestini, and Miletopolis appears from Chishull’s description of the neighbouring lake to have been at Miniás[418]. And hence we have two lines in the Table of which the extremities are known—namely, that leading from Pergamum to Miletopolis, and that leading from Pergamum to Cyzicus. On the former was Hadrianotheræ[419], for such undoubtedly is the correction that should be made of the corrupted name in the Table, though the distance there assigned to it of 8 M. P. from Pergamum cannot be implicitly relied on, as the 41 M. P. which forms the whole interval between Pergamum and Miletopolis is not half the reality. On the road from Pergamum to Cyzicus we find two names in the Table, which do not occur elsewhere in ancient history—Phemeneo—Argesis. The distance of Phemenium from Cyzicus is omitted in the Table: but if the other two distances on this line are correct, the mines of Ergasteria mentioned by Galen were between Phemenium and Argesæ[420].

The name of Kesri or Balikesri seems to be a corruption of Cæsareia[421]. It is the chief town of the Turkish district of Karasi, and is situated on the Caicus, near the great road from Smyrna to Constantinople: it is probably the site of one of the numerous places which under the Romans changed their more ancient name to Cæsareia.

In some part of Mount Olympus, to the westward of Brusa, we find mention made by the Turkish geographer Abubekr, of a town called Edrenús. There can be little doubt that this is the ancient Hadriani ad Olympum or in Olympo, of which coins inscribed with this local distinction are still in existence[422]. Edrenús is no other than Ἀδριανούς, a slight corruption of Hadriani in the usual modern Greek form of the accusative, like Kodus for Cadi.

* * * * *

The geography of the western side of the Idæan range, which slopes to the Ægæan sea and the Hellespont, is in a very different state from that of the country to the eastward of that mountain. The natural beauties of the Troas, its accessibility by sea, but above all its celebrity as the scene of the Ilias, have attracted a greater number of travellers to it, than to any other part of Asia Minor[423].

_W.M.L. del. Published Febʸ. 1824 by John Murray Albemarle Street London. J. Walker Sculpt._]

_The strong lines represent the supposed state of the rivers and coast in the time of the War. The dotted lines shew the course of the rivers and line of coast at the present day._

_W.M.L. delᵗ. Published Febʸ. 1824 by John Murray Albemarle Street London. J. Walker sculpᵗ._]

The most remarkable places in the Troas were Assus, Lectum, Hamaxitus, Larissa, Colonæ, Alexandreia, Cebrene, Neandria, Cenchreæ, Scamandria, Sigeium, and New Ilium.