But when we have come to another bend, abounding in harbours, which forms the last part of the curve of the bow, the island of Peuce juts forth,At the mouth of the Danube. and around this dwell the Trogodytae, the Peuci, and other lesser tribes. Here is Histros, once a powerful city, and Tomi, Apollonia, Anchialos, and Odessos, besides many other cities which lie along the Thracian coast.
But the river Danube, rising near Augst,According to Pliny, N.H. iv. 79, the Danube rises in Germania iugus montis Abnobae ex adverso Rauraci Galliae oppidi.
For the seven months, cf. Val. Flacc. viii. 186, septem exit aquis, septem ostia pandit.
and the mountains near the Raetian frontier, extends over a wide tract, and after receiving sixty tributaries, nearly all of which are navigable, breaks through this Scythian shore into the sea through seven mouths.The earlier writers counted only five; Pliny and Ptolemy, six; Strabo, seven.
The first of these, as their names are interpreted in the Greek tongue, is the aforesaid island of Peuce,The name of the mouth itself is ἱερόν (στόμα). Stoma (στόμα) in each of the following names is the word meaning mouth.
Naracu cannot be interpreted; those that follow are beautiful,
false,
north
and narrow.
the second Naracustoma, the third Calonstoma, the fourth Pseudostoma; but the Borionstoma and Stenostoma are far smaller than the others; the seventh is muddy and black like a swamp.
Now the entire Pontus throughout its whole circuit is misty,Cf. Mela, i. 19, 102, brevis, atrox, nebulosus
, etc. has sweeterI.e. fresher.
waters than the other seas,Cf. Sail., Hist. iii. 65, Maur., mare Ponticum dulcius quam cetera
; Val. Flacc. iv. 719 ff. and is full of shoals, since the air is often thickened and condensed from the evaporation of moisture, and is tempered by the great masses of water that flow into it; and, because the many rivers that pour into it from every side bring in mud and clods, it rises in shoals that are full of ridges.
And it is a well-known fact that fish from the remotest bounds of our seaThe Mediterranean. come in schools to this retreat for the purpose of spawning, in order that they may rear their young more healthfully in its sweet waters, and that in the refuge of the hollows, such as are very numerous there, they may be secure from voracious sea-beasts; for in the Pontus nothing of that kind has ever been seen,Pliny, N.H. ix. 50 except small and harmless dolphins.
But the part of that same Pontic gulf which is scourged by the north wind and by frosts is so completely bound in ice, that neither are the courses of the rivers believed to flow beneath the ice, nor can men or animals keep their footing on the treacherous and slippery surface, a defect which an unmixed sea never has, but only one which is mingled with water from rivers. But since I have been carried somewhat farther than I expected, let us hasten on to the rest of our story.
Another thing was added,Continuing from the end of xxii. 7, p. 213. to crown the present joys, something long hoped for it is true, but delayed by an extensive complex of postponements. For it was announced by Agilo and Jovius, who was later quaestor, that the defenders of Aquileia,Cf. xxi. 11, 2. through weariness of the long siege and having learned of the death of Constantius, had opened their gates, come out, and surrendered the instigators of the revolt; that these were burned alive (as was told above),xxi. 12, 20. and all the rest obtained indulgence and pardon for their offences.
But Julian, elated by his success, now felt more than mortal aspirations,Cf. Soph., Ajax, v. 777; Aesch., Septem, 425. since he had been tried by so many dangers and now upon him, the undisputed ruler of the Roman world, propitious Fortune, as if bearing an earthly horn of plenty,Fortuna is commonly represented in art with a ship’s helm in her right hand, and in her left the horn of Amaltheia, which was placed among the stars; hence here mundanam. was bestowing all glory and prosperity; also adding this to the records of his former victories, that so long as he was sole ruler he was disturbed by no internal strife and no barbarians crossed his frontiers; but all nations, laying aside their former eagerness for repeated attacks, as ruinous and liable to punishment, were fired with a wonderful desire of sounding his praises.
Therefore, after everything that the times and the changed circumstances demanded had been arranged with careful deliberation, and the soldiers had by numerous addresses and by adequate pay been roused to greater readiness for carrying out the coming enterprises, exulting in the favour of all men, he hastened to go to Antioch, leaving Constantinople supported by great increase of strength; for it was there that he was born, and he loved and cherished the city as his natal place.
Accordingly, having crossed the strait,The Thracian Bosporus. and passed by Chalcedon and Libyssa, where Hannibal the Carthaginian was buried, he came to Nicomedia, a city famed of old and so enlarged at the great expense of earlier emperors,Especially Diocletian and Constantine the Great, whose favourite resort it was. that because of the great number of its private and public buildings it was regarded by good judges as one of the regions, so to speak, of the Eternal City.The reference is to the fourteen regions into which Rome was divided by Augustus. Nicomedia, in the opinion of good judges of such matters, was worthy to be considered a fifteenth region of Rome.
When he saw that its wallsThat is of the public buildings and monuments erected by former emperors. The city had suffered from an earth- quake and a fire that lasted for five days and nights; cf. xvii. 7, 1-8. had sunk into a pitiful heap of ashes, showing his distress by silent tears he went with lagging step to the palace: and in particular he wept over the wretched state of the city because the senate and the people, who had formerly been in a most flourishing condition, met him in mourning garb. And certain of them he recognised, since he had been brought up there under the bishop Eusebius,Eusebius of Nicomedia, not the Church historian, Eusebius of Caesaraea. whose distant relative he was.
Having here also in a similar way generously furnished many things that were necessary for repairing the damage done by the earthquake, he went on past Nicaea to the borders of Gallograecia.Galatia (Gallacia); cf. Suet., Calig. 29, 2. From there he made a detour to the right and turned to Pessinus, in order to visit the ancient shrine of the Great Mother. It was from that town, in the second Punic war, that at the direction of the Cumaean versesThe Sibylline Verses; see Livy, xxix. 10, 11. her image was brought to Rome by Scipio Nasica.In 204 B.C.; see Livy, l.c.