Res Gestae

Now is a fitting time (I think), since the history of a great prince has opportunely brought us to these places, to give some account of the remote parts of Thrace, and of the topography of the Pontic sea, with clearness and accuracy, partly from my own observation and partly from reading.[*](Ammianus’ account is confused and in places inaccurate.)

Athos,[*](Modern ʽἱερὸν ῎ορος, Monte Santo.) that lofty mountain in Macedonia through which the Medic ships once passed,[*](Under Xerxes; see Hdt. vii. 122.) and Caphereus, the headland of Euboea[*](Its mediæval name was Negroponte and the headland’s Cappo d’Oro.) where Nauplius,

From there, with back-flowing current,[*](Cf. Hor., Odes, i. 2, 13, retortis violenter undis.) it laves the temple of Apollo Sminthius,[*](On Tenedos; Iliad. i. 38; Strabo, xiii. 1, 46. The god had this epithet from σμίνθος, a kind of field-mouse destructive to the crops, destroyed by Apollo.) the Troad, and Ilium, famed for the death of heroes, and forms the bay of Melas,[*](The Bay of Saros, west of the Thracian Chersonese and the Hellespont.) facing the west wind, at the entrance of which is seen Abdera, the home of Protagoras and Democritus, and the bloodstained dwelling of the Thracian Diomedes,[*](According to the myth, he fed his horses on human flesh, and was slain by Hercules.) and the vales through which the Hebrus[*](To-day the Maritza.) flows into it, and Maronea and Aenos,[*](Modern Marogna. The identification of this town with the city founded by Aeneas in Thrace is doubtful, since Homer says that auxiliaries came from there to Ilium, and Apollodorus represents Heracles as landing there on his return from Troy; see Heyne, Excursus to Aen. iii. p. 416; and xxviii. 4, 13, below.) a city which Aeneas began under unfavourable auspices, but presently abandoned it and hastened on to ancient Ausonia under the guidance of the gods.

After this, the Aegean gradually grows narrower and flows as if by a kind of natural union into the Pontus; and joining with a part of this it takes the

Then swelling on both sides into the form of a half-circle and giving a view of widely separated lands, it laves with the spreading waters of the Propontis,[*](The Sea of Marmora.) on the eastern side Cyzicus[*](On the southern side of the Propontis.) and Dindyma,[*](Named from Mt. Dindymus, in Phrygia, near Pessinus. There is another Mt. Dindymus, five miles north of Cyzicus, and, apparently, a town or village called Dindyma.) where there is a sacred shrine of the Great Mother,[*](Cybele.) and Apamia and Cius, where Hylas was pursued and carried off by the nymph,[*](There is evidently a lacuna here. Lindenbrog suggested ubi Hylam insecuta rapuit nympha. Others refer Hyla to the river near Cius.) and Astacus, in a later age called after King Nicomedes.[*](Nicomedia.) Where it turns to the westward it beats upon the Cherronesus and Aegospotami, where Anaxagoras predicted a rain of stones from heaven,[*](Cf. Pliny, N.H. ii. 149; Strabo, vii. 55 (iii. 377, L.C.L.). It was also famous as the scene of the last battle of the Peloponnesian war.) and Lysimachia and the city which Hercules founded and dedicated to the name of his comrade Perinthus;

and in order to keep the form of the letter φ full and complete, in the

After reaching the extreme end of this part,[*](Here the reference clearly is to the whole of the Propontis.) it again contracts into a narrow strait, and flowing between Europe and Bithynia, passes by Chalcedon, Chrysopolis,[*](Modern Scutari, opposite Constantinople.) and some obscure stations.

Its left bank, however, is looked down upon by the port of Athyras and Selymbria, and Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium, a colony of the Athenians,[*](According to the Eusebian Chronicle, Byzantium was founded by the Megarians in Olymp. 30, 2 (600 B.C.); so also Herodotus (iv. 144), who, however, gives the date as Olym. 26, 2 (616 B.C.). Justin (ix. 1, 2 f.) names the Spartans; Velleius (ii. 7, 7) the Milesians, who were descended from the Athenians. The founding was probably attributed to the Athenians from the time of Constantine from motives of pride) and the promontory Ceras, which bears a tower built high and giving light to ships[*](A pharos, or lighthouse) ; therefore a very cold wind which often blows from that quarter is called Ceratas.

After being broken in this fashion and coming to an end through the mingling of the two seas, it now grows quieter and spreads out into the form of a flat of water extending in width and length as far as the eye can reach.[*](The Pontus, or Euxine Sea.)

The complete voyage around its shores, as one would encircle an island, is a distance of 23,000[*](Polyb. iv. 39, 1, gives 20,000: Strabo, ii. 5, 22, 25,000; Pliny, N.H. iv. 77, says that Varro made it 21,000, and Nepos, 21,350.) stadia, as is asserted by Eratosthenes, Hecataeus, Ptolemy, and other very accurate investigators of such problems; and according to the testimony of all geographers it has the

And where the sun rises from the eastern ocean it comes to an end in the marshes of the Maeotis[*](The Palus Maeotis is on the northern side of the Euxine.) ; where it inclines towards the west it is bounded by Roman provinces; where it looks up to the Bears it breeds men of varying languages and habits; on the southern side it slopes downward[*](The directions are so uncertain that the meaning is not clear. ) in a gentle curve.

Over this vast space are scattered cities of the Greeks, all of which, with a few exceptions, were founded at varying periods by the Milesians, who were themselves colonists of the Athenians. The Milesians in much earlier times were established among other Ionians in Asia by Nileus, the son of that Codrus who (they say) sacrificed himself for his country in the Dorian war.[*](Cf. Hdt. v. 76; Val. Max. ii. 6, ext. 1.)

Now the tips of the bow on both sides are represented by the two Bospori lying opposite to each other, the Thracian[*](At Constantinople.) and the Cimmerian; and they are called Bospori, as the poets say, because the daughter of Inachus,[*](Io; cf. Ovid, Metam. i, 586 ff. A more probable reason is that they were so narrow that an ox could swim across them. Amm. is wrong about the second curve, which extends to the Colchi, while the Cimmerian Bosporus (between the Euxine and the Palus Maeotis) is in the middle of the curve; of. Mela, i. 112, 114; Procop. viii. 6, 14 f.) when she was changed into a heifer, once crossed through them to the Ionian sea.

The right-hand curve of the Thracian Bosporus begins with the shore of Bithynia, which the men

But these cliffs, ever since the Argo, first of all ships, hastening to Colchis to carry off the golden fleece, had passed between them unharmed, have stood motionless with their force assuaged and so united that no one of those who now look upon them would believe that they had ever been separated, were it not that all the songs of the poets of old agree about the story.[*](See Apollodorus, i. 9, p. 480, L.C.L. )

Beyond one part of Bithynia extend the provinces of Pontus and Paphlagonia, in which are the great cities of Heraclea, Sinope, Polemonion and Amisos, as well as Ties and Amastris, all owing their origin to the activity of the Greeks; also Cerasus,

Beyond these places is the Acherusian cave, which the natives call Mychopontion,[*](μυχοπόντιον = a nook of the sea. ) and the port of Acone,[*](From which aconite is said to get its name.) besides the rivers Acheron (also called the Arcadius), Iris, Thybris, and hard by, the Parthenius, all of which flow with swift course into the sea. The next river to these is the Thermodon, flowing from Mount Armonius and gliding through the Themiscyraean groves, to which the Amazons were forced to migrate in days of yore for the following reason.

The Amazons of old, after having by constant losses worn out their neighbours, and devastated them by bloody raids, had higher aspirations; and considering their strength and feeling that it was too great merely for frequent attacks upon their neighbours, being carried away besides by the headstrong heat of covetousness, they broke through many nations and made war upon the Athenians.[*](In the days of Theseus. The war of the Greeks and the Amazons is a frequent subject in works of Greek art.) But after a bitter contest they were scattered in all directions, and since the flanks of their cavalry were left unprotected, they all perished.

Upon the news of their destruction the remainder, who had been left at home as unfit for war, suffered extreme hardship; and in order to avoid the deadly attacks of their neighbours, who paid them like for like, they moved to a quieter abode on the Thermodon. Thereafter their descendants, who had greatly increased, returned, thanks to their numerous offspring, with a

Not far from there the hill called Carambis lifts itself with gentle slope, rising towards the Great Bear of the north, and opposite this, at a distance of 2500 stadia, is Criumetopon,[*](κριοῦ μέτωπον,The Ram’s head.) a promontory of Taurica. From this point the whole seacoast, beginning at the river Halys, as if drawn in a straight line, has the form of the string joined to the two tips of the bow.