Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

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

v2.p.221

form of a drawn Scythian bow.[*](The descriptions of the Scythian bow in the handbooks on antiquities vary, and are sometimes misleading, in particular the comparison with different forms of the Greek sigma. As represented in vases and other works of art, it has, as a general rule, the form of the following cut: Figure from Smith’s Dict. of Ant. 1 p. 126. It is well defined in the note on Strabo, ii. 5, 22, in L.C.L. i. 479, n. 4. When it was drawn, which is commonly taken to be the meaning of nervo coagmentati, the arms were bent down and the handle remained immovable; see also note on § 37, below.)