Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/168

 and precipitous mountains, in the profundity of the narrow fissure between them, in the rapidity and magnitude of the river, in the single narrow path along the bank, the two places are exactly alike. Hence it is difficult for an army to pass under any circumstances, and impossible when the place is defended by an enemy." (Quoted by Leake, vol. i. p. 389.) It is true that Plutarch in this passage calls the river Apsus, but the Aous is evidently meant. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. pp. 31, seq., 383, seq. vol. iv. p. 116.)

APAMEIA, -EA, or -IA (: Eth., Apameensis, Apamensis, Apamenus, Apamēus),

1. (Kŭlat el-Mudîk), a large city of Syria, situated in the valley of the Orontes, and capital of the province of Apamene. (Steph. B. s. v.; Strab. xvi. p. 752; Ptol. v. 15. § 19; Festus Avienus, v. 1083; Anton. Itin.; Hierocles.) It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus Nicator, who gave it its name after his wife Apama (not his mother, as Steph. B. asserts; comp. Strab. p. 578). In pursuance of his policy of " Hellenizing" Syria, it bore the Macedonian name of Pella. The fortress (see Groskurd's note on Strabo, p. 752) was placed upon a hill; the windings of the Orontes, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form, whence its other name of 🇬🇷. Seleucus had his commissariat there, 500 elephants, with 30,000 mares, and 300 stallions. The pretender, Tryphon Diodotus, made Apamea the basis of his operations. (Strab. l. c.) Josephus (Ant. xiv. 3. § 2) relates, that Pompeius marching south from his winter quarters, probably at or near Antioch, razed the fortress of Apamea. In the revolt of Syria under Q. Caecilius Bassus, it held out for three years till the arrival of Cassius, B.C. 46. (Dion. Cass. xlvii. 26—28; Joseph. B. J. i. 10. § 10.)

In the Crusades it was still a flourishing and important place under the Arabic name of Fâmieh, and was occupied by Tancred. (Wilken, Gesch. der Ks. vol. ii. p. 474; Abulfeda, Tab. Syr. pp. 114, 157.) This name and site have been long forgotten in the country. Niebuhr heard that Fâmieh was now called Kŭlat el-Mudîk. (Reise, vol. iii. p. 97.) And Burckhardt (Travels, p. 138) found the castle of this name not far from the lake El Takah; and fixes upon it as the site of Apamea.

Ruins of a highly ornamental character, and of an enormous extent, are still standing, the remains, probably, of the temples of which Sozomen speaks (vii. 15); part of the town is enclosed in an ancient castle situated on a hill; the remainder is to be found in the plain. In the adjacent lake are the celebrated black fish, the source of much wealth.

 2. A city in Mesopotamia. Stephanus (s. v. ) describes Apameia as in the territory of the Meseni, " and surrounded by the Tigris, at which place, that is Apameia, or it may mean, in which country, Mesene, the Tigris is divided; on the right part there flows round a river Sellas, and on the left the Tigris, having the same name with the large one." It does not appear what writer he is copying ; but it may be Arnan. Pliny (vi. 27) says of the Tigris, "that around Apamcia, a town of Mesene, on this side of the Babylonian Seleuceia, 125 miles, the Tigris being divided into two channels, by one channel it flows to the south and to Seleuceia, washing all along Mesene; by the other channel, turning to the north at the bade of the same nation (Mesene), it divides the plains called Cauchae: whenthe waters have united again, the river is called Pasitigris." There was a place near Seleuce called Coche (Amm. Marc. xxiv. 5, and the notes of Valesius and Lindebrog); and the site of Seleuceia is below Bagdad. These are the only points in the description that are certain. It seems difficult to explain the passage of Pliny, or to determine the probable site of Apameia. It cannot be at Korno, as some suppose, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet, for both Stephanus and Pliny place Apameia at the point where the Tigris is divided. Pliny places Digba at Korna, "in ripa Tigris circa confluentes," — at the junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

But Pliny has another Apameia (vi. 31), which was surrounded by the Tigris; and he places it in Sittacene. It received the name of Apameia from the mother of Antiochus Soter, the first of the Seleucidae. Pliny adds: "haec dividitur Archoo," as if a stream flowed through the town. D'Anville (L'Euphrate et le Tigre) supposes that this Apameia was at the point where the Dijeil, now dry, branched off from the Tigris. D' Amille places the bifurcation near Samarrah, and there he puts Apameia. But Lynch (London Geog. Journal, vol. ix. p. 473) shows that the Dijeil branched off near Jibbarah, a little north of 34° N. lat. He supposes that the Dijeil once swept the end of the Median wall and flowed between it and Jibbarah, Somewhere, then, about this place Apameia may have been, for this point of the bifurcation of the Tigris is one degree of latitude N. of Seleuceia, and if the course of the river is measured, it will probably be not far from the distance which Pliny gives (cxxv. M. P.). The Mesene then was between the Tigris and the Dijeil; or a tract called Mesene is to be placed there. The name Sellas in Stephanus is probably corrupt, and the last editor of Stephanus may have done wrong in preferring it to the reading Delas, which is nearer the name Dijeil. Pliny may mean the same place Apameia in both the extracts that have been given; though some suppose that he is speaking of two different places.

 3. In Osrhoëne, a town on the left bank of the Euphrates opposite to Zeugma, founded by Seleucus Nicator. (Plin. v. 21.) A bridge of boats kept up a communication between Zeugma and Apameia. The place is now Rum-kola.

 4. (Medania, Mutania)^ in Bithynia, was originally called (Steph. B. s. v. ), and was a colony from Colophon. (Plin. v. 32.) Philip of Macedonia, the father of Perseus, took the town, as it appears, during the war which he carried on against the king of Pergamus, and he gave the place to Prusias, his ally, king of Bithynia. Prusias gave to Myrlea, which thus became a Bithynian town, the name of his wife Apameia. The place was on the S. coast of the Gulf of Cius, and NW. of Prusa. The Romans made Apameia a colony, apparently not earlier than the time of Augustus, or perhaps Julius Caesar; the epigraph on the coins of the Roman period contains the title Julia. The coins of the period before the Roman dominion have the epigraph. Pliny (Ep. x. 56), when governor of Bithynia, asked for the directions of Tn^an, as to a claim made by this colonia, not to have their accounts of receipts and expenditure examined by the Roman governor. From a passage of Ulpian (Dig. 50. tit. 15. s. 11) we learn the form Apamena: " est in Bithynia colonia Apimena."