Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/424

 406 BITHYxVIA, The coast line of BithynU from the niijndocns to the Bosporus csontained the bays of Gius and Astacos, which have been mentioneid; and a narrow channel called the Thracian Bosporus sejiarated it from Byzantium and its territory. From the month of the Bosporus the coast runs nearly due east to the promontory and port of Galpe, which was visited by Xenophon (^Anab. vi. 4). The mouth of the San- garius is east of Calpe; and east of the Sangarius the coast makes a large curve to the north as far as the Aclierusia Chersonesus, near the town of Heracleia. The Acherusia Chersonesus is described by Xenophon {Aftab. vi. 2). From Heracleia to the promontory Carambis (^Kerempe) the coast has a general £N£. direction; and between these two points is the month of the Billaeus, and east of the Billaens the city of Amastria on the coast. From Gape Carambis the coast line runs ea»t to the pro- montory Syrias or Lepte, from which the coast turns to the south, and then again to the east, forming a bay. On the peninsula which forms the east side of this bay is the town of Sinope {Sinub). Between Sinope and the month of the Ualys, the largest river of Asia Minor, the coast forms a curve, but the mouth of the Ualys is near half a degree further south than the prwnontory of Lepte. From the mouth of the Halys the coast turns to the south, and then turns again to the north. A bay is thus formed, on the west side of which, 900 stadia from Sinope, and about 30 miles further south than the mouth of the Halys, is the town of Amisus (Samsun), At the extremity of a projecting tract of country which forms the east side of this bay are the outlets of the Iris, the river on which Amasia stands, and a river that has a much longer coui>ie than is given to it in the older map:). The coast of the province Bithynia extended still further east, as it has been shown; but the description of the remaining pait of the coast to Trapezus may more appropriately be given under Pontus. The principal mountain range in Bithynia is Olympus, which extends eastward from the Rhyn- dacus. Immediately above Brusa Olympus is covered with snow even to the end of March. It is not easy to say how far the name Olympus extended to the east; but probably the name was given to part of the range east of the Sangarius. The mountains on the north side of Asia have a general eastern direc- tion, but they are broken by transverse valleys through which some rivers, as the Sangarius and Halys, have a general northern course to the sea. A large part of the 'course of the Billaeus, if our maps are correct, lies in a valley formed by parallel ranges, of which the southern range appears to he the continuation of Olympus, on the southern border of Bitliynia. The Ai^anthonius occupies the hilly country in the west between the bays of Astar cus and Gins. The Ormenium of Ptolemy is in the interior of Bithynia, south of Amastris, between the sea and the souihem range of Bithynia. The 01- gassys (Strab. p. 562) is one of the great interior ranges, which extends westward from the Halys, a lofty and rugged region. The country along the coast of Bithynia, east of the Sangarius, is hilly and sometimes mountainous; but thci>e heights along the coast are inferior to the great mountain ma&ics of the interior, the range of Olympus, and those to the east of it. Bithynia west of the Sangarius contains three considerable lakes. Between Nico- jnedeia and the Sangarius is the lake SahttnjOf pro- bably Sophon, a name which occurs in the Greek BITHYNimi. writers of the Lower Empire; and certainly the lake which Pliny, when he was governor of Bithynia, propoeed to Trajan to unite to the gulf of Astacus by a canal {Ep. x. 50). The Ascania [Ascaiyia] on which Nicaea stands is larger than lake SabanJ€i» Both these are mountain basins filled with water. The lake of Abtdlionte^ through which tiie Rhyn- dacus flows, is also a mountain lake, and abounds in fish. This is the ApoUoniatis of Strabo, but the basin of the Ilhyndacus does not appear to have belonged to Bithynia. The part of Bithynia west of the Sangarius is the best part of the country, and c«icomedeia(/£mMr), and extend nearly to Boli on the Sangarius. The large towns of Bithynia are west of the Sangarius. The places east of the Sangarius in the interior were of little note; and the chief towns were the Greek settlements on the coast. The interior, east of tho Sangarius, was a wooded tract, and there are still many forests in this part. One great road ran along the sea from the point where the coast of the Euxine commences near the temple of Jupiter Urins, ^a^t Heraclea, Amastris, and Sinope, as far as Amisus. A road ran from Chrysopolis, which is near the junction of the Bosporus and Propontis,toNicomedeia. But there is no road east of the Sangarius, that we can trace by the towns upon it, which did not lie far in the interior; nor do thore appear at present to be any great roads in tlie interior in an eastern direction, except those that run a considerable distance from the coast, a fact which shows the mountainous cha- racter of the interior of Bithynia. There is a paper in the London Gtog. Joumaly vol. ix.,by Mr. Ainsworth, Notes of a Journey from Constantinople by fleraclea to Angora^ which con - tains much valuable infunnation on the physical character of Bithynia. [G. L.] BITUY'NIUM (Eiewioy: Eth, BiBwiws, Bi^. Miiri^f), a city in the interior of Bithynia, lying above Tins, as Strabo (p. 565) describes it, and possessing the country around Salon, which was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for its cheese. (Plin. xi. 42 ; Steph. B. s. v. SaAvrc^a.) Bithynium was the birthplace of Antinous, the fii- vourite of Hadrian, as Pausanius tells us (viii. 9), who adds that Bithynium is beycmd, by which he probably means east of, the river Sangarius; and he odds that the remotest ancestora of the Bithyniana are Arcadians and Mantineis. If this is true, which however does not seem probable, a Greek colony settled here. Bithynium was afterwards Glaudio- polis, a name which it is conjectured it first had in the time of Tiberius (Cramer, Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 210); but it is strange that Pausanias does not mention this name. Dion Gassius (Ixix. II. ed. Reimarus, and his note) speaks of it under the name of Bith3mium and Glaudiopulis also. It has been inferred from the words of Pausanias that Bithynium was on or near the Sangarius, but this does not appear to be a correct interpretation. Leake, how- ever, adopts it (Asia Minor, p. 309); and he con- cludes from tlie dubious evidence of Pausanias that, having been originally a Greek colony, it was pro- bably not far from the mouth of the Sangarius. But this b quite inconsistent with Strabo, who places it in the interior; as Pliny (v. 32) does alsa It seems probable that Glaudiopolis was in the basin of tho Billaeus; and this seems to agree with Ptolemy's determination of Glaudiopolis. [G. L.]