Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/442

 424 BOSPORUS THRACIUS. 3. Arciiias {Ortaioi). 4. Ana PLUS {KuruUchesmtt) or Vicu8 Mi- CHAEUCUS, from the celebrated church to the arch- angel Michael, which Constantine the Great erected (Sozomen, //. E. ii. 3), and Justinian renewed with BO much magnificence. (Procop. Aedif. i. 8.) In the 5th century this place was remarkable for the Stylites or Pillar Saints. (Cedrcnus, p. 340.) 5. Uestiae (^AmatLdhoi)^ the point of the rocky promontory which here shuts in the Bosporus within its narrowest breadth, and therefore produces the greatest current in the channel (jiiya /^cv/ao, Polyb. I. c). Here stood the church of S. Theodora, in which, under Alexius, the son of Manuel Comnenus, the conspiracy against the Protosebast was com- menced. (Le Beau, Ba* Empire^ vol. ivi. p. 314.) 6. Chelae {Bdfek)^ a bay on which was a temple to Artemis Dictynna. 7. Pkomontorium HEJU[ABUH(/2umt7^^tifdr), the promontory at the foot of which Mandrocles built the dridge of Dareius, though its site must not be looked for in a straight line between Rumili-Hudr and AnadoU'Hitdr^ but a little higher up, where the sea is more tranquil. On this and on the oppo- site side were the old catties which, under the Greek emjure, were used as state prisons, under the tre- mendous name of Lethe, or towers of oblivion (Gibbon, Tol. iii. p. 6), and were destroyed and strengthened by Mohammed II. before the siege of Constantinople. 8. PoRTUS MULXBRU3I (^BaltdHmon, Plin. iv. 12 ; eomp. Steph. B. *. v. TwfcuKoir6is). 9. Sinus Lasthenes or Leosthenes (JStema^ Steph. B. /. c). The reading in Pliny (/. c.) tthould be Leosthenes, instead of Casthenes, called by the later Byzantines Sosthenes (Niceph. p. 35; comp. Epigram by Leont. SchoL Anthol PUmud. 284), the fairest, largest, aad most remarkable harbour of the whole Bosporus. 10. Cautes Bacx^hiae (Jenikoi)^ bo called be- cause the currents, dancing like Bacchanals, beat against the shore. 11. Pharmacia (Therapia^f derived its name from the poison which Medea threw upon the coast. The euphemism of later ages has converted the poison into health. 12. Claves Ponti {Kefslibat), the key of the Kuxine, as here the first view of the open sea is ob- tained. 13. Sinus Profundus (Ba^ifoAiroj : Bujuk- dereK). 14. SiMAS (^Megaibwmu), 15. ScLETRiNAS (Sartgavt). 16. Serapeion {RumiU-kawdky Polyb. iv. 39). Strabo (vii. p. 319) calls it the temple of the By- zantines, and the one on the opposite shore the temple of the Chalcedonians. The Genoese castles, which defended the Strait and levied the toll of the Bospo- rus in the time of the Byzantine empire, were situ- ated on the summits of two opposite hills. 17. Gypopolis {Karibdscfie)j the mass of rock which closes the harbour of Bujukliman (Portus Ephbsiorum). 18. Cyanbab Insulae (Kvoi^cou, Herod, iv. 85, 89; Diod. v. 47, xi. 3; Strab. i. p. 21 ; Dem. de FaJs, Leg. p. 429 ; a5vA«wA^a8«f, Eurip. Med. 2, 1263; Iphig. in Taur. 241; Apollod. i. 9. § 22; nXoyicTai, Apoll. Rhod. iv. 860, 939; comp. Plin. vi. 12), the islands which lie off the mouth of the channel. Strabo (p. 319) correctly describes their number and situation; he calls them "two little isles, one upon the European, and the other on the BOSTRA. Asiatic side of the strait, separated from each other by 20 stadia." The more ancient accounts, repre- senting them as sometimes separated, and at other times joined together, were explained by Tonmefort, who observed that each of them consists of one craggy island, but that when the sea is disturbed the water covers the lower parts, so as to make the dif- ferent points of either resemble insular rocks. They are, in fact, each joined to the mainland by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands when this is inun- dated, which always happens in stonny weather. Upon the one on the European side are the remains of the altar dedicated by the Romans to Apolla (Clarke, Tratels, vol. ii. p. 431.) B. The Asiatic Coast 1. Anctraeum Prom. (Jwn-burvn), 2. Coeaciuh Prom. {FU-hurun), 3. Panteichion or Mancipium. 4. EsTlAE (Plin. v. 43). 5. Hieron (^Anad6ll-hnpdk the ^ sacred open- ing " at which Jason is said to have offered sacrifice to the twelve gods. (Polyb. iv. 43.) Here was the temple of Zeus Urius (Arrian, PeripL ad fin.), or temple of the Chalcedonians. (Strab. p. 319.) It has been supposed that it was from this temple that Dareius sun^eyed the Euxine. (Herod, iv. 85.) But as it is not easy to reconcile Herodotus's statement with the common notion of the situation of the temple, it may be inferred that this took phice some- where at the mouth of the strait, as, from its pe- culiar sanctity, the whole district went under this general title. This spot, as the place for levying duties on the vessels sailing m and out of the Euxine, was wrested from the Byzantines by Prusias, who carried away all the materials. On making peace, he was obliged to restore them. (Polyb. iv. 50 — 52.) Near this place, on a part of the shore which Pro-' copius (^Aedif. i. 9) calls Mochadium, Justinian dedicated a church to the archangel Michael; the guardianship of the strait being consigned to the leader of the host of heaven. 6. Aroyronium Pro»l, with a Kosocominm or hospital built by Justinian. (Procup. I. c.) 7. The Couch {KKitrji) of Heracles (Jwcha Tagh or mountain of Joshua, because, according to Moslem belief, Joshua is buried here. — Giant 9 Mountain. 8. Sinus Amycus (Beghos)^ with the spot named Adiptni Mm¥oii4tnitf finom the laurel which caused insanity in those that wore the branches. Situated 80 stadia from Byzantium, and 40 from the temple of Zeus Urius (Arrian, Pertpi.), formerly famous for the sword-fish, which have now disappeared from the Bosporus. 9. Nicopous (Plin. v. 43 ; comp. Steph. B. s. «.). 10. EcHAEA irtpt^hoov. or " stream-girt" (Kan- diuy 11. pROTos and Deuteros Discus (TPoifowro* "Axpai : Ktdle-hagdschessi)^ or blufis against which the waters beat At this part of the coast, called by Procopius {Aedif. i. 8) BpdxtM, or, in earlier times, np6oxBoi^ from its jutting out, Justinian built the church to the archangel Michael which faced the one on the European coast. 12. Chrysopous. [Chrysopolis.] rE.B.J.] BOSTRA(to ESarpa, ri E6<rrpa: O.T. Bozrah, properly BoTZRAH; LXX. Bo<r<J/» : Eth.Eo(TTpriv6Sf Boarpouosy Steph. B. : Busrali, Boszrah, Botzra, Ru. ), a city of Arabia, in an oasis of the Syrian Desert, a little more than 1^ S. of Damascus. It lay in tho