Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/608

590 CERAMUS. CERAUNIL position of this place is doubtful. It is one of the places which Cyras came to (Anab. i. 2. § 10) in his march from Celaenae to Iconium. After leaving Celaenae, he came to Peltae, and then to Ceramon A^ora, the nearest town of Phrygia to the borders of Mjsia. If the Plain of Cayster can be determined [Gaystri Campus], the po>dtion of Ceramon Agora may be approximated to. Hamilton {Asia Minor^ <fc., ii. 204) supposes that it may be NE. of Ushaky " a place of considerable commerce and traffic in the present day: many of the high roads of Asia Minor pass through it" He also says, that to a person going to Mysia from Apamea (Celaenae), **and supposing, as Strabo says, that Mysia extended to Ghiediz (Cadi), Ushak would be the last town through which he would pass before entering Mysia, from which it is separated by a mountainous and un- inhabited district" The position of Ushak seems a very probable one. Pliny mentions Caranae in Phrygia (v. 32), which Cramer conjectures to be the Ceramon Agora. He mentions it between Cotyaion and Conium, that is, Iconium; but nothing can be concluded from this passage. Kor is it the Caris or Carides of Stepha- nus («. V. Keipla), " a city of Phrygia," as it has been supposed; for that name corresponds to the Carina of Pliny (▼. 32), or Caria, as it perhaps should be read. [G. L.] CE'RAMUS. [Cerameicus.] CE'RASAE or CERASSAE (K^po«r<roi), mLydia, is mentioned by Nonnus (xiii. 468) as a wine country. Jtia.pr Keppel observed remains near Sirghie, whidi is opposite to Bagae. [Bagab.] There were bishops of Cerasae (Cramer, Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 455); and as it was a Lydian bishopric, Sirghie may, as Cramer conjectures, be Cerasae, There is some resemblance between the names. [G. L.] CE'RASUS (K«pairoOf : Eth. Ktpoffoitnios), The Ten Thousand, in their retreat, came to Trape- zus, and leaving Trapezus, " they arrive on the third day at Cerasus, an Hellenic city on the sea, a colony of the Sinopeis, in Colchis." (Xen. Anab. v. 3. § 2.) As there is a place called Keresmm on this coast, west of TVe&iJzom/ (Trapezus), we should be inclined to fix Cerasus there. But it is impossible that the army could have marched through a mountainous unknown country, in three days, a direct distance of 70 miles; and we may conclude that the three days is a right reading, for Diodorus (xiv. 30), who copies Xenophon here, also states the distance at three days. Hamilton found a river called Keresoun Dere Su, which he takes to be the river of Cerasus, though he did not see any ruins near the river. The Anonymous geographer places Cerasus 60 stadia east of Coralla, and 90 west of Hieron Oros ( Yoros), and on a river of the same name. Keresoun or Kerasunt represents Phamada, a town which existed before the time of Mithridates the Great Arrian*s statement that Pharnacia was originally called Cerasus, and the fact of the modern name of Pharnacia resembling Cerasus, has led some modern geographers to consider the Cerasus of Xeno- phon the same as Pharnacia. It seems that the Cerasus of Xenophon decayed after the foundation of Pharna- cia, and if the inhabitants of Cerasus were removed to Pharnacia, the new town may have had both names. Strabo indeed (p. 548) mentions Cotyora as a town which supplied inhabitants to Pharnacia, but his words do not exclude the supposition that other towns contributed. He speaks of Cerasus as a dis- tinct place, a small town in the same gulf as Her- monaasa ; and Hermonassa is near Trapezns. This is not quite connstent with Hamilton's portion of Ce- nsus, which is in a bay between Coralla and Hieron Oros. Pliny also (vL 2) distinguishes Phamada and Cerasus; and he places Pharnacia 100 Roman miles from Trapezns, and it may be as much by the road. Ptolemy also (v. 6) has both Cerasoa and Pharnacia, but wrongly placed with respect to one another, for his text makes Pharnacia east of Cerasus. Mela (i. 19) only mentions Cerasus, and he styles Cerasus and Trapezns "maxime lUus- tres;" but this can hardly be the Cerasus of Xeno- phon, if the author's statement applies to his own time. The confusion between Cerasus and Phar- nacia b made more singular by the &ct of the name Keresoun being retained at Pharnacia, fbr which thore is no explanation except in the assump- tion that the town was also called Cerasus, or a quarter of the town which some Cerasuntii ocenined. Thus Sesamus was the name of a part of Amastna. [Amastris.] There is a story that L. Lucullus in his Mithri- datic campaign sent the cherry to Italy from Ce- rasus, and that the fruit was so call^ from the place. (Amm. Marc. xxii. 8; Plin. xv. 25; and Harduin's note.) This was in b. c. 74; and in 120 years, says Pliny, it was carried to Britain, or in a. d. 46. [G. L.] CERATA. [Attica, p. 322, a,] CERAUNI'LIA (KepaiiyiX(a), a town of Sam- nium or Apulia, mentioned by Diodorus (xx. 26) as taken by the Romans in the Second Samnite War, B. a 31 1. The name is otherwise wholly unknown, as well as that of Cataracta (Karapoirra) which accompanies it; Niebuhr suggests (^Hist, of Rome^ vol. iii. p. 245) that it may be the same with the Cesaunia which appears in the epitaph of Sdpio Barbatus; but this is mere conjecture. Italian antiquaries identify it with the modern town of Cerignola in Apulia. (Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 259.) [E. H. B.] CERAFNII MONTES (rd K Kia 6py{), a range of mountains belonging to the system of Cau- casus, at its E. extremity; but its precise relation to the main chain is variously stated. Strabo makes it the name of the £. portion of the Caucasus, which overhangs the Caspian and forms the N. boundazy of Albania, and in which he places the Amazons (xL pp. 501, 504). Mela seems to apply the name to the whole chain which other writers call Caucasus, confining the latter term to a part of it His Ceraunii are a chain extending from the Cimmerian Bosporus till they meet the Rhipaean mountains; overhanging, on the one side, the Euxine, the Maeotis, and the TanaTs, and on the other the Caspian ; and containing the sources of the Rha ( Volgd) a statement which, however interpreted, involves the error of connecting the Caucasus and Ural chiuns. (Mela, i. 19. § 13, iii. 5. § 14.) Pliny gives precisely the same re- presentation, with the additional error of making the Ceraunii (i. e. the Caucasus of others) part of the great Taurus chain. (Plin. v. 27, vi. 10. s. 11.) He seems to apply the name of Caucasus to the spurs which spreaid out both to the NE. and SE. from the main chain near its £. extremity, and which ho regarded as a continuous range, bordering the W. shore of the Caspian (vi. 9. s. 10). Eustathius also seems to regard them as a chiun ranning northwards from the Caucasus. (Comment ad Dion, Perieg, 389.) Ptolemy uses the name for the E. part of tiie chain, calling the W. portion Caucasii M., and tlie