Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/759

 CYzicua Wautj, and its excellent institutions, both civil and mititaxy, and it appears to be embellished in like fiuhiou ?rith the city of the Rhodii, the Massaliotae, «nd the Carthaginians of old ** (p. 575). The origin of this town seems unknown. A people called Doliones or Dolieis (Steph. ». v. Ao- A^Ms) once lived about Cyzicus, but Strabo says that it was difficult to fix their limits. Conon (JViarrai. 41, apud Phot.) has a stoiy of Cyzicus being settled by Pekisgi from Thessaly, who were driven from Thessaly by Aeolians. Their king and leader was Gjzicus, a son of Apollo, who gave his name to the peninsula which he occupied; for it may be observed that it seems somewhat doubtful, if we look at all the authorities, whether Cyzicus was considered by the Greeks to have been originally an island or a peninsula. If it was origimdly a peninsula, we must suppose that a canal was cut across it, and afterwards was bridged. This king Cyzicus was killed by Jason on the voyage to Colchis, and after the death of Cyzicus, perhaps some time affcer according to the legend, Tyrrheni seized the place, who were driven out by Milesians. Cyzicus was reckoned among the setttements of Miletus by Anaximenes of Lampeacus, and also Artaoe on the same island or peninsula. (Strabo, pw 635.) Cyzicus is not mentioned in the Iliad. The Cyziceni are said to have surrendered to the Persians after the conquest of Miletus. (Herod. vL 33.) The place afterwards became a dependency on AUiens; for it revolted from the Athenians, who re- covered it after the battle of Cynossema (b.g.411), — at which time it was unwalled, as Thucydides ob- serves (viii. 107). These scanty notices of Cyzicus, and the fact of its having no fortifications near the close of the Peloponnesian War, seem to show that it was still an inconsiderable city. The Athenians, on getting the place again, laid a contribution on the people. The next year (b. c. 410) the Cyziceni bad the same ill luck. Mindams the Spartan ad- miral was there with his ships, and Phamabazus the Persian with his troops. Aldbiades defeated Min- dams, and the Cyziceni, being deserted by the Pelo- ponnesians and Phamabazus, again received the Athenians, and again had to part with their money. We learn from the notice of this affiur in Xenophon (HeiL L I. § 16) that Cyzicus had a port at this time. After the defeat of the Athenians at Aegos- potami, Cyzicus seems to have come again under the Lacedaemonians; but as the peace of Antalcidas (b. a 387) gave all the cities in Asia to the Peraian king, Cyzicus was among them. Cyzicus appears to have obtained its independence after the time of Alexander, but the notices of it are very scanty. Attalus I. of Porgamum, the f lather of Eumenes, married a woman of Cyzicus, .f X named Apollonias, who was distinguished for her ^good sense (Polyb. xxiii. 18); and we read of the Cyziceni sending twenty ships to join the fleet of Athenaeus, the brother of AtUlus II., King of Per- gamum. (Polyb. xxxiii. 11.) We know nothing of the fortunate circumstances which gave this town the wealth that it had, when Mitbridates attempted to take it b. o. 74. It is probable that it had be- come one of the outlets for the products of the inte- rior of the Asiatic peninsula, and it is said to have been well administered. The Cyziceni sustained a great loss in a fight with Mithridates at Chalcedon, and soon after the king attacked Cyzicus. He posted his troops on the mainland opposite to the city, at the foot of iho mountain range of Adrasteia ; and with his CYZICUS. 741 .'^ ships he blockaded the narrow passage that separated the city from the nuun. The strengtlt of the walls, which had been built in the interval since the Pelo- ponnesian war, and the abundant stores of the citi- zens enabled them to hold out against the enemy. The Roman commander L. Lucullus was in the neighbourhood oflP Cyzicus, and he cut off the supplies ci Mithridates, whose urmy suffered firem famine, and was at last obliged to abandon the siege with great loss. (Pint LuculL c 9, &c ; Appian, Mith- ridat. c 72, &c.; Strab.^. 575; Cic pro Arch c 9.) The BoDiians rewarded Cyzicus by making it a Libera Civitas, as it was in Strabo*s time, who observes that it had a considerable territory, part of it an ancient possession and part the gift of the Bomans. He adds that they poesessed on the Troad the parts beyond the Aesepus about Zeleia; and also the plun of Adrasteia, which was that part of the mainland that was opposite to Cyzions. They had also part of the tract on the Li^e Dascylitis, and a large tract bordering on tiie Doliones and Mygdones, as far as the Lake Miletopolitis and the Apdloniatis. Strabo (p. 587) speaks of a place at tb^ common boundary of the territory of Priapus and Cyzicus, firom which it appears that tlie pos- sessions of these two towns bordered on one another, on the coast at least, in the time of Strabo. Indeed Priapus, according to some authorities, was a colony of Cyzicus. It appears that the greatest prosperity of Cyzicus dates firom the time tji the defoat it Mithridates. It possessed a large tract on the south side of the Propontis, and there were no other large cities oo this side of the Propontis in the Boman period, except Nicomedia and Kicaea. The produce of the basin of the Rhyndacus would come down to Cyzicus. Tacitus (Ann, iv. 36) says that Tiberius (a. d. 25) deprived Cyzicus of its privily of a free city (Dion Cass. 11 v. 7, 23; Sueton. TU>. c. 37) for not paying due religious respect to the memory of Augustus, and for ill treating some Boman citizens. This shows that Strabo must have written what he says of Cyzicus being Ubers before the re- vocation. The eflbct of the revocation of this privilege would be to place Cyzicus altogether and immediately under the authority of the Boman governor of Asia. Cyzicus, however, continued to be a flourishing place under the empire, though it suffered from the great earthquake which has been already mentioned. In the time of Caiacalla it received tiie title of Metro- polis. It also became a bishop's see under the later empire. Cyzicns produced some writers, a list of whom is given in a note on Thucydides (viii. 107) by Wasse. (Cramer, Atia Minor j L 47, note.) It had also some works of art, among which Cicero ( Verr. ii. 4. c. 60) mentions paintings of Ajax and Medea, which the dictator Caesar afl^ards bought. (Plin. viii. 38.) At some period in their histoiy the Cyziceni conquered Proconnesus, and carried oS from there a statue of the Meter Dindymene. It was a chrysele- phantine statue ; but the covering of the face, instead of being platrs of ivory, was made of the teeth of the hippopotamus. (Pans. viii. 46. § 4.) Cyzicus also produced a kind of unguent or perfume that was in repute, made from a plant which Pliny calls ** Cyzi- oena amaracus" (Plin. xiii.; Paus. iv. 36. § 5); but Apollonius, quoted by Athenaeus (xv. p. 688), speaks of it as made firam an Iris. It was also noted for its mint, vrhich produced the gold coins or stateres called Cyziceni (Kv{iin|vof), which had a wide circulation. The Cyzicenus had oa one side a female head, and 3b 3 J' ft