Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/777

Rh lava, the surfaces of which are as barren and as little influenced by atmospheric action as the latest products of Vesuvius, so that if it were not for the negative evidence to the contrary, they might be well supposed to belong to a recent historical period. Igneous rocks of an older character are found in many parts of Asia Minor ; those in Lycia are principally serpentine, while in the north-western districts various forms of trachyte prevail, and several of the minor ranges which rise out of the great central table land are of granitic character. Towards the sources of the River Halys is an extensive formation of saliferous red sandstones with gypsum, which would doubtless yield abundance of salt, were not that article more readily procured from the salt lakes already mentioned. Coal is found in the neighbourhood of Hera- clea on the Black Sea, and was worked to some extent during the Crimean War. There is little doubt that Asia Minor is rich in minerals, but they are nowhere worked to much purpose. Iron ores of very good quality are still found in abundance in the country of the Chalybes, so celebrated among the Greeks for their skill as workers of iron, and they are still worked in a very primitive fashion by the inhabitants. The district of Cibyra, also, which was noted in the days of Strabo for its iron manufactories, still produces iron ores in plenty, of the same kind as those of Elba, but they are altogether neglected. The copper and silver mines of the north, though partially worked, are of very little importance. The same neglect has be fallen the numerous quarries of marble, which attracted so much attention in the time of the Romans, and among which those of Proconnesus (the island of Marmora) and those near Synnada (Afiom Kara Hissar), producing the kind known as Phrygian marble, were the most celebrated. Though Asia Minor had no active volcanoes it was subject in all ages to frequent and severe earthquakes. The most remarkable of these was one which occurred in 17 A.D., during the reign of Tiberius, and which almost entirely destroyed twelve considerable cities, including Magnesia and Sardis. Laodicea, also, was peculiarly subject to these visitations, which Strabo sagaciously connects with the evidences of recent volcanic action in the Katakekaumene. Thermal springs are found in many parts of the peninsula, but the most remarkable are those of Broussa, which from their proximity to Constantinople are still much frequented, and those at the ancient Hierapolis, the site of which is now utterly deserted.

Ancient Divisions and Ethnography.—The division of Asia Minor which is commonly adopted by, and which is followed in the present article, is that given by, which coincides in the main with those of and. According to this the whole is considered as comprising—1. , on the, adjoining the frontiers of , and extending west as far as the ; 2. , from the to the ; 3. , from the to the ; 4. , which, with the subordinate districts of the and, or the land occupied by the  , comprised the north-western angle of the peninsula; 5. , of which in like manner formed the sea coast; 6. , including the ; 7. ; 8. ; 9. —the last three provinces extending along the southern coast, from the to the frontiers of ; while in the interior were 10. , comprising only the rugged mountain country above ; 11. , forming the western portion of the great table-land; 12. ; 13. ; 14. and, two  and ous regions on the north side of. (For farther particulars as to the extent and limits of these different regions the reader must be referred to the respective articles). The system thus adopted by Strabo, and which appears to have been already generally received in his time, was, properly speaking, merely a geographical one. It did not coincide with the political or administrative divisions of the country, either in his time or for at least three centuries earlier. Though some of the countries enumerated as Bithynia and Cappadocia had continued down to a late period to form independent sovereignties, the limits of which were well established, the greater part of the peninsula had undergone many fluctuations and changes, the different provinces passing at one time under the kings of Syria, at others under those of Pergamus, and being transferred by the Romans in an arbitrary manner from the rule of one potentate to another. And when the Romans had established their own dominion over the greater part of the peninsula, it was long before the division of it into provinces had assumed a definite and settled form. But the Roman province of Asia, as it existed from the days of Cicero to those of Strabo, may be regarded as comprising Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia, but excluding Lycia, Pisidia, Galatia, and Bithynia, so that it contained much less than half of Asia Minor, with which it is sometimes erroneously supposed to have been identical. The divisions of the country thus generally recognised were in fact (with one exception) ethnographical ones, or at least had been so originally. Herodotus, the earliest writer from whom we have any information on the subject, describes Asia within the Halys, as containing fifteen different races or nations, including the Greek settlers; and of these the Cilicians, Pamphylians, Lycians, Carians, Lydians, Mysians, Bithynians, Paphlagonians, and Phrygians undoubtedly then occupied the countries which long after retained their names. East of the Halys lay the Cappadocians, who in his time occupied the whole country from the frontiers of Cilicia to the Euxine. It was not till a later period that the northern portion of this extensive country came to be known and distinguished from the rest as Cappadocia on the Pontus, and eventually under the designation of Pontus alone. Galatia, on the other hand, derived its name from the Gauls, who established themselves in that country about two centuries B.C., and continued to retain their language and nationality down to a late period of the Roman empire. The Lycaonians, Isaurians, and Pisidians are not noticed by Herodotus; probably the names of these obscure mountain tribes had never yet reached the ears of the Greeks. Our information concerning the origin and ethnographical relations of the nations that we thus find occupying the peninsula at the earliest period is very imperfect, and rests almost wholly on the vague statements of ancient authors, none of the nations in question, with the exception of the Lycians, having left any trace of their language. But according to the distinct and uniform assertion of ancient writers, the Bithynians were of Thracian origin, and identical with the people who were separated from them by the narrow strait of the Posphorus a statement in accordance with the natural probability of the case. The same probability may be alleged also in favour of the Thracian origin of the Mysians, which is asserted both by Herodotus and Strabo, though they would appear to have settled in the peninsula at a much earlier period than the Bithynians. Much less value can be attached to the tra ditions concerning the original connection between the Mysians, Lydians, Phrygians, and Carians, which would assign a common Thracian origin to all these nations. The Carians indeed were, according to the more prevalent opinion among the Greeks, later immigrants from Crete and the adjoining islands a theory certainly not supported by internal probability. But there seem strong reasons for regarding the Carians, like their neighbours the Lycians, 