Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/120

 I04 A HiSTORV^ OF Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. monuments of remote antiquity are found. Had ancient Mazaca (Caesarea), to the south of Cappadocia, been intended, it is hardly- credible that the historian would have omitted to name so impor- tant a place ; nor would so remarkable a feature as Mount Argseus, close by, have escaped his observation ; and last, not least, at this height, Le. before the Halys is joined by the numerous streams that escape from the Keuch-Dagh, its crossing would not have endangered the safety of the army, as stated by Herodotus/ There is internal evidence that the campaign took place in summer.^ We have no particulars with regard to the march of Croesus, but it is not probable that when he broke up at Sardes he would take his army through the unwatered plains of Phrygia Paroreia, and Lycaonia, but he would naturally follow the well-known line across the lower Olympian hills, sure to find good quarters almost everywhere, and an unfailing supply of water. Finally, if Hero- dotus brings Pterium in juxtaposition with Sinope, it is clear that the former must be sought near the Black Sea, and not so far inland as Cilicia. Sinope was given as a known starting-point, a station visited by every Greek sailor, and likely to convey some idea of the whereabouts of Pteria to his countrymen. It is at least worthy of remark that Boghaz-Keui is nearly under the same meridian as Sinope. Stephanus Byzantinus specifies two Pterias : " Pterion (Pteria), a town of the Medes ; and Pteria, the principal place of a district near Sinope, called Pterinos, from which Pterium, Pterienos, Pterieni, to denote the inhabitants." It is evident that the twin Pterias were meant for one and the same place. The mistake may have arisen with Stephanus himself, or his copyist, who, find- ing the name in notes wide apart, too hastily assumed that they referred to two distinct towns. Had such a station or dependency existed in the environs of Sinope, we should find it in other his- torians and later geographers ; nor would it have been left out by Xenophon. Finally, it is believed by some that in the early language of Babylonia pte7^a {n.p,) signified fortress, castellum, and was applied to the acropolis of that city ; whilst we need not travel far to find examples of a dual ethnical form to denote the same people. ^ Loc. at. ^ Ibid. The words attributed to Croesus when he dismisses his soldiers are to the effect that they must be ready to follow him in another five months, in winter, when he may count upon the concourse of his allies.