Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/301

 B. xii. c. in. 12. PONTUS. SINOPE. 293 the Sphere of Billarus, 1 and the Autolycus, 2 the workmanship of Sthenis, whom the citizens regarded as a founder, and honoured as a god ; he left the other ornaments of the city untouched. There was there an oracle of Sthenis. He seems to have been one of the companions of Jason in his voyage, and to have got possession of this place. In after times the Milesians, observing the natural advantages of the city, and the weakness of the inhabitants, appropriated it as their own, and sent out colonists. It has at present a Roman colony, and a part of the city and of the territory belongs to the Romans. It is distant from Hieron 3 3500, from Heracleia 2000, and from Carambis 700, stadia. It has produced men distinguished among philosophers, Diogenes the Cynic, and Timotheus sur- named Patrion ; among poets, Diphilus, the writer of comedy ; among historians, Baton, 4 who wrote the history of Persia. 12. Proceeding thence, next in order is the mouth of the river Halys. It has its name from the hales, or salt mines, 5 near which it flows. It has its source in the Greater Cap- padocia, near the territory of Pontus, in Camisene. It flows in a large stream towards the west, then turning to the north through the country of the Galatians and Paphlagonians, forms the boundary of their territory, and of that of the Leuco- Syrians. The tract of land belonging to Sinope and all the mountainous country as far as Bithynia, situated above the sea-coast, which has been described, furnishes timber of excellent quality for ship-building, and is easily conveyed away. The territory of 1 Probably a celestial globe constructed by Billarus, or on the prin- ciples of Billarus, a person otherwise unknown. Strabo mentions, b. ii. c. v. 10, the Sphere of Crates, Cicero the Sphere of Archimedes and of Posidonius. History speaks of several of these spheres, among others of that of Ptolemy and Aratus. Leontinus, a mechanician of the sixth century, explains the manner in which this last was constructed. 2 Lucullus, upon his entry into Sinope, put to death 8000 Cilicians whom he found there. The rest of the inhabitants, after having set fire to the town, carried with them the statue of Autolycus, the founder of Sinope, the work of Sthenis ; but not having time to put it on board ship, it was left on the sea-shore. Autolycus was one of the companions of Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons. Sthenis, as well as his brother Lysistratus, was a celebrated statuary ; he was a native of Olyn- thus and a contemporary of Alexander the Great. 3 The temple of Jupiter Urius near Chalcedon. Athenceus, b. vi. c. 59, p. 395, Bohn's Class. Library. 5 cnrb T(JJV au>v.
 * He was also the author of a History of the Tyrants of Ephesus.