Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/326

 318 STRABO. CASATJB. 565. affording the best pasturage for cattle, whence comes the cheese of Salon. NicaBa, 1 the capital of Bithynia, is situated on the Ascanian lake. It is surrounded by a very large and very fertile plain, which in the summer is not very healthy. Its first founder was Antigonus, the son of Philip, who called it Antigonia. It was then rebuilt by Lysimachus, who changed its name to that of his wife Nicsea. She was the daughter of Antipater. The city is situated in a plain. Its shape is quadrangular, eleven stadia in circuit. It has four gates. Its streets are divided at right angles, so that the four gates may be seen from a single stone, set up in the middle of the Gym- nasium. A little above the Ascanian lake is Otrcea, a small town situated just on the borders of Bithynia towards the east. It is conjectured that Otrcea was so called from Otreus. 8. That Bithynia was a colony of the Mysians, first Scylax of Caryanda will testify, who says that Phrygians and My- sians dwell around the Ascanian lake. The next witness is Dionysius, who composed a work on " the foundation of cities." He says that the straits at Chalcedon, and Byzantium, which are now called the Thracian, were formerly called the Mysian Bosporus. Some person might allege this as a proof that the Mysians were Thracians ; and Euphorio says, "by the waters of the Mysian Ascanius ;" and thus also Alexander the JEtolian, " who have their dwellings near the Ascanian waters, on the margin of the Ascanian lake, where Dolion dwelt, the son of Silenus and of Melia." These authors testify the same thing, because the Ascanian lake is found in no other siuation but this. 9. Men distinguished for their learning, natives of Bithynia, were Xenocrates the philosopher, Dionysius the dialectician, Hipparchus, Theodosius and his sons the mathematicians, Cleophanes the rhetorician of Myrleia, and Asclepiades the physician of Prusa. 2 1 Isnik. The Turkish name is a contraction of fc Nt'icaiav, as Ismir, Smyrna, is a contraction of tlq ^/jLvpi'rjv, Istambol, Constantinople, of tig rfv iroiv, Stanco, Cos, of 'f ri]v Kw. 2 Xenocrates, one of the most distinguished disciples of Plato, was of Chalcedon. Dionysius the dialectician is probably the same as Dionysius of HeracleU^ who abandoned the Stoics to join the sect of Epicurus. Hipparchus, the first and greatest of Greek astronomers, (B. c. 160 145,) was of Nicaea. So also was Diophanes, quoted by Varro and Columella,