sky is said to have never been so overcast but that he might be seen. The inhabitants were celebrated for their navigation, and the enterprizing spirit which led them to send out colonies to so many parts of the world: they were, during many ages, the most powerful nation by sea. They had their own form of government till Alexander overran Asia, when they lost their independence, but regained it under his successors. They assisted Pompey, against Cæsar, and being defeated by Cassius, became dependant on the Romans; for the discontented amongst whom it was a common place of retreat. Their maritime laws were so universally respected, that every country made use of them to decide disputes concerning such matters; they were adopted by other commercial nations, and at last introduced into the Roman code, whence they have been extracted to form the basis of the maritime regulations of modern Europe. The Colossus was executed by Chares, a pupil of Lysippus, whom it cost 12 years to complete. It was 70 cubits high, few could grasp it's thumb, and it's fingers were longer than most statues : it's feet rested upon the two moles of the harbour, so that ships sailed between it's legs; a winding staircase ran to the top, whence the shores of Syria, and ships sailing by the coast of Egypt, were said to be visible. After having stood about a hundred years, it was overthrown by an earthquake, 224 years в. c.: many large sums of money were collected and sent to the Rhodians to repair it, but they divided the contributions amongst themselves, on the pretence that the oracle of Delphi had forbidden them to rebuild it. It was sold A. D. 672, by the Saracens, when they obtained possession of the island, to a Jewish merchant, who broke it up and loaded 900 camels with the brass, which alone was estimated at 36,000 1. English money.-On the Eastern coast of the island stood the Dorian city Lindus 118 Lindo, the birth-place of Cleobulus, one of the wise men, and of Chares, the architect of the Colossus; here the Danaides built a temple to Minerva (hence surnamed Lindia), in which one of Pindar's odes was written in letters of gold. On the Western coast were the Dorian cities Camirus Camiro, and lalysus Neocastro, a very strong place, and the chief hold of the Telchines, who came from Crete, and about whom many fables are told, such as their being able to change their shape at pleasure, and fascinating all objects with their eyes; Jupiter is said to have destroyed them all by a deluge 119. To the E. of Ialysus was the lofty mountain Atabyris Madona, whence Crete might be seen; on it stood a temple of Jupiter, hence surnamed Atabyrius. 118 *Ενθα ̔Ρόδῳ ποτὲ μιχθεὶς τατα, νοήματ ̓ ἐπὶ προτέρων λυσον ἔτεκεν, Λίνδον τ'. Pind. Olymp. VII. 131. 119 Phœbeamque Rhodon, et Ialysios Telchinas, Quorum oculos ipso vitiantes omnia visu Ovid. Met. VII. 365. G G CHAPTER XIX. ASIA MINOR. 1. The country, which for distinction's sake we Europeans call Asia Minor, was not known to the Ancients by any general name; indeed, it could not have been thus distinguished, for at no period of it's history were it's various provinces so united as to form one whole. The appellation Asia Minor was first used in the 4th century, and only then with reference to the country previously called Asia Propria, to the exclusion of the provinces Pontus, Cappadocia, and Cilicia Propria: our extension of the term as far Eastward as the Euphrates, never obtained amongst the Ancients. 2. After the Romans had contrived to entangle themselves in the affairs of Asia Minor, and had driven Antiochus, king of Syria, to the S. of Mount Taurus, they named the conquered country Asia intra Taurum, and divided it between their allies, Eumenes king of Pergamus, and the Rhodians: the former obtaining the nominal sovereignty of Mysia, Lydia, and Phrygia, with the title of king of Asia; the latter, that of Caria and Lycia. Feeling, however, dissatisfied with the Rhodians, they declared Lycia a free republic, and placed Caria under their own immediate protection; shortly after which they also seized upon the kingdom of Asia, thus obtaining actual possession of Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia, which they erected into a Prætor's Province', under the name of Asia. Augustus subsequently gave it many immunities, and raised it to the dignity of a Consular Province, which is frequently alluded to under the names of Asia Propria, Asia intra Taurum, and Asia Proconsularis. The two first of these names are not unfrequently applied to the whole of Asia Minor, with the exception of the provinces Cilicia Propria, Cappadocia, and Pontus. 3. The peninsula of Asia Minor is bounded on the N. by the Euxine, on the E. by the rivers Acampsis and Euphrates, and by M. Amanus, on the S. by the Mediterranean, and on the W. by the Egæan Sea: to the E. it bordered upon Armenia and Syria, being separated from the former by the Euphrates, and from the latter by M'. Amanus. It is in general a fertile and healthy country, well watered by several considerable rivers, and intersected by chains of mountains, which greatly add to the salubrity of it's climate, and mitigate the heat of the Southern provinces. It's situation is one of the happiest in the world, being washed on one side by the great river Euphrates, and on the other three by the sea; thus, as it were, invited to that extensive commerce, for which it's own fertility, and the means of transporting it's produce, have amply adapted it. It contains 164,500 square miles, or about 7,000 less than the peninsula of Spain, with which, both in climate and formation, it has many things common. 4. The inhabitants of Asia Minor, though divided into many nations, were, generally speaking, all descendants of Japhet, as will be seen in the descriptions of the several provinces into which this country was portioned out. In after ages, however, they became divided into certain great families, differing from each other in many particulars. The Eastern provinces of Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and the Western portion of Pontus, were severally peopled by migrations from the great Syrian race: the Eastern parts of the latter province and of Cappadocia were occupied by Armenians. The Carians, Lydians, Phrygians, Mysians, and Bithynians were all connected with the Thracians, who passed over into the continent of Europe, preserving in their new possessions their general relations to each other, as well as their language and manners: and it was owing to this great similarity between them, that the profane authors generally believed the Thracians to have passed from Europe into Asia. The Galatians were Gauls, who terminated their savage and destructive wanderings over the country, by seizing upon and settling in the North Eastern part of Phrygia. Besides these, we may mention the Phoenicians, who at an early period had several colonies along the Southern coast, where they carried on a flourishing trade: whilst on the shores of the Egean Sea, we meet with the Pelasgi and Leleges, who gave place in a later age to the Eolians, Ionians, and Dorians. 5. The principal promontories of Asia Minor are; on the Southern coast, Anemurium Pr. C. Anamour, the Southernmost cape of the peninsula, only 37 miles from the opposite point of Crommyon in Cyprus; and Sacrum Pr., which derives it's modern name of C. Khelidonia from the adjacent Chelidoniæ Iæ. Khelidonia Is. ; it was also called Taurum Pr. from Mt. Taurus taking it's rise there. On the Western coast are Triopium Pr. C. Krio, on which stood the famous city Cnidus, sacred to Venus, and hence the promontory was frequently called Aphrodisium: Trogilium Pr. C. S. Mary, a prominent foot of M'. Mycale, opposite the Island of Samos: Lectum Pr.3 C. Baba, the Westernmost point of the peninsula, formed by the jutting out of M. Ida_ into the sea; and Sigeum Pr. C. Ienishehr, forming with the opposite point Mastusia in Thrace the entrance to the Hellespont. This last promontory was adorned with a temple and monument of Achilles, who was buried there, and was the place where the Greeks in their war against the Trojans, drew up their ships, and where the greater part of the battles between them was fought. The two chief capes on the Northern coast are Carambis Pr. Kerempe, 151 miles distant from the promontory of Criu Metopon in the Tauric Chersonese; and Acra Lepte, or Syrias, C. Indjeh, where the coast runs out farthest to the North. 6. Asia Minor is a mountainous country, and is intersected 2 - Λαοθόη, θυγάτηρ "Αλταο γέροντος, 3 Ιδην δ' ἱκέσθην πολυπίδακα, μητέρα θηρῶν, Sigea igni freta lata relucent. Hom. Il. p. 86. Id. E. 284. Virg. Æn. II. 312. Lucan, IX. 961. on all sides by lofty ranges, some of which only lose their snow during the summer months; their general direction is East and West. The most considerable of these are the Taurus, Anti-Taurus, and the Paryadres or Seydisses. Taurus M.5 Ramadan Oglu, or Kurin, takes it's rise in Sacrum Pr. and the Southern parts of Lycia, and after traversing the Southern provinces of the peninsula, crosses the Euphrates into Mesopotamia, where it joins the Masian and Carduchian ridges. The word Taurus is said to have been a generic term (as Alps is in Europe) for all elevated land, and it is still preserved in the word Tau, spelled sometimes Daugh and Dagh; this will partly account for the extended sense in which it was sometimes so improperly applied by the ancients to all the ranges between the Mediterranean Sea and Persia, and even to the Caucasus and Imaus. The AntiTaurus is a spur of the Taurus, which it leaves near the Pylæ Cilicia, and passing through the midst of Cappadocia, crosses the Euphrates into Armenia, where it is lost in the tops of Ararat. It is more elevated than the Taurus; and from one of it's peaks, named Mt. Argæus Erdjish, the summit of which is covered with perpetual snow, and is probably the highest land in the whole country, the ancients asserted that the Mediterranean and Euxine Seas were visible. The range of Paryadres, or Scydisses Tchisheghi as it was afterwards called, is a spur of the Caucasus, which enters Asia Minor near the source of the Euphrates on the borders of Pontus and Cappadocia, and after connecting itself with the Anti-Taurus, runs Westward to Paphlagonia and the river Halys. It was from M'.Theches in this range, and a few miles above Trapezus, that the 10,000 Greeks first saw the sea during their masterly retreat7. 7. The principal rivers of Asia Minor are the Halys and Sangarius, which enter the Euxine; the Hermus and Mæander, which run into the Egæan Sea; and the Sarus, which flows into the Mediterranean. Of these the Halys, or An te, Cydne, canam, tacitis qui leniter undis Mt. Argæus was famed for it's fleet horses: jam pascua fumant Tibull. I. vii. 16. - Ovid. Met. II. 217. Cappadocum, volucrumque parens Argæus equorum. Claudian. in Ruf. II. 31. Lucan. III. 272. Alys, now called Kizil Irmak, or the Red River, is the largest ; it rises in the angle formed by the junction of the mountains Anti-Taurus and Scydisses, and after a W. and then N. course of 570 miles, through the provinces of Cappadocia, Galatia, and Paphlagonia, enters the sea a little to the W. of Amisus. It is said to have obtained it's name from the Greek word aloc, owing to its waters having a salt and bitter taste: it is famous for the defeat of Croesus, the Lydian monarch, of whose dominions it formed for a long time the Eastern boundary, and who was tempted to cross it by the ambiguity of an oracle1 the Alizones? of Homer are supposed to have dwelled upon this river, in the neighbourhood of Paphlagonia. There is another branch of the Halys, which rises considerably farther S. in M. Taurus, flowing past Tyana and Garsaura, and joining the main river near the borders of Galatia. The R. Sangarius 10, or Sagaris", Sakaria, is W. of the Halys, and is 245 miles long; it rises in Adoreus M. on the frontiers of Galatia and Phrygia, and after passing Pessinus, traverses Bithynia: Hecuba, according to some, was a daughter of this river. The Hermus Sarabat, or Kedous, is smaller than either of the foregoing, being only 190 miles long; it rises in the Northern part of Phrygia, in a mountain sacred to Dindymene, or Cybele, and after running through the Northern parts of Lydia, and receiving the tributaries Pactolus and Hyllus, enters the G. of Smyrna; it's waters were said by the poets to roll down gold 12. The Mæander Mendere is to the S. of the foregoing, and formed the boundary between Lydia and Caria; it rises in the Western part of Phrygia, near the cities Celænæ and Apamea Cibotus, and after a Western course of 180 miles, falls into the Sinus Latmicus. It is celebrated for it's innumerable windings 13, from which all 9 Αὐτὰρ ̔Αλιζώνων Ὁδίος καὶ Ἐπίστροφος ήρχον, Hom. Il. B. 856. 10 "Ενθα ἴδον πλείστους Φρύγας, ἀνέρας αἰολοπώλους, Id. I. 187. 11 Huc Lycus, huc Sagaris, Peniusque, Hypanisque, Cratesque 12 Ovid. ex Pont. IV. x. 47. auro turbidus Hermus. Virg. Georg. II. 137. 13 Non secus ac liquidus Phrygiis Mæandros in arvis Et nunc ad fontes, nunc in mare versus apertum, See also p. 55, note 7, supra. Ovid. Met. VIII, 162. |