There are at the mouth of the Euxine fea, about twenty ftadia from its junction with the Bofporus, two fmall islands, or rather rocks, the one near Europe and the other near Afia, called CYANEE or SYMPL.EGAD s, fing. Sympl gas, fuppofed by the ancients to be moveable or floating islands, as feeming to meet and dafh together, and again to remove from each other; a mere deception of fight, Herodot. iv. 85.; Strab. vii. 319.; Mel. ii. 7.; Plin. iv. 13.; Ovid. ep. xii. 121.; Trift. i. 9. 34. & 47. Lucan feems to hint that they became fixed when they failed to deftroy the ship Argo, ii. 718.*

ILLYRICUM.

This country was also called Illyris. Its limits were not precifely afcertained. They are made more or less extenfive by different authors, Strab. vii. 313. Its chief divifions were LIBURNIA and DALMATIA, which laft name now includes both. The principal city of Dalmatia was Salɔ̃na or -ne, famous for the palace of Dioclefian, where he lived in retirement, after refigning the empire, A. D. 305. The ruins of it still remain near Spalatro.

There are a great many islands along the coaft, most of which belong to the Venetians. South of thefe ftood Epidaurus and Dioclea, the birth-place of Dioclefian, near which is now the city Ragifa, a republic, which however pays tribute to the Turks. The countries now called Bofnia, Croatia, and Sclavonia, commonly included in ancient Illyricum, are frontier-provinces between the Houfe of Auftria and the Turks. The Sclavonic language prevails from the Hadriatic to the northern ocean. Slavi, or Slaves, is a term used by most nations in Europe to denote the lowest class of mankind, probably from the people of that name being reduced to a state of flavery by their conquerors.

of Orpheus, born in Thrace, Val. Flace. v. 594. Odryfia kafla, the spear of Mars, Stat. cladi. 685. the god of the Thracians, whence Thrace is called MAVORTIA TELLUS, Virg. Æn. 13. on account of the martial fpirit of its inhabitants, bello furiofa THRACE, horat, od. ii. 16. 5. and Mars is reprefented as courfing or pacing along the river Strymon on a Thracian steed (Biflonius fenipes) atter finishing his warlike toils, (exhauftis armis,) Stat. Silv. i. 1 18.

* Juvenal mentions a people in Thrace called Pygmies (PYGMÆI a muyur, vel mugav, cubitus) not much above a foot high, who carried on a perpetual war with the cranes, xiii 168.--Pliny fays they were driven from Thrace by the cranes, iv. 11. f 18. He afterwards places them in India, vii. 2. So Gellius, ix. 4. who both made them of a greater fize than Juvenal.

MESIA.

MESIA extended from the Euxine fea betwixt mount Hæmus and the Danube, to the conjunction of that river with the Savus or Save, near Belgrade, Plin. iii. 26. It was divided by the river Ciabrus into Superior, now Servia; and Inferior, now Bulgaria. A confiderable part of the former was called Dardania; and of the latter, towards the mouth of the Danube, PONTUS, the country of the Geta, who likewife lived north of that river. The fe, by fome of the ancients, were thought to be the fame with the Goths.

At the conflux of the river Iatrus with the Danube stood Nicopolis, built by Trajan, in memory of his victory over Decebalus king of the Dacians; near which the Chriftians were defeated by Bajazet emperor of the Turks, A. D. 1393.

On the Euxine fea ftood TOMI, the place of Ovid's baniflment, fuppofed to have been called by this name, becaufe Medea here cut to pieces her brother Abfyrtes, and scattered his members by the way, to ftop her father's purfuit, Ovid. Trift. iii. 9. 5. & 33. founded by a colony from Miletus, lb. 3. hence called MILETIS, (-idis), URBS, lb. i. 9. 41. the inhabitants TOMITE, lb. 2. 85. and its territory Tomitanus ager, Id. Pont. iii. 8. 2. South of Tomi was ODYSSUS or ADESSUS, now Varna, where the Hungarians were defeated by the Turks under Amurath, A. D. 1444,

The Danube, as it approached the fea, was called Ifter. It flows into the Euxine by feven mouths. Some make them only fix, and fome five. Thefe form as many islands. The fouthmoft of which was called Peucè, the people Peucini. Above this was the bridge of Darius, built when he made war on the Scythians, Herodot. iv. 89. and the town ÆGISSUS or ÆGYPSOS, Ovid. Pont. i. 8. 11.

DACIA.

DACIA extended to the Carpathian mountains betwixt the Tibifcus, Teifs, and the Hierafus, Pruth, on the banks of which Peter the Great, Czar of Ruffia, being furrounded by the Turks was extricated by the addrefs of his Czarina Cathe rine, 1711.

This province was conquered by Trajan, who joined it to Mælia by a bridge over the Danube, the moft magnificent of his works. It was raifed on twenty piers of hewn ftone, one hundred and fifty feet from the foundation, fixty broad, and one

hundred and feventy diftant from each other. The architect was Apollonius Damafcenus. This aftonifhing work, through the envy of his fucceffor Adrian, was demolished, Dio, lviii. 13.

The modern divifions of Dacia are, Wallachia and Moldavia, their capital Chetzim, fubject to the Turks; Tranfylvania, capital Hermanfład, fubject to the House of Auftria.

The other provinces of the Turkish empire in Europe were anciently included in

SARMATIA or SCYTHIA.

UNDER this name was comprehended a confiderable part of Europe. It was inhabited by various ftates, whofe very names were unknown to the Romans. The most noted were the Sarmate or Saurom ta, near the mouth of the Tanais, Plin. iv. 12. f. 25. vi. 7.; Mel. ii. 1. the Gelōni and Agathyrfi, eaft of the Boryfthenes, who painted their bodies, Virg. Æn. iv. 146. and lived a wandering life, as their fucceffors the Tartars do ftill; whence campestres SCYTHE, &c. Horat. od. iii. 24. 9. called Hamaxobii (quia pro fedibus plauftra habebant,) Plin. ib. These countries were fucceffively occupied by the Goths and Vandals, Huns, Alans, Roxolanians, and other barbarous nations which over-ran the Roman empire. The modern divisions subject to the Turks are, Beffarabia, between the mouth of the Danube and that of the Nieler, on which is fituate Bender, famous for being the retreat of Charles XII. of Sweden, when he fled to Turkey, after being defeated by the Ruffians under Peter the Great at the battle of Pultowa, A. D. 1709.

Betwixt the Niefler and Boryfthenes is Budziac Tartary: east of which to the Tanais is Little Tartary.

At the bottom of the Palus Mootis is Crim Tartary, Cherfanefus Taurica, fome years ago the fcene of bloody contests betwixt the Ruffians and the Turks. The town of Crim, whence the peninsula has its name, is now reduced to a village. On the Ifthmus, Precop, a place of small ftrength; and on the Straits, Caffa, the chief town.

The ancient towns on the Straits were, PANTICAPEUM, the capital of the Bosporani, at the mouth of the lake Mocotis; and five hundred and thirty ftadia, or fixty-fix miles and a quarter from it, Theodofia, now fuppofed to be Caffa, Strab.vii. 309. & 311.

The inhabitants of thefe parts of Tartary used to be subject' to the Turks, although governed by a Cham chofen by themfelves; but fince the late fucceffes of the Ruffians, they have been declared independent.

Thus the length of it was from one extremity to the other about 3400 feet, nearly three times more than that of Westminster, which is only 1279 feet long.

案

*3

FABULOUS

FABULOUS HISTORY of the GREEKS.

I. FABULOUS HISTORY OF CRETE.

SATURN.

THE most ancient king of Crete was SATURN* the fon of Cælus or Ouranos, Heaven, and Terra, the Earth, Apollodor. i. 1.; Lactant. i. 11. & 15. His elder brother TITAN yielded the kingdom to him, on this condition, that he fhould rear no male offspring. Therefore he is faid to have devoured all his fons as foon as bornt, Ib. 13.; Diodor. v. 70.; Ovid. Faft. iv. 200. But his wife OPS or RHEA ‡, when he brought forth Jupiter, artfully deceived her husband, by giving him a ftone wrapped round with fwaddling clothes, inftead of the child, and Saturn is faid not to have perceived the difference, Paufan. viii. 8. & 36.; Ovid. Faft. iv. 205. The fame artifice was ufed at the birth of Neptune and Pluto, Lactant. i. 14.

Jupiter was entrusted to the care of certain young men, called CURETES, CORYBANTES, or DACTYLI IDEI, Serv. in Virg. G. iv. 149. &c.; Æn. iii. 131.; Ovid. Met. iv. 282. who, by beating on cymbals and on brazen fhields, made a noife around the child to prevent Saturn from hearing his cries, Hygin. 139-; Lucret. . 633. whence the priests of Cyběle were called by thefe names, and ufed the fame kind of noife in her facred rites, Strab. x. 466.; Horat. od. i. 16. 8.; Sta'. Theb. iv. 792. They nurfed Jupiter with honey in a cave on mount Dicté (Dictao fub antro, whence he is called DICTEUS, Stat. Theb. iii. 481.), whither the bees are faid to have been attracted by the found of the cymbals and fhields, Virg. G. iv. 150. and with the milk of a goat, called AмALTHEA, which had two

SATURNUS, quia fe faturat annis, Cic. Nat D. iii. 24.

Hence he is called IMPIUS, Horat. ed. ii. 17. 22. and GRAVIS, Perf. v. 50. or rather because it was thought unlucky to be born under the planet Saturn, Propert. iv. 1. 84. ; Juvenal. vi. 569; Phin. ii. 8.

The fame was alfo his After, and likewife called CYBĚLE, Virg. Æn. iii. 111. zi. 768. vel CYBELE, or rather CYBEBE, Ib. x. 220. or CYBELLE, Propert. iii. 17. 35. Mater BERECYNTHIA, Virg. Æn. vi. 785. ix. 82. IDEA, Ib. ix. 620. and DINDYMENE, Horat. od. i. 16. 5. Martial. viii. 81. from Cyběle, Ovid. Faft. iv. 249. & 363. Berecyntbus, Ida, and Dindymus, mountains in Phrygia, where the was worshipped, Strab. x. 469.

A a 2

kids,

kids, Hygin. Afr. ii. 13. In return for which fervice, (pra qua mercede,) Jupiter, when he became king of heaven, (ubi res cœli tenuit,) placed the goat and her kids among the conftellations, where they are ftill called CAPELLA and HEDI (termed by Ovid, pecus OLENIUM, ep. xviii. 188. from Olenos, a town in Æolis, Hygin. ib. or Ætolia, Serv. in Virg. Æn. xi. 239. near which they were produced); and endued the bees with the wonderful fagacity which they now poffefs, Virg. G. iv. 149. and gave them the faculty of producing their young with fuch facility, Serv. ib. 153.

Saturn received from his mother a scythe, made of the metal extracted from her bowels. Strab.- xiv. 654. whence he is called FALCIFER, Ovid. Faft. i. 234. v. 627. in Ibide, 216. With this feythe he is faid to have mutilated his father, (patrem exfecuiffe, Cic. Nat. D. iii. 24.; Paufan, vii. 23. Genitalia ei abfcidiffe, Macrob. Sat. i. 8.; Lactant. i. 12. Ovid in Ibin, 275-)

Titan being informed that the fons of Saturn were preserved and educated privately, made war upon Saturn; and having vanquished him, fhut him up in prifon, together with Ops his wife. But Jupiter, being now grown up to manhood, having collected a body of Cretans, defeated Titan and his fons (Titanes), liberated his parents, and replaced his father on the throne. Soon after, however, Saturn being warned by an oracle to beware of his fon, left he should be dethroned by him, began to form plots against his life; on which account he was expelled by Jupiter from the kingdom †, Lactant. i. 14.

* Lactantius fays, that Jupiter was nurfed by Melissa and Amalihaa, two daughters of Meliffeus, the fift king of Crete, with goat's milk and honey; and that this gave occafion to the fable of bees (phi) coming and filling the mouth of the child with honey, i. 22. Ovid fays, that Jupiter was concealed in the woods by Amalthea. a nymph (Nais, dis), on mount Ida, who had a beautiful the goat, the mother of two kids, which fed Jupiter with her milk. This fhe-goat having broken one of her horus on a tree, the nymph took it up; and having bound it round with freth herbs, and filled it with apples, brought it to Jupiter, who afterwards made it the born of Plenty, (Fertile Cornu, i. e. CORNUCOPIE V. CORNUCOPIA,) Ovid. Faft. v. 113 129. This Pliny calls the horn of Amaltea, præf. but Ovid elsewhere makes it the horn of Ache'õus, Met. ix. 87. The Genius of Rome was ufually represented with a rudder of a fhip in one hand, and a cornucopia in the other, Marcellin, xxv. 2 ; Gruter. Infcript.

With the fkin of this goat Jupiter covered his fhield; hence it is called ÆGIS, -idis, Serv. in Virg En. viii. 354. from dit, dryer, capra; and himself 'A1710x069 i. e. agida giftans vel babens, Homer. I. i. 201.

+ Saturnus regnis ab Jove pulfus erat, Ovid. Faft. iii. 796. or, as others fay, imprifoned in Tartarus, (tenebrofa in Tartara m Jus, Ovid. Met. i. 113. Vinétus a fillo Jove, Cic. Nat. D. ii. 24.) whence he afterwards made his efcape. Paufamas speaks of a contest between Jupiter and Saturn at Olympia, concerning the empire, v. 7. viii. 2.