of Byzantium, fixed on by Constantine the Great as the seat of the Roman Empire, A. D. 330, and from him called Constantinople, a name which it has always preserved, though, by a familiar corruption already noticed, it is called by the Turks Estamboul.* That part of the city which was the antient Byzantium is now the seraglio. The Turkish sultan, Mahomet the Second, took Constantinople, May, 28, A. D. 1453, and it has ever since been the seat of the Turkish empire. On this occasion many of the captive Greek inhabitants fled into Italy and the West; and this event, with the invention of printing, which was nearly contemporary, may be considered as instrumental, under Providence, to the restoration of learning and pure religion in the world. A very narrow strait, antiently called the Thracian Bosphorus, now the Channel of Constantinople, connects the Propontis with the Pontus Euxinus, or Black Sea, which it enters near some well-known rocks, antiently called the Cyanea, or Symplegadest, which, from their appearing more or less open or confined, according to the course of the vessel, were said by the poets to open and shut upon the ships which entered, and crush them to pieces: the Argo had a narrow escape, as we are told by Apollonius Rhodius, with the loss of her rudder. Proceeding along the North coast of the Euxine we find Halmydessus, or Salmydessus, a city so celebrated for its shipwrecks; it is still called Midjeh. A little above it is Bizya, the residence of Tereus, the husband of Procne. Above it is the promontory of Thynias, whence came the Thyni, who settled * Ες τὴν πόλιν. + Compressos utinam Symplegades elisissent. Ovid. Epist. Her. Med. Jas. 119. afterwards in Asia, and gave name to Bithynia. Above it was Apollonia, afterwards Sozopolis, now Sizeboli : above it, at the North Eastern extremity of Thrace, was Hæmi-extrema, now Emineh-borun; and almost at the North Western extremity was Philippopolis, so called from Philip, the father of Alexander, which preserves its name. In the centre was Adrianopolis, or Adrianople, near the confluence of the three rivers, the Hebrus, Tonsus, and Ardiscus, by whose waters Orestes was purified from the pollution of his mother's blood, whence the place was formerly called Orestias. N CHAPTER X. GRECIAN ISLANDS. THESE we shall describe beginning from the North of the Ægean Sea, or Archipelago, along the coast of Greece; and afterwards those on the coast of Asia Minor. Nearly under the mouth of the Hebrus was the island of Samothrace, or Samothraki, remarkable for the sanctity of its asylum, and the mysterious worship of four deities called the Cabiri. Its reputation even continued to the time of Juvenal. * Below it was Imbrus, or Imbro, where also the same deities were worshipped. West of Samothrace, and a little West of the mouth of the river Nestus, was Thasos, now Thapso, remarkable for its fertility, its wines, and its marble quarries. South West of Imbrus, and about midway in the Ægean Sea, between the coast of Greece and Asia Minor, was the island of Lemnos, fabled to have received Vulcan when he fell from heaven, who is therefore called the Lemnian god. It is now called Stalimine, according to a corruption we have frequently noticed. Lemnos was infamous for the massacre committed by the Lemnian women on their Jures licet et Samothracum Et nostrorum aras. Juv. Sat. III. 144. husbands and all the male inhabitants of the island, a full account of which is given by Valerius Flaccus, in the second book of his Argonautic expedition. Its principal town was Myrina, now Paleocastri, in whose forum was the famous statue of the ox, made by Myron, the back of which, at the winter solstice, was overshadowed by Mount Athos, though 87 miles' distant. West of Lemnos was the small island of Peparethus, or Piperi, and Palagnisi, and South West of it Halonesus, or Dromo. South West of which, off the coast of Magnesia, were the islands of Scopelos and Sciathos, which keep their names. South of these, below the Maliacus Sinus, was the large island of Euboea, lying along the coast of Locris, Boeotia, and Attica: Opposite to Aulis, in Boeotia, the channel between the continent and the island of Euboea is very narrow, and receives the name of Euripus. Chalcis, one of the principal cities of Euboea, was opposite to Aulis: from a corruption of Euripus, it is now called Egripo; and then corrupted by mariners into Negropont. The next principal city in Eubœa was Eretria, now Gravalinais, a little below Chalcis. At the South extremity of Euboea are two celebrated promontories, one called Carystus, now Caristo, remarkable for its fine marble quarries, the other, on the Eastern, or Ægean side, called Caphareus *, memorable for the shipwreck of the Grecian fleet on their return from Troy. At the Northern extremity of Euboea was Istiæa, or Oreus, now Orio. This part of the coast of Euboea was called the Artemisium littus. East of this part of Euboea Scit triste Minervæ Sidus, et Euboicæ cautes, ultorque Caphareus. Virg. Æn. XI. 260. was the island of Scyros, or Skyro, where Achilles was brought up in the court of Lycamedes, disguised as a female, to avoid being sent to the Trojan war. Below Euboea, inclining towards the East, we find a cluster of islands, for that reason called the Cyclades. The island nearest to Euboea is Andros, or Andro, and below it Tenos, or Tine, which is separated from it only by a narrow channel. A little to the West, lying as it were between Andros and Tenos, is the little island Gyarus*, where the Roman exiles were sent, and a little South West of Tenos is Syros, or Syra. West of Tenos, off the coast of Attica and promontory of Sunium, is Ceos, or Zia, a little South East of which is Cythnus, now Thermia, and a little below it is Seriphus, now Serpho. South East of Seriphus is Siphnus, or Siphanto, and South West of Siphnus is Cimolus, now Argentiera, and Melos, or Milo. East of Melos are the inconsiderable islands of Pholegandros, Sicinos, and Ios, now Polecandro, Sikino, and Nio. Below Ios is Thera, or Santorin, whose inhabitants colonized Cyrene, in Africa; East of which is Anaphe, or Namphio; and North East of it Astypalea †, or Stampolia. North of Astypalea is Amorgus, now Amorgo; North West of which is Naxos ‡, now Naxia, celebrated for its worship of Bacchus, and adjoining it to the West was Paros, and the smaller island of Olearos, or Anti * Estuat infelix angusto limite mundi Ut Gyaræ clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho. + Cinctaque piscosis Astypalea vadis. Juvenal. Sat. X. 169. Ov. Art. II. 82. Bacchatamque jugis Naxon, viridemque Donusam, Virg. Æn. III. 125. |