camp and ships were stationed. South of the island of Tenedos were Chrysa and Sminthium, where was the temple of the Sminthian Apollo, and the residence of his priest Chryses, the father of Briseis. Below it is the promontory of Lectum, now called Cape Baba. South East of it is Assus, now Asso; South East of which was Antandrus, now Antandro. Inland, about the middle of the Troad, was Scepsis, memorable as being the place where the original writings and library of Aristotle were discovered, as we are told by Strabo, much injured by having been buried carelessly in a damp place by the descendants of Neleus, the scholar of Theophrastus, to whom Aristotle had left them, in order to preserve them from being seized by Eumenes, king of Pergamus, for his library: they were at length dug up and sold to Apellicon of Teios, for a large sum. North East of Scepsis was the city of Zeleia, mentioned in Homer, and South East of it the Hypoplacian Thebes, the birth-place of Andromache, which was occupied by a Cilician colony in the time of the Trojan war: a little below, the shore begins to turn to the South. The remainder of the coast of Mysia, and part of Lydia, to the river Hermus*, whose sands were mingled with gold, was called Æolia, or Æolis, being occupied, after the fall of Troy, by Æolian Greeks. Here is Adramyttium, or Adramitti, an Athenian colony, mentioned in the Acts, ch. xxvii. 2. Below Adramyttium was Pergamus, now Bergamo, the capital of a kingdom which the Romans considerably enlarged in favour of Eumenes, after they had defeated Antiochus, king of Syria, and which was Auro turbidus Hermus. Virg. Georg. II. 137. left to the Roman people by Attalus, the last king, B. C. 133, A. U. C. 621. Here was the famous library founded by Eumenes in opposition to that of Ptolemy at Alexandria, who, from motives of jealousy, forbad the exportation of Egyptian papyrus, in consequence of which Eumenes invented vellum, called hence Pergamena. This library, having contained 200,000 volumes was transported to Alexandria by Antony and Cleopatra. Pergamus is one of the churches mentioned in the Revelation of St. John, ch. ii. 11. Here also the great physician Galen was born. It stood on the banks of the Caicus, and its port Elæa is now Ialea. Between Adramyttium and Elæa were the maritime cities of Lyrnessus, the original country of Briseis, Atarneus and Pitane, and a little below Elea was the promontory of Cana, or Coloni, near which were the little islands called Arginusæ, where the Lacedæmonian fleet was completely defeated by the Athenians, under the command of Conon, B. C. 406, Ol. 93, 3. Below the river Caicus was Lydia, called antiently Mæonia, having Mysia on the North, Phrygia on the East, Caria on the South, and the Ægean on the West. The coast of Lydia, nearly to the Hermus, was called Æolis, and below the Hermus, having been occupied by Grecian colonies about B. C. 900, obtained the name of Ionia, the cities of which we shall first describe, before we give an account of the interior, or Persian part of it. Below the Caicus was Cyme, or Cumæ, the most powerful of the Eolian colonies, now affording but a few vestiges at a place called Nemourt: a colony from hence founded the city of Cumæ, on the coast of Campania, in Italy, the residence of the Cumæan Sibyl. Below it is Phocæa*, now Fochia, an Ionian colony, whose inhabitants deserted it, to avoid being subject to the power of Cyrus, and having sworn never to return, till a mass of iron, which they sank, should rise to the surface, founded the city of Marseilles, in Gaul, about 540 B. C. Below Phocæa was the celebrated city of Smyrna, now called Ismur, one of the reputed birth-places of Homer, and a flourishing city of Anatolia. The little river Meles, which flows by Smyrna, has given to Homer the name of Melesigenes, he having been said to have been born on its banks ; he is also called Mæonius +, from having been born in Lydia. Smyrna stands at the Eastern extremity of a Gulph called the Smyrnæus Sinus, which forms a peninsula, near the entrance of which is Clazomenæ, now Vourla, the birth-place of the philosopher Anaxagoras and other great men; north West of it is Erythræ, opposite to the island of Chios, the residence of one of the Sibyls. At the Southern entrance of this peninsula was Teos, the birth-place of Anacreon, hence called the Teian bard, and below it Lebedus, which was ruined by * Sed juremus in hæc; simul imis saxa renarint Nulla sit hac potior sententia, Phocæorum Velut profugit execrata civitas. Hor. Epod. XVI. 25. ́ have reversed the order of the lines in Horace, for the convenience of shortening the quotation. Non si priores Mæonius tenet Sedes Homerus. Hor. Od. IV. 9, 5. Lysimachus, and continued so in the days of Horace. * Below it was Colophon, another of the cities which contended for the birth of Homer: it was the native city of Mimnermus and Nicander. The Colophonian cavalry generally turned the scale on the side on which they fought: hence Colophonem addere became a proverb for putting an end or finish to a business, and in the early periods in the art of printing, the account which the printer gave of the place and date of the edition, being the last thing printed at the end of the book, was called the colophon. Below Colophon, on the banks of the Cayster, was the renowned city of Ephesus, celebrated for its temple of Diana, one of the wonders of the antient world. It is now a mass of ruins, under the name of Aiosoluc, a corruption of Agio-Tzeologus, the modern Greek epithet for St. John the founder of the church here. It is almost unnecessary to add, that this city is memorable in the writings and travels of St. Paul, and is the first of the churches mentioned by St. John in the Revelation, ch. ii. 1. The Cayster flowed through - a marsh called the Asian marsh, much frequented by water fowlt, and mentioned by Homer and Virgil; this river is now called the Kitchik-Minder, or little Mæander. Below Ephesus was Magnesia, on the Mæander, to be distinguished from another city of the same name near Mount Sipylus, in the inland parts of Lydia. Here Themistocles died, Â. C. 449, Ol. 82, 4, and the Romans * Scis Lebedus quid sit, Gabiis desertior atque Fidenis vicus. Hor. Epist. I. 11, 6. Virg. Georg. I. 385. Jam varias pelagi volucres, et quæ Asia circum gave a signal overthrow to Antiochus, King of Syria, B. C. 187, A. U. C. 567. Below it, and opposite the island of Samos, is Mount Mycale, so celebrated for the defeat and destruction of the Persian fleet by the Grecians, Sept. 22, B. C. 479, Ol. 75, 2, on the very same day that their land army, under Mardonius, was defeated at Platææ. At the foot of this mountain was Priene, the birth-place of Bias, one of the seven contemporary sages of Greece. The river Mæander, so celebrated for its windings, is the boundary of Lydia and Caria. We shall now quit the Ionian coast of Lydia, and take a short view of the interior, or Persian part. Beginning at the North, nearly due East of Cyme, is Thyatira, one of the churches mentioned in the Revelation of St. John, ch. ii. 18, now Ak-hisar; South West of it is Magnesia, or Magnisa, where some place the defeat of Antiochus: both these are on the Northern side of the Hermus. This Magnesia is called Magnesia Sipyli, or Magnesia at the foot of Mount Sipylus, to distinguish it from the other Magnesia ad Mæandrum. Mount Sipylus was the residence of Niobe, hence called Sipyleian*; it is on the Southern side of the Hermus. South East of it was Sardis, the capital of Lydia, and royal residence of Crœsus+, the last and proverbially rich King of Lydia, who was taken by Cyrus, B. C. 548, Ol. 58, 1. Sardis was at the foot of Mount Tmolus, now * Nec tantum Niobe bis sex ad busta superba Propert. II. 20, 7. + Quid tibi visa Chios, Bullati, notaque Lesbos, Hor. Epist. I. 11, 1. |
