[1] Bordering on the Bithynians towards the south, as I have said, ¹ are the Mysians and Phrygians who live round the Mysian Olympus, as it is called. And each of these tribes is divided into two parts. For one part of Phrygia is called Greater Phrygia, the part over which Midas reigned, a part of which was occupied by the Galatians, whereas the other is called Lesser Phrygia, that on the Hellespont and round Olympus, I mean Phrygia Epictetus, ² as it is called. Mysia is likewise divided into two parts, I mean Olympene, which is continuous with Bithynia and Phrygia Epictetus, which, according to Artemidorus, was colonized by the Mysians who lived on the far side of the Ister, ³ and, secondly, the country in the neighborhood of the Caïcus River and Pergamene, extending as far as Teuthrania and the outlets of the river.

[2] But the boundaries of these parts have been so confused with one another, as I have often said, ⁴ that it is uncertain even as to the country round Mt. Sipylus, which the ancients called Phrygia, whether it was a part of Greater Phrygia or of Lesser Phrygia, where lived, they say, the “Phrygian” Tantalus and Pelops and Niobe. But no matter which of the two opinions is correct, the confusion of the boundaries is obvious; for Pergamene and Elaïtis, where the Caïcus empties into the sea, and Teuthrania, situated between these two countries, where Teuthras lived and where Telephus was reared, lie between the Hellespont on the one side and the country round Sipylus and Magnesia, which lies at the foot of Sipylus, on the other; and therefore, as I have said before, it is a task to determine the boundaries ( ). ⁵

[3] And the Lydians and the Maeonians, whom Homer calls the Mëiones, are in some way confused both with these peoples and with one another, because some say that they are the same and others that they are different; and they are confused with these people ⁶ because some say that the Mysians were Thracians but others that they were Lydians, thus concurring with an ancient explanation given by Xanthus the Lydian and Menecrates of Elaea, who explain the origin of the name of the Mysians by saying that the oxya-tree is so named by the Lydians. ⁷ And the oxya-tree abounds in the neighborhood of Mt. Olympus, where they say that the decimated persons were put out ⁸ and that their descendants were the Mysians of later times, so named after the oxya-tree, and that their language bears witness to this; for, they add, their language is, in a way, a mixture of the Lydian and the Phrygian languages, for the reason that, although they lived round Mt. Olympus for a time, yet when the Phrygians crossed over from Thrace and slew a ruler of Troy and of the country near it, those people took up their abode there, whereas the Mysians took up their abode above the sources of the Caïcus near Lydia.

[4] Contributing to the creation of myths of this kind are the confusion of the tribes there and the fertility of the country this side the Halys River, particularly that of the seaboard, on account of which attacks were made against it from numerous places and continually by peoples from the opposite mainland, or else the people near by would attack one another. Now it was particularly in the time of the Trojan War and after that time that invasions and migrations took place, since at the same time both the barbarians and the Greeks felt an impulse to acquire possession of the countries of others; but this was also the case before the Trojan War, for the tribe of the Pelasgians was then in existence, as also that of the Cauconians and Leleges. And, as I have said before, ⁹ they wandered in ancient times over many regions of Europe. These tribes the poet makes the allies of the Trojans, but not as coming from the opposite mainland. The accounts both of the Phrygians and of the Mysians go back to earlier times than the Trojan War. The existence of two groups of Lycians arouses suspicion that they were of the same tribe, whether it was the Trojan Lycians or those near Caria that colonized the country of the other of the two. ¹⁰ And perhaps the same was also true in the case of the Cilicians, for these, too, were two-fold; ¹¹ however, we are unable to get the same kind of evidence that the present tribe of Cilicians was already in existence before the Trojan War. Telephus might be thought to have come from Arcadia with his mother; and having become related to Teuthras, to whom he was a welcome guest, by the marriage of his mother to that ruler, was regarded as his son and also succeeded to the rulership of the Mysians.

[5] Not only the Carians, who in earlier times were islanders, but also the Leleges, as they say, became mainlanders with the aid of the Cretans, who founded, among other places, Miletus, having taken Sarpedon from the Cretan Miletus as founder; and they settled the Termilae in the country which is now called Lycia; and they say that these settlers were brought from Crete by Sarpedon, a brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus, and that he gave the name Termilae to the people who were formerly called Milyae, as Herodotus ¹² says, and were in still earlier times called Solymi, but that when Lycus the son of Pandion went over there he named the people Lycians after himself. Now this account represents the Solymi and the Lycians as the same people, but the poet makes a distinction between them. At any rate, Bellerophontes set out from Lycia and ¹³ And likewise his son Peisander ^{14 15} by Ares, as he says. And he also speaks of Sarpedon as a native of Lycia. ¹⁶

[6] But the fact that the fertility of the country of which I am speaking ¹⁷ was set before the powerful as a common prize of war is confirmed by many things which have taken place even subsequent to the Trojan War, ¹⁸ since even the Amazons took courage to attack it, against whom not only Priam, but also Bellerophontes, are said to have made expeditions; and the naming of ancient cities after the Amazons attests this fact. And in the Trojan Plain there is a hill ¹⁹ who, historians say, was one of the Amazons, inferring this from the epithet “much-bounding”; for they say that horses are called “well-bounding” because of their speed, and that Myrina, therefore, was called “much-bounding” because of the speed with which she drove her chariot. Myrina, therefore, is named after this Amazon. And the neighboring islands had the same experience because of their fertility; and Homer clearly testifies that, among these, Rhodes and Cos were already inhabited by Greeks before the Trojan War. ²⁰

[7] After the Trojan War the migrations of the Greeks and the Trerans, and the onsets of the Cimmerians and of the Lydians, and, after this, of the Persians and the Macedonians, and, at last, of the Galatians, disturbed and confused everything. But the obscurity has arisen, not on account of the changes only, but also on account of the disagreements of the historians, who do not say the same things about the same subjects, calling the Trojans Phrygians, as do the tragic poets, and the Lycians Carians; and so in the case of other peoples. But the Trojans, having waxed so strong from a small beginning that they became kings of kings, afforded both the poet and his expounders grounds for enquiring what should be called Troy; for in a general way he calls “Trojans” the peoples, one and all, who fought on the Trojan side, just as he called their opponents both “Danaans” and “Achaeans”; and yet, of course, we shall surely not speak of Paphlagonia as a part of Troy, nor yet Caria, nor the country that borders on Caria, I mean Lycia. I mean when the poet says, ²¹ and when he says of their opponents, ²² And in many ways he uses terms differently. But still, although such is the case, I must try to arbitrate the several details to the best of my ability. However, if anything in ancient history escapes me, I must leave it unmentioned, for the task of the geographer does not lie in that field, and I must speak of things as they now are.

[8] Above the Propontis, then, there are two mountains, the Mysian Olympus and Mt. Ida. Now the region of the Bithynians lies at the foot of Olympus, whereas Troy is situated between Mt. Ida and the sea and borders on the mountain. As for Troy, I shall describe it and the parts adjacent to it towards the south later on, ²³ but at present let me describe the country of Mt. Olympus and the parts which come next in order thereafter, extending as far as the Taurus and lying parallel to the parts which I have previously traversed. Mt. Olympus, then, is not only well settled all round but also has on its heights immense forests and places so well-fortified by nature that they can support bands of robbers; and among these bands there often arise tyrants who are able to maintain their power for a long time; for example, Cleon, who in my time was chieftain of the bands of robbers.

[9] Cleon was from the village Gordium, which he later enlarged, making it a city and calling it Juliopolis; but from the beginning he used the strongest of the strongholds, Callydium by name, as retreat and base of operations for the robbers. And he indeed proved useful to Antony, since he made an attack upon those who were levying money for Labienus ²⁴ at the time when the latter held possession of Asia, ²⁵ and he hindered his preparations, but in the course of the Actian War, having revolted from Antony, he joined the generals of Caesar and was honored more than he deserved, since he also received, in addition to what Antony had given him, what Caesar gave him, so that he was invested with the guise of dynast, from being a robber, that is, he was priest of Zeus Abrettenus, a Mysian god, and held subject a part of Morene, which, like Abrettene, is also Mysian, and received at last the priesthood of Comana in Pontus, although he died within a month’s time after he went down to Comana. He was carried off by an acute disease, which either attacked him in consequence of excessive repletion or else, as the people round the temple said, was inflicted upon him because of the anger of the goddess; for the dwelling of both the priest and the priestess is within the circuit of the sacred precinct, and the sacred precinct, apart from its sanctity in other respects, is most conspicuously free from the impurity of the eating of swine’s flesh; in fact, the city as a whole is free from it; and swine cannot even be brought into the city. Cleon, however, among the first things he did when he arrived, displayed the character of the robber by transgressing this custom, as though he had come, not as priest, but as corrupter of all that was sacred.

[10] Such, then, is Mt. Olympus; and towards the north it is inhabited all round by the Bithynians and Mygdonians and Doliones, whereas the rest of it is occupied by Mysians and Epicteti. Now the peoples round Cyzicus, from the Aesepus River to the Rhyndacus River and lake Dascylitis, are for the most part called Doliones, whereas the peoples who live next after these as far as the country of the Myrleians are called Mygdonians. Above lake Dascylitis lie two other lakes, large ones, I mean Lake Apolloniatis and Lake Miletopolitis. Near Lake Dascylitis is the city Dascylium, and near Lake Miletopolitis Miletopolis, and near the third lake “Apollonia on Rhyndacus,” as it is called. But at the present time most of these places belong to the Cyziceni.

[11] Cyzicus is an island in the Propontis, being connected with the mainland by two bridges; and it is not only most excellent in the fertility of its soil, but in size has a perimeter of about five hundred stadia. It has a city of the same name near the bridges themselves, and two harbors that can be closed, and more than two hundred ship-sheds. One part of the city is on level ground and the other is near a mountain called “Arcton-oros.” ²⁶ Above this mountain lies another mountain, Dindymus; it rises into a single peak, and it has a temple of Dindymene, mother of the gods, which was founded by the Argonauts. This city rivals the foremost of the cities of Asia in size, in beauty, and in its excellent administration of affairs both in peace and in war. And its adornment appears to be of a type similar to that of Rhodes and Massalia and ancient Carthage. Now I am omitting most details, but I may say that there are three directors who take care of the public buildings and the engines of war, and three who have charge of the treasure-houses, one of which contains arms and another engines of war and another grain. They prevent the grain from spoiling by mixing Chalcidic earth ²⁷ with it. They showed in the Mithridatic war the advantage resulting from this preparation of theirs; for when the king unexpectedly came over against them with one hundred and fifty thousand men and with a large cavalry, and took possession of the mountain opposite the city, the mountain called Adrasteia, and of the suburb, and then, when he transferred his army to the neck of land above the city and was fighting them, not only on land, but also by sea with four hundred ships, the Cyziceni held out against all attacks, and, by digging a counter-tunnel, all but captured the king alive in his own tunnel; but he forestalled this by taking precautions and by withdrawing outside his tunnel: Leucullus, the Roman general, was able, though late, to send an auxiliary force to the city by night; and, too, as an aid to the Cyziceni, famine fell upon that multitudinous army, a thing which the king did not foresee, because he suffered a great loss of men before he left the island. But the Romans honored the city; and it is free to this day, and holds a large territory, not only that which it has held from ancient times, but also other territory presented to it by the Romans; for, of the Troad, they possess the parts round Zeleia on the far side of the Aesepus, as also the plain of Adrasteia, and, of Lake Dascylitis, they possess some parts, while the Byzantians possess the others. And in addition to Dolionis and Mygdonis they occupy a considerable territory extending as far as lake Miletopolitis and Lake Apolloniatis itself. It is through this region that the Rhyndacus River flows; this river has its sources in Azanitis, and then, receiving from Mysia Abrettene, among other rivers, the Macestus, which flows from Ancyra in Abäeitis, empties into the Propontis opposite the island Besbicos. In this island of the Cyziceni is a well-wooded mountain called Artace; and in front of this mountain lies an isle bearing the same name; and near by is a promontory called Melanus, which one passes on a coasting-voyage from Cyzicus to Priapus.

[12] To Phrygia Epictetus belong the cities Azani, Nacolia, Cotiäeium, Midäeium, and Dorylaeum, and also Cadi, which, according to some writers, belongs to Mysia. Mysia extends in the interior from Olympene to Pergamene, and to the plain of Caïcus, as it is called; and therefore it lies between Mt. Ida and Catacecaumene, which latter is by some called Mysian and by others Maeonian.

[13] Above Phrygia Epictetus towards the south is Greater Phrygia, which leaves on the left Pessinus and the region of Orcaorci and Lycaonia, and on the right the Maeonians and Lydians and Carians. In Epictetus are Phrygia “Paroreia,” ²⁸ as it is called, and the part of Phrygia that lies towards Pisidia, and the parts round Amorium and Eumeneia and Synnada, and then Apameia Cibotus, as it is called, and Laodiceia, which two are the largest of the Phrygian cities. And in the neighborhood of these are situated towns, and. . . . ., ²⁹ Aphrodisias, Colossae, Themisonium, Sanaüs, Metropolis, and Apollonias; but still farther away than these are Peltae, Tabae, Eucarpia, and Lysias.

[14] Now Phrygia Paroreia has a kind of mountainous ridge extending from the east towards the west; and below it on either side lies a large plain. And there are cities near it: towards the north, Philomelium, and, on the other side, the Antiocheia near Pisidia, as it is called, the former lying wholly in a plain, whereas the latter is on a hill and has a colony of Romans. The latter was settled by Magnetans who lived near the Maeander River. The Romans set them free from their kings at the time when they gave over to Eumenes ³⁰ the rest of Asia this side the Taurus. Here there was also a priesthood of Men Arcaeus, ³¹ which had a number of temple-slaves and sacred places, but the priesthood was destroyed after the death of Amyntas by those who were sent thither as his inheritors. Synnada is not a large city; but there lies in front of it a plain planted with olives, about sixty stadia in circuit. ³² And beyond it is Docimaea, a village, and also the quarry of “Synnadic” marble (so the Romans call it, though the natives call it “Docimite” or “Docimaean ). At first this quarry yielded only stones of small size, but on account of the present extravagance of the Romans great monolithic pillars are taken from it, which in their variety of colors are nearly like the alabastrite marble; so that, although the transportation of such heavy burdens to the sea is difficult, still, both pillars and slabs, remarkable for their size and beauty, are conveyed to Rome.

[15] Apameia is a great emporium of Asia, I mean Asia in the special sense of that term, ³³ and ranks second only to Ephesus; for it is a common entrepôt for the merchandise from both Italy and Greece. Apameia is situated near the outlets of the Marsyas River, which flows through the middle of the city and has its sources in the city; ³⁴ it flows down to the suburbs, and then with violent and precipitate current joins the Maeander. The latter receives also another river, the Orgas, and traverses a level country with an easygoing and sluggish stream; and then, having by now become a large river, the Maeander flows for a time through Phrygia and then forms the boundary between Caria and Lydia at the Plain of Maeander, as it is called, where its course is so exceedingly winding that everything winding is called “meandering.” And at last it flows through Caria itself, which is now occupied by the Ionians, and then empties between Miletus and Priene. It rises in a hill called Celaenae, on which there is a city which hears the same name as the hill; and it was from Celaenae that Antiochus Soter ³⁵ made the inhabitants move to the present Apameia, the city which he named after his mother Apama, who was the daughter of Artabazus and was given in marriage to Seleucus Nicator. And here is laid the scene of the myth of Olympus and of Marsyas and of the contest between Marsyas and Apollo. Above is situated a lake which produces the reed that is suitable for the mouth-pieces of pipes; and it is from this lake that pour the sources of both the Marsyas and the Maeander.

[16] Laodiceia, though formerly small, grew large in our time and in that of our fathers, even though it had been damaged by siege in the time of Mithridates Eupator. ³⁶ However, it was the fertility of its territory and the prosperity of certain of its citizens that made it great: at first Hieron, who left to the people an inheritance of more than two thousand talents and adorned the city with many dedicated offerings, and later Zeno the rhetorician and his son Polemon, ³⁷ the latter of whom, because of his bravery and honesty, was thought worthy even of a kingdom, at first by Antony and later by Augustus. The country round Laodiceia produces sheep that are excellent, not only for the softness of their wool, in which they surpass even the Milesian wool, but also for its raven-black color, ³⁸ so that the Laodiceians derive splendid revenue from it, as do also the neighboring Colosseni from the color which bears the same name. ³⁹ And here the Caprus River joins the Maeander, as does also the Lycus, a river of good size, after which the city is called the “Laodiceia near Lycus.” ⁴⁰ Above the city lies Mt. Cadmus, whence the Lycus flows, as does also another river of the same name as the mountain. But the Lycus flows under ground for the most part, and then, after emerging to the surface, unites with the other rivers, thus indicating that the country is full of holes and subject to earthquakes; for if any other country is subject to earthquakes, Laodiceia is, and so is Carura in the neighboring country.

[17] Carura forms a boundary between Phrygia and Caria. It is a village; and it has inns, and also fountains of boiling-hot waters, some in the Maeander River and some above its banks. Moreover, it is said that once, when a brothel-keeper had taken lodging in the inns along with a large number of women, an earthquake took place by night, and that he, together with all the women, disappeared from sight. And I might almost say that the whole of the territory in the neighborhood of the Maeander is subject to earthquakes and is undermined with both fire and water as far as the interior; for, beginning at the plains, all these conditions extend through that country to the Charonia, ⁴¹ I mean the Charonium at Hierapolis and that at Acharaca in Nysaïs and that near Magnesia and Myus. In fact, the soil is not only friable and crumbly but is also full of salts ⁴² and easy to burn out. ⁴³ And perhaps the Maeander is winding for this reason, because the stream often changes its course and, carrying down much silt, adds the silt at different times to different parts of the shore; however, it forcibly thrusts a part of the silt out to the high sea. And, in fact, by its deposits of silt, extending forty stadia, it has made Priene, which in earlier times was on the sea, an inland city. ⁴⁴

[18] Phrygia “Catacecaumene,” ⁴⁵ which is occupied by Lydians and Mysians, received its appellation for some such reason as follows: In Philadelphia, the city near it, not even the walls are safe, but in a sense are shaken and caused to crack every day. And the inhabitants are continually attentive to the disturbances in the earth and plan all structures with a view to their occurrence. And, among the other cities, Apameia was often shaken by earthquakes before the expedition of King Mithridates, who, when he went over to that country and saw that the city was in ruins, gave a hundred talents for its restoration; and it is said that the same thing took place in the time of Alexander. And this, in all probability, is why Poseidon is worshipped in their country, even though it is in the interior, ⁴⁶ and why the city was called Celaenae, ⁴⁷ that is, after Celaenus, the son of Poseidon by Celaeno, one of the daughters of Danaüs, or else because of the “blackness” of the stone, which resulted from the burn-outs. And the story of Mt. Sipylus and its ruin should not be put down as mythical, for in our own times Magnesia, which lies at the foot of it, was laid low by earthquakes, at the time when not only Sardeis, but also the most famous of the other cities, were in many places seriously damaged. But the emperor ⁴⁸ restored them by contributing money; just as his father in earlier times, when the inhabitants of Tralleis suffered their misfortune (when the gymnasium and other parts of the city collapsed), restored their city, as he also restored the city of the Laodiceians.

[19] One should also hear the words of the ancient historians, as, for example, those of Xanthus, who wrote the history of Lydia, when he relates the strange changes that this country often underwent, to which I have already referred somewhere in a former part of my work. ⁴⁹ And in fact they make this the setting of the mythical story of the Arimi and of the throes of Typhon, calling it the Catacecaumene ⁵⁰ country. Also, they do not hesitate to suspect that the parts of the country between the Maeander River and the Lydians are all of this nature, as well on account of the number of the lakes and rivers as on account of the numerous hollows in the earth. And the lake ⁵¹ between Laodiceia and Apameia, although like a sea, ⁵² emits an eflluvium that is filthy and of subterranean origin. And they say that lawsuits are brought against the god Maeander for altering the boundaries of the countries on his banks, that is, when the projecting elbows of land are swept away by him; and that when he is convicted the fines are paid from the tolls collected at the ferries.

[20] Between Laodiceia and Carura is a temple of Men Carus, as it is called, which is held in remarkable veneration. In my own time a great Herophileian ⁵³ school of medicine has been established by Zeuxis, and afterwards carried on by Alexander Philalethes, ⁵⁴ just as in the time of our fathers the Erasistrateian school ⁵⁵ was established by Hicesius, although at the present time the case is not at all the same as it used to be. ⁵⁶

[21] Writers mention certain Phrygian tribes that are no longer to be seen; for example, the Berecyntes. And Alcman says, And a certain pit that emits deadly eflluvia is spoken of as Cerbesian. This, indeed, is to be seen, but the people are no longer called Cerbesians. Aeschylus, in his Niobe, confounds things that are different; for example, Niobe says that she will be mindful of the house of Tantalus, ⁵⁷ and again, ⁵⁸ and Tantalus says, ⁵⁹