Geography

​Thus, from the promontory which makes the strait five stadia wide to the harbor called ‘Under the Fig-tree’ (Syce) is thirty-five stadia, and from there to the Horn of the Byzantines is five. The Horn is a gulf adjacent to the wall of Byzantium, extending about sixty stadia towards the west, resembling a stag’s horn; for it is split into very many inlets like branches, into which the pelamyd (young tunny) rushes and is easily caught, both because of its great numbers and the force of the current that drives it in, and the narrowness of the inlets, so that it can even be caught with the hands. Now, this creature is spawned in the marshes of Maeotis, and when it has gained a little strength it rushes out through the mouth in shoals and is carried along the Asian shore as far as Trapezus and Pharnacia. And here the fishing first begins, though it is not abundant, for the fish has not yet attained its proper size. But as it goes on towards Sinope, it becomes more mature both for catching and for salting. And when it has already reached the Cyaneae and passed them, a certain white rock projecting from the Chalcedonian shore frightens the creature, so that it immediately turns to the opposite shore; then the current of that place takes it, and at the same time, since the topography is naturally suited for directing the current of the sea there towards Byzantium and the Horn adjacent to it, the fish is naturally driven here and provides a considerable revenue both to the Byzantines and to the Roman people. The Chalcedonians, on the other hand, though established near by on the opposite shore, do not share in this abundance, because the pelamyd does not approach their harbors; wherefore they say that Apollo, when the founders of Byzantium consulted his oracle later, after the founding of Chalcedon by the Megarians, commanded them to make their settlement ‘opposite the blind,’ calling the Chalcedonians ‘blind,’ because although they sailed to these places earlier, they passed over the opposite shore which possessed such great wealth, and chose the poorer one. Now we have advanced as far as Byzantium, since this illustrious city, situated very close to the mouth, showed that our coastal voyage from the Ister came to an end at a more familiar limit. Above Byzantium lies the territory of the Astae, in which is the city of Calybe, where Philip, the son of Amyntas, settled the most wicked of his subjects.