Geography

​The city Elaeus is spoken of in the masculine gender; and perhaps Trapezus is also. Epit.

​In this coastal voyage after Elaeus is first the entrance into the Propontis through the straits, which they say is the beginning of the Hellespont; here is Cape Cynossema, though some say it is Hecabe’s, for indeed her tomb is shown to one who has doubled the cape. Then come Madytus and Cape Sestias, opposite which was the bridge of Xerxes, and after these Sestos. From Elaeus to the bridge is one hundred and seventy stadia; and after Sestos to Aegospotami is two hundred and eighty stadia, a ruined small town, where they say the stone fell during the Persian War; then Callipolis, from which the crossing into Asia to Lampsacus is forty stadia; then the ruined small town Crithote; then Pactye; then the Long Wall, Leuce Acte, the Sacred Mountain, and Perinthus, a colony of the Samians; then Selybria. Above them lies Silta, and the Sacred Mountain is worshiped by the natives and is like an acropolis of the country. It discharges asphalt into the sea at the place where Proconnesus is nearest to the land at a distance of one hundred and twenty stadia, which island has a large and excellent quarry of white marble. After Selybria are the rivers Athyras and Bathynias; then Byzantium and the succeeding parts as far as the Cyanean Rocks. E.

​From Perinthus to Byzantium is six hundred and thirty stadia; and from the Hebrus and Cypsela through Byzantium as far as the Cyanean Rocks is three thousand one hundred stadia, as Artemidorus says; but the entire length from the Ionian Gulf near Apollonia to Byzantium is seven thousand three hundred and twenty stadia; and Polybius adds another one hundred and eighty, adding a third of a stadium to the eight stadia of a mile. Demetrius of Scepsis, in his work On the Trojan Array, says that the distance from Perinthus to Byzantium is six hundred stadia, and an equal distance to Parium. And he shows that the Propontis is one thousand four hundred stadia in length, and five hundred in width. And he says that the narrowest part of the Hellespont is seven stadia, and its length is four hundred. E.

​The Hellespont is not agreed upon by everyone as being the same, but rather several opinions are expressed about it. For some call the entire Propontis the Hellespont, while others call that part of the Propontis which is within Perinthus; and others include also a part of the outer sea that opens towards the Aegean Sea and the Melas Gulf, and among these, each cuts off a different portion: some the part from Sigeum to Lampsacus and Cyzicus or Parium or Priapus, while another includes also the part from Sigrium in Lesbos. And some do not hesitate to call the whole sea as far as the Myrtoan Sea the Hellespont, if indeed, as Pindar says in his hymns, those sailing with Heracles from Troy through the maiden Helle’s strait, when they reached the Myrtoan Sea, ran back to Cos because a west wind blew against them. In this way, they also claim that the entire Aegean Sea as far as the Thermaic Gulf and the sea along Thessaly and Macedonia should be called the Hellespont, calling Homer too as a witness. For he says: “Thou shalt see, if thou wilt and if it be a care to thee, my ships sailing early in the morning over the fish-frequented Hellespont.” But such an opinion is refuted by those verses: “the hero, son of Imbrasus, who had come from Aenus;” and he led the Thracians, “as many as the strong-flowing Hellespont shuts within;” for he would thus show those next to these to be situated outside of the Hellespont as well. For Aenus lies in what was formerly called Apsynthis, but now Corpilice, and the land of the Cicones lies next to it towards the west. E.

​Tetrachoritae, the Bessi, as Strabo says in the seventh book. These are also called Tetracomi. Stephanus, under Tetrachoritae.

​For he says in the seventh book that he knew Posidonius, the philosopher of the Porch, who associated with Scipio, the captor of Carthage. Athenaeus 14 p. 657 f.