small city of Crete which the coast-describer (Geogr. | p. 55; Sestini, p. 108; Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 35, 36; Graec. Minor, ed. Gail, vol. ii. p. 495) places at some distance from the sea, midway between Hierapytna and Leben, the most eastern of the two parts of Gortyna. The Blenna of the Peutinger Table, which is placed at 30 M. P. from Arcadia, and 20 M. P. from Hierapytna, is no doubt the same as Biennus. In Hierocles, the name of this city occurs under the form of Bienna. The contest of Otus and Ephialtes with Ares is said to have taken place near this city. (Homer, Il. v. 315; Steph. B. 8. v.) From this violent conflict the city is said to have derived its name. Mr. Pashley, in opposition to Dr Cramer, who supposes that certain ruins said to be found at a considerable distance to the E. of Haghii Saranta may represent Biennus, fixes the site at Vianos, which agrees very well with the indications of the coast-describer. (Pashley, Travels, vol. i. p. 267.) [E. B. J.] BIESSI (Bleσσo, Ptol. iii. 5. § 20), a people of Sarmatia Europaea, on the N. slope of M. Carpates, W. of the Tagri, probably in the district about the city of Biecz in Galatia. (Forbiger, vol. iii. p. 1122.) [P. S.] BIGERRA (Blyeßßa), a city of the Bastetani, in the E. of Hispania Baetica. (Liv. xxiv. 41; Ptol. ii. 6. § 61.) Ukert identifies it with Becerra, N. of Cazorla (Geogr. vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 410.) [P.S.] BIGERRIONES, a people of Aquitania, who, among others, surrendered to Crassus, the legatus of Caesar, in B. C. 56. (B. G. iii. 27.) Pliny (iv. 19) calls them Begerri. The name still exists in Bigorre, a part of the old division of Gascogne. It contains part of the high Pyrenees. The capital was Turba, first mentioned in the Notitia, which was afterwards called Tarria, Tarba, and finally Tarbes. The territory of the Bigerriones also contained Aquensis Vicus, now Bagnères. [G. L.] Rasche, 8. v.) The site of Bilbilis is at Bambola, near the Moorish city of Calatayud (Job's Castle), which is built in great part out of its ruins (Rader, ad Martial. p. 124; Ukert, vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 460, 461; Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 529). [P.S.] BILBILIS, the river, mentioned very vaguely by Justin (xi. iv. 3), is probably the SALO. [P.S.] BILLAEUS (BAλaîos), a river of Bithynia, which is the modern Filyás. [BITHYNIA.] Near the mouth of the river was the Greek town of Tios. The Billaeus is certainly a considerable stream, but the whole course does not appear to be accurately known at present. It is mentioned by Apollonius (ii. 792), and in the Periplus of Marcianus (pp. 70, 71), and by Arrian (Peripl. p. 14). In his list of Bithynian rivers, Pliny's text (v. 32) has Lilaeus, which may be intended for Billaeus. [G. L.] BINGIUM (Bingen), a Roman station on the Rhine, at the junction of the Nava (Nake) and the Rhine. It is mentioned by Tacitus in his history of the war of Civilis. (Hist. iv. 70.) Julian repaired the fortifications of Bingium while he was in Gallia. (Amm. Marc. xviii. 2.) The Antonine Itin. mentions Vincum on a road from Confluentes (Coblenz) to Treviri (Trier) and Divodurum (Metz), and as it makes the distance xxvi Gallic leagues from Confluentes to Vincum, we must suppose that Vincum is Bingium; for the Table makes viii from Confluentes to Bontobrice, ix from Bontobrice to Vosavia, and ix from Vosavia to Bingium, the sum total of which is xxvi. The Itinerary and the Table both agree in the number xii between Bingen and | Moguntiacum, or Mainz. [G. L.] BIRTHA. 1. (Bipla, Ptol. v. 18; Virta, Amm. Marc. xx. 7. § 17: Tekrit), an ancient fortress on the Tigris to the S. of Mesopotamia, which was said to have been built by Alexander the Great. It would seem, from the description of Ammianus (L. e.), to have resembled a modern fortification, flanked by bastions, and with its approaches defended by outworks. Sapor here closed his campaign in A. D. 360, and was compelled to retire with considerable loss. D'Anville (Geog. Anc. vol. ii. p. 416) identifies this place with Tekrit, in which Gibbon (vol. iii. p. 205) agrees with him. St. Martin (note on Le Beau, vol. ii. p. 345) doubts whether it lay so much to the S. The word Birtha in Syriac means a castle or fortress, and might be applied to many places. From the known position of Dura, it has been inferred that the remarkable passage of the Tigris by Jovian in A. D. 363 took place near Tekrit. (Amm. Marc. xxv. 6. § 12; Zosim. iii. 26.) To BILBILIS (BIA¤iλis, Strab. iii. p. 162; Bix6is, Ptol. ii. 6. § 58; Belbili, Geogr. Rav. iv. 43), the second city of the Celtiberi in Hispania Tarraconensis, next in importance to Segobriga, but chiefly celebrated as the birthplace of the poet Martial, who frequently mentions it with a mixture of affection for it as his native home, and of pride in the honour he had conferred on it, but not too without some apology for the rude sound of the Celtiberian names in the ears of his friends at Rome. (iv. 55, x. 103, 104, xii. 18.) The city stood in a barren and rugged country, on a rocky height, the base of which was washed by the river SALO, a stream celebrated for its power of tempering steel; and hence Bilbilis was renowned for its manufacture of arms, although, according to Pliny, it had to import iron from a dis-wards the end of the 14th century, this impregnable tance. It also produced gold. (Mart. i. 49. 3, 12, reading, in the former line, aquis for equis; iv. 55. 11-15, x. 20. 1, 103. 1, 2, foll. 104. 6, xii. 18.9; Plin. xxxiv. 14. s. 41; Justin. xliv. 3, where the river Bilbilis seems to mean the Salo.) It stood on the high road from Augusta Emerita to Caesaraugusta, 24 M.P. NE. of the baths named from it [AQUAE BILBITANAE], and 21 M. P. SW. of Nertobriga (Itin. Ant. pp. 437, 439). Under the Roman empire it was a municipium, with the surname of Augusta (Martial. x. 103. 1.) The neighbourhood of Bilbilis was for some time the scene of the war between Sertorius and Metellus (Strab. iii. p. 162.) Several of its coins exist, all under the emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, with the epigraphs BILBILI, BILBILIS, and MUN. AUGUSTA. BILBILIS. (Florez, Med. vol. i. pp. 169, 184; Mionnet, vol. i. p. 30, Suppl. vol. i. fortress was stormed by Taïmur-Bec. The ruins of the castle are on a perpendicular cliff over the Tigris, about 200 feet high. This insulated cliff is separated from the town by a broad and deep ditch, which was no doubt filled by the Tigris. At the foot of the castle is a large gate of brick-work, which is all that remains standing; but round the summit of the cliff the walls, buttresses, and bastions are quite traceable. There are the ruins of a vaulted secret staircase, leading down from the heart of the citadel to the water's edge. (Rich, Kurdistan, vol. ii. p. 147; comp. Journ. Geog. Soc. vol. ix. p. 448; Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. pp. 26, 27; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 222.) 2. A town on the E. bank of the Euphrates, at the upper part of a reach of that river, which runs nearly N. and S., and just below a sharp bend in the stream, where it follows that course after coming | portant town in Bisaltia was the Greek city of Arfrom a long reach flowing more from the W. This gilus. [ARGILUS.] In this district there was a town has often been confounded with the Birtha of river Bisaltes (Bioaλτns), which Leake conjectures Ptolemy (v. 19; see below), but incorrectly. In to be the river which joins the Strymon a little befact, the name of Birtha occurs in no ancient writer. low the bridge of Neokhório, or Amphipolis; while Zosimus (iii. 19) mentions that Julian, in his march Tafel supposes it to be the same as the Rechius of to Maogamalcha, rested at a town called Bithra Procopius (de Aedif. iv. 3), which discharges into (Biopa), where there was a palace of such vast di- the sea the waters of the lake Bolbe. (Leake, mensions that it afforded quarters for his whole Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 228; Tafel, in Pauly's army. (Comp. Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. iii. p. Realencycl. vol. i. p.1115.) The annexed coin, which 93.) This town was no doubt the modern Bir or is one of great antiquity, bears on the obverse the Birehjik of the Turks (Albirat, Abulf. Tab. Syr. legend BIZAATIKON. p. 127). The castle of Bir rises on the left bank, so as to command the passage of the river on the opposite side. The town contains about 1700 houses, and is surrounded by a substantial wall, which, like the castle, is partly of Turkish architecture, partly of that of the middle ages. Bir is one of the most frequented of all the passages into Mesopotamia. The bed of the river at this place has been ascertained to be 6281 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. (Buckingham, Mesopotamia, vol. i. p. 49; Journ. Geog. Soc. vol. x. pp. 452, 517; Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 46; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 976.) 3. A town to the SE. of Thapsacus, which Ptolemy (v. 19) places in 73° 40′ long., 35° 0' lat. This place, the same as the Birtha of Hierocles, has been confounded by geographers with the town in the Zeugma of Commagene, which lies much further to the N. (Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 976.) [E.B.J.] BIS (Bis, Isid. Char. p. 8), a small town placed by Isidorus in a district of Aria, called by him Anabon ('Aváswv). It seems, however, more likely that it is a place at the confluence of the Arkand-Ab and the Helmend, now called Bost. Isidorus (l. c.) speaks of a place called Bïur in this district, which is probably the same as he had previously called Bís; and Pliny (vi. 23) says of the Erymanthus or Helmend, “Erymanthus praefluens Parabesten Arachosiorum," a mistake, doubtless, of his transcriber (i. e. Παρ' Αβήστην fur Παρὰ Βήστην). This is rendered more likely by our finding in the Tab. Peuting. Bestia, and in Geo. Rav. (p. 39) Bestigia. (Wilson, Ariana, p. 158.) BISALTES. [BISALTIA.] [V.] BISA'LTIA (Biσaλría), a district in Macedonia, extending from the river Strymon and the lake Cercinitis, on the E., to Crestonica on the W. (Herod. vii. 115.) It is called Bisaltica by Livy (xlv. 29). The inhabitants, called Bisaltae (Biodλrai), were a Thracian people. At the time of the invasion of Xerxes, B. c. 480, Bisaltia and Crestonica were governed by a Thracian prince, who was independent of Macedonia (Herod. viii. 116); but before the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, Bisaltia had been annexed to the Macedonian kingdom. (Thuc. ii. 99.) Some of the Bisaltae settled in the peninsula of Mt. Athos. (Thuc. iv. 109.) The most im BISANTHE (Bioáven: Eth. Biravenvós: Rodasto, or Rodostshig), a great city in Thrace, on the coast of the Propontis, which had been founded by the Samians. (Steph. B. s. v.; Herod. vii. 137; Pomp. Mela, ii. 2, 6; Ptol. iii. 11. § 6.) About B. C. 400. Bisanthe belonged to the kingdom of the Thracian prince Seuthes. (Xen. Anab. vii. 2. § 38.) At a later period its name was changed into Raedestum or Raedestus ('Paideσrov or 'PaídeoTos); but when this change took place is unknown. In the 6th century of our era, the emperor Justinian did much to restore the city, which seems to have fallen into decay (Procop. De Aedif. iv. 9); but after that time it was twice destroyed by the Bulgarians, first in A. D. 813 (Simeon Magister, Leon. Armen. 9, p. 614, ed. Bonn), and a second time in 1206. (Nicetas, Bald. Fland. 14; Georg. Acropolita, Annal. 13.) The further history of this city, which was of great importance to Byzantium, may be read in Georg. Pachymeres and Cantacuzenus. It is generally believed that the town of Resistos or Resisto, mentioned by Pliny (iv. 18), and in the Antonine Itinerary (p. 176), is the same as Bisanthe; but Pliny (l. c.) mentions Bisanthe and Resistos as distinct towns. (Eckhel, vol. ii. p. 25.) [L.S.] BISTONES (BioToves or BioTwves, Steph. B. s. v. BioTovía), a Thracian people occupying the country about Abdera and Dicaea. (Plin. iv. 18; Strab. vii. p. 331; Herod. vii. 110.) From the fabulous genealogy in Stephanus Β. about the founder of their race, it would seem that they extended westward as far as the river Nestus. The Bistones continued to exist at the time when the Romans were masters of Thrace. (Horat. Carm. ii. 19. 20; Plin. iv. 18.) It should however be observed that the Roman poets sometimes use the names of the Bistones for that of the Thracians in general. (Senec. Agam. 673; Claudian, Proserp. ii. Praef. 8.) Pliny mentions one town of the Bistones, viz. Tirida; the other towns on their coast, Dicaea, Ismaron, Parthenion, Phalesina and Maronea, were Greek colonies. The Bistones worshipped Ares (Steph. B. l. c.), Dionysus or Bacchus (Horat. 1. c.), and Minerva. (Ov. Ibis. 379.) [L. S.] BI'STONIS (Bioтovis λíμvn; Lagos Buru), a great Thracian lake in the country of the Bistones, from whom it derived its name. (Strab. i. p. 59, vii. p. 333; Ptol. iii. 11. § 7; Scymn. Chius, 673; Plin. iv. 18.) The water of the lake was brackish (whence it is called λιμνοθάλασσα), and abounded in fish. (Aristot. H. A. viii. 15.) The fourth part of its produce is said to have been granted by the emperor Arcadius to the convent of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. The river Cossinites emptied itself into the lake Bistonis (Aelian, H. A. xv. 25), which at one time overflowed the neighbouring country and swept away several Thracian towns. (Strab. i. p. 59.) [L. S.] BITAXA (Birága, Ptol. vi. 17. § 4, viii, 25. §4 Amm. Marc. xxiii. 6), a town in Aria, perhaps the same as the Bis of Isidorus (p. 8), if, indeed, there were two towns of this name, one in Aria, and the other in Arachosia. BITHRA. [BIRTHA.] [V.] BITHY'NI (BLOvvoi). [BITHYNIA.] BITHYNIA (Biluvía, Biovvís), a division of Asia Minor, which occupied the eastern part of the coast of the Propontis, the east coast of the Thracian Bosporus, and a considerable part of the coast of the Euxine. On the west it bordered on Mysia; on the south, on Phrygia and Galatia; the castern limit is less definite. The Rhyndacus is fixed by some geographers as the western boundary of Bithynia; but the following is Strabo's statement (p. 563): "Bithynia, on the east, is bounded by the Paphlagones and Mariandyni, and some of the Epicteti; on the north by the Pontic Sea from the outlets of the Sangarius to the straits at Byzantium and Chalcedon; on the west by the Propontis; and to the south by Phrygia named Epictetus, which is also called Hellespontiaca Phrygia." His description is correct as to the northern coast line; and when he says that the Propontis forms the western boundary, this also is a correct description of the coast from Chalcedon to the head of the gulf of Cius. In his description of the western coast of Bithynia, he says, that after Chalcedon we come to the gulf of Astacus; and adjoining to (and south of) the gulf of Astacus is another gulf (the gulf of Cius), which penetrates the land nearly towards the rising sun. He then mentions Apameia Myrleia as a Bithynian city, and this Apameia is about half way between the head of the gulf of Cius and the mouth of the Rhyndacus. But he says nothing of the Rhyndacus being the boundary on the west. Prusa (Brusa), he observes, "is built on Mysian Olympus, on the confines of the Phrygians and the Mysians." (p. 564.) Thus we obtain a southern boundary of Bithynia in this part, which seems to extend along the north face of Olympius to the Sangarius. Strabo adds that it is difficult to fix the limits of the Bithyni, and Mysi, and Phryges, and also of the Doliones, and of the Mygdones, and of the Troes; " and the cause is this, that the immigrants (into Bithynia), being soldiers and barbarians, did not permanently keep the country that they got, but were wanderers, for the most part, driving out and being driven out." It was a tradition, that the Bithyni were a Thracian people from the Strymon; that they were called Strymonii while they lived on that river, but changed their name to Bithyni on passing into Asia; it was said that they were driven out of Europe by the Teucri and the Mysi (Herod. vii. 75). Strabo (p. 541) observes, "that the Bithyni, being originally Mysi, had their name thus changed from the Thracians who settled among them, the Bithyni and Thyni, is agreed by most; and they give as proofs of this, with respect to the nation of the Bithyni, that even to the present day some in Thrace are called Bithyni; and with respect to the Thyni, they give as proof the acte called Thynias, which is at Apollonia and Salmydessus." Thucydides (iv. 75) speaks of Lamachus marching from the Heracleotis along the coast, through the conntry of the Bithyni Thraces, to Chalcedon. Xenophon, who had seen the coast of Bithynia, calls the shore between the mouth of the Euxine and Heraleia, "Thrace in Asia;" and he adds, that between | Heracleia and the coast of Asia, opposite to Byzantium, there is no city either friendly or Hellenic, but only Thraces Bithyni (Anab. vi. 4). Heracleia itself, he places in the country of the Mariandyni. The name Bithynia does not occur in Herodotus, Thucy. dides, or Xenophon; but Xenophon (Hell. iii. 2. §2) has the name Bithynis Thrace, and Bithynis. It appears, then, that the country occupied by the people called Bithyni cannot be extended further east than Heracleia, which is about half way between the Sangarius and the river Parthenius. The name Bithyni does not occur in Homer. When the Bithyni passed over to Asia, they displaced the Mysi and other tribes. The Bithyni were subjected, with other Asiatic peoples, by Croesus, king of Lydia; but Herodotus (i. 28) makes Thracians their generic name, and Thyni and Bithyni the names of the two divisions of them. In course of time, the name Thyni fell into disuse, and the name Bithyni prevailed over the generic name of Thracians. Pliny's statement (v. 43) is, that the Thyni occupy (tenent) the coast of Bithynia from Cius to the entrance of the Pontus, and the Bithyni occupy the interior; a statement that certainly has no value for the time when he wrote, nor probably for any other time. The Bithyni were included in the Persian empire after the destruction of the Lydian kingdom by Cyrus and the Persians; and their country, the precise limits of which at that time we cannot ascertain, formed a satrapy, or part of a satrapy. But a Bithynian dynasty sprung up in this country under Doedalsus or Dydalsus, who having, as it is expressed (Memnon, Ap. Phot. Cod. 224), "the sovereignty of the Bithyni," got possession of the Megarian colony of Astacus [ASTACUS]. The accession of Doedalsus is fixed with reasonable probability between B. C. 430 and B.C. 440. Nine kings followed Doedalsus, the last of whom, Nicomedes III., began to reign B. C. 91. Doedalsus was succeeded by Boteiras; and Bas, the son of Boteiras, defeated Calantus, the general of Alexander of Macedonia, and kept the Macedonians out of the Bithynian territory. Bas had a son, Zipoetes, who became king or chief B. C. 326, and warred successfully against Lysimachus and Antiochus the son of Seleucus. Nicomedes I., the eldest son of Zipoetes, was his successor; and his is a genuine Greek name, from which we may conclude that there had been intermarriage between these Bithynian chieftains and Greeks. This Nicomedes invited the marauding Galli to cross the Bosporus into Asia soon after his accession to power (B. c. 278), and with their aid he defeated a rival brother who held part of the Bithynian country (Liv. xxxviii. 16). Nicomedes founded the city Nicomedeia, on the gulf of Astacus, and thus fixed his power securely in the country along the eastern shore of the Propon' is. The successor of Nicomedes was Zielas, who treacherously planned the massacre of the Gallic chieftains whom his father had invited into Asia; but the Galli anticipated him, and killed the king. His son Prusias I., who became king in B. C. 228, defeated the Galli who were ravaging the Hellespontine cities, and massacred their women and children. He acquired the town of Cius, on the gulf of Cius, and also Myrleia (Strab. p. 563), by which his dominions on the west were extended nearly to, or perhaps quite, to the Rhyndacus. He also extended his dominions on the east, by taking Cierus in the territory of Heracleia, to which he gave the name Prusias, as he had done to Cius on the Propontis. He also took Tius at the mouth of the Billaeus, and thus hemmed in the Heracleotae on both sides; but he lost his life in an attempt on Heracleia. His successor (B. c. 180) was Prusias II., who was followed by Nicomedes II. (B. C. 149); and the successor of Nicomedes II. was his son Nicomedes III. (B. C. 91). This last king of Bithynia after being settled in his kingdom by the Romans in B. C. 90, was driven out by Mithridates Eupator B.C. 88 (Liv. Ep. 76), but he was restored at the peace in B. C. 84. He died childless, and left his kingdom to the Romans B. c. 74. (Appian, Mithrid. c. 71.) The history and chronology of the kings of Bithynia are given in Clinton's Fasti. Mithridates Eupator added to his dominions, or kingdom of Pontus, the sea coast of Asia Minor westward as far as Heracleia. The parts beyond Heracleia, that is, west of it to the straits, and to Chalcedon, remained to the Bithynian king; but when the kings were put down (as Strabo expresses it), the Romans preserved the same limits, so that Heracleia was attached to Pontus, and the parts on the other side belonged to the Bithyni. (Strab. p. 541.) On the death of Nicomedes III. the Romans reduced his kingdom, according to their phrase, into the form of a province (Liv. Epit. 93); and after the death of Mithridates, they added to Bithynia the western part of the Pontic kingdom, or the coast from Heracleia to Sidene, east of Themiscyra; and Cn. Pompeius divided it into eleven communities or municipalities. (Dion Cassius, Xxxviii. 10-12; Strab. p. 541.) It is proved that Amisus belonged at this time to Bithynia, from the coins of Amisus, on which the name of C. Papirius Carbo, the first known proconsul of Bithynia, occurs; and Themiscyra and Sidene belonged to the territory of Amisus. That part of the kingdom of Mithridates which Pompeius gave to the descendants of Pylaemenes, was in the interior, about mount Olgassys, a range which lies between the Billaeus and the Halys; and this part Augustus appears to have added to Bithynia in B. C. 7, together with the Pontic town of Amasia on the Iris. So large a part of Pontus being added to Bithynia, the province may be more properly called Bithynia and Pontus, a name which it had at least from A. D. 63, as we see from inscriptions (Procos. provinciae Ponti et Bithyniae), though it is sometimes simply called Bithynia. (Tacit. Ann. i. 74.) The correspondence of Pliny, when he was governor of Bithynia, shows that Sinope and Amisus were within his jurisdiction, and Amisus is east of the Halys. (Plin. Ep. x. 93, 111.) And in several passages of his letters, Pliny speaks of the "Bithynae et Ponticae civitates," or of the "Bithyni et Pontici," from which it appears that his province, which he calls Bithynia, comprehended the original Bithynia and a large part of the Mithridatic kingdom of Pontus. The governor of Bithynia was first a Propraetor, sometimes called Proconsul. (Tacit. Ann. i. 74; xvi. 18.) On the division of the provinces under Augustus, Bithynia was given to the senate; but under Trajan it belonged to the emperor, in return for which the senate had Pamphylia. Afterwards the governors were called Legati Aug. Pr. Pr.; and in place of Praetores there was Procuratores. The regulations (Lex Pompeia) of Cn. Pompeius for the administration of Bithynia, are mentioned several times by the younger Plinius (Ep. x. 84, 85, &c.). The chief town of Bithynia, properly so called, or of the part west of Heracleia, was Nicomedeia, which appears with the title of Metropolis on a coin of the time of Germanicus, though Nicaea disputed this title with it; but Nicaea is said to have got the title of Metropolis under Valentinian and Valens. The Ora Pontica had for its metropolis the city of Amastris; this Bithynia was the part which Pompeius distributed among eleven municipalities. (Strab. p. 541.) The third division, already mentioned as made in B. C. 7, had two metropoleis; Pompeiopolis for Paphlagonia; and Amasia, on the Iris, for the portion of Pontus that was joined to this Paphlagonia. The remaining part of Pontus commenced south of Amasia, about the city of Zela, and was probably bounded on the south by the mountains which form the southern side of the basin of the Iris. On the coast it extended from Side to Trapezus (Trebizond). This country was given by M. Antonius, B. C. 36, to king Polemo, and this kingdom, after passing to his widow and to his son Polemo, was made into a separate province by Nero, a. D. 63; but the administration seems to have been sometimes joined to that of Galatia. This explanation is necessary to remove the confusion and error that appear in many modern books, which make the Parthenius the eastern boundary of Bithynia. In the maps it is usual to mark Paphlagonia as if it were a separate division like Bithynia, and the limits of Bithynia are consequently narrowed a great deal too much. In fact, at one time even Byzantium belonged to the government of Bithynia (Plin. Ep. x. 57), though it was afterwards attached to Thrace. Prusa, under Trajan, was raised to the condition of an independent town. Among the towns of Bithynia and Pontus in the imperial period, Chalcedon, Amisus, and Trapezus, in Pontus, were free towns (liberae); and Apameia, Heracleia, and Sinope, were made coloniae, that is they received Roman settlers who had grants of land. (Strab. pp. 564, 542, 546.) Sinope was made a colony by the dictator Caesar, B. c. 45. Nicomedeia is not mentioned as a colonia till the third century A. D. It was not till after Hadrian's time that the Province of Bithynia was allowed to have a common religious festival; the place of assembly for this great solemnity was, at least at one time, Nicomedeia. The Romans also were very jealous about the formation of clubs and guilds of handicraftsmen in this province, for such associations, it was supposed, might have political objects. (Plin. Ep. x. 36, 96.) During the administration of the younger Pliny in Bithynia, he was much troubled about the meetings of the Christians, and asked for Trajan's advice, who in this matter was more liberally disposed than his governor. (Plin. Ep. x. 97, 98.) The southern boundary of Bithynia may be determined, in some degree, by the towns that are reckoned to belong to it. Prusa (Brusa), in the western part, is at the foot of the northern face of Olympus; and Hadriani, south of Brusa, belongs to Bithynia. East of Prusa, and a little more north, is Leucae (Lefke), on a branch of the Sangarius, and perhaps within the limits of Bithynia. diopolis, originally Bithynium, was a Bithynian town. Amasia, on the Iris, has been mentioned as ultimately included in the province of Bithynia; but to fix precisely a southern boundary seems impossible. Clau which Pliny, when he was governor of Bithynia, proposed to Trajan to unite to the gulf of Astacus by a canal (Ep. x. 50). The Ascania [ASCANIA] on which Nicaea stands is larger than lake Sabanja. Both these are mountain basins filled with water. The lake of Abullionte, through which the Rhyndacus flows, is also a mountain lake, and abounds in fish. This is the Apolloniatis of Strabo, but the basin of the Rhyndacus does not appear to have belonged to Bithynia. The part of Bithynia west of the Sangarius is the best part of the country, and contains some fertile plains. It was formerly well wooded, and there are still extensive forests, which commence in the country north of Nicomedeia ( Izmid), and extend nearly to Boli on the Sangarius. The large towns of Bithynia are west of the Sangarius. The places east of the Sangarius in the interior were of little note; and the chief towns were the Greek settlements on the coast. The interior, east of the Sangarius, was a wooded tract, and there are still many forests in this part. One great road ran along the sea from the point where the coast of the Euxine commences near the temple of Jupiter Urius, past Heraclea, Amastris, and Sinope, as far as Amisus. A road ran from Chrysopolis, which is near the junction of the Bosporus and Propontis, to Nicomedeia. But there is no road east of the Sangarius, that we can trace by the towns upon it, which did not lie far in the interior; nor do there appear at present to be any great roads in the interior in an eastern direction, except those that run a considerable distance from the coast, a fact which shows the mountainous character of the interior of Bithynia. The coast line of Bithynin from the Rhyndacus | writers of the Lower Empire; and certainly the lake to the Bosporus contained the bays of Cius and Astacus, which have been mentioned; and a narrow channel called the Thracian Bosporus separated it from Byzantium and its territory. From the mouth of the Bosporus the coast runs nearly due east to the promontory and port of Calpe, which was visited by Xenophon (Anab. vi. 4). The mouth of the Sangarius is east of Calpe; and east of the Sangarius the coast makes a large curve to the north as far as the Acherusia Chersonesus, near the town of Heracleia. The Acherusia Chersonesus is described by Xenophon (Anab. vi. 2). From Heracleia to the promontory Carambis (Kerempe) the coast has a general ENE. direction; and between these two points is the mouth of the Billaeus, and east of the Billaeus the city of Amastris on the coast. From Cape Carambis the coast line runs east to the promontory Syrias or Lepte, from which the coast turns to the south, and then again to the east, forining a bay. On the peninsula which forms the east side of this bay is the town of Sinope (Sinub). Between Sinope and the mouth of the Halys, the largest river of Asia Minor, the coast forms a curve, but the mouth of the Halys is near half a degree further south than the promontory of Lepte. From the mouth of the Halys the coast turns to the south, and then turns again to the north. A bay is thus formed, on the west side of which, 900 stadia from Sinope, and about 30 miles further south than the mouth of the Halys, is the town of Amisus (Samsun). At the extremity of a projecting tract of country which forms the east side of this bay are the outlets of the Iris, the river on which Amasia stands, and a river that has a much longer course than is given to it in the older maps. The coast of the province Bithynia extended still further east, as it has been shown; but the description of the remaining part of the coast to Trapezus may more appropriately be given under PONTUS. There is a paper in the London Geog. Journal, vol. ix., by Mr. Ainsworth, Notes of a Journey from Constantinople by Heraclea to Angora, which contains much valuable information on the physical character of Bithynia. [G. L.] BITHYNIUM (Βιθύνιον: Εth. Βιθυνιεύς, Βιθυ viárns), a city in the interior of Bithynia, lying above Tius, as Strabo (p. 565) describes it, and possessing the country around Salon, which was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for its cheese. (Plin. xi. 42; Steph. B. s. v. Zaλwreía) Bithynium was the birthplace of Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian, as Pausanius tells us (viii. 9), The principal mountain range in Bithynia is Olympus, which extends eastward from the Rhyndacus. Immediately above Brusa Olympus is covered with snow even to the end of March. It is not easy to say how far the name Olympus extended to the east; but probably the name was given to part of the range east of the Sangarius. The mountains on the north side of Asia have a general eastern direc-who adds that Bithynium is beyond, by which he tion, but they are broken by transverse valleys through which some rivers, as the Sangarius and Halys, have a general northern course to the sea. A large part of the course of the Billaeus, if our maps are correct, lies in a valley formed by parallel ranges, of which the southern range appears to be the continuation of Olympus, on the southern border of Bithynia. The Arganthonius occupies the hilly country in the west between the bays of Astacus and Cius. The Ormenium of Ptolemy is in the interior of Bithynia, south of Amastris, between the sea and the southern range of Bithynia. The Olgassys (Strab. p. 562) is one of the great interior ranges, which extends westward from the Halys, a lofty and rugged region. The country along the coast of Bithynia, east of the Sangarius, is hilly and sometimes mountainous; but these heights along the coast are inferior to the great mountain masses of the interior, the range of Olympus, and those to the east of it. Bithynia west of the Sangarius contains three considerable lakes. Between Nicomedeia and the Sangarius is the lake Sabanja, probably Sophon, a name which occurs in the Greek probably means east of, the river Sangarius; and he |