The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3)

Epicurus himself might be said to be a Lampsacenian, having lived a long time at Lampsacus, and enjoyed the friendship of Idomeneus and Leontes, the most distinguished of its citizens.

It was from Lampsacus that Agrippa transported the Prostrate Lion, the workmanship of Lysippus, and placed it in the sacred grove between the lake[1370] and the strait.

20. Next to Lampsacus is Abydos, and the intervening places, of which the poet speaks in such a manner as to comprehend both Lampsacene and some parts of Pariane, for, in the Trojan times, the above cities were not yet in existence:

“those who inhabited Percote, Practius, Sestos, Abydos, and the famed Arisbe, were led by Asius, the son of Hyrtacus,”[1371]

who, he says,

“came from Arisbe, from the river Selleïs in a chariot drawn by large and furious coursers;”

implying by these words that Arisbe was the royal seat of Asius, whence, he says, he came,

“drawn by coursers from the river Selleïs.”

But these places are so little known, that writers do not agree among themselves about their situation, except that they are near Abydos, Lampsacus, and Parium, and that the name of the last place was changed from Percope to Percote.

21. With respect to the rivers, the poet says that the Selleïs flows near Arisbe, for Asius came from Arisbe and the river Selleïs. Practius is a river, but no city of that name, as some have thought, is to be found. This river runs between Abydos and Lampsacus; the words, therefore,

“and dwelt near Practius,”

must be understood of the river, as these expressions of the poet,

“they dwelt near the sacred waters of Cephisus,”[1372]

and

“they occupied the fertile land about the river Parthenius.”[1373]

There was also in Lesbos a city called Arisba, the territory belonging to which was possessed by the Methymnæans. There is a river Arisbus in Thrace, as we have said before, near which are situated the Cabrenii Thracians. There are many names common to Thracians and Trojans, as Scæi, a Thracian tribe, a river Scæus, a Scæan wall, and in Troy, Scæan gates. There are Thracians called Xanthii, and a river Xanthus in Troja; an Arisbus which discharges itself into the Hebrus,[1374] and an Arisbe in Troja; a river Rhesus in Troja, and Rhesus, a king of the Thracians. The poet mentions also another Asius, besides the Asius of Arisbe,

“who was the maternal uncle of the hero Hector, own brother of Hecuba, and son of Dymas who lived in Phrygia on the banks of the Sangarius.”[1375]

22. Abydos was founded by Milesians by permission of Gyges, king of Lydia; for those places and the whole of the Troad were under his sway. There is a promontory near [CAS. 591] Dardanus called Gyges. Abydos is situated upon the mouth of the Propontis and the Hellespont, and is at an equal distance from Lampsacus and Ilium, about 170 stadia. At Abydos is the Hepta Stadium, (or strait of seven stadia,) the shores of which Xerxes united by a bridge. It separates Europe from Asia. The extremity of Europe is called Cherronesus, from its figure; it forms the straits at the Zeugma (or Junction)[1376] which is opposite to Abydos.