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[55]

On this voyage along the coast of the Chersonesus after leaving Eleus, one comes first to the entrance which leads through the narrows into the Propontis; and this entrance is called the beginning of the Hellespont. And here is the cape called the Cynos-Sema;1 though some call it Hecabe's Sema, and in fact her tomb is pointed out after one has doubled the cape. Then one comes to Madytus, and to Cape Sestias, where the pontoon bridge of Xerxes was built; and, after these, to Sestus. The distance from Eleus to the place of the pontoon-bridge is one hundred and seventy stadia. After Sestus one comes to Aegospotami, eighty2 stadia, a town which has been razed to the ground, where it is said, the stone3 fell at the time of the Persian war. Then comes Callipolis,4 from which the distance across to Lampsacus in Asia is forty stadia; then Crithote, a little town which has been razed to the ground; then Pactye; then Macron Teichos,"5 Leuce Acte,6 Hieron Oros,7 and Perinthus, founded by the Samians: then Selybria.8 Above these places lies Silta;9 and the Hieron Oros is revered by all the natives and is a sort of acropolis of the country. The Hieron Oros discharges asphalt into the sea, near the place where the Proconnesus,10 only one hundred and twenty stadia distant, is nearest to the land; and the quarry of white marble in the Proconnesus is both large and excellent. After Selybria come the Rivers Athyras and Bathynias; and then, Byzantium and the places which come in order thereafter as far as the Cyanean Rocks.

1 i.e., "Bitch's Monument"; according to one story Hecabe (Hecuba) was metamorphosed into a bitch.

2 The text reads "two hundred and eighty," but this is clearly an error of the copyist.

3 On this meteor, see Aristot. Meterologica 1.7, and Pliny Nat. Hist. 2.58

4 Now Gallipoli.

5 "Long Wall."

6 "White Strand."

7 "Sacred Mountain."

8 Also spelled "Selymbria."

9 What is now Schandu, apparently.

10 Now the Isle of Marmara.

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load focus Greek (1877)
load focus English (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., 1903)
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