Chap. 4.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 9 



cephali, 78 the town of Cerasus, 79 the port of Chordule, the 

 nations called the Bechires 80 and the Buzeri, the river Mclas, 81 

 the people called the Macrones, and Sidene with its river 

 Sidenus, 82 by which the town of Polemonium 83 is washed, at a 

 distance from Araisus of one hundred and twenty miles. We 

 next come to the rivers lasonius 84 and Melanthius, 85 and, at a 

 distance of eighty miles from Amisus, the town of Pharnacea, 86 

 the fortress and river of Tripolis ; 87 the fortress and river of 

 Philocalia, the fortress of Liviopolis, but not upon a river, and, 

 at a distance of one hundred miles from Pharnacea, the free 

 city of Trapezus, 88 shut in by a mountain of vast size. Be- 

 yond this town is the nation of the Armenochalybes 89 and tho 



may have heen the ancestors of the Mongol tribes who still dwell in tents 

 similar to those mentioned by Mela as used by the Mossyui. 



78 Or the " long-headed people." 



" 9 Its site is not improbably that of the modern Kheresoun, on the coast 

 of Asia Minor, and west of Trebizond. Lucullus is said to have brought 

 thence the first cherry-trees planted in Europe. 



80 It has been remarked, that Pliny's enumeration of names often rather 

 confuses than helps, and that it is difficult to say where lie intends to placo 

 the Bechires. We may perhaps infer from Mela that they were west of 

 Trapezus and east of the Thermodon. 



81 Now the Kara Su, or Black River, still retaining its ancient appel- 

 lation. It rises in Cappadocia, in the chain of Mount Argaeus. 



82 Still called by the same name, according to Parisot, though some- 

 times it is called the river of Vatisa. More recent authorities, however, 

 call it Poleman Chai. 



b3 On the coast of Pontus, built by king Polemon, perhaps the Second, 

 on the site of the older city of Side, at the mouth of the Sidenus. 



84 Probably near the promontory of Jasonium, 130 stadia to the north- 

 east of Polemonium. It was believed to have received its name from 

 Jason the Argonaut having landed there. It still bears the name of 

 Jasoon, though more commonly called Bona or Vona. 



85 Sixty stadia, according to Arrian, from the town of Cotyora. 



86 Supposed to have stood on almost the same site as the modern Khe- 

 resoun or Kerasunda. It was built near, or, as some think, on the site of 

 Cerasus. 



87 Still known by the name of Tireboli, on a river of the same name, the 

 Tireboli Sn. 



** Now called Tarabosan, Trabezun, or Trebizond. This place was 

 originally a colony of Sinope, after the loss of whose independence Tra- 

 pezus belonged, first to Lesser Armenia, and afterwards to the kingdom of 

 Pontus. In the middle ages it was the seat of the so-called empire of 

 Trebizond. It is now the second commercial port of the Black Sea, rank- 

 ing next after Odessa. 



89 The " Chalybes of Armenia." See p. 21. 



