Chap. 18.] 
ACCOUNT OF COTJKTEIES, ETC. 
305 
then come to Mount Serrium^ and Zone^, and then the 
place called Doriscus^, capable of containing ten thousand 
men, for it was in bodies of ten thousand that Xerxes here 
numbered his army. We then come to the mouth of the 
Hebrus^, the Port of Stentor, and the free town of -^nos^, 
with the tomb there of Poljdorus^, the region formerly of 
the Cicones, 
Prom Doriscus there is a winding coast as far as Macron 
Tichos'', or the "Long "Wall," a distance of 122 miles; 
round Doriscus flows the river Melas, from which the Gulf 
of Melas ^ receiyes its name. The towns are, Cypsela^, 
Bisanthe^^, and Macron Tichos, already mentioned, so called 
because a wall extends from that spot between the two 
seas, — that is to say, from the Propontis to the Gulf of 
Melas, thus excluding the Chersonesus", which projects 
beyond it. 
The other side of Thrace now begins, on the coast 
of the Euxine, where the river Ister discharges itself; and 
it is in this quarter perhaps that Thrace possesses the finest 
cities, Histropolis^^, namely, founded by the Milesians, 
^ A promontory opposite the island of Samothrace. 
^ A town on a promontory of the same name, said to have been fre- 
quented by Orpheus. 
3 The Plain of Doriscus is now called the Plain of Eomigik. Parisot 
suggests the true reading here to be 100,000, Dr, as some MSS. have 
it, 120,000, there being nothing remarkable in a plain containing 10,000 
men. PHny however does not mention it as being remarkable, but 
merely suggests that the method used by Xerxes here for numbering 
his host is worthy of attention. 
^ Now the Maritza. At its mouth it divides into two branches, the 
eastern forming the port of Stentor. ^ Still called Enos. 
^ A son of Priam and Hecuba, murdered by Polymnestor, king of the 
Thracian Chersonesus, to obtain his treasures. See the ^neid, B. iii. 
7 From the Grreek, fiaKpov reixos. ^ Now the Gulf of Enos. 
9 Now Ipsala, or Chapsylar, near Keshan. 
10 Now Eodosto, or Rodostshig, on the coast of the Propontis, or Sea 
of Mataora. 
11 Now called the Peninsula of the Dardanelles, or of GallipoH. The 
wall was built to protect it from incursions from the mainland. 
12 He here skips nearly five degrees of latitude, and at once proceeds to 
the northern parts of Thrace, at the mouth of the Danube, and moves to 
the south. 
13 Or, the " city of the Ister," at the south of Lake Halmyris, on the 
Euxine. Its site is not exactly known ; but by some it is supposed to 
have been the same with that of the modern Kostendsje. 
YOL. I. X 
