Olympus, now Santa Croce, and Ida; the towns of Salamis, near Famagosta; Tamasis, Nicosia; Citium, Larnica; Paphos,45 Baffo; Amăthûs; and the mountain and grove of Idalia v. Idalium.

NOTES ON AŠIA MINOR.

Physical Geography.-The Peninsula, which first received the name of Asia Minor in the fourth century of our era, presents, in its physical conformation, a sample as it were of the whole continent of Asia; consisting, like it, of an elevated table-land in the centre, abutting to the north and south on two parallel chains of mountains. The southern chain is so uninterrupted, and so distinctly marked, that it was early designated by a general name. All the ancient geographers agree in calling it Taurus; but some of them trace it eastward from Cape Trogilium and Mount Mycăle; while Strabo, whose authority is very high in all that regards this peninsula, of which he was himself a native, makes it begin with a precipitous and lofty ridge, that runs northward from the promontory called Sacrum and Mount Climax. Thence making a sweep to the E., and taking in one part of its course the name of Antitaurus, it proceeds in that direction until, as it approaches the Euphrates, it sends off a branch called Amānus to the south-west, and skirts the course of that river, of which it alters the direction. The loftiest point of all this range is Argaus, now Mount Arghish, in Lat. 3840, which, being covered with perpetual snow a great way down from its summit, must be considerably more than 9000 feet high. The Northern chain, connected with Antitaurus, and running parallel with the Black Sea, is more broken and scattered than Taurus, and has not therefore been distinguished by a general appellation, but it may be traced westward in the successive ranges of Paryadres, Olgassis, Magaba, Dindymus, the two Olympi, and Ida. One of those ranges may be traced E. till it joins Amanus, a chain

45 Fulgentesque tenet Cycladas, et Paphon

Junctis visit oloribus.-HOR. OD. III. 28.

O Venus, regina Cnidi Paphique.-HOR. OD. 1. 30.

of mountains that runs N. E. from the Gulf of Issus; and the other range runs W. till it terminates in Mons Argaus in Lat. 38°, and nearly equidistant from the Euxine and the Mediterranean; and a notion prevailed among the ancients, that both seas could be seen from the top.

The central plateau, comprehending Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Cappadocia, is distinguished by a number of lakes without issue, most of them salt, and of rivulets that never reach the sea,-facts which attest the general levelness of the surface. That part of Phrygia called anciently Katakecauměne, (i. e. combusta), abounds in appearances of scorching and sterility, which Strabo considers as indications of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, He mentions it as a well known historical fact, that Mithridates, having directed his march upon Apamea, a flourishing city of Phrygia, found it on his arrival reduced to a heap of ruins by an earthquake; and he cautions his reader against rejecting as entirely fabulous the story of Mount Sipylus having been overturned, seeing that the town of Magnesia had, in his own time, suffered severely by the same shock which laid waste Sardes and ten neighbouring cities.* The fable of the Chimæra probably arose from an active volcano formerly existing in Lycia; and to this day a lambent flame plays continually in a cavern on the side of a mountain near the ancient Cragus.+ The mountains which inclose the central plain send off numerous branches, some to the interior, but most of them towards the surrounding seas. Hence a multitude of basins and vallies open at one end to these seas, and shut in at the other by the heights where the rivers that formed these vallies are generated. Hence also the irriguousness, fertility and picturesque beauty of the belt or fringe of land that edges the peninsula, and slopes down from the high mountains to the sea.

Historical Epochs.-The Asiatic Peninsula having never had a separate and independent political existence, it will be sufficient to note the most remarkable events and periods in its history. These

were,

* A. D. 17.-STRAB. XII. TACIT. AN. II. 47.

+ Beaufort's Caramania, p. 45. To this singular phenomenon Pliny alludes, when he says, "Flagrat in Phaselide Mons Chimæra, et quidem immortali diebus ac noctibus flamma."--NAT. HIST. II. 106.

1. The settlement of the Greek colonies on the Asiatic coast the Ægean. The chief Ionian emigration took place about a ce tury and a half after the Trojan War, and was followed by a lo period, during which the arts of civilized life were carried to high degree of improvement in that country:-a fact which is tested by the numerous and splendid architectural remains Greek inscriptions that are found in it.

2. The existence of a kingdom of Lydia, from the Ægean Sea the Halys, which terminated in the defeat of Croesus by Cyr King of Persia, b. C. 548, A. U. 206.

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3. The conquest of the peninsula by Alexander the Great, A.RA 421, b. C. 333, after it had formed a part of the Persian Empi for upwards of two centuries.

4. The Mithridatic War, waged against the Romans under Syl Lucullus, and Pompey, by the great Mithridates, the seventh ki of Pontus of that name, and which ended in the submission of A Minor to the Romans, (A. U. 689, b. C. 65.) in whose hands it mained till, in the 15th century, it was overrun by the Turks, still possess it.

Antiquities. Although Asia Minor, especially the coast of Ægean, was in ancient times the seat of many noble cities, adorn with splendid monuments of art, time and barbarism have eith entirely destroyed even the ruins, or left them in such shapeles scattered, and mutilated masses, as to convey but little inform tion. Not only are there no remains of the famous temple Ephesus, but the very site of the town is disputed. The exis ence of former civilization is attested by fragments, curious an interesting indeed, but not singly of importance enough to be ent merated in so general an outline as this. Few are more remar able than the inscription in very ancient Greek characters, and th alternate lines reading opposite ways (Bourrgopndov), found on block of marble near the Promontory Sigēum:—and the Tabule Ancyrano, six marble tablets, containing a summary of the re gestæ of Augustus, which were found in the suburbs of Ancyra.

Birth-places of distinguished Men.-Amasea, of Strabo the Geo grapher, and of Mithridates; Chios or Smyrna, of Homer; Ephe sus, of Heraclitus the Weeping Philosopher, and Apelles and Parrhasius, the Painters; Halicarnassus, of the historians Herodo tus and Dionysius; Miletus, of Thales; Pergamus, of the physician Galen; Sinōpe, of Diogenes the Cynic; Teos, of Anacreon; Lesbos, of the poets Alcæus and Sappho; Samos, of Pythagoras.