Ancient History from the Monuments: Greek Cities and Islands of Asia Minor

Before we proceed to give a somewhat detailed account of the more important cities of Asia Minor, and of the islands adjacent to its west and southern shores, we may mention that Asia Minor, as it lies on the map, exhibits, in its contour, a remarkable resemblance to Spain. Extending between N. Lat. 36° and 42°, and E. Long. 26° and 40°, it is about the same size as France, and somewhat less than Spain and Portugal taken together. Its interior consists of a central plateau, rarely lower than 3,000 ft. above the sea, often much more; many portions of it, however, especially to the N. and E., affording excellent pasturage for sheep, and, therefore, now, as for centuries, the natural home of the Turkomán shepherds.

At the S.W. end of Asia Minor terminates, also, the great central mountain-range of Asia itself, which, running from the Brahmaputra westwards, connects the Himálayas and the Caucasus.

Many of the streams flowing from these mountains are heavily charged with lime; hence the remarkable deposits of travertine, &c., to be seen at Hierapolis and elsewhere. Indeed, to the geological features of the country we owe the fact that the military and commercial routes through Asia Minor have been always nearly the same, the earliest and the latest conquerors having followed the same roads.

The present produce of Asia Minor is almost insignificant when considered with reference to its geographical area, and to the great wealth extracted from it by the Romans (Cic. pro Leg. Manil. 2). But every land, alike, decays under the oppressive and unintelligent rule of the Osmanlis of Constantinople. The name, Asia Minor, we may add, is comparatively modern, and is not met with earlier than Orosius, in the fifth century A.D., while that of Anatolia (Ἀνατολἠ) is used first by Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, in the tenth century A.D.

The chief provinces of Asia Minor (omitting the smaller subdivisions of Ionia, Æolis, and Troas, included, as these latter are usually, under Mysia and Lydia) are the following:—Mysia, Lydia, Caria, to the W., and fronting the Ægean Sea; Lycia, Pamphylia, and Cilicia, opposite to Crete and Cyprus; Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus, on the Black Sea; and, in the centre, Pisidia and Lycaonia, Phrygia, Galatia and Cappadocia.

We propose to notice the more important towns, according to the order of the provinces just recited; and, following this order, we take first Mysia and its chief town, Cyzicus (the Esquize of mediæval times), which was situated on the neck of a peninsula running out into the Sea of Marmora. Mr. Hamilton describes its position as “a sandy isthmus, having near its southern end many large blocks of stone,” not, improbably, the remains of Strabo’s “bridge.” Many ancient monuments may still be traced among its present cherry-orchards, attesting its original magnitude and magnificence, most of the relics now visible being Roman, and its destruction having, no doubt, been mainly due to the great earthquakes in the reign of Tiberius and Aurelius, which ruined and depopulated so many other of the fairest towns of Asia Minor.