Chapter VI · SOME REMARKS ON THE COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY OF THE WESTERN AND NORTHERN PARTS OF ASIA MINOR. (continued 2)
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Although the route along this coast, in the Peutinger Table, is unworthy of much notice, and conveys very little information, it is right to point out the obvious correction of one remarkable error which it contains. The author, misled by the similarity of the name of Amastris (written Mastrum in the Table) with that of Amasia, has substituted the coast-road from Amastris to Sinope for that leading from Amasia to Sinope. Of this the names along the latter route in the Table, although disfigured, leave no doubt.—Cromen, Cythero, Egilan, Carambas, Stefano, Syrtas, are obviously intended for Cromna, Cytorum, Ægiali, Carambis, Stephane, Syrias; and the sum of the distances, 149 M. P., is tolerably correct. It is probable, therefore, that the two roads should change places in the Table; although it must be confessed that no proof of this inference is to be found in the road of the Table from Mastrum to Sinope; for the sum of the distances of the three places on that route is not above half the real road-distance, and I can find no traces of their names (Tycæ, Cereæ, and Miletus) in any other ancient author.
Another and a more important defect in the routes of the Table through Paphlagonia, is the omission of the name of the place which by its two towers is shown to have been the most remarkable on the road leading from Nicomedia to Gangra, with a branch to Amasia. As this route of the Table lies between the coast road and that leading from Nicæa to Amasia by Juliopolis, Ancyra, and Tavium, it seems evidently to have been the same as the modern road from Nicomedia to Amasia by Boli; for the structure of the country, and the direction of its mountains, passes, valleys, and rivers, must naturally have led the main ancient road in the same direction as the modern. The position in the Table of the place with two towers without a name, relatively to the two ends of the route, shows that it stood on or about the site now occupied by Boli. Now Boli is evidently an abbreviation of some name ending in Polis, which in process of time was vulgarly used in that form, like ἡ πόλις for Constantinople. In Honorias, which under Constantine formed a district separate from Paphlagonia proper, lying between it and Bithynia, there were three places with the termination of polis—Claudiopolis, or Bithynium; Flaviopolis, or Cratia; and Hadrianopolis[496]. The other towns of Honorias were Tium, Heraclia Pontica, and Prusias on the Hypius; so that the district seems to have chiefly comprehended the country lying between the Sangarius and the Billæus. Bithynium or Claudiopolis was on the Sangarius[497]; and having been originally a colony from Greece[498], was probably not far from the mouth of that river, Greek colonies having generally settled in maritime situations, as we see instanced in several cities on this coast. Flaviopolis was twenty or thirty miles from Claudiopolis, on the road leading from that place to Ancyra[499]; consequently to the westward of Boli. Boli, therefore, seems to have been the ancient Hadrianopolis. It is singular that among the numerous inscriptions which so many travellers agree in having observed near Boli, not one should yet have been copied, containing the name of the ancient city.
The other places on this road in the Table have been inserted in the Map, in the situations which I have thought the most probable, trusting less to the distances in the Table, (which are probably not more correct in detail than they are in the general result,) than to the situation of the valleys and fertile districts. Potamia, a place which Strabo has noticed as being in this part of the country[500], seems to have stood in the valley of Beinder, where the branches of the Parthenius first unite into a considerable stream.
On another route in the Table, which crosses the preceding nearly at right angles, the only place named between Gangra and Sinope is Pompeiopolis. This place seems to have occupied the site of Tash Kiupri, as well from the position of that modern town, as from the considerable remains of antiquity found there, and which are apparently of the date when Pompeiopolis may be supposed to have flourished.
Of Germanicopolis, or Germanopolis, we know only that it was one of the principal places of the interior of Paphlagonia, and that it continued to be so in the sixth century[501]. It has probably left some remains similar to those of Pompeiopolis, though they have not yet been discovered by modern travellers. D’Anville supposed Germanicopolis to have occupied the site of Kastamúni; but the words in the Novellæ of Justinian seem to place it near Gangra[502].—Kastamúni is the modern corruption of Castamon, which we find mentioned in the Byzantine history[503], and which may have been a more ancient name, although it is not found in Ptolemy, nor in any authority earlier than the 12th century.
The subordinate districts of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia Pontica; namely, Timonitis, Bogdomanis, Zygiani, Marmolitis, Blaene, Domanitis, Cimiatene, Gazelonitis, Saramene, Phamezonitis, Diacopene, Babamonitis,—have been inserted in the map, from the information, as well as it could be understood, of Strabo and Ptolemy; and some of the Turkish names from the still obscurer description of Abubekr Ben Behrem.
It is much to be regretted that no modern traveller has visited Tshorúm, which there is the strongest reason to believe occupies the site of Tavium, the chief fortress of the Trocmi, and a very important point in the ancient itineraries.
Upon comparing the road from Tavium to Cæsareia (Mazaca) in the Table with that in the Antonine itinerary, we find that none of the names agree—that the distance in the Table is nearly double that in the Antonine—and that both of them give an incorrect rate to the Roman mile. It might be supposed, in explanation of this difficulty, that there were two roads from Tavium to Cæsareia; but I am inclined to think there is some error here in the Antonine, as it places Soanda on this road, which we have good authority for believing to have been in a very different situation, namely, on the great western road from Cæsareia, between that city and Garsabora[504].