[46]. See Philippians, pp. 312, 313.
[47]. See however a mutilated inscription (Boeckh Corp. Inscr. 3956) with the letters ...ηνων, found near Chonæ.
[48]. Herod. vii. 30 ἀπίκετο ἐς Κολοσσάς, πόλιν μεγάλην Φρυγίης, ἐν τῇ Λύκος ποταμὸς ἐς χάσμα γῆς ἐσβάλλων ἀφανίζεται, ἔπειτα διὰ σταδίων ὡς πέντε μάλιστά κῃ ἀναφαινόμενος ἐκδιδοῖ καὶ οὖτος ἐς τὸν Μαίανδρον.
[49]. This is the explanation of Hamilton (I. p. 509 sq.), who (with the doubtful exception of Laborde) has the merit of having first identified and described the site of Colossæ. It stands on the Tchoruk Sú (Lycus) at the point where it is joined by two other streams, the Bounar Bashi Sú and the Ak-Sú. In confirmation of his opinion, Hamilton found a tradition in the neighbourhood that the river had once been covered over at this spot (p. 522). He followed the course of the Lycus for some distance without finding any subterranean channel (p. 521 sq.).
It is difficult to say whether the following account in Strabo xii. 8 § 16 (p. 578) refers to the Lycus or not; ὄρος Κάδμος ἐξ οὓ καὶ ὁ Λύκος ῥεῖ καὶ ἄλλος ὁμώνυμος τῷ ὄρει· τὸ πλέον δ’ οὗτος ὑπὸ γῆς ῥυὲις εἶτ’ ἀνακύψας συνέπεσεν εἰς ταὐτὸ τοῖς ἄλλοις ποταμοῖς, ἐμφαίνων ἅμα καὶ τὸ πολύτρητον τῆς χώρας καὶ τὸ εὔσειστον. If the Lycus is meant, may not συνέπεσεν imply that this remarkable feature had changed before Strabo wrote?
Laborde (p. 103), who visited the place before Hamilton, though his account was apparently not published till later, fixes on the same site for Colossæ, but thinks that he has discovered the subterranean course of the Lycus, to which Herodotus refers, much higher up a stream, close to its source (‘à dix pas de cette source’), which he describes as ‘à deux lieues au nord de Colossæ.’ Yet in the same paragraph he says ‘Or il [Hérodote, exact cicerone] savait que le Lycus disparaît près de Colossæ, ville considérable de la Phrygie’ (the italics are his own). He apparently does not see the vast difference between his près de Colossæ thus widely interpreted and the precise ἐν τῇ of Herodotus himself. Obviously no great reliance can be placed on the accuracy of a writer, who treats his authorities thus. The subterranean stream which Laborde saw, and of which he gives a view (pl. xl), may possibly be the phenomenon to which Herodotus alludes; but if so, Herodotus has expressed himself very carelessly. On the whole Hamilton’s solution seems much more probable.
Arundell’s account (Seven Churches p. 98 sq., Asia Minor p. 160 sq.) is very confused, and it is not clear whether he has fixed on the right site for Colossæ; but it bears testimony to the existence of two subterranean courses of rivers, though neither of them is close enough to the city to satisfy Herodotus’ description.
[50]. Plin. N.H. xxxi. 2 § 20. This is the Ak-Sú, which has strongly petrifying qualities.
[51]. Herod. vii. 30. See p. 14, note [48].
[52]. Xen. Anab. i. 2. 6 ἐξελαύνει διὰ Φρυγίας ... εἰς Κολοσσάς, πόλιν οἰκουμένην, εὐδαίμονα καὶ μεγάλην.