In that he serv’d his Prince with Faithfulness,
And was the constant Guardian of his Throne:
His Prudence fill’d the Royal Treasury,
And rais’d th’ Imperial Family, yet higher.
To celebrate his Worth, for Times to come,
His Picture shines amongst our Emperors.
Beyond the Rocks called Scironides, Dionysius mentions a long Shore in a Plain of the third Valley, and the fourth Hill, which is looked upon as a remarkable Place for Fishing; for ’tis a very deep and a very still Water, which was antiently call’d Cycla, because the Greeks had formerly hemm’d in there the Barbarians. There is also in the same Place, an Altar dedicated to Minerva Dissipatoria, which was erected in Memory of that Action. Beyond Cycla is a Creek called Melias, another famous Place for Fishing, which is enclosed with several Rocks, and a Ridge of the Promontory hanging over the Sea. There is no Creek in this Valley at present. Time has filled it up, as we learn from Strabo, who writes, that this Creek was called Ceras, because it had many Inlets into the Shore in the Form of a Deer’s Horn, but there’s scarce any Appearance of them at present. Zosimus, who wrote his History in the Reign of Arcadius and Honorius, tells us, that Constantinople was then so crowded with Inhabitants, that the Emperors did not only enlarge the Walls beyond those of Constantine, but that they built upon Timber Foundations over the Sea. This Method of Building, ’tis probable, very much contributed in Time to incumber and stop up these Inlets of the Creek. At the End of the Creek called Melias, is a Place which goes by the Name of Κῆπος, because ’tis very good Garden Ground. Beyond the Garden is a Place named Aspasius; but of this I have spoken in my Treatise of the Bosporus.
The End of the Third Book.
