[350] This range is described by Strabo as opposite to Kyzikus, on the mainland. Kaltwasser states that Strabo called the Adrasteia of Plutarch by the name Dindymus; but this is a mistake, in which he is not singular. Dindymus was a solitary hill, and on the peninsula near the town of Kyzikus.
[351] This is a small lake near the coast of the Propontis, at the back of which and more inland are two larger lakes, called respectively by ancient geographers, Miletopolitis (now Moniyas) and Apollonias (now Abullionte). The lake Daskylitis is not marked in the map which accompanies Hamilton's work.
[352] Persephassa, or Persephone, whom the Romans call Proserpina, was the patron goddess of Kyzikus. Compare Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 75).
[353] What he was I don't know. Kaltwasser translates the word (γραμματιστῇ) "the public schoolmaster;" but he is inclined to take Reiske's conjecture γραμματεῖ because the grammateus was an important functionary in the Greek towns, and a "public schoolmaster" is not mentioned as an ordinary personage at this period. But Kaltwasser has not observed that γραμματιστής signifies a clerk or secretary in various passages (Herodotus, iii. 123, 128; vii. 100). If γραμματιστής could only signify a schoolmaster, it would be necessary to alter the reading. One cannot suppose that the goddess would reveal herself to a schoolmaster; or that a schoolmaster could venture to announce that he had received the honour of such a communication. When Romulus after his sudden disappearance again appeared to assure the anxious citizens, Julius Proculus was selected by him as the person to whom he showed himself; or Julius Proculus was one of the few who could claim to have the story of such an appearance believed. (Liv. i. 16.)
[354] I have kept the Greek word (στήλη), for no English word exactly expresses the thing. It was a stone placed upright, with an inscription on a flat surface, the summit of which sometimes ended with an ornamental finish. There are several in the British Museum.
[355] This river enters Lake Apollonias on the south side of the lake, and issues from the north side of the lake, whence it flows in a general north direction into the Propontis. Apollonia, now commonly called Abullionte, though the Greeks still call it by its ancient name, is situated on a small island which is on the east side of Lake Apollonias and is now connected with the mainland by a wooden bridge. If the battle was fought on the river, the women must have gone a considerable distance for their plunder. (Hamilton, Researches, &c. ii. 88, &c.)
[356] Kaltwasser remarks that Livius (37, c. 40) mentions camels as being in the army of Antiochus. The passage of Sallustius must have been in his Roman History.
[357] This river is to the west of Kyzikus and enters the Propontis by a general north course. On the banks of this river Alexander won his first victory in his Persian Campaign. (Arrian, Anab. i. 14.) Appian, in his account of the defeat of the army of Mithridates (Mithridat. War, c. 76) places it on the Æsepus, a river which lies between Kyzikus and the Granikus, and also flows into the Propontis. He also adds that the Æsepus was then at its greatest flood, which contributed to the loss of Mithridutes. But it appears from Appian that the remnant of the army of Mithridates crossed the Granikus also, for they reached Lampsakus.
[358] The Troad is a district, but Plutarch expresses himself as if he meant a town. It appears that Lucullus was near Ilium. The Achæan harbour, or harbour of the Achæans, is near the promontory Sigeium.
[359] Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 77) simply says that Lucullus ordered Varius (the Marius of Plutarch) to be put to death.