must be understood of the river, as these expressions of the poet,
“they dwelt near the sacred waters of Cephisus,”[1372]
and
“they occupied the fertile land about the river Parthenius.”[1373]
There was also in Lesbos a city called Arisba, the territory belonging to which was possessed by the Methymnæans. There is a river Arisbus in Thrace, as we have said before, near which are situated the Cabrenii Thracians. There are many names common to Thracians and Trojans, as Scæi, a Thracian tribe, a river Scæus, a Scæan wall, and in Troy, Scæan gates. There are Thracians called Xanthii, and a river Xanthus in Troja; an Arisbus which discharges itself into the Hebrus,[1374] and an Arisbe in Troja; a river Rhesus in Troja, and Rhesus, a king of the Thracians. The poet mentions also another Asius, besides the Asius of Arisbe,
“who was the maternal uncle of the hero Hector, own brother of Hecuba, and son of Dymas who lived in Phrygia on the banks of the Sangarius.”[1375]
22. Abydos was founded by Milesians by permission of Gyges, king of Lydia; for those places and the whole of the Troad were under his sway. There is a promontory near
Dardanus called Gyges. Abydos is situated upon the mouth of the Propontis and the Hellespont, and is at an equal distance from Lampsacus and Ilium, about 170 stadia. At Abydos is the Hepta Stadium, (or strait of seven stadia,) the shores of which Xerxes united by a bridge. It separates Europe from Asia. The extremity of Europe is called Cherronesus, from its figure; it forms the straits at the Zeugma (or Junction)[1376] which is opposite to Abydos.
Sestos is the finest[1377] city in the Cherronesus, and from its proximity to Abydos was placed under the command of the same governor, at a time when the same limits were not assigned to the governments and to the continents. Sestos and Abydos are distant from each other, from harbour to harbour, about 30 stadia. The Zeugma is a little beyond the cities; on the side of the Propontis, beyond Abydos, and on the opposite side, beyond Sestos. There is a place near Sestos, called Apobathra, where the raft was fastened. Sestos lies nearer the Propontis, and above the current which issues from it; whence the passage is more easy from Sestos by deviating a little towards the tower of Hero, when, letting the vessel go at liberty, the stream assists in effecting the crossing to the other side. In crossing from Abydos to the other side persons must sail out in the contrary direction, to the distance of about eight stadia towards a tower which is opposite Sestos; they must then take an oblique course, and the current will not be entirely against them.