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Dascylium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. A. R. Munro
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Extract

The identification of the lakes of the Cyzicene and the determination of the site of Dascylium, the seat of the Hellespontine satraps, are problems which have worried every scholar who has had to deal with the history or geography of the district. They are inseparable, because not only the names themselves, but also the statements of our ancient authorities, prove that Dascylium involves the neighbourhood of a Dascylite lake, and the Dascylite lake the neighbourhood of a Dascylium. Investigators have generally adopted one of two theories. Those who, like Dr. Richard Kiepert, have started from a place Dascylium, have fixed it at Daskeli or Diaskeli (Yaskil, Eskil Liman), a roadstead and village on the coast midway between Mudania and the Rhyndacus, and have conjured up a vanished lake in the valley of the Ulfer or Nilufer a few miles to the south. Since the publication of Heinrich Kiepert's large map this view has become an accepted tradition, and still holds the field. Those on the other hand who have started from a lake have usually found it in Lake Manyas, 10 or 12 miles south of Panderma, and have cast about for a site for Dascylium in its vicinity. Mr. F. W. Hasluck discusses the problems in his scholarly book on Cyzicus and the country adjacent to it, and regards this latter solution as the more probable of the two, but hazards a conjecture that Dascylium is perhaps to be sought farther eastward near Brussa. Some new evidence which has lately accrued from the recently published Hellenica Oxyrhynchia and from archaeological discoveries justifies a fresh examination of the questions.

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Type
Research Article
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The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 32 , November 1912, pp. 57 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1912

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References

1 Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, xvii. 3 (Oxford text). Strabo, 575. Cf. Steph. Byz. s.v. Δασκύλιον.

2 Klio, v. 1905, p. 241.

3 It is adopted without question, e.g. by Dugas, M. Ch. (B.C.H. xxxiv. 1910, p. 87Google Scholar) and by Dr.Sölch, J. (Klio, xi. 1911, p. 331Google Scholar).

4 Pp. 45–7 and 55–8.

5 Quoted by Dr. Kiepert, l.c. Rege's report was written in Russian.

6 Petermann's, Mittheil. 1892, p. 224Google Scholar.

7 Cp. Hasluck, , Cyzicus, p. 44Google Scholar: ‘The Nilufer Chai…is comparatively unimportant…and its valley has never served as a highway for more then its own villages.

8 Lucull. 9.

9 As Dr. Sölch seems inclined to do (l.c.).

10 Mr. Hasluck (pp. 42–3) gives reasons for identifying the Kara Dere with a river Enbeilus or Empelus known from inscriptions and from Anna Comnena. But the identification does not preclude us from equating it with the Odryses of Hecataeus, for most of the rivers in the district changed their names.

Strictly, according to Strabo's and the modern nomenclature, the Rhyndacus receives the Macestus and the Macestus receives the Kara Dere. But the junctions are only a couple of miles apart, and perhaps Hecataeus would have said that the Odryses receives the Macestus.

11 J.H.S. xxiv. p. 21. Cf. xxvi. p. 29.

12 Cyzicus, p. 46, note 3.

13 I was gradually educated to this conclusion (J.R.G.S. 1897, pp. 155, 157; J.H.S. xvii. p. 272; xxi. p. 237) without knowing that it was to be found in Sestini's Letters published in 1785 (quoted by Hasluck p. 74). It has been accepted by Wiegand, (Ath. Mitth. xxix. p. 303Google Scholar) and by Hasluck.

14 There is no evideuce that the Miletopolitid extended west of the Macestus. Ramsay's, emendation (Hist. Geogr. p. 156Google Scholar) of Cedrenus' (I. 437 B.) cannot be upheld, v. Hasluck, pp. 92, 133 (after Tomaschek).

15 Haussoullier, , Rev. philol. xxv. p. 9Google Scholar; Dittenberger, , O.G.I.S. 225Google Scholar; Wiegand, l.c. pp. 275–8; Hasluck, p. 127.

16 B.C.H. xxxiv, p. 87.

17 According to Xenophon, (Hell. IV. i. 3Google Scholar)the Paphlagonian king left these reinforcements with Agesilaus when he took his leave, according to the new historian (xvii. 2) he sent them after him. The sequel favours the latter.

18 The Dascylite satrapy was older than the Delian confederacy, v. Hdt. vi. 33, Thuc. i. 129.

19 So cod. Paris. B. The var. lcct. περιέρρει would also be appropriate in a wider sense.

20 Ath. Mitth. xxix. p. 286.