Book 12
3.11
The peninsula projects in a circular form; the shores are surrounded by a chain of rocks, and in some parts there are cavities, like rocky pits, which are called Choenicides. These are filled when the sea is high. For the above reason, the place is not easily approached; besides which, along the whole surface of rock the road is covered with sharp-pointed stones, and persons cannot walk upon it with naked feet. The lands in the higher parts and above the city have a good soil, and are adorned with fields dressed as gardens, and this is the case in a still greater degree in the suburbs. The city itself is well secured with walls, and magnificently ornamented with a gymnasium, forum, and porticos. Notwithstanding these advantages for defence, it was twice taken; first by Pharnaces, who attacked it unexpectedly; afterwards by Lucullus, who besieged it while it was harassed by an insidious tyrant within the walls. For Bacchides,The eunuch Bacchides, or Bacchus, according to others, whom Mithridates, after despairing of success, commissioned with the order for his women to die. Plutarch, Life of Lucullus. who was appointed by the king commander of the garrison, being always suspicious of treachery on the part of those within the city, had disgraced and put many to death. He thus prevented the citizens both from defending themselves with bravery, although capable of making a gallant defence, and from offering terms for a capitulation. The city was therefore captured. Lucullus took away the Sphere of Billarus,Probably a celestial globe constructed by Billarus, or on the principles of Billarus, a person otherwise unknown. Strabo mentions, b. ii. c. v. § 10, the Sphere of Crates, Cicero the Sphere of Archimedes and of Posidonius. History speaks of several of these spheres, among others of that of Ptolemy and Aratus. Leontinus, a mechanician of the sixth century, explains the manner in which this last was constructed. and the Autolycus,Lucullus, upon his entry into Sinope, put to death 8000 Cilicians whom he found there. The rest of the inhabitants, after having set fire to the town, carried with them the statue of Autolycus, the founder of Sinope, the work of Sthenis; but not having time to put it on board ship, it was left on the sea-shore. Autolycus was one of the companions of Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons. Sthenis, as well as his brother Lysistratus, was a celebrated statuary; he was a native of Olynthus and a contemporary of Alexander the Great. the workmanship of Sthenis, whom the citizens regarded as a founder, and honoured as a god; he left the other ornaments of the city untouched. There was there an oracle of Sthenis. He seems to have been one of the companions of Jason in his voyage, and to have got possession of this place. In after times the Milesians, observing the natural advantages of the city, and the weakness of the inhabitants, appropriated it as their own, and sent out colonists. It has at present a Roman colony, and a part of the city and of the territory belongs to the Romans. It is distant from HieronThe temple of Jupiter Urius near Chalcedon. 3500, from Heracleia 2000, and from Carambis 700, stadia. It has produced men distinguished among philosophers, Diogenes the Cynic, and Timotheus surnamed Patrion; among poets, Diphilus, the writer of comedy; among historians, Baton,He was also the author of a History of the Tyrants of Ephesus. Athenoeus, b. vi. c. 59, p. 395, Bohn’s Class. Library. who wrote the history of Persia.
