Book 12
4.1
Bithynia is bounded on the east by the Paphlagonians and Mariandyni and some of the Epicteti; on the north by the Pontic Sea, from the outlets of the Sangarius River to the mouth of the sea at Byzantium and Chalcedon; on the west by the Propontis; and towards the south by Mysia and by Phrygia “Epictetus”, as it is called, though the same is also called “Hellespontiac” Phrygia.
4.2
In this last country, at the mouth of the Pontus, are situated Chalcedon, founded by the Megarians, and Chrysopolis, a village, and the Chalcedonian temple; and slightly above the sea the country has a spring called Azaritia, which breeds little crocodiles. Then the Chalcedonian shore is followed by the Astacene Gulf as it is called, a part of the Propontis; and it was on this gulf that Nicomedeia was founded, being named after one of the Bithynian kings, who founded it.Nicomedes I, in 264 B.C. But many kings, for example the Ptolemies, were, on account of the fame of the first, given the same name. And on the gulf itself there was also a city Astacus, founded by the Megarians and Athenians and afterwards by Doedalsus; and it was after the city Astacus that the gulf was named. It was razed to the ground by Lysimachus, and its inhabitants were transferred to Nicomedeia by the founder of the latter.
