15.

Apameia is a large mart of Asia, properly so called, and second in rank to Ephesus, for it is the common staple for merchandise brought from Italy and from Greece. It is built upon the mouth of the river Marsyas, which runs through the middle of it, and has its commencement above the city; being carried down to the suburb with a strong and precipitous current, it enters the Mæander,1291 which receives also another river, the Orgas, and traverses a level tract with a gentle and unruffled stream. Here the Mæander becomes a large river, and flows for some time through Phrygia; it then separates Caria and Lydia at the plain, as it is called, of the Mæander, running in a direction excessively tortuous, so that from the course of this river all windings are called Mæanders. Towards its termination it runs through the part of Caria occupied by the Ionians; the mouths by which it empties itself are between Miletus and Priene.1292 It rises in a hill called Celænæ, on which was a city of the same name. Antiochus [Pg 334]

[CAS. 578] Soter transferred the inhabitants to the present Apameia, and called the city after his mother Apama, who was the daughter of Artabazus. She was given in marriage to Seleucus Nicator. Here is laid the scene of the fable of Olympus and Marsyas, and of the contest between Marsyas and Apollo. Above is situated a lake1293 on which grows a reed, which is suited to the mouth-pieces of pipes. From this lake, it is said, spring the Marsyas and the Mæander.