6.

The poet himself assigns the Æsepus as the boundary of the Mysians, for after having described the country above Ilium, and lying along the foot of the mountains subject to Æneas, and which he calls Dardania, he places next towards the north Lycia, which was subject to Pandarus, and where Zeleia1219 was situated; he says,

“They who inhabited Zeleia, at the very foot of Ida, Aphneii Trojans, who drink of the dark stream of Æsepus;”1220

below Zeleia, towards the sea, on this side of Æsepus, lies the plain of Adrasteia, and Tereia, Pitya, and in general the present district of Cyzicene near Priapus,1221 which he afterwards describes. He then returns again to the parts towards the east, and to those lying above, by which he shows that he considered the country as far as the Æsepus the northern and eastern boundary of the Troad. Next to the Troad are Mysia and Olympus.1222 Ancient tradition then suggests some such disposition of these nations. But the present changes have produced many differences in consequence of the continual succession of governors of the country, who confounded together people and districts, and separated others. The Phrygians and Mysians were masters of the country after the capture of Troy; afterwards the Lydians; then the Æolians and Ionians; next, the Persians and Macedonians; lastly, the Romans, under whose government most of the tribes have lost even their languages and names, in consequence of a new partition of the country having been made. It will be proper to take this into consideration when we describe its present state, at the same time showing a due regard to antiquity.