OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

9

of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast C xvn*

anchor at Gallipoli; where the sea, which se..

parates Asia from Europe , is again contractedinto a narrow channel.

The geographers who, with the most skilful ,™p 0 ^ t el 'accuracy, have surveyed the form and extent ofthe Hellespont , assign about sixty miles for thewinding course, and about three miles for theordinary breadth of those celebrated streights. pBut the narrowest part of the channel is foundto the northward of the old Turkish castles be-tween the cities of Castus and Abydus . It washere that the adventurous Leander braved thepassage of the flood for the possession of his mis-tress/ It was here likewise, in a place wherethe distance between the opposite banks cannotexceed five hundred paces, that Xerxes imposeda stupendous bridge of boats, for the purpose oftransporting into Europe an hundred and seven-ty myriads of barbarians/ A sea contracted

p See an admirable dissertation of M. d’Anville upon the Hellespont or Dardanelles , in the memoircs del’Academie des Inscriptions, tom.xxviii, p. 318-316. Yet even that ingenious geographer is too fond ofsupposing new, and perhaps imaginary measures, for the purpose of ren-dering ancient writers as accurate as himself. The stadia employed byHerodotus in the description of the Euxine, the Bosphorus , See, (1. iv,c. 85) must undoubtedly be all of the same species: but it seems im-possible to reconcile them either with truth or with each other.

q The oblique distance between Sestus and Abydus was thirtysta-dia. The improbable tale of Hero and Leander is exposed by M. Ma*liudel, but is defended on the authority of poets and medals by M. dela Nauze. See the Academic des Inscriptions, tom. vii. Hist. p. 71.Mem. p. 240.

r See the seventh book of Herodotus , who has erected an elegant tro-phy to his own fame and to that of his country. The review appears

to