[4]
But all do not give the same account of the Mariandyni and the Caucones; for Heracleia, they say, is situated in the country of the Mariandyni, and was founded by the Milesians; but nothing has been said as to who they are or whence they came, nor yet do the people appear characterized by any ethnic difference, either in dialect or otherwise, although they are similar to the Bithynians. Accordingly, it is reasonable to suppose that this tribe also was at first Thracian. Theopompus says that Mariandynus ruled over a part of Paphlagonia, which was under the rule of many potentates, and then invaded and took possession of the country of the Bebryces, but left the country which he had abandoned named after himself. This, too, has been said, that the Milesians who were first to found Heracleia forced the Mariandyni, who held the place before them, to serve as Helots, so that they sold them, but not beyond the boundaries of their country (for the two peoples came to an agreement on this), just as the Mnoan class,1 as it is called, were serfs of the Cretans and the Penestae of the Thessalians.
1 Literally, "synod."
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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