[9] Men distinguished for their learning, natives of Bithynia, were Xenocrates the philosopher, Dionysius the dialectician, Hipparchus, Theodosius and his sons the mathematicians, Cleophanes the rhetorician of Myrleia, and Asclepiades the physician of Prusa.1 10. To the south of the Bithynians are the Mysians about Olympus (whom some writers call Bithyni Olympeni, and others Hellespontii) and Phrygia upon the Hellespont. To the south of the Paphlagonians are the Galatians, and still further to the south of both these nations are the Greater Phrygia, and Lycaonia, extending as far as the Cilician and Pisidian Taurus. But since the parts continuous with Paphlagonia adjoin Pontus, Cappadocia, and the nations which we have just described, it may be proper first to give an account of the parts in the neighbourhood of these nations, and then proceed to a description of the places next in order.
1 Xenocrates, one of the most distinguished disciples of Plato, was of Chalcedon. Dionysius the dialectician is probably the same as Dionysius of Heracleia, who abandoned the Stoics to join the sect of Epicurus. Hipparchus, the first and greatest of Greek astronomers, (B. C. 160–145,) was of Nicæa. So also was Diophanes, quoted by Varro and Columella, as the abbreviator of the twenty books on Agriculture by Mago, in the Punic language. Suidas speaks of Theodosius, a distinguished mathematician, who, according to Vossius, may be here meant. A treatise of his ‘on Spherics’ still exists, and was printed in Paris in 1558. Of Cleophanes of Myrleia little is known. Strabo mentions also a grammarian, Asclepiades of Myrleia, in b. iii. c. iv. § 19. To these great names may be added as of Bithynian origin, but subsequent to the time of Strabo, Dion Chrysostom, one of the most eminent among Greek rhetoricians and sophists; he was born at Nicomedia, and died about A. D. 117. Arrian, the author of ‘India,’ and the ‘Anabasis’ (the Asiatic expedition) ‘of Alexander,’ was also born at Nicomedia towards the end of A. 1. 100.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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