CERAMEICUS
CERAMEICUS (
Κεραμεικὸς κόλπος), a bay in Caria (
Hdt. 1.174), now the gulf of
Boudroun, so called from a town Ceramus (
Κέραμος), which is on the gulf. Strabo (p. 656) places Ceramus and Bargasa near the sea, between Cnidus and Halicarnassus, and Ceramus comes next after Cnidus. D'Anville identifies Ceramus with a place called
Kéramo, but this place does not appear to be known. (Leake,
Asia Minor, p. 225.) Ptolemy seems to place Ceramus on the south side of the bay. Some modern maps place it on the north side; but this cannot be true, particularly if Bargasa is rightly determined. [
BARGASA] There are medals which are assigned to Ceramus by some numismatists.
Pliny mentions a Doridis Sinus. Now, as Doris is the country occupied by the Dorian colonies, this name is more appropriate to the Cerameicus, on the north side of which is Halicarnassus, and at the entrance is the island of Cos. Pliny's words are clear, though they have been generally misunderstood; for, after mentioning the bay of Schoenus and the Regio Bubassus [BUBASSUS; CARIA], he mentions Cnidus, and he says that Doris begins at Cnidus. Again, he says that Halicarnassus is between the Cerameicus and the Iasius: the Cerameicus of Pliny, then, is either different from the Sinus Doridis, or it is one of the bays included in the Sinus Doridis, and so called from the town of Ceramus. But Pliny places in the Doridis Sinus, Leucopolis, Hamaxitus, Elaeus, and Euthene; and Mela (1.16) places Euthane, as he calls it, in a bay between Cnidus and the Cerameicus Sinus: from which it clearly appears that Euthane is in the Sinus Doridis of Pliny, and that Mela's Cerameicus is a smaller bay in the Sinus Doridis. Mela's Littus Leuca is between Halicarnassus and Myndus; and if this is Pliny's Leucopolis, as we may assume, the identity of the Cerameicus and the Sinus Doridis of Pliny is clearly established.
[
G.L]
