t state under the Roman empire. In the time of the
Antonines, the martial regions of Thrace, from the mountains of Haemus
and Rhodope, to the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, had assumed the form
of a province. Notwithstanding the change of masters and of religion,
the new city of Rome, founded by Constantine on the banks of the
Bosphorus, has ever since remained the capital of a great monarchy. The
kingdom of Macedonia, which, under the reign of Alexander, gave laws to
Asia, derived more solid advantages from the policy of the two Philips;
and with its dependencies of Epirus and Thessaly, extended from the
AEgean to the Ionian Sea. When we reflect on the fame of Thebes and
Argos, of Sparta and Athens, we can scarcely persuade ourselves, that so
many immortal republics of ancient Greece were lost in a single province
of the Roman empire, which, from the superior influence of the Achaean
league, was usually denominated the province of Achaia.

Such was the state of Europe under the Roman emperors. The provinces
of Asia, without excepting the transient conquests of Trajan, are all
comprehended within the limits of the Turkish power. But, instead of
following the arbitrary divisions of despotism and ignorance, it will
be safer for us, as well as more agreeable, to observe the indelible
characters of nature. The name of Asia Minor is attributed with some
propriety to the peninsula, which, confined betwixt the Euxine and the
Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe. The most
extensive and flourishing district, westward of Mount Taurus and the
River Halys, was dignified by the Romans with the exclusive title
of Asia. The jurisdiction of that province extended over the ancient
monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygia, the maritime countries of the
Pamphylians, Lycians, and Carians, and the Grecian colonies of Ionia,
which equalled in arts, though not in arms, the glory of their parent.
The kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus possessed the northern side of the
peninsula from Constantinople to Trebizond. On the opposite side, the
province of Cilicia was terminated by the mountains of Syria: the inland
country, separated from the Roman Asia by the River Halys, and from
Armenia by the Euphrates, had once formed the independent kingdom of
Cappadocia. In this place we may observe, that the northern shores of
the Euxine, beyond Trebizond in Asia, and beyond the Danube in Europe,
acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperors, an