ellespont for the purpose of extending
their power into Europe. After fifteen invasions without any
permanent conquest, in 1354 Orkhan and his son Suleiman
perceived an opportunity by which they prepared themselves
to profit--civil war was raging in the Byzantine empire,
where John Palaeologus was striving to deprive the emperor
Cantacuzenus of his throne.

The plan whereby the Ottomans secured a foothold in Europe
which soon enabled them to establish a permanent sovereignty
on the peninsula of Gallipoli was executed by Suleiman with
a military skill which gave his name a conspicuous place in
Turkish history.

On the meridional shore of the Sea of Marmora, at the entrance of the
Hellespont, is perceived the peninsula of Kapoutaghi--the ancient,
almost insular Cyzicus, a Milesian colony. At the neck of the isthmus,
where it joins the mainland, there where are seen to-day the ruins of
Aidindjik, formerly arose Cyzicus, a city celebrated in the history of
Persia and of Rome, of ancient Greece and of the Byzantine empire. This
port, one of the most commercial of the Asiatic coast, possessed, like
Rhodes, Marseilles, and Carthage, two military arsenals and an immense
granary, each placed under the special superintendence of an architect.
The annals of this town have been enriched by the passage of the
Argonauts and of the Goths, by the siege of Mithridates and by the
assistance received from the Romans under the leadership of Lucullus.

Granted its freedom by the latter as a reward for its fidelity, Cyzicus
was shortly afterward deprived of its privileges for having neglected
the service of the temple of Augustus. Under the Byzantines it became
the capital of the province of Hellespont and the metropolitan see of
Mysia and of all the territory of Troy. On Mount Dyndimos, at the gates
of Cyzicus, arose the temple of the great mother, the goddess Ida, whose
worship had been established by the Argonauts, and who was venerated at
Cyzicus as at Pessinunte, in the form of an aerolite, a sacred stone,
which under the reign of King Attalus was carried to Rome, and installed
in the city by all the matrons, preceded by Scipio the Younger. The
inhabitants of the peninsula adored also Cybele, Proserpine, and
Jupiter, who, according to a fabulous tradition, had given the town of
Cyzicus to the wife of Pluto, as dower. Emperor Hadrian embellished this
town with the largest and the finest of the temples of paganism