ne another with a fearful crash, and then rebounding with a sharp
spring, to recoil once more against the object already struck. Even a
bird could by no speed of its wings pass between these rocks as they
pass and meet again without being crushed to death.

15. These rocks, when the Argo, the first of all ships, hastening to
Colchis to carry off the golden fleece, had passed unhurt by them, stood
immovable for the future, the power of the whirlwind which used to
agitate them being broken; and are now so firmly united that no one who
saw them now would believe that they had ever been separated; if all the
poems of the ancients did not agree on the point.

16. After this portion of Bithynia, the next provinces are Pontus and
Paphlagonia, in which are the noble cities of Heraclea, and Sinope, and
Polemonium, and Amisus, and Tios, and Amastris, all originally founded
by the energy of the Greeks; and Cerasus, from which Lucullus brought
the cherry, and two lofty islands which contain the famous cities of
Trapezus and Pityus.

17. Beyond these places is the Acherusian cave, which the natives call
+Mychopontion+; and the harbour of Acone, and several rivers, the
Acheron, the Arcadius, the Iris, the Tibris, and near to that the
Parthenius, all of which proceed with a rapid stream into the sea. Close
to them is the Thermodon, which rises in Mount Armonius, and flows
through the forest of Themiscyra, to which necessity formerly compelled
the Amazons to migrate.

18. The Amazons, as may be here explained, after having ravaged their
neighbours by bloody inroads, and overpowered them by repeated defeats,
began to entertain greater projects; and perceiving their own strength
to be superior to their neighbours', and being continually covetous of
their possessions, they forced their way through many nations, and
attacked the Athenians. But they were routed in a fierce battle, and
their flanks being uncovered by cavalry, they all perished.

19. When their destruction became known, the rest, who had been left at
home as unwarlike, were reduced to the last extremities; and fearing the
attacks of their neighbours, who would now retaliate on them, they
removed to the more quiet district of the Thermodon. And after a long
time, their posterity again becoming numerous, returned in great force
to their native regions, and became in later ages formidable to the
people of many nations.

20. Not far from hence is the gentle hill Carambis, o