Artynia or Aphnitis was the name of a swamp or lake of
Asia Minor
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
mentioned by
ancient geographers.
Its exact identity is uncertain. The identification of Artynia with Aphnitis is due to
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...
.
Pliny places Artynia near
Miletupolis, having the
Rhyndacus river flow through it, so that Pliny's Artynia can be said to correspond to
Aboulliond.
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
mentions three lakes of
Cyzicene, naming them after nearby cities: Lake Dascylitis near
Dascylium
Dascylium, Dascyleium, or Daskyleion (), also known as Dascylus, was a town in Anatolia some inland from the coast of the Propontis, at modern Ergili, Turkey. Its site was rediscovered in 1952 and has since been excavated.
History
Excavatio ...
, Miletopolitis near
Miletupolis, and Apolloniatis near
Apollonia. Lake Dascylitis is also given the name of Aphnitis.
See also
*
Cyzicus
Cyzicus ( ; ; ) was an ancient Greek town in Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula (the classical Arctonnesus), a tombolo which is said to have or ...
References
*F. W. Hasluck, ''Cyzicus''. Cambridge, 1910
45-48
*John Anthony Cramer. ''A geographical and historical description of Asia Minor'', 183
Mysia
History of Bursa Province