DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0476
Chap, xxv.]
SITE OF GERMA.
443
will be seen that the direct road from Pessinus to Ancyra,
according to the map, must have been round the southern
foot of Mount DindymuSj and consequently through the
place where Kinneir places Genua, and where my informant
confirmed its existence, which is to the N. instead of the
S.W. of the Sangarius.
In describing the march of the Roman army, Livy states
that on reaching the Sangarius, Manlius ordered a bridge
to be constructed, the river being unfordable; and that, when
he had crossed over, and was marching along its banks, he
met a procession of the priests of Cybele, who had come from
Pessinus to meet him, and that he halted for the day on
the spot where he fell in with them, and on the next day
marched to Gordium. Nothing can be more clear than this
description with the new map before us, and it shows that
there is no necessity for supposing, what certainly would
have been a difficulty, that the priests had also crossed the
river before they could meet the Roman General.
It may also be remarked that this position of Pessinus
agrees better with the account given by Ammianus of the
march of Julian the Apostate from Nicsea than the more
northern one assigned to it either by Colonel Leake or Dr.
Cramer. Julian, having followed the great road as far as
the confines of Gallogra3cia, turned to the right to visit
Pessinus. Now, in all former maps Pessinus is laid down
so close to this great road, that it would have been beneath
the notice of the historian to mention the fact of his going
half a mile out of his way; but when we find that it is
fifteen or twenty miles to the south, a day's journey out of
his way, it becomes a matter more worthy of note.
According to Strabo,* the sources of the Sangarius were
said to be at a small place called Sangia, 150 stadia from
Pessinus, which has been considered as militating against
the hitherto assumed position of this city; but if Pessinus
stood at Bala Hissar, the account of Strabo will be tolerably
correct with regard to the sources of at least one branch of
* Strabo, lib. xii. c. 3, p. 513.
SITE OF GERMA.
443
will be seen that the direct road from Pessinus to Ancyra,
according to the map, must have been round the southern
foot of Mount DindymuSj and consequently through the
place where Kinneir places Genua, and where my informant
confirmed its existence, which is to the N. instead of the
S.W. of the Sangarius.
In describing the march of the Roman army, Livy states
that on reaching the Sangarius, Manlius ordered a bridge
to be constructed, the river being unfordable; and that, when
he had crossed over, and was marching along its banks, he
met a procession of the priests of Cybele, who had come from
Pessinus to meet him, and that he halted for the day on
the spot where he fell in with them, and on the next day
marched to Gordium. Nothing can be more clear than this
description with the new map before us, and it shows that
there is no necessity for supposing, what certainly would
have been a difficulty, that the priests had also crossed the
river before they could meet the Roman General.
It may also be remarked that this position of Pessinus
agrees better with the account given by Ammianus of the
march of Julian the Apostate from Nicsea than the more
northern one assigned to it either by Colonel Leake or Dr.
Cramer. Julian, having followed the great road as far as
the confines of Gallogra3cia, turned to the right to visit
Pessinus. Now, in all former maps Pessinus is laid down
so close to this great road, that it would have been beneath
the notice of the historian to mention the fact of his going
half a mile out of his way; but when we find that it is
fifteen or twenty miles to the south, a day's journey out of
his way, it becomes a matter more worthy of note.
According to Strabo,* the sources of the Sangarius were
said to be at a small place called Sangia, 150 stadia from
Pessinus, which has been considered as militating against
the hitherto assumed position of this city; but if Pessinus
stood at Bala Hissar, the account of Strabo will be tolerably
correct with regard to the sources of at least one branch of
* Strabo, lib. xii. c. 3, p. 513.