Bakırçay
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Bakırçay (ancient name: Caicus also Caïcus (Greek: Καϊκος or Καϊκός, transliterated as Kaïkos, formerly Astraeus or Astræus) is the ancient name of a river of Asia Minor that rises in the Temnus mountains and flows through Lydia, Mysia, and Aeolis before debouching into the Elaeatic Gulf. (Herodotus vi. 28; vii. 42). [1] The hittites called the river 'the seha river'. The modern, Turkish name of the river is Bakırçay (formerly the Ak-su, Aksou, and Bakır), and it is located in the Asian part of Turkey.
The river is first mentioned by Hesiod (Theog. 343), who, as well as the other poets, fixes the quantity of the penultimate syllable. Plutarch relates that the name of the river was originally Astraeus (Astræus) but was changed after Caicus, a son of Hermes, threw himself into it. [2]
Strabo (p. 616) says that the sources of the Caicus are in a plain, which plain is separated by the range of Temnus from the plain of Apiae (Apia), and that the plain of Apia lies above the plain of Thebe in the interior. He adds, there also flows from Tetanus a river Mysius, which joins the Caicus below its source. The Caicus enters the sea approximately 12 km from Pitane, and 3 km from Elaea (Elæa). Elaea was the port of Pergamon, which was on the Caicus, approximately 25 km from Elaea. (Strab. p. 615.) At the source of the Caicus, according to Strabo, was a place called Gergitha.
The course of this river has undoubtedly changed since antiquity; nor is it easy to assign the proper ancient names to the branches in the ordinary maps. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 269) infers from the direction of L. Scipio's march (Liv. xxxvii. 37) from Troy to the Hyrcanian plain, that the north-eastern branch of the river of Pergamon (Bergama or Beryma) which flows by Menduria (possibly Gergitha) and Balıkesir (Caesaraea) is that which was anciently called Caicus; and he makes the Mysius join it on the right bank. The Caicus as it seems is formed by two streams which meet between 50 and 65 km above its mouth, and it drains an extensive and fertile country.
[edit] References
- Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, "Stratoniceia", London, (1854)
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).
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