coast of Pontus, 130 stadia to the north-east of Polemonium; it is the most projecting cape on that coast, and forms the tenninating point of the chain of Mount Paryadres. It was believed to have received its name from the fact that Jason had landed there. (Strab. xii. p. 548; Arrian, Peripl. p. 17; Anonym. Peripl. p. 11; Ptol. v. 6. § 4; Xenoph. Anab. vi. 2. § 1, who calls it Ἰασονία ἀκτή.) It still bears the name Jasoon, though it is more commonly called Cape Bona or Vona, from a town of the same name. (Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 269.) The Asineia, called a Greek acropolis by Scylax (p. 33), is probably no other than the Jasonium. [ L. S. ]
IASSII (Ἰάσσιοι), mentioned by Ptolemy as a population of Upper Pannonia (ii. 14. § 2). Pliny's form of the name (iii. 25) is Iasi. He places them on the Drave. [ R. G. L. ]
IASSUS, or IASUS (Ἴασσος, or Ἴασος: Eth. Ἰασσεύς), a town of Caria, situated on a small island close to the north coast of the Iasian bay, which derives its name from Iassus. The town is said to have been founded at an unknown period by Argive colonists; but as they had sustained severe losses in a war with the native Carians, they invited the son of Neleus, who had previously founded Miletus, to come to their assistance. The town appears on that occasion to have received additional settlers. (Polyb. xvi. 12.) The town, which appears to have occupied the whole of the little island, had only ten stadia in circumference; but it nevertheless actjuired great wealth (Thucyd. viii. 28), from its fisheries and trade in fish (Strab. xiv. p. 658). After the Sicilian expedition of the Athenians, during the Peloponnesian war, Iassus was attacked by the Lacedaemonians and their allies; it was governed at the time by Amorges, a Persian chief, who had revolted from Darius. It was taken by the Lacedaemonians, who captured Amorges, aud delivered him up to Tissaphernes. The town itself was destroyed on that occasion; but must have been rebuilt, for we afterwards find it besieged by the last Philip of Macedonia, who, however, was compelled by the Romans to restore it to Ptolemy of Egypt. (Polyb. xvii. 2; Liv. xxiii. 33; comp. Ptol. v. 2. § 9; Plin. v. 29; Stad. Mar. Magn. §§ 274, 275; Hierocl. p. 689.) The mountains in the neighbourhood of Iassus furnished a beautiful kind of marble, of a blood-red and livid white colour, which was used by the ancients for ornamental purposes. (Paul. Silent. Ecphr. S. Soph. ii. 213.) Near the town was a sanctuary of Hestias, with a statue of the goddess, which, though standing in the open air, was beheved never to be touched by the rain. (Polyb. xvi. 12.) The same story is related, by Strabo, of a temple of Artemis in the same neighbourhood. Iassus, as a celebrated fishing place, is alluded to by Athenaeus (iii. p. 105, xiii. p. 600). The place is still existing, under the name of Askem or Asýn Kalessi. Chandler (Travels in As. Min. p. 226) relates that the island on which the town was built is now united to the main-
COIN OF IASUS
IATRUS
5
land by a small isthmus. Part of the city walls still exist, and are of a regular, solid, and handsome structure. In the side of the rock a theatre with many rows of seats still remains, and several inscriptions and coins have been found there. (Comp. Spon and Wheler, Voyages, vol. i. p. 361.)
A second town of the name of Iassus existed in Cappadocia or Armenia Minor (Ptol. v. 7. § 6), on the north-east of Zoropassus. [ L. S. ]
IASTAE (Ἰᾶσται, Ptol. vi. 12), a Scythian tribe, whose position must be sought for in the neighbourhood of the river Iastus. [ E. B. J. ]
IASTUS (Ἴαστος), a river which, according to Ptolemy (vi. 12), was, like the Polytimetus (Kohik), an affluent of the Caspian basin, and should in fact be considered as such in the sense given to a denomination which at that time embraced a vast and complicated hydraulic system. [Jaxartes.] Von Humboldt (Asie Centrale, vol. ii. p. 263) has identified it with the Kizil-Deria, the dry bed of which may be traced on the barren wastes of Kizil Koum in W. Turkistan. It is no unusual circumstance in the sandy steppes of N. Asia for rivers to change their course, or even entirely to disappear. Thus the Kizil-Deria, which was known to geographers till the commencement of this century, no longer exists. (Comp. Levchine, Hordes et Steppes des Kirghiz Kazaks, p. 456.) [ E. B. J. ]
IASTUS, a river mentioned by Ptolemy (vi. 14. § 2) as falling into the Caspian between the Jaik and the Oxus. It is only safe to call it one of the numerous rivers of Independent Tartary. [ R. G. L. ]
IA'TII (Ἰάτιοι, Ptol. vi. 12. § 4), a people in the northern part of Sogdiana. They are also mentioned by Pliny (vi. 16. s. 18); but nothing certain is known of their real position. [ V. ]
IATINUM (Ἰάτινον), according to Ptolemy (ii. 8. § 15) the city of the Meldi, a people of Gallia Lugdunensis. It is supposed to be the same place as the Fixtuinum of the Table [Fixtuinum], and to be represented by the town of Meaux on the Marne. Walckenaer, who trusts more to the accuracy of the distances in the Table than we safely can do, says that the place Fixtuinum has not in the Table the usual mark which designates a capital town, and that the measures do not carry the position of Fixtuinum as far as Meaux, but only as far as Montbout. He conjectures that the word Fixtuinum may be a corruption of Fines Iatinorum, and accordingly must be a place on the boundary of the little community of the Meldi. This conjecture might be good, if the name of the people was Iatini, and not Meldi. [ G. L. ]
IATRA or IATRUM (Ἰατρόν), a town in Moesia, situated at the point where the river Iatrus or Iantrus empties itself into the Danube, a few miles to the east of Ad Novas. (Procop. de Aed. iv. 7; Theophylact. vii. 2; Notit. Imp. 29, where it is erroneously called Latra; Geogr. Rav.. iv. 7, where, as in the Peut. Tab., it bears the name Laton.) [ L. S. ]
IATRUS (in the Peut. Tab.Iantrus), a river traversing the central part of Moesia. It has its sources in Mount Haemus, and, having in its course to the north received the waters of several tributaries, falls into the Danube close by the town of Iatra. (Plin. iii. 29, where the common reading is Ieterus; Jornand. Get. 18; Geogr. Rav. iv. 7.) It is probably the same as the Athrys (Ἄθρυς) mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 49). Its modern name is Iantra. [ L. S. ]
