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An ancient city in Bithynia, on a bay of the Propontis called Cianus Sinus, was colonized by the Milesians. It was destroyed by Philip III., king of Macedonia; but was rebuilt by Prusias, king of Bithynia, from whom it was called Prusias.
Cius (he Kios or Kios: Eth. Kianos: Kio or Ghio), a city in Bithynia,
at the head of a gulf in the Propontis, called the gulf of Cius, or Cianus Sinus.
Herodotus calls it Cius of Mysia; and also Xenophon (Hell. i. 4. § 7), from which
it appears that Mysia, even in Xenophon's time, extended at least as far east
as the head of the gulf of Cius. According to one tradition, Cius was a Milesian
colony. (Plin. v. 32.) It was at the foot of Mount Arganthonius, and there was
a myth that Hylas, one of the companions of Hercules on the voyage to Colchis,
was carried off by the nymphs, when he went to get water here; and also that Cius,
another companion of Hercules, on his return from Colchis, stayed here and founded
the city, to which he gave his name. (Strab. p. 564.) Pliny mentions a river Hylas
and a river Cius here, one of which reminds us of the name of the youth who was
stolen by the nymphs, and the other of the mythical founder. The Cius may be the
channel by which the lake Ascania discharges its waters into the gulf of Cius;
though Pliny speaks of the Ascanium flumen as flowing into the gulf, and we must
assume that he gives this name to the channel which connects the lake and the
sea. If the river Cius is not identical with this channel, it must be a small
stream near Cius. As Ptolemy (v. 1) speaks of the outlets of the Ascanius, it
has been conjectured that there may have been two, and that they may be the Hylas
and Cius of Pliny; but the plural ekbolai does not necessarily mean more than
a single mouth; and Pliny certainly says that the Ascanius flows into the gulf.
However, his geography is a constant cause of difficulty. The position of Cius
made it the port for the inland parts. Mela calls it the most convenient emporium
of Phrygia, which was at no great distance from it.
Cius was taken by the Persian general Hymees, after the burning of
Sardis, B.C. 499. (Herod. v. 122.) Philip V., of Macedonia, the son of Demetrius
and the father of Perseus, took Cius, which he gave to Prusias, the son of Zelas.
Prusias, who had assisted Philip in ruining Cius, restored it under the name of
Prusias (Prousias, Strab. p. 563; Polyb. xvi. 21, &c.). It was sometimes called
Prusias eprthalassie, or on the sea, to distinguish it from other towns of the
same name (Steph. B. s. v. Prousa; Memnon, ap. Phot. Cod. 224, c. 43), or thalassan.
In the text of Memnon (Hoeschel's ed. of Photius) the reading is Cierus; but Memnon,
both in this and other passages, has confounded Cius and Cierus. But it is remarked
that Cius must either have still existed by the side of the new city, or must
have recovered its old name; for Pliny mentions Cius, and also Mela (i. 19), Zosimus
(i. 35), and writers of a still later date.
There are coins of Cius, with the epigraph Kianon, belonging to the
Roman imperial period; and there are coins of Prusias with the epigraph, Prousieon
ton pros thalassan.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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