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Chrysopolis

Χρυσόπολις

Chrysopolis (Χρυσόπολις: Eth. Χρυσοπολίτης: Scutari), in Bithynia, near Chalcedon, on the right to one who is sailing upwards, that is, from the Propontis into the Thracian Bosporus. (Steph. s. v. Χρυσόπολις) It belonged to the Chalcedonians. Dionysius of Byzantium, in his Anaplus of the Bosporus, says that it, was called Chrysopolis either because the Persians made it the place of deposit for the gold which they collected from the cities, or from Chryses, a son of Agamemnon and Chryseis. Polybius (4.44) says that those who intend to cross from Chalcedon to Byzantium cannot make a straight course on account of the current which comes down the Bosporus, but they make an oblique course to the promontory Bus, and the place called Chrysopolis, which the Athenians having seized by the advice of Alcibiades, set the first example of levying tolls on vessels bound for the Pontus; and those which sailed out of it too. (Diod. 13.64.) Pliny (5.32) says of Chrysopolis, fuit. [CHALCEDON]

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.