Proconnesus

PROCONNE´SUS(Προκύννησος, or Προκόννησοςin Zosim. 2.30, and Hierocl. p. 662), an island in the western part of the Propontis, between Priapus and Cyzicus, and not, as Strabo (13. p. 589) has it, between Parium and Priapus. The island was particularly celebrated for its rich marble quarries, which supplied most of the neighbouring towns, and especially Cyzicus, with the materials for their public buildings; the palace of Mausolus, also, was built of this marble, which was white intermixed with black streaks. (Vitr. 2.8.) The island contained in its south-western part a town of the same name, of which Aristeas, the poet of the Arimaspeia, was a native. (Hdt. 4.14; comp. Scylax, p. 35; Strab. l. c.) This town, which was a colony of the Milesians (Strab. 12. p. 587), was burnt by a Phoenician fleet, acting under the orders of king Darius. (Hdt. 6.33.) Strabo distinguishes between old and new Proconnesus; and Scylax, besides Proconnesus, notices another island called Elaphonesus, with a good harbour. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.44) and the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (2.278) consider Elaphonesus only as another name for Proconnesus; but Elaphonesus was unquestionably a distinct island, situated a little to the south of Proconnesus. The inhabitants of Cyzicus, at a time which we cannot ascertain, forced the Proconnesians to dwell together with them, and transferred the statue of the goddess Dindymene to their own city. (Paus. 8.46.2.) The island of Proconnesus is mentioned as a bishopric in the ecclesiastical historians and the acts of the Council of Chalcedon. The celebrity of its marble quarries has changed its ancient name into Mermereor Marmora; whence the whole of the Propontis is now called the Sea of Marmora. Respecting some autonomous coins of Proconnesus, see Sestini, Mon. Vet. p. 75. [L.S]