_Paphlagonia_ is chiefly famous for the vast forests that clothed the southern and more hilly portions of its territory, and for its vast herds of horses, mules, &c. (the former of which are noticed so early as Homer (Il. ii. 281 and 852)). Its only two towns of any note were AMASTRIS, in the days of Pliny the Younger a handsome place, with squares and many public buildings,—and SINOPE; both towns, certainly, of remote antiquity, the latter, indeed, attributed by some to the Argonauts, and by others to the Amazons. In the days of Xenophon, SINOPE was a rich and flourishing city; and then, and for a long time, subsequently, the navy of Sinope was highly distinguished among those of the other maritime cities of Greece. Sinope was also famous, like Byzantium, for the fishery of the _pelamys_ or tunny-fish; deriving, also, much of its subsequent wealth from the fact, that it was selected by the kings of Pontus as their royal residence. Lucullus first, and Cæsar, subsequently, in the wars with Mithradates and Pharnaces, respectively, treated the people with much kindness, and left to them most of the works of sculpture with which their town had been embellished by the Pontic monarchs. Sinope is mentioned as a flourishing place in the times of Strabo, Trajan, and Arrian, nor did it decay, till every other place, in like manner and for the same reasons, decayed on the advent of the barbarians from Central Asia, under the hoofs of whose horses, as the proverb says, no grass ever grows again. _Bithynia_, the last province of Asia Minor to which we shall have to call attention, was, as we have remarked before in the case of Mysia, in its population, largely of Thracian origin. Subsequently to Cyrus the younger, it was ruled by a series of native kings, the last of whom, Nicomedes II., bequeathed his country to the Romans. Many of these rulers were men of tried valour; thus one defeated a general of Alexander the Great; and another crushed the invading Gauls. Pliny the Younger, in his letters, gives an interesting account of the spread of Christianity in this province, at the same time showing that his stern and hardy master, Trajan, was less inclined to act severely against them than his literary and philosophic lieutenant. The towns of Bithynia to which we propose to call attention, are PRUSA, NICÆA, and NICOMEDIA.