Nestus

[Nessus, No. 1.]

NESTUS or NESSUS (Νέστος, Scyl. pp. 8, 29; Scymn. 672; Pomp. Mela, 2.2. §§ 2, 9; Plin. 4.11, 8.16; Νέσσος, Hesiod. Theog. 341; Ptol. 3.12.2, 3.13.7; Μέστος, Zonar. 9.28: Nesto, Turkish Karasú), the river which constituted the boundary of Thrace and Macedonia in the time of Philip and Alexander, an arrangement which the Romans continued on their conquest of the latter country. (Strab. 7. p. 331; Liv. 45.29.) Thucydides (Thuc. 2.96) states that it took its rise in Mt. Scomius, whence the Hebrus descended; being, in fact, that cluster of great summits between Ghiustendíl and Sófia, which sends tributaries to all the great rivers of the N. of European Turkey. It discharged itself into the sea near Abdera. (Hdt. 7.109; comp. Theophrast. H. P. 3.2; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 3. p. 215.)

(Νέστος), sometimes Nessus. A river in Thrace, rising in Mount Rhodopé, and falling into the Aegean Sea opposite the island of Thasos. The Nestus formed the eastern boundary of Macedonia from the time of Philip and Alexander the Great.

• Paus. 6.5.4
• flowing past Abdera, crossed by Xerxes: Hdt. 7.109
• no lions in Europe E. of it: Hdt. 7.126