BOSPORUS, commonly but erroneously spelt BoRphortor, the ancient name of the channel which separates Europe from Asia, and connects the Black sea with the sea of Marmora. The name, which signifies ox-ford or cow-ford, was given to it because here, according to the legend, Io, transformed into a cow, swam across; or. as is very gener ally supposed, because it is so narrow that an ox might swim across. Afterwards, as the same name was bestowed upon other straits. this was designatedthe Thracian Bovarno. Ifs s. and n, entrances have two light-houses each. Its shores are elevated, and through out its length the strait has seven hays or gulfs, with corresponding promontories on the opposite side. One of these gulfs forms the harbor of Constantinople, or, as it is of ten called. the Golden Horn. The length of the Thracian B. is about 17 m., with a breadth of from little more than a third of a mile to 2 miles. At the middle of this strait, where it it is about 2800 ft. in breadth, Darius made his bridge of boats when he marched against the Scythians. The B. has long been under Turkish control. Repeated European con ferences, including that of Berlin in 1978, have confirmed the stipulation of the treaty made in 1841, providing that no ship of war belonging to any nation but Turkey shall pass the B. without the consent of the Ottoman authorities.
The name of CIMMERIAN Bosrouus was given by the ancients to the strait of Kaffa (q.v.). also called the strait of Yenikali; or of Theodosia. The country on both sides of the Cimmerian B. formed, in ancient times, the kingdom of Bosporus, which was founded in 502 n.c. In 303, the kingdom was extended along the Asiatic coast; and Theodosia was united with it in 360. The kingdom became tributary to the Scythians in 200; and in the year 116 n.c., Mithridates. king. of Pontus, vanquished the Scythians, and set his son, Maehares, on the throne of Bosporus. On the death of Machares, soon followed by that of Mitbridates, the Romans gave the country, in 63 B.C., to Pharnaces, the second son of Mithridates, and after his assassination. to several princes who gave themselves out for descendants of Mithridates. _When at last the family became entirely extinct in 239 A.D., the Sarmatians made themselves mastero of the kingdom, from whom the inhabitants of the Chersoncsus took it in 344. Along-with Mimic Chersoncsits, it after wards formed a part of the eastern Roman empire, until the Chazars, and afterwards the 'Tartars, under :Mongolian princes, made themselves masters of it: See TAUIIID.1.