Mustafakemalpaşa River

The Mustafakemalpasha River (Turkish: Mustafakemalpaşa Çayı) is a river in northwestern Anatolia in the Bursa Province of Turkey's Marmara Region. It is named for the city of Mustafakemalpaşa which lies near its delta onto Lake Uluabat.

The Mustafakemalpasha was the classical Rhyndacus^[1] (Greek: Ῥύνδακος, Rýndakos^[2]). The Rhyndacus was listed as a son of Oceanus and Tethys and his daughters by Mount Didymos, the Rhyndacides, were revered as pegaeæ. In his Dionysiaca, Nonnus recorded their waters being used by Dionysus to drug the nymph Nicaea after she offended the Rhyndacides by murdering the shepherd Hymnus. Upon recovering her senses, she then cursed them.^[3] Although the Rhyndacus was formerly the main artery running to the Sea of Marmara and served as the border between Mysia and Bithynia,^[2] today the Mustafakemalpasha is merely a tributary of the Simav, which then flows into the Sea of Marmara.

During the First Mithridatic War, Flavius Fimbria defeated Mithridates VI of Pontus along the Rhyndacus in 85 BC. During the third, Lucullus again defeated him at the Rhyndacus in 73 or 72 BC. Under Manuel I, the Byzantine Empire based their main Anatolian army at Lopadion (modern Uluabat) on the Rhyndacus. After the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, the Latin emperor Henry won another battle there against the Nicaean Empire on October 15, 1211.

See also

• Constantine's Bridge
• Penkalas Bridge

References

1. ^ Pliny the Elder. Natural History, V, 40, §2. Retrieved 3 Sept 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b} Strabo. The Geographica, XII, 8, §11. Retrieved 3 Sept 2011.
3. ^ Nonnus. Dionysiaca, XV & XVI. Op. cit. Theoi Greek Mythology: Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art. "Rhyndakides." Retrieved 4 Sept 2011.