The  favourite  story  is  that  Chrysopolis  was  so  called
because  of  the  Persian  satraps  who  once  lived  there  and
heaped  up  the  gold  of  tribute.  Others  have  it,  and  I
hke  their  theory  better,  that  the  city  took  its  name  from
Chryses,  son  of  Chryseis  and  Agamemnon,  who,  fleeing
after  the  fall  of  Troy  from  vEgisthus  and  Clytemnestra,
met  there  his  end.  A  few  poetic-minded  individuals
have  found  an  origin  for  the  word  in  the  appearance  the
town  presents  from  Constantinople  at  sunset  with  all  its
panes  on  fire.  I  don't  know  that  the  idea  is  more  far-
fetched than  any  other.  An  equal  variety  of  opinion
prevails  with  regard  to  the  modern  name.  Certain  au-
thorities claim  that  it  is  a  corruption  of  Uskiidar,  used
by  the  Turks,  which  is  from  a  Persian  word  meaning  a
post  messenger.  For  myself,  I  am  feebly  impressed  by
all  these  Persians,  who  seem  to  me  dragged  in  by  the
ears.  A  Turkish  savant  told  me  once  that  he  believed
Uskiidar  to  be  a  corruption  of  an  old  Armenian  name,
Oskitar  or  Voskitar,  which  is  merely  a  translation  of
Chrysopolis.  When  Mehmed  II  captured  Constanti-
nople he  brought  a  great  many  Armenians  into  it,  to
repopulate  the  city  and  to  offset  the  Greeks;  and  the
richest  of  them,  who  came  from  Broussa,  he  settled  in
Scutari,  which  has  always  retained  a  certain  Armenian
tinge.  I  learn  that  in  ancient  Armenian  some  such
word  could  have  been  made  out  of  Chrysopolis.  But  the
name  Scutari  is  much  older  than  the  Turkish  conquest.
