Chapter XXIII: Book X: The Natural History of Birds (4)

[20] Now called Falios (or more properly Filiyos), according to D’Anville, from the river of that name in its vicinity, supposed by him and other geographers to be the same as the ancient Billis, here mentioned by Pliny. By others of the ancient writers it is called Billæus.

[21] Paphlagonia was bounded by Bithynia on the west, and by Pontus on the east, being separated from the last by the river Halys; on the south it was divided by the chain of Mount Olympus from Phrygia in the earlier times, from Galatia at a later period; and on the north it bordered on the Euxine.

[22] In the Homeric catalogue we find Pylæmenes leading the Paphlagonians as allies of the Trojans; from this Pylæmenes the later princes of Paphlagonia claimed their descent, and the country was sometimes from them called Pylæmenia.

[23] Suspected by Hardouin to have been the same as the Moson or Moston mentioned by Ptolemy as in Galatia.

[24] It is mentioned by Homer, Il. ii. 855, as situate on the coast of Paphlagonia.

[25] Strabo also, in B. xii., says that these people afterwards established themselves in Thrace, and that gradually moving to the west, they finally settled in the Italian Venetia, which from them took its name. But in his Fourth Book he says that the Veneti of Italy owe their origin to the Gallic Veneti, who came from the neighbourhood known as the modern Vannes.

[26] This city, ninety stadia east of the river Parthenius, occupied a peninsula, and on each side of the isthmus was a harbour. The original city, as here mentioned, seems to have had the name of Sesamus or Sesamum, and it is spoken of by that name in Homer, Il. ii. 853, in conjunction with Cytorus. The territory of Amastris was famous for its growth of the best box-wood, which grew on Mount Cytorus. The present Amasra or Hanasserah occupies its site.

[27] See the last Note.

[28] Otherwise called “Cinolis.” There is a place called Kinla or Kinoglu in the maps, about half-way between Kerempeh and Sinope, which is the Kinuli of Abulfeda, and probably the Cirolis or Cimolis of the Greek geographers.

[29] The modern Estefan or Stefanos.

[30] Now known by the name of Bartin, a corruption of its ancient appellation.

[31] It still retains its ancient appellation in its name of Cape Kerempeh: of the ancient town nothing is known.

[32] Now called Sinope, or Sinoub. Some ruins of it are still to be seen. The modern town is but a poor place, and has probably greatly declined since the recent attack upon it by the Russian fleet. Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, was a native of ancient Sinope.

[33] The boundary, according to Stephanus Byzantinus, also of the nations of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia. As Parisot remarks, this is an error, arising from the circumstance of a small tribe bearing the name of Cappadocians, having settled on its banks, between whom and the Paphlagonians it served as a limit.

[34] On the river Iris. It was the ancient residence of the kings of Pontus, but in Strabo’s time it was deserted. It has been suggested that the modern Azurnis occupies its site.

[35] In the north-west of Pontus, in a fertile plain between the rivers Halys and Amisus. It is also called Gadilon by Strabo. D’Anville makes it the modern Aladgiam; while he calls Gaziura by the name of Guedes.

[36] Now called the Kisil Irmak, or Red River. It has been remarked that Pliny, in making this river to come down from Mount Taurus and flow at once from south to north, appears to confound the Halys with one of its tributaries, now known as the Izchel Irmak.

[37] Its site is now called Kiengareh, Kangreh, or Changeri. This was a town of Paphlagonia, to the south of Mount Olgasys, at a distance of thirty-five miles from Pompeiopolis.

[38] A commercial place to the south of Sinope. Its site is the modern Gherseh on the coast.

[39] Now called Eski Samsun; on the west side of the bay or gulf, anciently called Sinus Amisenus. According to Strabo, it was only 900 stadia from Sinope, or 112-1/2 Roman miles. The walls of the ancient city are to be seen on a promontory about a mile and a half from the modern town.

[40] He means the numerous indentations which run southward into the coast, from the headland of Sinope to a distance of about one degree to the south.

[41] On examining the map, we shall find that the distance is at least 300 miles across to the gulf of Issus or Iskenderoon.

[42] Not speaking the Greek language.

[43] A part of it only was added to Eupatoria; and it was separated from the rest by a wall, and probably contained a different population from that of Amisus. This new quarter contained the residence of the king, Mithridates Eupator, who built Eupatoria.

[44] The boundaries of Cappadocia varied under the dominion of the Persians, after the Macedonian conquest, and as a Roman province under the emperors.

[45] Founded by Archelaüs, the last king of Cappadocia. In Hamilton’s _Researches_, the site has been assumed to be the modern Ak-serai, but that place is not on the river Halys, as Leake supposes. It is, however, considered that Ak-serai agrees very well with the position of Archelais as laid down in the Itineraries, and that Pliny may have been misled in supposing that the stream on which it stood was the Halys.

[46] Also called by the name of Chryse, or “Golden,” to distinguish it from another place of the same name in Pontus. It is generally supposed that the town of Al-Bostan, on the Sihoon or Sarus, is on or near the site of this Comana.

[47] Now called Niksar, according to D’Anville, though Hardouin says that it is Tocat. Parisot remarks, that this place belonged rather to Pontus than to Cappadocia.

[48] A small tributary of the Iris, or Yeshil-Irmak, mentioned in the next Chapter.

[49] Still called Amasia, or Amasiyeh, and situate on the river Iris, or Yeshil Ermak. It was at one time the residence of the princes of Pontus, and the birth-place of the geographer Strabo. The remains of antiquity here are very considerable, and extremely interesting.

[50] Both to the west of Neo-Cæsarea. According to Tavernier, as quoted by Hardouin, the modern name of Sebastia is Sivas.

[51] Which gave name to the district of Melitene, mentioned in c. 20 of the last Book.

[52] Near Nazianzus, in Cappadocia, the birth-place of Gregory Nazianzen. The traveller Ainsworth, on his road from Ak-Serai to Kara Hissar, came to a place called Kaisar Koi, and he has remarked that by its name and position it might be identified with Diocæsarea. Some geographers, indeed, look upon Diocæsarea and Nazianzus as the same place.

[53] Its ruins are still to be seen at Kiz Hisar. It stood in the south of Cappadocia, at the northern foot of Mount Taurus. Tyana was the native place of Apollonius, the supposed worker of miracles, whom the enemies of Christianity have not scrupled to place on a par with Jesus Christ.

[54] Some ruins, nineteen geographical miles from Ayas, are supposed to denote the site of ancient Castabala or Castabulum.

[55] This place was first called Eupatoria, but not the same which Mithridates united with a part of Amisus. D’Anville supposes that the modern town of Tchenikeb occupies its site.

[56] Or Ziela, now known as Zillah, not far south of Amasia. It was here that Julius Cæsar conquered Pharnaces, on the occasion on which he wrote his dispatch to Rome, “Veni, vidi, vici.”

[57] Still known by the name of Ardgeh-Dagh.

[58] Its site is still called Kaisiriyeh. It was a city of the district Cilicia, in Cappadocia, at the base of the mountain Argæus. It was first called Mazaca, and after that, Eusebeia. There are considerable remains of the ancient city.

[59] Hardouin remarks, that the district of Sargarausene was not situate in front of Phrygia, but lay between Morimene and Colopenene, in the vicinity of Pontus.

[60] Now known as the Konax, a tributary of the Halys, rising in Mount Littarus, in the chain of Paryadres.

[61] Or “White Syrians.” Strabo says that in his time both the Cappadocian peoples, those situate above the Taurus and those on the Euxine, were called Leucosyri, or _White_ Syrians, as there were some Syrians who were black, and who dwelt to the east of the Amanus.

[62] It is doubtful whether this is the name of a river or a town. Notwithstanding its alleged celebrity, nothing is known of it.

[63] Hecatæus, as quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus, speaks of Chadisia as a city of the Leucosyri, or Cappadocians. Neither the river nor the town appears to have been identified.

[64] Probably on the river of that name, which has been identified with the Mers Imak, a river two or three miles east of the Acropolis of Amisus.

[65] The extensive plain on the coast of Pontus, extending east of the river Iris beyond the Thermodon, and celebrated as the country of the Amazons. At the mouth of the Thermodon was a city of the same name, which had been destroyed by the time of Augustus. It is doubtful whether the modern Thermeh occupies its site.

[66] The same place apparently as is mentioned in the last Chapter under the name of Zela.

[67] Valerius Triarius, one of the legates of Lucullus, in the war against Mithridates. Plutarch tells us that Lucullus was obliged to conceal Triarius from the fury of his troops.

[68] Over Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates.

[69] Now called the Thermea.

[70] Still called Mason-Dagh.

[71] He alludes to Comana, in Pontus, the site of which is now called Gumenek, near to which, on the Tocat-su, the modern name of the Iris, Hamilton found some remains of a Roman town, and part of a bridge apparently of Roman construction. The language of Pliny seems to imply that it had become in his day nothing beyond a _manteium_ or seat of an oracle.

[72] Strabo speaks of a promontory called Genetes; and Stephanus Byzantinus mentions a river and port of the same name.

[73] Strabo places the Chaldei, who, he says, were originally called Chalybes, in that part of the country which lies above Pharnacia (the modern Kerasunt).

[74] Or Cotyora. According to Xenophon, this was a colony of Sinope which furnished supplies for the Ten Thousand in their retreat. The place was on a bay called after the town. Hamilton, in his _Researches_, &c., Vol. i., is of opinion that Cotyorum may have stood on the site of Ordou, where some remains of an ancient port, cut out of the solid rock are still visible. He remarks, however, that some writers suppose that Cotyora was the modern bay of Pershembah, which is more sheltered than Ordou. Cotyora was the place of embarkation of the Ten Thousand.

[75] Similar to what we call tatooing. Parisot suggests that these people may have been the ancestors of the Mongol tribes who still dwell in tents similar to those mentioned by Mela as used by the Mossyni.

[76] Or the “long-headed people.”

[77] Its site is not improbably that of the modern Kheresoun, on the coast of Asia Minor, and west of Trebizond. Lucullus is said to have brought thence the first cherry-trees planted in Europe.

[78] It has been remarked, that Pliny’s enumeration of names often rather confuses than helps, and that it is difficult to say where he intends to place the Bechires. We may perhaps infer from Mela that they were west of Trapezus and east of the Thermodon.

[79] Now the Kara Su, or Black River, still retaining its ancient appellation. It rises in Cappadocia, in the chain of Mount Argæus.

[80] Still called by the same name, according to Parisot, though sometimes it is called the river of Vatisa. More recent authorities, however, call it Poleman Chai.

[81] On the coast of Pontus, built by king Polemon, perhaps the Second, on the site of the older city of Side, at the mouth of the Sidenus.

[82] Probably near the promontory of Jasonium, 130 stadia to the north-east of Polemonium. It was believed to have received its name from Jason the Argonaut having landed there. It still bears the name of Jasoon, though more commonly called Bona or Vona.

[83] Sixty stadia, according to Arrian, from the town of Cotyora.

[84] Supposed to have stood on almost the same site as the modern Kheresoun or Kerasunda. It was built near, or, as some think, on the site of Cerasus.

[85] Still known by the name of Tireboli, on a river of the same name, the Tireboli Su.

[86] Now called Tarabosan, Trabezun, or Trebizond. This place was originally a colony of Sinope, after the loss of whose independence Trapezus belonged, first to Lesser Armenia, and afterwards to the kingdom of Pontus. In the middle ages it was the seat of the so-called empire of Trebizond. It is now the second commercial port of the Black Sea, ranking next after Odessa.

[87] The “Chalybes of Armenia.” See p. 21.

[88] Theodoret says that the Sanni, and the Lazi, subsequently mentioned, although subdued by the Roman arms, were never obedient to the Roman laws. The Heniochi were probably of Grecian origin, as they were said to have been descended from the charioteers of the Argonauts, who had been wrecked upon these coasts.

[89] Or Apsarus, or Absarum. Several geographers have placed the site of this town near the modern one known as Gonieh. Its name was connected with the myth of Medea and her brother Absyrtus. It is not improbable that the names Acampsis and Absarus have been given to the same river by different writers, and that they both apply to the modern Joruk.

[90] It is suggested by Hardouin that these are the same as the Zydretæ mentioned in the Periplus of Arrian, and by him placed between the Heniochi and the Lazi.

[91] See note [89].

[92] Supposed to be the same as the modern Tshorok.

[93] Or “Deep” River. This stream may possibly be identified by observing that Pliny places only one river between it and the Phasis.

[94] Probably the Madia of Ptolemy, who places it in the interior.

[95] At the present day called Eraklia, according to Parisot.

[96] Now called the Faz or Rhioni.

[97] Still called El Faz or Poti.

[98] This place was in reality thirty-seven miles and a half from the sea. It was said to have been the native place of the enchantresses Circe and Medea.

[99] The rivers Hippos and Cyaneos do not appear to have been identified.

[100] In the previous page.

[101] Now called the Tchorocsu.

[102] It is doubtful whether this is the same river as that mentioned by Strabo under the name of Chares. D’Anville says that its modern name is Enguri.

[103] Or “Feeders on Lice;” so called, according to Strabo, from the extreme filthiness of their habits.

[104] There is a nation in this vicinity still called by a similar name. Professor Pallas, who visited them, says that nothing can equal their dishonesty, rapacity, and voracity. Parisot suggests that they are probably the descendants of the Phthirophagi of Pliny.

[105] Now called the Khalira, according to D’Anville.

[106] Now called the Hati-Scari, according to D’Anville.

[107] Now the Okhum, according to D’Anville.

[108] Now the Mosti-Skari, according to D’Anville.

[109] Still called Savastopoli, according to Hardouin.

[110] This must not be confounded with the other place of the same name mentioned in the present Chapter. See p. 10.

[111] Hermoläus suggests Pityus as the correct reading.

[112] The Sanni Heniochi; one of these nations has been already mentioned in the last page.

[113] Inhabited anciently by the Coli, and constituting the northern portion of ancient Colchis.

[114] In B. v. c. 27.

[115] Or nation “with the black cloaks,” from some peculiarity in their dress.

[116] This was the great trading-place of the wild tribes in the interior; and so numerous were they, that the Greeks asserted that there were seventy different languages spoken in the market of Dioscurias.

[117] Whence the appellation _Heniochi_, from the Greek ἡνιοχὸς.

[118] There were two places called Heracleium on this coast, one north and the other south of the river Achæus: probably the latter is here meant.

[119] Said to have been descended from the Achæans or Greeks who accompanied Jason in the Argonautic Expedition, or, according to Ammianus, who resorted thither after the conclusion of the Trojan war.

[120] Probably meaning the “martial people,” or the “people of Mars.” This was the title, not of a single nation, but of a number of peoples distinguished for their predatory habits.

[121] This people occupied the N.E. shore of the Euxine, between the Cimmerian Bosporus and the frontier of Colchis. Their name is still in existence, and is applied to the whole western district of the Caucasus, in the forms of Tcherkas, as applied to the people, and Tcherkeskaia or Circassia, to the country.

[122] Hardouin suggests that these ought to be read as forming one name, the “Cerri Cephalatomi,” and suggests that they were so called from their habit of cutting off the heads of their slain enemies.

[123] Meaning, nearly in the extreme corner of Pontus.

[124] In the time of Strabo this was a considerable sea-port, and after its destruction by the Heniochi, it was restored, and served as an important frontier fortress of the Roman empire against the Scythians.

[125] This was Mithridates, king of Bosporus, which sovereignty he obtained by the favour of the emperor Claudius, in A.D. 41. The circumstances are unknown which led to his subsequent expulsion by the Romans, who placed his younger brother Cotys on the throne in his stead.

[126] Hardouin thinks that the Thalli inhabited the present country of Astrakan.

[127] It was the ancient opinion, to which we shall find frequent reference made in the present Book, that the northern portion of the Caspian communicated with the Scythian or Septentrional ocean.

[128] Mentioned only by Pliny. It is supposed to answer to the present Ukrash river; and the town and river of Hierus are probably identical with the Hieros Portus of Arrian, which has been identified with the modern Sunjuk-Kala.

[129] Inhabited by the Sindi, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia. They probably dwelt in and about the modern peninsula of Taman, between the Sea of Azof and the Black Sea, to the south of the river Hypanis, the modern Kouban. The site of their capital, Sindos, or Sinda, is supposed to have been the modern Anapa. Parisot conjectures that this place was one of the ancient settlements of the Zigeunes, the modern Bohemians or Gypsies. He seems to found his opinion upon some observations of Malte Brun (_Précis de Geographie_, vol. vi.) upon the origin of the Gypsy race, which will amply repay the perusal.

[130] The peninsula on which Taman or Timoutarakan is situate.

[131] The _jugerum_ was 100 Grecian or 104 Roman feet in length.

[132] Signifying in Greek the “sea-shore.”

[133] Lying between Singa and Phanagoria. Rennell fixes it at the opening of the lake into which the Kouban flows.

[134] Or the “gardens,” from the Greek κῆποι. A town of the Cimmerian Bosporus, founded by the Milesians. Dr. Clarke identifies the modern Sienna with it, and the curious Milesian sculptures found there confirm the supposition.

[135] Its ruins are supposed to be those near Taman, on the eastern side of the Straits of Kaffa. It was the great emporium for all the traffic between the coasts of the Palus Mæotis and the countries on the south of the Caucasus, and was chosen by the kings of Bosporus as their capital in Asia.

[136] A town of the Sindæ; it possessed, like Phanagoria, a celebrated temple of Aphrodite Apaturos, or Venus “the Deceiver,” whence probably its name.

[137] Clarke identifies it with the modern Temruk, but Forbiger with Eskikrimm.

[138] See B. iv. c. 24.

[139] That lying on the east of the Sea of Azof. It seems impossible to identify the spot inhabited by each of these savage tribes. Hardouin says that the modern name of that inhabited by the Mæotici is Coumania.

[140] Parisot suggests that this tribe afterwards emigrated to the west, and after establishing themselves in Macedonia, finally gave its name to modern Servia. He remarks, that most of these names appear to have been greatly mutilated, through the ignorance or carelessness of the transcribers, no two of the manuscripts agreeing as to the mode in which they should be spelt.

[141] Or Don. It flows into the Sea of Azof by two larger mouths and several smaller ones. Strabo says that the distance between the two larger mouths is sixty stadia.

[142] From the Greek γυναικοκρατουμενοὶ, “ruled over by women.” It is not improbable that this name was given by some geographer to these Sarmatian tribes on finding them, at the period of his visit, in subjection to the rule of a queen. Parisot remarks, that this passage affords an instance of the little care bestowed by Pliny upon procuring the best and most correct information, for that the Roman writers had long repudiated the use of the term “Sauromatæ.” He also takes Pliny to task for his allusion to these tribes as coupling with the Amazons, the existence of such a people being in his time generally disbelieved.

[143] Hardouin suggests from εὐάζω, “to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus.”

[144] Perhaps from κοίτη, a “den” or “cavern,” their habitation.

[145] Parisot suggests that they may have been a Caucasian or Circassian tribe, because in the Circassian language the word _zig_ has the meaning of “man.” He also suggests that they were probably a distinct race from the Zingi previously mentioned, whom he identifies with the ancestors of the Zingari or Bohemians, the modern Gypsies.

[146] The more common reading is “Turcæ,” a tribe also mentioned by Mela, and which gave name to modern Turkistan.

[147] The Argippæi of Herodotus and other ancient authors. These people were bald, flat-nosed, and long-chinned. They are again mentioned by Pliny in C. 14, who calls them a race not unlike the Hyperborei, and then, like Mela, abridges the description given by Herodotus. By different writers these people have been identified with the Chinese, the Brahmins or Lamas, and the Calmucks. The last is thought to be the most probable opinion, or else that the description of Herodotus, borrowed by other writers, may be applied to the Mongols in general. The mountains, at the foot of which they have been placed, are identified with either the Ural, the western extremity of the Altaï chain, or the eastern part of the Altaï.

[148] Generally regarded as the western branch of the Ural Mountains.

[149] The former editions mostly have “there _was_,” implying that in the time of Pliny it no longer existed. The name of this place was Tanais; its ruins are still to be seen in the vicinity of Kassatchei. It was founded by a colony from Miletus, and became a flourishing seat of trade. The modern town of Azof is supposed to occupy nearly its site.

[150] The people of Panticapæum, on the opposite side of the Palus Mæotis, occupying the site of the present Kertch. It was founded by the Milesians B.C. 541, and took its name from the neighbouring river Panticapes.

[151] The Ceraunian mountains were a range belonging to the Caucasian chain, and situate at its eastern extremity; the relation of this range to the chain has been variously stated by the different writers.

[152] He may possibly allude to a range of mountains in the Punjaub and the vicinity of the modern Lahore, by his reference to the Cathæi, who are supposed to have been the ancient inhabitants of that district. The localities of the various races here mentioned are involved in great obscurity.

[153] Or Mediterranean.

[154] See Vol. i. p. 497.

[155] He includes under the term “Cappadocia,” the northern part originally called “Cappadocia ad Pontum,” and in later times simply Pontus, and the southern part, originally called “Cappadocia ad Taurum,” and more recently simply Cappadocia.

[156] Running from the shores of the Euxine to the borders of Syria.

[157] _I. e._ on the eastern side.

[158] Meaning that part of Asia which we now call Asia Minor.

[159] This ill agrees with what he has said in c. 2, that the distance across from Sinope to the Gulf of Issus is but 200 miles.

[160] Greater Armenia, now known as Erzeroum, Kars, Van, and Erivan, was bounded on the north-east and north by the river Cyrus, or Kur of the present day; on the north-west and west by the Moschian mountains, the prolongation of the chain of the Anti-Taurus, and the Euphrates, or Frat of the present day; and on the south and south-east by the mountains called Masius, Niphates, and Gordiæi (the prolongation of the Taurus), and the lower course of the Araxes. On the east the country comes to a point at the confluence of the Syrus and Araxes.

[161] Now known as the Kara-bel-Dagh, or Kut-Tagh, a mountain chain running south-west and north-east from the east of Asia Minor into the centre of Armenia, and forming the chief connecting link between the Taurus and the mountains of Armenia.

[162] In B. v. c. 20.

[163] He means, where the river Euphrates runs the farthest to the west.

[164] Littré suggests that the reading should be “Aroei.”

[165] The modern Eraskh or Aras.

[166] The modern Kur.

[167] This district was bounded on the east by the Euphrates, on the north and north-west by the mountains Scodises, Paryadres, and Anti-Taurus, and on the south by the Taurus.

[168] This river is said by Ammianus to have taken its name from Cyrus. It appears, however, to have been a not uncommon name of the rivers of Persia.

[169] It is probable that these rivers take their rise near each other, but it is not improbable that the intervening distance mentioned in the present passage is much too small.

[170] Hardouin thinks that this is Neo-Cæsarea, mentioned as having been built on the banks of the Euphrates.

[171] Now called Ezaz, according to D’Anville. Parisot suggests that it ought to be Gaza or Gazaca, probably a colony of Median Gaza, now Tauris.

[172] Originally called Tephrice. It stood on the river Lycus, and not far from the sources of the Halys, having been founded by Pompey, where he gained his first victory over Mithridates, whence its name, the “City of Victory.” The modern Enderez or Devrigni, probably marks its site.

[173] Ritter places it in Sophene, the modern Kharpat, and considers that it may be represented by the modern Sert, the Tigranocerta of D’Anville.

[174] The capital of Sophene, one of the districts of Armenia. St. Martin thinks that this was the ancient heathen name of the city of Martyropolis, but Ritter shows that such cannot be the case. It was called by the Syrians Kortbest; its present name is Kharput.

[175] Generally supposed, by D’Anville and other modern geographers, to be represented by the ruins seen at Sert. It was the later capital of Armenia, built by Tigranes.

[176] The ancient capital of Armenia. Hannibal, who took refuge at the court of Artaxias when Antiochus was no longer able to afford him protection, superintended the building of it. Some ruins, called Takt Tiridate, or Throne of Tiridates, near the junction of the Aras and the Zengue, were formerly supposed to represent Artaxata, but Colonel Monteith has fixed the site at a bend in the river lower down, at the bottom of which were the ruins of a bridge of Greek or Roman architecture.

[177] A fortress in Lesser Armenia, upon the Euphrates, seventy-five miles from Zimara, as mentioned in B. v. c. 20. It has been identified with the modern ferry and lead mines of Kebban Ma’den, the points where the Kara Su is joined by the Murad Chaï, 270 miles from its source.

[178] Justin makes it only 1100, and that estimate appears to be several hundreds too much.

[179] A country lying to the north of Armenia.

[180] We find in Strabo the names of some of them mentioned, such as Sophene, Acilisene, Gorgodylene, Sacassene, Gorgarene, Phanene, Comisene Orchestene, Chorsene, Cambysene, Odomantis, &c.

[181] The Ceraunian Mountains. Parisot remarks that in this description, Pliny, notwithstanding his previous professions, does not appear to have made any very great use of the list drawn up by Corbulo.

[182] That is, looking towards the south.

[183] The Septentrional Ocean, with which the ancients imagined that the northern part of the Caspian Sea is connected. See c. 15.

[184] According to Strabo, Albania was bounded on the east by the Caspian, and on the north by the Caucasus. On the west it joined Iberia, while on the south it was divided from the Greater Armenia by the river Cyrus. By later writers, the northern and western boundaries are differently given. It was found to be the fact that the Albani occupied the country on both sides of the Caucasus, and accordingly Pliny, in c. 15, carries the country further north, as far as the river Casius, while in this Chapter he makes the river Alazon, the modern Alasan, the western boundary towards Iberia.

[185] To the west of Albania.

[186] Iberia lay south of the great chain of the Caucasus, forming an extensive tract bounded on the west by Colchis, on the east by Albania, and on the south by Armenia, and watered by the river Cyrus. It corresponded very nearly with modern Georgia.

[187] The modern Alasan.

[188] Now called Kablas-Var, according to Parisot.

[189] Parisot says that this can be no other than Harmoza on the river Cyrus, in the vicinity of the modern Akhalzik.

[190] Probably meaning “of the same name.”

[191] To the west.

[192] “The Armenian workers in iron,” or “Chalybes of Armenia.” See p. 9.

[193] There are two chief passes over the chain of the Caucasus, both of which were known to the ancients. The first is between the eastern extremity of its chief north-eastern spur and the Caspian sea, near the modern Derbend. This was called “Albaniæ,” and sometimes, “Caspiæ Pylæ,” the “Albanian” or “Caspian Gates.” The other, which was nearly in the centre of the Caspian range, was called “Caucasiæ” or “Sarmaticæ Pylæ,” being the same as the modern pass of Dariyel, and probably the one here referred to.

[194] Probably the same as the present fortress of Dariyel.

[195] The first instance was that of the narrow isthmus to which the continent of Asia is reduced from Sinope across to the Gulf of Issus, as mentioned in c. 2.

[196] The shortest distance across, in a straight line, is in reality little less than 600 miles.

[197] The ancestor of the Seleucidæ, kings of Syria, treacherously slain by Ptolemy Ceraunus, brother of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

[198] Already mentioned in B. iv. c. 27.

[199] Mentioned in c. 44 of the last Book.

[200] The one lying at the mouth of the Danube, and mentioned in B. iv. c. 27.

[201] Mentioned in c. 4 of the present Book. See p. 9.

[202] Or “Mars’ Island,” also called Aretias; at this island, in the south of the Euxine, the two queens of the Amazons, Otrere and Antiope, built a temple in honour of Ares or Mars. It is thought to be the rocky islet called by the Turks Kerasunt Ada, between three and four miles from Kerasunt, the ancient Pharnacea.

[203] It is difficult to say what chain of mountains, if indeed any in particular, he would designate by this name. Parisot remarks that these mountains would seem to belong rather to the region of poetry and fable than of fact, and states that it is pretty clear that the Balkan chain, the districts in which the Danube takes its rise, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Hercynian mountains, and even the chain of Taurus and Caucasus, have at different times been described or mentioned under the name of Riphæan Mountains. It was evidently Pliny’s belief that the great Northern or Scythian Ocean skirted the northern shores of Asia, a little above the latitude perhaps of the northern extremity of the Caspian. In B. iv. c. 26, we find him crossing these, perhaps imaginary, mountains, and then proceeding to the left, along, as he supposes, the extreme northern shores of Europe; here he seems to start from the same point, but turns to the right, and proceeds along the northern, eastern, and southern shores of Asia.

[204] North-east.

[205] _I. e._ more to the west.

[206] See B. iv. c. 26.

[207] The extremity of the supposed shores of the Hyperborei.

[208] D’Anville supposes that he means the headland called Cande-Noss or Kanin-Noss, in the White Sea. Parisot, who thinks that Pliny had no idea of the regions which lie in those high latitudes, supposes that he refers to Domnes-Ness in the Baltic, and that by the Carambucis he means the river Niemen.

[209] Ansart thinks that he means the Dwina, which falls into the Gulf of Archangel.

[210] Previously mentioned in c. 7.

[211] For a full description of them, see B. iv. c. 26.

[212] See the Note to c. 7, p. 15. This description is borrowed from that given by Herodotus. Their sacred character has been explained as referring to the class or caste of priests among this Eastern people, whoever they may have been.

[213] Ansart thinks that the Cicianthi, the Georgi, and the Amazons, inhabited the modern governments of Archangel and Vologda. It seems almost akin to rashness to hazard a conjecture.

[214] It has been already stated that the Caspian Sea was, in one portion of it, so called, and in another the Hyrcanian Sea.

[215] His meaning is, that the Scythian ocean communicates on the northern shores of Asia with the Caspian Sea. Hardouin remarks, that Patrocles, the commander of the Macedonian fleet, was the first to promulgate this notion, he having taken the mouth of the river Volga for a narrow passage, by means of which the Scythian or Northern Ocean made its way into the Caspian Sea.

[216] The country of the Cadusii, in the mountainous district of Media Atropatene, on the south-west shores of the Caspian Sea, between the parallels of 390 and 370 north latitude. This district probably corresponds with the modern district of Gilan.

[217] Now the Syr-Daria or Yellow River, and watering the barren steppes of the Kirghiz-Cossacks. It really discharges itself into the Sea of Aral, and not the Caspian.

[218] The supposed Eastern Ocean of the ancients.

[219] The imaginary passage by which it was supposed to communicate with the Scythian Ocean.

[220] This being in reality the mouth of the Rha or Volga, as mentioned in Note 18, p. 24.

[221] On the eastern side.

[222] Across the mouths of the Volga.

[223] On a promontory, on the right or eastern side of the mouth of the river Volga.

[224] He here means the western shores of the Caspian, after leaving the mouth of the Volga.

[225] In c. 11.

[226] See the end of c. 14.

[227] The Cæsius of Ptolemy, and the Koisou of modern times.

[228] Probably the modern river Samour.

[229] It is difficult to determine the exact locality of this river, but it would seem to have been near the Amardus, the modern Sefid-Rúd.

[230] In c. 10.

[231] See the beginning of c. 12, and the Note, p. 21.

[232] See c. 10.

[233] He alludes to the town of Arbela, where, as it is generally said, the army of Darius was defeated by Alexander the Great; by which engagement the conflict was terminated. It was the fact, however, that Darius left his baggage and treasures at Arbela, while the battle really took place near the village of Gaugamela, about twenty miles to the north-west of Arbela. This place still retains its name of Arbil.

[234] A district in the east of Macedonia, bordering on the Thermaic gulf and the Chalcidic peninsula.

[235] Nothing is known of this place. Hardouin suggests that it may have been built on the spot where Alexander defeated Darius.

[236] Also known as Antiochia Mygdoniæ, the capital of Mygdonia. Its ruins are still to be seen near a place called Nisibin. It stood on the river Mygdonius, now the Nahral Huali.

[237] Or Nineveh, the capital of the great Assyrian monarchy, destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians about B.C. 606.

[238] There is great difficulty in ascertaining, from the accounts given by the ancient writers, the exact limits of this district, but it is supposed to have included a considerable portion of the province now known by the name of Azerbaijan. It derived its name from Atropates or Atropes, who was governor of this district under the last Darius.

[239] Most probably the place now known as Gazæa, the royal residence of the Parthian kings, and, as its name would imply, their treasure city. Colonel Rawlinson thinks that this place underwent many changes of name according to the rulers who successively occupied it; among other names, it appears to have borne that of Ecbatana.

[240] A city of great magnitude, pleasantly situate near the foot of Mount Orontes, in the northern part of Greater Media. Its original foundation was attributed by Diodorus Siculus to Semiramis, and by Herodotus to Deioces. It was the capital of the Median kingdom, and afterwards the summer residence of the Persian and Parthian kings. The genuine orthography of the name seems to be Agbatana. The ruins seen at the modern Hamadan are generally supposed to represent those of the ancient Ecbatana; but it is most probable that at different times, if not contemporaneously, there were several cities of this name in Media.

[241] Pliny in this statement, as also in the distances which he here assigns to Ecbatana, is supposed to have confounded Ecbatana with Europus, now Veramin, rebuilt by Seleucus Nicator.

[242] This was a city in the vicinity of Rhagæ, which was distant about 500 stadia from the Caspian Gates. It was built by the Greeks after the Macedonian conquest of Asia. The other places here mentioned do not appear to have been identified.

[243] See the beginning of c. 12, p. 21.

[244] This was the name of the wild tribes which occupied the high mountainous district between the great upland of Persia and the low plains of Mesopotamia. In addition to the name mentioned by Pliny, they were called Gordyæ, Cardaces, and Curtii. The present Kurds, inhabiting Kurdistan, are supposed to be descended from them.

[245] The Greek παρ’ ὁδὸν, “on the road”—meaning, probably, to the Caspian Gates. Hardouin says that the Pratitæ were so called from the Greek πρατῖται, “merchants.”

[246] Although dwelling at a considerable distance, the custody of these gates was delivered to them, Hardouin says, by the kings of Media.

[247] To the south-east of them.

[248] Mentioned in c. 29 of the present Book.

[249] Or Choarene.

[250] Its site is unknown; but it is mentioned by Appian as one of the many towns erected by Seleucus.

[251] By the use of the word “quondam,” he implies that in his time it was in ruins.

[252] A place of considerable importance, which seems to have derived its name from its “hundred gates.” It was one of the capitals of the Arsacidan princes; but, extensive though it may have been, there is great doubt where it was situate, the distance recorded by ancient writers not corresponding with any known ruins.

[253] In a northern direction, along the western shores of the Caspian.

[254] According to Hardouin, Eratosthenes, as quoted by Strabo, makes the distance 5060 stadia, or about 633 miles. He has, however, mis-translated the passage, which gives 5600 stadia, or 700 miles exactly, as stated by Pliny.

[255] Or 1960 miles.

[256] Bactra, Bactrum, or Bactrium, was one of the chief cities, if not the capital, of the province of Bactriana. It was one of the most ancient cities in the world, and the modern Balkh is generally supposed to occupy its site. Strabo, as well as Pliny, evidently considers that Bactra and Zareispa were the same place, while Appian distinguishes between the two, though he does not clearly state their relative positions.

[257] The modern Syr-Daria, mentioned in c. 15. See p. 25.

[258] By some writers called Apavareticene, in the south-eastern part of Parthia. Ansart says that it is now known as Asterabad and Ghilan.

[259] Or Dara. A strongly fortified place, built by Arsaces I., and situate on the mountains of the Zapaorteni.

[260] According to Ansart, the district now known as Tabaristan, or Mazanderan, derives the first of those names from the Tapyri.

[261] D’Anville remarks that this river still retains its “starry” name, being the modern Aster or Ester, on which Asterabad is situate.

[262] This district occupied the southern part of modern Khiva, the south-western part of Bokhara, and the north-eastern part of Khorassan. This province of the ancient Persian empire received its name from the river Margus, now the Moorghab. It first became known to the Greeks by the expeditions of Alexander and Antiochus I.

[263] Antiochus Soter, the son of Seleucus Nicator.

[264] The meaning of this, which has caused great diversity of opinion among the Commentators, seems to be, that on rebuilding it, he preferred giving it a name borne by several cities in Syria, and given to them in honour of kings of that country. To this he appears to have been prompted by a supposed resemblance which its site on the Margus bore to that of Antiochia on the Orontes.

[265] The modern Moorghab; it loses itself in the sands of Khiva.

[266] Its remains are supposed to be those of an ancient city, still to be seen at a spot called Merv, on the river Moorghab.

[267] The people of modern Bokhara.

[268] This appears to mean the nations of “Chariot horse-breeders.”

[269] In former editions, called the ‘Gridinus.’ It is impossible to identify many of these nations and rivers, as the spelling varies considerably in the respective MSS.

[270] An extensive tribe of Sogdiana, now represented by the district of Khawarezm, in the desert country of Khiva.

[271] A tribe in the north-western part of Sogdiana. They appear to have been situate to the east of the district of Khawarezm. It has been suggested that they derived their name from the Sanscrit Gandharas, a tribe beyond the Indus.

[272] The chief seat of the Aorsi, who appear to have been a numerous and powerful people both of Europe and Asia, was in the country between the Tanais, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the Caucasus. It seems doubtful, however, whether it is these people who are alluded to in the present passage.

[273] These would almost seem to be a different people from those mentioned in c. 15 of the present Book, as dwelling in Atropatene. The present appears to have been a tribe of Sogdiana.

[274] Strabo mentions a town of this name, which he places, together with Apamea, in the direction of Rhagæ. If Pliny has observed anything like order in his recital of nations and places, the Heraclea here mentioned cannot be that spoken of by Strabo, but must have been distant nearly 1000 miles from it.

[275] This was a tribe, apparently of Scythian origin, settled in Margiana, on the left bank of the Oxus. Strabo says that they worshipped the earth, and forbore to sacrifice or slay any female; but that they put to death their fellow-creatures as soon as they had passed their seventieth year, it being the privilege of the next of kin to eat the flesh of the deceased person. The aged women, however, they used to strangle, and then consign them to the earth.

[276] The modern Jihoun or Amou. It now flows into the Sea of Aral, but the ancients universally speak of it as running into the Caspian; and there are still existing distinct traces of a channel extending in a south-westerly direction from the sea of Aral to the Caspian, by which at least a portion, and probably the whole of the waters of the Oxus found their way into the Caspian; and not improbably the Sea of Aral itself was connected with the Caspian by this channel.

[277] Most probably under this name he means the Sea of Aral.

[278] The Bactrus. This river is supposed to be represented by the modern Dakash. Hardouin says that Ptolemy, B. vi. c. 11, calls this river the Zariaspis, or Zariaspes. See the Note at the end of c. 17, p. 30.

[279] Now known as the Hindoo-Koosh; a part of the great mountain-chain which runs from west to east through the centre of the southern portion of the highlands of Central Asia, and so divides the part of the continent which slopes down to the Indian ocean from the great central table-land of Tartary and Thibet. The native term, Hindoo-Koosh, is only a form of the ancient name “Indicus Caucasus,” which was sometimes given to this chain. The ancient name was derived probably from the Persian word _paru_, a “mountain.”

[280] Flowing from the north side of the Paropanisus. According to Pliny and Ptolemy, this river flowed through Bactria into the Oxus; but according to Strabo, through Hyrcania into the Caspian Sea. Some suppose it to have been only another name for the Oxus. Ansart suggests that it may have been the river now known as the Bash.

[281] D’Anville says that there is still the valley of Al Sogd, in Tartary, beyond the Oxus. The district called Sogdiana was probably composed of parts of modern Turkistan and Bokhara. The site of Panda does not appear to be known.

[282] It was built on the Jaxartes, to mark the furthest point reached by Alexander in his Scythian expedition. It has been suggested that the modern Kokend may possibly occupy its site.

[283] The “twin,” of the same birth with Diana.

[284] The Sacæ probably formed one of the most numerous and most powerful of the Scythian Nomad tribes, and dwelt to the east and north-east of the Massagetæ, as far as Servia, in the steppes of Central Asia, which are now peopled by the Kirghiz Cossacks, in whose name that of their ancestors, the Sacæ, is traced by some geographers.

[285] Meaning the “Great Getæ.” They dwelt beyond the Jaxartes and the Sea of Aral, and their country corresponds to that of the Khirghiz Tartars in the north of Independent Tartary.

[286] The Dahæ were a numerous and warlike Nomad tribe, who wandered over the vast steppes lying to the east of the Caspian Sea. Strabo has grouped them with the Sacæ and Massagetæ, as the great Scythian tribes of Inner Asia, to the north of Bactriana.

[287] See also B. iv. c. 20, and B. vi. c. 7. The position of the Essedones, or perhaps more correctly, the Issedones, may probably be assigned to the east of Ichim, in the steppes of the central border of the Kirghiz, in the immediate vicinity of the Arimaspi, who dwelt on the northern declivity of the Altaï chain. A communication is supposed to have been carried on between these two peoples for the exchange of the gold that was the produce of those mountain districts.

[288] They dwelt, according to Ptolemy, along the southern banks of the Jaxartes.

[289] Or the Mardi, a warlike Asiatic tribe. Stephanus Byzantinus, following Strabo, places the Amardi near the Hyrcani, and adds, “There are also Persian Mardi, without the _a_;” and, speaking of the Mardi, he mentions them as an Hyrcanian tribe, of predatory habits, and skilled in archery.

[290] D’Anville supposes that the Euchatæ may have dwelt at the modern Koten, in Little Bukharia. It is suggested, however, by Parisot, that they may have possibly occupied a valley of the Himalaya, in the midst of a country known as “Cathai,” or the “desert.”

[291] The first extant notice of them is in Herodotus; but before him there was the poem of Aristeas of Proconnesus, of which the title was ‘Arimaspea;’ and it is mainly upon the statements in it that the stories told relative to this people rest—such as their being one-eyed, and as to their stealing the gold from the Gryphes, or Griffins, under whose custody it was placed. Their locality is by some supposed to have been on the left bank of the Middle Volga, in the governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov: a locality which is sufficiently near the gold districts of the Uralian chain to account for the legends connecting them with the Gryphes, or guardians of the gold.

[292] The former reading was, “The Napæi are said to have perished as well as the Apellæi.” Sillig has, however, in all probability, restored the correct one. “Finding,” he says, “in the work of Diodorus Siculus, that two peoples of Scythia were called, from their two kings, who were brothers, the Napi and the Pali, we have followed close upon the footsteps of certain MSS. of Pliny, and have come to the conclusion that some disputes arose between these peoples, which ultimately led to the destruction of one of them”.

[293] Of the Caspian Sea.

[294] Said on the supposition that it is a bay or gulf of the Scythian or Septentrional Ocean.

[295] Ansart suggests that this is the modern Rocsha.

[296] From the Oxus.

[297] Ansart suggests that this island is that now called Idak, one of the Ogurtchinski group.

[298] This would apply to the north-eastern coasts of Siberia, if Pliny had had any idea of land situate in such high latitudes; but, on the contrary, as already remarked, he appears to have supposed that the continent of Asia terminated a little above the northern extremity of the Caspian. It would be a loss of time to guess what locality is meant by the Scythian Promontory.

[299] Or “man-eaters.”

[300] This, it would appear, he looks upon as the extreme north-eastern point of Asia. Parisot suggests that the word Tabis is allied to the Mongol Daba, which signifies “mountain;” or else that it may have some affinity with “Thibet.”

[301] The people of Serica, which country with Ptolemy corresponds to the north-western part of China, and the adjacent portions of Thibet and Chinese Tartary. The capital, Sera, is by most supposed to be Singan, on the Hoang-ho, but by some Peking. Pliny evidently refers to the same people, and has some notion of the locality of their country.

[302] This is generally supposed to bear reference to the cloths exported by the Seres, as _Serica_, and corresponding to our silks. On examination, however, it will appear that he rather refers to some textures of cotton, such as calicos or muslins; it being not unknown to Pliny that silks or _bombycina_ were the produce of the bombyx or silk-worm; see B. xi. c. 22. The use of the word “canities” points strongly to cotton as being the substance meant.

[303] Whether it is silk or cotton that is here referred to, Pliny seems in this passage to allude to some peculiarity in the texture, which was perhaps so close, that when brought to the Western world it was the custom to draw out a portion of the threads. In such case it perhaps strongly resembled the Chinese crapes of the present day. Speaking of Cleopatra in B. x. 141, of the Pharsalia, Lucan says, “Her white breasts are resplendent through the Sidonian fabric, which, wrought in close texture by the sley of the Seres, the needle of the workman of the Nile has separated, and has loosened the warp by stretching out the web.”

[304] He either refers to dresses consisting of nothing but open work, or what we may call fine lace, and made from the closely woven material imported from China, or else to the ‘Coan vestments’ which were so much worn by the Roman women, especially those of light character, in the Augustan age. This Coan tissue was remarkable for its extreme transparency. It has been supposed that these dresses were made of silk, as in the island of Cos silk was spun and woven at an early period, so much so as to obtain a high celebrity for the manufactures of that island. Seneca, B. vii. De Benef. severely censures the practice of wearing these thin garments. For further information on this subject, see B. xi. c. 26, 27, and B. xii. c. 22.

[305] Meaning that they do not actively seek intercourse with the rest of the world, but do not refuse to trade with those who will take the trouble of resorting to them. This coincides wonderfully with the character of the Chinese even at the present day.

[306] Ptolemy speaks of it as the Œchordas.

[307] The headland of Malacca, in the Aurea Chersonnesus, was also called by this name, but it is hardly probable that that is the place here meant.

[308] See B. iv. c. 18.

[309] The Emodi Montes (so called probably from the Indian _hemâdri_, or the “golden”) are supposed to have formed that portion of the great lateral branch of the Indian Caucasus, the range of the Himalaya, which extends along Nepaul, and probably as far as Bhotan.

[310] In c. 14 of the present Book.