Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 8. (8.)

  THE SITUATION OF CAPPADOCIA.

  We have now gone over the coast which borders upon the Inner Sea, and have enumerated the various nations that dwell thereon; let us now turn to those vast tracts of land which lie further in the interior. I do not deny that in my description I shall differ very materially from the ancient writers, but still it is one that has been compiled with the most anxious research, from a full examination into the events which have transpired of late in these countries under the command of Domitius Corbulo, and from information received either from kings who have been sent thence to Rome, as suppliants for our mercy, or else the sons of kings who have visited us in the character of hostages.

  We will begin then with the nation of the Cappadocians.

  Of all the countries of Pontus, this extends the greatest distance into the interior. On the left it leaves behind the Lesser and the Greater Armenia, as well as Commagene, and on the right all the nations of the province of Asia which we have previously described. Spreading over numerous peoples, it rises rapidly in elevation in an easterly direction towards the range of Taurus. Then passing Lycaonia, Pisidia, and Cilicia, it advances above the district of Antiochia, the portion of it known as Cataonia extending as far as Cyrrhestica, which forms part of that district. The length of Asia here is twelve hundred and fifty miles, its breadth six hundred and forty.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 9. (9.)

  THE LESSER AND THE GREATER ARMENIA.

  Greater Armenia, beginning at the mountains known as the Paryadres, is separated, as we have already stated, from Cappadocia by the river Euphrates, and, where that river turns off in its course, from Mesopotamia, by the no less famous river Tigris. Both of these rivers take their rise in Armenia, which also forms the commencement of Mesopotamia, a tract of country which lies between these streams; the intervening space between them being occupied by the Arabian Orei. It thus extends its frontier as far as Adiabene, at which point it is stopped short by a chain of mountains which takes a cross direction; whereupon the province extends in width to the left, crossing the course of the Araxes, as far as the river Cyrus; while in length it reaches as far as the Lesser Armenia, from which it is separated by the river Absarus, which flows into the Euxine, and by the mountains known as the Paryadres, in which the Absarus takes its rise.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 10.

  THE RIVERS CYRUS AND ARAXES.

  The river Cyrus takes its rise in the mountains of the Heniochi, by some writers called the Coraxici; the Araxes rises in the same mountains as the river Euphrates, at a distance from it of six miles only; and after being increased by the waters of the Usis, falls itself, as many authors have supposed, into the Cyrus, by which it is carried into the Caspian Sea.

  The more famous towns in Lesser Armenia are Cæsarea, Aza, and Nicopolis; in the Greater Arsamosata, which lies near the Euphrates, Carcathiocerta upon the Tigris, Tigranocerta which stands on an elevated site, and, on a plain adjoining the river Araxes, Artaxata. According to Aufidius, the circumference of the whole of Armenia is five thousand miles, while Claudius Cæsar makes the length, from Dascusa to the borders of the Caspian Sea, thirteen hundred miles, and the breadth, from Tigranocerta to Iberia, half that distance. It is a well-known fact, that this country is divided into prefectures, called “Strategies,” some of which singly formed a kingdom in former times; they are one hundred and twenty in number, with barbarous and uncouth names. On the east, it is bounded, though not immediately, by the Ceraunian Mountains and the district of Adiabene. The space that intervenes is occupied by the Sopheni, beyond whom is the chain of mountains, and then beyond them the inhabitants of Adiabene. Dwelling in the valleys adjoining to Armenia are the Menobardi and the Moscheni. The Tigris and inaccessible mountains surround Adiabene. To the left of it is the territory of the Medi, and in the distance is seen the Caspian Sea; which, as we shall state in the proper place, receives its waters from the ocean, and is wholly surrounded by the Caucasian Mountains. The inhabitants upon the confines of Armenia shall now be treated of.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 11. (10.)

  ALBANIA, IBERIA, AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.

  The whole plain which extends away from the river Cyrus is inhabited by the nation of the Albani, and, after them, by that of the Iberi, who are separated from them by the river Alazon, which flows into the Cyrus from the Caucasian chain. The chief cities are Cabalaca, in Albania, Harmastis, near a river of Iberia, and Neoris; there is the region also of Thasie, and that of Triare, extending as far as the mountains known as the Paryadres. Beyond these are the deserts of Colchios, on the side of which that looks towards the Ceraunian Mountains dwell the Armenochalybes; and there is the country of the Moschi, extending to the river Iberus, which flows into the Cyrus; below them are the Sacassani, and after them the Macrones, upon the river Absarus. Such is the manner in which the plains and low country are parcelled out. Again, after passing the confines of Albania, the wild tribes of the Silvi inhabit the face of the mountains, below them those of the Lubieni, and after them the Diduri and the Sodii.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 12. (11.)

  THE PASSES OF THE CAUCASUS.

  After passing the last, we come to the Gates of Caucasus, by many persons most erroneously called the Caspian Passes; a vast work of nature, which has suddenly wrenched asunder in this place a chain of mountains. At this spot are gates barred up with beams shod with iron, while beneath the middle there runs a stream which emits a most fetid odour; on this side of it is a rock, defended by a fortress, the name of which is Cumania, erected for the purpose of preventing the passage of the innumerable tribes that lie beyond. Here, then, we may see the habitable world severed into two parts by a pair of gates; they are just opposite to Harmastis, a town of the Iberi.

  Beyond the Gates of Caucasus, in the Gordyæan Mountains, the Valli and the Suani, uncivilized tribes, are found; still, however, they work the mines of gold there. Beyond these nations, and extending as far away as Pontus, are numerous nations of the Heniochi, and, after them, of the Achæi. Such is the present state of one of the most famous tracts upon the face of the earth.

  Some writers have stated that the distance between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea is not more than three hundred and seventy-five miles; Cornelius Nepos makes it only two hundred and fifty. Within such straits is Asia pent up in this second instance by the agency of the sea! Claudius Cæsar has informed us that from the Cimmerian Bosporus to the Caspian Sea is a distance of only one hundred and fifty miles, and that Nicator Seleucus contemplated cutting through this isthmus just at the time when he was slain by Ptolemy Ceraunus. It is a well-known fact that the distance from the Gates of Caucasus to the shores of the Euxine is two hundred miles.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 13. (12.)

  THE ISLANDS OF THE EUXINE.

  The islands of the Euxine are the Placate or Cyaneæ, otherwise called Symplegades, and Apollonia, surnamed Thynias, to distinguish it from the island of that name in Europe; it is four miles in circumference, and one mile distant from the mainland. Opposite to Pharnacea is Chalceritis, to which the Greeks have given the name of Aria, and consecrated it to Mars; here, they say, there were birds that used to attack strangers with blows of their wings.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 14. (13.)

  NATIONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE SCYTHIAN OCEAN.

  Having now stated all that bears reference to the interior of Asia, let us cross in imagination the Riphæan Mountains, and traverse the shores of the ocean to the right. On three sides does this ocean wash the coasts of Asia, as the Scythian Ocean on the north, the Eastern Ocean on the east, and the Indian Ocean on the south; and it is again divided into various names, derived from the numerous gulfs which it forms, and the nations which dwell upon its shores. A great part of Asia, h
owever, which lies exposed to the north, through the noxious effects of those freezing climates, consists of nothing but vast deserts. From the extreme north northeast to the point where the sun rises in the summer, it is the country of the Scythians. Still further than them, and beyond the point where north north-east begins, some writers have placed the Hyperborei, who are said, indeed, by the majority to be a people of Europe. After passing this point, the first place that is known is Lytarmis, a promontory of Celtica, and next to it the river Carambucis, where the chain of the Riphæan Mountains terminates, and with it the extreme rigour of the climate; here, too, we have heard of a certain people being situate, called the Arimphæi, a race not much unlike the Hyperborei. Their habitations are the groves, and the berries their diet; long hair is held to be disgraceful by the women as well as the men, and they are mild in their manners. Hence it is that they are reported to be a sacred race, and are never molested even by the savage tribes which border upon them, and not only they, but such other persons as well as may have fled to them for refuge. Beyond these we come straight to the Scythians, the Cimmerii, the Cisianthi, the Georgi, and a nation of Amazons. These last extend to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 15.

  THE CASPIAN AND HYRCANIAN SEA.

  Bursting through, this sea makes a passage from the Scythian Ocean into the back of Asia, receiving various names from the nations which dwell upon its banks, the two most famous of which are the Caspian and the Hyrcanian races. Clitarchus is of opinion that the Caspian Sea is not less in area than the Euxine. Eratosthenes gives the measure of it on the south-east, along the coast of Cadusia and Albania, as five thousand four hundred stadia; thence, through the territories of the Anariaci, the Amardi, and the Hyrcani, to the mouth of the river Zonus he makes four thousand eight hundred stadia, and thence to the mouth of the Jaxartes two thousand four hundred; which makes in all a distance of one thousand five hundred and seventy-five miles. Artemidorus, however, makes this sum smaller by twenty-five miles. Agrippa bounds the Caspian Sea and the nations around it, including Armenia, on the east by the Ocean of the Seres, on the west by the chain of the Caucasus, on the south by that of Taurus, and on the north by the Scythian Ocean; and he states it, so far as its extent is known, to be four hundred and eighty miles in length, and two hundred and ninety in breadth. There are not wanting, however, some authors who state that its whole circumference, from the Straits, is two thousand five hundred miles.

  Its waters make their way into this sea by a very narrow mouth, but of considerable length; and where it begins to enlarge, it curves obliquely with horns in the form of a crescent, just as though it would make a descent from its mouth into Lake Mæotis, resembling a sickle in shape, as M. Varro says. The first of its gulfs is called the Scythian Gulf; it is inhabited on both sides, by the Scythians, who hold communication with each other across the Straits, the Nomades being on one side, together with the Sauromatæ, divided into tribes with numerous names, and on the other, the Abzoæ, who are also divided into an equal number. At the entrance, on the right hand side, dwell the Udini, a Scythian tribe, at the very angle of the mouth. Then along the coast there are the Albani, the descendants of Jason, it is said; that part of the sea which lies in front of them, bears the name of ‘ Albanian.’ This nation, which lies along the Caucasian chain, comes down, as we have previously stated, as far as the river Cyrus, which forms the boundary of Armenia and Iberia. Above the maritime coast of Albania and the nation of the Udini, the Sarmatæ, the Utidorsi, and the Aroteres stretch along its shores, and in their rear the Sauromatian Amazons, already spoken of

  The rivers which run through Albania in their course to the sea are the Casius and the Albanus, and then the Cambyses, which rises in the Caucasian mountains, and next to it the Cyrus, rising in those of the Coraxici, as already mentioned. Agrippa states that the whole of this coast, inaccessible from rocks of an immense height, is four hundred and twenty-five miles in length, beginning from the river Casius. After we pass the mouth of the Cyrus, it begins to be called the ‘Caspian Sea;’ the Caspii being a people who dwell upon its shores.

  In this place it may be as well to correct an error into which many persons have fallen, and even those who lately took part with Corbulo in the Armenian war. The Gates of Iberia, which we have mentioned as the Caucasian, they have spoken of as being called the ‘Caspian,’ and the coloured plans which have been sent from those parts to Rome have that name written upon them. The menaced expedition, too, that was contemplated by the Emperor Nero, was said to be designed to extend as far as the Caspian Gates, where- as it was really intended for those which lead through Iberia into the territory of the Sarmatæ; there being hardly any possibility of approach to the Caspian Sea, by reason of the close juxtaposition of the mountains there. There are, however, other Caspian Gates, which join up to the Caspian tribes; but these can only be distinguished from a perusal of the narrative of those who took part in the expedition of Alexander the Great.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 16.

  ADIABENE.

  The kingdom of the Persians, by which we now understand that of Parthia, is elevated upon the Caucasian chain between two seas, the Persian and the Hyrcanian. To the Greater Armenia, which in the front slopes towards Commagene, is joined Sophene, which lies upon the descent on both sides thereof, and next to it is Adiabene, the most advanced frontier of Assyria; a part of which is Arbelitis, 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 engage- ment 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, where Alexander con- quered Darius, and which joins up to Syria. The whole of this country was called Mygdonia by the Macedonians, on account of the resemblance it bore to Mygdonia in Europe. Its cities are Alexandria, and Antiochia, also called Nisibis; this last place is distant from Artaxata seven hundred and fifty miles. There was also in former times Ninus, a most renowned city, on the banks of the Tigris, with an aspect towards the west. Adjoining the other front of Greater Armenia, which runs down towards the Caspian Sea, we find Atropatene, which is separated from Otene, a region of Armenia, by the river Araxes; Gazæ is its chief city, distant from Artaxata four hundred and fifty miles, and the same from Ecbatana in Media, to which country Atropatene belongs.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 17. (14.)

  MEDIA AND THE CASPIAN GATES.

  Ecbatana, the capital of Media, was built by king Seleucus, at a distance from Great Seleucia of seven hundred and fifty miles, and twenty miles from the Caspian Gates. The remaining towns of the Medians are Phazaca, Aganzaga, and Apamea, surnamed Rhagiane. The reason of these passes receiving the name of “Gates,” is the same that has been stated above. The chain of mountains is suddenly broken by a passage of such extreme narrowness that, for a distance of eight miles, a single chariot can barely find room to move along: the whole of this pass has been formed by artificial means. Both on the right hand and the left are overhanging rocks, which look as though they had been exposed to the action of fire; and there is a tract of country, quite destitute of water, twenty-eight miles in extent. This narrow pass, too, is rendered still more difficult by a liquid salt which oozes from the rocks, and uniting in a single stream, makes its way along the pass. Besides this, it is frequented by such multitudes of serpents, that the passage is quite impracticable except in winter.

  (15.) Joining up to Adiabene are the people formerly known as the ‘Carduchi,’ now the Cordueni, in front of whom the river Tigris flows: and next to them are the Pratitæ, entitled the Par Odon, who hold possession of the Caspian Gates. On the other side of these gates we come to the deserts of Parthia and the mountain chain of Cithenus; and after that, the most pleasant locality of
all Parthia, Choara by name. Here were two cities of the Parthians, built in former times for their protection against the people of Media, Calliope, and Issatis, the last of which stood formerly on a rock. Hecatompylos, the capital of Parthia, is distant from the Caspian Gates one hundred and thirty-three miles. In such an effectual manner is the kingdom of Parthia shut out by these passes. After leaving these gates we find the nation of the Caspii, extending as far as the shores of the Caspian, a race which has given its name to these gates as well as to the sea: on the left there is a mountainous district. Turning back from this nation to the river Cyrus, the distance is said to be two hundred and twenty miles; but if we go from that river as far down as the Caspian Gates, the distance is seven hundreds miles. In the itineraries of Alexander the Great these gates were made the central or turning point in his expeditions; the distance from the Caspian Gates to the frontier of India being there set down as fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty stadia, to the city of Bactra, commonly called Zariaspa, three thousand seven hundred, and thence to the river Jaxartes five thousand stadia.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 18. (16.)

  NATIONS SITUATE AROUND THE HYRCANIAN SEA.

  Lying to the east of the Caspii is the region known as Apavortene, in which there is a place noted for its singular fertility, called Dareium. We then come to the nations of the Tapyri, the Anariaci, the Staures, and the Hyrcani, past whose shores and beyond the river Sideris the Caspian begins to take the name of the ‘Hyrcanian’ Sea: on this side of that stream are also the rivers Maxeras and Strato: all of them take their rise in the Caucasian chain. Next comes the district of Margiane, so remarkable for its sunny climate. It is the only spot in all these regions that produces the vine, being shut in on every side by verdant and refreshing hills. This district is fifteen hundred stadia in circumference, but is rendered remarkably difficult of access by sandy deserts, which extend a distance of one hundred and twenty miles: it lies opposite to the country of Parthia, and in it Alexander founded the city of Alexandria. This place having been destroyed by the barbarians, Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, rebuilt it on the same site as a Syrian city. For, seeing that it was watered by the Margus, which passes through it, and is afterwards divided into a number of streams for the irrigation of the district of Zothale, he restored it, but preferred giving it the name of Antiochia. The circumference of this city is seventy stadia: it was to this place that Orodes conducted such of the Romans as had survived the defeat of Crassus. From the mountain heights of this district, along the range of Caucasus, the savage race of the Mardi, a free people, extends as far as the Bactri. Below the district inhabited by them, we find the nations of the Orciani, the Commori, the Berdrigæ, the Harmatotropi, the Citomaræ, the Comani, the Marucæi, and the Mandruani. The rivers here are the Mandrus and the Chindrus. Beyond the nations already mentioned, are the Chorasmii, the Candari, the Attasini, the Paricani, the Sarangæ, the Marotiani, the Aorsi, the Gaëli, by the Greek writers called Cadusii, the Matiani, the city of Heraclea, which was founded by Alexander, but was afterwards destroyed, and rebuilt by Antiochus, and by him called Achaïs; the Derbices also, through the middle of whose territory the river Oxus runs, after rising in Lake Oxus, the Syrmatæ, the Oxydracæ, the Heniochi, the Bateni, the Saraparæ, and the Bactri, whose chief city is Zariaspe, which afterwards received the name of Bactra, from the river there. This last nation lies at the back of Mount Paropanisus, over against the sources of the river Indus, and is bounded by the river Ochus. Beyond it are the Sogdiani, the town of Panda, and, at the very extremity of their territory, Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great. At this spot are the altars which were raised by Hercules and Father Liber, as also by Cyrus, Semiramis, and Alexander; for the expeditions of all these conquerors stopped short at this region, bounded as it is by the river Jaxartes, by the Scythians known as the Silis, and by Alexander and his officers supposed to have been the Tanais. This river was crossed by Demodamas, a general of kings Seleucus and Antiochus, and whose account more particularly we have here followed. He also consecrated certain altars here to Apollo Didymæus.