Some part of the country is
encompassed
by the Caucasian mountains;
for branches of this range advance, as I have said, towards the south.
for branches of this range advance, as I have said, towards the south.
Strabo
The Taurus, extending from west to east, embraces the middle of this
continent, like a girdle, leaving one portion to the north, another to
the south. The Greeks call the former Asia Within the Taurus,[891] the
latter, Asia Without the Taurus. We have said this before, but it is
repeated now to assist the memory.
3. The Taurus has in many places a breadth of 3000 stadia; its length
equals that of Asia, namely 45,000 stadia,[892] [CAS. 491] reckoning
from the continent opposite to Rhodes to the eastern extremities of
India and Scythia.
4. It is divided into many parts, which are circumscribed by boundaries
of greater or less extent, and distinguished by various names.
But as such an extended range of mountains must comprise nations some of
which are little known, and others with whom we are well acquainted, as
Parthians,[893] Medes, Armenians, some of the Cappadocians, Cilicians,
and Pisidians; those which approach near the northern parts must be
assigned to the north, (northern Asia,) those approximating the southern
parts, to the south, (southern Asia,) and those situated in the middle
of the mountains must be placed on account of the similarity of the
temperature of the air, for it is cold to the north, while the air of
the south is warm.
The currents of almost all the rivers which flow from the Taurus are in
a direction contrary to each other, some running to the north, others to
the south, at least at the commencement of their course, although
afterwards some bend towards the east or west. They naturally suggest
the adoption of this chain of mountains as a boundary in the division of
Asia into two portions; in the same manner that the sea within the
Pillars, which for the most part runs in the same line with these
mountains, conveniently forms two continents, Europe and Africa, and is
a remarkable boundary to both.
5. In passing in our geographical description from Europe to Asia, the
first parts of the country which present themselves are those in the
northern division, and we shall therefore begin with these.
Of these parts the first are those about the Tanaïs, (or Don,) which we
have assumed as the boundary of Europe and Asia. These have a kind of
peninsular form, for they are surrounded on the west by the river Tanaïs
(or Don) and the Palus Mæotis[894] as far as the Cimmerian
Bosporus,[895] and that part of the coast of the Euxine which terminates
at Colchis; on the north by the Ocean, as far as the mouth of the
Caspian Sea; on the east by the same sea, as far as the confines of
Albania and Armenia, where the rivers Cyrus[896] and Araxes[897] empty
themselves; the latter flowing through Armenia, and the Cyrus through
Iberia[898] and Albania;[899] on the south is the tract of country
extending from the mouth of the Cyrus as far as Colchis, and comprising
about 3000 stadia from sea to sea, across the territory of the Albani,
and Iberes,[900] so as to represent an isthmus. [901]
Those writers do not deserve attention who contract the isthmus as much
as Cleitarchus, according to whom it is subject to inundations of the
sea from either side. According to Posidonius the isthmus is 1500 stadia
in extent, that is, as large as the isthmus from Pelusium to the Red
Sea. And I think, says he, that the isthmus between the Palus Mæotis and
the Ocean is not very different from this in extent.
6. I know not how any one can rely upon his authority respecting what is
uncertain, when he has nothing probable to advance on the subject; for
he reasons so falsely respecting things which are evident, and this too
when he enjoyed the friendship of Pompey, who had carried on war against
the Iberes and Albani, and was acquainted with both the Caspian and
Colchian[902] Seas on each side of the isthmus. It is related, that when
Pompey[903] was at Rhodes, on his expedition against the pirates, (he
was soon afterwards to carry on war against Mithridates and the nations
as far as the Caspian Sea,) he accidentally heard a philosophical
lecture of Posidonius; and on his departure he asked Posidonius if he
had any commands; to which he replied, [CAS. 492]
“To stand the first in worth, as in command. ”[904]
Add to this, that he wrote the history of Pompey. For these reasons he
ought to have paid a greater regard to truth.
7. The second portion is that above the Hyrcanian,[905] which we also
call the Caspian Sea, extending as far as the Scythians near the
Indians.
The third portion is continuous with the above-mentioned isthmus, and
consists of the country following next in order to the isthmus and the
Caspian Gates,[906] and approaching nearest the parts within the Taurus,
and to Europe; these are Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, and the intervening
country. [907]
The fourth portion consists of the tract within the Halys,[908] and the
parts upon and without the Taurus, which coincide with the peninsula
formed by the isthmus,[909] which separates the Euxine and the Cilician
Seas. Among the other countries beyond the Taurus we place Indica and
Ariana,[910] as far as the nations which extend to the Persian Sea, the
Arabian Gulf, and the Nile, and to the Ægyptian and the Issic seas.
CHAPTER II.
1. According to this disposition, the first portion towards the north
and the Ocean is inhabited by certain tribes of Scythians, shepherds,
(nomades,) and Hamaxœci (or those who live in waggon-houses). Within
these tribes live Sarmatians, who also are Scythians, Aorsi,[911] and
Siraci, extending as far as the Caucasian Mountains towards the south.
Some of these are Nomades, or shepherd tribes, others Scenitæ, (or
dwellers in tents,) and Georgi, or tillers of the ground. About the lake
Mæotis live the Mæotæ. Close to the sea is the Asiatic portion of the
Bosporus and Sindica. [912] Next follow Achæi, Zygi, Heniochi,[913]
Cercetæ, and Macropogones (or the long-beards). Above these people are
situated the passes of the Phtheirophagi (or Lice-eaters). After the
Heniochi is Colchis, lying at the foot of the Caucasian and Moschic
mountains. Having assumed the Tanaïs as the boundary of Europe and Asia,
we must begin our description in detail from this river.
2. [CAS. 493] The Tanaïs or Don flows from the northern parts. It does
not however flow in a direction diametrically opposite to the Nile, as
some suppose, but its course is more to the east than that of the latter
river; its sources, like those of the Nile, are unknown. A great part of
the course of the Nile is apparent, for it traverses a country the whole
of which is easy of access, and its stream is navigable to a great
distance from its mouth. We are acquainted with the mouths of the Don,
(there are two in the most northerly parts of the Mæotis, distant 60
stadia from each other,) but a small part only of the tract above the
mouths is explored, on account of the severity of the cold, and the
destitute state of the country; the natives are able to endure it, who
subsist, like the wandering shepherd tribes, on the flesh of their
animals and on milk, but strangers cannot bear the climate nor its
privations. Besides, the nomades dislike intercourse with other people,
and being a strong and numerous tribe have excluded travellers from
every part of the country which is accessible, and from all such rivers
as are navigable. For this reason some have supposed that the sources of
the river are among the Caucasian mountains, that, after flowing in a
full stream towards the north, it then makes a bend, and discharges
itself into the Mæotis. Theophanes[914] of Mitylene is of the same
opinion with these writers. Others suppose that it comes from the higher
parts of the Danube, but they do not produce any proof of so remote a
source, and in other climates, though they seem to think it impossible
for it to rise at no great distance and in the north.
3. Upon the river, and on the lake, stands a city Tanaïs, founded by the
Greeks, who possess the Bosporus; but lately the King Polemon[915] laid
it waste on account of the refractory disposition of the inhabitants. It
was the common mart both of the Asiatic and of the European nomades, and
of those who navigate the lake from the Bosporus, some of whom bring
slaves and hides, or any other nomadic commodity; others exchange wine
for clothes, and other articles peculiar to a civilized mode of life.
In front of the mart at the distance of 100 stadia is an island
Alopecia, a settlement of a mixed people. There are other small islands
not far off in the lake.
The city Tanaïs,[916] to those who sail in a direct line towards the
north, is distant from the mouth of the Mæotis 2200 stadia, nor is the
distance much greater in sailing along the coast (on the east).
4. In the voyage along the coast, the first object which presents itself
to those who have proceeded to the distance of 800 stadia from the
Tanaïs, is the Great Rhombites, as it is called, where large quantities
of fish are captured for the purpose of being salted. Then at the
distance of 800 stadia more is the Lesser Rhombites,[917] and a
promontory, which has smaller fisheries. The [nomades] at the former
have small islands as stations for their vessels, those at the Lesser
Rhombites are the Mæotæ who cultivate the ground. For along the whole of
this coasting voyage live Mæotæ, who are husbandmen, but not less
addicted to war than the nomades. They are divided into several tribes;
those near the Tanaïs are more savage, those contiguous to the Bosporus
are more gentle in their manners.
From the Lesser Rhombites to Tyrambe, and the river Anticeites, are 600
stadia; then 120 to the Cimmerian village, whence vessels set out on
their voyage along the lake. In this coasting voyage we meet with some
look-out places, (for observing the fish,) said to belong to the
Clazomenians.
5. Cimmericum was formerly a city built upon a peninsula, the isthmus of
which it enclosed with a ditch and mound. The Cimmerii once possessed
great power in the Bosporus, whence it was called the Cimmerian
Bosporus. These are the people who overran the territory of the
inhabitants of the inland parts, on the right of the Euxine, as far as
Ionia. They were dislodged from these places by Scythians, and the
Scythians by Greeks, who founded Panticapæum,[918] and the other cities
on the Bosporus.
6. [CAS. 494] Next to the village Achilleium,[919] where is the temple
of Achilles, are 20 stadia. Here is the narrowest passage, 20 stadia or
more, across the mouth of the Mæotis; on the opposite continent is
Myrmecium, a village. Near are Heracleium and Parthenium.
7. Thence to the monument of Satyrus are 90 stadia; this is a mound
raised on a promontory,[920] in memory of one of the illustrious princes
of the Bosporus.
8. Near it is Patræus,[921] a village, from which to Corocondame,[922] a
village, are 130 stadia. This is the termination of the Cimmerian
Bosporus, as it is called. The narrow passage at the mouth of the Mæotis
derives its name from the straits opposite the Achilleium, and the
Myrmecium; it extends as far as Corocondame and a small village opposite
to it in the territory of the Panticapæans, called Acra,[923] and
separated by a channel of 70 stadia in width. The ice reaches even to
this place, for the Mæotis is frozen during severe frost so as to become
passable on foot. The whole of this narrow passage has good harbours.
9. Beyond Corocondame is a large lake[924] which is called from the
place Corocondametis. It discharges itself into the sea at the distance
of 10 stadia from the village. A branch[925] of the river Anticeites
empties itself into the lake, and forms an island, which is surrounded
by the waters of the lake, of the Mæotis, and of the river. Some persons
give this river the name of Hypanis,[926] as well as to that[927] near
the Borysthenes. [928]
10. Upon sailing[929] into the Corocondametis, we meet with Phanagoria,
a considerable city, Cepi, Hermonassa, and Apaturum, the temple of Venus
(Apatura). Of these cities Phanagoria and Cepi are situated in the
above-mentioned island on the left hand at the entrance of the lake; the
others are on the right hand in Sindica beyond the Hypanis. There is
Gorgipia,[930] but the royal seat of the Sindi is in Sindica near the
sea, and Aborace.
All those who are subject to the princes of the Bosporus are called
Bosporani. The capital of the European Bosporani is Panticapæum, and of
the Asian Bosporani, the city of Phanagorium,[931] for this is the name
given to it. Phanagoria seems to be the mart for those commodities which
are brought down from the Mæotis, and from the barbarous country lying
above it; and Panticapæum, the mart for the commodities which are
transported thither from the sea. There is also in Phanagoria a
magnificent temple of Venus Apatura, the Deceitful. This epithet of the
goddess is derived from a fable, according to which the giants assaulted
her in this place. Having obtained the assistance of Hercules she hid
him in a cave, and then admitted the giants one by one into her
presence, and delivered them over to Hercules, thus craftily[932] to be
put to death.
11. The Sindi, Dandarii, Toreatæ, Agri, Arrhechi, and besides these, the
Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and many others, belong to the
Mæotæ; to this people belong the Aspurgiani also, who live between
Phanagoria and Gorgipia, at the distance of 500 stadia [from the
Mæotis? ]. Polemon, the king, entered the country of these people under a
[CAS. 495] show of friendship, but his design was discovered, and they
on their part attacked him unawares. He was taken prisoner, and put to
death.
With respect to the Asian Mæotæ in general, some of them were the
subjects of those who possessed the mart on the Tanaïs; others, of the
Bosporani; and different bodies have revolted at different times. The
princes of the Bosporani were frequently masters of the country as far
as the Tanaïs, and particularly the last princes, Pharnaces, Asander,
and Polemon.
Pharnaces is said to have once brought even the river Hypanis over the
territory of the Dandarii through some ancient canal, which he had
caused to be cleared, and inundated the country.
12. Next to Sindica, and Gorgipia upon the sea, is the sea-coast
inhabited by the Achæi, Zygi, and Heniochi. It is for the most part
without harbours and mountainous, being a portion of the Caucasus.
These people subsist by piracy.
Their boats are slender, narrow, light, and capable of holding about
five and twenty men, and rarely thirty. The Greeks call them camaræ.
They say, that at the time of the expedition of Jason the Achæi Phthiotæ
founded the Achaia there, and the Lacedæmonians, Heniochia. Their
leaders were Rhecas, and Amphistratus, the charioteers[933] of the
Dioscuri; it is probable that the Heniochi had their name from these
persons. They equip fleets consisting of these camaræ, and being masters
of the sea sometimes attack vessels of burden, or invade a territory, or
even a city. Sometimes even those who occupy the Bosporus assist them,
by furnishing places of shelter for their vessels, and supply them with
provision and means for the disposal of their booty. When they return to
their own country, not having places suitable for mooring their vessels,
they put their camaræ on their shoulders, and carry them up into the
forests, among which they live, and where they cultivate a poor soil.
When the season arrives for navigation, they bring them down again to
the coast. Their habits are the same even in a foreign country, for they
are acquainted with wooded tracts, in which, after concealing their
camaræ, they wander about on foot day and night, for the purpose of
capturing the inhabitants and reducing them to slavery. But they readily
allow whatever is taken to be ransomed, and signify this after their
departure to those who have lost their property. In places where there
is a regular government, the injured find means of repelling them. For,
frequently, the pirates are attacked in return, and are carried off
together with their camaræ. But the country subject to the Romans is not
so well protected, in consequence of the neglect of those who are sent
there.
13. Such then is their mode of life. But even these people are governed
by persons called Sceptuchi, and these again are subject to the
authority of tyrants, or of kings. The Heniochi had four kings at the
time that Mithridates Eupator fled from the country of his ancestors to
the Bosporus, and passed through their country, which was open to him,
but he avoided that of the Zygi on account of its ruggedness, and the
savage character of the people. He proceeded with difficulty along the
sea-coast, frequently embarking in vessels, till he came to the country
of the Achæi, by whom he was hospitably received. He had then completed
a journey from the Phasis of not much less than 4000 stadia.
14. From Corocondame, the course of the voyage is directly towards the
east. At the distance of 180 stadia is the Sindic harbour, and a city.
Then at the distance of 400 stadia is Bata,[934] as it is called, a
village with a harbour. It is at this place that Sinope on the south
seems to be directly opposite to this coast, as Carambis[935] has been
said to be opposite to Criu-Metopon. [936]
Next to Bata Artemidorus places the coast of the Cercetæ, which has
places of shelter for vessels, and villages along an extent of about 850
stadia; then at 500 stadia more the coast of the Achæi, then that of the
Heniochi, at 1000 stadia, then the Great Pityus, from which to
Dioscurias are 360 stadia.
The authors most worthy of credit who have written the history of the
Mithridatic wars, enumerate the Achæi first, then Zygi, then Heniochi,
then Cercetæ, Moschi, Colchi, and above these the Phtheirophagi, Soanes,
and other smaller nations about the Caucasus.
The [CAS. 497] direction of the sea-coast is at first, as I have said,
towards the east, with a southern aspect; but from Bata it makes a bend
for a small distance, then fronts the west, and terminates towards
Pityus, and Dioscurias, for these places are contiguous to the coast of
Colchis, which I have already mentioned. Next to Dioscurias is the
remainder of the coast of Colchis, and Trapezus contiguous to it; where
the coast, having made a considerable turn, then extends nearly in a
straight line, and forms the side on the right hand of the Euxine,
looking to the north.
The whole of the coast of the Achæi, and of the other nations, as far as
Dioscurias, and the inland places lying in a straight line towards the
south, are at the foot of the Caucasus.
15. This mountain overhangs both the Euxine and the Caspian seas,
forming a kind of rampart to the isthmus which separates one sea from
the other. To the south it is the boundary of Albania and Iberia, to the
north, of the plains of the Sarmatians. It is well wooded, and contains
various kinds of timber, and especially trees adapted to ship-building.
Eratosthenes says that the Caucasus is called Mount Caspius by the
natives, a name borrowed perhaps from the Caspii. It throws out forks
towards the south, which embrace the middle of Iberia, and touch the
Armenian and those called the Moschic mountains,[937] and besides these
the mountains of Scydises, and the Paryadres. All these are portions of
the Taurus, which forms the southern side of Armenia, and are broken off
in a manner from it towards the north, and extend as far as Caucasus,
and the coast of the Euxine which lies between Colchis and
Themiscyra. [938]
16. Situated on a bay of this kind, and occupying the most easterly
point of the whole sea, is Dioscurias,[939] called the recess of the
Euxine Sea, and the extreme boundary of navigation, for in this sense we
are to understand the proverbial saying,
“To Phasis where ships end their course. ”
Not as if the author of the iambic intended to speak of the river, nor
of the city of the same name upon the river, but Colchis designated by a
part, because from the city and the river there remains a voyage of not
less than 600 stadia in a straight line to the recess of the bay. This
same Dioscurias is the commencement of the isthmus lying between the
Caspian Sea and the Euxine. It is a common mart of the nations situated
above it, and in its neighbourhood. There assemble at Dioscurias 70 or,
according to some writers who are careless in their statements,[940] 300
nations. All speak different languages, from living dispersed in various
places and without intercourse, in consequence of their fierce and
savage manners. They are chiefly Sarmatians, but all of them Caucasian
tribes. So much then respecting Dioscurias.
17. The greater part of the rest of Colchis lies upon the sea. The
Phasis,[941] a large river, flows through it. It has its source in
Armenia, and receives the Glaucus,[942] and the Hippus,[943] which issue
from the neighbouring mountains. Vessels ascend it as far as the
fortress of Sarapana,[944] which is capable of containing the population
even of a city. Persons proceed thence by land to the Cyrus in four days
along a carriage road. [945] Upon the Phasis is a city of the same name,
a mart of the Colchians, bounded on one side by the river, on another by
a lake, on the third by the sea. Thence it is a voyage of three or
two[946] days to Amisus and Sinope, on account of the softness of the
shores caused by the discharge of rivers. [947]
The country is fertile and its produce is good, except the [CAS. 498]
honey, which has generally a bitter taste. It furnishes all materials
for ship-building. It produces them in great plenty, and they are
conveyed down by its rivers. It supplies flax, hemp, wax, and pitch, in
great abundance. Its linen manufacture is celebrated, for it was
exported to foreign parts; and those who wish to establish an affinity
of race between the Colchians and the Ægyptians, advance this as a proof
of it.
Above the rivers which I have mentioned in the Moschic territory is the
temple of Leucothea,[948] founded by Phrixus[949] and his oracle, where
a ram is not sacrificed. It was once rich, but was plundered in our time
by Pharnaces, and a little afterwards by Mithridates of Pergamus. [950]
For when a country is devastated, in the words of Euripides,
“respect to the gods languishes, and they are not honoured. ”[951]
18. How great anciently was the celebrity of this country, appears from
the fables which refer obscurely to the expedition of Jason, who
advanced as far even as Media; and still earlier intimations of it are
found in the fables relative to the expedition of Phrixus. The kings
that preceded, and who possessed the country when it was divided into
Sceptuchies,[952] were not very powerful, but when Mithridates Eupator
had enlarged his territory, this country fell under his dominion. One of
his courtiers was always sent as sub-governor and administrator of its
public affairs. Of this number was Moaphernes, my mother’s paternal
uncle. It was from this country that the king derived the greatest part
of his supplies for the equipment of his naval armament. But upon the
overthrow of Mithridates, all the country subject to his power was
disunited, and divided among several persons. At last Polemon obtained
possession of Colchis, and after his death his wife Pythodoris reigned
over the Colchians, Trapezus, Pharnacia, and the Barbarians situated
above them, of whom I shall speak in another place.
The territory of the Moschi, in which is situated the temple, is divided
into three portions, one of which is occupied by Colchians, another by
Iberians, and the third by Armenians. There is in Iberia on the confines
of Colchis, a small city, the city of Phrixus, the present Idessa, a
place of strength. The river Charis[953] flows near Dioscurias.
19. Among the nations that assemble at Dioscurias are the Phtheiropagi,
who have their appellation from their dirt and filth.
Near them live the Soanes, not less dirty in their habits, but superior
perhaps to all the tribes in strength and courage. They are masters of
the country around them, and occupy the heights of Caucasus above
Dioscurias. They have a king, and a council of three hundred persons.
They can assemble, it is said, an army of two hundred thousand men, for
all their people are fighting men, but not distributed into certain
orders. In their country the winter torrents are said to bring down even
gold, which the Barbarians collect in troughs pierced with holes, and
lined with fleeces; and hence the fable of the golden fleece. Some[954]
say that they are called Iberians (the same name as the western
Iberians) from the gold mines found in both countries. The Soanes use
poison of an extraordinary kind for the points of their weapons; even
the odour of this poison is a cause of suffering to those who are
wounded by arrows thus prepared.
The other neighbouring nations about the Caucasus occupy barren and
narrow tracts of land. But the tribes of the Albanians and Iberians, who
possess nearly the whole of the above-mentioned isthmus, may also be
denominated Caucasian, and yet they live in a fertile country and
capable of being well peopled.
CHAPTER III.
1. [CAS. 499] The greater part of Iberia is well inhabited, and contains
cities and villages where the houses have roofs covered with tiles, and
display skill in building; there are market-places in them, and various
kinds of public edifices.
2.
Some part of the country is encompassed by the Caucasian mountains;
for branches of this range advance, as I have said, towards the south.
These districts are fruitful, comprise the whole of Iberia, and extend
to Armenia and Colchis. In the middle is a plain watered by rivers, the
largest of which is the Cyrus, which, rising in Armenia, immediately
enters the above-mentioned plain, having received the Aragus,[955] which
flows at the foot of the Caucasus, and other streams, passes through a
narrow channel into Albania. It flows however between this country and
Armenia in a large body through plains, which afford excellent pasture.
After having received several rivers, and among these the
Alazonius,[956] Sandobanes, the Rhœtaces, and Chanes, all of which are
navigable, it discharges itself into the Caspian Sea. Its former name
was Corus.
3. The plain is occupied by those Iberians who are more disposed to
agriculture, and are inclined to peace. Their dress is after the
Armenian and Median fashion. Those who inhabit the mountainous country,
and they are the most numerous, are addicted to war, live like the
Sarmatians and Scythians, on whose country they border, and with whom
they are connected by affinity of race. These people however engage in
agriculture also, and can assemble many myriads of persons from among
themselves, and from the Scythians and Sarmatians, whenever any
disturbance occurs.
4. There are four passes into the country; one through Sarapana, a
Colchian fortress, and through the defiles near it, along which the
Phasis, rendered passable from one side to the other by a hundred and
twenty bridges, in consequence of the winding of its stream, descends
abruptly and violently into Colchis. The places in its course are
hollowed by numerous torrents, during the rainy season. It rises in the
mountains which lie above, and many springs contribute to swell its
stream. In the plains it receives other rivers also, among which are the
Glaucus[957] and the Hippus. [958] The stream thus filled and navigable
discharges itself into the Pontus. It has on its banks a city of the
same name, and near it a lake. Such is the nature of the entrance into
Iberia from Colchis, shut in by rocks and strongholds, and by rivers
running through ravines.
5. From the Nomades on the north there is a difficult ascent for three
days, and then a narrow road by the side of the river Aragus, a journey
of four days, which road admits only one person to pass at a time. The
termination of the road is guarded by an impregnable wall.
From Albania the entrance is at first cut through rocks, then passes
over a marsh formed by the river (Alazonius),[959] in its descent from
the Caucasus. On the side of Armenia are the narrow passes on the Cyrus,
and those on the Aragus, for before the junction of these rivers they
have on their banks strong cities set upon rocks, at the distance from
each other of about 18 stadia, as Harmozica[960] on the Cyrus, and on
the other (Aragus) Seusamora. Pompey formerly in his way from Armenia,
and afterwards Canidius, marched through these passes into Iberia.
6. The inhabitants of this country are also divided into four classes;
the first and chief is that from which the kings are appointed. The king
is the oldest and the nearest of his predecessor’s relations. The second
administers justice, and is commander of the army.
The second class consists of priests, whose business it is to settle the
respective rights of their own and the bordering people.
The third is composed of soldiers and husbandmen. The fourth comprehends
the common people, who are royal slaves, and perform all the duties of
ordinary life.
Possessions [CAS. 501] are common property in families, but the eldest
governs, and is the steward of each.
Such is the character of the Iberians, and the nature of their country.
CHAPTER IV.
1. The Albanians pursue rather a shepherd life, and resemble more the
nomadic tribes, except that they are not savages, and hence they are
little disposed to war. They inhabit the country between the Iberians
and the Caspian Sea, approaching close to the sea on the east, and on
the west border upon the Iberians.
Of the remaining sides the northern is protected by the Caucasian
mountains, for these overhang the plains, and are called, particularly
those near the sea, Ceraunian mountains. The southern side is formed by
Armenia, which extends along it. A large portion of it consists of
plains, and a large portion also of mountains, as Cambysene, where the
Armenians approach close both to the Iberians and the Albanians.
2. The Cyrus, which flows through Albania, and the other rivers which
swell the stream of the Cyrus, improve the qualities of the land, but
remove the sea to a distance. For the mud, accumulating in great
quantity, fills up the channel in such a manner, that the small adjacent
islands are annexed to the continent, irregular marshes are formed, and
difficult to be avoided; the reverberation also of the tide increases
the irregular formation of the marshes. The mouth of the river is said
to be divided into twelve branches, some of which afford no passage
through them, others are so shallow as to leave no shelter for vessels.
The shore for an extent of more than 60 stadia is inundated by the sea,
and by the rivers; all that part of it is inaccessible; the mud reaches
even as far as 500 stadia, and forms a bank along the coast. The
Araxes[961] discharges its waters not far off, coming with an impetuous
stream from Armenia, but the mud which this river impels forward,
making the channel pervious, is replaced by the Cyrus.
3. Perhaps such a race of people have no need of the sea, for they do
not make a proper use even of the land, which produces every kind of
fruit, even the most delicate, and every kind of plant and evergreen. It
is not cultivated with the least care; but all that is excellent grows
without sowing, and without ploughing, according to the accounts of
persons who have accompanied armies there, and describe the inhabitants
as leading a Cyclopean mode of life. In many places the ground, which
has been sowed once, produces two or three crops, the first of which is
even fifty-fold, and that without a fallow, nor is the ground turned
with an iron instrument, but with a plough made entirely of wood. The
whole plain is better watered than Babylon or Ægypt, by rivers and
streams, so that it always presents the appearance of herbage, and it
affords excellent pasture. The air here is better than in those
countries. The vines remain always without digging round them, and are
pruned every five years. The young trees bear fruit even the second
year, but the full grown yield so much that a large quantity of it is
left on the branches. The cattle, both tame and wild, thrive well in
this country.
4. The men are distinguished for beauty of person and for size. They are
simple in their dealings and not fraudulent, for they do not in general
use coined money; nor are they acquainted with any number above a
hundred, and transact their exchanges by loads. They are careless with
regard to the other circumstances of life. They are ignorant of weights
and measures as far as exactness is concerned; they are improvident with
respect to war, government, and agriculture. They fight however on foot
and on horseback, both in light and in heavy armour, like the Armenians.
5. They can send into the field a larger army than the Iberians, for
they can equip 60,000 infantry and 22,000 horsemen; with such a force
they offered resistance to Pompey. The Nomades also co-operate with them
against foreigners, as they do with the Iberians on similar occasions.
When there is no war they frequently attack these people and prevent
them from cultivating the ground. They use javelins and bows, and wear
breastplates, shields, and coverings for the [CAS. 502] head, made of
the hides of wild animals, like the Iberians.
To the country of the Albanians belongs Caspiana, and has its name from
the Caspian tribe, from whom the sea also has its appellation; the
Caspian tribe is now extinct.
The entrance from Iberia into Albania is through the Cambysene, a
country without water, and rocky, to the river Alazonius. The people
themselves and their dogs are excessively fond of the chase, pursuing it
with equal eagerness and skill.
6. Their kings differ from one another; at present one king governs all
the tribes. Formerly each tribe was governed by a king, who spoke the
peculiar language of each. They speak six and twenty languages from the
want of mutual intercourse and communication with one another.
The country produces some venomous reptiles, as scorpions and
tarantulas. These tarantulas cause death in some instances by laughter,
in others by grief and a longing to return home.
7. The gods they worship are the Sun, Jupiter, and the Moon, but the
Moon above the rest. She has a temple near Iberia. The priest is a
person who, next to the king, receives the highest honours. He has the
government of the sacred land, which is extensive and populous, and
authority over the sacred attendants, many of whom are divinely
inspired, and prophesy. Whoever of these persons, being violently
possessed, wanders alone in the woods, is seized by the priest, who,
having bound him with sacred fetters, maintains him sumptuously during
that year. Afterwards he is brought forth at the sacrifice performed in
honour of the goddess, and is anointed with fragrant ointment and
sacrificed together with other victims. The sacrifice is performed in
the following manner. A person, having in his hand a sacred lance, with
which it is the custom to sacrifice human victims, advances out of the
crowd and pierces the heart through the side, which he does from
experience in this office. When the man has fallen, certain
prognostications are indicated by the manner of the fall, and these are
publicly declared. The body is carried away to a certain spot, and then
they all trample upon it, performing this action as a mode of
purification of themselves.
8. The Albanians pay the greatest respect to old age, which is not
confined to their parents, but is extended to old persons in general.
It is regarded as impious to show any concern for the dead, or to
mention their names. Their money is buried with them, hence they live in
poverty, having no patrimony.
So much concerning the Albanians. It is said that when Jason,
accompanied by Armenus the Thessalian, undertook the voyage to the
Colchi, they advanced as far as the Caspian Sea, and traversed Iberia,
Albania, a great part of Armenia, and Media, as the Jasoneia and many
other monuments testify. Armenus, they say, was a native of Armenium,
one of the cities on the lake Bœbeis, between Pheræ and Parisa, and that
his companions settled in Acilisene, and the Suspiritis, and occupied
the country as far as Calachene and Adiabene, and that he gave his own
name to Armenia.
CHAPTER V.
1. The Amazons are said to live among the mountains above Albania.
Theophanes, who accompanied Pompey in his wars, and was in the country
of the Albanians, says that Gelæ and Legæ,[962] Scythian tribes, live
between the Amazons and the Albanians, and that the river
Mermadalis[963] takes its course in the country lying in the middle
between these people and the Amazons. But other writers, and among these
Metrodorus of Scepsis, and Hypsicrates, who were themselves acquainted
with these places, say that the Amazons bordered upon the
Gargarenses[964] on the north, at the foot of the Caucasian mountains,
which are called Ceraunia.
When [CAS. 504] at home they are occupied in performing with their own
hands the work of ploughing, planting, pasturing cattle, and
particularly in training horses. The strongest among them spend much of
their time in hunting on horseback, and practise warlike exercises. All
of them from infancy have the right breast seared, in order that they
may use the arm with ease for all manner of purposes, and particularly
for throwing the javelin. They employ the bow also, and sagaris, (a kind
of sword,) and wear a buckler. They make helmets, and coverings for the
body, and girdles, of the skins of wild animals. They pass two months of
the spring on a neighbouring mountain, which is the boundary between
them and the Gargarenses. The latter also ascend the mountain according
to some ancient custom for the purpose of performing common sacrifices,
and of having intercourse with the women with a view to offspring, in
secret and in darkness, the man with the first woman he meets. When the
women are pregnant they are sent away. The female children that may be
born are retained by the Amazons themselves, but the males are taken to
the Gargarenses to be brought up. The children are distributed among
families, in which the master treats them as his own, it being
impossible to ascertain the contrary.
2. The Mermodas,[965] descending like a torrent from the mountains
through the country of the Amazons, the Siracene, and the intervening
desert, discharges itself into the Mæotis. [966]
It is said that the Gargarenses ascended together with the Amazons from
Themiscyra to these places, that they then separated, and with the
assistance of some Thracians and Eubœans, who had wandered as far as
this country, made war against the Amazons, and at length, upon its
termination, entered into a compact on the conditions above mentioned,
namely, that there should be a companionship only with respect to
offspring, and that they should live each independent of the other.
3. There is a peculiarity in the history of the Amazons. In other
histories the fabulous and the historical parts are kept distinct. For
what is ancient, false, and marvellous is called fable. But history has
truth for its object, whether it be old or new, and it either rejects or
rarely admits the marvellous. But, with regard to the Amazons, the same
facts are related both by modern and by ancient writers; they are
marvellous and exceed belief. For who can believe that an army of women,
or a city, or a nation, could ever subsist without men? and not only
subsist, but make inroads upon the territory of other people, and obtain
possession not only of the places near them, and advance even as far as
the present Ionia, but even despatch an expedition across the sea to
Attica? This is as much as to say that the men of those days were women,
and the women men. But even now the same things are told of the Amazons,
and the peculiarity of their history is increased by the credit which is
given to ancient, in preference to modern, accounts.
4. They are said to have founded cities, and to have given their names
to them, as Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyme, Myrina, besides leaving sepulchres
and other memorials. Themiscyra, the plains about the Thermodon, and the
mountains lying above, are mentioned by all writers as once belonging to
the Amazons, from whence, they say, they were driven out. Where they are
at present few writers undertake to point out, nor do they advance
proofs or probability for what they state; as in the case of Thalestria,
queen of the Amazons, with whom Alexander is said to have had
intercourse in Hyrcania with the hope of having offspring. Writers are
not agreed on this point, and among many who have paid the greatest
regard to truth none mention the circumstance, nor do writers of the
highest credit mention anything of the kind, nor do those who record it
relate the same facts. Cleitarchus says that Thalestria set out from the
Caspian Gates and Thermodon to meet Alexander. Now from the Caspian
Gates to Thermodon are more than 6000 stadia.
5. Stories circulated for the purpose of exalting the fame [of eminent
persons] are not received with equal favour by all; the object of the
inventors was flattery rather than truth; [CAS. 505] they transferred,
for example, the Caucasus to the mountains of India, and to the eastern
sea, which approaches close to them, from the mountains situated above
Colchis, and the Euxine Sea. These are the mountains to which the Greeks
give the name of Caucasus, and are distant more than 30,000 stadia from
India. Here they lay the scene of Prometheus and his chains, for these
were the farthest places towards the east with which the people of those
times were acquainted. The expeditions of Bacchus and of Hercules
against the Indi indicate a mythological story of later date, for
Hercules is said to have released Prometheus a thousand years after he
was first chained to the rock. It was more glorious too for Alexander to
subjugate Asia as far as the mountains of India, than to the recess only
of the Euxine Sea and the Caucasus. The celebrity, and the name of the
mountain, together with the persuasion that Jason and his companions had
accomplished the most distant of all expeditions when they had arrived
in the neighbourhood of the Caucasus, and the tradition that Prometheus
had been chained on Caucasus at the extremity of the earth, induced
writers to suppose that they should gratify the king by transferring the
name of the mountain to India.
6. The highest points of the actual Caucasus are the most southerly, and
lie near Albania, Iberia, the Colchi, and Heniochi. They are inhabited
by the people whom I have mentioned as assembling at Dioscurias. They
resort thither chiefly for the purpose of procuring salt. Of these
tribes some occupy the heights; others live in wooded valleys, and
subsist chiefly on the flesh of wild animals, wild fruits, and milk. The
heights are impassable in winter; in summer they are ascended by
fastening on the feet shoes as wide as drums, made of raw hide, and
furnished with spikes on account of the snow and ice. The natives in
descending with their loads slide down seated upon skins, which is the
practice in Media, Atropatia, and at Mount Masius in Armenia, but there
they fasten circular disks of wood with spikes to the soles of their
feet. Such then is the nature of the heights of Caucasus.
7. On descending to the country lying at the foot of these heights the
climate is more northerly, but milder, for the land below the heights
joins the plains of the Siraces. There are some tribes of Troglodytæ who
inhabit caves on account of the cold. There is plenty[967] of grain to
be had in the country.
Next to the Troglodytæ are Chamæcœtæ,[968] and a tribe called Polyphagi
(the voracious), and the villages of the Eisadici, who are able to
cultivate the ground because they are not altogether exposed to the
north.
8. Immediately afterwards follow shepherd tribes, situated between the
Mæotis and the Caspian Sea, Nabiani, Pangani,[969] the tribes also of
the Siraces and Aorsi.
The Aorsi and Siraces seem to be a fugitive people from parts situated
above. The Aorsi lie more to the north. [970]
Abeacus, king of the Siraces, when Pharnases occupied the Bosporus,
equipped 20,000 horse, and Spadines, king of the Aorsi 200,000, and the
Upper Aorsi even a larger body, for they were masters of a greater
extent of territory, and nearly the largest part of the coast of the
Caspian Sea was under their power. They were thus enabled to transport
on camels the merchandise of India and Babylonia, receiving it from
Armenians and Medes. They wore gold also in their dress in consequence
of their wealth.
The Aorsi live on the banks of the Tanaïs, and the Siraces on those of
Achardeus, which rises in Caucasus, and discharges itself into the
Mæotis.
CHAPTER VI.
1. The second portion of northern Asia begins from the Caspian Sea,
where the first terminates. This sea is called also the Hyrcanian Sea.
We must first speak of this sea, and of the nations that live near its
shores.
It is a bay extending from the Ocean to the south. At its commencement
it is very narrow; as it advances further inwards, and particularly
towards the extremity, it widens to the extent of about 500 stadia. The
voyage from the entrance [CAS. 507] to the extremity may exceed that a
little, the entrance approaching very near the uninhabited regions.
Eratosthenes says that the navigation of this sea was known to the
Greeks, that the part of the voyage along the coast of the Albanians and
Cadusïi[971] comprised 5400 stadia; and the part along the country of
the Anariaci, Mardi, [or Amardi,] and Hyrcani, as far as the mouth of
the river Oxus,[972] 4800 stadia, and thence to the Iaxartes[973] 2400
stadia.
But with respect to the places situated in this portion of Asia, and to
those lying so far removed from our own country, we must not understand
the accounts of writers in too literal a sense, particularly with regard
to distances.
2. Upon sailing into the Caspian, on the right hand, contiguous to the
Europeans, Scythians and Sarmatians occupy the country between the
Tanaïs and this sea; they are chiefly Nomades, or shepherd tribes, of
whom I have already spoken. On the left hand are the Eastern Scythian
Nomades, who extend as far as the Eastern sea, and India.
The ancient Greek historians called all the nations towards the north by
the common name of Scythians, and Kelto-Scythians. Writers still more
ancient than these called the nations living above the Euxine, Danube,
and Adriatic, Hyperboreans, Sauromatæ, and Arimaspi. [974] But in
speaking of the nations on the other side the Caspian Sea, they called
some Sacæ,[975] others Massagetæ. They were unable to give any exact
account of them, although they relate the history of the war of Cyrus
with the Massagetæ. Concerning these nations no one has ascertained the
truth, and the ancient histories of Persia, Media, and Syria have not
obtained much credit on account of the credulity of the writers and
their love of fable.
3. For these authors, having observed that those who professedly were
writers of fables obtained repute and success, supposed that they also
should make their writings agreeable, if, under the form of history,
they related what they had never seen nor heard, (not at least from
eye-witnesses,) and had no other object than to please and surprise the
reader. A person would more readily believe the stories of the heroes in
Hesiod, Homer, and in the tragic poets, than Ctesias, Herodotus,
Hellanicus, and writers of this kind.
4. We cannot easily credit the generality of the historians of
Alexander, for they practise deception with a view to enhance the glory
of Alexander; the expedition also was directed to the extremities of
Asia, at a great distance from our country, and it is difficult to
ascertain or detect the truth or falsehood of what is remote. The
dominion of the Romans and of the Parthians has added very much to
former discoveries, and the writers who speak of these people describe
nations and places, where certain actions were performed, in a manner
more likely to produce belief than preceding historians, for they had
better opportunities of personal observation.
CHAPTER VII.
1. The nomades, or wandering tribes, who live on the left side of the
coast on entering the Caspian Sea, are called by the moderns Dahæ, and
surnamed Parni. [976] Then there intervenes a desert tract, which is
followed by Hyrcania; here the Caspian spreads like a deep sea till it
approaches the Median and Armenian mountains. The shape of these hills
at the foot is lunated. [977] Their extremities terminate at the sea, and
form the recess of the bay.
A small part of this country at the foot of the mountains, as far as the
heights, if we reckon from the sea, is inhabited by some tribes of
Albanians and Armenians, but the greater portion by Gelæ, Cadusii,
Amardi, Vitii, and Anariacæ. It is said, that some Parrhasii were
settled together with the Anariacæ, who are now called Parrhasii,
(Parsii? ) and that the Ænianes built a walled city in the territory of
the Vitii, which city is [CAS. 508] now called Æniana (Ænia). Grecian
armour, brazen vessels, and sepulchres are shown there. There also is a
city Anariacæ, in which it is said an oracle is shown, where the answer
is given to those who consult it, during sleep, [and some vestiges of
Greek colonization, but all these] tribes are predatory, and more
disposed to war than husbandry, which arises from the rugged nature of
the country. The greater part of the coast at the foot of the
mountainous region is occupied by Cadusii, to the extent of nearly 5000
stadia, according to Patrocles, who thinks that this sea equals the
Euxine in size. These countries are sterile.
2.
continent, like a girdle, leaving one portion to the north, another to
the south. The Greeks call the former Asia Within the Taurus,[891] the
latter, Asia Without the Taurus. We have said this before, but it is
repeated now to assist the memory.
3. The Taurus has in many places a breadth of 3000 stadia; its length
equals that of Asia, namely 45,000 stadia,[892] [CAS. 491] reckoning
from the continent opposite to Rhodes to the eastern extremities of
India and Scythia.
4. It is divided into many parts, which are circumscribed by boundaries
of greater or less extent, and distinguished by various names.
But as such an extended range of mountains must comprise nations some of
which are little known, and others with whom we are well acquainted, as
Parthians,[893] Medes, Armenians, some of the Cappadocians, Cilicians,
and Pisidians; those which approach near the northern parts must be
assigned to the north, (northern Asia,) those approximating the southern
parts, to the south, (southern Asia,) and those situated in the middle
of the mountains must be placed on account of the similarity of the
temperature of the air, for it is cold to the north, while the air of
the south is warm.
The currents of almost all the rivers which flow from the Taurus are in
a direction contrary to each other, some running to the north, others to
the south, at least at the commencement of their course, although
afterwards some bend towards the east or west. They naturally suggest
the adoption of this chain of mountains as a boundary in the division of
Asia into two portions; in the same manner that the sea within the
Pillars, which for the most part runs in the same line with these
mountains, conveniently forms two continents, Europe and Africa, and is
a remarkable boundary to both.
5. In passing in our geographical description from Europe to Asia, the
first parts of the country which present themselves are those in the
northern division, and we shall therefore begin with these.
Of these parts the first are those about the Tanaïs, (or Don,) which we
have assumed as the boundary of Europe and Asia. These have a kind of
peninsular form, for they are surrounded on the west by the river Tanaïs
(or Don) and the Palus Mæotis[894] as far as the Cimmerian
Bosporus,[895] and that part of the coast of the Euxine which terminates
at Colchis; on the north by the Ocean, as far as the mouth of the
Caspian Sea; on the east by the same sea, as far as the confines of
Albania and Armenia, where the rivers Cyrus[896] and Araxes[897] empty
themselves; the latter flowing through Armenia, and the Cyrus through
Iberia[898] and Albania;[899] on the south is the tract of country
extending from the mouth of the Cyrus as far as Colchis, and comprising
about 3000 stadia from sea to sea, across the territory of the Albani,
and Iberes,[900] so as to represent an isthmus. [901]
Those writers do not deserve attention who contract the isthmus as much
as Cleitarchus, according to whom it is subject to inundations of the
sea from either side. According to Posidonius the isthmus is 1500 stadia
in extent, that is, as large as the isthmus from Pelusium to the Red
Sea. And I think, says he, that the isthmus between the Palus Mæotis and
the Ocean is not very different from this in extent.
6. I know not how any one can rely upon his authority respecting what is
uncertain, when he has nothing probable to advance on the subject; for
he reasons so falsely respecting things which are evident, and this too
when he enjoyed the friendship of Pompey, who had carried on war against
the Iberes and Albani, and was acquainted with both the Caspian and
Colchian[902] Seas on each side of the isthmus. It is related, that when
Pompey[903] was at Rhodes, on his expedition against the pirates, (he
was soon afterwards to carry on war against Mithridates and the nations
as far as the Caspian Sea,) he accidentally heard a philosophical
lecture of Posidonius; and on his departure he asked Posidonius if he
had any commands; to which he replied, [CAS. 492]
“To stand the first in worth, as in command. ”[904]
Add to this, that he wrote the history of Pompey. For these reasons he
ought to have paid a greater regard to truth.
7. The second portion is that above the Hyrcanian,[905] which we also
call the Caspian Sea, extending as far as the Scythians near the
Indians.
The third portion is continuous with the above-mentioned isthmus, and
consists of the country following next in order to the isthmus and the
Caspian Gates,[906] and approaching nearest the parts within the Taurus,
and to Europe; these are Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, and the intervening
country. [907]
The fourth portion consists of the tract within the Halys,[908] and the
parts upon and without the Taurus, which coincide with the peninsula
formed by the isthmus,[909] which separates the Euxine and the Cilician
Seas. Among the other countries beyond the Taurus we place Indica and
Ariana,[910] as far as the nations which extend to the Persian Sea, the
Arabian Gulf, and the Nile, and to the Ægyptian and the Issic seas.
CHAPTER II.
1. According to this disposition, the first portion towards the north
and the Ocean is inhabited by certain tribes of Scythians, shepherds,
(nomades,) and Hamaxœci (or those who live in waggon-houses). Within
these tribes live Sarmatians, who also are Scythians, Aorsi,[911] and
Siraci, extending as far as the Caucasian Mountains towards the south.
Some of these are Nomades, or shepherd tribes, others Scenitæ, (or
dwellers in tents,) and Georgi, or tillers of the ground. About the lake
Mæotis live the Mæotæ. Close to the sea is the Asiatic portion of the
Bosporus and Sindica. [912] Next follow Achæi, Zygi, Heniochi,[913]
Cercetæ, and Macropogones (or the long-beards). Above these people are
situated the passes of the Phtheirophagi (or Lice-eaters). After the
Heniochi is Colchis, lying at the foot of the Caucasian and Moschic
mountains. Having assumed the Tanaïs as the boundary of Europe and Asia,
we must begin our description in detail from this river.
2. [CAS. 493] The Tanaïs or Don flows from the northern parts. It does
not however flow in a direction diametrically opposite to the Nile, as
some suppose, but its course is more to the east than that of the latter
river; its sources, like those of the Nile, are unknown. A great part of
the course of the Nile is apparent, for it traverses a country the whole
of which is easy of access, and its stream is navigable to a great
distance from its mouth. We are acquainted with the mouths of the Don,
(there are two in the most northerly parts of the Mæotis, distant 60
stadia from each other,) but a small part only of the tract above the
mouths is explored, on account of the severity of the cold, and the
destitute state of the country; the natives are able to endure it, who
subsist, like the wandering shepherd tribes, on the flesh of their
animals and on milk, but strangers cannot bear the climate nor its
privations. Besides, the nomades dislike intercourse with other people,
and being a strong and numerous tribe have excluded travellers from
every part of the country which is accessible, and from all such rivers
as are navigable. For this reason some have supposed that the sources of
the river are among the Caucasian mountains, that, after flowing in a
full stream towards the north, it then makes a bend, and discharges
itself into the Mæotis. Theophanes[914] of Mitylene is of the same
opinion with these writers. Others suppose that it comes from the higher
parts of the Danube, but they do not produce any proof of so remote a
source, and in other climates, though they seem to think it impossible
for it to rise at no great distance and in the north.
3. Upon the river, and on the lake, stands a city Tanaïs, founded by the
Greeks, who possess the Bosporus; but lately the King Polemon[915] laid
it waste on account of the refractory disposition of the inhabitants. It
was the common mart both of the Asiatic and of the European nomades, and
of those who navigate the lake from the Bosporus, some of whom bring
slaves and hides, or any other nomadic commodity; others exchange wine
for clothes, and other articles peculiar to a civilized mode of life.
In front of the mart at the distance of 100 stadia is an island
Alopecia, a settlement of a mixed people. There are other small islands
not far off in the lake.
The city Tanaïs,[916] to those who sail in a direct line towards the
north, is distant from the mouth of the Mæotis 2200 stadia, nor is the
distance much greater in sailing along the coast (on the east).
4. In the voyage along the coast, the first object which presents itself
to those who have proceeded to the distance of 800 stadia from the
Tanaïs, is the Great Rhombites, as it is called, where large quantities
of fish are captured for the purpose of being salted. Then at the
distance of 800 stadia more is the Lesser Rhombites,[917] and a
promontory, which has smaller fisheries. The [nomades] at the former
have small islands as stations for their vessels, those at the Lesser
Rhombites are the Mæotæ who cultivate the ground. For along the whole of
this coasting voyage live Mæotæ, who are husbandmen, but not less
addicted to war than the nomades. They are divided into several tribes;
those near the Tanaïs are more savage, those contiguous to the Bosporus
are more gentle in their manners.
From the Lesser Rhombites to Tyrambe, and the river Anticeites, are 600
stadia; then 120 to the Cimmerian village, whence vessels set out on
their voyage along the lake. In this coasting voyage we meet with some
look-out places, (for observing the fish,) said to belong to the
Clazomenians.
5. Cimmericum was formerly a city built upon a peninsula, the isthmus of
which it enclosed with a ditch and mound. The Cimmerii once possessed
great power in the Bosporus, whence it was called the Cimmerian
Bosporus. These are the people who overran the territory of the
inhabitants of the inland parts, on the right of the Euxine, as far as
Ionia. They were dislodged from these places by Scythians, and the
Scythians by Greeks, who founded Panticapæum,[918] and the other cities
on the Bosporus.
6. [CAS. 494] Next to the village Achilleium,[919] where is the temple
of Achilles, are 20 stadia. Here is the narrowest passage, 20 stadia or
more, across the mouth of the Mæotis; on the opposite continent is
Myrmecium, a village. Near are Heracleium and Parthenium.
7. Thence to the monument of Satyrus are 90 stadia; this is a mound
raised on a promontory,[920] in memory of one of the illustrious princes
of the Bosporus.
8. Near it is Patræus,[921] a village, from which to Corocondame,[922] a
village, are 130 stadia. This is the termination of the Cimmerian
Bosporus, as it is called. The narrow passage at the mouth of the Mæotis
derives its name from the straits opposite the Achilleium, and the
Myrmecium; it extends as far as Corocondame and a small village opposite
to it in the territory of the Panticapæans, called Acra,[923] and
separated by a channel of 70 stadia in width. The ice reaches even to
this place, for the Mæotis is frozen during severe frost so as to become
passable on foot. The whole of this narrow passage has good harbours.
9. Beyond Corocondame is a large lake[924] which is called from the
place Corocondametis. It discharges itself into the sea at the distance
of 10 stadia from the village. A branch[925] of the river Anticeites
empties itself into the lake, and forms an island, which is surrounded
by the waters of the lake, of the Mæotis, and of the river. Some persons
give this river the name of Hypanis,[926] as well as to that[927] near
the Borysthenes. [928]
10. Upon sailing[929] into the Corocondametis, we meet with Phanagoria,
a considerable city, Cepi, Hermonassa, and Apaturum, the temple of Venus
(Apatura). Of these cities Phanagoria and Cepi are situated in the
above-mentioned island on the left hand at the entrance of the lake; the
others are on the right hand in Sindica beyond the Hypanis. There is
Gorgipia,[930] but the royal seat of the Sindi is in Sindica near the
sea, and Aborace.
All those who are subject to the princes of the Bosporus are called
Bosporani. The capital of the European Bosporani is Panticapæum, and of
the Asian Bosporani, the city of Phanagorium,[931] for this is the name
given to it. Phanagoria seems to be the mart for those commodities which
are brought down from the Mæotis, and from the barbarous country lying
above it; and Panticapæum, the mart for the commodities which are
transported thither from the sea. There is also in Phanagoria a
magnificent temple of Venus Apatura, the Deceitful. This epithet of the
goddess is derived from a fable, according to which the giants assaulted
her in this place. Having obtained the assistance of Hercules she hid
him in a cave, and then admitted the giants one by one into her
presence, and delivered them over to Hercules, thus craftily[932] to be
put to death.
11. The Sindi, Dandarii, Toreatæ, Agri, Arrhechi, and besides these, the
Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and many others, belong to the
Mæotæ; to this people belong the Aspurgiani also, who live between
Phanagoria and Gorgipia, at the distance of 500 stadia [from the
Mæotis? ]. Polemon, the king, entered the country of these people under a
[CAS. 495] show of friendship, but his design was discovered, and they
on their part attacked him unawares. He was taken prisoner, and put to
death.
With respect to the Asian Mæotæ in general, some of them were the
subjects of those who possessed the mart on the Tanaïs; others, of the
Bosporani; and different bodies have revolted at different times. The
princes of the Bosporani were frequently masters of the country as far
as the Tanaïs, and particularly the last princes, Pharnaces, Asander,
and Polemon.
Pharnaces is said to have once brought even the river Hypanis over the
territory of the Dandarii through some ancient canal, which he had
caused to be cleared, and inundated the country.
12. Next to Sindica, and Gorgipia upon the sea, is the sea-coast
inhabited by the Achæi, Zygi, and Heniochi. It is for the most part
without harbours and mountainous, being a portion of the Caucasus.
These people subsist by piracy.
Their boats are slender, narrow, light, and capable of holding about
five and twenty men, and rarely thirty. The Greeks call them camaræ.
They say, that at the time of the expedition of Jason the Achæi Phthiotæ
founded the Achaia there, and the Lacedæmonians, Heniochia. Their
leaders were Rhecas, and Amphistratus, the charioteers[933] of the
Dioscuri; it is probable that the Heniochi had their name from these
persons. They equip fleets consisting of these camaræ, and being masters
of the sea sometimes attack vessels of burden, or invade a territory, or
even a city. Sometimes even those who occupy the Bosporus assist them,
by furnishing places of shelter for their vessels, and supply them with
provision and means for the disposal of their booty. When they return to
their own country, not having places suitable for mooring their vessels,
they put their camaræ on their shoulders, and carry them up into the
forests, among which they live, and where they cultivate a poor soil.
When the season arrives for navigation, they bring them down again to
the coast. Their habits are the same even in a foreign country, for they
are acquainted with wooded tracts, in which, after concealing their
camaræ, they wander about on foot day and night, for the purpose of
capturing the inhabitants and reducing them to slavery. But they readily
allow whatever is taken to be ransomed, and signify this after their
departure to those who have lost their property. In places where there
is a regular government, the injured find means of repelling them. For,
frequently, the pirates are attacked in return, and are carried off
together with their camaræ. But the country subject to the Romans is not
so well protected, in consequence of the neglect of those who are sent
there.
13. Such then is their mode of life. But even these people are governed
by persons called Sceptuchi, and these again are subject to the
authority of tyrants, or of kings. The Heniochi had four kings at the
time that Mithridates Eupator fled from the country of his ancestors to
the Bosporus, and passed through their country, which was open to him,
but he avoided that of the Zygi on account of its ruggedness, and the
savage character of the people. He proceeded with difficulty along the
sea-coast, frequently embarking in vessels, till he came to the country
of the Achæi, by whom he was hospitably received. He had then completed
a journey from the Phasis of not much less than 4000 stadia.
14. From Corocondame, the course of the voyage is directly towards the
east. At the distance of 180 stadia is the Sindic harbour, and a city.
Then at the distance of 400 stadia is Bata,[934] as it is called, a
village with a harbour. It is at this place that Sinope on the south
seems to be directly opposite to this coast, as Carambis[935] has been
said to be opposite to Criu-Metopon. [936]
Next to Bata Artemidorus places the coast of the Cercetæ, which has
places of shelter for vessels, and villages along an extent of about 850
stadia; then at 500 stadia more the coast of the Achæi, then that of the
Heniochi, at 1000 stadia, then the Great Pityus, from which to
Dioscurias are 360 stadia.
The authors most worthy of credit who have written the history of the
Mithridatic wars, enumerate the Achæi first, then Zygi, then Heniochi,
then Cercetæ, Moschi, Colchi, and above these the Phtheirophagi, Soanes,
and other smaller nations about the Caucasus.
The [CAS. 497] direction of the sea-coast is at first, as I have said,
towards the east, with a southern aspect; but from Bata it makes a bend
for a small distance, then fronts the west, and terminates towards
Pityus, and Dioscurias, for these places are contiguous to the coast of
Colchis, which I have already mentioned. Next to Dioscurias is the
remainder of the coast of Colchis, and Trapezus contiguous to it; where
the coast, having made a considerable turn, then extends nearly in a
straight line, and forms the side on the right hand of the Euxine,
looking to the north.
The whole of the coast of the Achæi, and of the other nations, as far as
Dioscurias, and the inland places lying in a straight line towards the
south, are at the foot of the Caucasus.
15. This mountain overhangs both the Euxine and the Caspian seas,
forming a kind of rampart to the isthmus which separates one sea from
the other. To the south it is the boundary of Albania and Iberia, to the
north, of the plains of the Sarmatians. It is well wooded, and contains
various kinds of timber, and especially trees adapted to ship-building.
Eratosthenes says that the Caucasus is called Mount Caspius by the
natives, a name borrowed perhaps from the Caspii. It throws out forks
towards the south, which embrace the middle of Iberia, and touch the
Armenian and those called the Moschic mountains,[937] and besides these
the mountains of Scydises, and the Paryadres. All these are portions of
the Taurus, which forms the southern side of Armenia, and are broken off
in a manner from it towards the north, and extend as far as Caucasus,
and the coast of the Euxine which lies between Colchis and
Themiscyra. [938]
16. Situated on a bay of this kind, and occupying the most easterly
point of the whole sea, is Dioscurias,[939] called the recess of the
Euxine Sea, and the extreme boundary of navigation, for in this sense we
are to understand the proverbial saying,
“To Phasis where ships end their course. ”
Not as if the author of the iambic intended to speak of the river, nor
of the city of the same name upon the river, but Colchis designated by a
part, because from the city and the river there remains a voyage of not
less than 600 stadia in a straight line to the recess of the bay. This
same Dioscurias is the commencement of the isthmus lying between the
Caspian Sea and the Euxine. It is a common mart of the nations situated
above it, and in its neighbourhood. There assemble at Dioscurias 70 or,
according to some writers who are careless in their statements,[940] 300
nations. All speak different languages, from living dispersed in various
places and without intercourse, in consequence of their fierce and
savage manners. They are chiefly Sarmatians, but all of them Caucasian
tribes. So much then respecting Dioscurias.
17. The greater part of the rest of Colchis lies upon the sea. The
Phasis,[941] a large river, flows through it. It has its source in
Armenia, and receives the Glaucus,[942] and the Hippus,[943] which issue
from the neighbouring mountains. Vessels ascend it as far as the
fortress of Sarapana,[944] which is capable of containing the population
even of a city. Persons proceed thence by land to the Cyrus in four days
along a carriage road. [945] Upon the Phasis is a city of the same name,
a mart of the Colchians, bounded on one side by the river, on another by
a lake, on the third by the sea. Thence it is a voyage of three or
two[946] days to Amisus and Sinope, on account of the softness of the
shores caused by the discharge of rivers. [947]
The country is fertile and its produce is good, except the [CAS. 498]
honey, which has generally a bitter taste. It furnishes all materials
for ship-building. It produces them in great plenty, and they are
conveyed down by its rivers. It supplies flax, hemp, wax, and pitch, in
great abundance. Its linen manufacture is celebrated, for it was
exported to foreign parts; and those who wish to establish an affinity
of race between the Colchians and the Ægyptians, advance this as a proof
of it.
Above the rivers which I have mentioned in the Moschic territory is the
temple of Leucothea,[948] founded by Phrixus[949] and his oracle, where
a ram is not sacrificed. It was once rich, but was plundered in our time
by Pharnaces, and a little afterwards by Mithridates of Pergamus. [950]
For when a country is devastated, in the words of Euripides,
“respect to the gods languishes, and they are not honoured. ”[951]
18. How great anciently was the celebrity of this country, appears from
the fables which refer obscurely to the expedition of Jason, who
advanced as far even as Media; and still earlier intimations of it are
found in the fables relative to the expedition of Phrixus. The kings
that preceded, and who possessed the country when it was divided into
Sceptuchies,[952] were not very powerful, but when Mithridates Eupator
had enlarged his territory, this country fell under his dominion. One of
his courtiers was always sent as sub-governor and administrator of its
public affairs. Of this number was Moaphernes, my mother’s paternal
uncle. It was from this country that the king derived the greatest part
of his supplies for the equipment of his naval armament. But upon the
overthrow of Mithridates, all the country subject to his power was
disunited, and divided among several persons. At last Polemon obtained
possession of Colchis, and after his death his wife Pythodoris reigned
over the Colchians, Trapezus, Pharnacia, and the Barbarians situated
above them, of whom I shall speak in another place.
The territory of the Moschi, in which is situated the temple, is divided
into three portions, one of which is occupied by Colchians, another by
Iberians, and the third by Armenians. There is in Iberia on the confines
of Colchis, a small city, the city of Phrixus, the present Idessa, a
place of strength. The river Charis[953] flows near Dioscurias.
19. Among the nations that assemble at Dioscurias are the Phtheiropagi,
who have their appellation from their dirt and filth.
Near them live the Soanes, not less dirty in their habits, but superior
perhaps to all the tribes in strength and courage. They are masters of
the country around them, and occupy the heights of Caucasus above
Dioscurias. They have a king, and a council of three hundred persons.
They can assemble, it is said, an army of two hundred thousand men, for
all their people are fighting men, but not distributed into certain
orders. In their country the winter torrents are said to bring down even
gold, which the Barbarians collect in troughs pierced with holes, and
lined with fleeces; and hence the fable of the golden fleece. Some[954]
say that they are called Iberians (the same name as the western
Iberians) from the gold mines found in both countries. The Soanes use
poison of an extraordinary kind for the points of their weapons; even
the odour of this poison is a cause of suffering to those who are
wounded by arrows thus prepared.
The other neighbouring nations about the Caucasus occupy barren and
narrow tracts of land. But the tribes of the Albanians and Iberians, who
possess nearly the whole of the above-mentioned isthmus, may also be
denominated Caucasian, and yet they live in a fertile country and
capable of being well peopled.
CHAPTER III.
1. [CAS. 499] The greater part of Iberia is well inhabited, and contains
cities and villages where the houses have roofs covered with tiles, and
display skill in building; there are market-places in them, and various
kinds of public edifices.
2.
Some part of the country is encompassed by the Caucasian mountains;
for branches of this range advance, as I have said, towards the south.
These districts are fruitful, comprise the whole of Iberia, and extend
to Armenia and Colchis. In the middle is a plain watered by rivers, the
largest of which is the Cyrus, which, rising in Armenia, immediately
enters the above-mentioned plain, having received the Aragus,[955] which
flows at the foot of the Caucasus, and other streams, passes through a
narrow channel into Albania. It flows however between this country and
Armenia in a large body through plains, which afford excellent pasture.
After having received several rivers, and among these the
Alazonius,[956] Sandobanes, the Rhœtaces, and Chanes, all of which are
navigable, it discharges itself into the Caspian Sea. Its former name
was Corus.
3. The plain is occupied by those Iberians who are more disposed to
agriculture, and are inclined to peace. Their dress is after the
Armenian and Median fashion. Those who inhabit the mountainous country,
and they are the most numerous, are addicted to war, live like the
Sarmatians and Scythians, on whose country they border, and with whom
they are connected by affinity of race. These people however engage in
agriculture also, and can assemble many myriads of persons from among
themselves, and from the Scythians and Sarmatians, whenever any
disturbance occurs.
4. There are four passes into the country; one through Sarapana, a
Colchian fortress, and through the defiles near it, along which the
Phasis, rendered passable from one side to the other by a hundred and
twenty bridges, in consequence of the winding of its stream, descends
abruptly and violently into Colchis. The places in its course are
hollowed by numerous torrents, during the rainy season. It rises in the
mountains which lie above, and many springs contribute to swell its
stream. In the plains it receives other rivers also, among which are the
Glaucus[957] and the Hippus. [958] The stream thus filled and navigable
discharges itself into the Pontus. It has on its banks a city of the
same name, and near it a lake. Such is the nature of the entrance into
Iberia from Colchis, shut in by rocks and strongholds, and by rivers
running through ravines.
5. From the Nomades on the north there is a difficult ascent for three
days, and then a narrow road by the side of the river Aragus, a journey
of four days, which road admits only one person to pass at a time. The
termination of the road is guarded by an impregnable wall.
From Albania the entrance is at first cut through rocks, then passes
over a marsh formed by the river (Alazonius),[959] in its descent from
the Caucasus. On the side of Armenia are the narrow passes on the Cyrus,
and those on the Aragus, for before the junction of these rivers they
have on their banks strong cities set upon rocks, at the distance from
each other of about 18 stadia, as Harmozica[960] on the Cyrus, and on
the other (Aragus) Seusamora. Pompey formerly in his way from Armenia,
and afterwards Canidius, marched through these passes into Iberia.
6. The inhabitants of this country are also divided into four classes;
the first and chief is that from which the kings are appointed. The king
is the oldest and the nearest of his predecessor’s relations. The second
administers justice, and is commander of the army.
The second class consists of priests, whose business it is to settle the
respective rights of their own and the bordering people.
The third is composed of soldiers and husbandmen. The fourth comprehends
the common people, who are royal slaves, and perform all the duties of
ordinary life.
Possessions [CAS. 501] are common property in families, but the eldest
governs, and is the steward of each.
Such is the character of the Iberians, and the nature of their country.
CHAPTER IV.
1. The Albanians pursue rather a shepherd life, and resemble more the
nomadic tribes, except that they are not savages, and hence they are
little disposed to war. They inhabit the country between the Iberians
and the Caspian Sea, approaching close to the sea on the east, and on
the west border upon the Iberians.
Of the remaining sides the northern is protected by the Caucasian
mountains, for these overhang the plains, and are called, particularly
those near the sea, Ceraunian mountains. The southern side is formed by
Armenia, which extends along it. A large portion of it consists of
plains, and a large portion also of mountains, as Cambysene, where the
Armenians approach close both to the Iberians and the Albanians.
2. The Cyrus, which flows through Albania, and the other rivers which
swell the stream of the Cyrus, improve the qualities of the land, but
remove the sea to a distance. For the mud, accumulating in great
quantity, fills up the channel in such a manner, that the small adjacent
islands are annexed to the continent, irregular marshes are formed, and
difficult to be avoided; the reverberation also of the tide increases
the irregular formation of the marshes. The mouth of the river is said
to be divided into twelve branches, some of which afford no passage
through them, others are so shallow as to leave no shelter for vessels.
The shore for an extent of more than 60 stadia is inundated by the sea,
and by the rivers; all that part of it is inaccessible; the mud reaches
even as far as 500 stadia, and forms a bank along the coast. The
Araxes[961] discharges its waters not far off, coming with an impetuous
stream from Armenia, but the mud which this river impels forward,
making the channel pervious, is replaced by the Cyrus.
3. Perhaps such a race of people have no need of the sea, for they do
not make a proper use even of the land, which produces every kind of
fruit, even the most delicate, and every kind of plant and evergreen. It
is not cultivated with the least care; but all that is excellent grows
without sowing, and without ploughing, according to the accounts of
persons who have accompanied armies there, and describe the inhabitants
as leading a Cyclopean mode of life. In many places the ground, which
has been sowed once, produces two or three crops, the first of which is
even fifty-fold, and that without a fallow, nor is the ground turned
with an iron instrument, but with a plough made entirely of wood. The
whole plain is better watered than Babylon or Ægypt, by rivers and
streams, so that it always presents the appearance of herbage, and it
affords excellent pasture. The air here is better than in those
countries. The vines remain always without digging round them, and are
pruned every five years. The young trees bear fruit even the second
year, but the full grown yield so much that a large quantity of it is
left on the branches. The cattle, both tame and wild, thrive well in
this country.
4. The men are distinguished for beauty of person and for size. They are
simple in their dealings and not fraudulent, for they do not in general
use coined money; nor are they acquainted with any number above a
hundred, and transact their exchanges by loads. They are careless with
regard to the other circumstances of life. They are ignorant of weights
and measures as far as exactness is concerned; they are improvident with
respect to war, government, and agriculture. They fight however on foot
and on horseback, both in light and in heavy armour, like the Armenians.
5. They can send into the field a larger army than the Iberians, for
they can equip 60,000 infantry and 22,000 horsemen; with such a force
they offered resistance to Pompey. The Nomades also co-operate with them
against foreigners, as they do with the Iberians on similar occasions.
When there is no war they frequently attack these people and prevent
them from cultivating the ground. They use javelins and bows, and wear
breastplates, shields, and coverings for the [CAS. 502] head, made of
the hides of wild animals, like the Iberians.
To the country of the Albanians belongs Caspiana, and has its name from
the Caspian tribe, from whom the sea also has its appellation; the
Caspian tribe is now extinct.
The entrance from Iberia into Albania is through the Cambysene, a
country without water, and rocky, to the river Alazonius. The people
themselves and their dogs are excessively fond of the chase, pursuing it
with equal eagerness and skill.
6. Their kings differ from one another; at present one king governs all
the tribes. Formerly each tribe was governed by a king, who spoke the
peculiar language of each. They speak six and twenty languages from the
want of mutual intercourse and communication with one another.
The country produces some venomous reptiles, as scorpions and
tarantulas. These tarantulas cause death in some instances by laughter,
in others by grief and a longing to return home.
7. The gods they worship are the Sun, Jupiter, and the Moon, but the
Moon above the rest. She has a temple near Iberia. The priest is a
person who, next to the king, receives the highest honours. He has the
government of the sacred land, which is extensive and populous, and
authority over the sacred attendants, many of whom are divinely
inspired, and prophesy. Whoever of these persons, being violently
possessed, wanders alone in the woods, is seized by the priest, who,
having bound him with sacred fetters, maintains him sumptuously during
that year. Afterwards he is brought forth at the sacrifice performed in
honour of the goddess, and is anointed with fragrant ointment and
sacrificed together with other victims. The sacrifice is performed in
the following manner. A person, having in his hand a sacred lance, with
which it is the custom to sacrifice human victims, advances out of the
crowd and pierces the heart through the side, which he does from
experience in this office. When the man has fallen, certain
prognostications are indicated by the manner of the fall, and these are
publicly declared. The body is carried away to a certain spot, and then
they all trample upon it, performing this action as a mode of
purification of themselves.
8. The Albanians pay the greatest respect to old age, which is not
confined to their parents, but is extended to old persons in general.
It is regarded as impious to show any concern for the dead, or to
mention their names. Their money is buried with them, hence they live in
poverty, having no patrimony.
So much concerning the Albanians. It is said that when Jason,
accompanied by Armenus the Thessalian, undertook the voyage to the
Colchi, they advanced as far as the Caspian Sea, and traversed Iberia,
Albania, a great part of Armenia, and Media, as the Jasoneia and many
other monuments testify. Armenus, they say, was a native of Armenium,
one of the cities on the lake Bœbeis, between Pheræ and Parisa, and that
his companions settled in Acilisene, and the Suspiritis, and occupied
the country as far as Calachene and Adiabene, and that he gave his own
name to Armenia.
CHAPTER V.
1. The Amazons are said to live among the mountains above Albania.
Theophanes, who accompanied Pompey in his wars, and was in the country
of the Albanians, says that Gelæ and Legæ,[962] Scythian tribes, live
between the Amazons and the Albanians, and that the river
Mermadalis[963] takes its course in the country lying in the middle
between these people and the Amazons. But other writers, and among these
Metrodorus of Scepsis, and Hypsicrates, who were themselves acquainted
with these places, say that the Amazons bordered upon the
Gargarenses[964] on the north, at the foot of the Caucasian mountains,
which are called Ceraunia.
When [CAS. 504] at home they are occupied in performing with their own
hands the work of ploughing, planting, pasturing cattle, and
particularly in training horses. The strongest among them spend much of
their time in hunting on horseback, and practise warlike exercises. All
of them from infancy have the right breast seared, in order that they
may use the arm with ease for all manner of purposes, and particularly
for throwing the javelin. They employ the bow also, and sagaris, (a kind
of sword,) and wear a buckler. They make helmets, and coverings for the
body, and girdles, of the skins of wild animals. They pass two months of
the spring on a neighbouring mountain, which is the boundary between
them and the Gargarenses. The latter also ascend the mountain according
to some ancient custom for the purpose of performing common sacrifices,
and of having intercourse with the women with a view to offspring, in
secret and in darkness, the man with the first woman he meets. When the
women are pregnant they are sent away. The female children that may be
born are retained by the Amazons themselves, but the males are taken to
the Gargarenses to be brought up. The children are distributed among
families, in which the master treats them as his own, it being
impossible to ascertain the contrary.
2. The Mermodas,[965] descending like a torrent from the mountains
through the country of the Amazons, the Siracene, and the intervening
desert, discharges itself into the Mæotis. [966]
It is said that the Gargarenses ascended together with the Amazons from
Themiscyra to these places, that they then separated, and with the
assistance of some Thracians and Eubœans, who had wandered as far as
this country, made war against the Amazons, and at length, upon its
termination, entered into a compact on the conditions above mentioned,
namely, that there should be a companionship only with respect to
offspring, and that they should live each independent of the other.
3. There is a peculiarity in the history of the Amazons. In other
histories the fabulous and the historical parts are kept distinct. For
what is ancient, false, and marvellous is called fable. But history has
truth for its object, whether it be old or new, and it either rejects or
rarely admits the marvellous. But, with regard to the Amazons, the same
facts are related both by modern and by ancient writers; they are
marvellous and exceed belief. For who can believe that an army of women,
or a city, or a nation, could ever subsist without men? and not only
subsist, but make inroads upon the territory of other people, and obtain
possession not only of the places near them, and advance even as far as
the present Ionia, but even despatch an expedition across the sea to
Attica? This is as much as to say that the men of those days were women,
and the women men. But even now the same things are told of the Amazons,
and the peculiarity of their history is increased by the credit which is
given to ancient, in preference to modern, accounts.
4. They are said to have founded cities, and to have given their names
to them, as Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyme, Myrina, besides leaving sepulchres
and other memorials. Themiscyra, the plains about the Thermodon, and the
mountains lying above, are mentioned by all writers as once belonging to
the Amazons, from whence, they say, they were driven out. Where they are
at present few writers undertake to point out, nor do they advance
proofs or probability for what they state; as in the case of Thalestria,
queen of the Amazons, with whom Alexander is said to have had
intercourse in Hyrcania with the hope of having offspring. Writers are
not agreed on this point, and among many who have paid the greatest
regard to truth none mention the circumstance, nor do writers of the
highest credit mention anything of the kind, nor do those who record it
relate the same facts. Cleitarchus says that Thalestria set out from the
Caspian Gates and Thermodon to meet Alexander. Now from the Caspian
Gates to Thermodon are more than 6000 stadia.
5. Stories circulated for the purpose of exalting the fame [of eminent
persons] are not received with equal favour by all; the object of the
inventors was flattery rather than truth; [CAS. 505] they transferred,
for example, the Caucasus to the mountains of India, and to the eastern
sea, which approaches close to them, from the mountains situated above
Colchis, and the Euxine Sea. These are the mountains to which the Greeks
give the name of Caucasus, and are distant more than 30,000 stadia from
India. Here they lay the scene of Prometheus and his chains, for these
were the farthest places towards the east with which the people of those
times were acquainted. The expeditions of Bacchus and of Hercules
against the Indi indicate a mythological story of later date, for
Hercules is said to have released Prometheus a thousand years after he
was first chained to the rock. It was more glorious too for Alexander to
subjugate Asia as far as the mountains of India, than to the recess only
of the Euxine Sea and the Caucasus. The celebrity, and the name of the
mountain, together with the persuasion that Jason and his companions had
accomplished the most distant of all expeditions when they had arrived
in the neighbourhood of the Caucasus, and the tradition that Prometheus
had been chained on Caucasus at the extremity of the earth, induced
writers to suppose that they should gratify the king by transferring the
name of the mountain to India.
6. The highest points of the actual Caucasus are the most southerly, and
lie near Albania, Iberia, the Colchi, and Heniochi. They are inhabited
by the people whom I have mentioned as assembling at Dioscurias. They
resort thither chiefly for the purpose of procuring salt. Of these
tribes some occupy the heights; others live in wooded valleys, and
subsist chiefly on the flesh of wild animals, wild fruits, and milk. The
heights are impassable in winter; in summer they are ascended by
fastening on the feet shoes as wide as drums, made of raw hide, and
furnished with spikes on account of the snow and ice. The natives in
descending with their loads slide down seated upon skins, which is the
practice in Media, Atropatia, and at Mount Masius in Armenia, but there
they fasten circular disks of wood with spikes to the soles of their
feet. Such then is the nature of the heights of Caucasus.
7. On descending to the country lying at the foot of these heights the
climate is more northerly, but milder, for the land below the heights
joins the plains of the Siraces. There are some tribes of Troglodytæ who
inhabit caves on account of the cold. There is plenty[967] of grain to
be had in the country.
Next to the Troglodytæ are Chamæcœtæ,[968] and a tribe called Polyphagi
(the voracious), and the villages of the Eisadici, who are able to
cultivate the ground because they are not altogether exposed to the
north.
8. Immediately afterwards follow shepherd tribes, situated between the
Mæotis and the Caspian Sea, Nabiani, Pangani,[969] the tribes also of
the Siraces and Aorsi.
The Aorsi and Siraces seem to be a fugitive people from parts situated
above. The Aorsi lie more to the north. [970]
Abeacus, king of the Siraces, when Pharnases occupied the Bosporus,
equipped 20,000 horse, and Spadines, king of the Aorsi 200,000, and the
Upper Aorsi even a larger body, for they were masters of a greater
extent of territory, and nearly the largest part of the coast of the
Caspian Sea was under their power. They were thus enabled to transport
on camels the merchandise of India and Babylonia, receiving it from
Armenians and Medes. They wore gold also in their dress in consequence
of their wealth.
The Aorsi live on the banks of the Tanaïs, and the Siraces on those of
Achardeus, which rises in Caucasus, and discharges itself into the
Mæotis.
CHAPTER VI.
1. The second portion of northern Asia begins from the Caspian Sea,
where the first terminates. This sea is called also the Hyrcanian Sea.
We must first speak of this sea, and of the nations that live near its
shores.
It is a bay extending from the Ocean to the south. At its commencement
it is very narrow; as it advances further inwards, and particularly
towards the extremity, it widens to the extent of about 500 stadia. The
voyage from the entrance [CAS. 507] to the extremity may exceed that a
little, the entrance approaching very near the uninhabited regions.
Eratosthenes says that the navigation of this sea was known to the
Greeks, that the part of the voyage along the coast of the Albanians and
Cadusïi[971] comprised 5400 stadia; and the part along the country of
the Anariaci, Mardi, [or Amardi,] and Hyrcani, as far as the mouth of
the river Oxus,[972] 4800 stadia, and thence to the Iaxartes[973] 2400
stadia.
But with respect to the places situated in this portion of Asia, and to
those lying so far removed from our own country, we must not understand
the accounts of writers in too literal a sense, particularly with regard
to distances.
2. Upon sailing into the Caspian, on the right hand, contiguous to the
Europeans, Scythians and Sarmatians occupy the country between the
Tanaïs and this sea; they are chiefly Nomades, or shepherd tribes, of
whom I have already spoken. On the left hand are the Eastern Scythian
Nomades, who extend as far as the Eastern sea, and India.
The ancient Greek historians called all the nations towards the north by
the common name of Scythians, and Kelto-Scythians. Writers still more
ancient than these called the nations living above the Euxine, Danube,
and Adriatic, Hyperboreans, Sauromatæ, and Arimaspi. [974] But in
speaking of the nations on the other side the Caspian Sea, they called
some Sacæ,[975] others Massagetæ. They were unable to give any exact
account of them, although they relate the history of the war of Cyrus
with the Massagetæ. Concerning these nations no one has ascertained the
truth, and the ancient histories of Persia, Media, and Syria have not
obtained much credit on account of the credulity of the writers and
their love of fable.
3. For these authors, having observed that those who professedly were
writers of fables obtained repute and success, supposed that they also
should make their writings agreeable, if, under the form of history,
they related what they had never seen nor heard, (not at least from
eye-witnesses,) and had no other object than to please and surprise the
reader. A person would more readily believe the stories of the heroes in
Hesiod, Homer, and in the tragic poets, than Ctesias, Herodotus,
Hellanicus, and writers of this kind.
4. We cannot easily credit the generality of the historians of
Alexander, for they practise deception with a view to enhance the glory
of Alexander; the expedition also was directed to the extremities of
Asia, at a great distance from our country, and it is difficult to
ascertain or detect the truth or falsehood of what is remote. The
dominion of the Romans and of the Parthians has added very much to
former discoveries, and the writers who speak of these people describe
nations and places, where certain actions were performed, in a manner
more likely to produce belief than preceding historians, for they had
better opportunities of personal observation.
CHAPTER VII.
1. The nomades, or wandering tribes, who live on the left side of the
coast on entering the Caspian Sea, are called by the moderns Dahæ, and
surnamed Parni. [976] Then there intervenes a desert tract, which is
followed by Hyrcania; here the Caspian spreads like a deep sea till it
approaches the Median and Armenian mountains. The shape of these hills
at the foot is lunated. [977] Their extremities terminate at the sea, and
form the recess of the bay.
A small part of this country at the foot of the mountains, as far as the
heights, if we reckon from the sea, is inhabited by some tribes of
Albanians and Armenians, but the greater portion by Gelæ, Cadusii,
Amardi, Vitii, and Anariacæ. It is said, that some Parrhasii were
settled together with the Anariacæ, who are now called Parrhasii,
(Parsii? ) and that the Ænianes built a walled city in the territory of
the Vitii, which city is [CAS. 508] now called Æniana (Ænia). Grecian
armour, brazen vessels, and sepulchres are shown there. There also is a
city Anariacæ, in which it is said an oracle is shown, where the answer
is given to those who consult it, during sleep, [and some vestiges of
Greek colonization, but all these] tribes are predatory, and more
disposed to war than husbandry, which arises from the rugged nature of
the country. The greater part of the coast at the foot of the
mountainous region is occupied by Cadusii, to the extent of nearly 5000
stadia, according to Patrocles, who thinks that this sea equals the
Euxine in size. These countries are sterile.
2.
