Pliny
The Natural History
Translated with Copious Notes and Illustrations by the late
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. and H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Late Scholar of Clare Hall, Cambridge
Published by Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, London, 1855
The chapter numbers do not correspond with more recent translations of Pliny, therefore I have used only the book number and chapter title with each excerpt and have appended the current Loeb references in parentheses. All footnotes for these excerpts are from the nineteenth century translation.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VI – Chapter: Adiabene.
(Refer to Book VI. 41 - 42 in Loeb edition..)
The kingdom of the Persians, by which we now understand that of Parthia, is elevated upon the Caucasion chain between two seas, the Persian and the Hyrcanian. To the Greater Armenia, which in the front slopes towards Commagene, is joined Sophene, which lies upon the descent on both sides thereof, and next to it is Adiabene, the most advanced frontier of Assyria; a part of which is Arbelitis, where Alexander conquered Darius, and which joins up to Syria. The whole of this country was called Mygdonia by the Macedonians, on account of the resemblance it bore to Mygdonia in Europe. Its cities are Alexandria,* and Antiochia, also called Nisibis; this last place is distant from Artaxata seven hundred and fifty miles. There was also in former times Ninus, a most renowned city, on the banks of the Tigris, with an aspect towards the west. Adjoining the other front of Greater Armenia, which runs down towards the Caspian Sea, we find Atropatene, which is separated from Otene, a region of Armenia, by the river Araxes; Gazae is its chief city, distant from Artaxata four hundred and fifty miles, and the same from Ecbatana in Media, to which country Atropatene belongs.
*Nothing is known of this place. Hardouin suggests that it may have been built on the spot where Alexander defeated Darius.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VI – Chapter: Media and the Caspian Gates.
(Refer to Book VI. 44 - 45 in Loeb edition..)
Joining up to Adiaben are the people formerly known as the ‘Carduchi,’ now the Cordueni, in front of whom the river Tigris flows: and next to them are the Pratitae, entitled the Par Odon, who hold possession of the Caspian Gates. On the other side of these gates we come to the deserts of Parthia and the mountain chain of Cithenus; and after that, the most pleasant locality of all Parthia, Choara by name. Here were two cities of the Parthians, built in former times for their protection against the people of Media, Calliope, and Issatis, the last of which stood formerly on a rock. Hecatompylos, the capital of Parthia, is distant from the Caspian Gates one hundred and thirty-three miles. In such an effectual manner is the kingdom of Parthia shut out by these passes. After leaving those gates we find the nation of the Caspii, extending as far as the shores of the Caspian, a race which has given its name to these gates as well as to the sea: on the left there is a mountainous district. Turning back from this nation to the river Cyrus, the distance is said to be two hundred and twenty miles; but if we go from that river as far down as the Caspian Gates, the distance is seven hundred miles. In the itineraries of Alexander the Great these gates were made the central or turning point in his expedition; the distance from the Caspian Gates to the frontier of India being there set down as fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty stadia, to the city of Bactra, commonly called Zariaspa, three thousand seven hundred, and thence to the river Jaxartes five thousand stadia.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VI – Chapter: Nations situate around the Hyrcanian Sea.
(Refer to Book VI. 46 - 49 in Loeb edition..)
Lying to the east of the Caspii is the region known as Apavortene, in which there is a place noted for its singular fertility, called Dareium. We then come the nations of Tapyri, the Anariaci, the Staures, and the Hyrcani, past whose shores and beyond the river Sideris the Caspian begins to take the name of the ‘Hyrcanian’ Sea: on this side of that stream are also the rivers Maxeras and Strato; all of them take their rise in the Caucasian chain. Next comes the district of Margiane, so remarkable for its sunny climate. It is the only spot in all those regions that produces the vine, being shut in on every side by verdant and refreshing hills. This district is fifteen hundred stadia in circumference, but is rendered remarkably difficult of access by sandy deserts, which extend a distance of one hundred and twenty miles: it lies opposite to the country of Parthia, and in it Alexander founded the city of Alexandria. This place having been destroyed by the barbarians, Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, rebuilt it on the same site as a Syrian city.(1) For seeing that it was watered by the Margus,(2) which passes through it, and is afterwards divided into a number of streams for the irrigation of the district of Zothale, he restored it, but preferred giving it the name of Antiochia.(3) The circumference of this city is seventy stadia: it was to this place that Orodes conducted such of the Romans as had survived the defeat of Crassus. From the mountain heights of this district, along the range of Caucasus, the savage race of the Mardi, a free people, extends as far as the Bactri. Below the district inhabited by them, we find the nations of the Orciani, the Commori, the Berdrigae, the Harmatotropi, the Citomarae, the Comani, the Marucaei, and the Mandruani. The rivers here are the Mandrus and the Chindrus. Beyond the nations already mentioned, are the Chorasmii, the Candari, the Attasini, the Paricani, the Sarangae, the Marotiani, the Aorsi, the Gaeli, by the Greek writers called Cadusii, the Matiani, the city of Heraclea,(4) which was founded by Alexander, but was afterwards destroyed, and rebuilt by Antiochus, and by him called Achais; the Derbices also, through the middle of whose territory the river Oxus runs, after rising in lake Oxus, the Syrmatae, the Oxydracae, the Heniochi, the Saraparae, and the Bactri, whose chief city is Zariaspe, which afterwards received the name of Bactra, from the river there. This last nation lies at the back of Mount Paropanisus, over against the sources of the river Indus, and is bounded by the river Ochus. Beyond it are the Sogdiani, the town of Panda, and, at the very extremity of their territory, Alexandria,(5) founded by Alexander the Great. At this spot are the altars which were raised by Heracles and Father Liber, as also by Cyrus, Semiramis, and Alexander; for the expeditions of all these conquerors stopped short at this region, bounded as it is by the river Jaxartes, by the Scythians known as the Silis, and by Alexander and his officers supposed to have been the Tanais. This river was crossed by Demodamus, a general of kings Seleucus and Antiochus, and whose account more particularly we have here followed. He also consecrated certain altars here to Apollo Didymaeus.
(1) The meaning of this, which has caused great diversity of opinion among the Commentators, seems to be, that on rebuilding it, he preferred giving it a name borne by several cities in Syria, and given to them in honor of kings of that country. To this he appears to have been prompted by a supposed resemblance which its site on the Margus bore to that of Antiochia on the Orontes.
(2) The modern Moorghab; it loses its itself in the sands of the Khiva.
(3) Its remains are supposed to be those of an ancient city, still to be seen at a spot called Merv, on the river Moorghab.
(4) Strabo mentions a town of this name, which he places, together with Apamea, in the direction of Rhagae. If Pliny has observed anything like order in his recital of nations and places, the Heraclea here mentioned cannot be that spoken of by Strabo, but must have been distant nearly 1000 miles from it.
(5) It was built on the Jaxartes, to mark the furthest point reached by Alexander in his Scythian expedition. It has been suggested that the modern Kokend may possibly occupy its site.