Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 284

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The river Cyrus168 takes its rise in the mountains of the Heniochi, by some writers called the Coraxici; the Araxes rises in the same mountains as the river Euphrates, at a distance from it of six miles only;169 and after being increased by the waters of the Usis, falls itself, as many authors have supposed, into the Cyrus, by which it is carried into the Caspian Sea.

The more famous towns in Lesser Armenia are Cæsarea,170 Aza,171 and Nicopolis;172 in the Greater Arsamosata,173 which lies near the Euphrates, Carcathiocerta174 upon the Tigris, Tigranocerta175 which stands on an elevated site, and, on a plain adjoining the river Araxes, Artaxata.176 According to Aufidius, the circumference of the whole of Armenia is five thousand miles, while Claudius Cæsar makes the length, from Dascusa177 to the borders of the Caspian Sea, thirteen178 hundred miles, and the breadth, from Tigranocerta to Iberia,179 half that distance. It is a well-known fact, that this country is divided into prefectures, called “Strategies,” some of which singly formed a kingdom in former times; they are one hundred and twenty in number, with barbarous and uncouth names.180 On the east, it is bounded, though not immediately, by the Ceraunian Mountains and the district of Adiabene. The space that intervenes is occupied by the Sopheni, beyond whom is the chain of mountains,181 and then beyond them the inhabitants of Adiabene. Dwelling in the valleys adjoining to Armenia are the Menobardi and the Moscheni. The Tigris and inaccessible mountains surround Adiabene. To the left182 of it is the territory of the Medi, and in the distance is seen the Caspian Sea; which, as we shall state in the proper place, receives its waters from the ocean,183 and is wholly surrounded by the Caucasian Mountains. The inhabitants upon the confines of Armenia shall now be treated of.