Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 291

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Ecbatana,240 the capital of Media, was built241 by king Seleucus, at a distance from Great Seleucia of seven hundred and fifty miles, and twenty miles from the Caspian Gates. The remaining towns of the Medians are Phazaca, Aganzaga, and Apamea,242 surnamed Rhagiane. The reason of these passes receiving the name of “Gates,” is the same that has been stated above.243 The chain of mountains is suddenly broken by a passage of such extreme narrowness that, for a distance of eight miles, a single chariot can barely find room to move along: the whole of this pass has been formed by artificial means. Both on the right hand and the left are overhanging rocks, which look as though they had been exposed to the action of fire; and there is a tract of country, quite destitute of water, twenty-eight miles in extent. This narrow pass, too, is rendered still more difficult by a liquid salt which oozes from the rocks, and uniting in a single stream, makes its way along the pass. Besides this, it is frequented by such multitudes of serpents, that the passage is quite impracticable except in winter.

(15.) Joining up to Adiabene are the people formerly known as the ‘Carduchi,’ now the Cordueni,244 in front of whom the river Tigris flows: and next to them are the Pratitæ, entitled the Par Odon,245 who hold possession of the Caspian Gates.246 On the other side247 of these gates we come to the deserts248 of Parthia and the mountain chain of Cithenus; and after that, the most pleasant locality of all Parthia, Choara249 by name. Here were two cities of the Parthians, built in former times for their protection against the people of Media, Calliope,250 and Issatis, the last of which stood formerly251 on a rock. Hecatompylos,252 the capital of Parthia, is distant from the Caspian Gates one hundred and thirty-three miles. In such an effectual manner is the kingdom of Parthia shut out by these passes. After leaving these gates we find the nation of the Caspii, extending as far as the shores of the Caspian, a race which has given its name to these gates as well as to the sea: on the left there is a mountainous district. Turning back253 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 hundred254 miles. In the itineraries of Alexander the Great these gates were made the central or turning point in his expeditions; the distance from the Caspian Gates to the frontier of India being there set down as fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty255 stadia, to the city of Bactra,256 commonly called Zariaspa, three thousand seven hundred, and thence to the river Jaxartes257 five thousand stadia.