previous next

CHAP. 29.—THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE.

The kingdoms1 of Parthia are eighteen in all: such being the divisions of its provinces, which lie, as we have already stated, along the Red Sea to the south, and the Hyrcanian to the north. Of this number the eleven, called the Higher provinces, begin at the frontiers of Armenia and the shores of the Caspian, and extend to the Scythians, whose mode of life is similar in every respect. The other seven kingdoms of Parthia bear the name of the Lower provinces. As to the Parthi themselves, Parthia2 always lay at the foot of the mountains3 so often mentioned, which overhang all these nations. On the east it is bounded by the Arii, on the south by Carmania and the Ariani, on the west by the Pratitæ, a people of the Medi, and on the north by the Hyrcani: it is surrounded by deserts on every side. The more distant of the Parthi are called Nomades;4 on this side of them there are deserts. On the west are the cities of Issatis and Calliope, already mentioned,5 on the north-east Europus,6 on the south-east Maria; in the middle there are Hecatompylos,7 Arsace, and Nisiæa, a fine district of Parthiene, in which is Alexandropolis, so called from its founder. (26.) It is requisite in this place to trace the localities of the Medi also, and to describe in succession the features of the country as far as the Persian Sea, in order that the account which follows may be the better understood. Media8 lies crosswise to the west, and so presenting itself obliquely to Parthia, closes the entrance of both kingdoms9 into which it is divided. It has, then, on the east, the Caspii and the Parthi; on the south, Sittacene, Susiane, and Persis; on the west, Adsiabene; and on the north, Armenia. The Persæ have always inhabited the shores of the Red Sea, for which reason it has received the name of the Persian Gulf. This maritime region of Persis has the name of Ciribo;10 on the side on which it runs up to that of the Medi, there is a place known by the name of Climax Megale,11 where the mountains are ascended by a steep flight of stairs, and so afford a narrow passage which leads to Persepolis,12 the former capital of the kingdom, destroyed by Alexander. It has also, at its extreme frontier, Laodicea,13 founded by Antiochus. To the east of this place is the fortress of Passagarda,14 held by the Magi, at which spot is the tomb of Cyrus; also Ecbatana,15 a city of theirs, the inhabitants of which were removed by Darius to the mountains. Between the Parthi and the Ariani projects the territory of the Parætaceni.16 By these nations and the river Euphrates are the Lower kingdoms of Parthia bounded; of the others we shall speak after Mesopotamia, which we shall now describe, with the exception of that angle of it and the peoples of Arabia, which have been already mentioned in a former book.17

1 The provinces of Parthia have been already mentioned in detail in the preceding Chapters, except Susiana and Elymais, which are mentioned in c. 31.

2 The original Parthia, the modern Khorassan.

3 The so-called Caucasian chain. See c. 16 of the present Book.

4 Or "Wandering Parthians," lying far to the east.

5 In c. 17 of the present Book.

6 Not to be confounded with the place in Atropatene, mentioned in c. 21 of the present Book.

7 It has been supposed that the modern Damgham corresponds with this place, but that is too near the Portæ Caspie. It is considered most probable that the remains of Hecatompylos ought to be sought in the neighbourhood of a place now known as Jah Jirm. It is mentioned in c. 17 and 21 of the present Book.

8 Media occupied the extreme west of the great table-land of the modern Iran. It corresponded very nearly to the modern province of Irak-Ajemi.

9 The Upper and the Lower, as already mentioned.

10 Hardouin suggests that this should be Syrtibolos. His reasons for so thinking will be found alluded to in a note to c. 31. See p. 80, Note 98.

11 Or the "Great Ladder." The Baron de Bode states, in his Travels in Luristan and Arabistan, that he discovered the remains of a gigantic causeway, in which he had no difficulty in recognizing one of the most ancient and most mysterious monuments of the East. This causeway, which at the present day bears the name of Jaddehi-Atabeg, or the "road of the Atabegs," was looked upon by several historians as one of the wonders of the world, who gave it the name of the Climax Megale or "Great Ladder." At the time even of Alexander the Great the name of its con- structor was unknown.

12 Which was rebuilt after it was burnt by Alexander, and in the middle ages had the name of Istakhar; it is now called Takhti Jemsheed, the throne of Jemsheed, or Chil-Minar, the Forty Pillars. Its foundation is sometimes ascribed to Cyrus the Great, but more generally to his son, Cambyses. The ruins of this place are very extensive.

13 Its site is unknown; but Dupinet translates it the "city of Lor."

14 The older of the two capitals of Persia, Persepolis being the later one. It was said to have been founded by Cyrus the Great, on the spot where he gained his victory over Astyages. Its exact site is doubtful, but most modern geographers identify it with Murghab, to the north-east of Persepolis, where there are the remains of a great sepulchral monument of the ancient Persians, probably the tomb of Cyrus. Others place it at Farsa or at Dorab-Gherd, both to the south-east of Persepolis, the direction mentioned by Strabo, but not in other respects answering his description so well as Murghab.

15 It is most probable that he does not allude here to the Ecbatana, mentioned in c. 17 of this Book.

16 There were several mountainous districts called Parætacene in the Persian empire, that being the Greek form of a Persian word signifying "mountainous."

17 In B. v. c. 21. He returns to the description of Susiana, Elymais, and Characene in c. 31 of the present Book.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Latin (Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff, 1906)
hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide References (45 total)
  • Cross-references to this page (36):
    • The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, LAODICEA Iran.
    • Harper's, Candăcé
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ABOCCIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ADU´LE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AEGYPTUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AETHIO´PIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AIAS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AMA´RI LACUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AUALI´TES SINUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AUTEI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), BERENI´CE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), DEIRE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), DRE´PANUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), EUPHRATES
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), FONTES AMARI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), GLAUCUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), HIERA SYCAMINUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), IMMUNDUS SINUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAODICEIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LI´BYA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MACUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ME´ROE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MYOS-HORMOS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), NILUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PENTEDA´CTYLOS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PHILO´TERA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PTOLEMA´IS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SAPIRI´NE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), STRATO´NIS INSULA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TACHOMPSO
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TADU
    • Smith's Bio, Ba'silis
    • Smith's Bio, Canda'ce
    • Smith's Bio, Neco
    • Smith's Bio, Sebo'sus, Sta'tius
    • Smith's Bio, Sesostris
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (9):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: