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. Hyrcania[978] is very fertile, and extensive, consisting for the most
part of plains, and has considerable cities dispersed throughout it, as
Talabroce, Samariane, Carta, and the royal residence, Tape,[979] which
is said to be situated a little above the sea, and distant 1400 stadia
from the Caspian Gates. The following facts are narrated as indications
of the fertility of the country.[980] The vine produces a metretes[981]
of wine; the fig-tree sixty medimni[982] of fruit; the corn grows from
the seed which falls out of the stalk; bees make their hives in the
trees, and honey drops from among the leaves. This is the case also in
the territory of Matiane in Media, and in the Sacasene, and Araxene of
Armenia.[983]
But neither this country, nor the sea which is named after it, has
received proper care and attention from the inhabitants, for there are
no vessels upon the sea, nor is it turned to any use. According to some
writers there are islands on it, capable of being inhabited, in which
gold is found. The cause of this neglect is this; the first governors of
Hyrcania were barbarians, Medes, and Persians, and lastly, people who
were more oppressive than these, namely, Parthians. The whole of the
neighbouring country was the haunt of robbers and wandering tribes, and
abounded with tracts of desert land. For a short time Macedonians were
sovereigns of the country, but being engaged in war were unable to
attend to remote possessions. Aristobulus says that Hyrcania has
forests, and produces the oak, but not the pitch pine,[984] nor the
fir,[985] nor the pine,[986] but that India abounds with these trees.
Nesæa[987] belongs to Hyrcania, but some writers make it an independent
district.
3. Hyrcania[988] is watered by the rivers Ochus and Oxus as far as their
entrance into the sea. The Ochus flows through Nesæa, but some writers
say that the Ochus empties itself into the Oxus.
Aristobulus avers that the Oxus was the largest river, except those in
India, which he had seen in Asia. He says also that it is navigable with
ease, (this circumstance both Aristobulus and Eratosthenes borrow from
Patrocles,) and that large quantities of Indian merchandise are conveyed
by it to the Hyrcanian Sea, and are transferred from thence into Albania
by the Cyrus, and through the adjoining countries to the Euxine. The
Ochus is not often mentioned by the ancients, but Apollodorus, the
author of the Parthica, frequently mentions it, [and describes it] as
flowing very near the Parthians.
4. Many additional falsehoods were invented inspecting this sea, to
flatter the ambition of Alexander and his love of glory; for, as it was
generally acknowledged that the river Tanaïs separated Europe from Asia
throughout its whole course, and that a large part of Asia, lying
between this sea and the Tanaïs, had never been subjected to the power
of the Macedonians, it was resolved to invent an expedition, in order
that, according to fame at least, Alexander might seem to have conquered
those countries. They therefore made the lake Mæotis, which receives the
Tanaïs, and the Caspian Sea, which also they call a lake, one body of
water, affirming that there was a subterraneous opening between both,
and that one was part of the other. Polycleitus produces proofs to show
that this sea is a lake, for instance, that it breeds serpents, and that
the water is sweetish.[989] That it was not a [CAS. 510] different lake
from the Mæotis, he conjectures from the circumstance of the Tanaïs
discharging itself into it. From the same mountains in India, where the
Ochus and the Oxus rise, many other rivers take their course, and among
these the Iaxartes, which like the former empties itself into the
Caspian Sea, although it is the most northerly of them all. This river
then they called Tanaïs, and alleged, as a proof that it was the Tanaïs
mentioned by Polycleitus, that the country on the other side of the
river produced the fir-tree, and that the Scythians there used arrows
made of fir-wood. It was a proof also that the country on the other side
of the river was a part of Europe and not of Asia, that Upper and
Eastern Asia do not produce the fir-tree. But Eratosthenes says that the
fir does grow even in India, and that Alexander built his ships of that
wood. Eratosthenes collects many things of this kind, with a view to
show their contradictory character. But I have said enough about them.
5. Among the peculiarities recorded of the Hyrcanian sea, Eudoxus and
others relate the following. There is a certain coast in front of the
sea hollowed out into caverns, between which and the sea there lies a
flat shore. Rivers on reaching this coast descend from the precipices
above with sufficient force to dart the water into the sea without
wetting the intervening shore, so that even an army could pass
underneath sheltered by the stream above. The inhabitants frequently
resort to this place for the purposes of festivity and of performing
sacrifices, one while reclining beneath the caverns, at another basking
in the sun (even) beneath the fall of water. They divert themselves in
various ways, having in sight on each side the sea and shore, the latter
of which by the dew [and moisture of the falls] is rendered a grassy and
flowery meadow.