1. Media is divided into two parts, one of which is called the Greater
Media. Its capital is Ecbatana,[1044] a large city containing the royal
seat of the Median empire. This palace the Parthians continue to occupy
even at this time. Here their kings pass the summer, for the air of
Media is cool. Their winter residence is at Seleucia, on the Tigris,
near Babylon.
The other division is Atropatian Media. It had its name from Atropatus,
a chief who prevented this country, which is a part of Greater Media,
from being subjected to the dominion of the Macedonians. When he was
made king he established the independence of this country; his
successors continue to the present day, and have at different times
contracted marriages with the kings of Armenia, Syria, and Parthia.
2. Atropatian Media borders upon Armenia and Matiane[1045] towards the
east, towards the west on the Greater Media, and on both towards the
north; towards the south it is contiguous to the people living about the
recess of the Hyrcanian Sea, and to Matiane.
According to Apollonides its strength is not inconsiderable, since it
can furnish 10,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry.
It contains a lake called Spauta,[1046] (Kapauta,) in which salt
effloresces, and is consolidated. The salt occasions itching and pain,
but oil is a cure for both, and sweet water restores the colour of
clothes, which have the appearance of being burnt,[1047] when they have
been immersed in the lake by ignorant persons for the purpose of washing
them.
They have powerful neighbours in the Armenians and Parthians, by whom
they are frequently plundered; they resist however, and recover what has
been taken away, as they recovered Symbace[1048] from the Armenians, who
were defeated by the Romans, and they themselves became the friends of
Cæsar. They at the same time endeavour to conciliate the Parthians.
3. The summer palace is at Gazaka, situated in a plain; the winter
palace[1049] is in Vera, a strong fortress which Antony besieged in his
expedition against the Parthians. The last is distant from the Araxes,
which separates Armenia and Atropatene, 2400 stadia, according to
Dellius, the friend of Antony, who wrote an account of the expedition of
Antony against the Parthians, which he himself accompanied, and in which
he held a command.
The other parts of this country are fertile, but that towards the north
is mountainous, rugged, and cold, the abode of the mountain tribes of
Cadusii, Amardi, Tapyri, Curtii, and other similar nations, who are
migratory, and robbers. These people are scattered over the Zagrus and
Niphates. The Curtii in Persia, and Mardi, (for so they call the
Amardi,) and those in Armenia, and who bear the same name at present,
have the same kind of character.
4. The Cadusii have an army of foot soldiers not inferior in number to
that of the Ariani. They are very expert in throwing the javelin. In the
rocky places the soldiers engage in battle on foot, instead of on their
horses. The expedition of Antony was harassing to the army, not by the
nature of the country, but by the conduct of their guide, Artavasdes,
king of the Armenii, whom Antony rashly made his adviser, and master of
his intentions respecting the war, when at the same time that prince was
contriving a plan for his destruction. Antony punished Artavasdes, but
too late; the latter had been the cause of many calamities to the
Romans, in conjunction with another person; he made the march from the
Zeugma on the Euphrates to the borders of Atropatene to exceed 8000
stadia, or double the distance of the direct course, [by leading the
army] over mountains, and places where there were no roads, and by a
circuitous route.
5. [CAS. 524] The Greater Media anciently governed the whole of Asia,
after the overthrow of the Syrian empire: but afterwards, in the time of
Astyages, the Medes were deprived of this extensive sovereignty by Cyrus
and the Persians, yet they retained much of their ancient importance.
Ecbatana was the winter (royal?) residence[1050] of the Persian kings,
as it was of the Macedonian princes, who overthrew the Persian empire,
and got possession of Syria. It still continues to serve the same
purpose, and affords security to the kings of Parthia.
6. Media is bounded on the east by Parthia, and by the mountains of the
Cossæi, a predatory tribe. They once furnished the Elymæi, whose allies
they were in the war against the Susii and Babylonians, with 13,000
archers. Nearchus says that there were four robber tribes; the Mardi,
who were contiguous to the Persians; the Uxii and Elymæi, who were on
the borders of the Persians and Susii; and the Cossæi, on those of the
Medes; that all of them exacted tribute from the kings; that the Cossæi
received presents, when the king, having passed his summer at Ecbatana
went down to Babylonia; that Alexander attacked them in the winter time,
and repressed their excessive insolence. Media is bounded on the east by
these nations, and by the Parætaceni, who are contiguous to the
Persians, and are mountaineers, and robbers; on the north by the
Cadusii, who live above the Hyrcanian Sea, and by other nations, whom we
have just enumerated; on the south by the Apolloniatis, which the
ancients called Sitacene, and by the Zagrus, along which lies
Massabatica, which belongs to Media, but according to others, to Elymæa;
on the west by the Atropatii, and by some tribes of the Armenians.
There are also Grecian cities in Media, founded by Macedonians, as
Laodiceia, Apameia, Heracleia near Rhagæ, and Rhaga itself, founded by
Nicator, who called it Europus, and the Parthians Arsacia, situated
about 500 stadia to the south of the Caspian Gates, according to
Apollodorus of Artemita.
7. The greater part of Media consists of high ground, and is cold; such
are the mountains above Ecbatana, and the places about Rhagæ and the
Caspian Gates, and the northern parts in general extending thence as far
as Matiane and Armenia.
The country below the Caspian Gates consists of flat grounds and
valleys. It is very fertile, and produces everything except the olive,
or if it grows anywhere it does not yield oil, and is dry. The country
is peculiarly adapted, as well as Armenia, for breeding horses. There is
a meadow tract called Hippobotus, which is traversed by travellers on
their way from Persia and Babylonia to the Caspian Gates. Here, it is
said, fifty thousand mares were pastured in the time of the Persians,
and were the king’s stud. The Nesæan horses, the best and largest in the
king’s province, were of this breed, according to some writers, but
according to others they came from Armenia. Their shape is peculiar, as
is that of the Parthian horses, compared with those of Greece and others
in our country.
The herbage which constitutes the chief food of the horses we call
peculiarly by the name of Medic, from its growing in Media in great
abundance. The country produces Silphium,[1051] from which is obtained
the Medic juice, much inferior to the Cyrenaic, but sometimes it excels
the latter, which may be accounted for by the difference of places, or
from a change the plant may undergo, or from the mode of extracting and
preparing the juice so as to continue good when laid by for use.
8. Such then is the nature of the country with respect to magnitude; its
length and breadth are nearly equal. The greatest breadth
(length?)[1052] however seems to be that reckoned from the pass across
the Zagrus, which is called the Median Gate, to the Caspian Gates,
through the country of Sigriana, 4100 stadia.
The account of the tribute paid agrees with the extent and wealth of the
country. Cappadocia paid to the Persians yearly, in addition to a
tribute in silver, 1500 horses, 2000 mules, and 50,000 sheep, and the
Medes contributed nearly double this amount.
9. Many of their customs are the same as those of the Armenians, from
the similarity of the countries which they inhabit. The Medes however
were the first to communicate them to the Armenians, and still before
that time to the Persians, who were their masters, and successors in the
empire of Asia.
[CAS. 526] The Persian stole, as it is now called, the pursuit of
archery and horsemanship, the court paid to their kings, their attire,
and veneration fitting for gods paid by the subjects to the
prince,--these the Persians derived from the Medes. That this is the
fact appears chiefly from their dress. A tiara, a citaris, a hat,[1053]
tunics with sleeves reaching to the hands, and trowsers, are proper to
be worn in cold and northerly places, such as those in Media, but they
are not by any means adapted to inhabitants of the south. The Persians
had their principal settlements on the Gulf of Persia, being situated
more to the south than the Babylonians and the Susii. But after the
overthrow of the Medes they gained possession of some tracts of country
contiguous to Media. The custom however of the vanquished appeared to
the conquerors to be so noble, and appropriate to royal state, that
instead of nakedness or scanty clothing, they endured the use of the
feminine stole, and were entirely covered with dress to the feet.
10. Some writers say that Medeia, when with Jason she ruled in these
countries, introduced this kind of dress, and concealed her countenance
as often as she appeared in public in place of the king; that the
memorials of Jason are, the Jasonian heroa,[1054] held in great
reverence by the Barbarians, (besides a great mountain above the Caspian
Gates on the left hand, called Jasonium,) and that the memorials of
Medeia are the kind of dress, and the name of the country. Medus, her
son, is said to have been her successor in the kingdom, and the country
to have been called after his name. In agreement with this are the
Jasonia in Armenia, the name of the country, and many other
circumstances which we shall mention.
11. It is a Median custom to elect the bravest person as king, but this
does not generally prevail, being confined to the mountain tribes. The
custom for the kings to have many wives is more general, it is found
among all the mountaineers also, but they are not permitted to have less
than five. In the same manner the women think it honourable for husbands
to have as many wives as possible, and esteem it a misfortune if they
have less than five.
While the rest of Media is very fertile, the northern and mountainous
part is barren. The people subsist upon the produce of trees. They make
cakes of apples, sliced and dried, and bread of roasted almonds; they
express a wine from some kind of roots. They eat the flesh of wild
animals, and do not breed any tame animals. So much then respecting the
Medes. As to the laws and customs in common use throughout the whole of
Media, as they are the same as those of the Persians in consequence of
the establishment of the Persian empire, I shall speak of them when I
give an account of the latter nation.