28 tLimr's natural histobt. [Book VI. 



is separated from Otene, a region of Armenia, by the river 

 Araxes ; Gazae*^ is its chief city, distant from Artaxata four 

 hundred and fifty miles, and the same fromEcbatana in Media, 

 to which country Atropatene belongs. 



CHAP. 17. (14.) — MEDIA AND THE CASPIAN GATES. 



Ecbatana,*' the capital of Media, was built" by king Seleucus, 

 at a distance from Great Seleucia of seven hundred and fifty 

 miles, and twenty miles from the Caspian Gates. The re- 

 maining towns of the Medians are Phazaca, Aganzaga, and 

 Apamea,*^ surnamed Rhagiane. The reason of these passes 

 receiving the name of '* Gates," is the same that has been 

 stated above.*® 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, 



have included a considerable portion of the province now known by tha» 

 name of Azerbaijan. It derived its name from Atropates or Atropes, who* 

 was governor of this district under the last Darius. 



*2 Most probably the place now known as Gazaea, the royal residence of 

 the Parthian kings, and, as its name would imply, their treasure city. 

 Colonel Rawlinson thinks that this place underwent many changes of name 

 according to the rulers who successively occupied it ; among other names, it 

 appears to have borne that of Ecbatana. 



*3 A city of great magnitude, pleasantly situate near the foot of Mount 

 Orontes, in the northern part of Greater Media. Its original foundation 

 was attributed by Diodorus Siculus to Semiramis, and by Herodotus to 

 Deioces. It was the capital of the Median kingdom, and afterwards the 

 summer residence of the Persian and Parthian kings. The genuine ortho- 

 graphy of the name seems to be Agbatana. The ruins seen at the modern 

 Hamadan are generally supposed to represent those of the ancient Ecba- 

 tana ; but it is most probable that at different times, if not contempora- 

 neously, there were several cities of this name in Media. 



** Pliny in this statement, as also in the distances which he here assigns 

 to Ecbatana, is supposed to have confounded Ecbatana with Europus, now 

 Veramin, rebuilt by Seleucus Nicator. 



*5 This was a city in tiie vicinity of Rhagoe, which was distant about 

 600 stadia from the Caspian Gates. It was built by the Greeks after the 

 Macedonian conquest of Asia. The other places here mentioned do not 

 appear to have been identified. 



*^ See the beginning of c. 12, p. 21, 



I 



