20 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTCJRY. [BookYI. 



and twenty in number, with barbarous and uncouth names. 82 

 On the east, it is bounded, though not immediately, by the 

 Ceraunian Mountains and the district of Adiabene. The 

 space that intervenes is occupied by the Sopheni, beyond 

 whom is the chain of mountains, 83 and then beyond them the 

 inhabitants of Adiabene. Dwelling in the valleys adjoining 

 to Armenia are the Menobardi and the Moscheni. The Tigris 

 and inaccessible mountains surround Adiabene. To the left 84 

 of it is the territory of the Medi, and in the distance is seen 

 the Caspian Sea ; which, as we shall state in the proper place, 

 receives its waters from the ocean, 85 and is wholly surrounded 

 by the Caucasian Mountains. The inhabitants upon the con- 

 fines of Armenia shall now be treated of. 



CHAP. 11. (10.) ALBANIA, IBEEIA, AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS. 



The whole plain which extends away from the river Cyrus 

 is inhabited by the nation of the Albani, 86 and, after them, 87 

 by that of the Iberi, 88 who are separated from them by the river 

 Alazon, 89 which flows into the Cyrus from the Caucasian 



82 "We find in Strabo the names of some of them mentioned, such as 

 Sophene, Acilisene, Gorgodylene, Sacassene, Gorgarene, Phanene, Corni- 

 &ene, Orchestene, Chorsene, Cambysene, Odomantis, &c. 



83 The Ceraunian Mountains. Parisot remarks that in this description, 

 Pliny, notwithstanding his previous professions, does not appear to have 

 made any very great use of the list drawn up by Corbulo. 



84 That is, looking towards the south. 



85 The Septentrional Ocean, with which the ancients imagined that the 

 northern part of the Caspian Sea is connected. See c. 15. 



86 According to Strabo, Albania was bounded on the east by the Caspian, 

 and on the north by the Caucasus. On the west it joined Iberia, while on 

 the south it was divided from the Greater Armenia by the river Cyrus. 

 By later writers, the northern and western boundaries are differently 

 given. It was found to be the fact that the Albani occupied the country 

 on both sides of the Caucasus, and accordingly Pliny, in c. 15, carries 

 the country further north, as far as the river Casius, while in this Chapter 

 he makes the river Alazon, the modern Alasan, the western, boundary to- 

 wards Iberia. 



8 " To the west of Albania. 



88 Iberia lay south of the great chain of the Caucasus, forming an ex- 

 tensive tract bounded on the west by Colchis, on the east by Albania, and 

 on the south by Armenia, and watered by the river Cyrus. It corresponded 

 very nearly with modern Georgia. 



a The modern Alusan. 



