BOOK VI.] History of Nature. 113 



Mountains Corax, as is before said. Agrippa writeth that 

 this whole Coast, from the lofty and inaccessible Mountains 

 of Caucasus, containeth 425 Miles. Beyond the Cyrus, the 

 Caspian Sea beginneth to take that Name ; and the Caspii 

 dwell there. And here the error of many is to be corrected, 

 even of those who were lately with Corbulo in Armenia with 

 the Army : for they called those Gates of Caucasus, of which 

 we spoke before, the Caspian Gates of Iberia : and the Maps 

 and Descriptions which are painted and sent from thence, 

 have that Name written on them. Likewise the threatening 

 of Prince JVero, when he sought to gain those Gates, which 

 through Iberia lead into Sarmatia, made mention of the 

 Gates Caspise ; which had scarcely any Passage by reason 

 of the Mountains so closely approaching each other. There 

 are other Gates near the Caspian Sea, that join upon the 

 Caspian Nations, which could not have been distinguished 

 from the other but by the relation of those that accompanied 

 Alexander the Great in his Expeditions. For the Kingdoms 

 of the Persians, which at this day we take to be those of 

 the Parthians, are elevated between the Persian and Hir- 

 canian Seas upon the Mountains of Caucasus ; in the Descent 

 of which on both sides bordering upon Armenia the Greater, 

 and on that part of the front which vergeth to Comagene, it 

 joineth (as we have said) with Sephenise : and upon it bor- 

 dereth Adiabene, the beginning of the Assyrians : Arbelitis, 

 which is nearest to Syria, is a part of this: where Alexander 

 vanquished Darius. All this Tract the Macedonians surnamed 

 Mygdonia, 1 from its resemblance. The Towns Alexandria ; 

 and Antiochia, which they call Nisibis : from Artaxata it is 

 750 Miles. There was also Ninus, 2 seated upon the Tigris, 

 looking towards the West, and in Times past highly re- 

 nowned. But on the other Side, where it lieth toward the 

 Caspian Sea, the Region Atropatenc, separated by the River 

 Araxes from Oterie in Armenia : its City, Gazse, is 450 Miles 



1 From its resemblance to a part of Greece of that name, with which 

 they were well acquainted. Wern. Club. 

 8 The ancient Nineveh. Wern. Club. 

 VOL. II. I 



