1863. | Aornos. 409 
Aornos.—By Lt.-Col. J. ABBorr. 
In the Asiatic Society’s Journal No. 1 of 1863 I have lately perused 
an interesting paper by the Rev. I. Loewenthal upon the antiquities of 
the Peshawur district, of which I hope to see many more numbers. 
My object in noticing it at present, is less to support my own theory 
regarding the site of Aornos, which does not appear to me to be 
shaken, than to invite attention generally to the subject and others 
connected with the footsteps of the Greeks ; whose coins and sculpture 
abound in all old sites of the Peshawur district and in a large number 
of those between the Jelum and Atuk. Not only is this ground classi- 
cal to us Huropeans ; it is also the classical soil of the Hindoo—the 
Kusufzye and the valley of Sohaut containing many of the old sites 
spoken of in the heroic poems of that race. 
At page 13 of Mr. Loewenthal’s essay he calls in question the loca- 
lity I have assigned for Aornos, upon the verdict of some great Mili- 
tary authority (unknown) because “‘ the Mahabunn commands nothing, 
and is so much out of the way, that it could hardly ever have been 
a place of refuge for the people of the plains, and if it had been, a 
general like Alexander would not have wasted his time on the reduc- 
tion of an isolated hill which was by no means impeding his passage 
to the Indus.” 
Now at first sight all this may appear to be sound argument. It is 
only when we find that not a single position agrees with fact, that we 
regret the rashness of great Military authorities, in deciding, without 
investigation, questions so perplexing as this. 
First, it is stated, that the Mahabunn commands nothing. 
I answer, that it commands the liberties of the most warlike of the 
tribes in the Peshawur valley ; the Aspasioi, or Asupzye, as they still 
term themselves. So long as Aornos was free, the Aspasioi could not 
be conquered. And as long as the Mahabunn is free, the Asupzye can 
never be subdued. Their villages may be occupied at great expense 
by armed garrisons: but sooner or later those garrisons will be cut off, 
and the people will reassert their freedom. It was this certainty, (in 
all probability,) which led Hercules four thousand years ago to assail 
Aornos. And it was possibly the same assurance, that, (after an interval 
of 2000 years,) conspiring with his emulation of the herves of antiquity, 
prompted Alexander to the same undertaking with better success. 
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