Chap. 18,] ACCOUNT OF COTTNTEIES, ETC. 31 



the district of Margiane," so remarkable for its sunny climate. 

 It is the only spot in all these regions that produces the vine, 

 being shut in on every side by verdant and refreshing hUls. 

 This district is fifteen hundred stadia in circumference, but is 

 rendered remarkably difficult of access by sandy deserts, "which 

 extend a distance of one hundred and twenty miles : it lies 

 opposite to the country of Parthia, and in it iilexander founded 

 the city of Alexandria. This place having been destroyed 

 by the barbarians, Antiochus,"' the son of Seleucus,' rebuilt it 

 on the same site as a Syrian city.'' For, seeing that it was 

 watered by the Margus,™ which passes through it, and is after- 

 wards divided into a number of streams for the irrigation of 

 the district of Zothale, he restored it, but preferred giving 

 it the name of Antiochia.'" The circumference of this city is 

 seventy stadia : it was to this place that Orodes conducted such 

 of the Eomans as had survived the defeat of Crassus. From 

 the mountain heights of this district, along the range of 

 Caucasus, the savage race of the Mardi, a free people, extends 

 as far as the Bactri." Below the district inhabited by them, 

 we find the nations of the Orciani, the Commori, the Berdrigae, 

 the Harmatotropi," the CitomarsB, the Comani, the Marucsei, 

 and the Mandruani. The rivers here are the Mandrus and the 

 ■ Chindrus." Beyond the nations already mentioned, are the 



^ This district occupied the southern part of modem Khiva, the south- 

 wegtem pait of Bokhara, and the north-eastern part of Ehorassan. This 

 proTince of the ancient Persian empire received its name from the river 

 Margus, now the Moorghab. It first became known to the Greeks by 

 the expeditions of Alexander and Antiochus I. 



" Antiochus Soter, the son of Seleucus Nicator. 



^ The meaning of this, which has caused great diversity of opinion 

 among the Commentators, seems to be, that on rebuilding it, he preferred 

 giving it a name borne by several cities in Syria, and given to them in 

 honour of kings of that country. To this he appears to have been 

 prompted by a supposed resemblance which its site on the Margus bore to 

 that of Antiochia on the Orontes. 



^' The modem Moorghab ; it loses itself in the sands of Khiva. 



"• Its remains are supposed to be those of an ancient city,. stiU to he seen 

 at a spot called Merv, on the river Moorghab. 



" The people of modem Bokhara. 



'2 This appears to mean the nations of " Chariot horse-breeders.'' 



" In former editions, called the ' Gridinus.' It is impossible to identify 

 many of these nations and rivers, as the spelling varies considerably in the 

 respective MSS. 



