20 
ploy's natueal histcey. 
[Book YI. 
and twenty in number, with barbarous and uncouth names.^' 
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, 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^* 
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,^^ and is wholly surrounded 
by the Caucasian Mountains. The inhabitants upon the con- 
lines of Armenia shall now be treated of. 
CHAP. 11. (10.) ALBANIA, IBEEIA, AND THE ADJOININa NATIONS. 
The whole plain which extends away from the river Cyrus 
is inhabited by the nation of the Albani,^^ and, after them,^^ 
by that of the Iberi,^^ who are separated from them by the river 
Alazon,®^ which flows into the Cyrus from the Caucasian 
^2 We find in Strabo the names of some of them mentioned, such as 
Sophene, Acilisene, Gorgodylene, Sacassene, Gorgarene, Phanene, Comi- 
sene, Orchestene, Chorsene, Camhysene, Odomantis, &c. 
The Ceraunian Mountains. Parisot remarks that in this description, 
PHny, notwithstanding his previous professions, does not appear to have 
made any very great use of the list drawn up by Corbulo. 
That is, looking towards the south. 
®5 The Septentrional Ocean, with which the ancients imagined that the 
northern part of the Caspian Sea is connected. See c. 15. 
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. 
Ey 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, 
®" To the west of Albania. 
^ 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. 
The modern Alasan. 
