68 pliny's i^attjral history. [Book VI 
separates it from Elymais.^ Opposite to the coast of Persis, 
are the islands of Psilos, Cassandra, and Aracia, the last 
sacred to JS'eptune/^ and containing a mountain of great height. 
Persis^^ itself, looking towards the west, has a line of coast 
five hundred and "fifty miles in length ; it is a country opulent 
even to luxury, but has long since changed its name for that 
of Parthia."^^ I shall now devote a few w^ords to the Parthian 
empire. 
CHAP. 29. THE PARTHIAIf EMPIRE. 
The kingdoms^ of Parthia are eighteen in all : such being 
the divisions of its provinces, which lie, as we have already 
stated, along the Eed Sea to the south, and the Hyrcanian to 
the north. Of this number the eleven, called the Higher pro- 
vinces, begin at the frontiers of Armenia and the shores of the 
Caspian, and extend to the Scythians, whose mode of life is 
similar in every respect. The other seven kingdoms of Parthia 
bear the name of the Lower provinces. As to the Parthi 
themselves, Parthia^ always lay at the foot of the mountains'^ 
so often mentioned, which overhang all these nations. On the 
east it is bounded by the Arii, on the south by Carmania and 
the Ariani, on the west by the Pratitse, a people of the Medi, 
and on the north by the Hyrcani : it is surrounded by deserts 
on every side. The more distant of the Parthi are called 
]Sr omades f on this side of them there are deserts. On the 
A district of Susiana, extending from the river Enlseus on the west, ; 
to the Gratis on the east, deriving its name perhaps from the Elymsei, or i 
Elymi, a warlike people found in the mountains of Greater Media. In the ; 
Old Testament this country is called Elam. 
Ptolemy says that this last bore the name of "Alexander's Island." j 
Persis was more properly a portion only or province of the ancient | 
kingdom of Persia. It gave name to the extensive Medo- Persian king- 1 
dom under Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, b.c. 559. \ 
9^ The Parthi originally inhabited the country south-east of the Caspian, ■ 
now Khorassan. Under Arsaces and his descendants, Persis and the other 
provinces of ancient Persia became absorbed in the great Parthian empire. 
Parthia, with the Chorasmii, Sogdii, and Arii, formed the sixteenth sa- 
trapy under the Persian empire. See c. 16 of this Book. 
1 The provinces of Parthia have been already mentioned in detail in 
the preceding Chapters, except Susiana and Elymais, which are mentioned ; 
in c. 31. 
2 The original Parthia, the modern Khorassan. 
^ The so-called Caucasian chain. See c. 16 of the present Book. 
.4 Or "Wandering Parthians," lying far to the east, \ 
