622 
RUINS OF ARTAXATA. 
which appears to me to prove the fact of there never having 
been any ; and that we must, accordingly, return to the spot 
where such are actually presented, and therefore find the small 
river of the historians in the Gurney; which washes the mounds, 
and fallen towers to the west, in its way from the lake to the 
full tide of the Araxes. In earlier times, the Gurney may have 
occupied an ampler bed than at present; but now the purposes 
of agriculture have carried it off through so many minor chan¬ 
nels, that a very small portion of the stream flows direct into 
the great river. Artaxata is celebrated in history, during the 
long contests for empire amongst the native princes of Armenia, 
the Romans, and the Parthian monarchs of Persia. It has often 
been sacked to its foundations, and risen again into new con¬ 
sequence and riches ; for instance, after its very walls were razed 
by Corbulo governor of Syria (towards the close of the third 
century of our era,) when Tiridates, its dispossessed sovereign, 
was restored to his crown by the Emperor Nero, he rebuilt 
Artaxata in more than its ancient splendour, and in gratitude to 
his benefactor changed its name to Neronia. 
The ruins are distant from Erivan about nine miles, over a 
bad and stony road continually rising and sinking, according to 
the uneven surfaces of the projecting mountain terminations 
over which it is drawn, and at about two o’clock in the day, 
we reached the city itself. It happened to be the anniversary 
of the deaths of Hossein and Hassan, the martyred sons of Ali; 
and the whole Sunni population in the place, were screaming their 
lamentations within the mosques, also clad in mourning. While 
passing on to my quarters, amidst this terrible outcry of a whole 
people in sorrow, I could not but muse on the sort of instinct in 
human nature, to now and then lower the fire of its constitution 
