HIS SEIZURE OF THE FORTRESS ROCK. 
665 
had so recently passed. A part of the level ground between the 
river, and the base of these hills to the west, I should suppose, 
held the battalia Cheirisophus drew up against the Chalybians, 
the Taochians and Phasians, who had taken their stations on the 
mountains leading on to the plain. From these the enemy were 
dislodged in the night, and the victorious Greeks pressed forward 
to the passes of this difficult country. The whole land from 
Hassan-kala eastward, as far as Hadjy-Baramloo, is one series 
of frightful chasms and insulated rocky fortresses. That of Ma- 
zengutt might well answer to the description Xenophon gives of 
the formidable mountain-citadel in this track, which, after having 
been defended by the natives with signal determination, was at 
last taken by the Greeks ; at which terrible moment, the women 
of the garrison, with their children in their arms, cast themselves 
headlong down the precipices ; and some of the men, seizing 
their conquerors in like manner, threw themselves over the 
battlements, dragging their victors with them. Xenophon de¬ 
scribes the spectacle as horrible. 
My reason for supposing the Greeks passed the Aras so far to 
the west, rests on the simple fact of there being no country 
immediately east of the Arpatchia that will in any way fall in 
with the account of the historian. From that river, eastward, 
an almost unvaried plain extends nearly to Erivan; and also 
northward, for twelve or thirteen miles, till the wide champaign 
is bounded by the hilly outskirts of the Alleguz mountains. At 
the end of seven marches, after carrying the rocky citadel, 
Xenophon passed the Harpasus, (the Arpatchia, or river Kars; 
it now bearing the latter name, in compliment to the town on 
its banks:) and thence he advanced into the country of the Scy¬ 
thians. These latter marches were fought at almost every step, 
■» 
VOL. II. 4 Q 
