MSKETT. 
109 
formidable invader, who had already laid Albania at his feet. 
Indeed, that plain is the only space of ground in that district 
sufficiently extensive to have allowed two such opposing armies 
room to act; but the Roman’s fortune still held the ascendant, 
and there the richest parts of Iberia too, became the spoil of 
the victor. Having now the liberties of this brave people in his 
hands, Pompey took up his winter-quarters in a position to 
command a ready communication with his posts in both his 
new conquests, Albania and Iberia ; and I have little doubt that 
we have found those winter-quarters at Mskett. Besides its 
proximity to the objects just mentioned, it lay in the midst of 
a cultivated country, abundant in supplies for his troops, and 
at a point, whence he could issue at will, to pursue his plans 
against Mithridates, on the opening of the following spring. 
Mskett is, in fact, a fortress by nature: we have only to look 
on it, to recognise these features ; the nearly insular situation 
of its site, magnificently moated by the Kur and the Aragua, 
the natural towers and strong-holds of its cliffs and beetling 
rocks, and the position in which it stands, capable of blocking- 
up the way at once, to the passes which lead to two kingdoms. 
The former sovereigns of Iberia had been aware of these advan¬ 
tages ; and, when they seized the station for themselves, added 
those bulwarks of stone, which, now in ruins, cover the heights, 
but which, we also find to have been subsequently strengthened 
by the conquerors of Asia from Europe. Similar vestiges of 
occupation by Greeks and Romans, mingling with the old 
eastern fortifications erected by the native people, may be 
traced, not only in these parts, but in every pass of the moun¬ 
tains, to the inmost recesses of the Caucasus. 
The styles of architecture, civil or military, of any particular 
