CHAP. 9. (9.)—THE LESSER AND THE GREATER ARMENIA.
Greater Armenia,[160] beginning at the mountains known as the Paryadres,[161] is separated, as we have already stated,[162] from Cappadocia by the river Euphrates, and, where that river turns off[163] in its course, from Mesopotamia, by the no less famous river Tigris. Both of these rivers take their rise in Armenia, which also forms the commencement of Mesopotamia, a tract of country which lies between these streams; the intervening space between them being occupied by the Arabian Orei.[164] It thus extends its frontier as far as Adiabene, at which point it is stopped short by a chain of mountains which takes a cross direction; whereupon the province extends in width to the left, crossing the course of the Araxes,[165] as far as the river Cyrus;[166] while in length it reaches as far as the Lesser Armenia,[167] from which it is separated by the river Absarus, which flows into the Euxine, and by the mountains known as the Paryadres, in which the Absarus takes its rise.