[50] St. Gregory, called The Illuminator, born A.D. 257, consecrated Archbishop of Armenia 302. He is said to have revived (probably introduced) Christianity in Armenia, and, after suffering persecution at the hands of King Tiridates, converted him and his whole people. The place alluded to by Jordanus is at the convent of Khor-virab (“Deep pit”), on the Araxes, under Ararat. Here Gregory is believed to have been confined in a cave with serpents, and in the endurance of manifold torments, for fourteen years. (Smith and Dwight, p. 273. See also Chardin, p. 251. Curzon’s Armenia has a concise account of the Armenian church.)
[51] “The ancient and extensive Dominican mission, which once had its seat in this province, (Nakhcheván) is now no more. It was commenced about 1320 by an Italian papal monk of the Dominican order. Such success attended it that soon nearly thirty Armenian villages embraced the faith of Rome, and acknowledged subjection to a papal bishop, who after being consecrated at Rome resided in the village of Aburan, with the title of Archbishop of Nakhcheván.” (Smith and Dwight, p. 257.)
[52] At this time a Tartar successor of Hulaku.
[53] This Dead Sea is doubtless the Lake of Urumia, the waters of which are salter than sea water. It appears to be about ninety miles in length from north to south. There are no fish in it. It contains several islands, or peninsulas which are occasionally islands, two of which have been used as fortresses. In one of these Hulaku the Tartar conqueror of Baghdad was said to have stored his treasures. Another is said to be “as old as the days of Zoroaster,” who is believed to have been born in the vicinity. I do not find tombs mentioned. (Penny Cyc. in v. Azerbijan, also Monteith in Jour. Geog. Soc. iii. 55, and Smith and Dwight, 348.)
[54] “Thaurisium.”
[55] Sebast is doubtless Sivas, called by Marco Polo Sebastos, anciently Sebasteia (Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geo.) south of Tokat, and giving name to a pachalik. The Barcarian mountains appear as Barchal Dagh running parallel to the Black Sea between Trebizond and Kars. (Stieler’s Hand-Atlas, 43a.) Mogan is Orogan in the original, but, as we shall see below, this is an error of transcription. The Plain of Mogan is the great plain extending from the eastern foot of Caucasus along the Caspian, and stretching to the south of the Cyrus and Araxes. Here Pompey’s career eastward is said to have been arrested by the venomous serpents with which the long grass of the plain is infested. The dread of these serpents still exists. “Their hissing is heard from afar, and they seem to rise from the grass like fish from the sea”, Kinneir was told. Here the camp of Heraclius was pitched, as was that of the Tartar hosts for many months during their invasion of Armenia in the thirteenth century, and that of Nadir Shah when he placed the crown upon his head. (Macd. Kinneir’s Mem. of Persia, 153; Avdall’s Hist. of Armenia.)
[56] The Lake appears to be Gokchai or Sevan, north-east of Erivan. There is a small island with a monastery upon it. There are many traditions attached to the monasteries in this vicinity, but I cannot find this one.
[57] Perhaps Erivan, but I cannot trace the name.
[58] Sir John Chardin (356) says he may “truly reck’n” the population of Tauris to be 550,000 persons, and that several in the city would have it to be double that number! yet he had said just before that it contained 15,000 houses and 15,000 shops, so that 150,000 souls would be a liberal estimate. It appears now to contain from 30,000 to 50,000. Kinneir calls it one of the most wretched cities in Persia. Such estimates of city population are common enough still. Many books and many gentlemen in India will still tell us that Benares contains half a million, and that Lucknow before 1857 contained 700,000; the fact being, as regards Benares, that by census and including its suburbs it contains 171,668; whilst the estimate for Lucknow was probably five or six times the truth. I suspect the usual estimate of 900,000 in the city of Madras to be of equal value.
[59] At Tabriz “dew is entirely unknown, and not more than two or three showers fall between March and December. The plain around is very fertile where irrigated.” (Penny Cyc.)