[140] As the Greek epigram has it—
Τὸν γαίης καὶ πόντου αμειφθείσαισι κελευθοὶς
Ναύτην ἠπείρου, πέζόπορον πελάγους.
Thus translated in Bohn's 'Greek Anthology,' p. 25:—
Him, who reversed the laws great Nature gave,
Sail'd o'er the continent and walk'd the wave,
Three hundred spears from Sparta's iron plain
Have stopp'd. Oh blush, ye mountains and thou main!
[141] The probability is that all these names are corrupt. Ammianus's ignorance of the relative bearings of countries makes it difficult to decide what they ought to be. If the proper reading of the last name be, as Valesius thinks, Sarbaletes, that is the name given by Ptolemy to a part of the Red Sea. A French translator of the last century considers the Gulf of Armenia a portion of the Caspian Sea.
[142] The Ebro.
[143] The Guadalquivir.
[144] Ammianus seems to distinguish between the Hyrcanian and Caspian Sea, which are only different names for the same sea or inland lake.
[145] A name not very unlike Nejid, to this day the most celebrated Arab breed.
[146] There is evidently some corruption here; there is no such Greek word as Machagistia.