[6] The oases at the embouchure of the Oxus were anciently styled Khwārazm, from a Persian word signifying eastwards. They constitute the modern Khiva. Soghdiana comprises Bokhārā and Samarkand, and the nomenclature is derived from Soghd, the old name for the source of its wealth, the river known to the Greeks as the Polytimetus and to moderns as the Zarafshan.
[7] Cf. Nöldeke, Aufsätze zur Persischen Geschichte, p. 23.
[8] Called the battle of Arbela, from a neighbouring city, just as the “crowning mercy” of Waterloo was in reality bestowed at a considerable distance from the town indelibly associated with it.
[9] According to Grigorieff, this means the district lying between the Oxus and Shahrisabz.
[10] The stadium was 600 feet in length; but, as the foot varied greatly in ancient time, this measure of length was never certain. The “great stadium,” otherwise known as the Alexandrian or Egyptian, was .12 of a geographical mile.
[11] Grigorieff suggests the identification of this place with the old town of Baykand, or with Hezārasp, in the Khorasmian oasis.
[12] It may perhaps be identified with Kalāt-i-Nādiri to the north-east of Meshed, called also the “Soghdian Rock.” The famous Roxana, whom Alexander soon afterwards married, was the daughter of a certain Oxyartes, who was among the captives taken with this fort.
[13] Rollin, Ancient History, v. 210. See also Quintus Curtius.
[14] He may, for example, have visited Iskander Kul, a lake which to this day bears his name.
[15] Cf. Gutschmid, Geschichte Irans, p. 22.