[213] Since the outbreak of 1895 a Christian governor has been appointed in all vilayets which contain a large proportion of Armenians. The Mu’âvin Vâlîs are nominally co-rulers with their Moslem colleagues, but report, I know not with how much justice, credits them with little influence and less initiative.
[214] Mezreh, 6.5; Khân Keui, 9.25; Tell Maḥmûd, left of road, 9.45; Chaghullah, left of road, 9.55; Sapolar (left), 10.5; Harnik (right), 10.20; Melekjân (about a mile to the right), 10.35; Cholak Ushagî, where there is a khân, 11-11.45. Here we crossed a ridge into a valley which runs down to the Euphrates. Tutli Keui (left), 2.5; over another ridge and down to Kömür Khân at 3.35; Iz Oglu, 5.45.
[215] It is probably the ancient caravan road from Cæsarea and Ephesus to Babylon.
[216] Iz Oglu (on the west bank of the Murad Su), 8; Masnik, 10.15; a big chiflik of which I do not know the name, 12-12.30; we climbed a long hill, reaching the summit at 2.15, and got to Malaṭiyah at 2.45.
[217] They had been published, but not very satisfactorily. I gave my photographs to Mr. Hogarth, who published them in the Annals of Archæology and Anthropology, Vol. II. No. 4.
[218] Melitene does not appear to have been in existence in Strabo’s time, for he says that there were no towns in the fruitful plain, but only strongholds upon the mountains (Bk. XII. ii. 6). Procopius states that it was raised by Trajan to the dignity of a city, whereas before it had been nothing but a square fortification on low ground (Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society Edition, p. 82). Diocletian made it the capital of Armenia Secunda (Ramsay: Historical Geography, p. 313); it was the centre of the military roads guarding the frontiers of the Roman empire towards the Euphrates, and the standing camp of the XII Legion, Fulminata (id. p. 55). With this increase of importance it outgrew, according to Procopius, its former limits, so that the people built over the plain “their churches, the dwellings of their magistrates, the market-place and the shops of their merchants, the streets, porticoes, baths and theatres, and all the other ornaments of a large city.” Melitene was thus composed mostly of suburbs until Justinian surrounded it with a wall. There must, however, have been cities in the plain, of which Strabo knew nothing, long before Trajan’s time, as is proved by existing mounds, and Pliny seems to have preserved a dim memory of these when he speaks of Melitene as having been founded by Semiramis (Bk. VI. ch. iii.).
[219] Malaṭiyah Eskishehr, 9.45; Khâtûnyeh (a quarter of a mile to the left), 10.20; a chiflik (name unknown), 11.45-12.15; Saman Keui, a village near a big mound, 12.55. In a graveyard near here I noticed two fragments of round columns. At 1.25 we crossed a deep valley and saw the village of Shehna Khân about half-a-mile to the right; Elemenjik, 3.10. Not all these villages are marked in Kiepert and some are wrongly placed. There is cultivation round each village, but the plain between is usually untilled.
[220] Arga has been identified with Arca, where there was a Roman station (Arca was also the seat of a bishopric: Ramsay, Hist. Geog., p. 314), and with Ptolemy’s Arcala (ed. Müller, p. 888). The great road mentioned by Strabo which led from Babylon to Ephesus, crossing the Euphrates at Tomisa-Iz Oglu, passed through Arca (according to Sir W. Ramsay’s suggestion, op. cit., p. 273) and ran through Dandaxina and Osdara to Arabissus and thence through the mountains to Cæsarea. Kiepert places Dandaxina immediately to the south of the Tokhma Su and Osdara in the same latitude; Ramsay puts both places further south, and Sterritt’s evidence supports Ramsay’s conclusions. Between Arga and Ekrek my route did not touch the Roman road as laid down by Ramsay, but ran further to the north, and where I crossed the mountains, between Osmandedeli and ’Azîzîyeh, I saw no trace of an ancient road, nor can I think that wheeled traffic can ever have followed that line. Ainsworth travelled down the Tokhma Su from Görün to Derendeh, but he came over the Akcheh Dâgh between Derendeh and Arga, whereas I crossed it further east from Arga to Ozan. Ainsworth observes that there were never more than two roads from Derendeh to Malaṭiyah, one following the line he took, and one the valley of the Tokhma Su down to the plain (Travels and Researches, Vol. I. p. 247). I do not feel inclined to dispute that opinion, for though I found a third way from Malaṭiyah to Derendeh, it cannot be called a road. The mouldings and capitals which I saw at Arga pointed to a date not later than the sixth century.
[221] Ozan, 10.30; Mullah ’Alî Shehr, 11.5-40; Polat Ushagha, 12.35; Tozeli, some distance to the left, 12.55; a ruined khân marked by Kiepert, 1.20. Here we saw up a valley to the north the village of Palanga, marked by Kiepert. Above the khân the river flows through a gorge, and on the rocks above it are the ruins of a small fort, which we reached at 2.20; Kötü Ḳal’ah village, 2.45.
[222] We passed upon the way only one village, Mügdeh, where we crossed the Tokhma Su. Kiepert has suggested that Derendeh may represent the site of ancient Dalanda; for objections to this view, see Ramsay, op. cit., p. 309.