[264] I.e., to sup with.
[265] This great mountain system lies between the Euxine and the Caspian, and was now entered for the first time by the Roman troops. Colchis was on the west side of the mountains.
[266] The Saturnalia were celebrated in Rome on the 19th of December at this time. (Macrobius, Sat. i. 10; and the Life of Sulla, c. 18.) It was accordingly in the winter of B.C. 66 that Pompeius was in the mountains of the Caucasus. (Dion Cassius, 36. c. 36, 37.)
[267] I have kept the name Cyrnus, as it stands in the text of Plutarch, though it is probably, an error of the transcribers. The real name Cyrus could not be unknown to Plutarch. In the text of Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 103) the name is erroneously written Cyrtus; in Dion Cassius, it is Cyrnus. The Cyrus, now the Cur, flows from the higher regions of the Caucasus through Iberia and Albania, and is joined by the Araxes, Aras, above the point where the united stream enters the Caspian on the west coast. The twelve mouths are mentioned by Appianus (c. 103). Compare Strabo, p. 491.
[268] In fact the Persians never subdued any of the mountain tribes within the nominal limits of their dominions; and the Caucasus was indeed not even within the nominal limits.
It is true that Alexander soon quitted Hyrkania, which lies on the south-east coast of the Caspian; but when he was in Hyrkania he was still a considerable distance from the Iberians. (Arrianus, iii. 23, &c.)
[269] This is the Faz, or Reone, which enters the south-east angle of the Euxine in the country of the Colchi.
[270] The Abas river is conjectured by some writers to be the Alazonius, which was the boundary between Iberia and Albania, The Abas is mentioned by Dion Cassius, 37. c. 3.
[271] ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ θώρακος ἐπιπτυχήν Apparently some part of the coat of mail where there was a fold to allow of the motion of the body. As to the battle see Dion Cassius, 37. c. 3, &c.
[272] Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 103) says "Among the hostages and the captives were found many women, who were wounded as much as the men; and they were supposed to be Amazons, whether it is that some nation called Amazons borders on them, and they were then invited to give aid, or that the barbarians in those parts call any warlike women by the name of Amazons." The explanation of Appianus is probably the true explanation. Instances of women serving as soldiers are not uncommon even in modern warfare. The story of a race of fighting women occurs in many ancient writers. The Amazons are first mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 110-116). There is a story of a hundred armed women being presented to Alexander (Arrian, vii. 13, &c., who gives his opinion about them). Strabo (p. 503) says that Theophanes, who accompanied Pompeius in this campaign, places the Gelæ and Legæ between the Albanians and the Amazons. It is probable that the women of the mountain tribes of the Caucasus sometimes served in the field, and this at least may explain the story here told by Plutarch. The chief residence of the Amazons is placed in the plains of Themiscyra on the Thermodon in Cappadocia. Plutarch in his confused notions of geography appears to consider the Thermodon as a Caucasian river. He also places them near the Leges, a name which resembles that of the Lesghians, one of the present warlike tribes of the Caucasus. On antient medals the Amazons are represented with a short vest reaching to the knee, and one breast bare. Their arms were a crescent shield, the bow and arrow, and the double axe, whence the name Amazonia was used as a distinctive appellation for that weapon (Amazonia securis, Horat. Od. iv. 4).