[282] See the Life of Lucullus, c. 14.
[283] The strait that unites the Euxine to the Mæotis or Sea of Azoff, was called the Bosporus, which name was also given to the country on the European side of the strait, which is included in the peninsula of the Crimea.
[284] See Dion Cassius, 37. c. 5.
[285] This is the Indian Ocean. The name first occurs in Herodotus. It is generally translated the Red Sea, and so it is translated by Kaltwasser. But the Red Sea was called the Arabian Gulf by Herodotus. However, the term Erythræan Sea was sometimes used with no great accuracy, and appears to have comprehended the Red Sea, which is a translation of the term Erythræan, as the Greeks understood that word (ἐρυθρός, Red).
[286] Triarius, the legatus of Lucullus, had been defeated three years before by Mithridates. See the Life of Lucullus, c. 35; and Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 89).
[287] This mountain range is connected with the Taurus and runs down to the coast of the Mediterranean, which it reaches at the angle formed by the Gulf of Scanderoon.
[288] This campaign, as already observed in the notes to c. 36, is placed earlier by Appianus, but his chronology is confused and incorrect. The siege of Jerusalem, which was accompanied with great difficulty, is described by Dion Cassius (37. c. 15, &c.), and by Josephus (Jewish Wars, xiv. 4). There was a great slaughter of the Jews when the city was stormed.
[289] This country was Gordyene. (Dion Cassius, 37. c. 5.)
[290] This city, the capital of Syria, was built by Seleucus Nicator and called Antiocheia after his father Antiochus. It is situated in 36° 12' N. lat. on the south bank of the Orontes, a river which enters the sea south of the Gulf of Scanderoon.
[291] The meaning of the original is obscure. The word is τὸ ιμάτιον, which ought to signify his vest or toga. Some critics take it to mean a kind of handkerchief used by sick persons and those of effeminate habits; and they say it was also used by persons when travelling, as a cover for the head, which the Greeks called Theristerium. The same word is used in the passage (c. 7), where it is said that "Sulla used to rise from his seat as Pompeius approached and take his vest from his head." Whatever may be the meaning of the word here, Plutarch seems to say that this impudent fellow would take his seat at the table before the guests had arrived and leave his master to receive them.