[897] Eraskh or Aras.
[898] Georgia.
[899] Shirvan.
[900] See b. ii. c. v. § 31.
[901] To understand how this part of Asia formed a peninsula, according to the ideas of our author, we must bear in mind, that (1) he supposed the source of the Don to have been situated in the neighbourhood of the Northern Ocean; (2) he imagined the Caspian Sea to communicate with the same Ocean. Thus all the territory comprehended between the Don and the Caspian formed a sort of peninsula, united to the continent by an isthmus which separated the Euxine from the Caspian, and on which was situated Colchis, Iberia, and Albania. The 3000 stadia assigned to the breadth of this isthmus appears to be measured by stadia of 1111-1/9 to a degree. Gossellin.
[902] The Euxine.
[903] Pompey appears to have visited this philosopher twice on this occasion, B. C. 62, and B. C. 67, on the termination of his eastern campaigns.
[904] Il. vi. 208. Pope.
[905] In many authors these names are used indifferently, the one for the other; they are however distinguished by Pliny, (iv. 13,) who states that this sea begins to be called the Caspian after you have passed the river Cyrus, (Kur,) and that the Caspii live near it; and in vi. 16, that it is called the Hyrcanian Sea, from the Hyrcani who live along its shores. The western side should therefore in strictness be called the Caspian; the eastern, the Hyrcanian. Smith, art. Caspium Mare.
[906] A narrow pass leading from North Western Asia into the N. E. provinces of Persia. Their exact position was at the division of Parthia from Media, about a day’s journey from the Median town of Rhagæ. (Arrian. iii. 19.) According to Isodorus Charax, they were immediately below Mt. Caspius. As in the case of the people called Caspii, there seem to have been two mountains Caspius, one near the Armenian frontier, the other near the Parthian. It was through the pass of the Caspiæ Pylæ that Alexander the Great pursued Darius. (Arrian. Anab. iii. 19; Curt. vi. 14; Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6.) It was one of the most important places in ancient geography, and from it many of the meridians were measured. The exact place corresponding with the Caspiæ Pylæ is probably a spot between Hark-a-Koh, and Siah-Koh, about 6 parasangs from Rey, the name of the entrance of which is called Dereh. Smith, art. Caspiæ Pylæ.