[471] This, says Gossellin, may account for the rarity of the Persian Darius, badly struck, and coined long before the time of Alexander, and appearing to belong to a period anterior to the reign of Darius Hystaspes.
[472] Chalybon was the name of the modern Aleppo, but the wine of Damascus must have possessed the same qualities, and had the same name. “The Chalybonian wine, Posidonius says, is made in Damascus in Syria, from vines which were planted there by the Persians.” Athenæus, b. i. page 46, Bohn’s Classical Library.
[473] In the text “ten or eleven years,” which reading is contrary to all other authorities, and is rejected by Kramer.
[474] This is only an approximation. From the conquest of the Medes by Cyrus to the death of Darius Codomanus, last king of Persia, is a period of 225 years.
[475] According to Dion Cassius, xviii. § 26, Aturia is synonymous with Assyria, and only differs from it by a barbarous pronunciation; which shows that the name Assyria belonged peculiarly to the territory of Nineveh.
[476] Aiaghi-dagh.
[477] It is to be remarked that the people bordering upon the Gordyæi are the only people of Mesopotamia here mentioned, for the whole of Mesopotamia, properly so called, is comprised under the name of Assyria.
[478] The bridge or passage at the foot of the modern fortress Roum-Kala.
[479] B. xii. c. iii. § [5]; Herod. i. 6 and 72.
[480] Al. Lucan. b. xi. c. xii. § 4; b. xiv. c. v. § 18; b. xvi. c. ii. § 8.