[488] Their district is supposed to denote the vicinity of the modern Ormuz, an island off this coast, which is now known as Moghostan.
[489] Taking their name probably from the river Arbis, previously mentioned.
[490] The “Port of the Macedonians.”
[491] Now the Tab, falling into the Persian Gulf.
[492] A district of Susiana, extending from the river Eulæus on the west, to the Oratis on the east, deriving its name perhaps from the Elymæi, or Elymi, a warlike people found in the mountains of Greater Media. In the Old Testament this country is called Elam.
[493] Ptolemy says that this last bore the name of “Alexander’s Island.”
[494] Persis was more properly a portion only or province of the ancient kingdom of Persia. It gave name to the extensive Medo-Persian kingdom under Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, B.C. 559.
[495] The Parthi originally inhabited the country south-east of the Caspian, now Khorassan. Under Arsaces and his descendants, Persis and the other provinces of ancient Persia became absorbed in the great Parthian empire. Parthia, with the Chorasmii, Sogdii, and Arii, formed the sixteenth satrapy under the Persian empire. See c. [16] of this Book.
[496] The provinces of Parthia have been already mentioned in detail in the preceding Chapters, except Susiana and Elymais, which are mentioned in c. 31.
[497] The original Parthia, the modern Khorassan.