CHAPTER XIII.
MEDIA is divided into two parts, one of which is called
the Greater Media. Its capital is Ecbatana,
1 a large city
containing the royal seat of the Median empire. This palace
the Parthians continue to occupy even at this time. Here
their kings pass the summer, for the air of Media is cool.
Their winter residence is at Seleucia, on the Tigris, near
Babylon.
The other division is Atropatian Media. It had its name
from Atropatus, a chief who prevented this country, which is
a part of Greater Media, from being subjected to the dominion of the Macedonians. When he was made king he
established the independence of this country; his successors
continue to the present day, and have at different times contracted marriages with the kings of Armenia, Syria, and
Parthia.
[
2]
Atropatian Media borders upon Armenia and Matiane
2
towards the east, towards the west on the Greater Media, and
on both towards the north; towards the south it is contiguous
to the people living about the recess of the Hyrcanian Sea,
and to Matiane.
According to Apollonides its strength is not inconsiderable,
since it can furnish 10,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry.
It contains a lake called Spauta,
3 (Kapauta,) in which salt
effloresces, and is consolidated. The salt occasions itching and
pain, but oil is a cure for both, and sweet water restores the
colour of clothes, which have the appearance of being burnt,
4
when they have been immersed in the lake by ignorant persons for the purpose of washing them.
They have powerful neighbours in the Armenians and
Parthians, by whom they are frequently plundered; they resist however, and recover what has been taken away, as they
recovered Symbace
5 from the Armenians, who were defeated
by the Romans, and they themselves became the friends of
Cæsar. They at the same time endeavour to conciliate the
Parthians.
[
3]
The summer palace is at Gazaka, situated in a plain;
the winter palace
6 is in Vera, a strong fortress which Antony
besieged in his expedition against the Parthians. The last
is distant from the Araxes, which separates Armenia and
Atropatene, 2400 stadia, according to Dellius, the friend of
Antony, who wrote an account of the expedition of Antony
against the Parthians, which he himself accompanied, and in
which he held a command.
The other parts of this country are fertile, but that towards
the north is mountainous, rugged, and cold, the abode of the
mountain tribes of Cadusii Amardi, Tapyri, Curtii, and other
similar nations, who are migratory, and robbers. These people are scattered over the Zagrus and Niphates. TheCurtii
in Persia, and Mardi, (for so they call the Amardi,) and
those in Armenia, and who bear the same name at present,
have the same kind of character.
[
4]
The Cadusii have an army of foot soldiers not inferior
in number to that of the Ariani. They are very expert in
throwing the javelin. In the rocky places the soldiers engage in battle on foot, instead of on their horses. The expedition of Antony was harassing to the army, not by the
nature of the country, but by the conduct of their guide,
Artavasdes, king of the Armenii, whom Antony rashly made
his adviser, and master of his intentions respecting the war,
when at the same time that prince was contriving a plan for
his destruction. Antony punished Artavasdes, but too late;
the latter had been the cause of many calamities to the
Romans, in conjunction with another person; he made the
march from the Zeugma on the Euphrates to the borders of
Atropatene to exceed 8000 stadia, or double the distance of
the direct course, [by leading the army] over mountains, and
places where there were no roads, and by a circuitous route.
5. The Greater Media anciently governed the whole of
Asia, after the overthrow of the Syrian empire: but afterwards, in the time of Astyages, the Medes were deprived of
this extensive sovereignty by Cyrus and the Persians, yet
they retained much of their ancient importance. Ecbatana
was the winter (royal?) residence
7 of the Persian kings, as it
was of the Macedonian princes, who overthrew the Persian
empire, and got possession of Syria. It still continues to
serve the same purpose, and affords security to the kings of
Parthia.
[
6]
Media is bounded on the east by Parthia, and by the
mountains of the Cossæi, a predatory tribe. They once furnished the Elymæi, whose allies they were in the war against
the Susii and Babylonians, with 13,000 archers. Nearchus
says that there were four robber tribes; the Mardi, who were
contiguous to the Persians; the Uxii and Elymæi, who were
on the borders of the Persians and Susii; and the Cossæi, on
those of the Medes; that all of them exacted tribute from the
kings; that the Cossæi received presents, when the king, having passed his summer at Ecbatana went down to Babylonia;
that Alexander attacked them in the winter time, and repressed their excessive insolence. Media is bounded on the
east by these nations, and by the Parætaceni, who are contiguous to the Persians, and are mountaineers, and robbers;
on the north by the Cadusii, who live above the Hyrcanian
Sea, and by other nations, whom we have just enumerated;
on the south by the Apolloniatis, which the ancients called
Sitacene, and by the Zagrus, along which lies Massabatica,
which belongs to Media, but according to others, to Elymæa;
on the west by the Atropatii, and by some tribes of the Armenians.
There are also Grecian cities in Media, founded by Macedonians, as Laodiceia, Apameia, Heracleia near Rhagæ, and
Rhaga itself, founded by Nicator, who called it Europus, and
the Parthians Arsacia, situated about 500 stadia to the south
of the Caspian Gates, according to Apollodorus of Artemita.
[
7]
The greater part of Media consists of high ground, and is
cold; such are the mountains above Ecbatana, and the places
about Rhagæ and the Caspian Gates, and the northern parts
in general extending thence as far as Matiane and Armenia.
The country below the Caspian Gates consists of flat grounds
and valleys. It is very fertile, and produces everything except
the olive, or if it grows anywhere it does not yield oil, and is
dry. The country is peculiarly adapted, as well as Armenia,
for breeding horses. There is a meadow tract called Hippobotus, which is traversed by travellers on their way from
Persia and Babylonia to the Caspian Gates. Here, it is said,
fifty thousand mares were pastured in the time of the Persians, and were the king's stud. The Nesæan horses, the
best and largest in the king's province, were of this breed,
according to some writers, but according to others they came
from Armenia. Their shape is peculiar, as is that of the Parthian horses, compared with those of Greece and others in our
country.
The herbage which constitutes the chief food of the horses
we call peculiarly by the name of Medic, from its growing in
Media in great abundance. The country produces Silphium,
8
from which is obtained the Medic juice, much inferior to the
Cyrenaic, but sometimes it excels the latter, which may be
accounted for by the difference of places, or from a change
the plant may undergo, or from the mode of extracting and
preparing the juice so as to continue good when laid by
for use.
[
8]
Such then is the nature of the country with respect to
magnitude; its length and breadth are nearly equal. The
greatest breadth (length?)
9 however seems to be that reckoned
from the pass across the Zagrus, which is called the Median
Gate, to the Caspian Gates, through the country of Sigriana,
4100 stadia.
The account of the tribute paid agrees with the extent and
wealth of the country. Cappadocia paid to the Persians
yearly, in addition to a tribute in silver, 1500 horses, 2000
mules, and 50,000 sheep, and the Medes contributed nearly
double this amount.
[
9]
Many of their customs are the same as those of the Armenians, from the similarity of the countries which they inhabit. The Medes however were the first to communicate
them to the Armenians, and still before that time to the Persians, who were their masters, and successors in the empire
of Asia.
The Persian stole, as it is now called, the pursuit of archery
and horsemanship, the court paid to their kings, their attire,
and veneration fitting for gods paid by the subjects to the
prince,—these the Persians derived from the Medes. That
this is the fact appears chiefly from their dress. A tiara, a
citaris, a hat,
10 tunics with sleeves reaching to the hands, and
trowsers, are proper to be worn in cold and northerly places,
such as those in Media, but they are not by any means adapted to inhabitants of the south. The Persians had their
principal settlements on the Gulf of Persia, being situated
more to the south than the Babylonians and the Susii. But
after the overthrow of the Medes they gained possession of
some tracts of country contiguous to Media. The custom
however of the vanquished appeared to the conquerors to be
so noble, and appropriate to royal state, that instead of nakedness or scanty clothing, they endured the use of the feminine
stole, and were entirely covered with dress to the feet.
[
10]
Some writers say that Medeia, when with Jason she
ruled in these countries, introduced this kind of dress, and
concealed her countenance as often as she appeared in public
in place of the king; that the memorials of Jason are, the
Jasonian heroa,
11 held in great reverence by the Barbarians,
(besides a great mountain above the Caspian Gates on the
left hand, called Jasonium,) and that the memorials of Medeia
are the kind of dress, and the name of the country. Medus, her
son, is said to have been her successor in the kingdom, and
the country to have been called after his name. In agreement
with this are the Jasonia in Armenia, the name of the country, and many other circumstances which we shall mention.
[
11]
It is a Median custom to elect the bravest person as
king, but this does not generally prevail, being confined to
the mountain tribes. The custom for the kings to have many
wives is more general, it is found among all the mountaineers
also, but they are not permitted to have less than five. In the
same manner the women think it honourable for husbands to
have as many wives as possible, and esteem it a misfortune if
they have less than five.
While the rest of Media is very fertile, the northern and
mountainous part is barren. The people subsist upon the
produce of trees. They make cakes of apples, sliced and
dried, and bread of roasted almonds; they express a wine
from some kind of roots. They eat the flesh of wild animals,
and do not breed any tame animals. So much then respect-
ing the Medes. As to the laws and customs in common use
throughout the whole of Media, as they are the same as those
of the Persians in consequence of the establishment of the
Persian empire, I shall speak of them when I give an account of the latter nation.
