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[37]

All the country around is subject to Pythodoris, a .d she possesses also Phanarœa, the Zelitis, and the Megalopolitis.

We have already spoken of Phanarœa.

In the district Zelitis is the city Zela,1 built upon the mound of Semiramis. It contains the temple of Anaitis, whom the Armenians also worship. Sacrifices are performed with more pomp than in other places, and all the people of Pontus take oaths here in affairs of highest concern. The multitude of the sacred menials, and the honours conferred upon the priests, were in the time of the kings, upon the plan which I have before described. At present, however, everything is under the power of Pythodoris, but many persons had previously reduced the number of the sacred attendants, injured the property and diminished the revenue belonging to the temple. The adjacent district of Zelitis, (in which is the city Zela, on the mound of Semiramis,) was reduced by being divided into several governments. Anciently, the kings did not govern Zela as a city, but regarded it as a temple of the Persian gods; the priest was the director of everything relating to its administration. It was inhabited by a multitude of sacred menials, by the priest, who possessed great wealth, and by his numerous attendants; the sacred territory was under the authority of the priest, and it was his own property. Pompey added many provinces to Zelitis, and gave the name of city to Zela, as well as to Megalopolis. He formed Zelitis, Culupene, and Camisene, into one district. The two latter bordered upon the Lesser Armenia, and upon Laviansene. Fossile salt was found in them, and there was an ancient fortress called Camisa, at present in ruins. The Roman governors who next succeeded assigned one portion of these two governments to the priests of Comana, another to the priest of Zela, and another to Ateporix, a chief of the family of the tetrarchs of Galatia; upon his death, this portion, which was not large, became subject to the Romans under the name of a province. This little state is a political body of itself, Carana2 being united with it as a colony, and hence the district has the name of Caranitis. The other parts are in the possession of Pythodoris, and Dyteutus.

1 Zileh.

2 This district is at the foot of the mountains which separated the Roman from the Persian Armenia. Carana (now Erzurm, Erzerum, or Garen) was the capital of this district. It was afterwards called Theodosiopolis, which name was given to it in honour of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger by Anatolius his general in the East, A. D. 416. It was for a long time subject to the Byzantine emperors, who considered it the most important fortress of Armenia. About the middle of the 11th century it received the name of Arze-el-Rum, contracted into Arzrum or Erzrum. It owed its name to the circumstance, that when Arzek was taken by the Seljuk Turks, A. D. 1049, the inhabitants of that place, which from its long subjection to the Romans had received the epithet of Rúm, retired to Theodosiopolis, and gave it the name of their former abode Smith.

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