Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 3
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., London, 1855.
Chap. 3. (3.) — Cappadocia.
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Cappadocia1 has in the interior Archelais,2 a colony founded by Claudius Cæsar, and past which the river Halys flows; also the towns of Comana,3 watered by the Sarus, Neocæsarea,4 by the Lycus,5 and Amasia,6 in the region of Gazacene, washed by the Iris. In Colopene it has Sebastia and Sebastopolis;7 these are insignificant places, but still equal in importance to those just mentioned.
In its remaining districts there is Melita,8 founded by Semiramis, and not far from the Euphrates, Diocæsarea,9 Tyana,10 Castabala,11 Magnopolis,12 Zela,13 and at the foot of Mount Argæus14 Mazaca, now called Cæsarea.15
That part of Cappadocia which lies stretched out before the Greater Armenia is called Melitene, before Commagene Cataonia, before Phrygia Garsauritis, Sargarausene,16 and Cammanene, before Galatia Morimene, where their territories are divided by the river Cappadox,17 from which this people have taken their name; they were formerly known as the Leucosyri.18 From Neocæsarea above mentioned, the lesser Armenia is separated by the river Lycus.
In the interior also there is the famous river Ceraunus,19 and on the coast beyond the town of Amisus, the town and river of Chadisia,20 and the town of Lycastum,21 after which the region of Themiseyra22 begins.
Foot Notes
1 The boundaries of Cappadocia varied under the dominion of the Persians, after the Macedonian conquest, and as a Roman province under the emperors.
2 Founded by Archelaüs, the last king of Cappadocia. In Hamilton's Researches, the site has been assumed to be the modern Ak-serai, but that place is not on the river Halys, as Leake supposes. It is, however, considered that Ak-serai agrees very well with the position of Archelais as laid down in the Itineraries, and that Pliny may have been misled in supposing that the stream on which it stood was the Halys.
3 Also called by the name of Chryse, or "Golden," to distinguish it from another place of the same name in Pontus. It is generally supposed that the town of Al-Bostan, on the Sihoon or Sarus, is on or near the site of this Comana.
4 Now called Niksar, according to D'Anville, though Hardouin says that it is Tocat. Parisot remarks, that this place belonged rather to Pontus than to Cappadocia.
5 A small tributary of the Iris, or Yeshil-Irmak, mentioned in the next Chapter.
6 Both to the west of Neo-Cæsarea. According to Tavernier, as quoted by Hardouin, the modern name of Sebastia is Sivas.
7 Still called Amasia, or Amasiyeh, and situate on the river Iris, or Yeshil Ermak. It was at one time the residence of the princes of Pontus, and the birth-place of the geographer Strabo. The remains of antiquity here are very considerable, and extremely interesting.
8 Which gave name to the district of Melitene, mentioned in c. 20 of the last Book.
9 Near Nazianzus, in Cappadocia, the birth-place of Gregory Nazianzen. The traveller Ainsworth, on his road from Ak Serai to Kara Hissar, came to a place called Kaisar Koi, and he has remarked that by its name and position it might be identified with Diocæsarea. Some geographers, indeed, look upon Diocæsarea and Nazianzus as the same place.
10 Its ruins are still to be seen at Kiz Hisar. It stood in the south of Cappadocia, at the northern foot of Mount Taurus. Tyana was the native place of Apollonius, the supposed worker of miracles, whom the enemies of Christianity have not scrupled to place on a par with Jesus Christ.
11 Some ruins, nineteen geographical miles from Ayas, are supposed to denote the site of ancient Castabala or Castabulum.
12 This place was first called Eupatoria, but not the same which Mithridates united with a part of Amisus. D'Anville supposes that the modern town of Tchenikeb occupies its site.
13 Or Ziela, now known as Zillah, not far south of Amasia. It was here that Julius Cæsar conquered Pharnaces, on the occasion on which he wrote his dispatch to Rome, "Veni, vidi, vici."
14 Still known by the name of Ardgeh-Dagh.
15 Its site is still called Kaisiriyeh. It was a city of the district Cilicia, in Cappadocia, at the base of the mountain Argæus. It was first called Mazaca, and after that, Eusebeia. There are considerable remains of the ancient city.
16 Hardouin remarks, that the district of Sargarausene was not situate in front of Phrygia, but lay between Morimene and Colopenene, in the vicinity of Pontus.
17 Now known as the Konax, a tributary of the Halys, rising in Mount Littarus, in the chain of Paryadres.
18 Or "White Syrians." Strabo says that in his time both the Cappadocian peoples, those situate above the Taurus and those on the Euxine, were called Leucosyri, or White Syrians, as there were some Syrians who were black, and who dwelt to the east of the Amanus.
19 It is doubtful whether this is the name of a river or a town. Notwithstanding its alleged celebrity, nothing is known of it.
20 Hecatæus, as quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus, speaks of Chadisia as a city of the Leucosyri, or Cappadocians. Neither the river nor the town appears to have been identified.
21 Probably on the river of that name, which has been identified with the Mers Imak, a river two or three miles east of the Acropolis of Amisus.
22 The extensive plain on the coast of Pontus, extending east of the river Iris, beyond the Thermodon, and celebrated as the country of the Amazons. At the mouth of the Thermodon was a city of the same name, which had been destroyed by the time of Augustus. It is doubtful whether the modern Thermeh occupies its site.