51; Justinus, xlii.
4.)]
[Footnote 70: This river is probably the same as the Bilecha, now the
Belejik, a small stream which joins the Euphrates on the left bank at
Racca, the old Nikephorium. This river is mentioned by Isidorus of
Charax and by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. c. 3), who calls it
Belias.]
[Footnote 71: Plutarch seems to mean something like drums furnished
with bells or rattles; but his description is not very clear, and the
passage may be rendered somewhat differently from what I have rendered
it: "but they have instruments to beat upon ([Greek: rhoptra]), made
of skin, and hollow, which they stretch round brass sounders" ([Greek:
echeiois], whatever the word may mean here). The word [Greek:
rhoptron] properly means a thing to strike with; but it seems to have
another meaning here. (See Passow's _Greek Lexicon_.) The context
seems to show that a drum is meant.]
[Footnote 72: Margiana was a country east of the Caspian, the position
of which seems to be determined by the Murg-aub river, the ancient
Margus. Hyrcania joined it on the west. Strabo (p. 516) describes
Margiana as a fertile plain surrounded by deserts. He says nothing of
its iron. Plinius (_Hist. Nat._ vi. 16) says that Orodes carried off
the Romans who were captured at the time of the defeat of Crassus, to
Antiochia, in Margiana.]
[Footnote 73: So Xenophon (_Cyropaedia_, i. 3. 2) represents King
Astyages.
Pages:
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140