S. Talents. and the gold sands of the river Pactolus. The riches of Croesus were proverbial. 3. On the east side of the Hellespont, the Phrygians and the Thracians of Asia, the Paphlagonians, Maryandinians,* and Syrians or Cappadocians 4. The Cilicians These four provinces composed the whole of Asia Minor. 5. Phenicia, the Syrian Palestine, and the isle of Cyprus; from the city of Posidæum, on the frontiers of Cilicia and Syria, as far as Mount Casius and the Sirbonic Lake, bordering on Egypt 6. Egypt, and the Africans, bordering on Egypt, as far as Cyrene and Barcæ This tribute was exclusive of the produce of the fishery of the lake Maris, amounting to 240 talents per annum, which was a perquisite to the queen of Persia, says Diodorus, for dress and perfumes; and also of 700 talents, for the value of Egyptian corn, to supply 120,000 Persian and auxiliary troops, in garrison at Memphis, etc. 7. [9.+] Babylon, including Assyria Proper, and Mesopotamia. This was one of the most extensive, as it was the richest of the provinces of the empire. Before the time of Cyrus, it was reckoned, in point of revenue, equal to the third part of Asia. 8. Susa, and Susiana, or Chusistan. Next to the Lydian satrapy, this was the smallest of the whole; but it contained Susa, at that time the capital of the empire, where the king's treasures were deposited. II. CENTRAL PROVINCES. 9. [10.] Ecbatana, the rest of Media, the Parycanii, and the Orthocorybantes Media Proper occupies the midland and elevated tract between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. It was then the central part of the great Persian empire, and from climate, verdure, and richness of soil, the most beautiful of its provinces. It is now the most western province of modern Persia, Mount Zagros forming the common boundary between Persia and Turkey. Ispahan, the present capital, is situate in the north-east corner of ancient Media. 360 500 350 700 .1000 300 450 12. [13.] Pactyica, the Armenians, etc. 400 These people lived on the coast of Bithynia, where was said to be the Achcrusian cave, through which Hercules dragged Cerberus up to the light, whose foam then produced aconite. "That sacred plain, where, as the fable tells, With dropping foam impregnating the earth, The numbers included in the brackets were the original numbers of Herodotus These inhabited the extensive provinces of Kabul, Kandahar, and Scindia, west of the Indus, and the Panjab, that rich stripe of coast east of the Indus. They paid (600) 360 talents in gold ingots, differing, in this respect, from the other satrapies, whose payments were in silver talents. Such was the extent of the empire of ancient Persia, which is now no more. It spread terror to, and worked desolation in the nations around; but those who wielded its power have long since mouldered in the grave. Concerning the financial statement in the foregoing extract, Dr. Hales remarks after Herodotus: "If the standard of the Babylonian talent, in which the tribute from the first nineteen provinces was paid, be reduced to the standard of the Euboic talent, the amount will be 9880 silver talents. And if the tribute from the Indians, of 360 gold talents, be estimated at thirteen times the value of the silver, it will amount to 4680 Euboic talents more. So that the sum total of the tribute paid to Darius was 14,560 Euboic talents." This number of talents, reckoning with Arbuthnot, the Euboic or Attic talent at 193/. 15s., would amount to 2,821,000l., which was a very moderate sum for so extensive an empire. There were, however, a few minor tributes, both from these provinces and other nations, which Herodotus did not reckon: probably these might have made the sum total 3,000 9001. sterling, which is still a moderate sum compared with the revenues of modern states. This leads to a review of the several provinces into which the country of Persia was anciently divided, as mentioned by Strabo, Pliny, and other writers, and as marked on the best modern maps. Geographers, indeed, at the present day, from the frequent changes of the limits of the provinces of modern Persia, preserve the ancient division, though, in this respect, also, some changes have been introduced. In our notice of these provinces, much information concerning the condition they are now in, will be blended with that in which they once were. GEDROSIA. Gedrosia, or Mekran, including the district of the Oritæ, extends from the eastern range of the Brahooick mountains that separate it from Sinde to Cape Iask on the frontiers of Laristaun, or, from the sixty-eighth degree east longitude, to the fifty-eighth degree of the same, a space containing 120,000 miles. In the eastern part this province does not exceed 100 miles, it being separated between 62' and 66° E. longitude from the desert of Beloochistaun by the northern branch that projects from the Brahooick mountains in 28 N. latitude, called Wushutee, and, also, Much, or the Palm, as that tree grows in great abundance there. The northern extremity of the Kohistaun may be called a northern inland projection of this province, reaching to 30° N. latitude. This northern district has the desert of Beloochistaun on the east, that of Keruran on the west, and the sandy waste of Bunpoor on the south-west. This seems to be the only sandy waste in Gedrosia, but it is of considerable extent. It is of an oval form, and is 155 miles long by eighty in its greatest breadth. The mountainous district of Bushkurd, to the east of Laristaun, is also of an oval form, being 110 miles long by eighty-five in its greatest breadth. There does not appear to be any rivers of note in Gedrosia: there are some torrents, deep and rapid in the rainy season, but almost all dry in summer. Gedrosia may be divided into the coast and the interior; the former being a narrow tract, varying in breadth, and running the whole way to Cape Iask, in a wavering direction, but never receding further inland than 100 miles. This province is represented as very barren. Ptolemy places here a celebrated emporium, called, “The Haven of Women," which Arrian says was so called because it was first governed by a wo man. He also mentions two islands dependent on this province, Astea and Codane, CARMANIA. The Carmania, now Kerman, occupies the southeastern part of Persia, extending along the Persian Gulf, from Cape Iask to a place opposite the island of Kishm, and thence northward to the borders of the desert, of which the adjacent southern part is considered as included in this province, and is denominated Kerman, or Carmania the Desert. This part of the province is sandy, and impregnated with salt, being occasionally intersected by short ridges. The remainder of this province, extending more than 200 miles from south to north, but less from east to west, is nearly unknown, except the tract along the shores of the Gulf, and another tract in the interior, between 29° and 30 N. latitude. That part of the coast east of 57° E. longitude, which lies along the narrow entrance of the Gulf, is extremely mountainous, and the rocks approach the sea, where they form a lofty coast. valleys among these mountains are well watered, and afford fine pasturage for the flocks. They contain also fine plantations of date and other fruit trees. This is more especially the case where the coast runs south and north, between the modern towns of Sereek and Minab, or Minaw. Between these two places, the mountains recede from the shores, and thus a plain is formed, which, for its fertility, is termed by the natives the Paradise of Persia. The mountains then run northward, and form as it were a large gulf, receding above fifty miles from the sea, and then returning to it to the north of Bunder Abassi, or Gombroon. The plain thus formed resembles the sandy tracts called Gurmsir, being sterile, and producing nothing except dates. That portion of the interior of Kerman which has been visited by modern travellers comprehends the Nurmanshur, a district about ninety miles in length, and from twenty to thirty miles wide, in which are extensive cultivated grounds and comparatively small sterile tracts. mountain ranges enclose this district on the south and the north, the former of which is of considerable elevation, and covered with snow during the greater part of the year. Between the Nurmanshur and the town of Kerman is a desert, with a few oases of moderate extent: about the town itself there is a large tract of fertile country. West of the town, reaching to the boundary of Farsistan, there are numerous rocky ridges with difficult passes, but they are surrounded with much cultivated ground. In the unknown country, between Kerman and the harbour of Gombroon, and on the road connecting these two towns, there is said to be a large place called Sultan-abad. In the more cultivated parts of Kerman there are several rivers, particularly the Andanis, mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy. According to the accounts of the ancients, its mountains have mines of copper and iron. Pomponius Mela said that the province of Carminia did not sustain any cattle; at the present day, however, it is remarkable for producing sheep which bear some of the finest wool in the world. Two Dependent on this province is the small, but famous island of Ormuz, which lies at the en trance of the Persian Gulf, near 27° N. latitude, and 56° 30 E. longitude. The form of this island is nearly circular, and its appearance from the sea is broken and rugged. The whole is a mere barren rock, without the slightest trace of vegetation. The surface exhibits the singular stratification of the island; and the conical shape and isolated position of the various small hills of which the island consists would convey the idea that it owes its origin to volcanic agency. The hills along the eastern shores of the island are covered from their base upward with an incrustation of salt, in some places transparent as ice. In other places, the surface is covered with a thin layer of dusky red-coloured earth, which owes its colour to the oxide of iron with which the entire surface of the island is impregnated. The very sand on the sea-shore is composed of the finest particles of iron pulverized by the waves. The island contains no fresh water springs, to remedy which, the inhabitants use tanks to collect the rain water as it distils from the clouds. Tavernier says that the air in summer was so sultry that the inhabitants were forced to live in grots, and lie in water. Anciently, it seems only to have served as a place of retreat to the inhabitants of the adjacent shores in times of invasion or civil commotion. At the present day, there is a fortress garrisoned by 100 men, under the direction of the imam of Muskat, who farms the island from the king of Persia. His revenues are derived from the salt, which he exports in large quantities. The fortress is situated about 300 yards from the shore, on a projecting point of land, separated from the island by a moat. DRANGIANA. This province, in the days of its prosperity, was one of the richest inland tracts in the whole Persian empire, being a vast hollow space, surrounded by mountains and hills; having on the east those of Arachosia; on the north, the mountains and tracts of Sebzwar probably the Mons Bagous of Ptolemy-in the ancient Aria; on the south, a district of ancient Gedrosia, now the eastern part of Kerman, from which it is parted by a chain of lofty mountains, covered with perpetual snow, and which is denominated by Ptolemy Montes Becii; on the west, it has the great desert of Kerman. In the centre of this alluvial hollow is the celebrated lake of Durrah, which in the Persian books is sometimes called the sea of Loukh, and by the inhabitants, the sea of Zoor, or Khanjek. According to Elphinstone, this lake is 150 miles in circuit, but Rennell and other geographers make it 100 miles long, and twenty broad. In its centre stands an insulated hill, called the Cohee Zoor, which tradition declares to have been anciently a fort, and which, as it is steep and lofty, and surrounded by a ditch of great depth, is still a place of refuge for some of the inhabitants of the opposite shores. The edges of the lake of Durrah are for a considerable breadth choked with rushes and reeds. The shores, also, are overgrown with this kind of vegetation; and being liable to inundation, they are full of miry places and pools of standing water. Immediately beyond these woods of reeds and rushes, the country produces grass, and grain, and tamarisks. The same may be said of the narrow valley through which the Helmund flows. The rest of the country is now almost a desert, affording only forage for camels, and here and there a well for the wandering Belochees, who tend these animals. For the most part, this country is surrounded by wide and dismal deserts, whence every wind brings clouds of a light shifting sand, which destroys the fertility of the fields, and gradually overwhelms the villages. From this cause, the once rich and alluvial tract of Drangiana, which comprehended a surface double that of ancient Susiana, is reduced to a small compass; and it may be asserted that in process of time the lake will be dried up, and the whole of Drangiana be merged in the growing desert. This province, which was denominated Drangiana by Ptolemy, Pliny, and Strabo; Drangini, and its inhabitants, Drangi, by Diodorus Siculus; was called Zarang, and its inhabitants Sarangæns, by Herodotus, in his account of the Persian Satrapies. Subsequently it was called Nimrooze, and it is now called Sigistan, a term derived from the Sacæ, as Sacastana signifies the region of the Sacæ, who possessed it about the time when the Scythians passed the Jaxares and the Oxus, and overthrew the Greek empire of Bactria, about 150 years B.C. ARACHOSIA. is known, except that it lay to the south of CanRespecting the position of this province, little dahan, and the valley of the Urghundaub, and the Turung, or Turnuk; it is impossible, therefore, to say what were its physical or political limits. The accounts of ancient writers on this subject, and the researches of modern geographers, are alike meagre, vain, and unsatisfactory. PAROPAMISUS. The Paropamisus, Parapamisus, Parapanisus, and Paropanisus of the ancients, is the Paropanis of the Sanscrit; signifying the mountain of springs, or rills, compounded of Pahar, a hill, and Panir, or Pan, water. The province took its name from these mountains, by which it was bounded. Pa According to Ptolemy, the province of Paropamisus extended east from Aria or Heraut, to the Indus, having Arachosia to the south. The ancients, indeed, generally extended Persia to the Indus, and made the provinces of Paropamisus, Arachosia, and Gedrosia extend in a meridional line along the western bank of that stream. ropamisus was bounded north by Bactria, and on the east by the dominions of the Mogul. Ancient writers relate, that when Alexander passed this country in his celebrated march, he found the country for the most part open and plain, destitute of trees, and covered with snow, from the reflection of which the Macedonians were exposed to great inconvenience, it grievously affecting their eyes; many of them, it is also said, perished from the excessive cold, which seized those who walked slowly, or ventured to sit down to rest. This description accords with the elevated upland of Ghazna, to which_Rennell in his map conducts the conqueror. Elphinstone coronets; and all the men illustrious warriors, whose girdles are studded with gold; and nothing but a wilful perversity of mind, or corporeal infirmity, can hinder a person from being cheerful and happy in Mazanderan." says of this climate, "Ascending the valley of the Turnuk from Candahar, the cold increases at every stage, and the heat of the summer diminishes in the same proportion. Even at Kelauti Ghiljee snow falls often and lies long, and the Turnuk is often frozen so as to bear a man. Now this place is in N. lat. 32° 30′, and Kelautee is in the lowest part of the valley of the Turnuk. In the high tract south of that valley, the cold appears to be as great as in any part of Afghanistaun. At Kelaue Abdorr-drawbacks upon its loveliness. Strictly speaking, chem the snow lies four months annually, and all that time the rivers are frozen, so as to bear a man. Ascending still higher, we at last reach the level of Ghuznee, or Ghazna, which is generally mentioned as the coldest part of the plain country in the Caubul dominions. The cold of Ghuznee is spoken of as excessive, even by the inhabitants of the cold countries in its vicinity. For the greatest part of the winter, the people seldom quit their houses; and even in the city of Ghuznee the snow has been known to lie deep for some time after the vernal equinox. Traditions prevail of the city having been twice destroyed by falls of snow, in which all the people were buried." HYRCANIA. Hyrcania, now called Mazanderan, comprehends the largest and widest portion of the low plain along the shores of the Caspian Sea. It is one of the most fertile provinces of the Persian empire, whether the mountains or the plains are considered. Travellers passing through the forests of Mazanderan, pass through thickets of sweetbriar and honeysuckle; and are surrounded with acacias, oaks, lindens, and chestnut trees. The summits of the mountains are crowned with cedars, cypresses, and various species of pines. So beautiful is this district, that in the hyperbolical language of the orientals it is styled, Belad-al-Irem, or, the Land of the Terrestrial Paradise. Sir W. Ouseley relates, that Kaikus, the Persian king, was fired with ambition to conquer so fine a country, through the influence of a minstrel, who exhausted all his powers of music and poetry in the praise of its beauties: his strains read thus : "Let the king consider the delights of Mazanderan, and may that country flourish during all eternity; for in its gardens roses ever blow, and even its mountains are covered with hyacinths and tulips. Its land abounds in all the beauties of nature; its climate is salubrious and temperate, neither too warm nor too cold; it is a region of perpetual spring: there, in shady bowers, the nightingale ever sings; there the fawn and antelope incessantly wander among the valleys; every spot, throughout the whole year, is embellished and perfumed with flowers; the very brooks of that country seem to be rivulets of rose water, so much does this exquisite fragrance delight the soul. During the winter months, as at all other seasons, the ground is enamelled, and the banks of murmuring streams smile with variegated flowers; every where the pleasures of the chase may be enjoyed; all places abound with money, fine stuffs for garments, and every other article necessary for comfort or luxury. There all the attendants are lovely damsels, wearing golden Such were the delights the oriental poet held out to his rulers in Mazanderan, in all the force of oriental exaggeration. The province of Hyrcania or Mazanderan was doubtless a delightful province; but there appear to have been some Hyrcania comprehended the small tract denominated Gurgan in ancient Persia, which signifies, the land of wolves, from the superabundance of these animals. From this word D'Anville supposes the Greeks to have formed the name of Hyrcania. Sir W. Ouseley states that on entering Mazanderan, he was informed that he would find a babr, tiger; a guraz, boar; rubah, foxes; sheghal, jackals; and a gurg, or wolf. Accordingly, the very first thing that he saw, on entering a village of Hyrcania, was the carcase of a large wolf, which had been shot just half an hour before his arrival, and which looked terrible in death, "grinning horribly a ghastly grin;" thus proving the truth of the poet, that, "every where the pleasures of the chase may be enjoyed," if such may be termed pleasures. In ancient times, Hyrcania was infested with panthers and tigers, so fierce and cruel, as to give rise to a proverb concerning fierce and unrelenting men, that they had sucked Hyrcanian tigers. The poet Virgil refers to this in his Æneid. Representing Dido chiding Æneas, he puts into her mouth these words: "False as thou art, and more than false, forsworn, Not sprung from noble blood, nor goddess-born, But hewn from harden'd entrails of a rock! And rough Hyrcanian tigers gave thee suck!" Strabo, who extends Hyrcania as far north as the river Ochus, says from Aristobulus that Hyrcania was a woody region, producing oaks and pines, but not the pitch pine, which abounded in India. It has been mentioned as a curious circumstance, that in Mazanderan an axe used for cutting is called tabr. Now the Tapyri, or Tabari, inhabited a district in Hyrcania, and if this name be derived from tabr, an axe, it will signify hatchet-men, or wood-cutters, a name very appropriate to the inhabitants of a country covered with forests like Hyrcania, and, though restricted by the Greeks to the western inhabitants of that province, is equally applicable to those of the eastern part. According to Sir W Ouseley, the name of the part in which the Tabari. lived, namely, Tabristan, or Tabaristan, signifies the country of wood. According to Morier, Mazanderan is a modern Persian phrase, signifying, "Within the boundary or limit of the mountain." This is confirmed by Sir W. Ouseley, who says, from Hamdallah, an eminent Persian geographer, that Mazanderan was originally named Mawz-anderan, or within the mountain Mawz. He says, "The Coh-Alburz is an immense mountain adjacent to Bab-al-abwab, (Derbend,) and many mountains are connected with Alburz; so that from Turkestan to Hejas, it forms a range extending in length 1000 farsangs, about 130 miles, more or less; and on this account some regard it as the mountain of Kaf, (Caucasus.) Its western side, connected with the mountains of Gurjestan, (Georgia,) is called the Coh Lagzi, (Daghestan,) and the Sur a lakaeim relates, that in the Coh Lagzi there are various races of people; so that about seventy different languages or dialects are used among them; and in that mountain are many wonderful objects; and when it reaches Shemshat and Malatiah, (Samosata Melitene,) it is called Kali Kala. At Antakia and Sakeliah, (Antioch and Seleucia,) it is called Lekam; there it divides Sham (Syria) from Room, (Asia Minor.) When it reaches between Hems (Emesa) and Demishk, (Damascus,) it is called Lebnan, (Lebanon,) and near Mecca and Medina it is called Arish. Its eastern side, connected with the mountains of Arran (Eastern Armenia) and Aderbijan, it is called Keik, and when it reaches to Ghilan, (the Gelae and Cadusians,) and Irak, (Media,) it takes the name of Terkel-diz-cuh; it is called Mauz when it reaches Kurnish and Mazanderan; and originally Mazanderan was named Mawz-enderan; and when Alburz reaches Khorassan, it is called Lurry." From this it appears that Mazanderan signifies all the region within the mountain Mawz and the Caspian Sea, which lies east of Ghilan and the Kizil Ozan. Unlike the rest of Persia, Mazanderan is watered by numerous rivers, or mountain torrents, all running from the mountains to the sea. The German traveller Gmelin, who visited this country A. D. 1771, says that in the space of eight miles, on the road from Resht to Amot, 250 of such streams are to be seen, many of them being so exceedingly broad and deep, that the passage across is sometimes impracticable for weeks together. In this respect Mazanderan furnishes a striking contrast to the waste and barren shores of southern Persia, where for many hundred miles there is not a stream to be met with deep enough to take a horse above the knee. Hence arises the fertility of Mazanderan. So mild and humid, indeed, is the climate of Mazanderan, that it permits the growth of the sugar cane, and the production of good sugar, and that in perfection four months earlier than in the West Indies. From the lack of art and care, however, this gift of nature is not turned to account by the inhabitants of that province. BACTRIANA. The province of Bactriana comprehended what is now called Eastern Persia, or Khorassan, in addition to the country beyond the Paropamisus. Khorassan, or "the rising sun," extends over a large part of the great desert, and nearly the whole of the mountainous region north of it. According to the Persian geographers, it once comprehended the whole of northern Persia, as far as the neighbourhood of the Indus; that is, nearly the whole of the country subject to the King of Afghanistan. At the present time, its eastern boundary lies near 62° east longitude; and even the town of Herat is subject to the Afghans, who, however, acknowledge that it belongs to Persia, and annually send a present to Teheran in token of this acknowledgment. In that portion of the desert which lies between Herat and Yezd, many oases occur, some of which are of considerable extent, The wide valleys and contain large towns. which lie between the desert and the declivities that form the descent between the table-land of Iran to the low sandy plains of Turan, possess a considerable degree of fertility. This is proved by the existence of numerous and populous villages, which are frequently ravaged by the Turkomans and Kurds. The latter people are settled in a very wide and fertile valley, extending from the town of Mushed in a north-western direction for more than 100 miles, for the purpose of protecting the country against the invasion of the Turkomans; but notwithstanding this, they frequently themselves lay waste the most fertile portion of Khorassan. The vicinity of Herat supplies assafoetida, saffron, pistachio nuts, mastic, manna, a gum called birzund, a yellow dye called ispiruck, and carroway seeds. The wide and fertile valley which runs from Mushed northwards, and which is in the possession of the Kurds, is also well cultivated, and contains some places of note. Westward of Mushed, near Nishapoor, is the celebrated fortress of Kelat Nadiree, “the fortress of Nadir." This fortress is situated, according to Frazer, in a valley from fifty to sixty miles in length, by twelve or fifteen in breadth, surrounded by mountains so steep that a little assistance from art has rendered them impassable; the rocks being scarped into the form of a gigantic wall. A small river runs through this valley, and the only points of access occur where the stream leaves it, and these are fortified by towers and walls, which form no mean barrier. ARIA. Aria is the modern Heraut, sometimes pronounced without the aspirate. This province lay to the east of Parthia and the desert of Kerman, to the north of Drangiana, to the south of the western prolongation of the Paropamisan range, called the mountains of Saraphi by Ptolemy, and to the west of the province of Paropamisus. This province is sometimes called Ariana, but whether this latter name included more than the province of Aria is by no means agreed among geographers. The situation of Aria corresponds to that of the modern Sejestan, and the southern part of Khorassan. Strabo calls this province and Margiana, the best in the whole country. They are, he says, watered by the rivers Arios and Margos; the former of which is described by Arrian as a river not less than the Peneios of Thessalia, yet losing itself in the ground, and which answers to the present HeriRud. Strabo also remarks that Aría is about 160 miles in length, and twenty-five in breadth; but this can only be understood as applying to the principal part of the province, or probably the valley of the river Arios, which seems to have been early celebrated for its fertility. In this plain Heraut is situated, and captain Grant, who spent a month there in 1810, describes it as watered by an ample stream, as covered with villages, and as teeming with corn. "The rich landscape," he says, "receives additional beauty and variety from the numerous mosques, tombs, and other edifices by which it is embellished, and the mountain slopes by which it is surrounded." The country of Aria is not mentioned by Hero |