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 chap. XL] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 277 tween them, of fifty paces, afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall was a monument of strength and beauty : it measured sixty feet from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundred feet ; the loop-holes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with missile weapons, were small, but numerous ; the soldiers were planted along the rampart, under the shelter of double galleries; and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the summit of the towers. The exterior wall appears to have been less lofty, but more solid ; and each tower was protected by a quadrangular bulwark. A hard rocky soil resisted the tools of the miners, and on the south-east, where the ground was more tractable, their approach was retarded by a new work, which advanced in the shape of an half-moon. The double and treble ditches were filled with a stream of water ; and in the management of the river the most skilful labour was employed to supply the in- habitants, to distress the besiegers, and to prevent the mischiefs of a natural or artificial inundation. Dara continued more than sixty years to fulfil the wishes of its founders, and to pro- voke the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly complained that this impregnable fortress had been constructed in manifest violation of the treaty of peace between the two empires. Between the Euxine and the Caspian, the countries of The Colchos, Iberia, and Albania are intersected in every direction iberiin 1 c by the branches of Mount Caucasus ; and the two principal ga es gates or passes from north to south have been frequently con- founded in the geography both of the ancients and moderns. The name of Caspian or Albanian gates is properly applied to Derbend, 138 which occupies a short declivity between the mountains and the sea; the city, if we give credit to local tradition, had been founded by the Greeks ; and this dangerous entrance was fortified by the kings of Persia with a mole, double walls, and doors of iron. The Iberian gates 539 are formed by a 138 For the city and pass of Derbend, see d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 157, 291, 807), Petit de la Croix (Hist, de Gengiscan, 1. iv. c. 9), Histoire Genealogique des Tatars (torn. i. p. 120), Olearius (Voyage en Perse, p. 1039-1041), and Corneille le Bruyn (Voyages, tom. i. p. 146, 147) : his view may be compared with the plan of Olearius, who judges the wall to be of shells and gravel hardened by time. [Cf. Bitter, Erdkunde, p. 261.] 139 Proeopius, though with some confusion, always denominates them Caspian (Persic. 1. i. c. 10). The pass is now styled Tatartopa, the Tartar-gates (d'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 119, 120). [In B. G. iv. 3, Proeopius distinguishes the pass of T(oip (Armen. Cor) from the " Caspian Gates ".]