Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/87

 ISSUS. so situated that he came to Issus first, where he shamefully treated the sick of the Macedonians who had been left there. The next day he moved from Issus to pursue Alexander (Arrian; Curtius, iii. 8); that is, he moved towards the Pylae, and he came to the banks of the river Pinarus, where he lialted. Issus was, therefore, north of the Pinarus, and some little distance from it. Kiepert's map of Asia Minor marks a pass in the range of the Syrian Amanus, which is north of the pass that leads over the same mountains from the east to Baiae (^Bai/as), and nearly due east of the head of the gulf of Issus. He calls it Pylae Amanides, by which he means the Pylae Amanicae of Arrian, not the Amanides of Strabo ; and he takes it to be the j)ass by which Darius crossed the Syrian Amanus and came down upon the gulf. This may have been his route, and it would bring him to Issus at the head of the gulf, which he came to before turning south to the Pinaras (^Ddi Tschai). It is certain that D.irius crossed by some pass which brouuht him to Issus before he reached the Pinarus. Yet Kiepert has jjlaccd Issus south of the Pinarus, or rather between the two branches of this river, which he represents as uniting near the coast. Kiepert also marks a road which passes over the junction of the two liranches of the Amanus [Am.vnus, Vol. I. p. 114] and runs to Marash, which he supposes to be Germanicia. This is the dotted road marked as ninning north from the head of the gulf of Issus in the plan [h>. I. p. 115] ; but even if there be such a road, it w;is not the road of Darius, which must have been the pass above men- tioned, in the latitude of the head of the gulf of Issus ; which is ncjt marked in the above plan, but ought to be. This pass is probably the Amanicae Pylae of Ptolemy, which he places 5' further south than Issus, and 1 0' cast of Issus. Alexander, hearing that the Persians were in his rear, turned back to the Pylae, which he reached at midnight, and halted till daybreak, when he moved on. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 8.) So long as the road was narrow, he led his army in column, but as the pass widened, he extended his column into line, part towards the mountain and part on the left towards the sea. When he came to the wide part (ei'/juxa'P'a), he an'anged his army in order of battle, which Arrian describes very particularly. Darius was posted on the north side of the Pinarus. It is plain, from this description, that Alexander did not march very far from the Pylae before he reached the wider part of the valley, and the river. As the sea was on his left, and the mountains on his right, the river was a stream which ran down from the Syrian Amanus ; and it can be no other than the Deli Tschai, which is about 13 miles north of the Carsus (^Merhes), direct distance. Polybius (xii. 17), who criticises Callisthenes's description of the battle, states, on his authority, that Darius descended into Cilicia through the Pylae Amanides. and encamped on the Pinaras, at a place where the distance between the mountains and the sea was not more than 14 stadia; and that the river ran across this jilace into the sea, and that in its course through the level part " it had abrupt and difficult eminences (Ad<J)oiis)." This is explained by what Arrian says of the banks of the river being steep in many parts on the north side. (^Anub. ii. 10.) Callisthenes further said, that when Alexander, after having passed the defile (ra (TTeva), heard of Darius being in Cilicia, he was 100 stadia from him, and, accordingly, he marched back through the defile. It is not dear, from the ISSUS. 71 extract in Polybius, whether the 100 stadia are to be reckoned to Issus or to the Pinarns. Accordino- to Arrian, when Alexander heard of Darius being behind him, he sent some men in a galley back to Issus, to see if it was so; and it is most consistent with the narrative to suppose that the men saw the Pei-sians at Issus before they had advanced to the river; but this is not quite certain. The Per- sian army was visible, being near the coast, as it would be, if it were seen at Issus. Strabo (p. 676), following the liistorians of Alex- ander, adds nothing to what Arrian has got from them. Alexander, he says, led liis infantry from Soli along the coast and through the Mallutis to Issus and the forces of Darius; an cspre.-sion which might mislead, if we had no other narrative. He also says, after Mallus is Aegae, a small town with a harbour, then the Amanides Pylae [Amanides Pylae], where there is a harbour; and after Aegae is Issus, a small town with a harbour, and the river Pinarus, where the fight was between Alexander and Darius. Accordingly he places Issus north of the Pinarus. Cicero, during his proconsulship of Cilicia, led his forces against the mountaineers of the Amanus, and he was saluted as imperator at Issus, " where," he says, " as I have often heard from you, Clitarchus told you that Darius was de- feated by Alexander." There is nothing to be got from this. (^Ad Favi. ii. 10.) In another passage, he says that he occupied for a few days the same camp that Alexander had occupied at Issus against Darius. {Ad Att. v. 20.) And again {ad Fain. xiv. 20), he says that, " he encamped for four days at the roots of the Amanus, at the Arae Alexandri." If this is the same fact that he mentions in his letter to Atticus, the Arae were at Issus, and Issus was near the foot of the Amanus. The battle between Septimius Sereras and Niger was fought (a. d. 194) somewhere about Issus; but nothing can be collected from the description of Herodian (iii. 12), except that the battle was not fought on the same ground as Alexander's, though it was fought on the gulf of Issus. Stephanns {s.v. 'laaos) describes it as " a city between Syria and Cilicia. where Alexander defeated Darius, which was called, for this reason, Nicopolis by him; and there is the bay of Issus; and there, also, is a river named Pinarus." Strabo, after speaking of Issus, men- tions, on the Issic gulf, Khosus, and Myriandrus, and Alexandria, and Nicopolis, and llopsuestia, in which description he proceeds from the Syrian side of the gulf, and terminates with Slopsuestia on the Py- ramus. According to this enumeration, Nicopolis would be between Alexandria {Scanderoon) and Mopsuestia; and it may be near Issus, or it may not. Ptolemy (v. 8. § 7, 15. § 2) places Nicopolis exactly one degree north of Alexandria and 50' north of Issus. He places Issus and Khosus in the same longitude, and Nicopolis, Alexandria, and Myriandrus 10' further east than Issus. The absolute truth of his numbers is immaterial. A map constructed according to Ptolemy would place Issus at the head of the gulf, and Nicopolis inland. Nicopolis is one of the cities which he enumerates among the inland cities of Cilicia Proper. Issus, then, being at the head of the gulf, and Tarsus being a fixed point in the march of Cyrus, we may now see how the matter stands with Xeno- phon's distances. Cyrus marched 10 parasaiigs from Tarsus to the river Psarus (Sarus), Silmn, and crossed at a place where it was 300 feet wide Ii 4