Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/167

 AORSI. MemB to be tibe only groond on which ^tter places lilxnVdiinai xt the conflaence of the Cophen and the Indus, fiat the niuJe coarse of the narrative, in the historians, seems clearly to require a position hi^rher vp the Indos, at the month of the Burrindoo ftr exampie. Tliat Aomns itself also was dose to the ladtis, is stated bj Diodoms, Cnxtins, and Stxabo; aod thongh the same would scarcely be injerred &am Anian, he says nothing positiTely to the contrary. ' The mistake of Strabo, that the lose of the rock is washed by the Indus near its tnwcey is not so very great as might at first sight appear; for, in common with the other ancient geQ^ra[dwrs, he understands by the sottrce cH the Indus, the place where it breaks throngh the chain of the Himaktya. The name Aomus is an example of the signifi- caot appellations which the Greeks were fimd of using, either aa corrapHons of, or substitutes for, the natire names. In like manner, Dionysius Pe- ri^etes calls the ffimaJaya "Aopvis (1151). [P. S.] 2. A city in Bactriana. Arrian (iii. 29) speaks of Aomns and Bactra as the largest cities in the rrsuntty of the Bactiii. Aomus had an acropolis (&rpa) in which Alexander left a garrison after taking the place. There is no indication of its site, except that Alexander took it before he iBached Owns. ^G. L.l AORSI (^Aofxrot: Strab., Ptol., Plin., Steph.B.), or ADORSI (Tac. Arm. xii. 15), a numerous and poverfril pec^Ie, both in Europe and in Asia. Ptokmy (iii. 5. § 22) names the European Aorsi ami fig the peoples of Sarmatia, between the Venedic Gulf (^BtJdc') and the Khipaean mountains {i. e. in the esstem part of Prussia), and places them S. of the Agathyrsi, and N. of the Pagyritae. The Astatic Aorsi he places in Scjrthia intra iiwM^Tw^ on ^e NE. shore of the Caspian, between the Astotae^ who dwelt £. of the mouth of the river Rka ( Voljfd)f and the Jaxartae, who extended to the mer Jazartes (vi. 14. § 10). The latter is saj^nsed to have been the original position of the pe^le, as Strabo expressly states (xi. p. 506); hit of coarse the same question arises as in the case of the other great tribes found both in Euro- pean Sarmatia and Asiatic Scythia; and so Eich- wald seeks the original abodes of the Aorsi in the Bossian province ^ Vologda, on the strength of the resemblance of the name to that of the Finnish ncc of the £ne, now found there. (^Geog. d. Casp. Metres, pp. 358, foil.) Pliny mentions the Euro- pean Aorsi, with the Hamaxobii, as tribes of the Jvruiatians, in the general sense of that word, in- chvfing the ^ Scytluan races " who dwelt along the N. coast of the Euxine £. of the mouth of the Danube; and more specifically, next to the Getae (iv. 12. S.25. ».8. 18). The chief seat of the Aorsi, and where they ap- pear in history, was in the country between the Taoala, the Euxine, the Gaspan, and the Caucasus. Here Stiabo places (xL p. 492), S. of the nomado Srvthians, who dwell on waggons, the Sarmatians, who are also Scythians, namely the Aorsi and Siracs, extending to the S. as &r as the Caucasian mnontains; some of them being nomades, and others dwelling in tents, and cultivating the land (tfdiriTai Kol yucpTfoi). Further on (p. 506), he tpnks more ptfticnlarly of the Aorsi and Siraci ; Imt the meaning is obscured by errors in the text. The sense seems to be, as pven in Groskurd's tiaiteUtion, that there were tribes of the Aorsi and AOUS. 151 the Siraci on the E. side of the Pains MaeotiS (JSea ofAzov the former dwelling on the TanaYs, and the latter further to the S. on the Achardeus, a river flowing from the Caucasus mt6 the Maeotis. Both were powei-ful, for when Phamaces (the son of Mithridates the Great) held the kingdom of Bosporus, he was fumidied with 20,000 horsemen by Abeacns, king of the Siraci, and with 200,000 by Spadines, king of the Aorsi. But both ^ese peoples are regarded by Strabo as only exiles of the great nation of the Aora, who dwelt further to the north (r&v kv^rdpto, ol ftyw^Aopcroi), and who as- sisted Phamaces with a still greater iforce. These more northern Aorsi, he adds, possessed the greater part of the coast of the Cas]nan, and carried on an extensive traffic in Indian and Babylonian merchan- dize, which they brought on camels from Media and Armenia. They were rich and wore ornaments of gold. In A. D. 50, the Aorsi, or, as Tacitus calls them, Adorsi, aided Cotys, king of Bosporus, and the Romans with a body of cavalry, against the rebel Mithridates, who was assisted by the Siraci. (Tac. Aim. xii. 15.) Some modem writers attempt to identify the Aorsi vith the Avars, so celebrated in Byzantine and medieval history. [P. S.] AOTJS, more rarely AEAS ("Awoy, 'A»oy, *A^oj, Pol. Strab. Li v.: Afa?, Hecat. ap. Strab. p. 316; Scylax, 8. r. 'lAAvpioi; Steph. B. s. v. AdKfjMv; Yal. Max. i. 5. ext. 2; erroneously called AjfiivSy''Ayios by Pint. Caes. 38, and Anas, "Avor, by Dion Cass, xii. 45 : Vi6saj Vuisaay Vovusta), the chief river of Illyria, or Epirus Nova, rises in Mount Lacmon, the northern part of the range of Mount Pindus, flows in a north-westerly direction, then " suddenly turns a little to the southward of west; and having pursued this course for 12 miles, between two mountains of extreme steepness, then recovers its north-western direction, which it pursues to the sea," into which it falls a little 6. of ApoUonia. (Herod, ix. 93; Strab., Steph. B., U. cc. Leake, Norikem Greece^ vol. iv. p. 384.) The two moun- tains mentioned above approach very near each other, and form the celebrated pass, now called the Stena of the Vidsa^ and known in antiquity by the name of the Fauces Aktioonenses, from its vi- cinity to the city of Antigoneia. (Fauces ad An- tigoneam, Liv. xxxii. 5 ; t4 trap' ^Avnydvcuw (rreyd, Pol. ii. 5.) Antigoneia {TqKlem) was situated near the northern entrance of the pass at the junc- tion of the Aous with a river, now called DkrynOj DrinOy or Druno. At the termination of the pass on the south is the modem village of KUsiiraj a name which it has obviously received from its situ- ation. It was in this pass that Philip V., king of Macedonia, in vain attempted to arrest the progrras of the Boman consul, T. Qoinctius Flamininus, into Epirus. Philip was encamped with the main body of his forces on Mount Aeropus, and his general, Athenagoras, with the light troops on Mount As- naus. (Liv. /. c.) If Philip was encamped on the right bank of the river, as there seems every reason for believing, Aeropus corresponds to Mount Trebu- sin^ and Asnaus to Mount Nem^rtsika, The pass is well described by Plutarch (^Fkanin. 3) in a passage which he probably borrowed from Folybius. He comperes it to the defile of the Peneius at Tempe, adding " that it is deficient in the beautiful groves, the verdant forests, the pleasant retreats and mea- dows which border the Peneius; but in the lof^y L 4