Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/231

 AMZANTI. lakf. oonfonnding it (as Bennell, Einiieir aud Man> nnrt have done) with the Ferrah Rud, which does fid] into the Lake Zarah. (Wilson, Artana, p. 150 ; Kinnetr, Mem. of Mm ofPertia^ p. 172.) [V.] ARIZANTI I'Apiiairroi, Her. i. 101), one of the six tribes of ancient Media mentioned by Hero- dotns. The name is derived from the Sanscrit Arya- Zamtu "of noble race." (Bopp, Vergl. Gr. i. p. 213.) Chrrsantas (XfnMrorros, Xen. Cyrop. ii. 3. § 5) is a oaroe of similar origin and signification. [V.j ARl>I£NE(*ApAic»n7 or *Apti4nj:Eth. ^Apfuvcuos), Stephanos ($. r. 'Ap/A^) observes that Xenophon in the AuahatU (vi 1. § 15) writes it ^Apfiifvri (pA rov 19). The Ten Thousand on their return anchored thdr ships here, and stayed five days. The place belmi^ to the Sinopians. It was 50 stadia west of Sinope (^tno^), and had a port. (Strab. p. 545.) A small river, named Ochosbanes by Marrian (p. 72), aM named also Ochthomanes in the Anonymous Periphis, and Ocheraenus by Scylax, falls into the haibonr. [G. L.] ABMETNIA C^pntvia: Eth, 'ApfihioSy Arme- iiins, Armeniacus). There b so much difficulty in fixii^ the natural limits of the country designated bj this name, that its political boundaries have been exposed to ccvtinual changes. If taken in the most comprehensive sense, the Enphntes may be considered as forming the central line of the country known to the ancients as Ar- menia. £. of thb river it extended as far as the Caspian Sea, and again W., over a part of what is vsnaDy considered as Asia Minor. The former of these two great portions was almost universally knovn as Armenia Major, and the latter went imder the title of Armenia Minor. The native and Byzantine historians make use of many enbdivisions, the names of which they men- ticn ; bat the Greek and Roman geographers confine thmtsdves to those two great divisions originally niai^, it would seem, by the successors of Alexander the Great. (Ptol. v. 7. § 13 ; Plin. vi. 9.) In the Scriptures there is no allusion to Armenia by came, though we meet with the following Hebrew desijmatiuDs, referring to it either as a whole, or to particular districts. (1.) Tooarmah, a name vhxrh not only appears in the Ethnographic table in Gei^sis (x. S; comp. I Chron. L 6), but also in Eaekid (xxviii. 6), where it is classed along with Gomer, and (xxvii. 14) by the side of Meshech and Tahal It is curious enough that tlie national tra- £tkas Kpak of one common progenitor of this name. However little credit may be assigned to the Armenian Chronicles, as regards the remote period of their his- torr, there can be little question but that the Togarmah •f ^criptIIIe belongs to this country. (2.) Ararat, the land upon the mountains of which the Ark rested (Gen. viii. 4); to which the sons of Senac- chrrib fled after murdering their father (2 Kings, xix. 37 ; Ita. xxxviL 38) ; and one of the kingdoms rammooed along with Minni and Ashkenas to arm a-ainst Babylon {Jer. li. 27). The province of Ararat lay in the centre of the kingdom, and was acTnr£ng to the native historian, Moe^ of Chorene {ffiMtor. Armen. ii c 6, p. 90), divided into twenty px*riDces. (3.) Mima, cited above {Jer. I. c), az^ probably the same as the Minyas, with r^ard to which and the accompanying traditions about the Deluge Jo6ephus(^f>/t9.i- 1. §6) quotes Nicholas of Damascus. (KosenmUlIer, BioL Alt, vol. i. pt. i. p. 251). Ilcrud<4us (v. 52) rppresents Armenia as having ARMENIA. 215 Cilicia for its border on the W., being separated from this country by the Euphrates. Towards the N. it included the sources of the same river (i. 180). The limits to the S. and E. were not distinctly defined, probably Mount Masius separated it from Mesopotamia, and Mount Ararat from the country of the Saspires, who occupied the valley traversed by the Araxes. (Rennel, Geog. Herod, vol. i. p. 369.) In Strabo (xi. p. 527) Armenia is bounded to the S. by Me. opotamia and the Taurus ; on the E. by Great Media and Atropatene; on the N. by the Iberes and Albani, with M01 nts Parachoatras and Caucasus; on the W. by the Tibareni, Mts. Pa- ryadres and Skydises as far as the Lesser Armenia, and the country on the Euphrates which separated Armenia from Cappadocia and Commagene. Strabo (p. 530) quotes Theophanes for the statement that Armenia was 100 schoeni in breadth, and 200 schoeni in length ; the schoenus here is reckoned at 40 stadia. He objects to this admeasurement, and assigning the same number of schoeni to its length, allows 50 for its breadth. Neither statement, it need hardly be said, is correct (see Groskurd's note); as at no period was its superficies so extended as Theophanes or Strabo would make it. The rough and inaccurate statements of Pliny (/. c), and Justin (xlii. 2) are equally wide of the truth. In a natural division of the country Armenia takes its place as belonging to the N. Highlands of the gigantic plateau of Irdn, extending in tlie form of a triangle between the angles of three seas, the Caspian, the Black Sea, and the Gulf of Scanderoon. This great separate mass forms an elevated plateau, from which the principal mountains, rivers and val- leys of W. Asia diverge towards the four seas at the furthermost extremities. Its plains rise to 7,000 ft. above the level of the sea, and the highest summits of Mt. Ararat, which overtop the plains, attain the height of 17,260 English feet. If we look at the more striking objects, — the mountains, it will be seen that several great branches quit the high land about the springs of the Euphrates and Tigris, and take difierent directions ; but chiefly E. S. and W. from the summits of Ararat. Ararat, the common root from which these branches spring, raises its snow-clad sunmiits in a district nearly equidistant from the Black and Caspian Seas. The larger plain 10 miles in width at the base of the mountain, is covered with lava, and the formation of the mass itself indicates the presence of that volcanic agency which caused the great earthquake of 1840. Two vast conical peaks rising far above all others in the neighbourhood, form the great centre of the "Mountains of Ararat," the lower one is steeper and more pointed than the higher, from which it is separated by a sloping plain on the NW. side. The ascent of the greater one is easier, and the summits have been, in efiect, gained by the German traveller Parrot. The difficulties of the ascent are considerable, and have given rise to the local and expressive name, of Aghri Tdgh, or painful mountain. Though a vol- cano, it has no crater, and bears no evidence of any recent eruption ; it is, however, composed entirely of volcanic matter, — consisting of difierent varieties of igneous rocks. It seems to be a subaqueous volcano of extreme antiquity, retaining no traces of the movements by which its materials have been brought into their present position. The first of the numerous chains which descend r 4