Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/755

 CYRRHUS. the desert This fertile, welUwatered, and thicldy peopled district (Strab. xri. p. 751) occupied the right bank of the Eaphrates, where the river in* clines rather eastward of S. It was the scene of the campaign in which Ventidins defeated the Par- thian Pacores and avenged the nutnes of Orassus and the Boman army which had fallen at Carrhae. Constantme nnited it with Commaoenb nnder the name of Euphkatensis. The chief towns of Ctrrhestica were Hikrapous, Zkuoma, Euro- pus, BiRTHA, Beroba, Batnas, and Ctrrrus. (Ritter, Erdhmde, vol. x. p. 928.) [E. B. J.] CYBBHUS. 1. (Kii^5, Thuc. u. 100; Kipios, Ptol. iii. 13. § 39), a town in Macedonia. Sitalces penetrated into Macedonia to the left of Gyrrhns and PeUa. (Thnc. /. c.) Hence it would seem that Cjrrhns was at no great distance from the latter ettj. It is probably Uie same phce as the Scurio of the Jerusalem Itinerary, and the present Viiiritta, (Tafel, Via Egnat, Part. Ocdd. p. 51.) In Leake's map a Paledluutro^ a little to the right of the road between Pella and Edessa, occupies the site of Cyrrhos. (Comp. Leake, North. Grtece, voL iiL p. 269.) 2. A town of Syria sitnated on the slopes of tiie Tauras, 80 M. P. to the NE. of Antioch (Pent. Tab. and 44 M. P. to the NW. of Beroea {Anion, /<m.). Thongh cf no great importance, except as ccmnected with the worship of the deity whom Strabo <(xvi. p. 751) calls Athena Oyrrhestica, it was the quarters of the tenth legion (Tac. Aim, ii. 57). Procopius (de A«d, ii. 11), who with the ecclesiastical and Byzantine writers writes the name Hi&pos (an error which gave rise to the fiible of its having been founded by Gyrus for the Jews on their return from the Gaptivity), mentions that it was rebuilt by Justinian. The rums near the vil- lage of Conw, which correspond very neariy with the distance given in the Itinerary, represent the ancient Gynhus. (Gfaesney, Es^ped, EvphraiL, voL L p. 422 ; Bitter, Erdkmde, vol. z. pp. 928, 1035, 1049, 1052). [E. B. J.] GYBTA. f Arauris.] GYBTII (K^ioi, Strab. zi. p. 523), a robber tribe of Media Atropatene, who lived along the shore of the Gaspian Sea, adjoining the Mardi. Strabo (xv. p. 727) mentions another tribe of similar halnts in the southern part of Persia. [V.] GYBTaNES (K^«rcf : Eth, Kvprc^iof), an- ciently called Gtrtonb (Kupnfo^), a city of Boeo- tja, east of the lake Gopais, and 20 stadia from Hyettus, situated upon a lofty mountain, after cross- ing which the traveller arriviid at Gonia. Gyrtones contained a grove and temple of Apollo, in which were statues of Apollo and Artemis, and a fountam of odd water, at the source of whidi was a chapel of the nymphs. Forchhammer pUuxs Gyrtones on the hill of the church of St. Athanasins between the villages of Panda and Lukif and the Met6khi of DtndrtL Here is celebrated every spring a great festival, which Forchhammer regards as the remains ef the ancient festival of Apollo and Artemis. (Pans. ix. 24. § 4; Steph. B. «. v.; Forchhammer, ffellenika, p. 197.) G YBUS (Kt^pof ). I. A large river, which flowed into the Gaspian in a course neariy S£. There is some difierenoe among ancient writers whence it rose, and what was its actual course. Thus Mela (iiL 5) and Pliny (vi. 10) sUte that it rises in the Montes Goraxici, and flowed to the Gaspian through Albania, Iberia, and Hyrcania. Plutarch {Ponqp, VOL. I. CYEUS. 737 34) places its source in the mountains of Iberia. Strabo (xi. pp. 491, 500) seems to consider it as the greatest of the rivers of Albania; and Dion Cas- sius (xxxvi. 36) and Ptolemy (v. 12) as dividing Armenia and Albania. In other jdaces Ptolemy and Strabo speak as though they considered it the boundary between Armenia and Iberia (Ptol. v. 12; Strab. L p. 61, xi. p. 491). Modem maps demon- strate that Pliny and Mela were the more correct in attributing its source to the Goraxici Montes, or main chain of the Gaucasus, as its course is almost wholty S£. from those mountains to the sea. It has preserved its ancient name llttle,if at all,changed into K(ir, In its course it received several otiber streams and two rivers ; the one called the Gambyses (^Yori or Gon)j and the other the Araxes {Eraakh or Aras)t a river hardly inferior to itself in size. [Gambtsbs; Araxes.] It fell into the Gaspian by many moutlu, the traditional number being said to be twelve; some of them, as indeed Strabo remarks, being much blocked up by sand and mud. (Ptol. V. 13; Appian, MUhr. c. 103 ; Strab. xi. pp. 491 and 501 ; Agathem. iL 10, 14.) It may be observed that Mela (iii. 5) gives to the Gyrus and Gambyses separate outiets into the Gasjnan, and that both Ptolemy and Strabo imagined that the Araxes flowed independently into the sea. It is quite possible that formerly the Araxes may have had a separate mouth. At present, however. It flows into the JTur, at no great distance from the sea, as Pliny and Plutarch believed. The name Gyrus is no doubt of Persian origin. 2. A river of Media Atropatene, mentioned only by Ptolemy (vi 2. § 1) and Ammianus (xxiiL 6), who determine its situation by pUcing it be- tween the mouth of the Araxes (Ardi or Kur} and the Amardus (Sefid Rtid), Modem maps in- dicate several small rivers which flow into the Gas- pian, agreeably with this determination; yet we think it may be doubted whether these ancient geo- graphers were not in error, and attributed to the small stream what was true of the Gyrus of Armenia. (See below.) The passage in Mela (iii. 5), which has been claimed for the Median river, belongs, in our opinion, to the Armenian. 3. A river of Persia, described by Strabo (xv. p.. 729) as flowing through that part of the province which was called KoiAri U4paris near Pasargadae. It was one of the tributaries of the Araxes (J^endomtr), ^riiich flowed into the Salt Lake, now called B€dBh- teffon, Strabo (xv. p. 729) states, if the present text be right (and that it is so is rendered probable by the consent of all the MSS.), that Gyrus derived his name from this river, his earlier appellation having been Agradates. Gasaubon, in his edition, changed one word in the text, and deduced the con- trary and perhaps more probable meaning, that the river was called after thekingi and not the king after the river. The Arabian geographers, Ibn Haukal (p. 98) and Al Edrisi (p. 124), recognise the name Kur or K«r-db as that of a river which falls into Lake Bakhtegan, If the modem maps are correct, it would seem certain that the larger river Araxes is that now caUed the BendanUr Kihn-Firua or Kur- 6bf while the smaller one, which was the proper Gyrus, is caUed the Pulwan. (De Bode, iMristan^ vol. i. p. 75 ; Fergusson, Nineveh Restored, p. 90.) It has been supposed by some geographers that the JUpiOi of Ptolemy (vi. 8. S 4) is the same river; but it is much more likely tLit Ptolemy was correct in placing it in Gannania. SB