Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/134

 ��OFF TO DERBENT

��wark in its strongest form. Since the tradition that Alexander (or some one associated with him) ' fortified with iron gates ' the Darial Pass to the west of Derbent is as old as Josephus, or the first century a.d. ; and since it is expressly referred to by Procopius, who took part in the Roman campaign against Persia in 528 A.D., before Anushirvan came to the throne, it is likely that there is real truth in the view that Alexander was the originator of the wall in its longest extent.^ It is ex- tremely probable that, although Alexander himself was never in the Caucasus during his invasion of Asia, he must have secured the submission of the country through some of his troops, since he was invariably most careful to guard his rear and to prevent any possibility of being cut off from his con- stant connection with Greece. ^ It is noteworthy, moreover, that the lower portion of Derbent, which borders on the sea, was still called, three hundred years ago, ' the Greek City ' — Shahr Yundn?

As soon as I had glanced at the portion of the walls not far from the railway station, I said to my guide, 'Yes, surely they are at least as old as the Sasaiiian period, fourteen centuries ago, if not older.' The peculiar style of the masonry and the man-

��ner of laying the stones, with narrower upright settings fitted closely between the larger blocks, was precisely what I had seen in the Sasanian ruins at Takht-i Suleiman.*

��1 See the references, p. 61, n. 3.

2 A part of the tradition that Alex- ander himself had been in the Cauca- sus may have arisen from the fact that certain of his later historians applied the name ' Caucasus ' to the great mountain ranges east of the Caspian, and to the chains crossed by Alexan- der in his campaign from Central Asia into India. This confusion is specifi- cally referred to by Strabo, Geog.

��11. 5. 5 (ed. Meineke, 2, p. 710, Leip- zig, 1866 = ed. Casaubon, pp. 506- 506). For the likelihood that one of Alexander's generals subdued the Cau- casus, see Walckenaer, Sur les de- nominations des Fortes Caspiennes, pp. 224-225 (in Mem. Inst, de France, Acad. Inscr. Paris, 1824.

3 See the citation from Olearius, Beisebeschreibungen^ given on p. 66.


 * See my Persia, p. 129.

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