Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/523

 491 APPENDIX. ON ISSUS AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD, AS CONNECTED WITH THE WAR. Thk exact battle-field of Issus cannot be certainly assigned, upon the evidence accessible to us. But it may be determined, -within a few miles north or south; and what is even more important — the general features of the locality, as well as the preliminary movements of the contending armies, admit of being clearly conceived and repre- sented. That the battle was fought In some portion of the narrow space in- tervening between the eastern coast of the Gulf of Issus and the west- ern flank of Mount Amanus — that Alexander's left and Darius's right, rested on the sea, and their right and left respectively on the mountain — that Darius came upon Alexander unexpectedly iVom the rear, thus causing him to return back a day's march from Myriandrus. and to reoccupy a pass Avhich he had already passed through and quit- ted — these points are clearly given, and appear to me not open to question. We know that the river Pinarus, on which the battle was fought, was at a certain distance south of Issus, the last town of Kilikia before entering Syria (Arrian, ii. 7. 2) — i^ t)"v laifQuiuv ngov- •^(xiofi (Darius from Issus) inl jov noiufiov tov Tllyufjov — Ritter erro- neously states that Issus was vjjon the river Pinarus, which he even calls the Issus river (Erdkunde, Theil iv. Abth. 2. p. 1797-1806). We know also that this river was at some distance north of the mari- time pass called the Gates of Kilikia and Assyria, through which Alex- ander passed and repassed. But when we proceed, beyond these data (the last of them only vague and relative), to fix the exact battle-field, we are reduced to fonjecture. Dr. Thirlwall, in an appendix to the sixth volume of his history, has collected and discussed very ably the different opinions of various geogi'aphers. To those whom he has cited, may be added — Mr. Ainswortli's Es- say on the Cilician and Syrian Gates (in the Transactions of the Geo- graphical Society for 1837) — Miitzel's Topographical Notes on the third book of Quintus Curtius — and the last volume of Bitter's Erd- kunde, published only this year (1855), ch. xxvil. p. 1778 segq. We know from Xenophon that Issus was a considerable town close to the sea — two days' march from the river Pyramus, and one day's march northward of the maritime pass called the Gates of Kilikia and