Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/525

 LOCALITIES NEAR ISSUS. 493 army of Ibrahim rach.i as engineer (cited by Eitter, Erdk. p. 1792). At the spot here mentioned, the gulf indents eastward, -while the west- ern flank of Amanus approaches very close to it, and drops with unu- sual steepness towards it. Hence the road now followed does not pas? between the mountain and the sea, but ascends over a portion of the mountain, and descends again afterwards to the low ground skirting the sea. Northward of Mei-kes, the space between the mountain and the sea gradually widens, towards Bayas. At some distance to the north of I3ayas occurs the river now called Delle Tschai, which is con- sidered, I think with probability, to be the PInarus, where the battle between Alexander and Darius was fought. This opinion however Is not unanimous ; Kinneir identifies the Merkes with the PInarus. IMoreover, there arc several different streams which cross the space between Mount Amanus and the sea. Des Monceaux notices six streams as having been crossed between the Castle of Merkes and Ba- yas ; and five more streams between Bayas and Ayas (Miitzel ad Curtium, p. 105). Which among these Is the PInarus, cannot be set- tled without more or less of doubt. Besides the Gates of Kilikia and Syria, noted by Xenophon and Arrlan in the above passages, there are also other Gates called the Amanian Gales, which are spoken of In a perplexing manner. Dr. Thirlwall Insists with propriety on the necessity of distinguishing the maritime passes, between Mount Amanus and the sea — from the in- land passes, which crossed over the ridge of IVIount Amanus itself. But this distinction seems not uniformly observed by ancient authors, when we compare Strabo, Arrlan, and KalUsthenes. Strabo uses the phrase, Amanian Gates, twice (xlv. p. 676 ; xvl. p. 751) ; In both cases designating a maritime pass, and not a pass over the mountain, — yet designating one maritime pass in the page first referred to, and an- other In the second. In xiv. p. 6 76 — he means by nV AjinvlSeg nvlni, the spot called by modern travellers Demir Kapu, between ^gae and Issus, or between Mopsuestia and Issus; while In xvl. 751 — he means by the same words that which I have been explaining as the Gates of Kilikia and Syria, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Issus. In fact, Strabo seems to conceive as a whole the strip of land between Mount Amanus and the Gulf, beginning at Demir Kapu, and ending at the Gates of Kilikia and Syria — and to call both the beginning and the end of it by the same name — the Amanian Gates. But he does not use this last phrase to designate the passage over or across Mount Amanus ; neither does Arrlan ; who In describing the march of Darius from Sochi Into Kilikia, says (ii. 7, 1) linfojSulotv dlj to uQog /la- pilog TO xuzu Tug nvhxg lag^A^aviaag nuXovfiivag, wg inV Itraov ngo- iiys, y.ai fyivsio KUToniv ' Als^txv8ov Xh&mv. Here, let It bc> observed, we do not read vrnq^aXuiV xug nvkag — nor can I think that the words mean, as the translator gives them — " transiit Amanum, eundo per Pylas Amanicas." The words rather signify, that Darius VOL. XII. 42