Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/526

 49 1 HISTORY OF GREECE. — i. e. where it adjoined the strip of land skirting the Gulf, and lying between those two extreme points which Strabo denominates Ainanian Gales. Arrian employs this last phrase more loosely than Strabo, yet still with reference to the maritime strip, and not to a col over the mountain ridge. On the other hand, Kallisthenes (If he is rightly represented by pDlyblus, who recites his statem.ent, not his words, xii. 17) uses the words Amanian Gates to signify the passage by which Darius entered Kilikia — that is, the passage over the mountain. That which Xeno- phon and Arrian call the Gates of Kilikia and Syria — and which Strabo calls Amanian Gates — is described by Polybius as lU uriru, y.ul T«c Ifyofiivag fv ij] Kilty.ia nv'/.itg. It seems pretty certain that this must have been Daiius's line of march, because he came down immediately upon Issus, and then marched forward to the river Pinarus. Had he entered Kilikia by the pass of Beylan, he must have passed the Pinarus before he reached Issus. The positive grounds for admitting a practicable pass near the 37th parallel, are indeed called in question by !MiJtzel (ad Curtium, p. 102, 103), and are not in themselves conclusive ; still I hold them sufficient, when taken in conjunction with the probabilities of the case. This pass was, however, we may suppose, less frequented than the maritime line of road through the Gates of Kilikia and Syria, and the pass of Beylan ; which, as the more usual, was preferred both by the Cyreians and by Alexander. Respecting the march of Alexander, Dr. Thirlwall here starts a question, substantially to this effect : " Since Alexander Intended to march through the pass of Beylan for the purpose of attacking the Persian camp at Sochi, what could have caused him to go to Myrian- drus, which was more south than Beylan, and out of his road ? " Dr. Thirlwall feels this difficulty so forcibly, that in order to eliminate it, he is inclined to accept the hypothesis of Mr. AVilHaras, which places Myriandrus at Bayas, and the Kiliko-Syrian Gates at Demlr-Kapu ; an hypothesis Avhich appears to me inadmissible on various grounds, and against which Mr. Ainsworth (in his Essay on the CUIeian and Syrian Gates) has produced several very forcible objections. I confess that I do not feel the difficulty on which Dr. Thirlwall in- sists. When we see that Cyrus and the Ten Thousand went to Myri- andrus, in their way to the pass of Beylan, we may reasonably infer that, whether that town was in the direct line or not, it was at least in the usual road of march — which does not always coincide with the direct line. But to waive this supposition, however — let us assume that there existed another shorter road leading to Beylan without pass- ing by Myriandrus — there would still be reason enough to induce Alexander to go somewhat out of his way, in order to visit Myrian- drus. For it was an Important object with him to secure the sea ports
 * croEseil over the mountain Tvliere it adjoined the Amaniar. Gates"