Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/286

 278 STRABO. CASAUB. 534. near the Taurus, or Cappadocia the Great ; the other they called Pontus, but according to other writers, Cappadocia on Pontus. We are ignorant at present how Cappadocia the Great was at first distributed ; upon the death of Archelaus the king, Caesar and the senate decreed that it should be a Ro- man province. But when the country was divided in the time of Archelaus and of preceding kings into ten pro- vinces, they reckoned five near the Taurus, Melitene, Cataonia, Cilicia, Tyanitis, and Garsauritis ; the remaining five were Laviansene, Sargarausene, Saravene, Chamanene, Morimene. The Romans afterwards assigned to the predecessors of Ar- chelaus an eleventh province formed out of Cilicia, consist- ing of the country about Castabala and Cybistra, 1 extending to Derbe, belonging to Antipater, the robber. Cilicia Tra- chea about Elasussa was assigned to Archelaus, and all the country which served as the haunts of pirates. CHAPTER II. 1. MELITENE resembles Commagene, for the whole of it is planted with fruit-trees, and is the only part of all Cappadocia which is planted in this manner. It produces oil, and the wine Monarites, which vies with the wines of Greece. It is situated opposite to Sophene, having the river Euphrates flowing between it and Commagene, which borders upon it. In the country on the other side of the river is Tomisa, a considerable fortress of the Cappadocians. It was sold to the prince of Sophene for a hundred talents. Lucullus presented it afterwards as a reward of valour to the Cappadocian prince for his services in the war against Mithridates. 2. Cataonia is a plain, wide and hollow, 2 and produces everything except evergreen trees. It is surrounded by mountains, and among others by the Amanus on the side to- wards the south, a mass separated from the Cilician Taurus, and also by the Anti-Taurus, 3 a mass rent off in a contrary 1 Eregli near the lake Al-gol. 2 That is, surrounded by mountains, as below. 8 The range on the west of the river Sarus, Seichun, now bearing vari- ous names.