Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/318

 310 STRABO. CASAUB. 560. temple. The adjacent district of Zelitis, (in which is the city Zela, on the mound of Semiramis,) was reduced by being divided into several governments. Anciently, the kings did not govern Zela as a city, but regarded it as a temple of the Persian gods ; the priest was the director of everything re- lating to its administration. It was inhabited by a multitude of sacred menials, by the priest, who possessed great wealth, and by his numerous attendants ; the sacred territory was under the authority of the priest, and it was his own property. Ponipey added many provinces to Zelitis, and gave the name of city to Zela, as well as to Megalopolis. He formed Zelitis, Culupene, and Camisene, into one district. The two latter bordered upon the Lesser Armenia, and upon Laviansene. Fossile salt was found in them, and there was an ancient fortress called Camisa, at present in ruins. The Roman go- vernors who next succeeded assigned one portion of these two governments to the priests of Comana, another to the priest of Zela, and another to Ateporix, a chief of the family of the tetrarchs of Galatia ; upon his death, this portion, which was not large, became subject to the Romans under the name of a province. This little state is a political body of itself, Carana 1 being united with it as a colony, and hence the district has the name of Caranitis. The other parts are in the possession of Pythodoris, and Dyteutus. 38. There remain to be described the parts of Pontus, situated between this country and the districts of Amisus, and Sinope, extending towards Cappadocia, the Galatians, and the Paphlagonians. Next to the territory of the Amiseni is Phazemonitis, 2 1 This district is at the foot of the mountains which separated the Roman from the Persian Armenia. Carana (now Erziim, Erzerum, or Garen) was the capital of this district. It was afterwards called Theo- dosiopolis, which name was given to it in honour of the Emperor Theo- dosius the Younger by Anatolius his general in the East, A. D. 416. It was for a long time subject to the Byzantine emperors, who considered it the most important fortress of Armenia. About the middle of the llth century it received the name of Arze-el-Rum, contracted into Arzrum or Erzrum. It owed its name to the circumstance, that when Arzek was taken by the Seljuk Turks, A. D. 1049, the inhabitants of that place, which from its long subjection to the Romans had received the epithet of Hum, retired to Theodosiopolis, and gave it the name of their former abode. Smith. 2 On the S. W. of the ridge of Tauschan Dagh.