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if, under the form of history, they related what they had never seen nor heard, (not at least from eye-witnesses,) and had no other object than to please and surprise the reader. A person would more readily believe the stories of the heroes in Hesiod, Homer, and in the tragic poets, than Ctesias, Herodotus, Hellanicus, and writers of this kind. 4
We cannot easily credit the generality of the historians of Alexander, for they practise deception with a view to enhance the glory of Alexander; the expedition also was directed to the extremities of Asia, at a great distance from our country, and it is difficult to ascertain or detect the truth or falsehood of what is remote. The dominion of the Romans and of the Parthians has added very much to former discoveries, and the writers who speak of these people describe nations and places, where certain actions were performed, in a manner more likely to produce belief than preceding historians, for they had better opportunities of personal observation.
THE nomades, or wandering tribes, who live on the left side of the coast on entering the Caspian Sea, are called by the moderns Dahae, and surnamed Parni. note Then there intervenes a desert tract, which is followed by Hyrcania; here the Caspian spreads like a deep sea till it approaches the Median and Armenian mountains. The shape of these hills at the foot is lunated. note Their extremities terminate at the sea, and form the recess of the bay.
A small part of this country at the foot of the mountains, as far as the heights, if we reckon from the sea, is inhabited by some tribes of Albanians and Armenians, but the greater portion by Gelae, Cadusii, Amardi, Vitii, and Anariacae. It is said, that some Parrhasii were settled together with the Anariace, who are now called Parrhasii, (Parsii?) and that the $SAEnianes built a wailed city in the territory of the Vitii, which city is
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].
