Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].
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-- 277 --

according to the division of the country into ten provinces. For the kings in our times who preceded Archelaus note usually divided the kingdom of Cappadocia in this manner.

Cataonia is a tenth portion of Cappadocia. In our time each province had its own governor, and since no difference appears in the language of the Cataonians compared with that of the other Cappadocians, nor any difference in their customs, it is surprising how entirely the characteristic marks of a foreign nation have disappeared, yet they were distinct nations; Ariarathes, the first who bore the title of king of the Cappadocians, annexed the Cataonians to Cappadocia. 3

This country composes the isthmus, as it were, of a large peninsula formed by two seas; by the bay of Issus, extending to Cilicia Tracheia, and by the Euxine lying between Sinope and the coast of the Tibareni.

The isthmus cuts off what we call the peninsula; the whole tract lying to the west of the Cappadocians, to which Herodotus note gives the name of the country within the Halys. This is the country the whole of which was the kingdom of Croesus. Herodotus calls him king of the nations on this side the river Halys. But writers of the present time give the name of Asia, which is the appellation of the whole continent, to the country within the Taurus.

This Asia comprises, first, the nations on the east, Paphlagonians, Phrygians, and Lycaonians; then Bithynians, Mysians, and the Epictetus; besides these, Troas, and Hellespontia; next to these, and situated on the sea, are the Aeolians and Ionians, who are Greeks; the inhabitants of the remaining portions are Carians and Lycians, and in the inland parts are Lydians.

We shall speak hereafter of the other nations. 4

The Macedonians obtained possession of Cappadocia after it had been divided by the Persians into two satrapies, and permitted, partly with and partly without the consent of the people, the satrapies to be altered to two kingdoms, one of which they called Cappadocia Proper, and Cappadocia

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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].
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