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JAXARTES, IAXARTES (8 'Iacáprns), the river of Central Asia which now bears the name of Syr-Daria, or Yellow River (Daria is the generic Tartar name for all rivers, and Syr=" yellow "), and which, watering the barren steppes of the Kirghiz-Cossacks, was known to the civilised world in the most remote ages.

ancient writers under the name Jaxartes. Some, indeed, confounded the Jaxartes and the Tanaïs, and that purposely, as will be seen hereafter. A few have confounded it with the Oxus; while all, without exception, were of opinion that both the Jaxartes and the Oxus discharged their waters into the Caspian, and not into the Sea of Aral. It seems, at first sight, curious, to those who know, the true position of these rivers, that the Greeks, in describing their course, and determining the distance of their respective "embouchures," should have taken the Sea of Aral for the Caspian, and that their mistake should have been repeated up to very recent times. Von Humboldt (Asie Centrale, vol. ii. pp. 162— 297)- -to whose extensive inquiry we owe an inva

geography of the Caspian and Oxus by classical, Arabian, and European writers and travellers, along with the latest investigations of Russian scientific and military men — - arrives at these conclusions respecting the ancient junction of the Aral, Oxus, and Caspian:

1st. That, at a period before the historical era, but nearly approaching to those revolutions which preceded it, the great depression of Central Asia — the concavity of Turan- may have been one large interior sea, connected on the one hand with the Euxine, on the other hand, by channels more or less broad, with the Icy Sea, and the Balkash and its

The exploits of Cyrus and Alexander the Great have inscribed its name in history many centuries before our aera. If we are to believe the traditionary statements about Cyrus, the left bank of this river formed the N. limit of the vast dominion of that conqueror, who built a town, deriving its name from the founder [CYRESCHATA], upon its banks; and it was upon the right bank that he lost his life in battle with Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae.luable digest of the views entertained respecting the Herodotus (i. 201-216), who is the authority for this statement, was aware of the existence of the Syr-Daria; and although the name Jaxartes, which was a denomination adopted by the Greeks and followed by the Romans, does not appear in his history, yet the Araxes of Herodotus can be no other than the actual Syr, because there is no other great river in the country of the Massagetae. Much has been written upon the mysterious river called Araxes by Herodotus; M. De Guignes, Fosse, and Gatterer, suppose that it is the same as the Oxus or AmouDaria; M. De la Nauze sees in it the Araxes of Armenia; while Bayer, St. Croix, and Larcher, conceive that under this name the Volga is to be under-adjoining lakes. stood. The true solution of the enigma seems to be that which has been suggested by D'Anville, that the Araxes is an appellative common to the Amou, the Armenian Aras, the Volga, and the Syr. (Comp. ARAXES, p. 188; Mém. de l'Acad. des Inser. vol. xxxvi. pp. 69-85; Heeren, Asiat. Nations, vol. ii. p. 19, trans.) From this it may be concluded, that Herodotus had some vague acquaintance with the Syr, though he did not know it by name, but confounded it with the Araxes; nor was Aristotle more successful, as the Syr, the Volga, and the Don, have been recognised in the description of the Araxes given in his Meteorologics (i. 13. § 15), which, it must be recollected, was written before Alexander's expedition to India. (Comp. Ideler, Meteorologia Vet. Graecor. et Rom. ad l. c., Berol, 1832; St. Croix, Examen Critique des Hist. d'Alex. p. 703.)

A century after Herodotus, the physical geography of this river-basin became well known to the Greeks, from the expedition of Alexander to Bactria and Sogdiana. In B. c. 329, Alexander reached the Jaxartes, and, after destroying the seven towns or fortresses upon that river the foundation of which was ascribed to Cyrus, founded a city, bearing his own name, upon its banks, ALEXANDREIA ULTIMA (Khojend). (Q. Curt. vii. 6; Arrian, Anab. iv. 1. § 3.)

2nd. That, probably in the time of Herodotus, and even so late as the Macedonian invasion, the Aral was merely a bay or gulf of the Caspian, connected with it by a lateral prolongation, into which the Oxus flowed.

3rd. That, by the preponderance of evaporation over the supply of water by the rivers, or by diluvial deposits, or by Plutonic convulsions, the Aral and Caspian were separated, and a bifurcation of the Oxus developed, one portion of its waters continuing its course to the Caspian, the other terminating in the Aral.

4th. That the continued preponderance of evaporation has caused the channel communicating with the Caspian to dry up.

At present it must be allowed that, in the absence of more data, the existence of this great Aralo-Caspian basin within the "historic period," must be a moot point; though the geological appearances prove by the equable distribution of the same peculiar organic remains, that the tract between the Aral and the Caspian was once the bed of an united and continuous sea, and that the Caspian of the present day is the small residue of the once mighty AraloCaspian Sea.

Ptolemy read (Asie Centrale, vol. i. pp. 114-118)

Strabo (xi. pp. 507-517) was acquainted with the true position of this river, and has exposed the errors committed by the historians of Alexander After the Macedonian conquest, the Syr is found (p. 508), who confounded the mountains of the Pain all the ancient geographers under the form Jax-ropamisus- or Paropanisus, as all the good MSS. of artes: while the country to the N. of it bore the general name of Scythia, the tracts between the Syr and Amou were called Transoxiana. The Jaxartes is not properly a Greek word, it was borrowed by the Greeks from the Barbarians, by whom, as Arrian (Anab. iii. 30. § 13) asserts, it was called Orxantes ('Optávτns). Various etymologies of this name have been given (St. Croix, Examen Critique des Hist. d Alex. § 6), but they are too uncertain to be relied on: but whatever be the derivation of the word, certain it is that the Syr appears in all

with the Caucasus, and the Jaxartes with the Tanaïs. All this was imagined with a view of exalting the glory of Alexander, so that the, great conqueror might be supposed, after subjugating Asia, to have arrived at the Don and the Caucasus, the scene of the legend where Hercules unbound the chains of the fire-bringing Titan.

The Jaxartes, according to Strabo (p. 510), took its rise in the mountains of India, and he determines it as the frontier between Sogdiana and the nomad Scy

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thians (pp. 514, 517), the principal tribes of which were the Sacae, Dahae, and Massagetae, and adds (p. 518) that its "embouchure " was, according to Patrocles, 80 parasangs from the mouth of the Oxus. Pliny (vi. 18) says that the Scythians called it "Silis," probably a form of the name Syr, which it | Kamechlou-Bachi. now bears, and that Alexander and his soldiers thought that it was the Tanaïs. It has been conjectured that the Alani, in whose language the word tan (Tan-aïs, Dan, Don) signified a river, may have brought this appellative first to the E., and then to the W. of the Aralo-Caspian basin, in their migrations, and thus have contributed to confirm an error so flattering to the vanity of the Macedonian conquerors. (Asie Centrale, vol. ii. pp. 254, 291; comp, Schafarik, Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 500.) Pomponius Mela (iii. 5. § 6) merely states that it watered the vast countries of Scythia and Sogdiana, and discharged itself into that E. portion of the Caspian which was called Scythicus Sinus.

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Arrian, in recounting the capture of Cyropolis (Anab. iv. 3. § 4), has mentioned the curious fact, that the Macedonian army entered the town by the dried-up bed of the river; these desiccations are not rare in the sandy steppes of Central Asia, for instance, in the sudden drying up of one of the arms of the Jaxartes, known under the name of Tanghi-Daria, the account of which was first brought to Europe in 1820. (Comp. Journ. Geog. Soc. vol. xiv. pp. 333-335.)

Ptolemy (vi. 12. § 1) has fixed mathematically the sources, as well as the "embouchure," of the Jaxartes. According to him the river rises in lat. 43° and long. 125°, in the mountain district of the COMEDI (ʼn open Kwundwv, § 3: Muz-Tagh), and throws itself into the Caspian in lat. 48° and long. 97°, carrying with it the waters of many affluents, the principal of which are called, the one BASCATIS (Baokaтis, §3), and the other DEMUS (Aμos, § 3). He describes it as watering three countries, that of the "Sacae," "Sogdiana," and "Scythia intra Imaum." In the first of these, upon its right bank, were found the COMARI (Kouapo) and CARATAE (Kapáτai, vi. 13. § 3); in the second, on the left bank, the ANIESES ('Aviéσeis) and DREPSIANI (Apeavoi), who extended to the Oxus, the TACHORI (Taxopoi), and IATII ('IάTio, vi. 12. § 4); in Scythia, on the N. bank of the Syr, lived the JAXARTAE (lakáρra), a numerous people (vi. 14. § 10), and near the "embouchure," the ARIACAE (Apiákat, vi. 14. § 13). Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6. § 59), describing Central Asia, in the upper course of the Jaxartes which falls into the Caspian, speaks of two rivers, the ARAXATES and DYMAS (probably the Demus of Ptolemy), "qui per juga vallesque praecipites in campestrem planitiem decurrentes Oxiam nomine paludem efficiunt longe lateque diffusam." This is the first intimation, though very vague, as to the formation of the Sea of Aral, and requires a more detailed examination. [OXIA PALUS.]

The obscure Geographer of Ravenna, who lived, as it is believed, about the 7th century A. D., mentions the river Jaxartes in describing Hyrcania.

JAZYGES.

7

Kachkar-Davan, a branch of the range called by the
NW. course through the sandy steppes of Kizil-
Chinese the "Mountains of Heaven," and, taking a
Koum and Kara-Koum, unites its waters with those
of the Sea of Aral, on its E. shores, at the gulf of
Ta, Ixomatae, Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. § 31; Exo-
JAXAMATAE (Ἰαξαμάται, Ἰαξαμᾶται, Ιξομά
[E. B. J.]
matae, Val. Flacc. Argonaut. vi. 144, 569) a people
who first appear in history during the reign of Saty-
gatao, their queen. (Polyaen. viii. 55.) The ancients
rus III., king of Bosporus, who waged war with Tir-
attribute them to the Sarmatian stock. (Scymn. Fr.
(i. 19. § 17) states that they were distinguished by
p. 140; Anon. Peripl. Eux. p. 2.) Pomponius Mela
the peculiarity of the women being as tried warriors
the Don and Volga, which agrees well with the po-
as the men. Ptolemy (v. 9) has placed them between
sition assigned to them by the authors mentioned
pear from history. Schafarik (Slav. Alt. vol. i. p.
above. In the second century of our era they disap-
340), who considers the Sarmatians to belong to
the Median stock, connects them with the Median
word "mat "people," as in the termination Sau-
romatae; but it is more probable that the Sarmatians
were Slavonians.
Iazyx), a people belonging to the Sarmatian stock,
JAʼZYGES, LA'ZYGES ('lavyes, Steph. B.
[E. B. J.]
whose original settlements were
Arrian, Anab. 1, 3; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. § 31.)
Maeotis. (Ptol. iii. 5. § 19; Strab. vii. p. 306;
on the Palus
They were among the barbarian tribes armed by
Mithridates (Appian, Mithr. 69); during the ba-
nishment of Ovid they were found on the Danube,
and in Bessarabia and Wallachia (Ep. ex Pont.
i. 2, 79, iv. 7, 9, Trist. ii. 19. 1.) In A. D. 50,
either induced by the rich pastures of Hungary,
or forced onwards from other causes, they no longer
appear in their ancient seats, but in the plains be-
tween the Lower Theiss and the mountains of Tran-
sylvania, from which they had driven out the
Dacians. (Tac. Ann. xii. 29; Plin. iv. 12.) This
migration, probably, did not extend to the whole of
the tribe, as is implied in the surname "Metanastae;"
henceforward history speaks of the LAZYGES META-
NASTAE (lágʊyes oi Metaváσtai), who were the
Sarmatians with whom the Romans so frequently
second century of our era, Ptolemy (iii. 7) assigns
came in collision. (Comp. Gibbon, c. xviii.) In the
the Danube, the Theiss, and the Carpathians as the
limits of this warlike tribe, and enumerates the
following towns as belonging to them:-USCENUM
(Obσкεvov); BORMANUM or GORMANUM (Bópμavov,
al. Tópμavov); ABIETA or ABINTÀ ('Abinτa, al.
ASIVTα); TRISSUM (Tpioσóv); CANDANUM (Kάv-
dávov); PARCA (Пáρка); РESSIUM (Пéσσov); and
PARTISCUM (ПápтIσKOV).
These towns were, it

would seem, constructed not by the Iazyges them-
selves, who lived in tents and waggons, but by the
former Slave inhabitants of Hungary; and this sup-
partly Keltic and partly Slavish.
position is confirmed by the fact that the names are
Reichard (Forbiger, vol. iii. p. 1111) have guessed
Mannert and
Schafarik (Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 514) is of opinion
at the modern representatives of these places, but
the identity of Pesth with Pessium, and of Potisije
that no conclusion can be safely drawn except as to
with Partiscum.

Those who wish to study the accounts given by
mediaeval and modern travellers, will find much va-
luable information in the "Dissertation on the River
Jaxartes" annexed to Levchine, Hordes et Steppes
des Kirghiz-Kazaks, Paris, 1840. This same writer
(pp. 53-70) has described the course of the Syr-bours on the W., the German Quadi (Tac. Hist. iii.
The lazyges lived on good terms with their neigh-
Daria, which has its source in the mountains of 5), with whom they united for the purpose of subju-

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the northern tribes vanquished by Hermanric in A. D 332-350, and that they were the same people as those mentioned by Jornandes (de Reb. Get. 3) under the corrupt form INAUNXES.

There is a monograph on this subject by Hennig (Comment de Rebus Tazygum S. Iazvingorum, Regiomont, 1812); a full and clear account of the fortunes of these peoples will be found in the German translation of the very able work of Schafarik, the historian of the Slavish races.

In 1799 a golden dish was found with an inscription in Greek characters, now in the imperial cabinet of antiquities at Vienna, which has been referred to the lazyges. (Von Hammer, Osman. Gesch. vol. iii. p. 726.) [E. B. J.]

IBAN (16av, Cedren, vol. ii. p. 774), a city which Cedrenus (l. c.) describes as the metropolis of Vasbouragan (μητρόπολις δὲ αὕτη τοῦ Βασπαρακάν).

gating the native Slaves and resisting the power of Rome. A portion of their territory was taken from them by Decebalus, which, after Trajan's Dacian conquests, was incorporated with the Roman dominions. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 10, 11.) Pannonia and Moesia were constantly exposed to their inroads; but, A.D. 171, they were at length driven from their last holds in the province, and pushed across the Danube, by M. Aurelius. In mid-winter they returned in great numbers, and attempted to cross the frozen stream; the Romans encountered them upon the ice, and inflicted a severe defeat. (Dion Cass. Ixxi. 7, 8, 16.) At a later period, as the Roman Empire hastened to its fall, it was constantly exposed to the attacks of these wild hordes, who, beaten one day, appeared the next, plundering and laying waste whatever came in their way. (Amm. Marc. xvii. 12, 13, xxix. 6.) The word " peace' was unknown to them. (Flor. iv. 12.) They called themselves "Sarmatae Limigantes," The name survives in the modern Ván. St. and were divided into two classes of freemen and Martin, the historian of Armenia (Mém. sur l'Arslaves, "Sarmatae Liberi," "Sarmatae Servi." Am- menie, vol. i. p. 117), says that, according to native mianus Marcellinus (xvii. 13. § 1) calls the subject traditions, Ván is a very ancient city, the foundaclass"Limigantes" (a word which has been falsely tion of which was attributed to Semiramis. Ruined in explained by Limitanei "), and St. Jerome (Chron.) | course of time, it was rebuilt by a king called Van, says that the ruling Sarmatians had the title "Arca- who lived a short time before the expedition of Alexgarantes." By a careful comparison of the accounts ander the Great, and who gave it his name; but, given by Dion Cassius, Ammianus, Jerome, and the having again fallen into decay, it was restored by writer of the Life of Constantine, it may be clearly | Vagh-Arshag (Valarsases), brother to Arsases, and made out that the Sarmatian Iazyges, besides sub-first king of Armenia of the race of the Arsasidae. jugating the Getae in Dacia and on the Lower Danube, had, by force of arms, enslaved a people distinct from the Getae, and living on the Theiss and at the foot of the Carpathians. Although the nations around them were called, both the ruling and the subject race, Sarmatians, yet the free Sarmatians were entirely distinct from the servile population in language, customs, and mode of life. The Iazyges, wild, bold riders, scoured over the plains of the Danube and Theiss valleys on their unbroken horses, while their only dwellings were the waggons drawn by oxen in which they carried their wives and children. The subject Sarmatians, on the other hand, had wooden houses and villages, such as those enumerated by Ptolemy (c.); they fought more on foot than on horseback, and were daring seamen, all of which peculiarities were eminently characteristic of the ancient Slaves. (Schafarik, vol. i. p. 250.)

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The Slaves often rose against their masters, who sought an alliance against them among the Victofali and Quadi. (Ammian. 1. c.; Euseb. Vit. Constant. iv. 6.) The history of this obscure and remarkable warfare (A. D. 334) is given by Gibbon (c. xviii.; comp. Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. i. p. 337; Manso, Leben Constantins, p. 195). In A. D. 357-359 a new war broke out, in which Constantius made a successful campaign, and received the title "Sarmaticus." (Gibbon, c. xix.; Le Beau, vol. ii. pp. 245-273.) In A. D. 471 two of their leaders, Benga and Babaï, were defeated before Singidunum (Belgrade) by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. (Jornand. de Reb. Get. 55; comp. Gibbon, c. xxxix.; Le Beau, vol. vii. p. 44.) The hordes of the Huns, Gepidae, and Goths broke the power of this wild people, whose descendants, however, concealed themselves in the desert districts of the Theiss till the arrival of the Magyars.

Another branch of the Sarmatian Iazyges were settled behind the Carpathians in Podlachia, and were known in history at the end of the 10th century of our era; it is probable that they were among

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In the middle of the 4th century after Christ it was
captured by Sapor II. (Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. ix. pp.
787, 981; London Geog. Journal, vol. viii. p. 66.)
[ARTEMITA BUANA.]
[E. B. J.]

IBER. [IBERUS.]

IBE'RA, a city of Hispania Citerior, mentioned only by Livy, who gives no explicit account of its site, further than that it was near the Iberus (Ebro), whence it took its name; but, from the connection of the narrative, we may safely infer that it was not far from the sea. At the time referred to, namely, in the Second Punic War, it was the wealthiest city in those parts. (Liv. xxiii. 28.) The manner in which Livy mentions it seems also to warrant the conclusion that it was still well known under Augustus. Two coins are extant, one with the epigraph MUN. HIBERA JULIA on the one side, and ILERCAVONIA on the other; and the other with the head of Tiberius on the obverse, and on the reverse the epigraph M. H. J. ILERCAVONIA; whence it appears to have been made a municipium by Julius, or by Augustus in his honour, and to have been situated in the territory of the ILERCAONES. The addition DERT. on the latter of these coins led Harduin to identify the place with Dertosa, the site of which, however, on the left bank of the river, does not agree with the probable position of Ibera. Florez supposes the allusion to be to a treaty between Ibera and Dertosa. The ships with spread sails, on both coins, indicate its maritime site, which modern geographers seek on the S. side of the delta of the Ebro, at 8. Carlos de la Rapita, near Amposta. Its decay is easily accounted for by its lying out of the great high road, amidst the malaria of the riverdelta, and in a position where its port would be choked by the alluvial deposits of the Ebro. It seems probable that the port is now represented by the Salinas, or lagoon, called Puerto de los Alfaques, which signifies Port of the Jaws, i. e. of the river. (Plin. iii. 3. s. 4; Harduin, ad loc.; Marca, Hisp. ii. 8; Florez, Med. de Esp. vol. ii. p. 453; Sestini,

p. 160; Rasche, Lex. Num. s. v.; Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 50, 51; Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. pp. 416, 417; Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 210.) [P.S.]

IBERIA ('167pía), the extensive tract of country which lies between the Euxine and Caspian seas, to the S. of the great chain of the Caucasus, and which, bounded on the W. by Colchis, on the E. by Albania, and the S. by Armenia, is watered by the river Cyrus (Kûr). (Strab. xi. p. 499, comp. i. pp. 45, 69; Pomp. Mel. iii. 5. § 6; Plin. vi. 11; Ptol. v. 11.) From these limits, it will be seen that the Iberia of the ancients corresponds very nearly with modern Georgia, or Grusia, as it is called by the Russians. Strabo (p. 500) describes it as being hemmed in by mountains, over which there were only four passes known. One of these crossed the MoSCHICHI MONTES, which separated Iberia from Colchis, by the Colchian fortress SARAPANA (Scharapani), and is the modern road from Mingrelia into Georgia over Suram. Another, on the N., rises from the country of the Nomades in à steep ascent of three days' journey (along the valley of the Terek or Tergl); after which the road passes through the defile of the river ARAGUS, a journey of four days, where the pass is closed at the lower end by an impregnable wall. This, no doubt, is the pass of the celebrated Caucasian Gates [CAUCASIAE PORTAE], described by Pliny (vi. 12) as a prodigious work of nature, formed by abrupt precipices, and having the interval closed by gates with iron bars. Beneath ran a river which emitted a strong smell("Subter medias (fores), amne diri odoris fluente," Plin. l. c.). It is identified with the great central road leading from the W. of Georgia by the pass of Dariyel, so named from a fortress situated on a rock washed by the river Terek, and called by the Georgians Shevis Kari, or the Gate of Shevi. The third pass was from Albania, which at its commencement was cut through the rock, but afterwards went through a marsh formed by the river which descended from the Caucasus, and is the same as the strong defile now called Derbend or narrow pass," from the chief city of Daghestan, which is at the extremity of the great arm which branches out from the Caucasus, and, by its position on a steep and almost inaccessible ridge, overhanging the Caspian sea, at once commands the coast-road and the Albanian Gates. The fourth pass, by which Pompeius and Canidius entered Iberia, led up from Armenia, and is referred to the high road from Erzrum, through Kars, to the N. [ARAGUS.]

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The surface of the country is greatly diversified with mountains, hills, plains, and valleys; the best portion of this rich province is the basin of the Kúr, with the valleys of the Aragavi, Alazan, and other tributary streams. Strabo (p. 499) speaks of the numerous cities of Iberia, with their houses having tiled roofs, as well as some architectural pretensions. Besides this, they had market-places and other public buildings.

The people of the IBERES or IBERI (16npes, Steph. B. s. v.) were somewhat more civilised than their neighbours in Colchis. According to Strabo (p. 500), they were divided into four castes :

(1.) The royal horde, from which the chiefs, both in peace and war, were taken. (2.) The priests, who acted also as arbitrators in their quarrels with the neighbouring tribes. (3.) Soldiers and husbandmen. (4.) The mass of the population, who were slaves to the king. The form of government was patriarchal. The people of the plain were peaceful,

| and cultivated the soil; while their dress was the same as that of the Armenians and Medes. The mountaineers were more warlike, and resembled the Scythians and Sarmatians. As, during the time of Herodotus (iii. 9), Colchis was the N. limit of the Persian empire, the Iberians were probably, in name, subjects of that monarchy. Along with the other tribes between the Caspian and the Euxine, they acknowledged the supremacy of Mithridates. The Romans became acquainted with them in the campaigns of Lucullus and Pompeius. In B. c. 65, the latter general commenced his march northwards in pursuit of Mithridates, and had to fight against the Iberians, whom he compelled to sue for peace. (Plut. Pomp. 34.) A. D. 35, when Tiberius set up Tiridates as a claimant to the Parthian throne, he induced the Iberian princes, Mithridates and his brother Pharasmanes, to invade Armenia; which they did, and subdued the country. (Tac. Ann. vi. 33 -36; comp. Dict. of Biog. PHARASMANES.) In A. D. 115, when Armenia became a Roman province under Trajan, the king of the Iberians made a form of submitting himself to the emperor. (Eutrop. viii. 3; comp. Dion Cass. Ixix. 15; Spartian. Hadrian. 17.)

Under the reign of Constantine the Iberians were converted by a captive woman to Christianity, which has been preserved there, though mixed with superstition, down to the present times. One of the original sources for this story, which will be found in Neander (Allgemein Gesch. der Christl. Relig. vol. iii. pp. 234-236; comp. Milman, Hist. of Christianity, vol. ii. p. 480), is Rufinus (x. 10), from whom the Greek church historians (Socrat. i. 20; Sozom. ii. 7; Theod. i. 24; Mos. Choren. ii. 83) have borrowed it. In A. D. 365-378, by the ignominious treaty of Jovian, the Romans renounced the sovereignty and alliance of Armenia and Iberia. Sapor, after subjugating Armenia, marched against Sauromaces, who was king of Iberia by the permission of the emperors, and, after expelling him, reduced Iberia to the state of a Persian province. (Amm. Marc. xxvii. 12; Gibbon, c. xxv; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. iii. p. 357.)

During the wars between the Roman emperors and the Sassanian princes, the IBERIAN GATES had come into the possession of a prince of the Huns, who offered this important pass to Anastasius; but when the emperor built Darus, with the object of keeping the Persians in check, Cobades, or Kobâd, seized upon the defiles of the Caucasus, and fortified them, though less as a precaution against the Romans than against the Huns and other northern barbarians. (Procop. B. P. i. 10; Gibbon, c. xl. ; Le Beau, vol. vi. pp. 269, 442, vol. vii. p. 398.) For a curious history of this pass, and its identification with the fabled wall of Gog and Magog, see Humboldt, Asie Centrale, vol. ii. pp. 93–104; Eichwald, Peripl. des Casp. Meeres, vol. i. pp. 128-132. On the decline of the Persian power, the Iberian frontier was the scene of the operations of the emperors Maurice and Heraclius. Iberia is now a province of Russia.

The Georgians, who do not belong to the IndoEuropean family of nations, are the same race as the ancient Iberians. By the Armenian writers they are still called Virk, a name of perhaps the same original as '16npes. They call themselves Kartli, and derive their origin, according to their national traditions, from an eponymous ancestor, Kartlos. Like the Armenians, with whom however, there is

no affinity either in language or descent, they have an old version of the Bible into their language. The structure of this language has been studied by Adelung (Mithridat. vol. i. pp. 430, foll.) and other modern philologers, among whom may be mentioned Brosset, the author of several learned memoirs on the Georgian grammar and language: Klaproth, also, has given a long vocabulary of it, in his Asia Polyglotta.

Armenian writers have supplied historical memoirs to Georgia, though it has not been entirely wanting in domestic chronicles. These curious records, which have much the style and appearance of the half-legendary monkish histories of other countries, are supposed to be founded on substantial truth. One of the most important works on Georgian history is the memorials of the celebrated Orpelian family, which have been published by St. Martin, with a translation. Some account of these, along with a short sketch of the History of the Georgians and their literature, will be found in Prichard (Physical Hist. of Mankind, vol. iv. pp. 261-276). Dubois de Montpéreux (Voyage autour du Caucase, vol. ii. pp. 8-169) has given an outline of the history of Georgia, from native sources; and the maps in the magnificent Atlas that accompanies his work will be found of great service. [E. B. J.] IBE'RIA INDIAE ('16npía, Peripl. M. E. p. 24, ed. Hudson), a district placed by the author of the Periplus between Larica and the Scythians. It was doubtless peopled by some of the Scythian tribes, who gradually made their descent to the S. and SE. part of Scinde, and founded the Indo-Scythic empire, on the overthrow of the Greek kings of Bactria, about B. C. 136. The name would seem to imply that the population who occupied this district had come from the Caucasus.

[V.] IBE'RICUM MARE. [HISPANUM MARE.] IBE'RES, IBE'RI, IBE'RIA. [HISPANIA.] IBERINGAE ('16epiyyaι, Ptol. vii. 2. § 18), a people placed by Ptolemy between the Bepyrrhus Mons (Naraka Mts. ?) and the Montes Damassi, in India extra Gangem, near the Brahmaputra. [V.] IBE'RUS (*16mp, gen. -npos, and 16npos; in MSS. often Hiberus: Ebro), one of the chief rivers of Spain, the basin of which includes the NE. portion of the peninsula, between the great mountain chains of the Pyrenees and Idubeda. [HISPANIA.] It rises in the mountains of the Cantabri, not far from the middle of the chain, near the city of Juliobriga (the source lies 12 miles W. of Reynosa), and, flowing with a nearly uniform direction to the SE., after a course of 450 M. P. (340 miles), falls into the Mediterranean, in 40° 42′ N. lat., and 0° 50′ E. long., forming a considerable delta at its mouth. It was navigable for 260 M. P. from the town of VARIA (Varea, in Burgos). Its chief tributaries were:-on the left, the SICORIS (Segre) and the GALLICUS (Gallego), and on the right the SALO (Xalon). It was long the boundary of the two Spains [HISPANIA], whence perhaps arose the error of Appian (Hisp. 6), who makes it divide the peninsula into two equal parts. There are some other errors not worthy of notice. The origin of the name is disputed. Dismissing derivations from the Phoenician, the question seems to depend very much on whether the Iberians derived their name from the river, as was the belief of the ancient writers, or whether the river took its name from the people, as W. von Humboldt contends. If the former was the case, and if Niebuhr's view is correct, that the popu

lation of NE. Spain was originally Celtic [HISPANIA], a natural etymology is at once found in the Celtic aber, i. e. water. (Polyb. ii. 13, iii. 34, 40, et alib.; Scyl. p. 1; Strab. iii. pp. 156, et seq.; Steph. B. s. v.; Mela, ii. 6. § 5; Caes. B. C. i. 60; Liv. xxi. 5, 19, 22, &c.; Plin. iii. 3. s. 4, iv. 20. s. 34; Lucan. iv. 23; Cato, Orig. VII. ap. Nonius, s. v. Pisculentus.) [P.S.]

IBETTES. [SAMOS.]

IBES, a town in the SE. of Hispania Citerior, mentioned by Livy (xxviii. 21, where the MSS. vary in the reading), is perhaps the modern Ibi, NE. of Valencia. (Coins, ap. Sestini, p. 156; Laborde, Itin. vol. i. p. 293.) [P. S.]

IBIO'NES, VIBIO'NES ('16túves, al. Õvibiúves, Ptol. iii. 5. § 23), a Slavonian people of Sarmatia Europaea, whom Schafarik (Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 213) looks for in the neighbourhood of a river Iva-IvizaIvinka, of which there are several in Russia deriving their name from "iwa"="Salix Alba," or the common white willow. [E. B. J.]

IBLIODURUM, in Gallia Belgica, is placed by the Antonine Itin. on the road between Virodunum (Verdun) and Divodurum (Metz). The termination (durum) implies that it is on a stream. The whole distance in the Itin. between Verdun and Metz is 23 Gallic leagues, or 34 M. P., which is less than even the direct distance between Verdun and Metz. There is, therefore, an error in the numbers in the Itin. somewhere between Virodunum and Divodurum, which D'Anville corrects in his usual way. The site of Ibliodurum is supposed to be on the Iron, at a place about two leagues above its junction with the Orne, a branch of the Mosel, and on the line of an old road. [G. L.]

ICA'RIA. [ATTICA, p. 328, b.] ICA'RIUM MARE. [ICARUS ; AEGAEUM MARE.]

I'CARUS, I'CARIA CIκapos, 'Ikapía: Nikaria), an island of the Aegean, to the west of Samos, according to Strabo (x. p. 480, xiv. 639), 80 stadia from Cape Ampelos, while Pliny (v. 23) makes the distance 35 miles. The island is in reality a continuation of the range of hills traversing Samos from east to west, whence it is long and narrow, and extends from NE. to SW. Its length, according to Pliny, is 17 miles, and its circumference, according to Strabo, 300 stadia. The island, which gave its name to the whole of the surrounding sea (Icarium Mare or Pelagus), derived its own name, according to tradition, from Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who was believed to have fallen into the sea near this island. (Ov. Met. viii. 195, foll.) The cape forming the easternmost point of the island was called Drepanum or Dracanum (Strab. xiv. pp. 637, 639; Hom. Hymn. xxxiv. 1; Diod. Sic. iii. 66; Plin. iv. 23; Steph. B. s. v. Aрákovov), and near it was a small town of the same name. Further west, on the north coast, was the small town of ISTI (IσTO), with a tolerably good roadstead; to the south of this was another little place, called OENOE (Oivón, Strab. l. c.; Athen. i. p. 30.) According to some traditions, Dionysus was born on Cape Draconum (Theocrit. Idyll. xxvi. 33), and Artemis had a temple near Isti, called Tauropolion. The island had received its first colonists from Miletus (Strab. xiv. p. 635); but in the time of Strabo it belonged to the Samians: it had then but few inhabitants, and was mainly used by the Samians as pasture land for their flocks. (Strab. x. pp. 488, xiv. p. 639: Seylax, pp. 22; Aeschyl. Pers. 887; Thucyd. iii. 92, viii.

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