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the honour of giving an emperor to the East in the
person of Zeno, surnamed the Isaurian; but they
were subsequently much reduced by the emperor
Anastasius, so that in the time of Justinian they had
ceased to be formidable. (Comp. Gibbon, Hist. of
the Decline, &c., chap. xl.) The Isaurians are de-
scribed as an ugly race, of low stature, and badly
armed; in the open field they were bad soldiers, but
as hardened mountaineers they were irresistible in
what is called guerilla warfare.
Their country,
though for the most part consisting of rugged moun-
tains, was not altogether barren, and the vine was
cultivated to a considerable extent. (Amm. Marc.
xiv. 8.) Traditions originating in the favourite pur-
suits of the ancient Isaurians are still current among
the present inhabitants of the country, and an inte-
resting specimen is related in Hamilton's Researches,
vol. ii. p. 331.
[L. S.]

ISCA, the name of two towns in Britain. The criticism of certain difficulties connected with their identification is given under MURIDUNUM. Here it is assumed that one is Exeter, the other Caerleonon-Usk.

1. ISCA Ex-eter, mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 3. § 30). In the 12th and 15th Itineraries this appears as Isca Dumnoniorum, 15 miles from Muridunum. The word Dumnoniorum shows that Devonshire is the county in which it is to be sought. Name for name, Exeter suggests itself. Nevertheless, Horsley gives Uxela as the Roman name for Exeter, and placed Isca D. at Chiselboro'. After remarking on Isaca, that "it is universally supposed to be the river Eze in Devonshire," and that "Isacae ostia must, therefore, be Exmouth," he adds, "Isca Dumnoniorum has been universally taken for Exeter; I have placed it near Chiselboro' and South Petherton, near the borders of Somersetshire" (p. 371). His ob

mountainous, though the capital, Isaura, was in | Hist. Eccles. xi. 8.) Once the Isaurians even had the south. Strabo, in a somewhat obscure passage (xii. p. 568), seems to distinguish between 'Ioaupia, the northern part, and 'loaupin, the southern and less known part, which he regards as belonging to Lycaonia. Later writers, too, designate by the name Isauria only the northern part of the country, and take no notice of the south, which was to them almost a terra incognita. The inhabitants of that secluded mountainous region of Asia, the Isauri or Isaurica gens, appear to have been a kindred race of the Pisidians. Their principal means of living were derived from plunder and rapine; from their mountain fastnesses they used to descend into the plains, and to ravage and plunder wherever they could overcome the inhabitants of the valleys in Cilicia, Phrygia, and Pisidia. These marauding habits rendered the Isaurians, who also took part in the piracy of the Cilicians, so dangerous to the neighbouring countries that, in B. C. 78, the Romans sent against them an army under P. Servilius, who, after several dangerous campaigns, succeeded in conquering most of their strongholds and reducing them to submission, in consequence of which he received the surname of Isauricus. (Strab. 1. c.; Diod. Sic. xviii. 22; Zosim. v. 25; Mela, i. 2; Plin. v. 23; Eutrop. vi. 3; Liv. Epit. 93; Dion Cass. xlv. 16; Flor. iii. 6; Ptol. v. 4. § 12; Oros. v. 23; Amm. Marc. xiv. 2, xxv. 9.) The Isaurians after this were quite distinct from the Lycaonians, for Cicero (ad Att. v. 21; comp. ad Fam. xv. 2) distinguishes between the Forum Lycaonium and the Isauricum. But notwithstanding the severe measures of Servilius, who had destroyed their strongholds, and even their capital of Isaura, they subsequently continued to infest their neighbours, which induced the tetrarch Amyntas to attempt their extirpation; but he did not succeed, and lost his life in the attempt. Although the glorious vic-jections (p. 462) lie in the difficulty of fixing Mutory of Pompey over the pirates had put an end to such practices at sea, the Isaurians, who in the midst of the possessions of Rome maintained their independence, continued their predatory excursions, and defied the power of Rome; and the Romans, unable to protect their subjects against the bold mountaineers in any other way, endeavoured to check them by surrounding their country with a ring of fortresses. (Treb. Poll. XXX. Tyr. 25.) In this, however, the Romans succeeded but imperfectly, for the Isaurians frequently broke through the surrounding line of fortifications; and their successes emboldened them so much that, in the third century of our aera, they united themselves with their kinsmen, the Cilicians, into one nation. From that time the inhabitants of the highlands of Cilicia also are comprised under the name of Isauri, and the two, united, undertook expeditions on a very large scale. The strongest and most flourishing cities were attacked and plundered by them, and they remained the terror of the surrounding nations. In the third century, Trebellianus, a chief of the Cilician Isaurians, even assumed the title and dignity of Roman emperor. The Romans, indeed, conquered and put him to death; but were unable to reduce the Isaurians. The emperor Probus, for a time, succeeded in reducing them to submission; but they soon shook off the yoke. (Vopisc. Prob. 16; Zosim. i. 69, 70.) To the Greek emperors they were particularly formidable, for whole armies are said to have been cut to pieces and destroyed by them. (Suid. s. v. Bpúxios and 'Hрákλelos; Philostorg.

ridunum (q. v.); but, beyond this, he considers himself free to claim Uxela (q. v.) as Exeter. For considering Isca Dumnoniorum to be Exeter, he sees no better reason than "general opinion and some seeming affinity of names." Yet the "affinity of names "has been laid great stress on in the case of Isacae ostia. The Isca of Ptolemy must be about 20 or 30 miles north-east of the mouth of the Ere," on which river Exeter stands. This reaches to the Ax." Hence he suggests Ilchester as Isca Dumn.; but, as he adınits that that town has a claim to be considered Ischalis (q. v.), he also admits that some of the localities about Hampden Hill (where there are the remains of a Roman camp), South Petherton (where Roman coins have been found), and Chiselboro' (not far from the Axe), have better claims. Hence, in his map, Uxela: Exeter, and Isca D. Chiselboro'. Assuming that some, if not all, these difficulties are explained under UXELA and MURIDUNUM, the positive evidence in favour of Exeter is something more than mere opinion and similarity of name.

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(1) The form Isca is nearer to Ex than Ax, and that Isaca Exe is admitted. The Ux- in Ux-ela may better=Ax.

(2) There is no doubt as to the other Isca Caerleon-on- Usk. Now, Roger Hoveden, who wrote whilst the Cornish was a spoken language, states that the name of Exeter was the same as that of Caerleon, in British, i. e. Caerwisc = civitas aquae.

(3) The statement of Horsley, that "he could never hear of any military way leading to or from Exeter, misleads. In Polwhele (p. 182) we have a

most distinct notice of the road from Seaton, and, nine miles from Exeter, the locality called Street-way Head; the name street―road (when not through a town or village) being strong evidence of the way being Roman. Tesselated pavements and the foundations of Roman walls have been found at Exeter, as well as other remains, showing that it was not only a Roman town, but a Roman town of importance, as it continued to be in the Saxon times, and as it had probably been in the British.

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2. ISCA LEGIONIS Caerleon-on-Usk, is mentioned in the 12th Itinerary, i. e. in the one where Isca Dumnoniorum occurs. The only town given by Ptolemy to the Silures, the population of the parts to which Isca (sometimes called by later writers Isca Silurum) belongs, is Bullaeum. This = Burrium of the Itinerary, 8 Roman miles from Isca (=Usk, about 6 English miles from Caerleon.) Hence, Isca may have been a military station of comparatively recent date. But there is a further complication. It is the Devonshire Isca to which Ptolemy gives the Second Legion (Aeyiwv δευτέρα Σεβαστή). 'This," remarks Horsley (and, perhaps, with truth), on the part of Ptolemy, is, in my opinion, the only manifest and material error committed by him in this part of England" (p. 462).

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Again: several inscriptions from the Wall (per lineam Valli) show that, when that was built, the second Legion was on the Scottish border, taking part in the work; the previous history of the legion being, that it came into Britain under the reign of Claudius, commanded by Vespasian. (Tac. Hist. iii. 44.) On the other hand, an inscription mentioned by Horsley, but now lost (p. 78), indicates their presence at Caerleon in the time of Severus. As the Itinerary places them there also, we must suppose that this was their quarters until the times approaching the evacuation of Britain. When the Notitia was made, they were at Rutupiae (Richboro'): PRAEPOSITUS LEGIONIS II. AUGUST. RU

TUPIS.

In some

The Roman remains found at Caerleon are considerable. A late excavation for the parts about the Castle Mound gave the remains of a Roman villa, along with those of a medieval castle, built, to a great extent, out of the materials of the former. cases the stucco preserved its colour. There was abundance of pottery,-Samian ware, ornamented with figures of combatant gladiators, keys, bowls, bronze ornaments, and implements. At Pil Bach, near Caerleon, tesselated pavements have been found, along with the following inscription:· DIIS MA

Venta) being the other two; identified, in the Monumenta Britannica, with Ilchester. [IsCA DUMNONIORUM.] [R. G. L.]

ISCHO'POLIS ('Iσxóñoλis), a small town on the coast of Pontus near Pharnacia, was in ruins even in the time of Strabo (xii. p. 548), but is still noticed by Ptolemy (v. 6. § 5). [L. S.]

ISIACO'RUM PORTUS (Iσiakŵv λuhy, Arrian, Peripl. p. 21, Anon. Peripl. p. 9), a harbour on the Euxine sea, 380 stadia from the island at the mouth of the Borysthenes, and 1200 stadia from the Psilon (Sulina) mouth of the Danube. (Arrian, l. c.) It has been identified by Rennell (Comp. Geog. vol. ii. p. 360) with Odessa. There is some difficulty in adjusting the discrepancies in detail; but the aggregate distance appears to be clearly enough made out. Thus, from the island to Odessus Arrian allows a distance of 80 stadia, and from Odessus to the port of the Istrians ('IoTpiavŵv Xiμńv) 250 stadia, and thence to that of the Isiaci 50 stadia. The ODESSUS ('Odnoσós) of Arrian (for he places Odessus at Varna) is probably a false reading, and is the same as the ORDESUS ('Opdnøós) of Ptolemy (iii. 5. § 29) and Pliny (iv. 12), situated upon the river AXIACES, or the modern Teligul, a large estuary which receives a river of the same name. As the interval in Arrian between Odessus (Ordesus) and the island is too short, so the next is too large; but the errors balance one another, and the harbour of the Isiaci agrees with that of Odessa within three quarters of a mile; the port of the Istrians may have lain to the N. of the bay of Odessa. [E. B. J.]

ISIDIS OPPIDUM (Plin. v. 10. s. 11). Near the city of Busiris, in the Aegyptian Delta, was situated a splendid temple of Isis, around which, besides the ordinary dwellings of the priests within the sacred precincts, gradually clustered a large and flourishing village, inhabited by the artisans and husbandmen who supplied the wants or tilled the lands of the inmates of the temple. These buildings formed probably the hamlet or town of Isis mentioned by Pliny. The modern village of Bahbeyt. N. of the ancient city of Busiris, is supposed to cover the ruins of the Templum Isidis. (Pococke, Travels in the East, vol. i. p. 34; Minutoi, p. 304.) [Bu SIRIS.] [W. B. D.]

ISINISCA, a place in Rhaetia Secunda, on the ancient road between Augsburg and Salzburg. (Itin. Ant. pp. 236, 251, 257; Tab. Peut., where it is called Isunisca.) It is identified by some with Isen, and by others with a place near Helfendorf. [L. S.]

ISIONDA ('Iσtórða), a town in the south-west of Pisidia, a few miles to the north-west of Termessus. (Polyb. Erc. de Leg. 31; Liv. xxxviii. 15.) Strabo (xii. p. 570), in enumerating the Pisidian

NIBVS TADIA VELLAVIVS. VIXIT ANNOS SEXA-
GINTA QVINQVE. ET TADIVS EXUPERTVS FILIVS
VIXIT ANNOS TRIGINTA SEPTEM DEFVNTVS (sic) towns, mentions one which he calls Sinda, a name

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EXPEDITIONE GERMANICA . TADIA EXUPERATA FILIA MATRI ET PATRI PIISSIMA SECVS TVMVLVM PATRIS POSVIT. Others, of less length, to the number of twenty, have also been found in the neighbourhood. (See Archaeologia Cambrensis; Journal of British Archaeological Association (passim); and Delineations of Roman Antiquities found at Caerleon, J. E. Lee.) [R. G. L.]

ISCA, river. [ISACA.] ISCA'DIA (Elokadía), a town in the W. of Baetica, between the Baetis and the Anas, not far from Tucci. (Appian, Hisp. 68.) [P.S.]

ISCHALIS, in Britain, mentioned by Ptolemny (ii. 3. § 28) as one of the towns of the Belgae, Bath and Winchester ("Tdaτa Oepμá, or Aquae Solis, and

which some editors believe to be a corrupt reading for Isionda; but, as there existed a town of the name of Sinda near Cibyra in Pisidian Phrygia, it would be hazardous to decide anything. (See Kramer's note on Strab. l. c.) Sir C. Fellowes (Asia Minor, p. 194) found extensive remains of an ancient town on the top and side of one of the many isolated hills of the district, which he supposes to be the ruins of Isionda, but he does not mention any coins or inscriptions in support of his conjecture. [L. S.]

ISIS (Iois), a navigable river on the east coast of the Euxine between the Acinasis and Mogrus, from each of which its distance amounted to 90 stadia, while its mouth was 180 stadia south of that of the Phasis. (Arrian, Peripl. p. 7 ; Plin. vi. 4;

66

Scylax, p. 32, where the common reading 'Ipis has | Illyr. 7.) That Issa remained free for a long time been corrected by Gail.) This river is believed to is proved by its coins, which also show that the be the modern Tshorok. [L. S.] island was famous for its wine (comp. Athen. i. p. I'SIUM (Isiu, Itin. Anton. p. 167; Isui, Not. 22), bearing, as they do, an amphora" on one Imp.), was a fort situated on the borders of the side, and on the other a vine with leaves. (Eckhel, Thebaid and Heptanomis in Egypt, in lat. 27° 5' N., vol. ii. p. 159.) The inhabitants were expert seaand on the eastern bank of the Nile. Isium was men, and their beaked ships, "Lembi Issaici," renabout 20 miles SE. from the castle of Hieracon, and dered the Romans especial service in the war with nearly 24 miles NE. from that of Muthis. Under Philip of Macedon. (Liv. xxxi. 45, xxxvii. 16, the Roman empire a troop of British infantry (ala xlii. 48.) They were exempted from the payment Britonum) was stationed there. [W. B. D.] of tribute (Liv. xlv. 8), and were reckoned as Roman ISIUS MONS (d *Iσov opos, Ptol. iv. 7. § 5), a citizens (Plin. iii. 21). In the time of Caesar the mountain, or rather a ridge of highlands rising gra- chief town of this island appears to have been very dually on its western side, but steep and escarped flourishing. towards the east, on the coast of Aethiopia, and in the Regio Troglodytica. It was seated in lat. 20° 1' N., a little to the southward of the headland Mnemium (Munueîov aкpov, Ptol. iv. 5. § 7), and SW. of Berenice and the Sinus Immundus (Foul Bay). Mons Isius answers to the modern Ras-el-Dwaer. Strabo, indeed (xvii. p. 770), places this eminence further to the south, and says that it was so called from a temple of Isis near its summit. [W. B. D.]

ISMARIS (Ioμapls λíμvn), a small lake on the south coast of Thrace, a little to the east of Maronea. (Herod. vii. 169; Steph. B. s. v. Iouapos.) On its eastern side rises Mt. Ismarus. [ISMARUS.] [L. S.]

I'SMARUS (Iouapos), a mountain rising on the east of lake Ismaris, on the south coast of Thrace (Virg. Ecl. vi. 30, Georg. ii. 37; Propert. ii. 13. 5. iii. 12. 25 Lucret. v. 31, where it is called Ismara, as in Virg. Aen. x. 351.) Homer (Od. ix. 40, 198) speaks of Ismarus as a town of the Cicones, on or at the foot of the mountain. (Comp. Marc. Heracl. 28.) The name of the town also appears in the form Ismaron. (Plin. iv. 18.) The district about Ismarus produced wine which was highly esteemed. (Athen. i. p. 30; Ov. Met. ix. 641; Steph. B. s v.) [L. S.]

ISME'NUS. [THEBAE.]

ISONDAE ('Ioóvda, Ptol. v. 9. § 23), a people whose position must be sought for in the valley of the river Terek or Kúma, in Lezgéstán, to the W. of the Caspian. [E. B. J.]

ISPINUM. [CARPETANI.] ISRAEL. [PALAESTINA.] ISSA (Iori, Ptol. ii. 16. § 14; Agathem. i. 5; Pomp. Mela, ii. 7. § 13; Plin. iii. 26; Steph. B.; Itin. Anton.; Peut. Tab.; Isia, Geog. Rav.; "Ins, Const. Porph. de Adm. Imp. 36: Eth. and Adj. 'Ioσevs, Issaeus, Issensis, Issaicus: Lissa), one of the most well known of the islands in the Adriatic, off the coast of Liburnia. (Strab. vii. p. 315.) It is mentioned by Scylax (p. 8) as a Grecian colony, which, according to Scymnus of Chios (1. 412), was sent from Syracuse. Diodorus (xv. 13) relates that in B. C. 387 Dionysius the elder, in his attempts to secure to himself the sovereignty of the Adriatic, assisted the Parians in founding colonies at Issa and Pharos. The island was besieged by Agron, king of Illyria, and the inhabitants applied to Rome for protection, when a message was sent by the Romans to Agron, requiring him to desist from molesting the friends of the republic. In the mean time, B. C. 232, Agron died; and his widow Teuta, having succeeded to the throne, resolved on pressing the siege of Issa. The Roman envoys required her to cease from hostilities, when, in defiance of the law of nations, she put one of them to death. This brought on the First Illyrian War, B. C. 229; one of the consequences of which was the liberation of Issa. (Polyb. ii. 8; App.

The island now called Lissa rises from the sea, so that it is seen at a considerable distance; it has two ports, the larger one on the NE. side, with a town of the same name: the soil is barren, and wine forms its chief produce. Lissa is memorable in modern times for the victory obtained by Sir W. Hoste over the French squadron in 1811. (Sir G. Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. i. p. 110; Neigebaur, Die Sudslavem, pp. 110-115.) [E. B. J.]

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ISSA. [LESBOS.]

ISSACHAR. [PALAESTINA.]

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ISSE'DONES (Ioondóves, Steph. B. s. v. ; in the Roman writers the usual form is "Essedones"), a people living to the E. of the Argippaei, and the most remote of the tribes of Central Asia with whom the Hellenic colonies on the Euxine had any communication. The name is found as early as the Spartan Aleman, B. c. 671 -631, who calls them "Assedones" (Fr. 94, ed. Welcker), and Hecataeus (Fr.168, ed. Klausen). A great movement among the nomad tribes of the N. had taken place in very remote times, following a direction from NE. to SW.; the Arimaspi had driven out the Issedones from the steppes over which they wandered, and they in turn drove out the Scythians, and the Scythians the Cimmerians. Traces of these migrations were indicated in the poem of Aristeas of Proconnesus, a semimythical personage, whose pilgrimage to the land of the Issedones was strangely disfigured after his death by the fables of the Milesian colonists. (Herod. iv. 13.) The Issedones, according to Herodotus (iv. 26), have a custom, when any one loses his father, for the kinsfolk to kill a certain number of sheep, whose flesh they hash up together with that of the dead man, and make merry over it. This done, they peel and clean out his skull, which after it has been gilded becomes a kind of idol to which yearly sacrifices are offered. In all other respects they are a righteous people, submitting to the rule of women equally with that of men; in other words, a civilised people.

Heeren (Asiat. Nat. vol. ii. p. 15, trans.), upon Dr. Leyden's authority (Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 202), illustrates this way of carrying out the duties of

filial piety by the practice of the Battas of Sumatra.
It may be remarked that a similar story is told of
the Indian Padaei. (Herod. iii. 99.) Pomponius
Mela (ii. 1. § 13) simply copies the statement of
Herodotus, though he alters it so far as to assert
that the Issedones used the skull as a drinking cup.
The name occurs more than once in Pliny (iv. 26,
vi. 7, 19); and Ptolemy, who has a town ISSEDON❘
in Serica ('Ioondúv, vi. 16. § 7, viii. 24. § 5), men-
tions in another place (viii. 24. § 3) the Scythian
Issedon. (Comp. Steph. B. s. v.; Amm. Marc. xxiii.
6 § 66.

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Altaï. The communication between the two peoples for the purpose of carrying on the gold trade was probably made through the plains at the NW. extremity of the Altaï, where the range juts out in the form of a huge promontory. [E. B. J.]

ISSICUS SINUS. [Issus.]

ISSUS (Iooos and 'Ioooí, Xen. Anab. i. 2. § 24, and i. 4. § 1), a town of Cilicia, on the gulf of Issus (Ioσikos KóλTOS). Herodotus calls the gulf of Issus the gulf of Myriandros (iv. 38), from the town of Myriandros, which was on it.

The gulf of Issus is now named the gulf of Is

Von Humboldt (Asie Centrale, vol. i. pp. 390-kenderun or Scanderoon, from the town of Scan412) has shown that, if the relief of the countries between the Don and the Irtysh be compared with the itinerary traced by Herodotus from the Thyssagetae to the Issedones, it will be seen that the Father of History was acquainted with the existence of vast plains separating the Ural and Altaï, chains which modern geographers have been in the habit of uniting by an imaginary range passing through the steppe of the Kirghiz. This route (Herod. iv. 23, 24) recognises the passage of the Ural from W. to E., and indicates another chain more to the E. and more elevated that of the Altaï. These chains, it is true, are not designated by any special names, but Herodotus was not acquainted even in Europe with the names of the Alps and Rhipaean mountains; and a comparison of the order in which the peoples are arranged, as well as the relief and description of the country, shows that much definite | information had been already attained. Advancing from the Palus Maeotis, which was supposed to be of far larger dimensions than it really is, in a central direction towards the NE., the first people found occupying the plains are the "Black-clothed" MELANCHLAENI, then the BUDINI, THYSSAGETAE, the IURCAE (who have been falsely identified with the Turks), and finally, towards the E., a colony of Scythians, who had separated themselves from the "Royal Scythians" (perhaps to barter gold and skins). Here the plains end, and the ground becomes broken (Aiowồns kal tpnxén), rising into mountains, at the foot of which are the ARGIPPAEI, who have been identified from their long chins and flat noses with the Kalmucks or Mongolians by Niebuhr, Böckh, and others, to whom reference is made by Mr. Grote. (Hist. of Greece, vol. iii. p. 320.) This identification has been disputed by Humboldt (comp. Cosmos, vol. i. p. 353 note, 440, vol. ii. p. 141 note, 202, trans.), who refers these tribes to the Finnish stock, assuming as a certain fact, on evidence which it is difficult to make out, that the Mongolians who lived around Lake Baikal did not move into Central Asia till the thirteenth century. Where the data are so few, for the language (the principle upon which the families of the human race are marked off) may be said to be unknown, ethnographic analogies become very hazardous, and the more so in the case of nomad tribes, the same under such wide differences of time and climate. But if there be considerable difficulty in making out the analogy of race, the local bearings of these tribes may be laid down with tolerable certainty. The country up to the Argippaei was well known to the traders; a barrier of impassable mountains blocked up the way beyond. [HYPERBOREL] The position of the Issedones, according to the indications of the route, must be assigned to the E. of Ichim in the steppe of the central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the Arimaspi on the N. declivity of the

deroon, formerly Alexandria ad Issum, on the east side. It is the only large gulf on the southern side of Asia Minor and on the Syrian coast, and it is an important place in the systems of the Greek geographers. This gulf runs in a NE. direction into the land to the distance of 47 miles, measured nearly at right angles to a line drawn from the promontory Megarsus (Cape Karadash), on the Cilician coast, to the Rhosicus Scopulus (Rás-el-Khánzir, or Hynzyr, as it has sometimes been written), on the Syrian coast; for these two capes are respectively the limits of the gulf on the west and east, and 25 miles from one another. The width immediately north of the capes is somewhat less than 25 miles, but it does not diminish much till we approach the northern extremity of the gulf. It seems certain that the ancient outlet of the Pyramus was west of and close to Cape Karadash, where Beaufort supposes it to have been; and this is consistent with the old prophecy [Vol. I. p. 620], that the alluvium of the Pyramus would some time reach to the shore of Cyprus; for if the river had entered the gulf where it does now, 23 miles further east, the prophecy would have been that it would fill up the gulf of Issus. For the earth that the river formerly discharged into the sea is now sent into the gulf, where it "has produced a plain of sand along the side of the gulf, somewhat similar in shape, and equal in size, to that formed by the Ghiuk Sooyoo [CALYCADNUS, Vol. I. p. 483]; but the elbow where the current that sets round the gulf quits it, is obtuse and without any shoals. Perhaps the disappearance of the Serrepolis of Ptolemy from the coast, may be accounted for by the progressive advance of the shore into the gulf, which has left the ruins of that town some miles inland" (Beaufort, Caramania, p. 296). Ptolemy's Serraepolis (Zeppaínoλts), which he calls a small place (kun), is between Mallus, which is a little east of Cape Megarsus, and Aegae or Ayaz. [AEGAE.] The next city to Aegae on the coast is Issus, and this is the remotest city in this part of Cilicia which Ptolemy mentions. Xenophon also speaks of it as the last city of Cilicia on the road to Syria.

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The mountains which bound the gulf of Issus are described in the article AMANUS. The bold Rhosicus Scopulus (5400 feet high), where the Syrian Amanus terminates on the coast, may be distinctly seen by the sailor when he is abreast of Seleuceia (Selefkeh), at the mouth of the Calycadnus, a distance of 85 geographical miles (Beaufort). small stream flows into the head of the gulf of Issus, and a few from the Amanus enter the east side, one of which, the Pinarus, is the Deli Tschai; and the other, the Carsus of Xenophon, is the Merkes. The Amanus which descends to the Rhosicus Scopulus, and the other branch of the Amanus which shuts in the gulf of Issus on the

NW. and forms Strabo's Amanides Pylae, unite in the interior, as Strabo says (p. 535); and our modern maps represent it so. There is a plain at the head of the gulf. Strabo gives a greater extent to the Issic gulf than we do to the gulf of Scanderoon, for he makes it extend along the Cilician coast as far as Cilicia Trachea, and certainly to Soli (pp. 534, 664). In another passage (p. 125) he shows what extent he gives to the gulf of Issus, by placing Cyprus in the Pamphylian sea and in the gulf of Issus, the west part of the island being in the Pamphylian, and the east in the Issic gulf. The gulf of Iskenderun was surveyed by Lt. Murphy in the Euphrates expedition under the command of Colonel Chesney.

The ancient geographers did not agree about the position of the isthmus of the country which we call Asia Minor; by which isthmus they meant the shortest distance across the eastern part of the peninsula from the Euxine to the Mediterranean. Strabo (p. 673) makes this shortest distance lic along a line joining Amisus and Tarsus. If he had said Amisus and the head of the gulf of Issus, he would have been quite right. He was nearly correct as to the longitude of the head of the gulf of Issus, which he places in the meridian of Amisus and Themiscyra (p. 126); and in another passage he says that the head of the gulf of Issus is a little more east than Amisus, or not at all more east (p. 519). Amisus is, in fact, a little further east than the most eastern part of the gulf of Issus. The longest direction of the inhabited world, according to Strabo's system (p. 118), from west to east, is measured on a line drawn through the Stelae (Straits of Gibraltar), and the Sicilian strait (Straits of Messina), to Rhodus and the gulf of Issus, whence it follows the Taurus, which divides Asia into two parts, and terminates on the eastern sea. Those ancient geographers who made the isthinus of the Asiatic peninsula extend from Issus to the Euxine, considered the shortest line across the isthmus to be a meridian line, and the dispute was whether it ran to Sinope or Amisus (Strab. p. 678). The choice of Issus as the point on the Mediterranean to reckon from, shows that Issus was the limit, or most eastern point, on the south coast of the peninsula, and that it was not on that part of the bay of Issus where the coast runs south. Consequently Issus was on or near the head of the gulf. Herodotus (iv. 38) makes the southern side of this peninsula, or Acte, as he calls it, extend from the Myriandric gulf (gulf of Issus) to the Triopian promontory, which is quite correct. On the north side he makes it extend from the mouth of the Phasis to the promontory Sigeum, which is correct as to the promontory; but he carries the neck too far east, when he makes it begin at the Phasis. This mistake, however, shows that he knew something of the position of the mouth of the Phasis, for he intends to make the Acte begin at that part where the coast of the Euxine begins to lie west and east; and though the mouth of the Phasis is not exactly at this point, it was the best known river of any near it. In another passage (i. 72), which, like many others in his history, is obscurely expressed, he describes the neck (auxý) of this Acte as nearly cut through by the river Halys; and he makes its width from the sea opposite to Cyprus to the Euxine to be five days' journey for an active man,-an estimate very much short of the truth, even if we allow Greek activity to walk 30 miles a day through a rough country. Strabo's re

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Xenophon says that Cyrus marched 15 parasangs from the Pyramus (Jaihan) “to Issi, the uttermost city of Cilicia, on the sea, great and prosperous." From Issus to the Pylae of Cilicia and Syria, the boundary between Syria and Cilicia, was five parasangs, and here was the river Carsus (Xen. Anab. i. 4. § 4). The next stage was five parasangs to Myriandrus, a town in Syria on the sea, occupied by Phoenicians, a trading place (μπóрtov), where many merchant ships were lying. Carsten Niebuhr, who went through the Pylae Ciliciae to Tarsus, has some remarks on the probable site of Issus, but they lead to no conclusion (vol. i. p. 116), except that we cannot certainly determine the site of Issus from Xenophon; and yet he would give us the best means of determining it, if we knew where he crossed the Pyramus, and if we were also certain that the numbers in the Greek text are correct.

The nearest road to Susa from Sardis was through the Cilician plains. The difficulties were the passage into the plains by the Ciliciae Pylae or pass [Vol. I. p. 619], and the way out of the plains along the gulf of Issus into Syria. The great road to Susa which Herodotus describes (v. 49, 52), went north of the Taurus to the Euphrates. The land forces in the expedition of Datis and Artaphernes, B. C. 490, crossed the Syrian Amanus, and went as far as the Aleian plain in Cilicia; and there they embarked. (Herod. vi. 95.) They did not march by land through the Cilician Pylae over the Taurus into the interior of the peninsula; but Mardonius (Herod. vi. 43), in the previous expedition had led his troops into Cilicia, and sent them on by land to the Hellespontus, while he took ship and sailed to Ionia. The land force of Mardonius must have passed out of Cilicia by the difficult pass in the Taurus. [Vol. I. p. 619.]

Shortly before the battle of Issus (B. C. 333) Alexander was at Mallos, when he heard that Darius with all his force was at Sochi in Assyria; which place was distant two marches from the Assyrian Pylae. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 6.) “Assyria" and " Assyrian" here mean "Syria" and "Syrian." Darius had crossed the Euphrates, probably at Thapsacus, and was encamped in an open country in Syria, which was well suited for his cavalry. The place Sochi is unknown; but it may be the place which Curtius calls Unchae. (Q. Curt. iv. 1.) Arrian says that Alexander left Mallos, and on the second day he passed through the Pylae and reached Myriandrus: he does not mention Issus on this march. Now the shortest distance that Alexander could march from Mallos to Scanderoon is at least 70 miles, and if Myriandrus was south of Scanderoon, it was more than 70 miles. This statement of Arrian as to time is therefore false. Curtius (iii. 8) says that Alexander only reached Castabalum [CASTABALUM] on the second day from Mallos; that he went through Issus, and there deliberated whether he should go on or halt. Darius crossed the Amanus, which separates Syria from the bay of Issus, by a pass called the Amanicae Pylae (Arrian, ii. 7), and advancing to Issus, was in the rear of Alexander, who had passed through the Cilician and Syrian Pylae. Darius came to the pass in the Amanus, says Curtius, on the same night that Alexander came to the pass (fauces) by which Syria is entered. The place where Darius crossed the Anianus was

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