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[German version] (Κινναμωμοφόρος χώρα; Kinnamōmophóros chṓra, ‘Land of Cinnamon’). This is what Str. 2,133 calls the region around Cape Guardafui in Somalia. Str. 16,774 cites the interior of this country as the area of origin of cinnamon; Ptol. 4,7,10 looked for it among the sources of the Nile. Eventually the whole of southern Ethiopia came to be regarded as the Land of Cinnamon. Hdt. 3,110,111; Plin. HN 10,97 and 12,82 et al. cited southern Arabia as the land of origin of the spice, though it was…

[German version] (Ὦχος/ Ô chos). Unidentified river in Hyrcania or Bactria (Str. 11,7,3; 11,11,5; Apollod. FGrH 779 F 4. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography J. Sturm, s.v. Ochos (2), RE 17, 1668-1770  H. Myśliwiec, s.v. Oaxus lacus, RE Suppl. 11, 1027.

[German version] Resting-place for pilgrims and caravans between  Balkh and Peshawar ( Peucelaotis). Described by the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan Tsang in the 7th cent. AD; known in Europe since 1824; explored by a French expedition in 1922-30. Oldest remains of the city in the valley of B. date from the 5th cent. AD. Important Buddhist monastery, which was chiselled into a steep rock-face between the 5th and 7th cents. Large Buddhas (one 53 m, the second 35 m high), which were cut out of the rock, were…

[German version] Medieval capital of the Buchara oasis, inhabited from the time of the Kushan dynasty (2nd cent. AD), successor to Varachsa. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography G. A. Pugacenkova, Samarkand -- Buchara, 1975.

[German version] Landscape on the lower  Atrek, western Turkmenia, named after the  Dahae. In the late Bronze and early Iron Age between 1500 and 600 BC, a well-developed irrigation culture with more than 30 attested settlements. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography P. L. Kohl, Central Asia, Palaeolithic Beginnings to the Iron Age, 1984, 200-208.

[German version] River in south Turkmenia flowing into the   Caspian Sea , in the late 2nd and early 1st millennium BC used to irrigate  Dahistan; since the Seleucid era the southern border of the nomadic territory ( Alexander's Wall). Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin)

[German version] (today Šahr-e Kohna). Capital of the satrapy Arachosia, rectangular city of the Kushans ( Kushan) and Kushano-Sassanids, in three parts: 1. the fortified residential city with central citadel, 2. two suburbs, 3. a Buddhist monastery with stupa and aqueduct system. A rock inscription of Aśoka (Greek Aramaic bilingual inscription) contains a religious-social proclamation of the Maurya ruler. The choice of the two languages indicates the settlement of Greeks and Syrians in the 3rd…

[German version] (πρασώδης θάλασσα/ prasṓdēs thálassa, the 'green sea'). Described by Ptol. 7,2,1 and 7,3,6, Marcianus [1] (Periplus maris exteri 1,44 = GGM 1,44) and Anon. Geographia Compendiaria 32 (= GGM 2,32) as the part of the region of the Indian Ocean that is coloured by a leek-like "sea moss". The appearance of this seaweed points to a shallow zone probably close to a coastline, which could have been near the East African coast north of Zanzibar. From the Augustinian era on, Greco-Roman ships…

[German version] (Τάοχοι, cf. Xen. An. 4,4,18 et passim; according to Sophaenetus FGrH 109 F 2 also Τάοι/ Táoi). Mountain people in northern Armenia, who maintained several fortified places with stores of foodstuffs in the valley of the Glaucus (tributary of the modern Çoruh Nehri). The T. were not directly dependent on the Great King, but occasionally served in the Persian army as mercenaries. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography A. Herrmann, s. v. T., RE 4 A, 2247.

[German version] (Νομάδες/ Nomádes). Nomads are wandering shepherds leading a special form of non-sedentary life, which is adapted, thanks to herd raising, to arid steppe regions of Eurasia and Africa. We may distinguish between: 1. nomads keeping sheep, horses, camels, and cattle (partly yaks) in north Eurasia; 2. those breeding sheep, goats, and camels, sometimes also keeping donkeys, in Arabia, Iran, India, and North Africa; 3. nomads breeding mainly cattle in East Africa. Greeks, Romans, and Byz…

[German version] A river in Media, mentioned in Ptol. 6,2,2, today Sefi Rud, in the territory of the Καδούσιοι ( Kadoúsioi) tribe, originally supposedly belonged to the territory of the Ἄμαρδοι ( Ámardoi; Str. 11,8,8). The Amardi migrated out of Ariana in the time of the Persian empire and settled by the Caspian Sea and in the mountainous area to the south. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography Atlas of the World, pl. 32, 1959 Großer Histor. Weltatlas I, 15 c.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Christianity | Xenophon | Zenobia | | Legio | Limes | Limes (τὰ or ἡ Σάταλα [ tà or hē Sátala]; Cass. Dio 68,19,2; Procop. Pers. 1,15,9 f.). Important communications node in Armenia Minor during the Imperial Period and hence a long-standing Roman garrison town. In the Christian period it was a see (remains at modern Sadağ). A fragment (face) of an Anahita-Artemis sculpture was found here. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography B. N. Arakeljan, Ocerki po istorii iskusstva drevnej Armenii (VI v. do n.E. - I…

[German version] A tribe of the Hilmend plain (Arr. Anab. 3,27,4) known from Alexander's campaign ( Alexander [4]). 3,27,4). Excavations uncovered Iron Age settlements with fire cult temples, as in Dahan-i Ghulaman, possibly the old Zarina drangiana. They were probably identical to the Εὐεργέται ( Euergétai) in Arr. 4,6,6 and Diod. Sic. 18,81. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography U. Scerrato, Evidence of religious life at Dahan-e Ghalaman, Sistan, in: South Asian Archaeology 1977, 1979, 709-733.

[German version] Finds of coins from the period of the Indo-Greek kings  Artemidorus [1], Peucolas and  Archebius (around 130 BC) and the Saka king Azes I (around 70 BC) prove that G. was an important centre in the Graeco-Bactrian period. The Buddhist monastery of Tapa Sardar (2nd-4th cents. AD) discovered closeby and buildings of the Islamic Ghaznowid dynasty of the 11th-12th cents. attest to the continuous importance of the region. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography F. R. Allchin, N. Hammond, The Archaeology of Afghanistan from the earliest times to the Timuri…

[German version] Iranian deity of water and fertility; the name means ‘unpolluted’, ‘spotless’. She is described very specifically in Yt. 5,126-129; presumably the description is of a statue. The animal seen as sacred to her was the beaver. First mentioned in Iranian inscriptions at the time of Artaxerxes II. According to Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. 5,65,3), Berossus (III) reported that Artaxerxes had had statues of A. erected in Bactria, Ecbatana, Susa, Babylon, Damascus and Sardes. A popular deity from the Parthian era, with …

[German version] (Ἀρμαουίρα; Armaouíra). City mentioned in Ptol. 5.12.5 M. and 8.19.11 N. on the left bank of the Aras, the Urartian Argistichinili. Castle and residence on the crest of a mountain, the city below it on the slope leading down to the River A.; first capital of the Armenian kingdom. Excavations have revealed Urartian material, as well as ancient Armenian strata, including a gold medallion picturing the goddess  Anahita (?). Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography A. A. Martirosjan, Argistichinili I, Archeologiceskie Pamjatniki Armenii 8, 1974.

[German version] (Οὔτιοι/ Oútioi, in Herodotus 3,93 and 7,68) and Yutica/Yutiyâ (Middle Persian, in the Darius Inscription of Bisutun 40,23), mentioned as a Persian tribe in the Fourteenth Satrapy. The U. contingent in Xerxes's army was under the command of Arsamenes, a son of Darius [1] I. It is suggested that their settlement area was in Carmania. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography H. Treidler, s. v. U., RE 9 A, 1185-1187 R. Borger, W. Hinz, Die Behistun-Inschrift Darius' des Großen, in: Id., W. H. Ph. Römer, in: TUAT 1.4, 1984, 419-450.

[German version] (Κύρτιοι; Kýrtioi, Lat. Cyrtii). Mentioned at Str. 11,523; 727 as nomads in northern Media and Persia. Pol. 5,52,5 mentions the C. as reserve troops of the Median governor Molon in the struggle against Antiochus III. Liv. 37,40,9 mentions them as opponents of the Romans in the battle of Magnesia (190 BC); at Liv. 42,58,13 they appear as Roman mercenaries with Callinicus (171 BC). On the basis of their name, they are seen as the ancestors of the Kurds. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin)

[German version] Inland body of water between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; it receives hardly any precipitation and the only water supply is from the Syr-darja and Amu-darja. The area covered by water in antiquity was more than double the size than that in 1962. The areas abandoned after the departure of nomads moving to Bactria (140-120 BC) have become desertified since then, in the same way as the western and north-eastern parts of Chorezmia. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin)

[German version] Oval city site east of Lake Aral (800 × 600 m), with a citadel and six funerary buildings of the 4th-2nd cents. BC. Interpreted as the capital city of the  Apasiaci, abandoned in the late 2nd cent. BC. In the 3rd (?) cent. AD a rectangular fortification of the Khorezm state was built on the city site. Brentjes, Burchard (Berlin) Bibliography S. P. Tolstov, Po drevnim del'tam Oksa i Jaksarta, 1962.