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[German version] (Procop. Aed. 3,3; Chorzianene, Procop. Pers. 2,24; Armenian: Xorjean/Xorjayn). Region in Armenia, south of the upper course of the Euphrates on the river Gayl, modern Perisuyu, with Koloberd the capital. Modern Kiĝi in the centre of the Karagöl Daĝları south-west of Theodosiopolis (Erzurum), eastern Turkey. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena) Bibliography R. H. Hewsen (ed.), The Geography of Ananias of Širak, 1991, 19, 154f.

(Πέτρα/ Pétra, 'rock') [German version] [1] Capital of the Nabataean Empire This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | | Commerce | Hellenistic states | India, trade with | Limes | Rome | Rome | Egypt Capital of the Nabataean kingdom (Nabataei) in Edom, about 80 km to the south of the Dead Sea in the Wādı̄ Mūsā (in modern Jordan). The city is first mentioned by Diodorus [18] under the name Pétra (Diod. Sic. 19, 95-98) as the Nabataei's place of refuge and assembly ('High place, rock'). The inscriptionally documented Semitic name of P. is Raqmu. Although the surrounding are…

[German version] River (Str. 11,3; 11,2; Olazanes, Plin. HN 6,29) that springs from the southern slopes of the central Caucasus mountains and flowed into the  Cyrus (Georgian: Alasani). According to Pliny, the border between  Iberia and  Albania [1]. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena)

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Xenophon (Γυμνιάς; Gymniás, Xen. An. 4,7,19). Large, heavily populated and affluent town of the Skythēnoí on the left bank of the Harpasus (modern Çoruh su), at the location of or near modern Bayburt. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena) Bibliography O. Lendle, Kommentar zu Xenophons Anabasis, 1995, 270-272.

[German version] [1] Country in the centre of southern Caucasia (Ἰβηρία; Ibēría, Str. 11,3,1-6; Ptol. 5,10,1-2; Georgian Kʿartʿli, Parthian Virčan, Armenian Virkʿ). Country in the centre of southern Caucasia, bordering on the Greater  Caucasus in the north, the Likh Range in the west which runs north-south from the Greater to the Lesser Caucasus, the Kura-Aras Lowland in the east and the Lesser Caucasus in the south, especially the southern and western frontiers being fluid; approximately modern eastern Georgia. Unt…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Pontos Euxeinos | Christianity | Commerce | Colonization | Patricius (Πιτυοῦς/ Pityoûs: Str. 11,2,14; Ptol. 5,8,10; 5,9,1; Patrum Nicaenorum nomina p. LXII, 113 Gelzer; Zos. 1,32; Theod. Hist. eccl. 9,5,35; Suda 1670; Πιτιῦς/ Pitiûs: Procop. Pers. 2,29,18; Procop. Goth. 8,4,1-6; Procop. Aed. 3,7,8; Pityus: Plin. HN 6,16; Pithiae: Not. Dign. Or. 18,32). Identified with Picunda/Bičvinta in the republic of Abchasia/Georgia (Roman and early Byzantine fort), yet the identification of the town, f…

(Ὀρθωσία; Orthōsía). [German version] [1] Carian community in the interior In Hellenistic times it was one of the smaller Carian communities inland with its own mint; in Str. 14,1,47 it is a katoikía (settlement) near Nysa to the north of the Maeander [2] (Büyük Menderes). In the 2nd cent. AD, O. was given Roman municipal status, in the 5th/6th cents. AD it was the seat of a bishopric for the diocese of Caria with Aphrodisias [1] as its metropolitan see. The ruins of O., which are situated near Donduran in Ortas in the mountai…

[German version] (Armenian Parskahayk'). In AD 387, Armenia Major was divided up, with about a fifth of the territory being allocated to Rome and the greater eastern area to Iran. After the death of Aršak III (Arsaces [5]), the Roman-Byzantine area was established around AD 390 as the province of Armenia interior, while the entire eastern region, called P. by the Byzantines, remained under the rule of the Sassanids. Following the end of Arsakid rule in AD 428, the Sassanids appointed a governor general ( marzpan) to the new capital city of Dvin (Doubios). The Armenians reacted …

[German version] Georgian Aragvi (Armenian arag ‘fast’). River (Str. 11,3; 2) with three source rivers (Mtiuleti, Gudamaqari, Psavi) in  Iberia on the southern slopes of the Great Caucasus; the ‘Georgian military road’ ran along the A.; in Mzcheta it flows into the  Cyrus. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena)

[German version] According to Plin. HN 6,129 ( Nikephorio) it was, along with the Parthenius, a major Armenian tributary of the Tigris. According to Tac. Ann. 15,4,2 ( Nikephorius), it flowed through Tigranocerta. Its identification depends on the location of Tigranocerta, which has hitherto been sought at Silvan (Martyropolis/Mayafarikin/Nprkert) [1]. But taking into account an Armenian historical work of the 2nd half of the 5th cent., called Buzandaran Patmut'iwnk' 4,24 [2], it was rather at Arzan [3]. In the former case…

[German version] [1] Roman castle This item can be found on the following maps: | Limes The place today known as Gonio, south of Batumi (Arr. Peripl. p. eux. 6,1; Absarros: Plin. HN 6,4; Absaros: ILS 2660; Tab. Peut. 10,5; Procop. Goth. 4,2; 13; Agath. 6,1-11, Chron. pasch. I p. 61; II p. 435). Strongly fortified Roman castle at the mouth of the Apsarus [2]; five cohorts at the time of Arrian, in ruins by the time of Procopius; probably renovated in the 7th cent. The condition today: reconstructed Byzantine-Gen…

[German version] In Procopius (Pers. 1,12,4ff.), king of Caucasian Iberia who asked Justin I for help against the introduction of the fire cult demanded by Kavad I and who fled from the Persians to the Lazian mountainous countryside. Toumanoff [1] considers him to be the legendary Vaḫtang Gorgasal of Georgian and Armenian tradition although this is rejected by Martin-Hisard [2]. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena) Bibliography 1 C. Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, 1963, 362-378 2 B. Martin-Hisard, Le roi Vaxtang Gorgasal, in: Temps, mémoire, traditio…

[German version] (Str. 11,2,17; 3,4 τὰ Σαραπανά/ tà Sarapaná; Procop. Pers. 2,29,18; Procop. Goth. 4,13,15; 4,16,17: Σαραπανίς/ Sarapanís). Colchian fortress on the Phasis [1], navigable up to that point, through which the road to Iberia [1] led; identified with the remains of fortifications on the hill accessible only from the northeast at the confluence of Qvirila (Strabo's upper course of the Phasis) and Dzirula in the modern Šorapani, Georgia. Excavations in the lower town and the citadel uncovered traces of…

[German version] Caucasian people on the north-eastern coast of the Black Sea around the Coraxes estuary (known today as Kodori) south of the  Abasci (Plin. 6,14; Arr. Peripl. p. eux. 11,3; Procop. Goth. 4,3; Agath. 2,15; 4,15; Geogr. Rav. 1,17).  Dioscurias/Sebastopolis was situated within the area settled by the A. A king of the A.,  Iulianus, received the insignia from Hadrian. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena)

[German version] (Γουραῖος; Gouraîos, Arr. Anab. 4,25,7; Γαροίας; Garoías, Arr. Ind. 4,11, according to Megasthenes; Old Indo-Aryan Gaurı̄). River (modern Panǧkorā) whose source is in the ‘Indian Caucasus’ (Hindukush) and which flows into the Cophen (modern Kābul) in a deep gorge that  Alexander [4] the Great crossed on his campaign. In the G. area lived the Guraîoi (Γουραῖοι, Arr. Anab. 4,23,1; 25,6), who raised cattle and whose land, according to Ptolemy, was called Gōryaîa (Γωρυαία, 7,1,42) with the town of Gôrya (Γωρύα, 7,1,43), perhaps modern Ǧalālābād. Plontke-Lüning, Anneg…

[German version] (Ὀρθοκορυβάντιοι; Orthokorybántioi). Ancient Greek designation for the Saka tigra χ audā (Persian for 'peaked-capped Sakas', Massagetans) in Hdt. 3,92. The O. were nomads in the region south-east of Lake Aral between Oxus (Amu Darjā; Araxes [2]) and Iaxartes (Syr Darjā) [2]. West of them, the Saka haumavarkā ('intoxicated revelling Sakas') settled. In 530 BC, Cyrus [2] II fell in a battle in the war against the peaked-capped Sakas, who were then brought to submission by Darius [1] I in 519 BC. Their king Skunxa is depicted at…

[German version] (Georgian 'wolf's head'). King of Caucasian Iberia (Iberia [1]), second half of the 5th/beginning of the 6th cent. AD, whose Life (Kartlis Cxovreba, 139-244) [1; 2], written down in the 11th cent., portrays him as a champion of national identity and Christianity. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena) Bibliography 1 R. Thomson, Rewriting Caucasian History, 1996, 153-251 (Eng. transl.) 2 G. Pätsch, Das Leben Kartlis. Eine Chronik aus Georgien, 300-1200, 1985 (Ger. transl.). B. Martin-Hisard, Le roi V. G., in: Temps, mémoire, tradition au Moyen âge, 1983, 207-242 M…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Asia Minor | Limes | Limes | Pompeius (Τιγρανόκερτα/ Tigranókerta, Latin Tigranocerta and - certae, Armenian T( i) granakert; mentioned in Str. 11,12,4; 16,1,23; Tac. Ann. 15,4 f.; Plin. HN 6,9,26; App. Mith. 10,67; Plut. Lucullus 11 f.; 26; 29; Tab. Peut. 11,3; Eutr. 6,9,1; Buzandaran Patmutiwnk (BP) 4,24; 5,27 [1]). A new capital of Armenia (in addition to Artaxata), founded after 80 BC by Tigranes [2] II (95-55 BC) in the Armenian province of Arzane…

[German version] (Κυταιίς; Kytaiís, Apoll. Rhod. 2,1267; Κύταια; Kýtaia, schol. ad Lycoph. Alexandra 1312; Κόταϊς; Kótaïs (τὸ φρούριον), Procop. Goth. 4,14,49; 4,14,51 Agathias 2,19,1). City in  Colchis, on the headwaters of the modern Kutaisi on the middle Rioni ( Phasis) in Georgia. Archaeological finds indicate the existence of a settlement with acropolis from the 7th cent. BC; fragments of Greek pottery indicate contacts between inland Colchis and the Mediterranean region from the 7th/6th cents. BC. In the…

[German version] (Ζάλισσα/ Zálissa). Town in Iberia [1], mentioned only in Ptol. 5,10,2, identified with Dzalisa in Muxranital, about 45 km to the northwest of Tbilisi in Georgia. In the northwest of the area, there is a citadel, in the plain the site of the 2nd cent. BC to 8th cent. AD town (approximately 70 ha), among other things remains of a palace with a mosaic of Dionysus (3rd cent. AD; [1]) and three-roomed thermal baths (serial type), a further thermal bath with a natatio (Piscina [2]), streets, water conduits and sewers survive. Plontke-Lüning, Annegret (Jena) Bibliography 1 M…