[211] The garrison consisted of 65 men and 80 beautiful ladies, a proportion of the sexes which may have contributed to Balak’s victory.
[212] Kharpût has been identified with Carcathicerta, which was the royal city of Sophene, according to Strabo.
[213] Since the outbreak of 1895 a Christian governor has been appointed in all vilayets which contain a large proportion of Armenians. The Mu’âvin Vâlîs are nominally co-rulers with their Moslem colleagues, but report, I know not with how much justice, credits them with little influence and less initiative.
[214] Mezreh, 6.5; Khân Keui, 9.25; Tell Maḥmûd, left of road, 9.45; Chaghullah, left of road, 9.55; Sapolar (left), 10.5; Harnik (right), 10.20; Melekjân (about a mile to the right), 10.35; Cholak Ushagî, where there is a khân, 11-11.45. Here we crossed a ridge into a valley which runs down to the Euphrates. Tutli Keui (left), 2.5; over another ridge and down to Kömür Khân at 3.35; Iz Oglu, 5.45.
[215] It is probably the ancient caravan road from Cæsarea and Ephesus to Babylon.
[216] Iz Oglu (on the west bank of the Murad Su), 8; Masnik, 10.15; a big chiflik of which I do not know the name, 12-12.30; we climbed a long hill, reaching the summit at 2.15, and got to Malaṭiyah at 2.45.
[217] They had been published, but not very satisfactorily. I gave my photographs to Mr. Hogarth, who published them in the Annals of Archæology and Anthropology, Vol. II. No. 4.
[218] Melitene does not appear to have been in existence in Strabo’s time, for he says that there were no towns in the fruitful plain, but only strongholds upon the mountains (Bk. XII. ii. 6). Procopius states that it was raised by Trajan to the dignity of a city, whereas before it had been nothing but a square fortification on low ground (Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society Edition, p. 82). Diocletian made it the capital of Armenia Secunda (Ramsay: Historical Geography, p. 313); it was the centre of the military roads guarding the frontiers of the Roman empire towards the Euphrates, and the standing camp of the XII Legion, Fulminata (id. p. 55). With this increase of importance it outgrew, according to Procopius, its former limits, so that the people built over the plain “their churches, the dwellings of their magistrates, the market-place and the shops of their merchants, the streets, porticoes, baths and theatres, and all the other ornaments of a large city.” Melitene was thus composed mostly of suburbs until Justinian surrounded it with a wall. There must, however, have been cities in the plain, of which Strabo knew nothing, long before Trajan’s time, as is proved by existing mounds, and Pliny seems to have preserved a dim memory of these when he speaks of Melitene as having been founded by Semiramis (Bk. VI. ch. iii.).
[219] Malaṭiyah Eskishehr, 9.45; Khâtûnyeh (a quarter of a mile to the left), 10.20; a chiflik (name unknown), 11.45-12.15; Saman Keui, a village near a big mound, 12.55. In a graveyard near here I noticed two fragments of round columns. At 1.25 we crossed a deep valley and saw the village of Shehna Khân about half-a-mile to the right; Elemenjik, 3.10. Not all these villages are marked in Kiepert and some are wrongly placed. There is cultivation round each village, but the plain between is usually untilled.
[220] Arga has been identified with Arca, where there was a Roman station (Arca was also the seat of a bishopric: Ramsay, Hist. Geog., p. 314), and with Ptolemy’s Arcala (ed. Müller, p. 888). The great road mentioned by Strabo which led from Babylon to Ephesus, crossing the Euphrates at Tomisa-Iz Oglu, passed through Arca (according to Sir W. Ramsay’s suggestion, op. cit., p. 273) and ran through Dandaxina and Osdara to Arabissus and thence through the mountains to Cæsarea. Kiepert places Dandaxina immediately to the south of the Tokhma Su and Osdara in the same latitude; Ramsay puts both places further south, and Sterritt’s evidence supports Ramsay’s conclusions. Between Arga and Ekrek my route did not touch the Roman road as laid down by Ramsay, but ran further to the north, and where I crossed the mountains, between Osmandedeli and ’Azîzîyeh, I saw no trace of an ancient road, nor can I think that wheeled traffic can ever have followed that line. Ainsworth travelled down the Tokhma Su from Görün to Derendeh, but he came over the Akcheh Dâgh between Derendeh and Arga, whereas I crossed it further east from Arga to Ozan. Ainsworth observes that there were never more than two roads from Derendeh to Malaṭiyah, one following the line he took, and one the valley of the Tokhma Su down to the plain (Travels and Researches, Vol. I. p. 247). I do not feel inclined to dispute that opinion, for though I found a third way from Malaṭiyah to Derendeh, it cannot be called a road. The mouldings and capitals which I saw at Arga pointed to a date not later than the sixth century.
[221] Ozan, 10.30; Mullah ’Alî Shehr, 11.5-40; Polat Ushagha, 12.35; Tozeli, some distance to the left, 12.55; a ruined khân marked by Kiepert, 1.20. Here we saw up a valley to the north the village of Palanga, marked by Kiepert. Above the khân the river flows through a gorge, and on the rocks above it are the ruins of a small fort, which we reached at 2.20; Kötü Ḳal’ah village, 2.45.
[222] We passed upon the way only one village, Mügdeh, where we crossed the Tokhma Su. Kiepert has suggested that Derendeh may represent the site of ancient Dalanda; for objections to this view, see Ramsay, op. cit., p. 309.
[223] The existing ruins are probably mediæval. Ainsworth (Travels and Researches, Vol. I. p. 246) reports an illegible inscription, presumably Arabic or Turkish, over the gate. I do not remember to have seen it. The fortress of Ṭarandah is mentioned as early as the year A.D. 702, when it was in the hands of a Moslem garrison. In the ninth century it was held by the Paulicians, a sect of Eastern Christians whose beliefs were mingled with Manichæanism. (Le Strange: Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, p. 120.)
[224] Görün, 12; summit of hill, 1.15 (but we had ridden considerably faster than our usual pace); Kevak Euren, to the left, 3.10; chiflik, 4.30; Osmândedelî, 5.
[225] Osmândedelî, 6.25; Kaindîjeh, 7.10; there is a better road from here, but it makes a long circuit by Günesh and Parenk, and I declined to take it. Küpek Euren, 8.20; Bey Punar, 9.45; water parting, 11.10; Boran Dereh Keui, 5.10.
[226] ’Azîzîyeh is the ancient Ariarathia and its foundation dates from the second or third century B.C.: Ramsay, op. cit., p. 310.
[227] ’Azîzîyeh, 10; Emergal, an Avshar village on the left, 12; Takhtalî, on the right across the river, 12.20; Ḳizil Khân, 1.35. (See Ramsay, op. cit., p. 298. It is perhaps Strabo’s Erpa “on the road to Melitene.”) Bazaar Euren, 2.25. Between Ḳizil Khân and Bazaar Euren there is a small khân with ruins near to it, among them a carved door jamb. Ekrek, 5.
[228] Ramsay, op. cit., p. 289, places Tsamandos at ’Azîzîyeh, but he had not seen Maḥmûd Ghâzî when he wrote.
[229] The Armenians of this district are Muhâjir, immigrants, no less than the Circassians, though their coming dates from an earlier time. They were forced out of northern Armenia in the tenth century by the Seljuks, who drove them southward into what was then still the Byzantine empire.
[230] Kavak was the name I heard given to the site of the church; Rott has published it under the name of the Panagia of Busluk Ferek (Keinasiatische Denkmäler, p. 188). He has also published Tomarza, p. 183.
[231] In the low ground there are remains of a theatre, a fine bit of stone wall decorated with good mouldings, and part of a vaulted brick building, possibly a gymnasium. All these are upon the left bank of the stream. The temple upon the bluff was converted at an early date into a church, which has long since fallen into decay, though it has been patched up in recent times by the Armenians (Fig. 228). Along the edge of the bluff there are remains of a columned portico. In the ruined bazaar I saw a couple of beautiful funnel capitals, cracked and broken by fire. They should probably be dated in the early sixth century. At the entrance of the valley that leads up to the Kara Bel are the ruins of a small temple with a finely carved doorway (Fig. 223).
Mr. Hogarth sends me the following note:—
Miss Bell has submitted to me five inscriptions found on a temple site at Comana Capp. They are, she thinks, unpublished, and certainly were not seen by me on either of my visits to Comana in 1890 or 1891. Miss Bell sent me good photographs of nos. 1 and 2; but for the others, I have only her hand-copies to go upon.
No. 1 is a commonplace epitaph, intended to be hexametrical; but the necessary proper names would not accommodate themselves to the metre, and the versifier has had to leave ll. 1 and 3 partly prose. In l. 2 he or the lapicide has made the mistake of leaving the ε before ἡδ unelided. The most interesting point in the inscription, the second name of the dedicator, is, unfortunately, obscured by a breakage of the surface. The lettering is very clear on the photograph except on the right edge.
No. 2 is broken top and right, and the names of the son and mother cannot be restored.
No. 3, the epitaph of a slave set up by his master, offers an instance of the distinction of slaves by the name of the master with a Roman gentile prefix. Either Αὐρ. or Αἰλι. is concealed in Miss Bell’s copy of l. 2. Another slave seems to have appropriated the grave afterwards for his wife, and added a note to that effect.
No. 4 is without points of interest. No. 5 adds to other Oriental names found at Comana Pharnaces and the name of his father, which, in Miss Bell’s copy, reads Giris.
1. Altar-stela with wreaths in relief on the front and sides. The inscription is in careful lettering of about the 4th cent. A.D. Words are in some cases divided by points. Square and round forms are used indifferently, and ligature is frequent. Worn badly on right edge:—
2. Altar-stela with wreath in relief below the inscription. Broken top and right top. Finely-cut lettering of 3rd cent. A.D.:—
Ἀσύνκριτος: for the use of this epithet at Comana see J. H. S. xviii. p. 318, no. 29, and also no. 4 below.
3. Altar-stela:—
The lines 6-8 may conceal the name Βαιβία borne by the wife of Aur. Heliodorus in an epitaph of Comana published by Waddington from copies by Clayton and Ramsay, Bull. Corr. Hell., vii. p. 137, no. 19.
4. On the rock inside tomb:—
5. On a small stone with rude pediment:—
[232] “Their houses are circular,” says Marco Polo of the Tartars of inner Asia, “and are made of wands covered with felts”: Yule’s edition, Vol. I. p. 252.
[233] Mârdin, 6.30; Yamachlî, to right, 7.30; Sarî Khân, 8.45; Ispileh, to right, 10.30; Talas, 11.30.
[234] The plateau is here about 3,500 feet above sea level.
[235] It has been well published by Rott: Kleinasiatische Denkmäler, p. 103.
[236] ’Ala ed Din reigned from 1219 to 1236, but the tomb is dated by an inscription in the year 1344.
[237] It was built in 1381-2 by the wife of ’Ala ed Dîn, Prince of Ḳaramân. See Sarre: Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst, p. 135.