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Tigranocerta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

That the problem which we have to attack is difficult may be inferred from the controversies which it has provoked. The geographer Kiepert successively identified Tigranocerta with four sites—two on the left, two on the right bank of the Tigris. The son who continued his last work adopted the original choice which his father had discarded half a century before.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © T. Rice Holmes 1917. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 120 note 1 xvi, I, 23 (p. 747).

page 120 note 2 xi, 12, 4 (p. 522).

page 120 note 3 Nat. Hist. vi, 9 (10), 26.

page 120 note 4 ib. 27, 129.

page 120 note 5 Ann. xv, 4.

page 120 note 6 Luc. 24, 8.

page 120 note 7 ib.

page 120 note 8 ib. 25, 7.

page 120 note 9 ib. 27, 1.

page 120 note 10 ib. §5, cf. App. Mithr. 85

page 121 note 1 Luc. 28, 2.

page 121 note 2 ib. 29, 10.

page 121 note 3 Ann. xv, 4.

page 121 note 4 ib. 5.

page 121 note 5 Mithr. 86.

page 121 note 6 vi, 9.

page 121 note 7 iv, 24.

page 121 note 8 Klio, viii, 1908, p. 514.

page 121 note 9 vi, 3, 6.

page 121 note 10 Geogr. v, 13, 22.

page 121 note 11 Abhandlungen d. Königl. Akad. d. Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1880, p. 44.

In the following discussion I shall ignore absurd and obsolete guesses, such as that which is condemned by Mr. Lynch, H. F. B. (Armenia, i, 1901, p. 319Google Scholar, n. 2). Th. Reinach (Mithr. Eupator, 1890, p. 34;, n. 5), remarking that Tell Ermen, the site proposed by Sachau, hardly agrees with the statement of Tacitus (see p. 125, infra), says, ‘Je préférerais donc un emplacement tel qui Midiyâd, au NNE. de Nisibis'; but he does not develop this view, which, so far as I know, has never since been noticed. According to temperament, one may derive amusement or a melancholy interest from comparing Reinach's note with his narrative and his map. On p. 361 he says that just before the battle of Tigranocerta ‘Les deux armées étaient séparées par le Tigre (!) qui … faisait un coude vers l'occident’: in his map (at the end of the volume) he locates Tigranocerta on the site of Tell Ermen!

page 121 note 12 iv, 24 (Langlois, V., Coll. des historiens …de l'Arménie, i, 1867, pp. 260–1Google Scholar).

page 122 note 1 xix, 1–8.

page 122 note 2 cf. Amm. Marc, xx, 6; 7, 1–16. C. F. Lehmann-Haupt (Klio, 1908, pp. 514–5, with which cf. Indo-germ. Ferschungen, xvi, 1904, p. 474) endeavours to prove that Faustus did not really identify Tigranocerta with Amida. This, he maintains, is demonstrated by the fact that Faustus located Tigranocerta in Arzanene, whereas, like all his contemporaries, he regarded Amida as west of Sophene; and, moreover, when he mentioned Amida he expressly called it the ‘town of the Amideni.’ Lehmann-Haupt does not give the reference: I presume that the passage which he has in mind is in iii, 10. He remarks, further, that, according to Moses of Khorene (iii, 26, 28 Langlois, op. cit. ii, 145–7])Google Scholar, Sapor, after making an unsuccessful attempt to take Tigranocerta, wrote a threatening letter to the garrison, in which he reminded them that Tigranocerta was the first town which he would reach in invading Armenia. This, says Lehmann-Haupt, was true of Meiafarkin [on the left bank of the Tigris] but not of Diarbekr. Still, it is remarkable that Marcellinus, at the beginning of his description (xix. I, 3–5) of the siege of Amida, mentions a threatening letter which Sapor wrote to the inhabitants; and I cannot resist a suspicion that both Faustus and Moses did confound Amida with Tigranocerta (cf. Saint-Martin, J., Mém. hist. et géogr. sur l'Arménie, i, 1818, p. 170Google Scholar, and Pauly's, Real-Encycl. i, 1894, col. 1833Google Scholar). To this day the Armenians persist in identifying the two (Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, xxxi, 1899, p. 606Google Scholar).

page 122 note 3 Travels … in Asia Minor, etc. ii, 1842, p. 362.

page 122 note 4 Zeitschr.f. Ethnologie, 1899, p.267 (cf. Lehmann-Haupt, Armenien einst und jetzt, 1910, 405.)

page 122 note 5 Hermes, ix, 1875, pp. 143, 148.

page 122 note 6 See the map facing p. 134 of Hermes, 1875, where Mommsen calls Tell Abad ‘Tell Bejâd.’

page 123 note 1 Abbandlungen, etc. p. 75.

page 123 note 2 Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. xxxv, 1865, p. 35. Cf. H. Kiepert's remarks in Hermes, 1875, p. 144. ‘I offered a high price,’ says Sachau (Abhandlungen, etc. p. 71), ‘and not one single coin could they show me.’ For the last clause of Taylor's notice he says (p. 75) that he would substitute ‘which, I was told at Kefr-Joze, never yield medals nor intaglios.’

page 123 note 3 See E. Sachau, Reise in Syrien, etc., 1883, p.416.

page 123 note 4 It is true that Tell Abad is in excelso; but the little rivulet near which it lies does not, as Pliny implies of the Nicephorius, flow into the Tigris from the north.

page 123 note 5 It would not have be ennecessary for Lucullus to cross the Tigris at all if he had marched against Tell Abad. Mommsen (Hermes, 1875, p. 131) said that he would have crossed it near Diarbekr; but in that case he would hava been forced to do so again, unless Mommsen meant by the Tigris the tributary of the Tigris near Diarbekr. The plain in which, according to Plutarch, Lucullus encamped before the battle is nowhere to be found (E. Sachau, Abhandlungen, etc, pp. 19–20).

page 123 note 6 Kiepert (Hermes, 1875, p. 145) thinks that, Procopius and Ammianus Marcellinus notwithstanding, Arzanene may have extended southward across the Tigris. I see no reason for this supposition, but it is not worth while to dispute it.

page 123 note 7 Abhandlungen, etc. pp. 71–72. Cf. Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 267.

page 123 note 8 Abhandlungen, etc. pp. 1–92. George Rawlinson (The fixth, feat, Oriental Monarchy 1873, P. 141 n. 3) had already pointed to the neighbourhood of Tell Ermen, when he suggested that Tigranocerta was ‘probably not far from the modern Mardin.’

page 123 note 9 See Journ. of Philology, xxix, 1903, p. 115.

page 123 note 10 Asia Minor (Murray's Handy Classical Maps), 1903.

page 123 note 11 Hist, of Rome, iv, 1875, p. 47, note. In the eighth German edition this note disappears, and Mommsen (iii, 68, note) says that Sachau has proved that Tigranocerta was ‘in the neighbourhood of Mardin,’ though his identification of it with Tell Ermen ‘is not free from doubt.’

page 123 note 12 E. Sachau, Reise, etc. pp. 402, 425.

page 124 note 1 Abhandlungen, etc. pp. 81–2.

page 124 note 2 Reise, etc. p. 425. Sachau says (Abhandlungen, etc. p. 81) that traces exist of a trench which was filled with water from the river; but it is impossible to tell whether this was the moat which Tacitus describes.

page 124 note 3 Abhandlungen, etc. p. 79.

page 124 note 4 Journ. of Philol. 1903, p. 114.

page 124 note 5 ib. pp. 115–6.

page 124 note 6 ib. p. 116.

page 125 note 1 Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1868, pp. 356, 359.

page 125 note 2 Plutarch, says Mr. Henderson (op. cit. p. 107), supports the theory that Tigranocerta was south of the Masian range, for ‘a city north of the Tigris would not be within eyesight of an army on the northern slopes.’ But Plutarch says nothing about ‘eyesight’; and Mr. Henderson's argument is as naïve as that of the scholars who by way of proving that Hannibal crossed the Alps by the Col de Clapier quote the passage in which Polybius (iii, 54, 2, 3) says that from the summit of the pass he pointed out the plain of Lombardy to his troops. Read Plutarch's words (Luc. 24, 8):— ‘“There,” said Lucullus, pointing to the distant Taurus, “is the stronghold which we have to destroy”’ (Ἐκεῖνο, ἔφη, μᾶλλον τὸ φρούριον ὴμῖν ἐκκοπτέον ἐστὶ, δείξας τὸν Ταῦρον ἄπωθεν ὄντα).

page 125 note 3 I have three times measured with a map-measurer the distance from Nisibin to Tell Ermen via Amudis—that is by the shortest road—each time with the same result, 60 kilometres or 40½ Roman miles. See R. Kiepert's Karte von Kleinasien (). Sheets C. vi and D. vi.

page 125 note 4 Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, pp. 264–6, 601.

page 125 note 5 Luc. 27, 3.

page 126 note 1 See Plut. Luc. 29, 10.

page 126 note 2 iii, 41, 7.

page 126 note 3 See p. 132, n. 3, infra.

page 126 note 4 Abhandlungen, etc. p. 45.

page 126 note 5 Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1865, pp. 24, 30.

page 127 note 1 Sachau, Reise, etc. pp. 392, 403. Lehmann-Haupt (Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 606) implicitly contradicts his colleague Belck. Remarking that Tell Ermen, like Meiafarkin, forms an Armenian enclave in a region where a different language is spoken, he concludes that an Armenian town was founded there, and that its founder was Tigranes.

page 127 note 2 Hermes, 1875, p. 133.

page 127 note 3 Monatsh. d. Königl. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 1873, pp. 202–210, with which cf. Hermes, 1875, p. 145.

page 127 note 4 cf. Studia Pontica, i, 1903, pp. 14, 91, n. 3.

page 127 note 5 See the plan (Taf. i) in Abhandlungen, etc.

page 127 note 6 Klio, x, 1910, pp. 85–86, 88Google Scholar.

page 127 note 7 ib. p. 86.

page 127 note 8 See H. Peter, Die Quellen Plutarchs, etc. 1865, pp. 106–95 Maurenbrecher, B., C. Sallusti Crispi hist. rell. fasc. i, 1891, p. 53Google Scholar. Cf. Plut. Luc. 26, 9.

page 128 note 1 Lehmann-Haupt himself says when it suits his purpose, ‘Very often … affluents are incorrectly regarded as … branches of larger rivers’ (oft genug … Zufiüsse ungenauer Weise als … Arme von grösseren Flüssen betrachtet werden [Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 605]).

page 128 note 2 See p. 130.

page 128 note 3 Abhandlungen, etc. pp. 31–3.

page 128 note 4 Klio, 1910, p. 110.

page 129 note 1 Luc. 27, 5.

page 129 note 2 Abhandlungen, etc. p. 32.

page 129 note 3 Sachau (Abhandlungen, etc. p. 49) remarks that in relation to Tell Ermen in excelso can only mean that the citadel dominated the surrounding plain. That was not what Pliny meant.

page 130 note 1 L'Euphrate et le Tigre, 1779, p. 84; cf. d'Anville's, J. B. B.Géogr. anc. abrégée, ii, 1768, pp. 109111Google Scholar.

page 130 note 2 Travels … in Asia Minor, ii, 361–3.

page 130 note 3 Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1865, pp. 30–3 1. E. Egli (Feldzüge in Armenien, etc. 1868, p. 305), remarking that Taylor found coins of Tigranes in Sert and nowhere else, makes the astounding statement that ‘Taylor … is therefore of opinion that Sert is really identical with the ancient Tigranocerta’ (Taylor … ist deshalb der Ansicht, dass Sert wirklich mit den alten Tigranocerta identisch ist).

page 130 note 4 Monatsh. d. Königl. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 1873, pp. 186–90. Arzen was also selected by de St. Martin, V. (Nouv. Dict, de Géogr. univ. vi, 1894, p. 500Google Scholar).

page 130 note 5 Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1865, pp. 26–7. ‘So many medals in gold and silver,’ says Taylor, ‘are found here [at Arzen] that the fellahs who till the ground are paid nothing by the owner for their labour, and they give him in addition half of everything they may find.’

page 130 note 6 Hermes. 1875, p. 142.

page 130 note 7 Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 267. Lehmnnn-Haupt (Armenien einst und jetzt, p. 385) raises two objections against Arzen. The Arzen-Su, he says flowing past the western side of the town, would have been no protection against an enemy from the east; but Tigranes evidently came from that side. What then? If the reader can perceive the force of this argument, which implies that Tigranes was an enemy of his own capital, and, moreover, ignores the moat, he is more acute than I. Again, says Lehmann-Haupt. the great plain in which Lucullus encamped before the battle is not to be found. Not close to Arzen; but the plain in which Lucullus, according to Lehmann-Haupt, encamped was twelve miles south of Farkin, and a great plain stretches southward from a point some eight miles S. by W. of Arzen (Kiepert, R., Karte von Kleinatien, C. viGoogle Scholar). Indeed a plain four or five miles wide extends opposite the westward bend which the river makes just below the town.

page 131 note 1 Brief über Zustande… in d. Türkei, 3rd ed. 1877, p. 285 (=p. 287 of the 1st ed.).

page 131 note 2 Klio, 1908, pp. 519-20.

page 131 note 3 v, 27 (Langlois, V., Coll. des hist… de l'Arménie, i, 292Google Scholar). Cf. Klio, 1908, p. 214.

page 131 note 4 Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1865, p. 24. ‘Taylor’ says Kiepert (Monatsberichte, etc. p. 183), ‘informs us that the ruins of the whole locality and the walls of the town itself show no traces earlier than the beginning of the Christian era’ (uns berichtete dass die Trümmerfülle der ganzen Ortschaft und die Stadtmauer selbst keine über den Beginn der christlichen Aera hinausreichenden Spuren aufweise). Feeling sceptical, I opened Taylor's article and found these words: ‘It is undoubtedly of far more ancient date [than the early Christian period] and the numerous isolated heaps and long low mounds probably cover ruins much older than any at present visible above ground.’

page 131 note 5 Geogr. v, 13, 22.

page 131 note 6 Segm. x. Cf. Abhandlungen, etc. p. 53.

page 131 note 7 See p, 127, nn. 2-4.

page 131 note 8 See Sir W. M. Ramsay's Hist. Geogr. of Asia Minor, 1890, pp. 62-67.

page 131 note 9 Armenien einst und jetzt, 1910, p. 390. Cf. Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 270.

page 132 note 1 Armenien einst und jetzt, p. 392. ‘Freilich wird die Breite des Farkin-su zu Zeiten… 3-4 m nicht übersteigen.’

page 132 note 2 Hermes, 1875, p. 113, n. 2. Why did not Mommsen boldly affirm that latitudine was written by mistake for altitudine?

page 132 note 3 Monatsberichte, etc. pp. 183-4. ‘Farkeyn,’ wrote Taylor (Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1865, pp. 23–4), ‘as it is more generally called by the natives… is situated in the midst of gardens at the foot of the hills… Two small streams of little depth, that have their rise in copious springs close to the town walls, wash thtm on either side.’ Von Moltke, who visited Farkin in July, says that ‘an abundant stream’ (ein reicher Fluss) issues from the high ground on which the town stands. Kiepert's, R.Karte von Kleinasien (C. viGoogle Scholar.) shows the Farkin-Su as a single stream flowing, past the western side Frarkin: but Lehmann-Haupt (Armenien einst und jetzt, p. 391) says that a branch of the Farkin-Su flows round a part of the northern as well as round the western and the southern wall, and elsewhere (Zeitschr. f. Ethnohgie, 1899, p. 605) he tells us that the Farkin-Su rises from various springs north-west and west of the town, which is enclosed by its various arms.

page 132 note 4 Klio, ix, 1909, pp. 406–7.’

page 133 note 1 Monatsberichte, etc. pp. 195-6. In Hermes, 1875, p. 142, Kiepert remarked that his emendation had been confirmed by Taylor's description of Arzen. See p. 130.

page 133 note 2 Hermes, 1875, p. 131, n. 2.

page 133 note 3 Sachau (Abhandlungen, etc. p. 50) argues that Eutropius merely inferred from the computations of Ptolemy that Tigranocerta was in Arzanene, which Ptolemy does not mention. Lehmann-Haupt (Armenien einst und jetzt. p. 518) justly ridicules this theory. It is rash, however, to assume, as H. Hübschmann does (Indo-german. Forschungen, 1904. p. 474) that Eutropius made this particular statement on the authority of Livy.

page 133 note 4 Bell. Pers. i, 8, 21-2; 21, 6; Aed. iii, 2, 2. Cf. Amm. Marc. xxv, 7, 9, who reckons Arzanene among the regions beyond, that is, north of the Tigris.

page 133 note 5 Armenien einst und jetzt, pp. 501–2.

page 133 note 6 Cf. the remarks of H. Hübschmann (Indogerman. Forschungen, 1904, p. 475). K. Miller (Itin. Rom. 1916, col. 744) also rejects Farkin because it was not in Arzanene, and decides for Arzen. ‘Die Stadt,’ he insists, ‘muss ostlich vom Grenzfluss Nymphäus liegen.’

page 134 note 1 Armenien einst und jetzt, p. 384; cf. pp. 390, 502, etc. Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 602, and Vienna Oriental Journal, xiv, 1900, p. 44Google Scholar.

page 134 note 2 Lehmann-Haupt's arguments are to be found in Armenien einst und jeizt, pp. 504-5, 509-11. I have written a refutation; but to print it would be superfluous.

page 135 note 1 Kiepert, who, like Lehmann-Haupt, endeavoured to show that Strabo included in Mesopotamia Sophene, Arzanene, and Gordyene, also ignored the stubborn fact that Strabo placed Tigranocerta in Mygdonia (Monatsberichte, etc. p. 169; Hermes, 1875, pp. 139, 141), but ended by doing the same himself.

page 135 note 2 Armenien einst und jetzt, p. 385.

page 135 note 3 Klio, 1909, p. 406.

page 135 note 4 Strab xii 2, 1 (p. 535). cf. Tac. Ann. xv, 26–7Google Scholar.

page 135 note 5 cf. the remarks of Kiepert (Monatsberichte, etc. P. 173).

page 135 note 6 See Lehmann-Haupt's plan in Armenien einst und jetzt, p. 403, reproduced in Klio, 1910, p. 102.

page 136 note 1 Klio, 1910, pp. 82, 86, 93-6, 101-5. Cf. eitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, pp. 271-4.

page 137 note 1 Klio, 1910, p. 94.

page 137 note 2 C. vi.

page 137 note 3 Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, pp. 604-5.

page 137 note 4 ib. pp. 273-4.

page 137 note 5 The Soldier's Pocket-book, 1886, p. 491.

page 137 note 6 ‘Zudem,’ he says (Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 604), ‘erschien es unter den Voraussetzungen, die ich mir auf Grund dieser Ermittelungen [a map which a Turkish engineer sent him] zu bilden hatte, unmöglich, das Heranziehen des Tigranes von Farkin aus zu bemerken.’ See, however, pp. 273-4.

page 137 note 7 But would Tigranes have been able, at a distance of sixteen miles, to discern the stationary army of Lucullus?

page 138 note 1 In any case the champions of Farkin must discard the testimony of Tacitus and Strabo.

page 138 note 2 I have just found that my conjecture, in so far as it postulates the existence of two towns called Tigranocerta, has heen anticipated [Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1899, p. 601).