Res Gestae

When this city was stormed by the generals of Verus Caesar (as I have related before),[*](In a lost book; cf. Capitolinus, Verus, 8, 3.) the statue of Apollo Comaeus was torn from its place and taken to Rome, where the priests of the gods set it up in the temple of the Palatine Apollo. And it is said that, after this same statue had been carried off and the city burned, the soldiers in ransacking the temple found a narrow crevice; this they widened in the hope of finding something valuable; but from a kind of shrine, closed by the occult arts of the Chaldaeans, the germ of that pestilence burst forth, which after generating the virulence of incurable diseases, in the time of the same Verus and of Marcus Antoninus polluted everything with contagion and death, from the frontiers of Persia all the way to the Rhine and to Gaul.[*](Cf. Capitol., Marcus Ant. 13, 3-6.)

Near these is the land of the Chaldaeans, the foster-mother of the old-time philosophy—as they themselves say—where the true art of divination first made its appearance. Now the most important rivers that flow through those lands, besides the others that I have mentioned, are the Marses, the Royal River,[*](It is really a canal; cf. xxiv. 6, 1, where its native name Naarmalcha is given.) and the Euphrates, greatest of all. The last-named divides into three branches, all of which are navigable, forms several islands, and often thoroughly waters the fields through the diligence of the farmers,[*](I.e. by irrigation.) and prepares them for the ploughshare and for tree-culture.

Neighbours to these lands are the Susiani, who have few cities. Conspicuous among them, however, is Susa, often the residence of the kings,[*](The kings spent the winter in Susa or Babylon (sometimes in Bactra); the summers in Ecbatana; cf. Strabo, xi. 13, 1, 5; xv. 3, 2.) and Arsiana, Sele, and Aracha. The others are small and little known. On the other hand, many rivers flow through this region; most notable among them are the Oroates, Harax, and Mosaeus, which along the narrow sandy tract that separates the Caspian from the Red Sea overflow into a great number of pools.

On the left Media extends, bordering on the Hyrcanian[*](Part of the Caspian.) Sea. Of this province we read that before the reign of the elder Cyrus and the growth in Persia’s power, it was the queen of all Asia, after it had overcome Assyria,[*](Under Arbaces in the reign of Sardanapalus, 876 B.C.) whose many provinces, changed in name to Agropatena, it possessed by the right of conquest.

It is a warlike nation, and most of all to be feared next to the Parthians, by whom alone it is surpassed, and its territory has the form of a rectangle. The inhabitants of these lands

Those who dwell on the western side of the lofty mountain Coronus[*](In Parthia.) abound in fields of grain and vineyards,[*](Polyb. v. 44, 1.) enjoy the fertility of a productive soil, and are rich in rivers and clear springs.

Their green meadows produce a noble breed of horses, on which their chiefs (as the writers of old say, and as I myself have seen) when entering battle are wont to ride full of courage. These horses they call Nesaean.[*](Cf. Herodotus, vii. 40; Strabo, xi. 13, 7; 14, 9. Others say that they were used only for the kings’ chariots.)

Therefore Media abounds in rich cities, in villages built up like towns, and in a great number of inhabitants; it is (to speak briefly) the richest residence of the kings.

In these parts are the fertile fields of the Magi, about whose sects and pursuits—since we have chanced on this point—it will be in place to give a few words of explanation. According to Plato,[*](Ax. 371, D; Isoc. ii. 28, 227 A.) the most eminent author of lofty ideas, magic, under the mystic name of hagistia,[*](ἁγιστεία, (ritual, holy rites. ) is thepurest worship of the gods. To the science of this, derived from the secret lore of the Chaldaeans, in ages long past the Bactrian Zoroaster[*](For Zarathustra, the founder of the Perso-Iranian native religion, which prevailed from 559 B.C. to A.D. 636. The Greek and Roman writers assign his birth to various places, into which his religion was introduced; it was probably Bactria, or western Iran. His date is also uncertain; Aristotle put it 6000 years before the death of Plato (Pliny, N.H. xxx. 3), others 1000 B.C.) made many contributions, and after him the wise king Hystaspes,[*](Hystaspes was not king. Others regard a much earlier Hystaspes as the teacher of magic.) the father of Darius.