[9]
There are gold mines in Syspiritis near Caballa, to which Menon was sent by Alexander with soldiers, and he was led up1 to them by the natives. There are also other mines, in particular those of sandyx,2 as it is called, which is also called "Armenian" color, like chalce3 The country is so very good for "horse-pasturing," not even inferior to Media,4 that the Nesaean horses, which were used by the Persian kings, are also bred there. The satrap of Armenia used to send to the Persian king twenty thousand foals every year at the time of the Mithracina.5 Artavasdes,6 at the time when he invaded Media with Antony, showed him, apart from the rest of the cavalry, six thousand horses drawn up in battle array in full armour. Not only the Medes and the Armenians pride themselves upon this kind of cavalry, but also the Albanians, for they too use horses in full armour.
1 "Led up" (or "inland") seems wrong. The verb has been emended to "destroyed," "imprisoned," "hanged" (Meineke), and other such words, but the translator knows of no evidence either to support any one of these emendations or to encourage any other.
2 An earthy ore containing arsenic, which yields a bright red color.
3 i.e., purple dye. The usual spelling is calche.
4 See 11. 13. 7.
5 The annual festival in honor of the Persian Sun-god Mithras.
6 See 11. 13. 4.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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