Strabo, Geography

However, although the district of the Mazaceni is in many respects not naturally suitable for habitation, the kings seem to have preferred it, because of all places in the country this was nearest to the center of the region which contained timber and stone for buildings, and at the same time provender, of which, being cattle-breeders, they needed a very large quantity, for in a way the city was for them a camp. And as for their security in general, both that of themselves and of their slaves, they got it from the defences in their strongholds, of which there are many, some belonging to the king and others to their friends. Mazaca is distant from Pontus¹ about eight hundred stadia to the south, from the Euphrates slightly less than double that distance, and from the Cilician Gates and the camp of Cyrus a journey of six days by way of Tyana. Tyana is situated at the middle of the journey and is three hundred stadia distant from Cybistra. The Mazaceni use the laws of Charondas, choosing also a Nomodus,² who, like the jurisconsults among the Romans, is the expounder of the laws. But Tigranes put the people in bad plight when he overran Cappadocia, for he forced them, one and all, to migrate into Mesopotamia; and it was mostly with these that he settled Tigranocerta.³ But later, after the capture of Tigranocerta, those who could returned home.