[18] The Cossæi, like the neighbouring mountaineers, are for the most part archers, and are always out on foraging parties. For as they occupy a country of small extent, and barren, they are compelled by necessity to live at the expense of others. They are also necessarily powerful, for they are all fighting men. When the Elymæi were at war with the Babylonians and Susians, they supplied the Elymæi with thirteen thousand auxiliaries. The Parætaceni attend to the cultivation of the ground more than the Cossæi, but even these people do not abstain from robbery. The Elymæi occupy a country larger in extent, and more varied, than that of the Parætaceni. The fertile part of it is inhabited by husbandmen. The mountainous tract is a nursery for soldiers, the greatest part of whom are archers. As it is of considerable extent, it can furnish a great military force; their king, who possesses great power, refuses to be subject, like others, to the king of Parthia. The country was similarly independent in the time of the Persians, and afterwards1 in the time of the Macedonians, who governed Syria. When Antiochus the Great attempted to plunder the temple of Belus, the neighbouring barbarians, unassisted, attacked and put him to death. In after-times the king of Parthia2 heard that the temples in their country contained great wealth, but knowing that the people would not submit, and admonished by the fate of Antiochus, he invaded their country with a large army; he took the temple of Minerva, and that of Diana, called Azara, and carried away treasure to the amount of 10,000 talents. Seleuceia also, a large city on the river Hedyphon,3 was taken. It was formerly called Soloce. There are three convenient entrances into this country; one from Media and the places about the Zagrus, through Massabatice; a second from Susis, through the district Gabiane. Both Gabiane and Massabatice are provinces of Elymæa. A third passage is that from Persis. Corbiane also is a province of Elymaïs. Sagapeni and Silaceni, small principalities, border upon Elymaïs. Such, then, is the number and the character of the nations situated above Babylonia towards the east. We have said that Media and Armenia lie to the north, and Adiabene and Mesopotamia to the west of Babylonia.
1 ὕστεοͅον in the text must be omitted, or altered to ποͅότεοͅον, unless, as Kramer proposes, the words καὶ ποͅὸς τοὺς πέοͅσας be introduced into the text. Strabo frequently mentions together the three successive governments of Persians, Macedonians, and Parthians. B. xi. c. xiii. § 4, and c. xiv. § 15.
2 Mithridates I., son of Phraates, 163 B. C., and 124 years after the expedition of Antiochus.
3 Probably the Djerrahi.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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