COCHE
COCHE (
Κωχή or
Χωχή,
Steph. B. sub voce a small village on the Tigris, not far from Seleuceia, on the authority of Stephanus, who quotes Arrian.
There has been considerable doubt, from the indistinct account of ancient authors, whether or not Coche is to be considered to be a different place from Seleuceia, or to be only an earlier name of that town. On the whole, the balance of opinions seems in favour of the former.
The words of Arrian, as quoted by Stephanus, are precise enough. Again, in describing the march of Julianus, Ammianus (24.6) speaks of the army arriving at Coche after having thrown a bridge across the river Tigris. Orosius (
7.24) speaks of Ctesiphon and Coche as the two most illustrious cities of the Parthians, and Gregor. Nazian. (
Orat. in Julian. 2) calls Coche a
φρουρίον, of equal strength with Ctesiphon, and so situated that those two places might be considered as one town, divided only by the river. Lastly, Eutropius (
9.12) calls it “
urbem” in the time of the emperor Carus. On the other hand, Ammianus (24.5) has, on the emendation of Gelenius (for before his time the passage was held to be corrupt) “Cochem, quam Seleuciam nominant,” which would imply that Coche was the older name: to which Zosimus (3.23) probably refers, though he calls the place Zochasa, in the passage
τῆς πρότερον μὲν Ζωχάσης, νῦν δὲ Σελευκείας ὀνομαζομένης. Pliny (
7.27) speaks of
Campi Cauchae, which probably refer to the same place.
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