Note 62 — Chapter II · ILLUSTRATION OF THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF THE CENTRAL PART OF ASIA MINOR.
Reading edition
The following was the route of Cyrus, according to Xenophon:—
Stathmi. Parasangs.
From Celænæ, afterwards Apameia Cibotus, to Peltæ, 2 or 10
Ceramorum Agora, at the end of Mysia, 2 — 12
Caystri Campus (a city), 3 — 30
Thymbrium, where was the fountain of Midas, 2 — 10
Tyriaium, 2 — 10
Iconium, 3 — 20
Through Lycaonia, 5 — 30
Through Cappadocia to Dana (Tyana), 4 — 25
Total 23 92
In Major Rennell’s work on the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, the reader will see the extreme difficulty of fixing the places on this route. Indeed there seems no mode of reconciling Xenophon with other geographical authorities than by supposing great errors in his numbers; for it is difficult to believe that his Καΰστρου πεδίον is not the same as that which Strabo (p. 629.) describes as watered by the Caystrus and situated on the south side of Mount Tmolus. In like manner there is the greatest reason to think that Thymbrium and the fountain of Midas were on the branch of the Sangarius called Thymbres in the country which formed the kingdom of Midas, and not in the plains between Ak-shehr and Ilgún, where we must place Thymbrium, if we follow the evidence of Xenophon’s numbers. Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that this itinerary of Xenophon is so incorrect that very little reliance can be placed on its authority. We have a strong proof of its inaccuracy in the positive assertion of Xenophon, that after he had crossed Mount Taurus, he marched twenty-five parasangs (or about seventy-five miles) in four days through the plain of Tarsus to the city, though Tarsus is only ten miles from the foot of that mountain. Xenophon probably meant four days from the halting-place of Cyrus, afterwards called the plain of Cyrus, on the north side of Taurus, but his words express the former meaning without the smallest ambiguity. Again, he places ten parasangs between Tarsus and the river Sarus, and only five between the Sarus and the Pyramus, although the real distances are nearly equal.