Note 55 — II. HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING ARMENIA.

Sebast is doubtless Sivas, called by Marco Polo Sebastos, anciently Sebasteia (Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geo.) south of Tokat, and giving name to a pachalik. The Barcarian mountains appear as Barchal Dagh running parallel to the Black Sea between Trebizond and Kars. (Stieler’s Hand-Atlas, 43a.) Mogan is Orogan in the original, but, as we shall see below, this is an error of transcription. The Plain of Mogan is the great plain extending from the eastern foot of Caucasus along the Caspian, and stretching to the south of the Cyrus and Araxes. Here Pompey’s career eastward is said to have been arrested by the venomous serpents with which the long grass of the plain is infested. The dread of these serpents still exists. “Their hissing is heard from afar, and they seem to rise from the grass like fish from the sea”, Kinneir was told. Here the camp of Heraclius was pitched, as was that of the Tartar hosts for many months during their invasion of Armenia in the thirteenth century, and that of Nadir Shah when he placed the crown upon his head. (Macd. Kinneir’s Mem. of Persia, 153; Avdall’s Hist. of Armenia.)