Note 408 — LIFE OF LUCULLUS.

Lucullus was marching northward, and he had to ascend from the lower country to the high lands of Armenia, where the seasons are much later than in the lower country. He expected to find the corn ripe. Nothing precise as to his route can be collected from Plutarch. He states that Lucullus came to the Arsanias, a river which he must cross before he could reach Artaxata. Strabo (p. 528) describes Artaxata as situated on a peninsula formed by the Araxes (Aras) and surrounded by the stream, except at the isthmus which joined it to the mainland; the isthmus was defended by a ditch and rampart. The ruins called Takt Tiridate, the Throne of Tiridates, which have been supposed to represent Artaxata, are twenty miles from the river, and the place where they stand owed its strength solely to the fortifications. Below the junction of the Zengue and Aras, which unite near Erivan, "the river (Aras) winds very much, and at least twenty positions nearly surrounded by the river presented themselves." Colonel Monteith, who makes this remark (London Geog. Journal, iii. 47), found no ruins on the banks of the river which answered to the description of Artaxata; for what he describes as near the remains of a Greek or Roman bridge over the Aras do not correspond to the description of Strabo. The remains of Artaxata, if they exist, must be looked for on some of the numerous positions which are nearly surrounded by the river.

The Arsanias is described by Plinius (Hist. Nat. v. 24) as flowing into the Euphrates, and, it appears, into the Murad or eastern branch which rises at no great distance S.W. of Ararat. It is probable that Lucullus entered Armenia by some of the passes west of Lake Van; but his route can hardly be conjectured.