sumed, marks the site of the ancient capital of Aur, the
Orchoe of Ptolemy, from whence the territory hearing the
same name extended along the right bank of the Euphrates.
Being irrigated by the Pallacopas, this territory must, when
the canal was in full operation, have been extremely fertile.
At several places within it, as well as in Kurdistan, may still
be found the descendants of the ancient Chaldeans, who
speak, although in a corrupted manner, the original language
of that people.
In Ptolemy’s time, the name Chaldea was evidently applied
to a tract of country touching the south-western extremity of
old Babylonia, and extending from thence to the Persian
Gulf, along both sides of the Shatt-el-Arab, and therefore
including some of the territory lying eastward of Ur of the
Chaldees. In this section of the country Ptolemy places the
towns and cities of Shunda, Rahacharta, Shalatha, Atha, and
Teredon, all on or near the river; whilst inwards from thence
were situated Chumara, Bethara, Beramba, and Orchoe.
Instead of these places, we now find the modern city of Basrah,
and the towns of Diwaniyeh, Imam-Ali, Lamlum,
Semavah, Kut, Suk-el-shuyukh, Mujayah, Kurnah, Girdelan,
Zobeid, Mohammarah, Wasit, and Kut-el-’amarah. Having
briefly noticed the changing limits of Chaldea, we pass to
that interesting and most ancient kingdom, of which the
Cushdim territory before-mentioned (the Armeno-Chalybes
of Pliny formed but a small part.2
A rm e n ia .
The upper Euphrates is nearly in the centre of the great
range of territory called by the ancients Armenia, which extended
eastward from that river to the Caspian Sea, and
again westward over a part of Asia Minor. The former portion
was almost universally known by the name of the
Greater, and the latter by that of the Less Armenia; but
1 Lib. VI., c. iv.
f The Chaldeans, and their neighbours the Tibareni, were subject to Armenia.
■—Strabo, X II., p. 555.
b o th were sometimes subdivided into F irs t, Second, and T h ird
Armen ia : a fourth division was added by Moses Choronensis
and others, This la s t division, being on th e eastern side o
th e Euphrates, constitutes in reality p a rt of Armenia M a jo r ;
while Armenia Minor is confined to th e country westwar
of th e Euphrates, and is composed only of th e th re e subdivisions
above alluded to.
Armenia Major, in th e time of its greatest prosperity, extended
from 36° 50' to 48° N . l a t . ; and eastward, m one
direction, from 38° to about 48° 40' E. long., with a surface
of nearly 84,756 square miles of diversified country. in e
general limits of th is te rrito ry will probably be best u n d e rstood
by considering th e E u p h ra te s to be its western boundary
from Sumeisat u n til a few miles south of E rz in g an ,
where th e boundary quits th e river, and preserves th e directio
n of Tarabuzun, till it meets th e mountains southward ol
Gumish K h an ah . T h e re it takes a north-easterly direction
along th e range, till it skirts th e n o rth e rn extremity of the
district of Kars, and from thence it passes onward to the
river K u r, a few miles below T if lis : from hence it follows
this river to its estuary. A fte r continuing along th e Caspian
■shore for a sh o rt distance, th e line of demarcation strikes into
th e interior in th e direction of Tabriz, and th e southern p a rt
. of th e district of JfiMmerik. I t next passes south ot b e r t
th ro u g h th e d istric t of D iy a r Bekr, .and finally rejoins th e
Euphrates a t Sumeisat. T h e district lying on the western
side of th e Euphrates, between Csesarea of Cappadocia and
Pontus, was in early times called F ir s t Armenia. T h a t
which extended from P o n tu s to Melitene bore^the name ot
Second A rm e n ia ; and the th ird , w h ich had Cilicia to the
south, and Second Armenia to th e n o rth touched th e E u phrates
on th e east, and extended westward beyond th e towns
of ’Ain-zarbah and Sis. As these th re e provinces, properly
speaking, formed w h a t was afterwards called Armenia Minor
or the territory westward of Euphrates, it will be suffic.ent
in describing th e limits, to indicate the general contour of
1 Strabo makes it 200 schoens long by 100 wide, which would give a much
crrpntp.r snnp.rficies.—Lib.'XI.i p. 530.