DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5542#0273
Chap, xi.v.] KING ARIARATHES. ~D1
tural, and not of artificial origin, and could not therefore
have been made by King Ariarathes: but could he not
have availed himself of a pre-existing embankment? Is
it not indeed most probable that he would do so, if such
a bank existed? And may we not easily suppose, ac-
cording to Professor Agassiz' theory, that the glaciers on
Mount Argseus formerly descended lower than at present,
and, having extended across the plain, deposited a moraine
at the head of the valley, thereby forming a natural em-
bankment, which the lung found ready to his hand? The
other objection is perhaps more important; but I have
already answered it, I trust satisfactorily, in the Journal of
the Geographical Society,* viz. that, according to Strabo,
the Melas, which flowed out of the lake dammed up by
King Ariarathes, ran into the Euphrates, notwithstanding
which the country of the Galatians towards Phrygia was
inundated by the bursting of the dam. With this single ex-
ception, the description given by Strabo t agrees in every
particular with the actual position and character of the Kara
Su, as well as of the lake out of which it flows. It rises at
a lower level than the town itself, from which it is distant
rather more than forty stadia, and flows into a lake and
marshes, hs sKd xai XiVvas- SiuxtiiAsms. There can therefore
be no doubt that Strabo, or one of his copyists, wrote the
word Euphrates instead of Halys confounding this Melas
with another which falls into the Euphrates near Mala-
tia; for it is impossible that the rising of the Euphrates
could have flooded the lands of the Galatians, whereas the
Halys flows through a great part of Galatia. There is only
one doubt on this subject which occurs to my mind on re-
perusing the text of Strabo: he says that the Melas is a
river ev t£ weSi'&j tu ?rpo rr,s irokius, which may signify the
river now called the Sarmasakli Su, which falls into the
marshes previously to entering the ravine. I regret that I
did not trace its course higher up the valley to the N.E.,
where the quarries described by Strabo might have been
* Vol. viii. p. 119. t Strabo, lib. xii. c. 2.
tural, and not of artificial origin, and could not therefore
have been made by King Ariarathes: but could he not
have availed himself of a pre-existing embankment? Is
it not indeed most probable that he would do so, if such
a bank existed? And may we not easily suppose, ac-
cording to Professor Agassiz' theory, that the glaciers on
Mount Argseus formerly descended lower than at present,
and, having extended across the plain, deposited a moraine
at the head of the valley, thereby forming a natural em-
bankment, which the lung found ready to his hand? The
other objection is perhaps more important; but I have
already answered it, I trust satisfactorily, in the Journal of
the Geographical Society,* viz. that, according to Strabo,
the Melas, which flowed out of the lake dammed up by
King Ariarathes, ran into the Euphrates, notwithstanding
which the country of the Galatians towards Phrygia was
inundated by the bursting of the dam. With this single ex-
ception, the description given by Strabo t agrees in every
particular with the actual position and character of the Kara
Su, as well as of the lake out of which it flows. It rises at
a lower level than the town itself, from which it is distant
rather more than forty stadia, and flows into a lake and
marshes, hs sKd xai XiVvas- SiuxtiiAsms. There can therefore
be no doubt that Strabo, or one of his copyists, wrote the
word Euphrates instead of Halys confounding this Melas
with another which falls into the Euphrates near Mala-
tia; for it is impossible that the rising of the Euphrates
could have flooded the lands of the Galatians, whereas the
Halys flows through a great part of Galatia. There is only
one doubt on this subject which occurs to my mind on re-
perusing the text of Strabo: he says that the Melas is a
river ev t£ weSi'&j tu ?rpo rr,s irokius, which may signify the
river now called the Sarmasakli Su, which falls into the
marshes previously to entering the ravine. I regret that I
did not trace its course higher up the valley to the N.E.,
where the quarries described by Strabo might have been
* Vol. viii. p. 119. t Strabo, lib. xii. c. 2.