Geography

​Now, the nomadic Dahae who dwell along the left to one sailing into the Caspian Sea are called by the people of today the Parni, as they are surnamed; then a desert lies between, and next comes Hyrcania, along which the sea already extends broadly until it joins with the mountains of the Medes and those of the Armenians. The shape of these mountains at their foothills is crescent-shaped, which, ending at the sea, form the recess of the gulf. This mountain-slope, from the sea up to the summits, is inhabited, for a short distance by those beginning from the sea, by a certain part of the Albanians and the Armenians, but the greater part is occupied by the Gelae, Cadusii, Amardi, Vitii, and Anariacae. They say that some of the Parrhasians settled together with the Anariacae, who are now called Parsi; and that the Aenianians built a walled city in the territory of Vitia, which is called Aeniana, where Greek arms, bronze vessels, and tombs are shown; and that there is also a city Anariace there, in which, they say, an oracle for dream-seekers is shown, and certain other tribes that are predatory and warlike rather than agricultural, a condition caused by the ruggedness of the places. However, the greater part of the mountainous coast is occupied by the Cadusii, for a distance of almost five thousand stadia, as Patrocles says, who also considers this sea to be approximately equal in size to the Pontus. These regions, then, are wretched.

​Hyrcania, on the other hand, is exceedingly fertile and large, and for the most part plain, and is divided by noteworthy cities, among which are Talabroce, Samariane, Carta, and the royal residence Tape, which they say is situated slightly above the sea and is distant one thousand four hundred stadia from the Caspian Gates. And the signs of its fertility are these: the vine yields a metretes of wine, the fig tree sixty medimnoi of fruit, the corn grows from the seed that falls from the stalk, bees build hives in the trees, and honey drips from the leaves; and this also happens in Matiane in Media, and in Sacasene and Araxene in Armenia. However, neither the land itself nor its namesake sea has met with the proper care, the sea being unnavigated and unused; and there are islands capable of being inhabited, which, as some have said, even contain gold-producing soil. The reason is that the rulers of the Hyrcanians, both those from the beginning, happened to be barbarians, Medes and Persians, and the last, the Parthians, who were worse than the former, and all the neighboring country was full of bandits and nomads and desolation. The Macedonians ruled for a short time, but since they were engaged in wars and were unable to look to things far away. Aristobulus says that Hyrcania, which is woody, has the oak, but does not produce the fir, the silver-fir, or the pine, though India abounds with these. Nisaea also belongs to Hyrcania, though some place Nisaea by itself.