ere formidable only as
robbers; and in the proud security of peace the fortifications of Syria
were neglected on the most vulnerable side.

[Footnote 125: See Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 19. The altar of national
concern, of annual sacrifice and oaths, which Diocletian had created in
the Isla of Elephantine, was demolished by Justinian with less policy
than]

[Footnote 126: Procopius de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 7. Hist. l. viii.
c. 3, 4. These unambitious Goths had refused to follow the standard of
Theodoric. As late as the xvth and xvith century, the name and nation
might be discovered between Caffa and the Straits of Azoph, (D'Anville,
Memoires de l'academie, tom. xxx. p. 240.) They well deserved the
curiosity of Busbequius, (p. 321-326;) but seem to have vanished in
the more recent account of the Missions du Levant, (tom. i.,) Tott,
Peysonnnel, &c.]

[Footnote 127: For the geography and architecture of this Armenian
border, see the Persian Wars and Edifices (l. ii. c. 4-7, l. iii. c.
2--7) of Procopius.]

[Footnote 128: The country is described by Tournefort, (Voyage au
Levant, tom. iii. lettre xvii. xviii.) That skilful botanist soon
discovered the plant that infects the honey, (Plin. xxi. 44, 45:) he
observes, that the soldiers of Lucullus might indeed be astonished at
the cold, since, even in the plain of Erzerum, snow sometimes falls in
June, and the harvest is seldom finished before September. The hills
of Armenia are below the fortieth degree of latitude; but in the
mountainous country which I inhabit, it is well known that an ascent of
some hours carries the traveller from the climate of Languedoc to that
of Norway; and a general theory has been introduced, that, under the
line, an elevation of 2400 toises is equivalent to the cold of the polar
circle, (Remond, Observations sur les Voyages de Coxe dans la Suisse,
tom. ii. p. 104.)]

[Footnote 129: The identity or proximity of the Chalybians, or
Chaldaeana may be investigated in Strabo, (l. xii. p. 825, 826,)
Cellarius, (Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 202--204,) and Freret, (Mem. de
Academie, tom. iv. p. 594) Xenophon supposes, in his romance, (Cyropaed
l. iii.,) the same Barbarians, against whom he had fought in his
retreat, (Anabasis, l. iv.)]

[Footnote 130: Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 15. De Edific. l. iii. c. 6.]

[Footnote 131: Ni Taurus obstet in nostra maria venturus, (Pomponius
Mela, iii. 8.) Pliny, a poet as well as a naturalist, (v. 20,)
personi