he two empires from the inroads of the
Scythians. [142]

[Footnote 138: For the city and pass of Derbend, see D'Herbelot,
(Bibliot. Orient. p. 157, 291, 807,) Petit de la Croix. (Hist. de
Gengiscan, l. iv. c. 9,) Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, (tom. i.
p. 120,) Olearius, (Voyage en Perse, p. 1039--1041,) and Corneille le
Bruyn, (Voyages, tom. i. p. 146, 147:) his view may be compared with
the plan of Olearius, who judges the wall to be of shells and gravel
hardened by time.]

[Footnote 139: Procopius, though with some confusion, always denominates
them Caspian, (Persic. l. i. c. 10.) The pass is now styled Tatar-topa,
the Tartar-gates, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 119,
120.)]

[Footnote 1391: Malte-Brun. tom. viii. p. 12, makes three passes: 1. The
central, which leads from Mosdok to Teflis. 2. The Albanian, more
inland than the Derbend Pass. 3. The Derbend--the Caspian Gates. But the
narrative of Col. Monteith, in the Journal of the Geographical Society
of London. vol. iii. p. i. p. 39, clearly shows that there are but
two passes between the Black Sea and the Caspian; the central, the
Caucasian, or, as Col. Monteith calls it, the Caspian Gates, and the
pass of Derbend, though it is practicable to turn this position (of
Derbend) by a road a few miles distant through the mountains, p.
40.--M.]

[Footnote 140: The imaginary rampart of Gog and Magog, which was
seriously explored and believed by a caliph of the ninth century,
appears to be derived from the gates of Mount Caucasus, and a vague
report of the wall of China, (Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 267-270. Memoires
de l'Academie, tom. xxxi. p. 210--219.)]

[Footnote 141: See a learned dissertation of Baier, de muro Caucaseo,
in Comment. Acad. Petropol. ann. 1726, tom. i. p. 425-463; but it is
destitute of a map or plan. When the czar Peter I. became master of
Derbend in the year 1722, the measure of the wall was found to be 3285
Russian orgyioe, or fathom, each of seven feet English; in the whole
somewhat more than four miles in length.]

[Footnote 142: See the fortifications and treaties of Chosroes,
or Nushirwan, in Procopius (Persic. l. i. c. 16, 22, l. ii.) and
D'Herbelot, (p. 682.)] VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of Athens
and the consulship of Rome, which had given so many sages and heroes to
mankind. Both these institutions had long since degenerated from their
primitive glory; yet some reproach may be justly inflicted on the
avarice