the Caucasus sometimes served in the field,
and this at least may explain the story here told by Plutarch. The
chief residence of the Amazons is placed in the plains of Themiscyra
on the Thermodon in Cappadocia. Plutarch in his confused notions of
geography appears to consider the Thermodon as a Caucasian river. He
also places them near the Leges, a name which resembles that of the
Lesghians, one of the present warlike tribes of the Caucasus. On
antient medals the Amazons are represented with a short vest reaching
to the knee, and one breast bare. Their arms were a crescent shield,
the bow and arrow, and the double axe, whence the name Amazonia was
used as a distinctive appellation for that weapon (Amazonia securis,
Horat. _Od._ iv. 4).]

[Footnote 273: The Caspian sea or lake was also called the Hyrkanian,
from the province of Hyrkania which bordered on the south-east coast.
The first notice of this great lake is in Herodotus (i. 203).]

[Footnote 274: The Elymaei were mountaineers who occupied the
mountainous region between Susiana and Media. Gordyene was in the most
south-eastern part of Armenia. Tigranocerta was in Gordyene. Appianus
says that in his time Sophene and Gordyene composed the Less Armenia
(_Mithridatic War_, c. 105). In the territory of Arbela, where the
town of Arbil now is, Alexander had defeated Darius, the last king of
Persia.]

[Footnote 275: Another Greek woman, as we may infer from the name. The
story of the surrender of the fort by Stratonike is told by Appianus
(_Mithridatic War_, c. 107) with some additional particulars. Dion
Cassius (37. c. 7) names this fort Symphorium.

The narrative of Plutarch omits many circumstances in the campaigns of
Pompeius, which Appianus has described (c. 105, 106) a happening
between the arrangement with Tigranes and the surrender of the fort by
Stratonike. Among these events was the war in Judaea and the capture of
Jerusalem. Pompeius entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple, into
which only the high priest could enter, and that on certain occasions.
Jerusalem was taken B.C. 63 in the consulship of Cicero. The events of
this campaign are too confused to be reduced into chronological order.
Drumann has attempted it (_Geschichte Roms_, Pompeii, p. 451, &c.)]

[Footnote 276: Plutarch means the fort which he has mentioned in the
preceding chapter without there giving it a name; the Symphorium of
Dion. It was on the river Lycus, not quite 200 stadia from Cabira