Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "IBERIA Ancient country GEORGIA".
A country of Asia, bounded on the west by Colchis, on the north by Mount Caucasus, on the east by Albania, and on the south by Armenia. It answers now to Georgia, the country of the Gurians, etc. The Cyrus (Kur) flowed through Iberia. Ptolemy enumerates several towns of this country, such as Agiuna, Vasaeda, Varica, etc. The Iberians were allies of Mithridates, and were therefore attacked by Pompey, who defeated them in a great battle, and took many prisoners. Plutarch makes the number of slain to have been not less than 9000, and that of the prisoners 10,000.
This text is cited Sep 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Iberia (he Iberia), the extensive tract of country which lies between
the Euxine and Caspian seas, to the S. of the great chain of the Caucasus, and
which, bounded on the W. by Colchis, on the E. by Albania, and the S. by Armenia,
is watered by the river Cyrus (Kur). (Strab. xi. p. 499, comp. i. pp. 45, 69;
Pomp. Mel. iii. 5. § 6; Plin. vi. 11; Ptol. v. 11.) From these limits, it will
be seen that the Iberia of the ancients corresponds very nearly with modern Georgia,
or Grusia, as it is called by the Russians. Strabo (p. 500) describes it as being
hemmed in by mountains, over which there were only four passes known. One of these
crossed the Moschichi Montes, which separated Iberia from Colchis, by the Colchian
fortress Sarapana (Scharapani), and is the modern road from Mingrelia into Georgia
over Suram. Another, on the N., rises from the country of the Nomades in a steep
ascent of three days' journey (along the valley of the Terek or Tergl); after
which the road passes through the defile of the river Aragus a journey of four
days, where the pass is closed at the lower end by an impregnable wall. This,
no doubt, is the pass of the celebrated Caucasian Gates, described by Pliny (vi.
12) as a prodigious work of nature, formed by abrupt precipices, and having the
interval closed by gates with iron bars. Beneath ran a river which emitted a strong
smell (Subter medias (fores), amne diri odoris fluente, Plin. l. c.). It is identified
with the great central road leading from the W. of Georgia by the pass of Dariyel,
so named from a fortress situated on a rock washed by the river Terek, and called
by the Georgians Shevis Kari, or the Gate of Shevi. The third pass was from Albania,
which at its commencement was cut through the rock, but afterwards went through
a marsh formed by the river which descended from the Caucasus, and is the same
as the strong defile now called Derbend or narrow pass, from the chief city of
Daghestn, which is at the extremity of the great arm which branches out from the
Caucasus, and, by its position on a steep and almost inaccessible ridge, overhanging
the Caspian sea, at once commands the coast-road and the Albanian Gates. The fourth
pass, by which Pompeius and Canidius entered Iberia, led up from Armenia, and
is referred to the high road from Erzrum, through Kars, to the N.
The surface of the country is greatly diversified with mountains,
hills, plains, and valleys; the best portion of this rich province is the basin
of the Kur, with the valleys of the Aragavi, Alazan, and other tributary streams.
Strabo (p. 499) speaks of the numerous cities of Iberia, with their houses having
tiled roofs, as well as some architectural pretensions. Besides this, they had
market-places and other public buildings.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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