Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Various locations for destination: "IBERIA Ancient country GEORGIA".
A large river of Asia, rising in Iberia and falling into the Caspian; now the Kur. This river waters the great valley of Georgia, and is increased by the Aragui; the Iora, probably the Iberus of the ancients; and the Alasan, which is their Alazo.
Aragus, Aragon, Arrhabon (Aragos, Aragon, Arrhabon: Aragui, or Arak),
a river of Iberia, in Asia, flowing from the Caucasus into the Cyrus. It is the
only tributary of the Cyrus in Iberia, which Strabo mentions by name. (Strab.
xi. p. 500, where the MSS. have Aragona, Arrhalona, and Arrhabona.)
The same river is evidently meant a little further on, where Strabo,
in describing the four mountain passes into Iberia, says that that on the N. from
the country of the Nomades is a difficult ascent of three days' journey (along
the Terek); after which the road passes through the defile of the river Aragus,
a journey of four days, the pass being closed at the lower end by an impregnable
wall. This is the great central pass of the Caucasus, the Caucasiae, or Sarmaticae
Pylae, now the Pass of Dariel. But Strabo adds, as the text stands, that another
of the four Iberian passes, namely, the one leading from Armenia, lay upon the
rivers Cyrus and Aragus, near which, before their confluence, stood fortified
cities built on rocks, at a distance of 16 stadia from each other, namely, Harmozica
on the Cyrus, and Seumara on the other river. Through this pass Pompey and Canidius
entered Iberia (pp. 500, 501). According to this statement, we must seek the pass
near Misketi, N. of Tiflis; but it is supposed, by Groskurd and others, that the
name Aragus in this last passage is an error (whether of Strabo himself, or of
the copyists), and that the pass referred to is very much further westward, on
the great high road from Erzeroum, through Kars, to the N., and that the river
wrongly called Aragus is the small stream falling into the Cyrus near Akhaltsik,
where the ruined castles of Horum Ziche (or Armatsiche) and Tsumar are thought
to preserve the names, as well as sites, of Strabo's Harmozica and Seumara. (Reinegg,
Beschreib. d. Cauc. vol. ii. p. 89; Klaproth, Voyage au Cauc. vol. i. p. 518.)
The river spoken of is supposed to be the Pelorus of Dion Cassius (xxxvii. 2).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Abas, a river of Iberia in Asia, mentioned by Plutarch (Pomp. 35) and Dion Cassius
(xxxvii. 3) as crossed by Pompey, on his expedition into the Caucasian regions.
Its course was E. of the Cambyses; and it seems to be the same as the Alazonius
or Alazon of Strabo and Pliny (Alasan, Alacks) which fell into the Cambyses just
above its confluence with the Cyrus.
Artanissa (*artanissa Telawe?), a city of Iberia, in Asia, between the Cyrus and
M. Caucasus (Ptol. v. 1 § 3). It was one of Ptolemy's points of recorded astronomical
observations, having the longest day 15 hrs. 25 min., and being one hour E. of
Alexandria (viii. 19. § 5).
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