The Hellenistic Settlements in the East from Armenia and Mesopotamia to Bactria and India. Getzel M. Cohen

216.

      Miller believed the settlement was founded by Arsakes II (Itineraria 781: “erbaut von Arsacus II Philadelphus”); however, I am not aware of any coins of Arsakes II with the single epithet Philadelphos. Tcherikover tentatively suggested Artabanos I (HS 83). For coins of Artabanos I with the epithet Philadelphos see, for example, Head, HN2 819; BMC Parthia 21, nos. 4, 11[?]; Sellwood, Parthia² 58, 62, nos. 20, 22; Shore, Parthian Coins 98, nos. 59, 63–64.

      Note that Chaumont objected that the Arsacids did not normally give Greek names to the cities in their kingdom (Syria 70 [1993] 440).

      2. Location. Miller believed the settlement was located north of Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran, between the cities of Khoi and Marand (Itineraria 781 and 783–84 [map]; see also the map in Matheson, Persia² 77). Manandian also placed it on the north shore of Lake Urmia, between Khoi and Tasvich (Armenia 110, 113, and map on p. 111); Kiessling (RE s.v. “Filadelfia”) remarked simply that it was in Media Atropatene. In general see Chaumont, Syria 70 (1993) 440.

      TIGRANOKERTA

      In his account of Tigranes II, Strabo remarks (11.14.15) that the king filled Tigranokerta with people gathered from twelve “Greek cities” that he ravaged (ἐρημωθεισῶν). Elsewhere (12.2.9) Strabo says that after Tigranes overran Cappadocia, he forced the inhabitants—including the inhabitants of Mazaka—to migrate to Mesopotamia; furthermore, he adds that the Armenian king populated Tigranokerta with these people. Plutarch (Luc. 21.4, 26.1, 29.2) also refers to Tigranes’s removal and resettlement of “Greeks” from Cilicia and Cappadocia to Tigranokerta and mentions Soloi in Cilicia among the cities that Tigranes had devastated (Pomp. 28). Finally, Appian (Mith. 67) says that Tigranes named the city after himself and that the total number of people transplanted from Cappadocia to Armenia was approximately 300,000; he also informs us that Tigranes founded Tigranokerta at the site where he had first assumed the diadem of Armenia.¹ This suggests that Tigranokerta was founded at the site of an older, Assyrian town.²

      There is no agreement regarding the location of Tigranokerta. According to M.-L. Chaumont, “Les auteurs anciens (grecs, latins, arméniens) nous livrent explicitement ou accessoirement maints renseignements concernant la situation géographique de la fondation de Tigrane, renseignements qui ne sont pas en parfaite conformité les uns avec les autres.”³

      * * * *

      In general see Droysen, Hist. 2:747; Lehmann-Haupt, RE s.v. “Tigranokert”; Tcherikover, HS 83; Dillemann, Mésopotamie 245–72; Manandian, Armenia 58–63 et passim; Sullivan, Royalty 100–102; Sherwin-White, OCD³ s.vv. “Tigranes (1) II” and “Tigranocerta”; Biffi, Strabone 164–65; M.-L. Chaumont, REArm 16 (1982) 89–110; id., REArm 21 (1988–1989) 233–49; Sinclair, Eastern Turkey 3:361–63; id., REArm 25 (1994–1995) 183–254; and id., REArm 26 (1996–1997) 51–117.

      1. For other ancient Greek and Latin sources that mention Tigranokerta see, for example, Strabo 11.12.4, 16.1.23; Pliny NH 6.26; Tac. Ann. 15.4; App. Mith. 84–86; Plut. Luc. 25.3–29.4; Ptol. 5.13.22 (on which see R. H. Hewsen, REArm 16 [1982] 141–42); Eutropius 6.9.1; Tab. Peut. X.3 (“Triganocarten”). On the evidence of the Armenian Buzandaran Patmut’iwnk’ (fifth century A.D.), which, according to Sinclair, favors Arzan as the site of Tigranokerta see, for example, REArm 25 (1994–1995) 189–93.

      2. For the suggestion that Tigranokerta was founded at the site of an older, Assyrian town see, for example, Lehmann-Haupt, Armenien einst und jetzt 1:396–98 (followed by Tcherikover, HS 84); and Sinclair, REArm 25 (1994–1995) 214–15; id., REArm 26 (1996–1997) 94–95.

      3. For the location see, for example, Sinclair, REArm 25 (1994–1995) 183–254 (east of the Tigris basin at Arzan); Lehmann-Haupt, Armenien einst und jetzt 1:395–98; id., RE s.v. “Tigranokert” (at the site of Silvan = Martyropolis); Dillemann, Mésopotamie 252–53 (Tell Ermen = Kiziltepe). For the various locations that have been suggested as the site of Tigranokerta and the advocates for each see, for example, Lehmann-Haupt, RE s.v. “Tigranokert”; B. W. Henderson, JP 28 (1903) 99–121; Dillemann, Mésopotamie 247–62; Syme in Roman Anatolia 61–70; Chaumont, REArm 16 (1982) 89–109; Sinclair, Eastern Turkey 3:361–63; id., REArm 25 (1994–1995) 183–254 and map 2 on p. 188; id., REArm 26 (1996–1997) 51–117.

      II

      NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA

      ALAGMA

      Before ICHNAI and NIKEPHORION Isidore of Charax (1) mentions Alagma and says it was a fortress and a royal station. Tcherikover incorrectly recorded the toponym as “Agalma.”¹ Following on this misreading, he noted that the word is Greek, but questioned whether we are dealing here with a city.

      * * * *

      In general see Fraenkel, RE s.v. “Alagma”; Tcherikover, HS 85–86.

      1. The texts of both Müller (GGM 1:246) and Jacoby (FGrH 781) have “Alagma.”

      ALEXANDREIA IN MESOPOTAMIA

      The Armenian version of the Alexander Romance includes an “Alexandria of Mesopotamia” (285, trans. Wolohojian) in the list of settlements it ascribes to the Macedonian king. This, incidentally, is the only attestation in the Romance tradition for this settlement.¹ Can we identify this settlement?

      Pliny (NH 6.42)—who occasionally jumbles his information—refers to both an Alexandreia and an Antioch (which he specifies was Nisibis) in Mygdonia.² Of course, Mygdonia was in northern Mesopotamia. P. M. Fraser, who did not refer to Pliny, NH 6.41–42 in his brief discussion, has suggested that the Alexandreia of Mesopotamia mentioned in the Armenian list corresponds to the third Antioch in Stephanos’s enumeration of cities of that name.³ Stephanos (s.v.) describes the latter as Μεσοποταμίας, Μυγδονία καλουμένη ἣτις πρὸς τῶν ἐπιχωρίων Νάσιβις καλεῖται . . . ἥτις [καὶ] Νέσιβις λέγεται καὶ Νίσιβις. If this identification is correct and if the information about Alexandreia is reliable, it would indicate that there was an Alexandreia in Mygdonia. It would, of course, also strengthen the view that ANTIOCH in Mygdonia was previously founded as an Alexandreia.⁴

      Fraser, however, would remove Pliny’s Alexandreia from Mygdonia and locate it in either Adiabene or Assyria.⁵

      * * * *

      In general see Droysen, Hist. 2:669–70; Tcherikover, HS 96; Tarn, Alexander 2:239 and n. 5; M.-L. Chaumont, IrAnt 17 (1982) 151–53; Fraser, Cities 33.

      1. In the list of settlements attributed to Alexander at the end of the Alexander Romance the Armenian version has Alexandreia of Scythia followed by Alexandreia of Mesopotamia, Alexandreia on the Dklat’ (the Armenian name for the Tigris) River, and Alexandreia of Babylon. The A recension (ed. Kroll) has Alexandreia in Scythia followed by Alexandreia on the Tigris River, and Alexandreia in Babylonia. On the importance and reliability of the Armenian version of the Alexander Romance see, for example, Wolohojian, Romance 3–5; and Jouanno, Roman 7.

      2. Pliny NH 6.41–42 (trans. Rackham): “Adiabene, where the land of the Assyrians begins; the part of Adibene nearest to Syria is Arbilitis, where Alexander conquered Darius. The Macedonians have given to the whole of Adiabene the name of Mygdonia. . . . Ιts towns are Alexandria and Antiochia.” For errors in Pliny’s geographic discussions see, for example, NH 5.108, where he mistakenly inserted a list of Phrygian localities into his enumeration of Carian cities, and NH 6.159, where he erroneously inserted a comment about some Syrian cities in the middle of his description of Arabia; see further EUMENEIA in Caria; LARISA Sizara; Jones, CERP² 504; and Fraser, Cities 93–96. See also ANTIOCH Arabis and ARETHOUSA (in southern Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf).

      3. Fraser, Cities 33.

      4. Another possible—weak—reference to Alexander founding