Kitap 11
14.9
There are gold mines in Syspiritis near Caballa, to which Menon was sent by Alexander with soldiers, and he was led up“Led up” (or “inland”) seems wrong. The verb has been emended to “destroyed,” “imprisoned,” “hanged” (Meineke), and other such words, but the translator knows of no evidence either to support any one of these emendations or to encourage any other. to them by the natives. There are also other mines, in particular those of sandyx,An earthy ore containing arsenic, which yields a bright red color. as it is called, which is also called “Armenian” color, like chalcei.e., purple dye. The usual spelling is calche. The country is so very good for “horse-pasturing,” not even inferior to Media,See 11. 13. 7. that the Nesaean horses, which were used by the Persian kings, are also bred there. The satrap of Armenia used to send to the Persian king twenty thousand foals every year at the time of the Mithracina.The annual festival in honor of the Persian Sun-god Mithras. Artavasdes,See 11. 13. 4. at the time when he invaded Media with Antony, showed him, apart from the rest of the cavalry, six thousand horses drawn up in battle array in full armour. Not only the Medes and the Armenians pride themselves upon this kind of cavalry, but also the Albanians, for they too use horses in full armour.
14.10
As for the wealth and power of the country, the following is no small sign of it, that when Pompey imposed upon Tigranes, the father of Artavasdes, a payment of six thousand talents of silver, he forthwith distributed to the Roman forces as follows: to each soldier fifty drachmas, to each centurion a thousand drachmas, and to each hipparch and chiliarch a talent.
