Appianus (_Mithridatic War_, c. 104) places these transactions with Tigranes after the battle with the Iberians which Plutarch describes in c. 34.]
[Footnote 261: Probably a Persian word, with the same meaning as Tiara, the head-dress of the Persians and some other Oriental nations. The kings wore it upright to distinguish them from other people. (Herodotus, vii. 61.)]
[Footnote 262: A part of Armenia between the Antitaurus and the mountain range of Masius. (Strabo, p. 527.)]
[Footnote 263: Appianus (_Mithridatic War_, c. 104) states that Pompeius received 6000 talents (of silver?) from Tigranes; and he seems to understand it as if the money was for Pompeius. In the other sums he agrees with Plutarch, except as to the tribunes, who received 10,000 drachmæ, or one talent and 4000 drachmæ, or 40 minæ.
On the value of the drachma, see Life of Tib. Gracchus, c. 2.]
[Footnote 265: This great mountain system lies between the Euxine and the Caspian, and was now entered for the first time by the Roman troops. Colchis was on the west side of the mountains.]
[Footnote 266: The Saturnalia were celebrated in Rome on the 19th of December at this time. (Macrobius, _Sat._ i. 10; and the Life of Sulla, c. 18.) It was accordingly in the winter of B.C. 66 that Pompeius was in the mountains of the Caucasus. (Dion Cassius, 36. c. 36, 37.)]
[Footnote 267: I have kept the name Cyrnus, as it stands in the text of Plutarch, though it is probably, an error of the transcribers. The real name Cyrus could not be unknown to Plutarch. In the text of Appianus (_Mithridatic War_, c. 103) the name is erroneously written Cyrtus; in Dion Cassius, it is Cyrnus. The Cyrus, now the Cur, flows from the higher regions of the Caucasus through Iberia and Albania, and is joined by the Araxes, Aras, above the point where the united stream enters the Caspian on the west coast. The twelve mouths are mentioned by Appianus (c. 103). Compare Strabo, p. 491.]
[Footnote 268: In fact the Persians never subdued any of the mountain tribes within the nominal limits of their dominions; and the Caucasus was indeed not even within the nominal limits.
It is true that Alexander soon quitted Hyrkania, which lies on the south-east coast of the Caspian; but when he was in Hyrkania he was still a considerable distance from the Iberians. (Arrianus, iii. 23, &c.)]