________________
DECEMBER, 1884.) PTOLEMY'S GEOG. BK. VI, CH. 13.-THE SAKAI.
399
go to show that the tract between tho Aral and the Kaspian was once the bed of an united and continuous sea, and that the Kaspian of the present day is the small residuo of a once mighty AraloKaspian Sea. Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. XXIII, c. vi), describing Central Asia in the upper course of the Laxartes which falls into the Kaspian, speaks of two rivers, the Araxates and Dymas (probably the Demos of Ptolemy) which, rushing impetuously down from the mountains and passing into a level plain, form therein what is called the Oxian lake, which is spread over a vast area. This is the earliest intimation of the Sea of Aral. (See Smith's Dict. of Anc. Geog. 8. v). Bunbury, however, says (vol. II, pp. 641-2): "Nothing but the unwillingness of modern writers to admit that the ancients were unacquainted with so important a feature in the geography of Central Asia as the Sea of Aral could have led them to suppose it represented by the Oxiana Palus of Ptolemy. While that author distinctly describes both the Jaxartes and the Oxus as flowing into the Caspian Sea, he speaks of a range of mountains called the Sog. dian Mountains, which extend between the two rivers, from which flow several nameless streams into those two, one of which forms the Oxian lake. This statement exactly tallies with the fact that the Polytimetos or river of Soghd, which rises in the mountains in question, does not flow into the Oxus, but forms a small stagnant lake called Kara-kul or Denghiz; and there seems no doubt this was the lake meant by Ptolemy. It is true that Ammianus Marcellinus, in his description of these regions, which is very vague and inaccurate, but is based for the most part upon Ptolemy, terms it a large and widespread lake, but this is probably nothing more than a rhetorical flourish." The Lasartes was regarded as the boundary towards the east of the Persian Empire, which it separáted from the nomadic Skythians. The soldiers of Alexander believed it to be the same as the Tanais or Don.
In the list of the tribes of Sogdiana the name of the Khorasmioi has been preserved to the present day in that of Khwêrazm, one of the designations of the Khanate of Khira. The position of the Khorasmioi may be therefore assigned to the regions south of the Sea of Aral, which is sometimes called after them the Sea of Khwaraem. The Dropsianoi had their seats on the borders of Baktria, As Drepsa, one of their cities and the capital of the country, may be identified with Andarab, which was a Baktrian town. It is called by Strabo Adrapsa and Darapsa(lib. XI, o. xi, 2, and lib. XV, o. ii, 10) and Drapsaka by Arrian-Anab. lib. III, O. 89). Bunbury (vol. I, p. 427, n. 3) remarks: "The Drepsa of
Ptolemy, though doubtless the same name, can. not be the same place as the Drapeaks of Arrian, Anab. lib. III, c. xxix) as that author places it in Sogdiana, considerably to the north of Marakanda." Ptolemy, however, as I have already pointed out, places Marakanda to the south of Baktra. Kingsmill (J. R. A. S., N. S., vol. XIV, p. 82) identifies Darapsa with the Lam-shi-ch'eng of the Chinese historians. It was the capital of their Tahia ( Tokhåra-Baktris) which was situated about 2000 li south-west of Ta-wan (Yarkand), to the south of the Kwai-shui (Oxos). The original form of the name was probably, he says, Darampsa. In Ta-wan he finds the Phrynoi of Strabo. The region between Kaukasos and Imaos, Ptolemy calls Vandabanda, a name of which, as Wilson conjectures, traces are to be found in the name of Badakshân.
With regard to the towns Mr. Vaux remarks, (Smith's Dict. s. v. Sogdiana): "The historians of Alexander's march leave us to suppose that Sogdiana abounded with large towns, but many of these, as Prof. Wilson has remarked, were probably little more than forts erected along the lines of the grent rivers to defend the country from the incursions of the barbarous tribes to its N. and E. Yet these writers must have had good opportunity of estimating the force of these places, as Alexander appears to have been the best part of three years in this and the adjoining province of Baktriana. The principal towns, of which the names have been handed down to us, were Kyreschata or Kyropolis on the Laxartes (Steph. Byz. 8.0. ; Curt. lib. VI, c. vi) Gaza (Ghaz or Ghazni, Ibn Haukal, p. 270); Alexandreia Ultima (Arrian, lib. III, C. XXX; Curt. l. c.; Am. Marc., lib. XXIII, c. vi) doubtless in the neighbourhood, if not on the site of the present Khojend; Alexandreia Oxiana (Steph. Byz. 8. .); Nautaka (Arrian, An. lib. III, c. xxviii; lib. IV, C. xviii) in the neighbourhood of Karshi or Naksbeb. Brankhida e, a place traditionally said to have been colonized by a Greek population; and Mar. ginia (Curt., lib. VII, c. x, 15) probably the present Marghinan."
CAP. 13. POSITION OF THE SAKAI, 1. The Sakai are honnded on the west he the Sogdianoi along their eastern side already described, on the north by Skythis along the line parallel to the river laxartes as far as the limit of the country which lies in 130° E. 49°N. on the east in like manner by Skythis along the meridian lines prolonged from thence and through the adjacent range of mountains called
