Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/37

MARCH FROM SARDIS INTO PHRYGIA. 15 the Micander; one additional march of eight j/arasangs, after crossing that river, forwarded him to Kolossre, a flourishing city outset of the march, we have no reason to believe that there was any official measurer of road-progress accompanying the army, like Barton, 6 B^/uari- crris 'A.%e!;avdpov, in Alexander's invasion ; see Athenseus, x, p. 442, and Geier, Alexandri Magni Histor. Scriptt. p. 357. Yet Xenophon, through- out the whole march, even as far as Trebizond, states the day's march of the army in parasangs ; not merely in Asia Minor, where there were roads, out through the Arabian desert between Thapsakus and Pylaj, through the snows of Armenia, and through the territory of the barbarous Chaly- bes. He tells us that in the desert of Arabia they marched ninety parasangs in thirteen days, or very nearly seven parasangs per day, and that too under the extreme heat of summer. He tells us, farther, that in the deep snows of Armenia, and in the extremity of winter, they marched fifteen parasangs in three days ; and through the territory (also covered with snow) of the pugnacious Chalybes, fifty parasangs in seven days, or more than seven parasangs per day. Such marches, at thirty stadia for the parasang, are impossible. And how did Xenophon measure the distance marched over 1 ? The most intelligent modern investigators and travellers, Major Ren nell, Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Hamilton, Colonel Chesney, Professor Koch, etc., offer no satisfactory solution of the difficulty. Major Rennell reckons the parasangs as equal to 2.25 geogr. miles ; Mr. Ainsworth at three geogr. miles; Mr. Hamilton (travels in Asia Minor, c. 42, p. 200), at something less than two and a half geogr. miles; Colonel Chesney (Euphrat. and Ti- gris, ch. 8, p. 207) at 2.608 geogr. miles between Sardis and Thapsakus at 1.98 geogr. miles, between Thapsakus and Kunaxa, at something less than this, without specifying how much, during the retreat. It is evident that there is no certain basis to proceed upon, even for the earlier portion of the route ; much more, for the retreat. The distance between Ikonium and Dana (or Tyana), is one of the quantities on which Mr. Hamilton rests his calculation ; but we are by no means certain that Cyrus took the direct route of inarch ; he rather seems to have turned out of his way, partly to plunder Lykaonia. partly to conduct the Kilikian princess homeward. The other item, insisted upon by Mr. Hamilton, is the distance between Kelaense and Kolossse, two places the site of which seems well ascertained, and which are by the best modern maps, fifty-two geographical miles apart. Xenophon calls the distance twenty parasangs. Assuming the road by which he marched to have been the same with that now travelled, it would make the parasang of Xenophon = 2.6 geographical miles. I have before remarked that the road between Kolossae and Kelaena? was probably measured and numbered according to parasangs ; so that Xenophon, in giving the number of parasangs between these two places, would be speaking upon official authority. Even a century and a half afterwards, the geographer Eratosthenes found