History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
138 (return) [ For the city and pass of Derbend, see D’Herbelot,
(Bibliot. Orient. p. 157, 291, 807,) Petit de la Croix. (Hist. de
Gengiscan, l. iv. c. 9,) Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, (tom.
i. p. 120,) Olearius, (Voyage en Perse, p. 1039—1041,) and
Corneille le Bruyn, (Voyages, tom. i. p. 146, 147:) his view may
be compared with the plan of Olearius, who judges the wall to be
of shells and gravel hardened by time.]
139 (return) [ Procopius, though with some confusion, always
denominates them Caspian, (Persic. l. i. c. 10.) The pass is now
styled Tatar-topa, the Tartar-gates, (D’Anville, Geographie
Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 119, 120.)]
1391 (return) [ Malte-Brun. tom. viii. p. 12, makes three passes:
1. The central, which leads from Mosdok to Teflis. 2. The
Albanian, more inland than the Derbend Pass. 3. The Derbend—the
Caspian Gates. But the narrative of Col. Monteith, in the Journal
of the Geographical Society of London. vol. iii. p. i. p. 39,
clearly shows that there are but two passes between the Black Sea
and the Caspian; the central, the Caucasian, or, as Col. Monteith
calls it, the Caspian Gates, and the pass of Derbend, though it
is practicable to turn this position (of Derbend) by a road a few
miles distant through the mountains, p. 40.—M.]
140 (return) [ The imaginary rampart of Gog and Magog, which was
seriously explored and believed by a caliph of the ninth century,
appears to be derived from the gates of Mount Caucasus, and a
vague report of the wall of China, (Geograph. Nubiensis, p.
267-270. Memoires de l’Academie, tom. xxxi. p. 210—219.)]
141 (return) [ See a learned dissertation of Baier, de muro
Caucaseo, in Comment. Acad. Petropol. ann. 1726, tom. i. p.
425-463; but it is destitute of a map or plan. When the czar
Peter I. became master of Derbend in the year 1722, the measure
of the wall was found to be 3285 Russian orgyioe, or fathom, each
of seven feet English; in the whole somewhat more than four miles
in length.]
142 (return) [ See the fortifications and treaties of Chosroes,
or Nushirwan, in Procopius (Persic. l. i. c. 16, 22, l. ii.) and
D’Herbelot, (p. 682.)] VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of
Athens and the consulship of Rome, which had given so many sages
and heroes to mankind. Both these institutions had long since
degenerated from their primitive glory; yet some reproach may be
justly inflicted on the avarice and jealousy of a prince, by
whose hand such venerable ruins were destroyed.
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