The Identification of the Pinarus with the River Piyas Author(S): W

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The Identification of the Pinarus with the River Piyas Author(s): W. F. Ainsworth and E. H. Bunbury Source: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, Vol. 6, No. 8 (Aug., 1884), pp. 468-471 Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1800727 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 02:14

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This content downloaded from 185.2.32.21 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:14:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 468 CORRESPONDENCE. ' hears that name in the Adventures of the voyage of John Davis,' 1605; whilst Hondrius in the following year describes a group of small islands either for abbreviation or for prudence sake, as Ilhes digo. The maps of Gerard Mercator of 1613, and of Linschot, 1619, bear re? spectively the names Don Garcia and Diego gratiosa. One would think that the last name (Diego gratiosa) was introduced with great difficulty in the more recent maps, for if the editions of Hondrius and P. Bertius " published in 1640 give Diego gratiosa, others, such as the Plan of the " World of Blaen, published in 1647, corrupt the name by substituting a c for the t, of gratiosa it makes graciosa, as if to draw the name closer to the first word Garcia: and the cartographer of Robert Dudley in the same * year (1647) in the Arcano del Mare,' puzzled in the choice he has to make, calls it alternately, I. di Diego Grazia, I. de Diego gracia or graciosa, and, lastly, I. de grazia. It is very difficultto say how far this corruption has extended: a map of Philippe Buache, 1700, bears I. de gratia dios, and another, Guillaume Delisle, 1714, Divina gracia. The island appears as Diego Garcia for the first time, on a map of Joao Texeira (Lisbon, 1649) and reproduced by Thevenot. Guillaume Delisle himself, from the year 1720, describes it by no other name in the various maps he published, and the more modern maps retain the name definitely, with the exception, however, of an atlas of Sanson, 1733, in which it is marked Diego Bracia.

COREESPONDENCE.

The Identification of the Pinarus with the Biver Piyas. Eavenscourt Villa, Hammebsmith, June11, 1884. Sir,?Will you kindly allow me to make one or two observationsin respectto Sir Charles W. Wilson's identificationof the Pinarus with the river of Bayas (or Piyas as he writesit) in contradistinctionto the view advocated by myself in the eighth volume of the Journalof the Royal GeographicalSociety, of the identification of that riverwith the Deli Chai ? The identificationin question appears to have been adopted by Sir Charles Wilson on account of Arrian having made mention of the delight experienced by Alexander when he found that Darius had moved from the broader into the narrowerpart of the plain. But it may be permittedto observe that this would have applied to his leaving the plain of Urzin (whetherof Issus or of Epiphanea) below the Amanian Gates, rather than to his advancing on the plain beyond the Deli Chai to the river of Bayas. This latterplain is intersectedby narrow,deep, and impassable fissures,cut by mountaintorrents in a clayey alluvial soil; and as these are the beds of rivers,with perpendicularsides, although dry at times, they must have existed fromthe most ancienttimes. They may have been overlookedby Captain Bennet,as they join the main streamsbefore reaching the high road near the sea, but I have been obliged to etrace my steps for a long distance beforeI could reach the high road, by one of

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.21 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:14:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CORRESPONDENCE. 469 these nullahs. This is not the case with the plain of Urzin, which I have hunted badger over formiles withoutmeeting an interruption. It is quite true that the plain north of the Marble or Syrian Gates widens out northwardsuntil it attains its greatestwidth at the point wherethe Deli Chai and its tributariescross it. But the plain beyond this, to the westward,at the head of the Gulf of Issus, by Kara Kaya to the Cilician Gates, and northwardsby Guzeneh to the Amanian Gates, is farmore extensive than the plain of the Deli Chai, and, although this plain has also its rivulet,it is not cut up by impassable fissureslike that of the Deli Chai. It is more elevated and stoney,and has more vegetation than the plain betweenthe Deli Chai and the riverof Bayas. It is also dottedwith ruins,which is " not the case with the latterplain. As the battle is called by the historians the battle of Issus," the probabilitiesare in favourof a northerlysite. Cyrus is describedby Xenophon as marching15 parasangs,or 45 miles, fromthe Pyramus to Issus. This would correspondto the distance from that river to the plain of Urzin or to the Deli Chai. Then again, Cyrus made in one march five parasangs,or 15 miles, to the gates of Cilicia and Syria. That is the distance from the Deli Chai to the pass at Kersus, whereas it is only five or six miles fromthat " pass to the riverof Bayas. It is thereforeevident that Issus, at that time a large city, rich and well situated,"could not have been at Bayas, but must have been situated at or near the Deli Chai, most probably on the plain of Urzin. Arrian describesDarius as crossingthe mountain by the pass called the Amanian Gates, the Baghchi or Tchordan Kalehsi pass, both meeting at Asmaniyah and Toprak Kaleh. Hence he marched upon Issus, and thus placed himself in the rear of Alexander, who was ignorant of his movements. Next day he advanced to the Pinarus. Issus was thereforenot on the Pinarus, whether representedby the Deli Chai or the rivuletof Bayas, but betweenthe riverand the Amanian gates. Alexander,after returning from Myriandrus,at the footof the Bailan Pass, to the Marble Gates by a night march,descended, according to the same historian,with the dawn, fromthe gates, along the road, and as long as the pass was narrowhe led his army in columns,but as the defile expanded, he regularlyformed his column into line by bringingup his heavy armed troops successivelyto occupy the vacant' space between the main column and the mountain on the right and the sea on the left. This must have been, therefore,before reaching the river of Bayas. But, granting even that the battle began on that river, it would not constituteit the Pinarus, as Issus was at or nigh that river,and Issus was 15 miles fromthe Marble Gates, whereas the river of Bayas is only five or six. It is possible and probable, then, that Darius on his side advanced beyondor south of the Deli Chai or Pinarus to give battle, while Alexander, on his, opened or deployed fromcolumn into line as the countryexpanded towards the river of Bayas; but in all probabilitythe two opposed forcesdid not meet till on the plain between the river of Bayas and the Deli Chai. Had the riverof Bayas been the Pinarus, Darius would, to have reached that river,have had to march in one day 20 miles, instead of 10 or 15, to the Deli Chai. There is only a distance of fromfive to six miles betweenthe two rivers or their tributaries,and thereis about the same distanceto the Kersus. Had the battle taken place, then, half-way,that is at the riverof Bayas, such a factwould not have constitutedthat river the Pinarus. It is a mere rivulet,whilst the Deli Chai, or " " mad river,"after receiving the Koi Chai, or village river,"becomes a really small river. The battle was called, as beforesaid, the battle of Issus, on the Pinarus, which is the river nearest to Issus. In all probability Darius, having reached the Pinarus, would have moved in advance, resting his forcesupon the riverand its tributaries. His light Parthian horse could not then have acted on Alexander's

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.21 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:14:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 470 CORRESPONDENCE.

rightfrom the ravines that cut up the ground,and hence the Macedonian's delight that Darius had moved fromthe broader into the narrowerpart of the plain. Had the Persian host moved in frontor southwardsof Bayas, not only would therehave been no room forthe Persians to have utilised their large force,but, as they would have takenup half the distanceto the Kersus, therewould have been no room forthe Macedonians to deploy from column into line. This, then, constitutesanother objection to the identityof the Bayas rivulet with the Pinarus, superaddedto the question of distances,of the peculiaritiesin the movementsof the hostileforces, and of the vicinityof that riverto Issus. If the Bayas rivuletrepresented the Pinarus, we should expect to findin the neighbourhoodremnants of Issus or of Nikopolis,the " city of victory,"which rose upon the fieldof battle,or of the altars raised,according to Quintus Curtius (lib. iii. ch. xii.), by Alexander to Jupiter, Hercules, and Minerva, and which are mentioned by Cicero in his Epistles, and by Herodian in his History. But there are few relics of ancient times at Bayas, whilst on the plain beyond the Deli Chai are the extensiveruins in basalt near Urzin, the ruins at Kara Kaya, or the black rock,many fragmentaryremains on the riveritself, and arches of aqueducts and other relics on the way to the black or iron gate. The ' details of these various ruins are given in Lares and Penates; or Cilicia and its Governors' (1853), pp. 262 et seq. I must admit that I had always an inclination to adopt the identificationof Bayas with Issus and its riverwith the Pinarus, an identificationadvocated before my time by Pococke, and since by Mr. W. B. Barker, and now by Sir Charles W. Wilson. In the firstplace it is the central and most commandingposition on the gulf of same name. Its ancient castle on the sea-shore,and its revival in modern times under Sakali Muhammad Pasha, and its tenure by the notoriousTurcoman freebooterKutchuk Ali Gglu, with its bazaar, khan, and baths, the beau ideal of con- centrationin Csmanli architecture; its high and dry soil clothedwith a luxuriant vegetation,its serai and detached villages, buried in grovesof oranges,pomegranates, " myrtle,and oleander,and its correspondenceto Strabo's neat definition, a small town with an anchoringstation/' ali predisposedme in its favour. Alexander exhibited a presciencein foundingAlexandria on Issus, at the modern Iskandrun,similar to what he exhibited in the foundationof Alexandria in Egypt, in as far as regarded the future,when ships took the place of galleys; but still Bayas remains to the presentday the centralpoint in the gulfof Issus. These predilectionshad, however,to be givenup in the presenceof sternfacts,? distances,existing ruins, and historicalevidences. But whilst, then, it remainscertain that Issus was north of the Deli Chai, it is not quite so certainthat the battle was fought on the Deli Chai. Darius is, as we have before seen, described as advancing in one day's march from Issus to the Pinarus. Now the actual site of Issus not being positivelydetermined, if he had advanced fromUrzin to the Deli Chai he would have made some 14 or 15 miles?a fairday's journey; but if Issus was a little north of the Deli Chai, he may have arrivedat the riverof Bayas; or, again, he may have advanced to Bayas at the same time that Alexander advanced fromthe Marble Gates. It is remarkablethat Polybius (xii. 17), who criticisesCallisthenes' description of the battle,states on his authority,that Darius descendinginto Cilicia throughthe Pylas Amanides, encamped on the Pinarus, at a place where the distance between the mountainsand the sea was not more than 14 stadia; and that the river ran across this place into the sea, and that in its course throughthe level part, it had abrupt and difficulteminences. Unless this applied to the nullahs previously alluded to (and the wordused, \6$ovs, will not admit of such a reading) the descrip? tion correspondsto the Bayas-su, where the serai and villages, and the ruins of an

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.21 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:14:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CORRESPONDENCE. 471 ancient Christianbasilica, stand on or between ridges and eminences eastward of Bayas. But the descriptionwould also apply to the Deli Chai, supposing Darius to have encamped high up that river so as to obtain a greatercommand of the plain. " It is to be remarkedhere, in respectto the Baghtchi or little garden," that Mr. W. B. Barker had previouslycrossed the same; and some French travellers(I regret ' ' I cannot lay my hand on the Bulletin de la Socie'te de Geographie to give their names) describethe pass beyond Asmaniyah or Osmaniya,as dividing into two, one of which is defendedby a castle which they designate as Tchordan Kalessi. Sir Charles W. Wilson, I may furtherbe allowed to observe,is in errorwhen describing the remarkabledefile which dividesthe Taurus fromthe Giaour (Gawur) Tagh (here the Durdun Tagh), and throughwhich the Pyramus flows,as only pass- able on foot; as also in supposing that Captain Bennet is the only European who has visited it. During the explorations carried on in Taurus. at the time of the Euphrates 'expedition, General Chesney, Lieutenant Murphy,r.e., Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Thomson,and the writer,traversed the pass on horseback. True that one of the baggage horses toppledover, but it was rescued. This was as farback as the year 1835. Your obedientservant, W. F. Adtsworth, f.r.g.s. To the Assistant-SecretaryR.G.S.

*** We append here the followingnote on the above subject, with which Mr. E. H. Bunbury,the great authorityon all questions of classical geography,has favoured us [Ed.] :? " It appears to me that Mr. Ainsworthhas fairlyestablished his case in favour of the identificationof the Pinarus with the Deli Chai in preferenceto the Piyas or Baias?-as suggestedby Sir Charles Wilson?thus returningto the receivedview of all recentwriters on the subject. But I think them both decidedlyin the wrong in referringthe passage of Arrian (ii. 7) to the advance of Darius with his vast " army fromthe broader to the narrowerpart of the plain." That passage, taken in connection with the account in the preceding section (ii. j6) of the advance movementsof Darius, will be clearly seen to referto the decision of that monarch to abandon the positionhe had previouslyoccupied in thegreat open plain of Syria, east of the Amanus, and by crossing that range,involve himself in the narrow defiles and confinedspaces between it and the Gulf of Issus. Such a resolution was little short of insanity,and it was no wonder that Alexander at firstrefused to believe it. But as soon as he was convinced of it he instantlysaw the incal- culable advantage it had given him: he pointedit out to his troops as a proof of the special interpositionof the gods in their favour. How little adapted the country on the east side of the Gulf of Issus was forthe operationsof such an army as that of Darius, is sufiicientlyseen from Sir Charles Wilson's own map, insertedin the ' June number of our Proceedings.' " E. H. Bunbury."

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