EASTERN STATES AND NATIONS.
part of Armenia, the country north of Erzeroum1 Georgia,
(Iberia), Imereti (Colchis), Daghestan and the nations south о
the Kuban, were tributary to him. The Bosporus, and the
Greek towns in the Crimea were really a province of his
empire; but his influence extended as far as the river
Dniester, and this influence was, in fact a sort of feudal
sovereignty. His connexions extended even beyond the
Danube, and as far as the frontiers of the Roman empire
in Thrace. The Seleucidan kingdom had become quite
extinct. After the death of Demetrius II., the succession
was disputed; and the consequence was, that the kingdom
was divided into small principalities, which although they
were very weak, made war upon one another with great
fury. It was only in a single district of the coast that one
Antiochus maintained himself as king ; but he in vain
implored the support of the Romans; and the other parts
longing for peace readily recognised Tigranes as their king.
His dominion extended from the frontier of Erzeroum to
Coele-Syria, embracing Great Armenia, Kurdistan, Mesopo-
tamia, the north of Syria, Hyrcania and a part of Cilicia—
a very rich and mighty empire. The Parthian empire, to
the east of that of Tigranes, comprised nearly the whole of
modern Persia and Babylonia: in the eastern parts of Persia,
Bactrian kings seem still to have maintained themselves, and to
have possessed a part of Korasan, unless it was already oc-
cupied by the Scythians. At the time of the outbreak of the
war of Pompey, Media perhaps did not yet belong to the Par-
thian empire, which was, however, in a state of considerable
weakness. It was probably governed in the same manner as
Assyria had been in former and its provinces were under the
administration of princes of the royal family, whose relation
to the sovereign was that of feudal kings, so that the Parthian
kings were literally kings of kings. The towns on the coast
of Phoenicia and all Coele-Syria were free; Judaea and Jeru-
salem likewise formed a free state; and some of its princes
(tetrarchs), of the house of the Maccabees, even bore the title
of king. Coele-Syria was divided among several princes of
this kind, who were called tetrarchs.
Egypt, under the Ptolemies, was confined within its nar-
rowest limits, from the brook Aegyptus to Elephantine, but
was, nevertheless, a very rich country. It is a mere chance,
EGYPT-NUMIDIA — GAUL-GERMANY.
that we know that the kings of Egypt still had a revenue of
three millions sterling1, for they were the only proprietors of
the soil; but, as a state, Egypt was very weak and contempt-
ible, and going rapidly towards its dissolution. In Asia
Minor, the Eomans under Servilius Isauiicus, had recently
conquered the Pisidians, Lycians, and Pamphylians. These coun-
tries had, till then, been free, the former ever since the Anti-
ochian war, and the latter since the disputes with the Ehodians.
A portion of Cilicia was yet independent, but in a state of
complete decay, and divided into petty states, which were real
nests of pirates. Cyprus was a dependency of Egypt, but
governed by its own kings.
After the death of Jugurtha, Numidia, though it was un-
doubtedly confined to much narrower limits than in the time
of Jugurtha, was still a kingdom, and governed by another
descendant of Masinissa, whose name is not known with cer-
tainty; for the genuineness of the inscription in Beincsius in
which Gauda is mentioned, and which is the only authority
for it, has justly been doubted.2 In Sulla’s time, Numidia
was governed by one Hiempsal. Africa, the province, was of
course governed by Boman proconsuls.
The Gallic tribes which had formerly been so much harassed
by their kinsmen, still dwelt on the Danube, such as the
Scordiscans and Tauriscans, and, somewhat higher up, the
Boians. The tribes of Noricum practically acknowledged the
supremacy of Eomc. The German tribes, at this time, scarcely
extended further South than the river Main. A line, running
from the Ehine between the Main and Ncckar across the
Odenwald, Spessart, and the Thilringerwald into the heart of
modern Poland, was then, in all probability, the southern
frontier of the German tribes.
The consulship of Pompcy and Crassus became remarkable
for a constitutional change introduced by the praetor L.
Aurelius Cotta. Many of the institutions of Sulla, especially
that by which he had transferred the judicia from the équités
co the senate, had become so odious and detestable in their
consequences, that many honest men of the ruling party itself
did not feel disposed to support them : the good men among
1 Strabo, xvii. p. 798.
2 No one knows where the Oiiginal inscription ; ∙, and e are only told that it
was discovered in the sixteenth ceutιny.—N.
B 2