re allowed the Mardians to be reduced,
conceiving, probably, that their transfer to the dominion of the
Arsacidse neither increased the Parthian power nor diminished his own.

But the nation which submits to be robbed of a province, however
unproductive and valueless, must look to having the process repeated
at intervals, until it bestirs itself and offers resistance. There is
reason to believe that Phraates had no sooner conquered the Mardians
than he cast his eyes on an adjacent district, and resolved to add it to
his territories. This was the tract lying immediately to the West of the
Caspian Gates, which was always reckoned to Media, forming, however,
a distinct district, know as Media Rhagiana. It was a region of much
natural fertility, being watered by numerous streams from the Elburz
range, and possessing a soil of remarkable productiveness. Its breadth
was not great, since it consisted of a mere strip between the mountains
and the Salt Desert which occupies the whole centre of the Iranic
tableland; but it extended in length at least a hundred and fifty miles,
from the Caspian Gates to the vicinity of Kasvin. Its capital city, from
a remote antiquity, was Rbages, situated near the eastern extremity
of the strip, probably at the spot now called Kaleh Erij, about
twenty-three miles from the "Gates." On this region it is clear that
Phraates cast a covetous eye. How much of it he actually occupied is
doubtful; but it is at least certain that he effected a lodgment in its
eastern extremity, which must have put the whole region in jeopardy.
Nature has set a remarkable barrier between the more eastern and the
more western portions of Occidental Asia, about midway in the tract
which lies due south of the Caspian Sea. The Elburz range in this part
is one of so tremendous a character, and northward abuts so closely
on the Caspian, that all communication between the east and the west
necessarily passes to the south of it. In this quarter the Great Desert
offering an insuperable obstacle to transit, the line of communication
has to cling to the flanks of the mountain chain, the narrow strip
between the mountains and the desert--rarely ten miles in width--being
alone traversable. But about long. 52 deg. 20' this strip itself fails. A
rocky spur runs due south from the Elburz into the desert for a distance
of some twenty or thirty miles, breaking the line of communication, and
seeming at first sight to obstruct it completely. T