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ALBA´NIA ( Ἀλβανία: Eth. and Adj. Ἀλβανός, Ἀλβάνιος, Albanus, Albanius), a country of Asia, lying about the E. part of the chain of Caucasus. The first distinct information concerning it was obtained by the Romans and Greeks through Pompey's expedition into the Caucasian countries in pursuit of Mithridates (B.C. 65); and the knowledge obtained from then to the time of Augustus is embodied in Strabo's full description of the country and people (pp. 501, foll.). According to him, Albania was bounded on the E. by the Caspian, here called the Albanian Sea (Mare Albanum, Plin.); and on the N. by the Caucasus, here called Ceraunius Mons, which divided it from Sarmatia Asiatica. On the W. it joined Iberia: Strabo gives no exact boundary, but he mentions as a part of Albania the district of Cambysene, that is, the valley of the Camnbyses, where he says the Armenians touch both the Iberians and the Albanians. On the S. it was divided from the Great Armenia by the river Cyrus (Kour). Later writers give the N. and W. boundaries differently. It was found that the Albanians dwelt on both sides of the Caucasus, and accordingly Pliny carries the country further N. as far as the river Casius (6.13. s. 15); and he also makes the river ALAZON (Alasan) the W. boundary towards Iberia (6.10. s. 11). Ptolemy (5.12) names the river Soana (Σοάνα) as the N. boundary; and for the W. he assigns a line which he does not exactly describe, but which, from what follows, seems to lie either between the Alazon and the Cambyses, or even W. of the Cambyses. The Soana of Ptolemy is probably the Sulak or S. branch of the great river Terek (mth. in 43° 45′ N. lat.), S. of which Ptolemy mentions the Gerrhus (Alksay?); then the Caesius, no doubt the Casius of Pliny (Koisou); S. of Which again both Pliny and Ptolemy place the Albanus (prob. Samour), near the city of Albana (Derbent). To these rivers, which fall into the Caspian N. of the Caucasus, Pliny adds the Cyrus and its tributary, the Cambyses. Three other tributaries of the Cyrus, rising in the Caucasus, are named by Strabo as navigable rivers, the Sandobanes, Rhoetaces, and Canes. The country corresponds to the parts of Georgia called Schirvan or Guirvan, with the addition (in its wider extent) of Leghistan and Daghestan. Strabo's description of the country must, of course, be understood as applying to the part of it known in his time, namely, the plain between the Caucasus and the Cyrus. Part of it, namely, in Cambysene (on the W.), was mountainous; the rest was an extensive plain. The mud brought down by the Cyrus made the land along the shore of the Caspian marshy, but in general it was extremely fertile, producing corn, the vine, and vegetables of various kinds almost spontaneously; in some parts three harvests were gathered in the year from one sowing, the first of them yielding fifty-fold. The wild and domesticated animals were the finest of their kind; the dogs were able to cope with lions: but there were also scorpions and venomous spiders (the tarantula). Many of these particulars are confirmed by modern travellers.

The inhabitants were a fine race of men, tall and handsome, and more civilised than their neighbours the Iberians. They had evidently been originally a nomade people, and they continued so in a great degree. Paying only slight attention to agriculture, they lived chiefly by hunting, fishing, and the produce of their flocks and herds. They were a warlike race, their force being chiefly in their cavalry, but not exclusively. When Pompey marched into their country, they met him with an army of 60,000 infantry, and 22,000 cavalry. (Plut. Pomp. 35.) They were armed with javelins and bows and arrows, and leathern helmets and shields, and many of their cavalry were clothed in complete armour. (Plut. l.c.; Strab. p. 530.) They made frequent predatory attacks on their more civilised agricultural neighbours of Armenia. Of peaceful industry they were almost ignorant; their traffic was by barter, money being scarcely known to them, nor any regular system of weights and measures. Their power of arithmetical computation is said to have only reached to the number 100. (Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 729.) They buried the moveable property of the dead with them, and sons received no inheritance from their fathers; so that they never accumulated wealth. We find among them the same diversity of race and language that still exists in the regions of the Caucasus; they spoke 26 different dialects, and [p. 1.90]were divided into 12 hordes, each governed by its own chief, but all, in Strabo's time, subject to one king. Among their tribes were the Legae (Λῆγαι), whose name is still preserved in Leghistan, and Gelae (Γῆλαι) in the mountains on the N. and NW. (Strab. p. 503), and the Gerrhi (Γέρροι) on the river Gerrhus (Ptol.).

The Albanians worshipped a deity whom Strabo identifies with Zeus, and the Sun, but above all the Moon, whose temple was near the frontier of Iberia. Her priest ranked next to the king: and had under his command a rich and extensive sacred domain, and a body of temple-slaves (ἱερόδουλοι), many of whom prophesied in fits of frenzy. The subject of such a paroxysm was seized as he wandered alone through the forests, and kept a year in the hands of the priests, and then offered as a sacrifice to Selene; and auguries were drawn from the manner of his death: the rite is fully described by Strabo.

The origin of the Albanians is a much disputed point. It was by Pompey's expedition into the Caucasian regions in pursuit of Mithridates (B.C. 65) that they first became known to the Romans and Greeks, who were prepared to find in that whole region traces of the Argonautic voyage. Accordingly the people were said to have descended from Jason and his comrades (Strab. pp. 45, 503, 526; Plin. Nat. 6.13. s. 15; Solin. 15); and Tacitus relates (Ann. 6.34) that the Iberi and Albani claimed descent from the Thessalians who accompanied Jason, of whom and of the oracle of Phrixus they preserved many legends, and that they abstained from offering rams in sacrifice. Another legend derived them from the companions of Hercules, who followed him out of Italy when he drove away the oxen of Geryon; and hence the Albanians greeted the soldiers of Pompey as their brethren. (Just. 42.3.) Several of the later writers regard them as a Scythian people, akin to the Massagetae, and identical with the Alani; and it is still disputed whether they were, or not, original inhabitants of the Caucasus. [ALANI]

Of the history of Albania there is almost nothing to be said. The people nominally submitted to Pompey, but remained really independent.

Ptolemy mentions several cities of Albania, but none of any consequence except Albana (Derbend), which commanded the great pass on the shore of the Caspian called the Albaniae or Caspiae Pylae (Pass of Derbend). It is formed by a NE. spur of Caucasus, to which some geographers give the name of Ceraunius M., which Strabo applied to the E. part of Caucasus itself. It is sometimes confounded with the inland pass, called CAUCASIAE PYLAE. The Gangara or Gaetara of Ptolemy is supposed to be Bakou, famous for its naphtha springs. Pliny mentions Cabalaca, in the interior, as the capital. Respecting the districts of Caspiene and Cambysene, which some of the ancient geographers mention as belonging to Albania, see the separate articles. (Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2, pp. 561, &c.; Georgii, vol. i. pp. 151, &c.)


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  • Cross-references from this page (2):
    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 6.13
    • Plutarch, Pompey, 35
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