XL] CAMPAIGNS OF POMPEY. 219
formed by the stream of the Euphrates just where it leaves
Armenia, and within which the western branch of the Tigris
rises; and from thence he marched on Tigranocerta, the newly
founded capital of Tigranes, which he captured. The site of that
city has been much disputed, and perhaps the shortness of the
period during which it flourished, and the consequent absence of
such means of identification as coins, may render it impossible to
determine it with certainty, but the position which best corresponds
with the statements of Strabo and Tacitus, the most weighty
authorities on the subject, and which also suits the accounts of
Lucullus' campaign, is that of a village called Tel Ermen, a little
distance to the south-west of Mardin, at which considerable remains
of antiquity are found1. The river Arsanias, on the banks of
which Lucullus defeated the combined forces of Mithridates and
Tigranes, is almost certainly the Murad, or eastern branch of the
Euphrates, which Xenophon also crossed8. After this Lucullus
subdued the important fortress of Nisibis in Mesopotamia; but
here his successes ended in consequence of the insubordination
which prevailed among his troops, and he was superseded in his
command, Pompey being appointed in his stead.
""" The campaigns which followed under the leadership of that
general were productive of far more important re- pom e in
suits to geography, for in the course of them accurate ibcna and
information was obtained concerning the lands that
lay between the Black Sea and the Caspian. For some time after
his arrival Pompey was engaged in expelling Mithridates from
Asia Minor, where he had recovered a large part of his dominion's
during the absence of Lucullus in Mesopotamia; and after he had
accomplished this he advanced into Armenia, where Tigranes
submitted to him without a struggle. He was thus at liberty to
follow Mithridates, who had retired, first into Colchis, and after-
wards by a difficult route along the shore of the Euxine, until Le
reached Panticapaeum (Kertch) on the European side of the
Cimmerian Bosporus, which place he hoped to make a starting-
point for further resistance. In the course of his pursuit Pompey
1 Sachau, Ueber die Lage von Tigranokerta; Berlin, 1881.
8 See Pliny, ff. N., 6. 128; and cp. the author's Turkish Armenia^ pp.