Aracia
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Aracia was an island mentioned by Pliny.[1]
Variants
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Arak = Aracia (Pliny.vi.28)
History
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[2] mentions The Persian And The Arabian Gulfs. ....Here Persis begins, at the river Oratis13, which separates it from Elymais.14 Opposite to the coast of Persis, are the islands of Psilos, Cassandra, and Aracia, the last sacred to Neptune15, and containing a mountain of great height. Persis16 itself, looking towards the west, has a line of coast five hundred and fifty miles in length; it is a country opulent even to luxury, but has long since changed its name for that of "Parthia."17 I shall now devote a few words to the Parthian empire.
13 Now the Tab, falling into the Persian Gulf.
14 A district of Susiana, extending from the river Euleus on the west, to the Oratis on the east, deriving its name perhaps from the Elymæi, or Elymi, a warlike people found in the mountains of Greater Media. In the Old Testament this country is called Elam.
15 Ptolemy says that this last bore the name of "Alexander's Island."
16 Persis was more properly a portion only or province of the ancient kingdom of Persia. It gave name to the extensive Medo-Persian kingdom under Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, B.C. B.C. 559.
17 The Parthi originally inhabited the country south-east of the Caspian, now Khorassan. Under Arsaces and his descendants, Persis and the other provinces of ancient Persia became absorbed in the great Parthian empire. Parthia, with the Chorasmii, Sogdii, and Arii, formed the sixteenth satrapy under the Persian empire. See c. 16 of this Book.