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To meet the difficulty that the road passes for three days' journey through Cilicia, Hogarth (Macan, ii. 299 f.) ingeniously suggested that the road did not cross the Euphrates at Tomisa (Isoli), but turned south by Kiakhta to the crossing at Samosata. He points out that the distance from the spine of Taurus to the Euphrates is three days' journey, that monuments of all ages abound along this route, and that Samosata was early of importance. He also appeals to Artemidorus' account (Strab. 663) of the κοινὴ ὁδός from the east as corresponding to the Royal road here. J. G. Anderson (J. H. S. xvii. 41) disputes this correspondence, and argues forcibly that the hilly district north of Mount Masius is far more suitable for a great road than the desert to the south of it, through which a road crossing at Samosata must pass. Further, the 56 1/2 parasangs assigned to Armenia correspond to the real distance from Tomisa on the Euphrates to the junction of the two streams forming the Tigris (Kiepert), while no geographer includes the desert south of Mount Masius in Armenia.

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