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The guards preceding the king kept their spear-heads lowered as a sign of respect; cf. iii. 128. 4.

ἱροί: sacred to Mithra.

Νησαῖοι or Νισαῖοι. The Nesaean breed of horses (iii. 106. 2; ix. 20. 5) was famous throughout antiquity, but the position of the plain is not quite clear. Arrian (Anab. vii. 13, cf. Strabo 525; Diodorus, xvii. 110) clearly identified it with the great pastures (λειμὼν ἱππόβοτος, Strabo) on the road from Ispahan and Behistun to Hamadan (Egbatana), where in ancient, as in modern times, great herds of thoroughbreds were kept. This, as H. says, is in Media, and might be the Median district Nisâya mentioned by Darius in the Behistun inscription (i. 13. 10). The region Nisâya in the Vendidad (i, §§ 8-26) is much further east, lying in the neighbourhood of Merv, i. e. Margiana; it might then be Nisaea, capital of Parthyene (Plin. vi. 113; cf. Isidor. Charax, p. 254. Miller), placed by Strabo (509, 511) near Hyrcania on the river Ochus.

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