Book 12
2.3
In the Anti-Taurus are deep and narrow valleys, in which is situated Comana,Supposed to be Al-Bostan. and the temple of Enyus (Bellona). which they call Ma. It is a considerable city. It contains a very great multitude of persons who at times are actuated by divine impulse, and of servants of the temple. It is inhabited by Cataonians, who are chiefly under the command of the priest, but in other respects subject to the king. The former presides over the temple, and has authority over the servants belonging to it, who, at the time that I was there, exceeded in number six thousand persons, including men and women. A large tract of land adjoins the temple, the revenue of which the priest enjoys. He is second in rank in Cappadocia after the king, and, in general, the priests are descended from the same family as the kings. Orestes, when he came hither with his sister Iphigenia from Tauric Scythia,The Crimea. is thought to have introduced the sacred rites performed in honour of Diana Tauropolus, and to have deposited here the tresses (Coman, κόμην.) of mourning, from which the city had the name of Comana.
2.3
The river Sarus flows through this city, and passes out through the valleys of the Taurus to the plains of Cilicia, and to the sea lying below them.
