Amardus or Mardus ( grc, Ἀμάρδος, Μάρδος, Amárdos, Márdos) was a river of

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

, mentioned by

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...

in his confused description of the Persian provinces and by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

places it in Media, and if we take his numbers as correct, its source is in the Zagrus. The river flows north, and enters the southern coast of the

Caspian Caspian can refer to: *The Caspian Sea *The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea *The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea *Caspian languages, collection of languages and dialects of Caspian peopl ...

. William Smith equates the river to the modern

Sefīd-Rūd The Sefid-Rud ( fa, سفیدرود, lit=white river, glk, اسپي بيه, ''Espī bīeh'') (also known as Sepid-Rud) is a river approximately long, rising in the Alborz mountain range of northwestern Iran and flowing generally northeast to ent ...

river. As Ptolemy places the

Amardi The Amardian Achaemenid_Empire.html"_;"title="satrap_shown_within_a_map_of_the_Achaemenid_Empire">satrap_shown_within_a_map_of_the_Achaemenid_Empire_at_its_greatest_extent_(500_BC). The_Amardians,_widely_referred_to_as_the_Amardi_(and_sometimes_ ...

round the south coast of the Caspian and extending into the interior, we may suppose that they were once at least situated on and about this river.

References

Rivers of Iran Classical geography {{Iran-river-stub