TAPU´RI(Τάπουροιor Τάπυροι, Strab. 11. p. 520; Plin. Nat. 6.16. s. 18), a tribe whose name and probable habitations appear, at different periods of history, to have been extended along a wide space of country from Armenia to the eastern side of the Oxus. Strabo places them alongside the Caspian Gates and Rhagae, in Parthia, (11. p. 514), or between the Derbices and Hyrcani (11. p. 520), or in company with the Amardi and other people along the southern shores of the Caspian (11. p. 523); in which last view Curtius (Curt. 6.4.24, 8.1.13), Dionysius (de Situ Orbis, 733), and Pliny (Plin. Nat. 6.16. s. 18) may be considered to coincide. Ptolemy in one place reckons them among the tribes of Media (6.2.6), and in another ascribes them to Margiana (6.10.2). Their name is written with some differences in different authors; thus Τάπουροιand Τάπυροιoccur in Strabo; Tapuri in Pliny and Curtius; Τάπυρροιin Steph. B. There can be no doubt that the present district of Taberistánderives its name from them. Aelian (Ael. VH 3.13) gives a peculiar description of the Tapuri who dwelt in Media. (Wilson, Ariana, p. 157.)
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