Buana

BUANA (Βουάνα, Ptol. 5.13.21), a city of Armenia, about the site of which there has been considerable difference of opinion. Rawlinson (Lond. Geog. Journ. vol. 10. p. 90) considers that the great city of Salban, with the capture of which the second campaign of Heraclius terminated (Theophanes, p. 260; comp. Milman's Gibbon, vol. 8. p. 245; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. 11. p. 186), is the same word which is written Buana by Ptolemy, and Iban by Cedrenus (2. p. 774). Sâl is evidently the Kurdish Shál or Shár (for the l and r are constantly confounded), signifying a city, and Salban thus becomes the city of Ván. According to this view, the second campaign of Heraclius, in which Gibbon supposes him to have penetrated into the heart of Persia, must be confined to the countries bordering on the Araxes. D'Anville, who has illustrated the campaign of Heraclius (Mém. de l'Acad. vol. xxviii. pp. 559--573), has not attempted to fix a site for Salban, and finds in Artemita [ARTEMITA] the ancient representative of Ván.