FOOTNOTES:
[127] Gen. x. 29.
[128] Taking all things into consideration, it looks very much as if the Saphara of Ptolemy (vi. 7, 41), described as a metropolis of Arabia, was the original Ophir.
[129] 1 Sam. xviii.; xix. 8; xxvii. 8; 2 Chron. viii. 17, &c.
[130] 1 Chron. xxii. 8.
[131] 2 Chron. ix. 4.
[132] Stanley Lectures, xxvi. p. 182.
[133] 2 Chron. ix. 21.
[134] Herod. iv. 42. Voyage of Pharaoh Necho.
[135] Rich, “First Memoir,” p. 12.
[136] Chesney, Euphrat Exped. ii. 602-3.
[137] Cf. also Ammianus (“March of Julian,” xxiv. 3) and Zosimus (iii.) with Layard (“Nineveh” ii. 6), and Ker Porter (ii. p. 355), for the luxuriance of the date-bearing districts, and the general sylvan character of many of these plains.
[138] It has been supposed that the Babylonian vessels passed along the Persian Gulf, from Bussorah to Crokala near Kurachi, and that they there met the vessels of Gerrha and Tylos, and proceeded onwards along the western coast of Hindustan to Ceylon; but there seems little probability that any ships strictly Babylonian found their way to India. Probably between Ceylon and Babylon there was more than one transhipment of Indian and other produce.
[139] This Edict is a great curiosity. It was first copied by Sherard in 1709 at Eski-Hissar (Stratonicæa), and this copy is preserved in the Harleian MSS. at the British Museum, No. 7509. Leake, “Asia Minor,” pp. 229-239. It has been recently (1866) re-edited by Mr. W. H. Waddington with great care.
[140] Herod. i. 194. Compare, also, description of boats at Rhapta (Arrian’s Peripl. c. 16); and the name derived from the way the boats were made by being sewn together.
[141] See Journ. of Roy. Asiat. Soc. xix. 154.
[142] Menander ap. Joseph. Ant. Jud. ix. 14.
[143] Dion. lxxiv. Herod. i 80. Fellows’ “Asia Minor,” p. 281.
[144] Herod. i. 91.
[145] Heeren’s “Asiatic Nations,” vol. i. p. 70.
[146] The fisheries of the Black Sea were also particularly famous in ancient times, the brackish waters of the Sea of Azov providing excellent breeding grounds. Plin. ix. 15. Ælian. De Animal, xv. 5. Athen. vii. p. 303. Polyb. iv. c. 5.
[147] Herod. iv. 24.
[148] Some of the names of the tribes near the Caspian, as the Arimaspi, bear names which are compounded of the Sanscrit word for “horse.”
[149] Herod. i. 203.
[150] Heeren’s “Asiatic Nations,” vol. ii. p. 32.
[151] There seems reason to doubt whether the Oxus ever flowed into the Caspian Sea—it now flows into the Aral. (See Alex. Burnes’s “Journey to Bokhara,” ii. p. 188.) On the other hand, Conolly believed he crossed the bed of the river which did formerly flow by one branch into the Caspian. (“Travels,” i. p. 50.) Dr. Vincent goes so far as to express his belief that communication between the west and east, by one of the routes specified above, was even more ancient than that by the Red Sea. (“Commerce of the Euxine,” p. 113.)