[853] For this mesanculon see Gellius (Noctes Atticae, x. 25); Polybius, xxiii., 1, 9; Euripides (Phoenissae, 1141; Andromache, 1133); Alciphron, iii. 36.
[854] It was at this time that Harpalus, viceroy of Babylon, having squandered a great deal of the treasure committed to his charge, became frightened at the return of Alexander, and fled to Greece with 50,000 talents and 6,000 mercenary troops. See Diodorus, xvii. 108.
[855] The Eulaeus is now called Kara Su. After joining the Coprates it was called Pasitigris. It formerly discharged itself into the Persian Gulf, but now into the Shat-el-Arab, as the united stream of the Euphrates and Tigris is now called. In Dan. viii. 2, 16, it is called Ulai. Cf. Pliny, vi. 26, 31; xxxi. 21.
[856] The Greeks and Romans sometimes speak of Mesopotamia as a part of Syria, and at other times they call it a part of Assyria. The Hebrew and native name of this country was Aram Naharaim, or “Syria of the two rivers.”
[857] The Tigris now falls into the Euphrates.
[858] Cf. Arrian, iii. 7, supra; Curtius, iv. 37.
[859] Cf. Strabo, xvi. 1; Herodotus, i. 193; Ammianus, xxiv. 3, 14.
[860] Probably this city stood at the junction of the Tigris with the Physcus, or Odorneh. See Xenophon (Anab. ii. 4, 25); Herodotus, i. 189; Strabo, (xvi. 1) says that Alexander made the Tigris navigable up to Opis.
[861] Cf. Justin (xii. 11); Diodorus (xvii. 109); Curtius (x. 10, 11). These authors put the punishment of the ringleaders after the speech instead of before.
[862] Thracians mean mountaineers; Hellenes, warriors; Dorians, highlanders; Ionians, coast-men; and Aeolians, mixed men. See Donaldson (New Cratylus, sect. 92).