[913] Justin (xxi. 6) says that the Carthaginians sent Hamilcar to learn Alexander’s real designs against them, under the pretence of being an exile offering his services.
[914] Cf. Diodorus, xvii. 113.
[915] Aristus was a man of Salamis in Cyprus. Neither his work nor that of Asclepiades is extant. Aristus is mentioned by Athenæus (x. 10) and Strabo (lib. xv.).
[916] Livy (ix. 18) says he does not think the contemporary Romans even knew Alexander by report.
[917] These are what Hirtius (Bell. Alex. 11) calls “naves apertas et constratas.”
[919] See p. 199, note [499]. Strabo (xi. 7) says that Aristobulus declared the Oxus to be the largest river which he had seen except those in India.
[920] See p. 198, note [498]. The Oxus and Jaxartes really flow into the Sea of Aral, or the Palus Oxiana, which was first noticed by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6, 59) in the 4th century A.D. Ptolemy, however, mentions it as a small lake, and not as the recipient of these rivers. Cf. Pliny, vi. 18.
[921] The Araxes, or Aras, joins the Cyrus, or Kour, and falls into the Caspian Sea. It is now called Kizil-Ozan, or Red River. Its Hebrew name is Chabor (2 Kings xvii. 6). Pontem indignatus Araxes (Vergil, Aeneid, viii. 728). See Aeschўlus (Prometheus, 736), Dr. Paley’s note.
[922] As to the Chaldaeans, see Cicero (De Div., i. 1) and Diod. (ii. 29-31).