[14] Ritter: Erdkunde, Vol. VII. p. 961.
[15] Procopius makes the same observation: De Bell. Per., II. 20.
[16] It is so given in the Antonine Itinerary: Hierapoli—Thilaticomum—Bathnas—Edissa.
[17] Ammianus Marcellinus, Bk. XXIII. ch. ii. 7.
[18] Chapot, op. cit. p. 281.
[19] Chapot believes that the passage was effected at a point north of Cæciliana, which would fit in with Tell Aḥmar: op. cit. p. 254, note 5.
[20] Mr. Hogarth suggests that the Abbess Ætheria crossed at Tell Aḥmar on her way to Edessa: loc. cit. p. 183.
[21] Birejik and the Tell Aḥmar passage (whatever may have been its ancient name) and Thapsacus do not exhaust the number of recorded routes, for Chosroes, in his first expedition against Justinian, crossed at Obbanes, somewhere about the modern Meskeneh, and on his third expedition he built a bridge of boats near Europus, which is perhaps the modern Jerâblus. (Mr. Hogarth doubts the accepted identification of Jerâblus with Europus: Annals of Arch. and Anthrop., Vol. II. p. 169.) During the Mohammedan period other points are mentioned. Ibn Khurdâdhbeh, writing in the ninth century, makes the road from Aleppo to Babylon cross at Bâlis, the ancient Barbalissos (ed. de Goeje, p. 74), but Iṣṭakhrî, a hundred years later, says that Bâlis, though it was once the Syrian port on the Euphrates, had fallen into decay since the days of Seif ed Dauleh, and was little used by merchants (ed. de Goeje, p. 62). In the twelfth century, and perhaps earlier, its place had been taken by Ḳal’at en Nejm, where Nûr ed Dîn, who died in 1145, built a great fortress, famous during the wars against the Crusaders. The bridge there was called Jisr Manbij (“the bridge of Manbij”), but it cannot have been constructed by Nûr ed Dîn, for Ibn Jubeir, writing about the year 1185 a description of his journey from Ḥarrân (Carrhae) to Manbij, says that he “crossed the river in small boats, lying ready, to a new castle called Ḳal’at en Nejm” (Gibb Memorial edition, p. 248). In Yâḳût’s day (circa 1225) the caravans from Ḥarrân to Syria always crossed here.
[22] Ammianus Marcellinus, Bk. XXIII. ch. ii. 6.
[23] The Buildings of Justinian (Palest. Pilgrims’ Text Society), p. 66.