[481] Probably walls built for the protection of certain districts. Such was the διατείχισμα Σεμιράμιδος, constructed between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and intended, together with canals brought from those rivers, to protect Babylon from the incursions of the Arabian Scenitæ or Medes. B. ii.
[482] κλίμακες, roads of steep ascent, with steps such as may be seen in the Alps of Europe; the word differs from ὁδοὶ, roads below, inasmuch as the former roads are only practicable for travellers on foot and beasts of burthen, the latter for carriages also.
[483] The union of these two names, says Kramer, is remarkable, and still more so is the insertion of the article τῆς before them: he, therefore, but with some hesitation, suggests that the word μάχης has been omitted in the text by the copyist.
[484] Assyrians.
[485] Erbil.
[486] Called also Zabus, Zabatus, and Zerbes, now the Great Zab.
[487] Adopting Kramer’s reading, καὶ ἃ.
[488] Probably a branch of the Karadgeh-dagh.
[489] The Little Zab, or Or.
[490] As the name Artacene occurs nowhere else, Groskurd, following Cellarius (v. Geogr. Ant. i. 771), suspects that here we ought to read Arbelene, and would understand by it the same district which is called Arbelitis by Ptolemy, vi. 1, and by Pliny, H. N. vi. 13, § 16, but as this form of the national name is nowhere to be found, it would appear improper to introduce it into the text. It is more probable, continues Kramer, that Strabo wrote Adiabene, of which Arbelitis was a part, according to Pliny, loco citato.