[491] The same, no doubt, as the goddess Anaïtis. B. xi. c. viii. § 4, and b. xv. c. iii. § 15.
[492] All manuscripts agree in giving this number, but critics agree also in its being an error for 365. The number of stadia in the wall, according to ancient authors, corresponded with the number of days in the year.
[493] That is, at a short distance from the Persian Gulf, a little more to the south than the modern town Basra.
[494] Some extensive ruins near the angle formed by the Adhem (the ancient Physcus) and the Tigris, and the remains of the Nahr-awan canal, are said to mark the site of Opis.
[495] The name Cœle-Syria, or Hollow Syria, which was properly applied to the district between Libanus and Antilibanus, was extended also to that part of Syria which borders upon Egypt and Arabia; and it is in this latter sense that Strabo here speaks of Cœle-Syria. So also Diodorus Siculus, i. § 30, speaks of “Joppa in Cœle-Syria;” and Polybius, v. 80, § 2, of “Rhinocolura, the first of the cities in Cœle-Syria;” and Josephus, Ant. Jud. xiii. 13, § 2, “of Scythopolis of Cœle-Syria.”
[496] El-Arish.
[497] El-Kas near Sebakit-Bardoil, the ancient lake Serbonis.
[498] Barathra.
[499] Strabo has misunderstood the meaning of Eratosthenes, who had said that the excess of the waters of the Euphrates sunk into the ground and reappeared under the form of torrents, which became visible near “Rhinocolura in Cœle-Syria and Mt. Casius,” the Casius near Egypt. Our author properly observes that the length and nature of the course contradicts this hypothesis: but, misled by the names Cœle-Syria and Casius, he forgets that the Casius of Egypt and the district bordering upon Egypt, improperly called Cœle-Syria, are here in question; he transfers the first name to Cœle-Syria of Libanus, and the second to Mt. Casius near Seleucia and Antioch, and adds that, according to the notion of Eratosthenes, the waters of the Euphrates would have to traverse Libanus, Antilibanus, and the Casius (of Syria), whilst Eratosthenes has not, and could not, say any such thing. The hypothesis of Eratosthenes could not, indeed, be maintained, but Strabo renders it absurd. The error of our author is the more remarkable, as the name of the city Rhinocolura ought necessarily to have suggested to him the sense in which the words Casius and Cœle-Syria should be understood.
[500] καὶ οὕτως πλημμυρεῖν. These words are, as Kramer proposes, transferred from below. There can be no meaning given to them as they stand in the text, which is here corrupt.