At present the Persians are a separate people, governed by kings, who are subject to other kings; to the kings of Macedon in former times, but now to those of Parthia.
BOOK XVI.
SUMMARY
The sixteenth Book contains Assyria, in which are the great cities Babylon and Nisibis; Adiabene, Mesopotamia, all Syria; Phœnicia, Palestine; the whole of Arabia; all that part of India which touches upon Arabia; the territory of the Saracens, called by our author Scenitis; and the whole country bordering the Dead and Red Seas.
CHAPTER I.
1. Assyria is contiguous to Persia and Susiana. This name is given to Babylonia, and to a large tract of country around; this tract contains Aturia,[475] in which is Nineveh, the Apolloniatis, the Elymæi, the Parætacæ, and the Chalonitis about Mount Zagrum,[476]—the plains about Nineveh, namely, Dolomene, Calachene, Chazene, and Adiabene,—the nations of Mesopotamia, bordering upon the Gordyæi;[477] the Mygdones about Nisibis, extending to the Zeugma[478] of the Euphrates, and to the great range of country on the other side that river, occupied by Arabians, and by those people who are properly called Syrians in the present age. This last people extend as far as the Cilicians, Phœnicians, and Jews, to the sea opposite the Sea of Egypt, and to the Bay of Issus.
2. The name of Syrians seems to extend from Babylonia as far as the Bay of Issus, and, anciently, from this bay to the Euxine.
Both tribes of the Cappadocians, those near the Taurus and those near the Pontus, are called to this time Leuco-Syrians (or White Syrians),[479] as though there existed a nation of Black Syrians. These are the people situated beyond the Taurus, and I extend the name of Taurus as far as the Amanus.[480]