[3778] It is generally supposed that “twenty-four” would be the correct reading here.
[3779] There were two places of this name. The one here spoken of was a town of Lesser Armenia, on the right bank of the Euphrates, at the first, or principal curve, which takes place before the river enters Mount Taurus. It is represented by the modern Iz Oghlu.
[3780] No other writer is found to make mention of the Lycus, which flows into the Euphrates, though there is a river formerly so called, which flows into the Tigris below Larissa, the modern Nimroud. D’Anville is of opinion, that it is formed from the numerous springs, called by the people of the district Bing-gheul, or the “Thousand Springs.”
[3781] Now called the Myrad-Chaï. Ritter considers it to be the south arm of the Euphrates. The Arsanus is mentioned by no writer except Pliny.
[3782] The defile at this place is now called the Cataract of Nachour, according to Parisot.
[3783] The more general reading here is “Omira.” Hardouin is of opinion, that this is the district referred to in the Book of Judith, ii. 24. In the Vulgate, it appears to be twice called the river Mambre; but in our version it is called Arbonaï.
[3784] Burnouf has concluded, from a cuneiform inscription which he deciphered, that the name of this people was Ayurâ, and that Hardouin is wrong in conjecturing that it was a name derived from the Greek ὄρος, “a mountain,” and designating the people as a mountain tribe. If Burnouf is right, the proper reading here would seem to be Arœi, or Arrhœi.
[3785] The length of the schœnus has been mentioned by our author in C. [11] of the present Book. M. Saigey makes the Persian parasang to be very nearly the same length as the schœnus of Pliny.
[3786] Commagene was a district in the north of Syria, bounded by the Euphrates on the east, by Cilicia on the west, and by Amanus on the north. Its capital was Samosata.
[3787] The place here spoken of by Pliny is probably the same mentioned by Ptolemy as in Cataonia, one of the provinces of Cappadocia. According to Parisot, the site of the place is called at the present day ‘Ra Claudie.’