[3788] Salmasius has confounded these cataracts with those of Nachour, or Elegia, previously mentioned. It is evident, however, that they are not the same.
[3789] Now called Someisat. In literary history, it is celebrated as being the birth-place of the satirist Lucian. Nothing remains of it but a heap of ruins, on an artificial mound.
[3790] In the district of Osrhoëne, in the northern part of Mesopotamia. It was situate on the Syrtus, now the Daisan, a small tributary of the Euphrates. Pliny speaks rather loosely when he places it in Arabia. It is supposed that it bore the name of Antiochia during the reign of the Syrian king, Antiochus IV. The modern town of Orfahor Unfah is supposed to represent its site.
[3791] “The beautiful stream.” It is generally supposed that this was another name of Edessa.
[3792] Supposed to be the Haran, or Charan, of the Old Testament. It was here, as alluded to by Pliny, that Crassus was defeated and slain by the Parthian general, Surena. It was situate in Osroëne, in Mesopotamia, and not far from Edessa. According to Stephanus, it had its name from Carrha, a river of Syria, and was celebrated in ancient times for its temple of Luna, or Lunus.
[3793] According to Strabo, the Aborras, now the Khabur, flowed round this town. By Tacitus it is called Anthemusias. According to Isidorus of Charax, it lay between Edessa and the Euphrates.
[3794] Now Rakkah, a fortified town of Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates, near the mouth of the river Bilecha. It was built by order of Alexander the Great, and completed probably by Seleucus. It is supposed to have been the same place as Callinicum, the fortifications of which were repaired by Justinian. Its name was changed in later times to Leontopolis by the Emperor Leo.
[3795] Now called Sinjar, according to Brotier. Some writers imagine that this was the site of “the plain in the land of Shinar,” on which the Tower of Babel was built, mentioned in the Book of Genesis, xi. 2.
[3796] Mentioned in C. [17] of the present Book.
[3797] Probably not that in the district of Cassiotis, and on the western bank of the Orontes, mentioned in C. [19] of the present Book. Of this locality nothing seems to be known, except that Dupinet states that it is now called Adelphe by the Turks.