(25.) Beyond their district, in the direction of India, is said to be the desert island of Caicandrus, fifty miles out at sea; near to which, with a strait flowing between them, is Stoidis, celebrated for its valuable pearls. After passing the promontory[487] are the Armozei,[488] joining up to the Carmani; some writers, however, place between them the Arbii,[489] extending along the shore a distance of four hundred and twenty-one miles. Here is a place called Portus Macedonum,[490] and the Altars of Alexander, situate on a promontory, besides the rivers Saganos, Daras, and Salsa. Beyond the last river we come to the promontory of Themisteas, and the island of Aphrodisias, which is peopled. Here Persis begins, at the river Oratis,[491] which separates it from Elymais.[492] Opposite to the coast of Persis, are the islands of Psilos, Cassandra, and Aracia, the last sacred to Neptune,[493] and containing a mountain of great height. Persis[494] itself, looking towards the west, has a line of coast five hundred and fifty miles in length; it is a country opulent even to luxury, but has long since changed its name for that of “Parthia.”[495] I shall now devote a few words to the Parthian empire.
CHAP. 29.—THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE.
The kingdoms[496] of Parthia are eighteen in all: such being the divisions of its provinces, which lie, as we have already stated, along the Red Sea to the south, and the Hyrcanian to the north. Of this number the eleven, called the Higher provinces, begin at the frontiers of Armenia and the shores of the Caspian, and extend to the Scythians, whose mode of life is similar in every respect. The other seven kingdoms of Parthia bear the name of the Lower provinces. As to the Parthi themselves, Parthia[497] always lay at the foot of the mountains[498] so often mentioned, which overhang all these nations. On the east it is bounded by the Arii, on the south by Carmania and the Ariani, on the west by the Pratitæ, a people of the Medi, and on the north by the Hyrcani: it is surrounded by deserts on every side. The more distant of the Parthi are called Nomades;[499] on this side of them there are deserts. On the west are the cities of Issatis and Calliope, already mentioned,[500] on the north-east Europus,[501] on the south-east Maria; in the middle there are Hecatompylos,[502] Arsace, and Nisiæa, a fine district of Parthiene, in which is Alexandropolis, so called from its founder.
(26.) It is requisite in this place to trace the localities of the Medi also, and to describe in succession the features of the country as far as the Persian Sea, in order that the account which follows may be the better understood. Media[503] lies crosswise to the west, and so presenting itself obliquely to Parthia, closes the entrance of both kingdoms[504] into which it is divided. It has, then, on the east, the Caspii and the Parthi; on the south, Sittacene, Susiane, and Persis; on the west, Adsiabene; and on the north, Armenia. The Persæ have always inhabited the shores of the Red Sea, for which reason it has received the name of the Persian Gulf. This maritime region of Persis has the name of Ciribo;[505] on the side on which it runs up to that of the Medi, there is a place known by the name of Climax Megale,[506] where the mountains are ascended by a steep flight of stairs, and so afford a narrow passage which leads to Persepolis,[507] the former capital of the kingdom, destroyed by Alexander. It has also, at its extreme frontier, Laodicea,[508] founded by Antiochus. To the east of this place is the fortress of Passagarda,[509] held by the Magi, at which spot is the tomb of Cyrus; also Ecbatana,[510] a city of theirs, the inhabitants of which were removed by Darius to the mountains. Between the Parthi and the Ariani projects the territory of the Parætaceni.[511] By these nations and the river Euphrates are the Lower kingdoms of Parthia bounded; of the others we shall speak after Mesopotamia, which we shall now describe, with the exception of that angle of it and the peoples of Arabia, which have been already mentioned in a former book.[512]
CHAP. 30.—MESOPOTAMIA.
The whole of Mesopotamia formerly belonged to the Assyrians, being covered with nothing but villages, with the exception of Babylonia[513] and Ninus.[514] The Macedonians formed these communities into cities, being prompted thereto by the extraordinary fertility of the soil. Besides the cities already mentioned, it contains those of Seleucia,[515] Laodicea,[516] Artemita;[517] and in Arabia, the peoples known as the Orei[518] and the Mardani, besides Antiochia,[519] founded by Nicanor, the governor of Mesopotamia, and called Arabis. Joining up to these in the interior is an Arabian people, called the Eldamani, and above them, upon the river Pallaconta, the town of Bura, and the Arabian peoples known as the Salmani and the Masei. Up to the Gordyæi[520] join the Aloni, through whose territory runs the river Zerbis, which falls into the Tigris; next are the Azones, the Silici, a mountain tribe, and the Orontes, to the west of whom lies the town of Gaugamela,[521] as also Suë, situate upon the rocks. Beyond these are the Silici, surnamed Classitæ, through whose district runs the river Lycus on its passage from Armenia, the Absithris[522] running south-east, the town of Accobis, and then in the plains the towns of Diospage, Polytelia,[523] Stratonice, and Anthermis.[524] In the vicinity of the Euphrates is Nicephorion, of which we have[525] already stated that Alexander, struck with the favourable situation of the spot, ordered it to be built. We have also similarly made mention[526] of Apamea on the Zeugma. Leaving that city and going eastward, we come to Caphrena, a fortified town, formerly seventy stadia in extent, and called the “Court of the Satraps.” It was to this place that the tribute was conveyed; now it is reduced to a mere fortress. Thæbata is still in the same state as formerly: after which comes Oruros, which under Pompeius Magnus formed the extreme limit of the Roman Empire, distant from Zeugma two hundred and fifty miles. There are writers who say that the Euphrates was drawn off by an artificial channel by the governor Gobares, at the point where we have stated[527] that it branches off,[528] in order that it might not commit damage in the city of Babylonia, in consequence of the extreme rapidity of its course. The Assyrians universally call this river by the name of Narmalcha,[529] which signifies the “royal river.” At the point where its waters divide, there was in former times a very large city, called Agranis, which the Persæ have destroyed.
Babylon, the capital of the nations of Chaldæa, long enjoyed the greatest celebrity of all cities throughout the whole world: and it is from this place that the remaining parts of Mesopotamia and Assyria received the name of Babylonia. The circuit of its walls, which were two hundred feet in height, was sixty miles. These walls were also fifty feet in breadth, reckoning to every foot three fingers’ breadth beyond the ordinary measure of our foot. The river Euphrates flowed through the city, with quays of marvellous workmanship erected on either side. The temple there[530] of Jupiter Belus[531] is still in existence; he was the first inventor of the science of Astronomy. In all other respects it has been reduced to a desert, having been drained of its population in consequence of its vicinity to Seleucia,[532] founded for that purpose by Nicator, at a distance of ninety miles, on the confluence of the Tigris and the canal that leads from the Euphrates. Seleucia, however, still bears the surname of Babylonia: it is a free and independent city, and retains the features of the Macedonian manners. It is said that the population of this city amounts to six hundred thousand, and that the outline of its walls resembles an eagle with expanded wings: its territory, they say, is the most fertile in all the East. The Parthi again, in its turn, founded Ctesiphon,[533] for the purpose of drawing away the population of Seleucia, at a distance of nearly three miles, and in the district of Chalonitis; Ctesiphon is now the capital of all the Parthian kingdoms. Finding, however, that this city did not answer the intended purpose, king Vologesus[534] has of late years founded another city in its vicinity, Vologesocerta[535] by name. Besides the above, there are still the following towns in Mesopotamia: Hipparenum,[536] rendered famous, like Babylon, by the learning of the Chaldæi, and situate near the river Narraga,[537] which falls into the Narroga, from which a city so called has taken its name. The Persæ destroyed the walls of Hipparenum. Orchenus also, a third place of learning of the Chaldæi, is situate in the same district, towards the south; after which come the Notitæ, the Orothophanitæ, and the Grecichartæ.[538] From Nearchus and Onesicritus we learn that the distance by water from the Persian Sea to Babylon, up the Euphrates, is four hundred and twelve miles; other authors, however, who have written since their time, say that the distance to Seleucia is four hundred and forty miles: and Juba says that the distance from Babylon to Charax is one hundred and seventy-five. Some writers state that the Euphrates continues to flow with an undivided channel for a distance of eighty-seven miles beyond Babylon, before its waters are diverted from their channel for the purposes of irrigation; and that the whole length of its course is not less than twelve hundred miles. The circumstance that so many different authors have treated of this subject, accounts for all these variations, seeing that even the Persian writers themselves do not agree as to what is the length of their schæni and parasangæ, each assigning to them a different length.
When the Euphrates ceases, by running in its channel, to afford protection[539] to those who dwell on its banks, which it does when it approaches the confines of Charax, the country is immediately infested by the Attali, a predatory people of Arabia, beyond whom are found the Scenitæ.[540] The banks along this river are occupied by the Nomades of Arabia, as far as the deserts of Syria, from which, as we have already stated,[541] it takes a turn to the south,[542] and leaves the solitary deserts of Palmyra. Seleucia is distant, by way of the Euphrates, from the beginning of Mesopotamia, eleven hundred and twenty-five; from the Red Sea, by way of the Tigris, two hundred and twenty; and from Zeugma, seven hundred and twenty-three, miles. Zeugma is distant from Seleucia[543] in Syria, on the shores of our sea, one hundred and seventy-five[544] miles. Such is the extent of the land that lies in these parts between the two seas.[545] The length of the kingdom of Parthia is nine hundred and eighteen miles.
CHAP. 31.—THE TIGRIS.
There is, besides the above, another town in Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Tigris and near its confluence with the Euphrates, the name of which is Digba.[546] (27.) But it will be as well now to give some particulars respecting the Tigris itself. This river rises in the region of Greater Armenia,[547] from a very remarkable source, situate on a plain. The name of the spot is Elegosine,[548] and the stream, as soon as it begins to flow, though with a slow current, has the name of Diglito.[549] When its course becomes more rapid, it assumes the name of Tigris,[550] given to it on account of its swiftness, that word signifying an arrow in the Median language. It then flows into Lake Arethusa,[551] the waters of which are able to support all weighty substances thrown into them, and exhale nitrous vapours. This lake produces only one kind of fish, which, however, never enter the current of the river in its passage through the lake: and in a similar manner, the fish of the Tigris will never swim out of its stream into the waters of the lake. Distinguishable from the lake, both by the rapidity and the colour of its waters, the tide of the river is hurried along; after it has passed through and arrived at Mount Taurus, it disappears[552] in a cavern of that mountain, and passing beneath it, bursts forth on the other side; the spot bears the name of Zoroande.[553] That the waters on either side of the mountain are the same, is evident from the fact, that bodies thrown in on the one side will reappear on the other. It then passes through another lake, called Thospites, and once more burying itself in the earth, reappears, after running a distance of twenty-two miles, in the vicinity of Nymphæum.[554] Claudius Cæsar informs us that, in the district of Arrene[555] it flows so near to the river Arsanias,[556] that when their waters swell they meet and flow together, but without, however, intermingling. For those of the Arsani, as he says, being lighter, float on the surface of the Tigris for a distance of nearly four miles, after which they separate, and the Arsanias flows into the Euphrates. The Tigris, after flowing through Armenia and receiving the well-known rivers Parthenias and Nicephorion, separates the Arabian Orei[557] from the Adiabeni, and then forms by its course, as previously mentioned, the country of Mesopotamia. After traversing the mountains of the Gordyæi,[558] it passes round Apamea,[559] a town of Mesene, one hundred and twenty-five miles on this side of Babylonian Seleucia, and then divides into two channels, one[560] of which runs southward, and flowing through Mesene, runs towards Seleucia, while the other takes a turn to the north and passes through the plains of the Cauchæ,[561] at the back of the district of Mesene. When the waters have reunited, the river assumes the name of Pasitigris. After this, it receives the Choaspes,[562] which comes from Media; and then, as we have already stated,[563] flowing between Seleucia and Ctesiphon, discharges itself into the Chaldæan Lakes, which it supplies for a distance of seventy miles. Escaping from them by a vast channel, it passes the city of Charax to the right, and empties itself into the Persian Sea, being ten miles in width at the mouth. Between the mouths of the two rivers Tigris and the Euphrates, the distance was formerly twenty-five, or, according to some writers, seven miles only, both of them being navigable to the sea. But the Orcheni and others who dwell on its banks, have long since dammed up the waters of the Euphrates for the purposes of irrigation, and it can only discharge itself into the sea by the aid of the Tigris.