[508] Its site is unknown; but Dupinet translates it the “city of Lor.”
[509] The older of the two capitals of Persia, Persepolis being the later one. It was said to have been founded by Cyrus the Great, on the spot where he gained his victory over Astyages. Its exact site is doubtful, but most modern geographers identify it with Murghab, to the north-east of Persepolis, where there are the remains of a great sepulchral monument of the ancient Persians, probably the tomb of Cyrus. Others place it at Farsa or at Dorab-Gherd, both to the south-east of Persepolis, the direction mentioned by Strabo, but not in other respects answering his description so well as Murghab.
[510] It is most probable that he does not allude here to the Ecbatana, mentioned in c. 17 of this Book.
[511] There were several mountainous districts called Parætacene in the Persian empire, that being the Greek form of a Persian word signifying “mountainous.”
[512] In B. v. c. 21. He returns to the description of Susiana, Elymaïs, and Characene in c. 31 of the present Book.
[513] The great seat of empire of the Babylonio-Chaldæan kingdom. It either occupied the site, it is supposed, or stood in the immediate vicinity of the tower of Babel. In the reign of Labynedus, Nabonnetus, or Belshazzar, it was taken by Cyrus. In the reign of Augustus, a small part only of Babylon was still inhabited, the remainder of the space within the walls being under cultivation. The ruins of Babylon are found to commence a little south of the village of Mohawill, eight miles north of Hillah.
[514] Nineveh. See c. [16] of the present Book.
[515] On the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite to the ford of Zeugma; a fortress of considerable importance.
[516] Its site is unknown. Dupinet confounds it with the place of this name mentioned in the last Chapter, calling them by the name of Lor.
[517] Pliny is wrong in placing Artemita in Mesopotamia. It was a city of Babylonia, in the district of Apolloniatis. The modern Sherbán is supposed to occupy its site.