[708] Considering it as part of Asia.
[709] Conformably with the usage of modern geographers, and, one would almost think, with that of common sense.
[710] Of the river Nile.
[711] As to Syene and the Catadupi, see B. v. c. 10.
[712] This place was also called in later times Contrapselcis. It was situate in the Dodecaschœnus, the part of Æthiopia immediately above Egypt, on an island near the eastern bank of the river, a little above Pselcis, which stood on the opposite bank. It has been suggested that this may have been the modern island of Derar. The other places do not appear to have been identified, and, in fact, in no two of the MSS. do the names appear to agree.
[713] Or the “Great Wall.”
[714] Meaning, “the people who live in seventy villages.”
[715] Or western side of the Nile, between Syene and Meroë.
[716] Ὕπατον, the “supreme,” or perhaps the “last.”
[717] Dion Cassius also mentions this expedition. From Seneca we learn that Nero dispatched two centurions to make inquiry into the sources of the Nile.