XLI. A course of 500 stadia having been accomplished, their next anchorage was in an estuary, which swarmed with fish, called Kataderbis, at the entrance of which lay an island called Margastana.[109], They weighed at daybreak, the ships sailing out in single file through shoals. The direction of the shoal was indicated by stakes fixed both on the right and the left side, just as posts are erected as signals of danger in the passage between the island of Leukadia and Akarnania to prevent vessels grounding on the shoals. The shoals of Leukadia, however, are of firm sand, and it is thus easy to float off vessels should they happen to strand, but in this passage there is a deep mud on both sides of such tenacity that if vessels once touched the bottom, they could not by any appliances be got off; for, if they thrust poles into the mud to propel the vessels, these found no resistance or support, and the people who got overboard to ease them off into navigable water found no footing, but sunk in the mud higher than the waist. The fleet proceeded 600 stadia, having such difficulties of navigation to contend with, and then came to an anchor, each crew remaining in their own vessel, and taking their repast on board. From this anchorage they weighed in the night, sailing on in deep water till about the close of the ensuing day, when, after completing a course of 900 stadia, they dropped anchor at the mouth of the Euphrates near a town in Babylonia called Diridôtis—the emporium of the sea-borne trade in frankincense and all the other fragrant productions of Arabia.[110] The distance from the mouth of the Euphrates up stream to Babylon is, according to Nearkhos, 3,300 stadia.
XLII. Here intelligence having been received that Alexander was marching towards Sousa, they retraced their course from Diridôtis so as to join him by sailing up the Pasitigris. They had now Sousis on their left hand, and were coasting the shores of a lake into which the Tigris empties itself, a river, which flowing from Armenia past Nineveh, a city once of yore great and flourishing, encloses between itself and the Euphrates the tract of country which from its position between the two rivers is called Mesopotamia. It is a distance of 600 stadia from the entrance into the lake up to the river’s mouth at Aginis, a village in the province of Sousis, distant from the city of Sousa 500 stadia. The length of the voyage along the coast of the Sousians to the mouth of the Pasitigris was 2,000 stadia.[111] Weighing from the mouth of this river they sailed up its stream through a fertile and populous country, and having proceeded 150 stadia dropped anchor, awaiting the return of certain messengers whom Nearkhos had sent off to ascertain where the king was. Nearkhos then presented sacrifices to the gods their preservers, and celebrated games, and full of gladness were the hearts of all that had taken part in the expedition. The messengers having returned with tidings that Alexander was approaching, the fleet resumed its voyage up the river, and anchored near the bridge by which Alexander intended to lead his army to Sousa. In that same place the troops were reunited, when sacrifices wore offered by Alexander for the preservation of his ships and his men, and games were celebrated. Nearkhos, whenever he was seen among the troops, was decorated by them with garlands and pelted with flowers. There also both Nearkhos and Leonnatos were crowned by Alexander with golden diadems—Nearkhos for the safety of the expedition by sea, and Leonnatos for the victory which he had gained over the Oreitai and the neighbouring barbarians. It was thus that the expedition which had begun its voyage from the mouths of the Indus was brought in safety to Alexander.
XLIII. Now[112] the parts which lie to the right of the Erythræan[113] Sea beyond the realms of Babylonia belong principally to Arabia, which extends in one direction as far as the sea that washes the shores of Phœnikia and Syrian Palestine, while towards sunset it borders on the Egyptians in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt is penetrated by a gulf which extends up from the great ocean, and as this ocean is connected with the Erythræan Sea, this fact proves that a voyage could be made all the way from Babylon to Egypt by means of this gulf. But, owing to the heat and utter sterility of the coast, no one has ever made this voyage, except, it may be, some chance navigator. For the troops belonging to the army of Kambysês, which escaped from Egypt, and reached Sousa in safety, and the troops sent by Ptolemy, the son of Lagos, to Seleukos Nikatôr to Babylon, traversed the Arabian isthmus in eight days altogether.[114] It was a waterless and sterile region, and they had to cross it mounted on swift camels carrying water, travelling only by night, the heat by day being so fierce that they could not expose themselves in the open air. So far are the parts lying beyond this region, which we have spoken of as an isthmus extending from the Arabian Gulf to the Erythræan Sea from being inhabited, that even the parts which run up further to the north are a desert of sand. Moreover, men setting forth from the Arabian Gulf in Egypt, after having sailed round the greater part of Arabia to reach the sea which washes the shores of Persis and Sousa, have returned, after sailing as far along the coast of Arabia as the water they had on board lasted them, and no further. The exploring party again which Alexander sent from Babylon with instructions to sail as far as they could along the right-hand coast of the Erythræan Sea, with a view to examine the regions lying in that direction, discovered some islands lying in their route, and touched also at certain points of the mainland of Arabia. But as for that cape which Nearkhos states to have been seen by the expedition projecting into the sea right opposite to Karmania, there is no one who has been able to double it and gain the other side. But if the place could possibly be passed, either by sea or by land, it seems to me that Alexander, being so inquisitive and enterprising, would have proved that it could be passed in both these ways. But again Hanno the Libyan, setting out from Carthage, sailed out into the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules, having Libya on his left hand, and the time until his course was shaped towards the rising sun was five-and-thirty days; but when he steered southward he encountered many difficulties from the want of water, from the scorching heat, and from streams of fire that fell into the sea. Kyrênê, no doubt, which is situated in a somewhat barren part of Libya, is verdant, possessed of a genial climate, and well watered, has groves and meadows, and yields abundantly all kinds of useful animals and vegetable products. But this is only the case up to the limits of the area within which the fennel-plant can grow, while beyond this area the interior of Kyrênê is but a desert of sand.
So ends my narrative relating to Alexander, the son of Philip the Makedonian.
INDEX.
CHIEFLY GEOGRAPHICAL.
Abbreviations.—B. Bay, C. Cape, G. Gulf, Is. Island or Islands, M. Mountain, R. River.