frankincense being white, in Arabic Liban, Libanos also became a Greek name for it, corrupted among the modern merchants into Olibanum. A little island, South of this region, called Dioscoridis Insula, is now Socotora, whence the best aloes are brought. Off the coast of Arabia Deserta, in the Sinus Persicus, was the little island of Tylos, or Bahram, celebrated for its pearl fishery. At the top of the Persian Gulph, on each side of the Euphrates, is Babylonia; the part nearest the gulph is Chaldæa, which is sometimes taken for the name of the whole country. It is properly called Irak, a name which has extended to the adjacent country of Mesopotamia and part of Media, now Irak Arabi. The principal city of Babylonia was Babylon, the most antient in the world, built by Belus, who is thought to have been the same with Nimrod. It is near a place now called Hellah, on the East bank of the Euphrates, about 47 miles South of Bagdat. It was surrounded with a prodigious strong wall, said to have been 480 stadia in circumference (an exaggeration probably for the surrounding region, as this would give an enclosure of 60 miles), 50 cubits thick, and 200 cubits high. It was built by the celebrated Queen Semiramis, of bricks baked in the sun, and cemented with bitumen, abounding in the country. It was the residence afterwards of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed Jerusalem, June 9, B. C. 587, and transplanted the Jews to this country, and was taken by Cyrus, B. C. 538, according to the prediction of the Jewish prophets, after he had diverted the waters of the Euphrates into a new channel, and marched his troops by night into the town through the antient bed of the river. The city is said to have been so large that the inhabitants at the opposite extremity did not know of its fate till the next evening. However, when we consider that the Eastern cities contained enclosures for the pasture and protection of cattle during a siege, there is not reason to think that the inhabited part of Babylon was larger than London. A full account of the siege is to be seen in Herodotus. Babylon also is memorable for the death of Alexander the Great, April 21, B. C. 323. It is now in ruins; but the vestiges of the temple of Belus remain. After the death of Alexander, Seleucus Nicato founded a city called Seleucia a little above it, on the Tigris, which he designed for the capital of the East, and the kings of Parthia founded one on the other side called Ctesiphon, which they made their ordinary residence: they are now called Al Modain, or the two cities, A little below Ctesiphon is the river Gyndes, which was an impediment to Cyrus in his march to Babylon, who lost his favourite horse there: in revenge he divided it into 360 channels, so that it might be forded only knee deep. The lower part of the Tigris, after its juncture with the Euphrates, was called Pasitigris, now ShatulArab, or the river of the Arabs. The Chaldæans or Babylonians, as is well known, were greatly addicted to astrology. * * Tu ne quæsieris, scire nefas, quem mihi quem tibi Tentaris numeros. Principis angusta Caprearum in rupe sedentis Cum grege Chaldæo.· Hor. Od. I. 11, 1. Juv. Sat. X. 93 Above Babylon is Mesopotamia, lying, as its name imports, between the two rivers, the Euphrates, which divides it from Syria, on the West, and the Tigris, which separates it from Assyria, on the East. Towards the Southern boundary of Babylonia, the rivers approach each other so as to make it considerably narrower than on the confines of Armenia, its northern frontier. The lower part of Mesopotamia is now Irak Arabi, the upper Diar Bekr. The North Western part of Mesopotamia was called Osroene, from Osroes, a prince who wrested from the Seleucidæ a principality here, about B. C. 120. Its capital was called by the Macedonians Edessa, now Orha, or Orfa. South West of Edessa, at the pass of Zeugma, was a city called Apamea, and South East of it Carrhæ, a very antient city, the Charran of scripture, from which Abraham departed for the land of Canaan, and the fatal spot at which Crassus *, the Roman triumvir, lost his life, in his expedition against the Parthians, who cut off his head, and poured melted gold down his throat, B. C. 53, A. U. C. 701. The inhabitants were greatly addicted to Sabaism, or the worship of the host of heaven, particularly the moon, under the masculine denomination of the Deus Lunus. The antient name of Charran is still retained in Haran. Descending the Euphrates, nearly opposite to Thapsacus in Syria, we find Circesium, on the river Chaboras: the emperor Dioclesian fortified this city, and made it a frontier of the empire; it is now called Kirkesieh. In Xenophon's account of the expe * Miserando funere Crassus Assyrias Latio maculavit sanguine Carras. Lucan I. 104. dition of Cyrus the Chaboras is called the Araxes. A little below Circesium is the tomb of the younger Gordian, who was killed there by Philip, who himself succeeded to the Roman empire, A. D. 245. Below it, at a bend of the Euphrates, is Anatho, or Anah : below this, on the confines of Babylonia, near a canal which joined the Euphrates and Tigris, was the celebrated plain of Cunaxa, where Cyrus was defeated and slain by Artaxerxes, B. C. 401, Ol. 94, 4. From this spot the 10,000 Greek auxiliaries of Cyrus commenced their immortal retreat, of which so interesting a history is given by Xenophon, who was himself one of their generals, and ultimately their chief. Nearly opposite to Edessa, but East, towards the Tigris, was Nisibis, or Nisbon, the most important station in Mesopotamia, and long a frontier of the Roman empire, till it was ceded to Sapor, king of Persia, by the treaty which was made after the death of Julian, A. D. 363, and below it was Singara, now Singar. Above Mesopotamia is Armenia, bounded towards the South also by Assyria, on the West by the Euphrates, which separates it from that part of Cappadocia called Armenia Minor, after which a ridge of Anti-Taurus separates it from Pontus; on the North it is bounded by Colchis and Iberia, and on the East by the barbarous nations North of Media. It was a province particularly fluctuating between the Persians and Romans, lying as it were between the two empires. Above the river Lycus, which flows into the Euphrates, was Arze, now Erze-Roum, signifying that it belonged to the empire of the Greeks, or Roumelia. Eastward is a district called Pha siana, through which the Araxes*, or as Xenophon calls it, the Phasis, flows, giving name to the country: the beautiful birds which we call pheasants still preserve in their name the traces of their native country. The Araxes, or Aras, flows from West to East till it falls into the Caspian, and the Euphrates flows from East to West, from its fountains in Mount Ararat, till its approach to the Syrian frontier. Still proceeding Eastward, along the Araxes, was Artaxata†, a celebrated and strong royal city. Returning Westward, between the principal stream of the Euphrates and Mount Masius, which forms the barrier of Mesopotamia and Armenia, the district was called Sophene, now Zoph. In this district, a little above Mons Masius, was Amida, now Kara-Amid, or DiarBekr, a celebrated city in the lower Roman empire. South East of it, on a hill a little above the Tigris, was Tigranocertat, built by Tigranes in the Mithridatic war: it was taken by Lucullus, who found a great treasure there. We should not forget that Niphates §, ́ Pontem indignatus Araxes. Virg. Æn. VIII. 728. + Sic prætextatos referunt Artaxata mores. Juv. Sat. II. 170. Horace has been thought to allude to it in his story of the soldier of Lucullus, who, having been robbed of his accumulated savings, Præsidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt, Hor. Epist. II. 2, 30. But I cannot think this interpretation sufficiently authorized by the words of the poet. Horace, speaking of the conquests of Augustus, says |
