Nearest to us of all the provinces is Assyria, famous for its large population, its size, and the abundance and great variety of its products. This province once spread over great and prosperous peoples and districts,It included Assyria, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia. then it was combined under a single name, and to-day the whole region is called Assyria. There, besides a great abundance of berries and common fruits, bitumen is found near the lake called Sosingites, in whose bed the Tigris is swallowed up, and then, after flowing under ground, and traversing a long distance,Justin. xlii. 3, 9, says it flows under ground for 25,000 stadia. appears again.

Here naphtha also is produced, a glutinous substance which looks like pitch. This too is similar to bitumen, and even a little bird, if it lights upon it, is prevented from flying, sinks, and disappears utterly. And when fluid of this kind catches fire, the mind of man will find no means of putting it out, except dust.Cf. xxiii. 4, 15.

In these regions there is also to be seen a cleft in the earth,Cf. Lucr. vi. 756 ff. from which rises a deadly exhalation, which with its foul odour destroys every living creature that comes near it. If this pestilential stuff, rising from a kind of deep well, should spread out widely from its opening before rising on high, it would by its fetid odour have made the surrounding country a desert.

A similar opening was formerly to be seen (as some say) at Hierapolis in Phrygia. And from this also a noxious vapour with a penetrating stench came forth and was destructive to whatever came near it, excepting only eunuchs; and the reason for this may be left to natural philosophers to determine.Cf. Dio. lxviii. 27, 3; Pliny, ii. 208.

Also at the temple of Jupiter Asbamaeus in Cappadocia, where that famous philosopher ApolloniusThis self-styled philosopher, of Tyana in Cappadocia, was famous for his belief in his magic or supernatural powers. He lived in the first century A.D. His Life, by Philostratus, has come down to us; see , i. Introd. is said to have been born near the town of Tyana, a spring may be seen, flowing from a pool, which now is filled with an abundance of water, and again sucks itself back, and so never swells beyond its banks.See Philost. i. 6 (., i. 15).

Within this area is Adiabena, called Assyria in ancient times, but by long custom changed to this name because, lying between the navigable rivers Ona and Tigris it could never be approached by a ford; for we Greeks for transire say διαβαίνειν. At least, this is the opinion of the ancients.

But I myself say that there are two perpetually flowing rivers to be found in these lands, the Diabas and Adiabas,Valesius thinks they are the same rivers which are more commonly called Zabas and Anzabas, and that dia became za; but see Index. which I myself have crossed,During the flight after Julian’s death. and over which there are bridges of boats; and therefore it is to be assumed that Adiabena was named from them, as from great rivers EgyptHomer calls the Nile Aegyptus; cf. xxii. 15, 3. was named, according to Homer, as well as India, and the Euphratensis, before my time called Commagena; likewise from the Hiberus,Ebro. Hiberia (now Hispania), and the province of Baetica from the noble river Baetis.Guadalquivir.

In this Adiabena is the city of Ninus,Also called Nineve; cf. xxviii. 7, 1. which once possessed the rule over Persia, perpetuating the name of Ninus, once a most powerful king and the husband of Semiramis; also Ecbatana,Likewise a city of Media. Arbela, and Gaugamela,Gaugamela was a small village near Arbela; it was there that the battle was fought, although it is more commonly called the battle of Arbela. where Alexander, after various other battles, overthrew Darius in a hot contest.

But in all Assyria there are many cities, among which Apamia, formerly called Mesene,Pliny, vi. 132, separates Apamia from Mesene; cf. xxiv. 3, 12; on Teredon, cf. Pliny, vi. 145. and Teredon, Apollonia and Vologessia, and many similar ones are conspicuous. But these three are especially magnificent and widely known: Babylon,Diod. Sic. (ii. 9, 9) says that in his time Babylon had been almost wholly destroyed and Pausanias, viii. 33, 3, that only the walls and the temple of Belus were standing. whose walls Semiramis built with bitumenCf. Curtius, v. 1, 16 and 25. (for the ancient king Belus built the citadel), and Ctesiphon, which VardanesUnknown. founded long ago; and later king PacorusPacorus seems to have been the son of king Orodes, defeated by Ventidius. strengthened it with additional inhabitants and with walls, gave it a Greek name, and made it the crowning ornament of Persia. And finally there is Seleucia, the splendid work of Seleucus Nicator.

When this city was stormed by the generals of Verus Caesar (as I have related before),In a lost book; cf. Capitolinus, , 8, 3. the statue of Apollo Comaeus was torn from its place and taken to Rome, where the priests of the gods set it up in the temple of the Palatine Apollo. And it is said that, after this same statue had been carried off and the city burned, the soldiers in ransacking the temple found a narrow crevice; this they widened in the hope of finding something valuable; but from a kind of shrine, closed by the occult arts of the Chaldaeans, the germ of that pestilence burst forth, which after generating the virulence of incurable diseases, in the time of the same Verus and of Marcus Antoninus polluted everything with contagion and death, from the frontiers of Persia all the way to the Rhine and to Gaul.Cf. Capitol., 13, 3-6.

Near these is the land of the Chaldaeans, the foster-mother of the old-time philosophy—as they themselves say—where the true art of divination first made its appearance. Now the most important rivers that flow through those lands, besides the others that I have mentioned, are the Marses, the Royal River,It is really a canal; cf. xxiv. 6, 1, where its native name Naarmalcha is given. and the Euphrates, greatest of all. The last-named divides into three branches, all of which are navigable, forms several islands, and often thoroughly waters the fields through the diligence of the farmers,I.e. by irrigation. and prepares them for the ploughshare and for tree-culture.

Neighbours to these lands are the Susiani, who have few cities. Conspicuous among them, however, is Susa, often the residence of the kings,The kings spent the winter in Susa or Babylon (sometimes in Bactra); the summers in Ecbatana; cf. Strabo, xi. 13, 1, 5; xv. 3, 2. and Arsiana, Sele, and Aracha. The others are small and little known. On the other hand, many rivers flow through this region; most notable among them are the Oroates, Harax, and Mosaeus, which along the narrow sandy tract that separates the Caspian from the Red Sea overflow into a great number of pools.

On the left Media extends, bordering on the HyrcanianPart of the Caspian. Sea. Of this province we read that before the reign of the elder Cyrus and the growth in Persia’s power, it was the queen of all Asia, after it had overcome Assyria,Under Arbaces in the reign of Sardanapalus, 876 B.C. whose many provinces, changed in name to Agropatena, it possessed by the right of conquest.

It is a warlike nation, and most of all to be feared next to the Parthians, by whom alone it is surpassed, and its territory has the form of a rectangle. The inhabitants of these lands as a whole dwell in a most spacious country, overhung by very lofty mountains, which they call Zagrus, Orontes, and Iasonius.All these are branches of Mt. Taurus.