406 Mr. Beke on the Historical Evidetice of the Advance of 



ternative but to attribute the difference between these two 

 measurements to the gain of the land upon the sea during the 

 intervening period of 2160 years; and as the distance in a 

 straight line may be taken at about |ths of the measurement 

 along the course of the river, the advance of the land, (as de- 

 termined by this one authority,) may be computed at about 

 150 miles. 



We have now to consider the passage from Pliny respect- 

 ing Charax * ; which, upon investigation, will be found to 

 harmonize entirely with the inference which has thus been 

 drawn from the statement of Nearchus. Two different mean- 

 ings may be attributed to this passage. The first is, " that 

 Charax when first built was ten stadia only from the shore, 

 whilst hy the report of Juba in his time it was 50 miles, and 

 in Pliny^s own time as much as 120 miles from the seaf." 

 The other construction, which appears to be that of the old 

 Italian version of Brucioli, is, " Charax was at first a port di- 

 stant 10 stadia, or according to Juba 50 miles, from the sea: 

 now [/. e, in Pliny's time] it is said to be 120 miles distant J." 



If the former translation be the true one, the whole di- 

 stance mentioned by Pliny must have been gained by the land 

 between the times of Alexander and that historian ; but, as- 

 suming the latter construction to be the more correct of the 

 two, the advance of the land will be reduced nearly one half; 

 whilst the seemingly conflicting statements as to the original 

 distance of Charax from the sea may be reconciled by sup- 

 posing that city to have been erected ten stadia only from the 

 shore at the confluence of the Tigris and Eulaeus, but at the 

 distance of 50 miles from the sea itself. It is yet further to be 

 considered whether Pliny, although entirely correct in his 



* "Prius fuit a litore stadiis x., et maritimum etiam ipsa inde portum 

 habuit : Juba vero prodente, 1. mil. pass. Nunc abesse a litore cxx. mil. 

 legati Arabum nostrique negotiatores qui inde venere, affirmant." — Hist, 

 Nat., lib. vi. cap. xxvii. 



f The first impression made upon the mind at all times by an unqualified 

 and indefinite expression is that it refers to the time at which it is made. 

 Thus it was that in giving, in my Origines Biblicce (p. 21.), what I conceived 

 to be the general sense of the passage in question, I said " in Juba*s time it 

 was... 50 miles." The writer in the Quarterly Review is, upon this, pleased 

 to say, " Mr. Beke is, no doubt, wrong in translating Juba prodente , in 

 Juba's time." — As may well be imagined, I never intended those words as 

 a translation, and the reviewer might with as much propriety have accused 

 me of translating Legati Arabum. ..affirmant^ " in Pliny's time." 



J ** Primieramente fu marittima, lontana dal lito dieci stadij, ma secondo 

 Juba, 50 miglia. Hora i legati degli Arabi, et i nostri mercatanti che 

 vengono di la effermano essere lontana dal lito 120 miglia." — Historia Na- 

 turale di C. Plinio Secondo^ tradotta per Antonio Brucioli : Venetia 1548, 

 p. 148. 



