446 PLINY's NATUllAL HISTORY. [Book Y. 



(26.) Eelow the deserts of Palmyra is the region of 

 Stelendene\ and Hierapolis, Beroea, and Chalcis, already 

 mentioned^. Beyond Palmyra, Emesa^ takes to itself a 

 portion of these deserts ; also Elatium, nearer to Petra by 

 one-half than Damascus. At no great distance from Sura^ 

 is Philiscum, a town of the Parthians, on the Euphrates. 

 Erom this place it is ten days' sail to Seleucia, and nearly 

 as many to Babylon. At a distance of 5r4 miles be- 

 yond Zeugma, near the village of Massice, tl e Euphrates 

 divides into two channels, the left one of which runs through 

 Mesopotamia, past Seleucia, and falls into the Tigris as it 

 flows around that city. Its channel on the right runs towards 

 Babylon, the former capital of Chalda^a, and flows through 

 the middle of it ; and then through another city, the name of 

 which is Otris^, after which it becomes lost in the marshes. 

 Like the Nile, this river increases at stated times, and at 

 much about the same period. When the sun has reached 

 the twentieth degree of Cancer, it inundates® Mesopotamia ; 

 and, after he has passed through Leo and entered Virgo, 

 its waters begin to subside. By the time tlie sun has 

 entered the twenty-ninth degree of Virgo, the river has fully 

 regained its usual height. 



CHAP. 22. (27.) — CILICIA A^B THE ADJOININa NATIONS. 



But let us now return to the coast of Syria, joining up 

 to which is Cilicia. We here find the river Diaphanes'^, 



' Pliny is the only author that makes mention of Stelendene. 

 2 In C. 19 of the present Book. 



' Previously mentioned by Phny. See p. 439. Of Elatium nothing 

 is known. 



* The same place that is also mentioned in liistory as Flavia Finna 

 Sura. The site of Pliiliscum is totally imknovra. 



* Notliing is known of this place. 



^ Parisot remarks, that it is true that the Euphrates increases peri- 

 odically, much in the same manner as the Nile ; but that its increase 

 does not arise from similar causes, nor are the same results produced by 

 it, seeing that the river does not convey the same volume of water as the 

 Nile, and that the country in the vicinity of its bed does not, like Egypt, 

 form a valley pent up between two ranges of liills. 



' So called probably from the Greek diacpavtjs, "transparent." It 

 has not been identified, but it was no doubt a small stream falling into 

 the Gulf of Issus. 



