^2 plint's NATFEAL HISTORT. [Book "VI 



Sitiogagus, from which to Pasargadse^'' is seven days' sail 

 a _ navigable river known as the Phristimus, and an islanc 

 without a name ; and then the river Granis,*'" navigabh 

 for vessels of small burden, and flowing through Susiane 

 the^ Deximontani, a people who manufacture bitumen, dwel 

 on its right bank. The river Zarotis comes next, difficult o: 

 entrance at its mouth, except by those who are well ac- 

 quainted with it ; and then two small islands; after which th( 

 fl.eet sailed through shallows which looked very much like i 

 marsh, but were rendered navigable by certain channels whicl; 

 had been cut there. They then arrived at the mouth of th( 

 Euphrates, and from thence passed into a lake which is formec 

 by the rivers Eulaeus'^ and Tigris, in the vicinity of Charax,^' 

 after which they arrived at Susa,^^* ^^^ ^Yiq river Tigris. Here, 

 after a voyage of three months, they found Alexander celebra- 

 ting a festival, seven months after he had left them at Patale.^- 

 Such was the voyage performed by the fleet of Alexander. 



In later times it has been considered a well-ascertained 

 flict that the voyage from Syagrus,^^ the Promontory ol 

 Arabia, to Patale, reckoned at thirteen hundred and thirty, 

 five miles, can be performed most advantageously with the 



^9 Mentioned again in c. 29 of the present Book. Its modern name is 

 I'asa or J^ asa-Kuri, according to Parisot. 



60 Supposed to be the stream called by D'Anville and Tbevcnot the 

 Jioschavir, the river of Abushir or Busheer. 



«' A river of ancient Susiana, the present name of \vhich is Karun 

 I Imy states in c. ,'31 of the present Book, that the Enlieus flowed round 

 the citadel of Susa ; he mistakes it, however, for the Coprates, or, more 

 strictly speaking, for a small stream now called the Shapur river, the an- 

 cicnt name of which has not been preserved. He is also in error, most 

 probaby, in making the river Eulaeus flow through Messabatene, it beinc. 

 most likely the present Mah-Sabaden, in Laristan, which is drained by the 

 Aerkbah, the ancient Choaspes, and not by the EuIjbus. 



6'-^ Called, for the sake of distinction, Charax Spasinu, originally founded 

 by Alexander the Great. It was afterwards destroyed by a flood, and re- 

 built by Antiochus Epiphanes, under the name of Antiochia. It is men- 

 tioned in c. 31, 



'■'' Tbe Shushan of Scripture, now called Shu. It was the winter resi- 

 drnce ot tl.e kings of Persia, and stood in the district Cersia of the pro- 

 vince busiana, on the eastern bank of the river Choaspes. The site of 

 b.isa IS now marked by extensive mounds. 



7i IJ'he island of Patala or Patale, previously mentioned in c. 2.3. 

 Avlhh ^'^ ^ ^' ^^' ^^P' R^s-el-Bad, the most easterly peninsula of 



