Chap. 30.;; ACCOUNT OF COUNTIIIES, ETC. 73 



inventor of the science of Astronomy. In all other respects 

 it has been reduced to a desert, having been drained of its 

 population in consequence of its vicinity to Seleucia,^''' founded 

 for that purpose by Xicator, at a distance of ninety miles, on 

 the confluence of the Tigris and the canal that leads from the 

 Euphrates. Seleucia, however, still bears the surname of 

 Babylonia : it is a free and independent cit}% and retains the 

 features of the Macedonian manners. It is said that the 

 population of this city amounts to six hundred thousand, and 

 that the outline of its walls resembles an eagle with expanded 

 wings : its territory, they say, is the most fertile in all the East. 

 The Parthi again, in its turn, founded Ctesiphon,^^ for the 

 purpose of drawing away the population of Seleucia, at a dis- 

 tance of nearly three miles, and in the district of Chalonitis ; 

 Ctesiphon is now the capital of all the Parthian kingdoms. 

 Finding, however, that this city did not answer the intended 

 purpose, king Vologesus^^ has of late j'ears founded another 

 city in its vicinity, Vologesocerta^'* by name. Besides the 

 above, there are still the following towns in Mesopotamia : Hip- 

 parenum,^^ rendered famous, like Babylon, by the learning of 



37 The city of Seleucia ad Tigrin, long the capital of Western Asia, 

 until it was eclipsed by Ctesiphon. Its site has been a matter of consi- 

 derable discussion, but tlie most-probable opinion is, that it stood on the 

 western bank of the Tigris, to the north of its junction with the royal 

 canal (probably the river Chobar above mentioned), opposite to the mouth 

 of the river Delas or Silla (now Diala), and to the spot where Ctesiphon 

 was afterwards built by the Parthiaus. It stood a little to the south of 

 the modern city of Baghdad ; thus commanding the navigation of the 

 Tigris and Euphrates, and the whole plain formed by those two rivers. 



"^ Ammianus, like Pliny, has ascribed its foundation to the Parthians 

 under Yaranes, or Vardanes, of whom, however, nothing is known. It 

 stood in the south of Assyria, on the eastern or left bank of the Tigris. 

 Strabo speaks of it as being the winter residence of the Parthian kings, 

 who lived there at that season, owing to the miklness of the chmate. In 

 modern times the site of this place has been identified with that called by 

 the Arabs Al Madain, or the " two cities." 



33 Or Vologeses. This was the name of five kings of Parthia, of the 

 race of the Arsacidae, Arsaces xxiii., xxvii., xxviii., xxix., xxx. It 

 was the first of these monarchs who founded the place here mentioned 

 by Pliny. 



^ Or -the "City of Vologesus ;" ccrta being the Armenian for "city." 



*i Nothing appears to be known of this place ; but llardouiu tliinks 

 that it is the same with one called Maarsares by Ptolemy, and situate ou 

 the same river Nurraffa. 



