62 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book VI. 



Sitiogagus, from which to Pasargadse 59 is seven days' sail ; 

 a navigable river known as the Phristimus, and an island 

 without a name ; and then the river Granis, 60 navigable 

 for vessels of small burden, and flowing through Susiane ; 

 the Deximontani, a people who manufacture bitumen, dwell 

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

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

 quainted with it ; and then two small islands; after which the 

 fleet sailed through shallows which looked very much like a 

 marsh, but were rendered navigable by certain channels which 

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

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

 by the rivers Eulaeus 61 and Tigris, in the vicinity of Charax, 62 

 after which they arrived at Susa, 62 * on the 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. 63 

 Such was the voyage performed by the fleet of Alexander. 



In later times it has been considered a well- ascertained 

 fact that the voyage from Syagrus, 64 the Promontory of 

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

 five miles, can be performed most advantageously with the 



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

 Pasa or Fasa-Kuri, according to Parisot. 



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

 Boschavir, the river of Abushir or Busheer". 



61 A river of ancient Susiana, the present name of which is Karun. 

 Pliny states, in c. 31 of the present Book, that the Eula?us 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- 

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

 probably, in making the river Eulaeus flow through Messabatene, it being 

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

 Kerkbah, the ancient Choaspes, and not by the Eula3us. 



62 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. 



62 * The Shushan of Scripture, now called Shu. It was the winter resi- 

 dence of the kings of Persia, and stood in the district Cersia of the pro- 

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

 Sasa is now marked by extensive mounds. 



63 The island of Patala or Patale, previously mentioned in c. 23. 



64 Most probably the Cape Ras-el-Bad, the most easterly peninsula of 

 Arabia. 



