76 History of Nature. [BooK V. 



tain Taurus : yet stayetb it not, but prevaileth, although it 

 be in Breadth Twelve Miles. Where it breaketh through 

 they call it Omiras : and so soon as it hath cut through it is 

 named Euphrates : full of Rocks and very violent. There 

 it separateth Arabia on the Left Hand, called the Region of 

 the Meri, by the Measure of Three Schoenae, and on the 

 Right, Comagene. Nevertheless, even there where it con- 

 quereth Taurus, it suffers a Bridge. At Claudiopolis in Cap- 

 padocia, it taketh its Course westward. And here the 

 Taurus, although resisted at first, hindereth him of his Course: 

 and notwithstanding it was overcome and dismembered, it 

 conquereth in another way, and drives it thus broken into 

 the South. Thus Nature matcheth these Forces: The one 

 proceeding whither it chooseth, and the other not suffering 

 it to run which way it will. From the Cataracts it is Navi- 

 gable, and Forty Miles from that place standeth Samosata, 

 the Head of all Comagene\ Arabia aforesaid hath the Towns 

 Edessa, sometime called Antiochea ; Callirrhoe, taking its 

 Name from the Fountain ; and Carrae, famous for the 

 slaughter of Crassus. Here joineth the Prefecture of Meso- 

 potamia, which taketh its beginning from the Assyrians, in 

 which stand the Towns Anthemusa and Nicephorium. Pre- 

 sently the Arabians, called Rhetavi, whose Capital is Sin- 

 gara. But from Samosatae, on the side of Syria, the River 

 Marsyas runneth into Euphrates. Gingla limiteth Coma- 

 gene, and the City of the Meri beginneth it. The Towns 

 Epiphania and Antiochia have the River running close to 

 them, and they are called Euphrates. Zeugma likewise, 

 72 Miles from Samosatae, is ennobled by the Passage over 

 Euphrates : for it is joined to Apamia, over against it, by a 

 Bridge, built by Seleucus the Founder of both. The People 

 that join to Mesopotamia are called Rhoali. But the Towns 

 of Syria are Europum ; Thapsacum, formerly, now Amphi- 

 polis ; Arabian Scaenitae. Thus it passeth as far as to the 

 Place Ura, in which turning to the East, it leaveth the 

 Deserts of Palmyra in Syria, which reach to the City Petra 

 and the Country of Arabia called the Happy. 



