BOOK VI. xxx. 124-XXX1. 126 



Nearchus and Onesicritus report that the Euphrates The 

 is navigable from the Persian Sea to Babylon, a ^"pf^raies. 

 distance of 412 miles ; but subsequent wTiters say 

 it is navigable up to Seleucia, 4-10 miles, and .Tuba 

 from Bab)'lon as far as Charax, 175^ miles. Some 

 report that it continues to flow in a single channel 

 for a distance of 87 miles beyond Babylon before it is 

 diverted into irrigation-channels, and tliat its entire 

 course is 1200 miles long. This discrepancy of 

 measurement is due to the variety of authors that 

 have dealt -w-ith the matter, as even among the 

 Persians difFerent wTiters give different measuremcnts 

 for the length of the schoenus " and the parasang. 

 Where it ceases to afford protection by its channel, 

 as it does wlien its course approaches the boundary 

 of Charax, it immediately bcgins to be infested by 

 the AttaH, an Arabian tribe of brigands, beyond 

 whom are the Scenltae. But the winding course 

 of the Euphrates is occupied by the Nomads of 

 Arabia right on to the desert of Syria, where, as we 

 have stated, the river makes a bend to the south, v. 87. 

 quitting the uninhabited districts of Palmyra. The 

 distance of Seleucia from the beginning of Mesopo- 

 tamia is a voyage by the Euphrates of 1125 miles ; its 

 distance from the Red Sea, if the voyage by made by 

 the Tigris, is 320 miles, and from Bridgetown 724 

 miles. Bridgetown is 175 miles from Seleucia on 

 the Mediterranean coast of Syria. This gives the 

 breadtli of the country lying between the Mediter- 

 ranean and the Red Sea.'' The extent of the kingdom 

 of Parthia is 918 miles. 



XXXI. Moreover therc is a town belonging to The Tigris. 

 Mesopotamia on the bank of the Tigris near its 

 confluence with the Euphrates, the name of which 



433 



