BOOK VI. xxxi. 136-139 



this tovm we will now speak, after first stating the 

 opinion of Marcus Agrippa. According to his account 

 the countries of Media, Parthia and Farsistan are 

 bounded on the east by the Indus, on the west by 

 the Tigris, on the north by the Taurus and Cau- 

 casus mountains, and on the south by the Red Sea, 

 and cover an area 1320 miles in length and 840 

 miles in breadth ; he adds that the area of 

 Mesopotamia by itself, bounded by the Tigris on 

 the east, the Euphrates on the west, Mount Taurus 

 on the north and the Persian Sea on the south, is 

 800 miles in length by 360 miles in breadth. 



The town of Charax is situated in the innermost Charax 

 recess of the Persian Gulf, from which projects the 

 countrj' called Arabia Felix. It stands on an 

 artificial elevation between the Tigris on the right 

 and the Kariin on the left, at the point where these 

 two rivers unite, and the site measures two " miles 

 in breadth. The original tovm was founded by 

 Alexander the Great Mith settlers brought from the 

 royal city of Durine, which was then destroyed, 

 and vrith ^ the invalided soldiers from his army who 

 were left there. He had given orders that it was to 

 be called Alexandria, and a borough which he had 

 assigned specially to the Macedonians was to be 

 namcd Pellaeum, after the place where he was born. 

 The original to\\Ti was destroyed by the rivers, but 

 it was aftervvards restored by Antiochus, the fifth 

 lcing of Syria, who gave it his own name; and when 

 it had been ajrain damajired it was restored andnamed 

 after himself<= by Spaosines son of Sagdodonacus, 

 king of the neighbouring Arabs, who is WTongly 

 stated by Juba to have been a satrap of Antiochus ; 

 he constructed embankments for the protection of 



443 



