BOOK ^'I. XXXI. i39-xx.\ii. 142 



the town, and raised the level of the adjacent ground 

 over a space of six miles in length and a little less in 

 breadth. It was originally at a distance of Ij miles 

 from tlie coast, and had a harbour of its own, but 

 when Juba pubHshed his work it was 50 miles inland ; 

 its present distance from the coast is stated by Arab 

 envoys and our own traders who have come from the 

 place to be 120 miles. There is no part of the world 

 where earth carried down by rivers has encroached 

 on the sea further or more rapidly ; and what is more 

 surprising is that the deposits have not been driven 

 back by the tide, as it approaches far beyond this point. 



It has not escaped my notice that Charax was the 

 birthplace of Dionysius, the most recent Avriter 

 dealing with the geography of the world, who was 

 sent in advance to the East by his late majesty 

 Augustus to write a full account of it when the 

 emperor's elder son " was about to proceed to Armenia 

 to take command against the Parthians and Arabians ; 

 nor have I forgotten the view stated at the m. 2. 

 beginning of my work that each author appears to 

 be most accurate in describing his own country ; 

 in this section however my intention is to be guided 

 by the Roman armies and by King Juba, in his 

 volumes dedicated to the above-mentioned Gaius 

 Caesar describing the same expedition to Arabia. 



XXXII. In regard to the extent of its terri- Arabia. 

 tory Arabia is infferior to no race in the world ; 

 its longest dimension is, as we have said, the slope v. 85. 

 down from Mount Amanus in the direction of 

 Cilicia and Commagene, many of the Arabian races 

 having been brought to that country by Tigranes 

 the Great, while others have migrated of their own 

 accord to the Mediterranean and the Egyptian coast, 



445 



