Chap. 21.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 44(3 



schoeni' in width, from the territory of the Commageni* on 

 the right, and it admits of a bridge being thrown across it, 

 even where it forces a passage through the range of Taurus, 

 At Claudiopolis^, in Cappadocia, it takes an easteriy direc- 

 tion ; and here, for the first time in this contest, Taurus 

 turns it out of its course ; though conquered before, and 

 rent asunder by its channel, the mountain-chain now gains 

 the victory in another way, and, breaking its career, com- 

 pels it to take a southerly direction. Thus is this warfare 

 of nature equally waged, — the river proceeding onward to 

 the destination which it intends to reach, and the mountains 

 forbidding it to proceed by the path which it originally 

 intended. After passing the Cataracts*, the river again 

 becomes navigable ; ;ind, at a distance of forty miles iroia 

 thence, is Samosata*, the capital of Commagene. 



CHAP. 21. — SYRIA UPON THE EUPHRATES. 



Arabia, above mentioned, has the cities of Edessa^ for- 

 merly called Antiochia, and, from the name of its fountain, 

 Callu'hoe^, and Carrhae*, memorable for the defeat of Crassua 



^ The length of the schaenus has been mentioned by our author in 

 C. 11 of the present Book. M. Saigey makes the Persian parasang to be 

 very nearly the same length as the schoenus of Pliny. 



* Commagene was a ^strict in the north of Syria, bounded by the 

 Euphrates on the east, by Cihcia on the west, and by Amanus on the 

 north. Its capital was Samosnta. 



' The place here spoken of by Pliny is probably the same mentioned 

 by Ptolemy as in Cataonia, one of the provinces of Cappadocia. Ac- 

 cording to Parisot, the site of the place is called at the present day 

 *EaClaudie.' 



* Salmasius has confounded these cataracts with those of Nachour, or 

 Elegia, previously mentioned. It is evident, however, that they are not 

 the same. 



5 Now called Someisat. In literary history, it is celebrated as being 

 the birth-place of the satirist Lucian. Nothing remains of it but a heap 

 of ruins, on an artificial mound. 



* In the district of Osrhoene, in the northern part of Mesopotamia. 

 It was situate on the Syrtus, now the Daisan, a small tributary of the 

 Euphrates. PUny speaks rather loosely when he places it in Arabia. 

 It is supposed that it bore the name of Antiochia during the reign of 

 the Syrian king, Antiochus IV. The modern town of Orfahor Uufah is 

 supposed to represent its site. ^ " The beautiful stream." It is 

 generally supposed that tliis was another name of Edessa. 



Supposed to be the Haran, or Charan, of the Old Testament. It 



