74 
PLIKl's NATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book VI. 
the Chaldsei, and situate near the river J^arraga/^ which falls 
into the !N'arroga, from which a city so called has taken its 
name. The Persse destroyed the walls of Hipparenum, 
Orchenns also, a third place of learning of the Chaldeei, is 
situate in the same district, towards the south ; after which 
come the Notitse, the Orothophanitse, and the Grecichartse.*^ 
From I^'earchus and Onesicritus we learn that the distance by 
water from the Persian Sea to Babylon, up the Euphrates, is 
four hundred and twelve miles ; other authors, however, who 
have written since their time, say that the distance to Se- 
leucia is four hundred and forty miles : and Juba says that 
the distance from Babylon to Charax is one hundred and 
seventy-five. Some writers state that the Euphrates con- 
tinues to flow with an undivided channel for a distance of 
eighty- seven miles beyond Babylon, before its waters are di- 
verted from their channel for the purposes of irrigation ; and 
that the whole length of its course is not less than twelve 
hundred miles. The circumstance that so many different 
authors have treated of this subject, accounts for all these 
variations, seeing that even the Persian writers themselves do 
not agree as to what is the length of their schcBni and para- 
sangcBy each assigning to them a different length. 
When the Euphrates ceases, by running in its channel, to 
afford protection*^ to those who dwell on its banks, which it does 
when it approaches the confines of Charax, the country is im- 
mediately infested by the Attali, a predatory people of Arabia, 
beyond whom are found, the Scenitae.*^ The banks along this 
river are occupied by the I^omades of Arabia, as far as the 
deserts of Syria, from which, as we have already stated,*^ it 
takes a turn to the south,*''' and leaves the solitary deserts of 
Palmyra. Seleucia is distant, by way of the Euphrates, from 
the beginning of Mesopotamia, eleven hundred and twenty- 
42 Parisot says that this river is the one set down in the maps as 
falling into the Tigris below its junction with the Euphrates, and near the 
mouths of the two rivers. He says that near the banks of it is marked 
the town of Nabrahan, the Narraga of Pliny. 
43 There is great doubt as to the correct spelling of these names. 
Against the attacks of robbers dwelling on the opposite side ; the 
Attali, for instance. 
45 Or dwellers in tents," Bedouins, as we call them. 
46 B. V. c. 20 and 21, 
Towards Mahamedieh. 
