PLINT's NATtJllAL HISTOEY. 
[Book Y, 
(26.) Below the deserts of Palmyra is tlie region of 
Stelendene\ and Hierapolis, Beroea, and Chalcis, already 
mentioned^. Beyond Palmyra, Emesa^ takes to itself a 
portion of these deserts ; also Elatium, nearer to Petra by 
one-half than Damascus. At no great distance from Sura'* 
is Philiscum, a town of the Parthians, on the Euphrates. 
From this place it is ten days' sail to Seleucin, and nearly 
as many to Babylon. At a distance of 594 miles be- 
yond Zeugma, near the village of Massice, the Euphrates 
divides into two channels, the left one of which runs through 
Mesopotamia, past Seleucia, and falls into the Tigris as it 
flows around that city. Its channel on the right runs towards 
Babylon, the former capital of Chaldsea, and flows through 
the middle of it ; and then through another city, the name of 
which is Otris^, after which it becomes lost in the marshes. 
Like the Nile, this river increases at stated times, and at - 
much about the same period. When the sun has reached 
the twentieth degree of Cancer, it inundates^ Mesopotamia ; 
and, after he has passed through Leo and entered Virgo, 
its waters begin to subside. By the time the sun has 
entered the twenty-ninth degree of Virgo, the river has fully 
regained its usual height. 
CHAP. 22. (27.) — CILICIA A]S"D THE ADJOII^IlS^a KATIOIfS. 
But let us now return to the coast of Syria, joining up 
to which is Cilicia. We here find the river Diaphanes^, 
^ Pliny is the only author that makes mention of Stelendene. 
2 In C. 19 of the present Book. 
3 Previously mentioned by Pliny. See p. 439. Of Elatium nothing 
is known. 
^ The same place that is also mentioned in history as Flavia Firma 
Sura. The site of Philiscum is totally unknown. 
^ Nothing is known of this place. * 
6 Parisot remarks, that it is true that the Euphrates increases peri- 
odically, much in the same manner as the Nile ; but that its increase 
does not arise from similar causes, nor are the same results produced by 
it, seeing that the river does not convey the same volume of water as the 
Nile, and that the country in the vicinity of its bed does not, Hke Egypt, 
form a valley pent up between two ranges of hills. 
7 So called probably from the Greek diaipavrj?, "transparent." It 
has not been identified, but it was no doubt a small stream faUing into 
the Grulf of Issus. 
