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taken place by Attock. We may picture to ourselves, 
caravans loaded with its natural and manufactured trea- 
sures, as proceeding from N.W. India, crossing the Indus at 
Attock, and proceeding along Caubul ; where they were joined 
by the merchants from the mouths and from along the west- 
ern bank of that river. From beyond Caubul, a branch 
turned, as in the modern day, towards the flourishing 
Bokhara, Samarcand, and Balkh, " the mother of cities." 
The main route continued west, though sometimes 
taking: a circuitous direction to avoid deserts, or for the 
purpose of visiting flourishing districts; and passed near 
the modern Candahar, Herat, and through the Caspian 
Straits (Pylas Caspise) to Ecbatana, the modern Hamadan. 
From this the caravans might either diverge southwards to 
Susa ; or, crossing the long but direct communication, 
between this the capital, and the distant Sardis in Asia 
Minor, reach Babylon by continuing a nearly western 
course. 
Babylon, even in the earliest times of which we have 
any notice, is mentioned as a populous and civilized city. 
Heeren has shown how admirably its position, at the head 
of the Persian Gulf, suited it, like so many other succeeding 
cities, for benefiting by the Indian trade. Communicating 
on the south by the Indian ocean with Arabia and India ; 
and having the Euphrates extending to the north ; by 
which it might hold intercourse with the nations between 
the Black and Caspian Seas on the one hand ; and on 
the other with those on the shores of the Mediterranean. 
From Babylon, the merchant might thus proceed up the 
Euphrates or along its banks, into Armenia, or only as 
far as Circesium or Thapsacus ; diverging from the latter 
into Syria; or from the former to the Phoenician colonies, 
by Palmyra in the Desert and Balbec in Coclosyria. 
