Chap. II. of the E a s 
the Rivers Erannoboas , at Ganges , and was the moil 
famous City in the Indies. Megafthenes , who had been 
* often. there, affirms that it is eighty Stadia in Length, 
and fifteen in Breath ; furrotied with a Ditch, of a pro- 
digious Breadth, and forty de Foot deep : There were 
five hundred and feventy Toys on its Walls ; and it had 
fixty-fotir Gates a . Ptolemy edit, The Royal Palibothra b *, 
and places it in the Latitude 027° : And Strabo tells us, 
that, from this Royal City, tilling was frequently called 
Palimbotbrus which is probab enough, fince it is plain, 
that fuch a Cnftom prevailed ithe Indies , from the In- 
ftance of Mophis, who, on his cceffion to the Kingdom 
of T axila , affirmed the Title of axiles. 
The City of Palibothra is fluently mentioned, with 
Marks of the uttnofi Admiration.y many antient Authors ; 
and continued, to the Time of P/y, to be confidered as the 
Metropolis of India. There is ged Reafon to believe, it is 
the fame with the modern City o Vlalabas, in the Mogul's 
Dominions, fituated on the Conjence of the Rivers Ge- 
mene, and Euphrates , , and agreed, in other refpedts, to 
the foregoing Defcription. Meglhenes, who was em- 
ployed in feveral Negotiations, at ie Court of Sandracot- 
tus, represented him as a Prince no°fs confpicuous for his 
Virtues, than formidable for his Peer •, as one who ruled 
with the utmoft Regard to Equitymd Juftice, and kept 
even his Soldiers to fuch ftrift Difcijne, as that an Army 
of four hundred thoufand Men, ould march thro’ a 
Country, without harraffing, or defoying it. He muft. 
Indeed, have been a Prince of finfiar Abilities, who, 
from fuch fmall Beginnings, wouldlaife up fo potent an 
Empire, and leave it, at his Deceal, to his Son. The 
Name of this Succeffor of his, was litre chades ; and we 
read in Pliny, that the Standing Eons of this Monarch 
were fix hundred thoufand Foot, thty thoufand Horfe, 
and nine thoufand Elephants c . 
3. By this Treaty, made with the idian Prince before 
mentioned, Seleucus abfolutely abandord all the Conquefts 
that Alexander had made on that Sid, within lefs than 
twenty Years after his Death*, and the were never after- 
wards recovered. It was this Prince, vho in his Tranf- 
actions with the Kings of India, made fe of Megafthenes , 
whom we have fo often mentioned ; ancit was, by being 
thus employed by Seleucus , that he acquitd the Knowledge 
requifite for the writing of his Book, viich is long ago 
perifftd, tho’ there are Hill fome Fragments preferved. 
He is cenfured as a fabulous W riter, by 10ft of thofe who 
cite him *, and, in the Beginning of the 5th Century, it 
came into the Head of an Italian Monk, yhofe Name was 
Annins , of Viterbo , to counterfeit the Bak of which we 
have been fpeaking, notwithftanding thathe knew fo little 
of it, as to miftake the Author’s Name, whom he calls 
Meiafthenes ; into which Miftake he was ltd, by the Latin 
Tranftation of Jofephus. His Mafter Seleucus was a very 
wife, as well as fortunate Prince ; but his Reign was fo 
much troubled with Wars, that he had fcarce Leifure to 
think of any thing elfe. 
There is, however, one Circumftance in his Reign, that 
inuft not be forgot, which was his building Seleuda, on the 
River Tigris , at the Diftance of forty Miles fro n. Babylon, 
in order to make it the Seat of Government, for tht Eaftern 
Provinces of his Empire : And in this he, and oner Suc- 
ceffors of Alexander the Great, a heeled to copy their 
Mafter § and none of them with better Succefs than Se- 
leucus : For his new City, which flood on the Weft Side of 
the River, foon drew moft of its Inhabitants from Babylon , 
which funk fo low, as to be turned, by the Parthian £ings, 
into a Park for wild Beafts d . By Degrees, however, its 
Name was transferred to Seleucia : And this is the Labylon 
that we find afterwards mentioned by Hiftorians. It may 
not be amifs to obferve here, that the new Babylon is now 
funk as low as the old : For the Caliph Almanfur , obferv- 
ing, on the other Side of the River Tigris , a very beauti- 
ful Spot of Ground, on which there was nothing bat the 
Cell of a Chriflian Monk, and a little Garden, he thought 
the Situation fo pleafant and commodious, that in the Year 
after Ch-rift 762, he built there a new City, which he 
a Arrian, in Indie. b Ap. Cellar. Geogr. Antiq. p. 745. 
lih; .vi.' c. 26. e Elmacini Hijloria Saracenica, A. H. 1 45 . 
f Diodor. Si till. lib. xx. Strabo , lib.xv i. JuJUn. lib. xv. s Appi 
3 
t Indies. 41 1 
made the Capital of his Dominions \ and called it, from 
the old Monk, Bagdad ; i. e. the Garden of Dad ; which 
is the modern Babylon % and the very Place which is now 
befieged by Thamas Khouli Kan : And this Remark will be 
found of great Ufe, in the Perufal of the remaining Part of 
this Work; and therefore I introduced it here. The fame 
Seleucus, Nicator was alfo the Founder of Antioch , on the 
River Orontes , about twenty Miles above its Fall into the 
Mediterranean Sea •, which continued, for many Centuries, 
the chief City of the Fail : And fo, indeed, it well deferred 
to be, for its convenient Situation, lying at an equal Di- 
ftance from the two great Cities, of Confiantinople in Eu- 
rope , and Alexandria in Egypt , about' 700 Miles from each 
of them f . 
He, and his Succeffors, had Fleets, both in the Gafpian 
and Black Seas , but the Accounts we have, of the Voyages 
made in both, by their Direction, in Pliny , are fo obi cure, 
and, in Truth, fo abfurd, that it would be to no Purpofe, 
to trouble the Reader with any Account of them. We 
have, indeed, a better Charadter given us of one Patrocles , 
whom they employed to inquire into the Government and 
Trade of the Indies , and who wrote a Book upon this , 
Subject, often cited, and much commended by Strabo \ 
but it is long fince loft, tho’, from his Account of it, moft 
certainly it deferved a better Fate. 
4. This Seleucus Nicator , or the Conqueror, who was the 
firft Monarch of Syria , and of whom we have hitherto 
been fpeaking, reigned thirty-three Years *, and, on his 
Death, was fucceeded by his Son Antiochus So ter, i. e. 
the Saviour, which Surname he obtained by defeating the 
Gauls , who broke into Idler Afia, and threw all that Part of 
the World into Confufion : Fie reigned nineteen Years; moft 
of which were fpent in War ; and was fucceeded by his 
Son Antiochus Theus : In the eleventh Year of whofe Reign 
the Parthians and Bahlrians revolted, which cut off from 
him moft of the Eaftern Provinces, and,, with the Rebellion 
of his Son, perplexed his Reign fo much, that he had not 
Time to look into the domeftic Oeconomy of his Empire, 
which he enjoyed fifteen Years *, and was then fucceeded 
by his Son Seleucus Callinicus , who, in the Beginning of 
his Reign, was involved in a, War with his Brother ; which 
gave an Opportunity to Ar faces, the new King of Par- 
thia , to add Hyrcania likewile to his Dominions *, which, 
however, Seleucus endeavoured to recover, and marched 
with a great Army into Parthia for that Purpofe, but with 
no great Succefs. In the fixteenth Year of his Reign, he 
invaded Parthia a fecond Time with worfe Fortune than, 
before *, for he was defeated and taken Prifoner by Ar faces, 
and, having lived in Confinement three Years, died of a 
Fall from his Horfe. 
He was fucceeded by his Son Seleucus Ceraunus , i. e. 
the Thunderer, an odd Surname for a weak and pufillani- 
mous Prince, who, after fitting three Years on the Throne, 
and doing nothing remarkable, was poifoned by fome of 
his Minifters, leaving behind him no Iffue ; after his 
Death, fucceeded Antiochus the Son of Seleucus, when 
the Kingdom of Syria was in the moft diftreffed Condition 
imaginable, diftrafted at home, and embroiled abroad § . 
5. This Antiochus merited the Title of Great ; for, 
though at his Accefiion to the Kingdom, which happened 
in the Year 222 before Chrifi, he was but fifteen Years 
old, yet he difeovered a Spirit worthy of his Crown, and 
capable of reftoring the Glory of his Country. In the 
Beginning of his Reign, he fent Molon and Alexander , two 
Brothers, one into Media , and the other into Parthia ; 
but they, defpifing the King’s Youth, fet up for them Lives, 
and feized the Countries they were fent to govern : Thefe 
Rebels defeated two Armies that were fent againft them ; 
but King Antiochus himfelf, marching firft into Media , 
there defeated Molon, who killed himfelf in Defpair : His 
Brother Alexander, finding itimpoffible to refill, deftroyed 
his Mother and all his Family, and - then killed himfelf ; 
by which means thefe 1 two Provinces were again reftored 
to the Syrian Empire. Encouraged by this Succefs, lie, in 
the eleventh Year of his Reign, attacked Ar faces , King of 
Parthia ; and, after a long War, concluded a P«?ace with 
c Htft. Nat. lib. vi. c. 19. d Strabo, lib. xxi. Plih. 
' utycbii Annales, Tom. 2. p. 399. Abut., Pharagii Hijl ., Dynajl . p. 141.: 
vi, in Syriacis, JuJiin. 
film, 
