408 
THREE CITIES ON THE TIGRIS. 
Next day, discussing my future movements, I found the in¬ 
surgent Arabs along the shores of the Tigris, in an equal state 
of exasperation with their wilder brethren on the western plain 
of Shinar; and in consequence was obliged to relinquish much 
of my plan in these districts also, abandoning altogether my 
intention of visiting the remains of the three celebrated capitals 
at the mouth of the Nahar Malca, or royal canal. Seleucia, 
the first in time, as in fame, was built out of the plunder of 
Babylon; and stood about eighteen miles south of Bagdad, on 
the eastern shore of the Tigris. Ctesiphon, the second in order, 
and its rival, was erected by the Arsacidas or Parthian monarchs, 
from the same quarries, and occupied a station directly opposite 
the Greek city. The Sassanian princes of Persia, when they 
recovered the empire to the old line, and the religion of Zo- 
raster, created the third capital, by a union of the two preceding; 
and hence it derived the name of Al-Maidan, or the cities. Both 
Seleucia and Ctesiphon had been magnificent, and very populous 
places ; the Greek city in particular, Pliny mentions as having 
contained 600,000 inhabitants. But in all their states, whether 
singly or united, they felt “ the brand of war, and the foot of 
the spoiler,” in like manner with their parent Babylon. The 
imperial legions of Rome and Constantinople, with many a bar¬ 
barian phalanx besides, made successive dilapidations on their 
walls and towers; but it was reserved for Omar, and his military 
fanatics, to complete the final overthrow. That victorious ca- 
only ten minutes diffei'ing from your time, which would make the difference of half 
a geographical mile in the distance. Major Rennel rejects Beauchamp’s latitude, 
and adopts Niebuhr’s, but I know not from what reason, since it would make the 
distance much too great; your latitude, to me, seems to come nearest the truth, and 
I have great reliance on it; your longitude is near that of Major Rennel’s.” C. J. R. 
