GEOGRAPHY. 
Jay Ammoniw, the chief town of whicli was Rahhath- 
Ammon, afterwards called Philadelphia ; to the fouthi 
Moabitis, whofe chief town was Rabbath-Moab. 
Idumaa or Edom, lay to the fouth of the Dead Sea. 
Its chief towns were : Zoar s.nd. Theman. Bozra, at the 
foot of Mount Scir, was reckoned part of Arabia. 
Other names which occur in facred geography were : 
Apnir, the fame as AlTyria.— Aram, part of Syria, willi 
Ccelo-Syria and Mefopotamia.—Land of Uz, the Soutli 
of Syria.— Elam, Perfia ; Lud, a country near it.—Land 
of Cii/%, .(Ethiopia, including Arabia ; part of whicli, 
Sheba, probably was Arabia Felix ; Havilah, Arabia De- 
ferta, near Babylonia i^RaamaA and Dedan, lying on the 
Per/]an Gulf. 
Ophir, concerning which these are various conjeftures; 
Tome placing it in the Ealt Indies, fome in Africa, and 
fome in Spain.— Mizraim, Egypt; part of which, on the 
ead of the Nile, was Gojhen.—Lub or Lubim, Libya, to 
the weft of Egypt.—/’//«/, the more diftant parts of 
Egypt.— Hamath, a royal city, and part of Phoenicia; 
in it alfo was the city of Riblah.—Arvad or Arpad, Se- 
pharvaim, Henak, and hah, cities and principalities near 
Hamath, Sepharvaim is fuppofed to have been Aleppo. 
Arabia. —The ancient name and boundaries of this 
country are the fame with the modern. It extends from 
the Euphrates and Paleftine to the Arabian Gulf or 
Red Sea—(this latter name was given by the ancients to 
all the Indian Ocean)—and the Perfian Gulf, and forms 
a large peninfula. The Northern divifion, comprehend¬ 
ing Idumaa, or the land of the children of Edom, took 
the name of Petraa from Petra, the refidence of the 
kings of the Nabathai, ALlana, Ailah, gave its name to 
the Sinus AElanites. From EJion^eber, Solomon’s fleets 
failed for Ophir. On the Gull of Heroopolis ftood the 
town from which it took its name, now Kalaat-Agerud ; 
alfo Paran, which gave name to the adjoining wilder- 
nefs; Arfinoe, or Clcopatris, is now Suez, from which the 
ifthmus takes its name. In this part of Arabia were 
Horeb and Sinai, famous for the promulgation of the 
Mofaic law, contiguous mountains, or perhaps the fame. 
TheMidianites, Moabites, Amalekites, and Iflimaelites, 
dwelt in this country. 
Arabia Dcferia, lay to the fouth-eaft: of Petraa and 
Syria, and extended as far as that part of Chaldea now 
called Balfora. Arabia Felix bounded it to the fouth 
and fouth-weft. The principal tribes inhabiting it 
were the Scenita and Nomades, now commonly called Be¬ 
douin Arabs. 
Arabia Felix, fo called from the excellence of its pro¬ 
ductions, lay between the Gulf of Perfia and the Red 
Sea. It was inhabited by various tribes, the Nomades 
Scenita, and Nabatai, the Saraceni, Homerita, and Sabai, 
whofe country, fuppofed to have been called Panchaa, 
anfwers nearly to the kingdom of Aden and Yemen. 
It produces frankincenfe, and is the moft fertile part of 
Arabia. Their chief town, Sabatha, is probably Sanaa ; 
/./erw( 5 a, Mareb ; Macoraba, Mecca; Jatrippa, Medina; 
Gerraj El Catif; Mofeha, Mafcat; Nifa, the fabulous 
birtli-place of Bacchus, is alfo fuppofed to have been 
in this country as well as in India.—India mittit Elur, 
juolles fua thura Sabsi. Virgil. — Dira, were the ftraits 
of Babel-Mandel; Arabia Emporium, Aden; Diojeoridis 
Infula, Socotora.—See the article Arabia, vol. ii. 
p. 1-26. 
The Parthian Empire, after the revolt from the 
Syrians, included Media, AJfyria, Babylonia, Perfia, and 
the dependant countries.— Media was feparated on the 
north from Armenia by the Araxes ; on the other lides 
it was bounded by the Cafpian Sea, Perfia, Alfyria, and 
Aria. A great part of it is known by the nante of Irak- 
Agemi, or the Perfian Irak, to diftinguifti it from Irak- 
Arabi, the Turkilh divifion of it. The part which bor¬ 
dered on Armenia was called Atropatene, from the fatfap 
Atropates, who /hook oil'the Macedonian yoke, and elta- 
VoL.Vm. No.jix. 
3^' 
bliflied his family in this principality. It is now called 
Aderbeitzin, or tlie Country of Fire, having been the 
native country of Zoroafter, legiflator of the Magi.—• 
Mayoi orix-^x Tle^traiq oi (pi>,o(7o(por xat Suidas. — Its 
chief city was 'Gaza, or Gazaca, probably now Tauris. 
Thebarmai, Urmiah, was the birth-place of Zoroafter.—■ 
The fouth-eaft: part, bordering on Perfia, was called 
Media Magna, the chief towns of which v/erc Ecbatana, 
the fummer retreat ef the kin{';s of Perfia, and afterwards 
of the kings of Parthia, now i'uppofed to be Hamedan.— 
Urbem banc nunc tenent Parthi, eaque aeftiva agentibus 
fedes eft. Q_. Curtius. — Raga, called alfo Europus and Ar. 
facia: the Nyfai Campi in this country were famous for 
the horfes bred there ; the PylaCafpia, a famous palTage, 
was in Mazanderan, the country of the Tapuri. —Anw- 
ther divifion of the country towards Perfa, was called 
Peratacene. 
Parthia, or Partliicne, the eaftern corner of Media, was, 
in a great meafure, bounded by Hyrcania, Aria, and Car- 
mania. The people who inhabited this narrow trad, 
having fliaken oft'tlie Syrian yoke, formed the formidable 
empire of the Parthians. Their chief cities, however, 
Seleucis and Ctejiphon, were not in this country. 
The AJfyrian empire comprehended the greater part of 
Afia ; but Affyria, in the limited fenfe of the name, lay 
between Armenia to the nortli, and Babylonia to the 
fouth; the Tigris bounded it to the we/I; and on the 
eaft it was feparated from Media by Mount Zagros, called 
by the Turks Tag-Aiaghi; it was fometimes called 
Aturia, from a diftrid near Nineveh; and fometimes 
Adiabene, from a province to the fouth of it ; the Cur- 
duchi, now Kurdes, who inhabited the mountainous part 
of it, have given it the name of Curdiftan.—Imperium 
A/Tyrii, mille trecentis annis habuere. Juflin. 
The principal rivers of this country, belides the Ti¬ 
gris, were : Zabus, fcarcely inferior to the Tigris, called 
by the Greeks Lycus, or the "Wolf, now Zarb ; Zabus 
Minor, or Caprus, the Boar, now the River of Gold; and 
the Gyndes and Gorgus. —A celeritate qua defluit Tigri 
nomen eft inditum ; quia Perfica lingua Tigrim lagittam 
appellant. Q. Curtius. 
Nineveh, tlie capital of AlTyria, faid to have been fixty 
miles in circumference, ftood on the eaft bank of the 
Tigris : its ruins are oppofite Moulul ; Arbela was la- 
mous for the vidory of Alexander over Darius, though 
the battle was fought at fome diftance from it, at Gau- 
gamcla. —Alexandro traditur Arbela, regia fupellecitili 
Dariique gaza repleta ; totius exercitus opibus in iftaui 
fedem congeftis. (I, Curtius. —-In the neighbourhood ot 
Corcura, Kerkur, were many naphtha fprings; SeVtdCf gave 
name to the province of Sittacene, in which was the city 
of Ctejiphon, the refidence of the Parthian kings. 
Baliylonia now anfwers to Irak, or Irak Arabi, the 
northern part of which was Mefopotamia, or the counti y 
between the rivers, and tlie fouthern Ckaldeea, extending 
towards the Gulf of Perfia. Between thefe lay Babyloniq. 
Proper, commencing at the junction of the rivers. 
Mefopotamia, alio called Aram, now Diarbec, where nof 
vvaftied by the Euphrates and Tigris, was bounded by 
ridges of Mount Taurus. Its chief towns were : Nifibis^ 
on the river Mygdonius, the bulwark of the Roman cm. 
pire againft the Parthians, now Nifibin; Scltucia or Sc- 
leucis, Bagdat, built by Scleucus Nicanor, with the view 
of weakening Babylon, as Ctcfphon was aiterwards by the 
Parthian princes, with the fame view againft Seleucia p 
Carrie, Haran, memorable for the defeat and death of 
CralTus, and for the murder of C'aracalla ; 
—--Miferando funere CralTus 
AlTyrias Latio maculavit fanguine Carrhas. Lucan, 
Edejfa, Roha, near Mount Taurus; Apamia, joined to 
Zeugma by a bridge over the Flnphrates ; Labana, now 
Mofal, on the Tigris, ’ oppofite Nineveh; Sippliafah, 
built immediately above the branching of the Euphrates 
into its Uiree channels. Some hordes of Arabi gave to 
iG parti 
