Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/349

 MES0P0TA3IIA. district of Western Asia, deriving; its name from its position between the two great rivers Euphrates and Tigris. It was hounded on the N. by Armenia and the S. branch of M. Taurus, on the E. by the Tigris, on the W. by tlie Euphrates, and on the S. by the Median Wall, which separated it from Babylonia. (Strab. xvi. p. 746; Ptol. v. 18. § 1.) Pliny apparently extends it on the southern side as far as the Persian Gulf (v. 24. s. 21) ; but, like many other ancient provinces, its limits varied much at different periods, — it being sometimes ex- tended so as to comprehend Babylonia, at other times so as to take in parts of Syria. lilesopotamia is noticed among the earliest re- cords of the human race which vee have in the Bible. It is commonly known by three titles in Holy Scripture : either Aram Nahauaim (or "Syria of the Two Waters"), as in Gen. xxiv. 10; or Padan Aram ("Syria of the Plain"), as in Gen. xxxi. 18, xxxiii. 18, xxxv. 9; or Sedeh- Aram, " the field of Aram" {/los. xii. 12), corre- sponding with the " Campi ]Iesopotamiae" of Curtius"(iii. 2. § 3, iv 9. § 6). There are indeed places where Aram ^Iaharaem appears to be used in a more limited sense for the more northern por- tion of it {Deut. xxiii. 4) ; while it is equally cer- tain that it was not supposed to comprehend only the flat country of the plain ; for Balaam, who is said to have been a native of Aram Maharaim {Deut. xxiii. 4), is also in another place stated to have been " brought from Aram out of the mountains of the East." (^Numh. xxiii. 7.) It is not certain liow soon in history this country acquired its Greek title, which is, after all, only a modification of the meaning of the original Hebrew word, — probably, however, not till after Alexanders invasion of the East. (Cf. Arrian, vii. 7 ; Tacit. Ann. vi. 37.) The translators of the LXX. render the Hebrew sometimes MecoTroxa/xia Supi'aj, and sometimes simply MeffOTTora^/a. In the Bible we have men- tion of one ruler who is called a king of Mesopotamia, Cushan-RUhathaim, to whom the children of Israel ■were subject for eight years. {Judg. iii. 8, 10.) The modern Arabic name Al-Jezireh (the island) describes its locality accurately ; but the modt^rn province is much less extensive than the ancient. The whole country (as known at least to the later ^Titers) appears to have borne much the same cha- racter as Babylonia, and to have been rich in the same products. It was throughout well wooded, especially in the neighbourhood of the principal streams ; and some of the timber must have been of a large size, as Trajan built a fleet in the neigh- bourhood of Nisibis during the Parthian War (Dion Cass. Ixviii. 26), and Severus one in sub- sequent times from the woods along the banks of the Euphrates. (Dion Cass. Ixxv. 9.) Its ex- tensive plains afforded abundant pasturage for cattle (Curt. V. 1. § 12 ; Amm. Marc. xxv. 8), and its wilder and less frequented districts were the haunts of the lion, the wild ass, and the gazelle. (Strab. xvi. 747; Amniian. xviii. 7.) The same character it possesses now; though, from the scantiness of the population, and the careless rule of its Turkish governors, much th.at was formerly under culti- vation has become a de.serted wilderness. Among its natural products Strabo mentions especially naphtha, amomum, and a stone called gangitis or gagatis (perhaps a kind of anthracite coal). (Cf. Scliol. ad Nicundr. Ther. 37 ; Plin. x. 3. s. 4 ; Dioscorid. v. 146.) 5IESPILA. 333 Though Mesopotamia is for the most part a flat country, the ancients reckoned some mountains which were along its northern boundary, as be- longing to this division of Asia. These were JiIoNS Masius (now Karja Baghlar), one of the southern outlying spurs of the great range of the Taurus ; and M. Singaras (now Sinjur), which may be considered as an extension to the S. of the M. Masius. The latter is nearly isolated from the main ranges on the N., and extends on the KE. to the neighbourhood of the Tigris. The two most important rivers of Mesopotamia are, as we have stated, those which firmed its W. and E. boundaries, the Euphrates and Tigris ; but besides these, there are a number of smaller, but not wholly unimportant streams, which traverse it as afiluents of the former rivers. These were the Chaboras {Khahiir) ; the Saocoras, perhaps the same as that which Xeno- phon calls JIascas {Anab. i. 5. § 4) ; the Beua.s or Bilecha ; and the Mygdokius (Hermes.) Under the Roman Empire, Mesopotamia was divided into two parts, of which the western was called Osrhoene, while the eastern continued to bear its ancient name. It was conquered by Trajan in A.d. 115, who took Singara and Nisibis, and formed the three Roman provinces of Armenia, Jlesopolamia, and Assyria, of which Mesopotamia reached as far as the Persian Gvlf. (Dion Cass. Ixviii. 22, 23 ; Eutrop. viii. 3 ; Euseb. p. 165, ed. Scalig. ; Malalas, p. 274, ed. Bonn ) But even Trajan could not retain his conquests (Dion Cass. Ixviii. 29), and they were given up by Hadrian of his own accord. (Spartian,i7nfft'.5; Eutrop. viii. 6.) Under M.Aure- lius, Mesopotamia was again conquered by L. Verus, as far as the Median Wall (S. Rufus, Brev. 14) ; and the conquest was further secured by the found- ation of the colonies of Carrhae on the Chaboras and Singar.i, to which Septimius Severus added those of Nisibis and Rhesaena. But this province was a constant cause of war between the Persian and Roman empires ; and at length the greater part of it was surrendered to the Persians by Jovian in A. D. 363. After this time Mesopotamia contained two iirapx'^at : Osrhoene, bounded on the south by the Chaboras, with the capital Edessa; and Jleso- potamia, extending as far south as Dara, and having Amida as its capital. The province was governed by a Praeses. (jIarquardt, in Becker's Rumisch. Alterth. vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 204, seq.) The most important cities of this province were Batnae or Bathnae ; Carrhae ; Ciecesu'm ; NisiBis or Antiocheia Mygdoniae; and Sin- gara. [V] ME'SPILA (Me'ffTriAa, Xen. Anah. iii. 4. § 10), an ancient deserted city of Assyria, noticed by Xenophon on his retreat northwards from Babylonia. He describes it as about 6 parasangs from Larissa, on the same (or left) bank of the Tigris. He men- tions that the town had been inhabited by the Medes, and that its walls were of immense size, the foundations being of polished shelly limestone, 50 feet in breadth and height; and the piirt above, made of brick, being 100 t'cet high and 50 broad. The circumference of the whole work he states to have been 6 parasangs. He mentions, as a report, that on the Jledians being conquered by the Persians, the queen, who was a Medi.Tn, fled to this place ; and that, when subsequently the place was besieged by the Persians, they would have been unable to take it, had not Zeus aided thcui with his lightning. There can be little doubt that Mcspila is represented