Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/725

 RHENUS. This article may be read with tlie articles Bata- voiiuM Insula, Flevo Lacus, Fossa Coubulo- Nis, MosA, JIosELLA, and Gallia Tkansalpina. (D'Anville, Xo/(ce, (j'c, " Khenus "; Fenny Cy- clopaedia, art. "Khine"; and Ukert, G«ffiew, — who has collected all the ancient and many modern au- thorities.) [G. L.] EHENUS (Rem), a river of Gallia Cispadana, and one of the southern tributaries of the Padus. (Plin. iii. 16. s. 20.) It flowed within about a mile of the walls of Bononia {Bologna), on the V. side of the city, and is celebrated in history on account of the interview between Antony, Octavian, and Le- pidus, which is generally believed to have taken place in a small island formed by its waters. [Bononia.] It has its sources in the Apennines nearly 50 miles above Bologna, and is a considerable stream, though called by Silius Italicus " parvus," to distinguish it from its far greater namesake, the Rhine. (Sil. Ital. viii. 599.) In the time of Pliny it is probable that it discharged its waters into the principal channel of the Padus, but at the present day they are turned aside into an artificial channel before reaching that river, and are thus carried into the arm now known as the Po dl Primaro. Hence the mouth of that branch of the Po is now called the Foce del Reno. Pliny tells us that the reeds which grew on the banks of the Rhenus were superior to all others for making arrows. (Plin. xvi. 36. s. 65.) [E. H. B.] RHESAEXA('Pe'<Toiya, Ptol. v. 18. § 13; 'PeVira, Steph. B. s. V. ; Amm. Marc, xxxii. 5 ; Ressaina, Tab. Pent. ; Rasin, Notit. Imp. : Eth. 'Peaii/aT-qs, Steph. B. i". v.), a town of considerable importance at the northern extremity of Jlesopotamia ; it was si- tuated near the sources of the Chaboras (Khahur), on the great road which led from Carrhae to Nicepho- rium, about 88 miles from Ni.sibis and 40 from Dara. (Procop. B.P.W., de Aedif. i'l. 2.) It was near this town that Gordian the Younger fell in a battle with the Persians. (Amm. Marc. /. c.) A coin exists of the emperor Decius, bearing the legend CEn. KOA. PHCAINHCinN.,'which may in all ])robability be referred to this town. In the Notit. Imp. the place is subject to the government of the Dux Osrhoenae {Xutit. Dign. ed. Bijcking, i. p. 400), and a bishop of Resaina is mentioned among those who subscribed their names at the Council of Nicaea. Under Theodosius, the town appears to have been partially rebuilt, and to have received the title of TiiiioDOSioPOLis. (Hierocl. p. 793.) There can be no lioubt that it is at present represented by Ras-al-Ain, a considerable entrepot of commerce in the province of Diarbekr. It was nearly de- stroyed by the troops of Timur, in a. d. 1393. (D'ilsrbelot, Bi^t. Orient, i. p. 140, iii. p. 112; Niebuhr, ii. p. 390.) [V.] RHINOCORURA. 709 COIN OF RIIKSAENA. RHETICO, a mountain of Germany, mentioned only by Pomp. Mela (iii. 3), along with Mount Taunus. As no particulars are stated it is impos- sible to identify it, and German writers are so divided in their opinions that some take Rhetico to be the name of the Sicbengebirge, near Bonn, while others identify it with a mountain in the Tirol. [L. S.] RHIDAGUS (Curt. vi. 4. § 7), a river of Hyr- cania, which flows from the mountains NV. to the Caspian. Alexander crossed it on his march in pursuit of Dareius. It appears to be the same as the Choatres of Ammianus (xxiii. 24), and may perhaps be represented by the present Adjisu. [V.] RHINOCORU'RA or EHINOCOLU'KA ('Pii/o- nipovpa, Polyb. Ptol. Jo.seph.; 'Pii'OK6ovpy, Strab.: Eth. 'PivoKovpalpos, 'PivoKovpovpiTTts), a maritime city on the confines of Egypt and Palestine, and con- sequently reckoned sometimes to one country, some- times to the other. Strabo, going south, reckons Gaza, Raphia, Rhinocolura (xvi. p. 759); Polybius, going north, reckons it to Egypt, calling Kaphia the first city of Coelesyria (v. 80). Ptolemy also reckons it to Egypt, and places it in the district of Cassiotis (iv. 5. § 12), between Ostracine and An- thedon. The Itinerarium Antonini (p. 151) places it xxii. M.P. south of Rafia, and the same distance north of Ostracena. The following curious account of its origin and name is given by Diodoras Siculus. Acti.sanes, king of Aethiopia, having conquered Egypt, with a view to the suppression of crime in his newly-acquired dominion, collected together all the suspected thieves in the country, and, after judicial conviction, cut off their noses and sent them to colonise a city which he had built for them on the extremity of the desert, called, from their mishap, Rliinocolura (quasi pivos K6ovpoi:=curti, al. p. k€i- paadai), situated on the confines of Egypt and Syria, near the shore; and from its situation destitute of nearly all the necessaries of life. The soil around it was salt, and the small supply of well water within the walls was bitter. Necessity, the mother of invention, led the inhabitants to adopt the following novel expedient for their sustenance. They col- lected a quantity of reeds, and, splitting them very fine, they wove them into nets, which they stretched for many stadia along the sea-shore, and so snared large quantities of quails as they came in vast flights from the sea (i. 60). Strabo copies this ac- count of its origin (/. c); Seneca ascribes the act to a Persian king, and assigns the city to Syria (de Ira, iii. 20). Strabo (xvi. p. 781) mentions it as having been the great emporium of Indian and Arabian merchandise, which was discharged at Leuce Come, on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, whence it was conveyed, via Petra, to Rhinocolura, and thence dispersed to all quarters. In his day, however, the tide of commerce flowed chiefly down the Nile to Alexandria. The name occurs in Jose- phus, but unconnected with any important event. It is known to the ancient ecclesiastical writers as the division between the possessions of the sons of Noah. S. Jerome states that the " River of Egypt " flowed between this city and Pclusium (Keland, Palaest. pp. 285, 286, 969—972); and in one pas- sage the LXX. translate " tiie River of Egypt" by Rhinocorura. (Isaiah, xxvii. 12.) It is ro- inarkable that this penal colony, founded for muti- lated convicts, should have become fruitful ?n saints; and its worthy and exemplary bishop Melas, in the time of the Arian persecution, who was succeeded by his brother Solon, became the founder of a succession of religious men, which, according to the testimony of Sozomen, continued to his lime, (/fi.it. Eccle.t. vii. 31.) Rhinocorura is now El-Arish, as the Z7. 3