Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/134

 EUPATORIA. posit oF hia ploiuler, in b. c. 426 ; and it was shortly afterwards taken by Enrylochos, the Spartan com- nutnder, along with Oeneon. (Thuc iii. 96, 102.) After the time of Alexander the Great, Enpalinm fell into the hands of the Aetolians ; and Philip, when he made a descent open Uie Aetolian coast in B. c. 207, landed at Erythrae, which is described by Livy as near Enpalinm. (Lit. xzriii. 8.) This Erythrae was probably the port of Enpalinm. Leake supposes Enpalinm to have stood in the plain of Marathidy opposite to the islands Tritdnia or Tra- edmoj where some mins of an ancient city still exist on the eastern side of the plfun, at no great distance from the sea. (Leake, Nordiem Grtece, yol. iL pp. 617, 618.) EUPATOHIA. [Amtbus], EUPATCRIUM. [Taurica Chersokksus.] EUPHO'RBIUM, a town in Phrygia, between Syn- nada and Apameia, on the spot of the modem <SSafi- duHi (Leaj^e, Atia Minor ^ p. 1 65), formed, together with the towns of Metropolis, Peltae, Acmonia, and some others, the ocmventus of Apameia. (Plin. v. 29 ; comp. Gec^. Rav.) It seems, like Eucarpia, to have received its name from the fisrtility of its ter- ritory. (Comp. Hamilton, .Aeseoi'eAettriiLsiaJftnor, vol. ii. p. 169.) [L.S.] EUPHRANTA or EUPHRANTAS TURRIS (E&^fM(rrar irvpyos, Strab. xvii. p. 836; E^^p^yra iFvpyoSf PtoL iv. 3. § 14; E^poyrcu, Stadkum. p. 452 : Katr-Safrany Rn.), a fortress, sjhI apparently also a town, near the bottom of the Great Syrtis. According to Strabo, it was the boundary between the Cartbaginian territory and the dominions of the Ptolemies. Adjacent to it was a good harbour, the only one on this part of the eoast. By this and other drcnmstances noticed l^* the ancients, it is identi6ed with Katr-Safrany where are still to be seen the Urge rains of a tower of massive masonry. (Delia Cella, p. 50; Barth. pp. 340, 369.) [P. S.] EUPHRATENSIS. [Cokmaoene.] EUPHRATES (6 Evpdrris, EJ^p^riys), the river of Western Asia, which, with its twin>stream the Tigris, forms the third among the systems of double riven, which are so peculiarly characteristic of the Asiatic continent, and have had such an important influence on its civilisation and political organisation. 1. The Name. — The Euphrates, as it was uni- Tersally called by the Greek and Roman writers, ob- tained among the Hebrews the name of ** The great river" which was to be the E. boundaiy of the land granted by Jehovah to the children of Abnu ham (^DenL L 7), and did actually become the na> tural limit of the Hebrew monarchy under David. The Prophets when they use it to denote figuratively the Assyrian power, speak of it emphatically as " the river." (/#. viii. 6; Jer. ii. 18.) The word which still survives in the modern Frat or Fordt, bore the signification of "fertility" (Joseph. AfUiq. i. 1. § 8 ; comp. Winer, Reahoorterbuehy s. v, ; Rosen- mUller, Handbwhy vol i. pt. i. p. 189.) According to Pliny (v. 20) it did not assume the epithet of Euphrates till it had broken through the defile formed by tbe E. extrani^ of Hods Amanus. In the ear- lier part of its course, as far as Elegia, it was called Ptxirates, and, afterwards, while working its cir- cuitous course through Taurus, Omikas. Of its two great sources in the mountains of Armenia, the W. is now called Kard-SAy the E. Mwrdd-ckdly which rises on the S. sl(^ of Aid Tdghy a moun- tain abont 9000 feet high, and from its size, ought, perhaps, to be consideied as the principal streauL EUPHRATES. 875 The conflnenoe of these two streams, after forming with the Tigris one tidal channel, receives the ap- pellation of ShatUel-'Arah, 2. Comparative Geography. — In comparing the statements of the ancients with modern researches and inquiry, it is important to bear in mind that none of the maps describing the course of the river, previous to the publication of the results obtained by Colonel Cheaney's expedition, are to be trusted. We are indebted to his work {Exped. Evphrat»y London, 1850) for the first accurate and complete survey of the geography of this river-basin. Before entering upon the more precise details which have been supplied by Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and others, it may be serviceable to cast a glance at the history of the progress of discovery of the banks of this mighty stream, which is connected in the earliest and most venerable records with the origin and cradle of the human race, — is linked with the most important events in the history of mankind, as forming the dividing-line for great empires, races, and tongues, — and is, probably, destined in after ages to become again one among the chief of the thoroughfares of the world. According to Herodotus (i. 180) the Euphrates flowed finom Armenia, being large, deep, and swift, discharging itself into the Erythraean sea. The river was navigable from Babylon upwards for those willow boats (L 194), the counterparts of which, the modern Kufah or basket boats, now float upon the Tigris and Lower Euphrates. The expedition of the Ten Thousand, which brought the Greeks into contact with the Persian Empire, considerably enlarged the circle of their ideas respecting the Euphrates ; and several modem traveUen have borne testimony, from person&l obser- vation, to the accuracy of Xenophon's description, even at the present day. The army crossed the Euphrates at the ford of Thapsacns, which appeara to have been the best known and most frequented passage down to b. c. 100. The breadth of the river here was 4 stadia. (^Anab. i. 4. § 11.) Afl^ crossmg the Euphrates, Gyrus proceeded for nine days' march along its left bank till he came to its aflioent, the river Araxes or Chaboras, which dirided Syria from Arabia. Still advancmg along the banks of the river, he entered the Desert where there was no cultivation or even any tree, nothing but worm- wood and various aromatic shrubs. Anab, i. 5. § 1.) The country along the left bank of the* river, as fkr as PyUe, being full of hills and narrow val- leys, presented many difficulties to the movements of an army. Pylae, it would seem, marked the spot where the desert country N. of Babylonia, with its nndulations of land and steep river banks, was ex- changed for the fat and fertile alluvial soil of Baby* Ionia Proper. After Cunaxa, the Greeks quitted the Euphrates, nor did they come within sight of it till they reached the E. branch (Murdd-Chat), at a point where the water was not higher than the navel, and as they were told, not far finom its sources. (Anab. iv. 5. § 2.) Koch (Zug der Zehn Taasendy pp. 88 — ^93) is at issue with Colonel Chesney and Mr. Ainsworth as to the point where a ford could be found in mid-winter with snow on the ground. Colonel Chesney (vol ii. p. 229) asserts that no passage could take place till they reached 39^ 10' N. laL Koch, whose opinion is preferred by Mr. Grote (Hist, of GreecCy vol. ix. p. 1 59), holds that the river would be fordable a little above its conflu- ence with the Ttoharbahur about Ut. 39^ 3'.