Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/475

 rhap. 20.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 441 ind on the east, the Laodiceni who are called the Laodiceni on the Libanus, the Leucadii^, and the Larissa?i, besides seventeen other Tetrarcliies, divided into kingdoms and bearins: barbarous names. o CHAP. 20. (24.) — THE EUPHEATES. This place, too, will be the most appropriate one for making some mention of the Euphrates. This river rises in Caranitis^, a praefecture of Greater Armenia, according to the statement of those who have approached the nearest to its source. Domitius Corbulo says, that it rises in Mount Aba ; Licinius Mucianus, at the foot of a mountain which he calls Capotes'*, twelve miles above Zimara, and that at its source it has the name of Pyxurates. It first flows past Derxene^ and then Anaitica^, shutting out^ the regions of Armenia from Cappadocia. Dascusa^ is distant from Zimara seventy-five miles ; from this spot it is navigable as far as northern entrance to the narrow valley, between Libanus and Anti- Libanus. During the possession of Coele-Syria by the Greek kings of Egypt, it was the south west border fortress of Syria. It was the chief city of a district called Laodicene. 2 Of Leucas, or Leucadia, nothing is known. Larissa, in Syria, was y city in the district of Apamene, on the western bank of the Orontes, About half-way between Apamea and Epiphania. The site is now called i ulat-Seijar. 3 In the western branch of the plateau of Iran, a portion of the Taurus cniin. Considerable changes in the course of the lower portion of the riy^r have taken place since the time wlien Phny wrote. Caranitis is tH ! modem Arzrum, or Erzrum, of the Turks. ' • Now called Dujik Tagh, a mountain of Armenia. It has been suggested, that the proper readhig here would be Xerxene. ^ Probably the district where the goddess Anais was worshipped, who is mentioned by Phny in B, xxxiii. c. 24. 7 From the place of confluence where the two mountain streams forming the Euphrates unite. This spot is now known as Kebban Ma'den. 8 A fortress upon the river Euphrates, in Lesser Armejiia. It has been identified with the ferry and lead-mines of Kebhan Ma'den, the points where the Kara Su is.joined by the Myratl-C'hai, at a ihstanco of 270 miles from its source j the two streaius forming, by their con« fluence, the Euphrates.
 * The people of Laodicea ad Libanum, a city of Coele-Syria, at the