LIBER V · CAPUT 26
SYRIA UPON THE EUPHRATES
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Infra Palmyrae solitudines Telendena regio est dictaeque iam Hierapolis ac Beroea et Chalcis. ultra Palmyram quoque ex solitudinibus his aliquid obtinet Hemesa, item Elatium, dimidio propior Petrae quam Damascus. a Sura autem proxime est Philiscum, oppidum Parthorum ad Euphraten. ab eo Seleuciam dierum decem navigatio, totidemque fere Babylonem. scinditur enim Euphrates a Zeugmate DLXXXXIIII p. circa vicum Masicen et parte laeva in Mesopotamiam vadit, per ipsam Seleuciam circaque eam praefluenti infusus Tigri, dexteriore autem alveo Babylonem, quondam Chaldaeae caput, petit mediamque permeans, item quam Mothrim vocant, distrahitur in paludes. increscit autem et ipse Nili modo statis diebus, paulum differens, ac Mesopotamiam inundat sole optinente XX partem cancri. minui incipit in virginem e leone transgresso, in totum vero remeat in XXVIIII parten virginis.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
Below the deserts of Palmyra is the region of Stelendene, and Hierapolis, Berœa, and Chalcis, already mentioned. Beyond Palmyra, Emesa takes to itself a portion of these deserts; also Elatium, nearer to Petra by one-half than Damascus. At no great distance from Sura is Philiscum, a town of the Parthians, on the Euphrates. From this place it is ten days’ sail to Seleucia, and nearly as many to Babylon. At a distance of 594 miles beyond Zeugma, near the village of Massice, the Euphrates divides into two channels, the left one of which runs through Mesopotamia, past Seleucia, and falls into the Tigris as it flows around that city. Its channel on the right runs towards Babylon, the former capital of Chaldæa, and flows through the middle of it; and then through another city, the name of which is Otris, after which it becomes lost in the marshes. Like the Nile, this river increases at stated times, and at much about the same period. When the sun has reached the twentieth degree of Cancer, it inundates Mesopotamia; and, after he has passed through Leo and entered Virgo, its waters begin to subside. By the time the sun has entered the twenty-ninth degree of Virgo, the river has fully regained its usual height.