Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 211

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This place, too, will be the most appropriate one for making some mention of the Euphrates. This river rises in Caranitis3770, a præfecture 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 Capotes3771, twelve miles above Zimara, and that at its source it has the name of Pyxurates. It first flows past Derxene3772, and then Anaitica3773, shutting out3774 the regions of Armenia from Cappadocia. Dascusa3775 is distant from Zimara seventy-five miles; from this spot it is navigable as far as Sartona3776, a distance of fifty miles, thence to Melitene3777, in Cappadocia, distant seventy-four3778 miles, and thence to Elegia3779, in Armenia, distant ten miles; receiving in its course the rivers Lycus3780, Arsanias3781, and Arsanus. At Elegia it meets the range of Mount Taurus, but no effectual resistance is offered to its course, although the chain is here twelve miles in width. At its passage3782 between the mountains, the river bears the name of Omma3783; but afterwards, when it has passed through, it receives that of Euphrates. Beyond this spot it is full of rocks, and runs with an impetuous tide. It then divides that part of Arabia which is called the country of the Orei3784, on the left, by a channel three schœni3785 in width, from the territory of the Commageni3786 on the right, and it admits of a bridge being thrown across it, even where it forces a passage through the range of Taurus. At Claudiopolis3787, in Cappadocia, it takes an easterly direction; and here, for the first time in this contest, Taurus turns it out of its course; though conquered before, and rent asunder by its channel, the mountain-chain now gains the victory in another way, and, breaking its career, compels it to take a southerly direction. Thus is this warfare of nature equally waged,—the river proceeding onward to the destination which it intends to reach, and the mountains forbidding it to proceed by the path which it originally intended. After passing the Cataracts3788, the river again becomes navigable; and, at a distance of forty miles from thence, is Samosata3789, the capital of Commagene.