listia, and Edom---the intensity of the summer
heat must have been great; but the winters were mild and of short
duration. In the middle regions of Central Mesopotamia, the Euphrates
valley, the Palmyrene, Coele-Syria, Judaea, and Phoenicia, while the
winters were somewhat colder and longer, the summer warmth was more
tolerable. Towards the north, along the flanks of Masius, Taurus, and
Amanus, a climate more like that of eastern Media prevailed, the summers
being little less hot than those of the middle region, while the winters
were of considerable severity. A variety of climate thus existed, but a
variety within somewhat narrow limits. The region was altogether hotter
and drier than is usual in the same latitude. The close proximity of the
great Arabian desert, the small size of the adjoining seas, the want of
mountains within the region having any great elevation, and the general
absence of timber, combined to produce an amount of heat and dryness
scarcely known elsewhere outside the tropics.

Detailed accounts of the temperature, and of the climate generally, in
the most important provinces of the Empire, Babylonia and Mesopotamia
Proper, have been already given, and on these points the reader is
referred to the first volume. With regard to the remaining provinces, it
may be noticed, in the first place, that the climate of Susiana differs
but very slightly from that of Babylonia, the region to which it is
adjacent. The heat in summer is excessive, the thermometer, even in the
hill country, at an elevation of 5000 feet, standing often at 107 deg.
Fahr. in the shade. The natives construct for themselves serdaubs,
or subterranean apartments, in which they live during the day, thus
somewhat reducing the temperature, but probably never bringing it much
below 100 degrees. They sleep at night in the open air on the flat roofs
of their houses. So far as there is any difference of climate at this
season between Susiana and Babylonia, it is in favor of the former. The
heat, though scorching, is rarely oppressive; and not unfrequently a
cool, invigorating breeze sets in from the mountains, which refreshes
both mind and body. The winters are exceedingly mild, snow being unknown
on the plains, and rare on the mountains, except at a considerable
elevation. At this time, however--from December to the end of
March--rain falls in tropical abundance; and occasionally there are
violent hail-storms, which inflict serious injury on the