f Tyana), a spring rises from a marsh, which,
however swollen with its rising floods, never overflows its banks.

20. Within this circuit is Adiabene, which was formerly called Assyria,
but by long custom has received its present name from the circumstance,
that being placed between the two navigable rivers the Ona and the
Tigris, it can never be approached by fording; for in Greek we use
+diabainein+ for to "cross:" this was the belief of the ancients.

21. But we say that in this country there are two rivers which never
fail, which we ourselves have crossed, the Diabas, and the Adiabas:
both having bridges of boats over them; and that Adiabene has received
its name from this last, as Homer tells us Egypt received its name from
its great river, and India also, and Commagena which was formerly called
Euphratensis, as did the country now called Spain, which was formerly
called Iberia from the Iberus.[142] And the great Spanish province of
Boetica from the river Boetis.[143]

22. In this district of Adiabene is the city of Nineveh, named after
Ninus, a most mighty sovereign of former times, and the husband of
Semiramis, who was formerly queen of Persia, and also the cities of
Ecbatana, Arbela, and Gaugamela, where Alexander, after several other
battles, gave the crowning defeat to Darius.

23. In Assyria there are many cities, among which one of the most
eminent is Apamia, surnamed Mesene, and Teredon, and Apollonia, and
Vologesia, and many others of equal importance. But the most splendid
and celebrated are these three, Babylon, the walls of which Semiramis
cemented with pitch; for its citadel indeed was founded by that most
eminent monarch Belus. And Ctesiphon which Vardanes built long ago, and
which subsequently King Pacorus enlarged by an immigration of many
citizens, fortifying it also with walls, and giving it a name, made it
the most splendid place in Persia--next to it Seleucia, the splendid
work of Seleucus Nicator.

24. This, however, as we have already related, was stormed by the
generals of Verus Caesar, who carried the image of the Cumaean Apollo to
Rome, and placed it in the temple of the Palatine Apollo, where it was
formally dedicated to that god by his priests. But it is said that after
this statue was carried off, and the city was burnt, the soldiers,
searching the temple, found a narrow hole, and when this was opened in
the hope of finding something of value in it, from some deep gulf which
the sec