ret science of the Chaldaeans had closed up, issued a pestilence,
loaded with the force of incurable disease, which in the time of Verus
and Marcus Antoninus polluted the whole world from the borders of Persia
to the Rhine and Gaul with contagion and death.

25. Near to this is the region of the Chaldaeans, the nurse of the
ancient philosophy, as the Chaldaeans themselves affirm; and where the
art of true divination has most especially been conspicuous. This
district is watered by the noble rivers already mentioned, by the
Marses, by the Royal river, and by that best of all, the Euphrates,
which divides into three branches, and is navigable in them all, having
many islands, and irrigating the fields around in a manner superior to
any industry of cultivators, making them fit both for the plough and for
the production of trees.

26. Next to these come the Susians, in whose province there are not many
towns; though Susa itself is celebrated as a city which has often been
the home of kings, and Arsiana, and Sele, and Aracha. The other towns in
this district are unimportant and obscure. Many rivers flow through this
region, the chief of which are the Oroates, the Harax, and the Meseus,
passing through the narrow sandy plain which separates the Caspian from
the Red Sea, and then fall into the sea.

27. On the left, Media is bounded by the Hyrcanian Sea;[144] a country
which, before the reign of the elder Cyrus and the rise of Persia, we
read was the supreme mistress of all Asia after the Assyrians had been
conquered; the greater part of whose cantons had their name changed into
one general appellation of Acrapatena, and fell by right of war under
the power of the Medes.

28. They are a warlike nation, and the most formidable of all the
eastern tribes, next to the Parthians, by whom alone they are conquered.
The region which they inhabit is in the form of a square. All the
inhabitants of these districts extend over great breadth of country,
reaching to the foot of a lofty chain of mountains known by the names of
Zagrus, Orontes, and Jasonium.

29. There is another very lofty mountain called Coronus; and those who
dwell on its western side abound in corn land and vineyards, being
blessed with a most fertile soil, and one enriched by rivers and
fountains.

30. They have also green meadows, and breeds of noble horses, on which
(as ancient writers relate, and as we ourselves have witnessed) their
men when going to battle mo