[36] ‘The fortifications of Dara,’ says Gibbon, ‘may represent the military architecture of the age. The city was surrounded by two walls, and the interval between them, of fifty paces, afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall was a monument of strength and beauty: it measured sixty feet from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundred feet; the loopholes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with missile weapons, were small, but numerous; the soldiers were placed along the rampart, under the shelter of double galleries, and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the summit of the towers. The exterior wall seems to have been less lofty, but more solid; and each tower was protected by a quadrangular bulwark. A hard rocky soil resisted the tools of the miners, and on the south-east, where the ground was more tractable, their approach was retarded by a new work, which advanced in the shape of a half-moon. The double and treble ditches were filled with a stream of water; and in the management of the river, the most skilful labour was employed to supply the inhabitants, to distress the besiegers, and to prevent the mischiefs of a natural or artificial inundation.’—Gibbon, ch. xl. (S.) See Note, page 58. [37] ‘The Church of Dara is in a perfect state of preservation owing to the extreme solidity of its construction—a parallelogram 97·6 by 68·3. In the interior, the nave, with the adjoining chapels, forms a perfect square. A building adjoining, supposed to have been the baptistry, is ruined. Mr. Ainsworth says there are seven or eight churches in the town.’—Texier and Pullan, p. 52. [38] Rabdium, near Jezireh-ibn-Omar. A fine old castle. ‘This appears to be the Rabdium of the Byzantines. The remains of an ancient bridge are seen crossing the Tigris at a short distance.’—Chesney’s ‘Euphrates.’ (L.) [39] Mejafarkîn, north-east of Diarbekr. (W.) [40] Founded by Theodosius II. V. ‘De Bello Persico,’ i. 10.—Gibbon. (S.) Now probably Ras el ‘Ain on the Khabûr. (W.) [41] River Aborrhas. The Chaboras at the juncture of the Khabûr and the Euphrates: the Chaboras of Ptolemy and Pliny and probably the Araxes of Xenophon; now the Khabûr. (W.) [42] ‘Circesium, the last Roman station on the Euphrates.’—Gibbon, ch. xl. (S.) Now Kirkisiah at the juncture of the Khabûr and the Euphrates. (W.)