[264] Damascus,—the Hebrew name of which is Dammesek,—a very ancient city in Syria, at the foot of the Antilibanus, at an elevation of 220 feet above the sea, in a spacious and fertile plain about 30 miles in diameter, which is watered by three rivers, two of which are called in the Bible Abana and Pharpar. It has still a population of 150,000. The emperor Julian, in one of his letters, calls it “the Eye of all the East.” [265] About £730,000. [266] B.C. 333; end of October or beginning of November. [267] Alexander erected three altars on the bank of the Pinarus, to Zeus, Heracles, and Athena (_Curtius_, iii. 33). Cicero, who was proconsul of Cilicia, speaks of “the altars of Alexander at the foot of Amanus,” and says that he encamped there four days (_Epistolae ad Diversos_, xv. 4). [268] About £12,000. [269] This distinguished general saved Alexander’s life in India, in the assault on the city of the Mallians. After the king’s death, he received the rule of the lesser or Hellespontine Phrygia. He was defeated and slain by the Athenians under Antiphilus, against whom he was fighting in alliance with Antipater, B.C. 323. See _Diodorus_, xviii. 14, 15; Plutarch (_Phocion_, 25). [270] Compare _Diodorus_, xvii. 37, 38; _Curtius_, iii. 29-32. [271] Named Sisygambis. [272] In a letter written by Alexander to Parmenio, an extract from which is preserved by Plutarch (_Alex._, 22), he says that he never saw nor entertained the desire of seeing the wife of Darius, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in Asia; and that he would not allow himself to listen to those who spoke about her beauty. Cf. _Ammianus_ (xxiv. 4, 27), speaking of Julian: “Ex virginibus autem, quae speciosae sunt captae, ut in Perside, ubi feminarum pulchritudo excellit, nec contrectare aliquam voluit, nec videre: Alexandrum imitatus et Africanum, qui haec declinabant, ne frangeretur cupiditate, qui se invictos a laboribus ubique praestiterunt.” [273] Thapsacus is understood to be identical with the city called Tiphsach (passage) in 1 Kings iv. 24; which is there said to have been the eastern boundary of Solomon’s empire. It is generally supposed that the modern Deir occupies the site of the ancient Thapsacus; but it has been discovered that the only ford in this part of the river is at Suriyeh, 165 miles above Deir. This was probably the site of Thapsacus. From the time of Seleucus Nicator the city was called Amphipolis (_Pliny_, v. 21). See _Stephanus_ of Byzantium, _sub voce_ Amphipolis. Cf. Xenophon (_Anabasis_, i. 4, 11).