[383] _Curtius_ (iv. 37) says that Tigris is the Persian word for _arrow_; and that the river was so named on account of the swiftness of its current. The Hebrew name is Chiddekel, which means _arrow_. See Gen. ii. 14; and Dan. x. 4, where it is called _the great river_. The name Tigris is derived from the Zend _Tighra_, which comes from the Sanscrit _Tig_, to sharpen. It is now called Dijleh. It joins the Euphrates 90 miles from the sea, and the united stream is called Shat-el-Arab. Its entire length is 1,146 miles. In ancient times the two rivers had distinct mouths. So the Rhon formerly had several mouths. See _Livy_, xxi. 26. _Strabo_ (iv. 1, 8) says that Timaeus gave it five mouths; Polybius gives it two; others give seven. [384] This eclipse occurred September 20th, B.C. 331. [385] The part of Assyria lying between the Upper Tigris and the Lycus was called Aturia. [386] Called Carduchi by Xenophon. These mountains separate Assyria and Mesopotamia from Media and Armenia. [387] Cf. Aelian (_Varia Historia_, xii. 38). [388] Arachosia comprised what is now the south-east part of Afghanistan and the north-east part of Beloochistan. [389] Aria comprised the west and north-west part of Afghanistan and the east part of Khorasan. [390] Parthia is the modern Khorasan. Hyrcania was the country south and south-east of the Caspian Sea. The Tapurians dwelt in the north of Media, on the borders of Parthia between the Caspian passes. Cf. _Ammianus_, xxiii. 6. [391] The Cadusians lived south-west of the Caspian, the Albanians on the west of the same sea, in the south-east part of Georgia, and the Sacesinians in the north-east of Armenia, on the river Kur. [392] The Red Sea was the name originally given to the whole expanse of sea to the west of India as far as Africa. The name was subsequently given to the Arabian Gulf exclusively. In Hebrew it is called _Yam-Suph_ (Sea of Sedge, or a seaweed resembling wool). The Egyptians called it the Sea of Weeds. [393] The Uxians occupied the north-west of Persis, and Susiana was the country to the north and west of Persis. [394] The Sitacenians lived in the south of Assyria. ἐτετάχατο is the Ionic form for τεταγμένοι ἦσαν. [395] The Greeks called this country Mesopotamia because it lies between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. In the Bible it is called Paddan-Aram (the plain of _Aram_, which is the Hebrew name of Syria). In Gen. xlviii. 7 it is called merely _Paddan_, the plain. In Hos. xii. 12, it is called the _field of Aram_, or, as our Bible has it, the _country of Syria_. Elsewhere in the Bible it is called _Aram-naharaim_, Aram of the two rivers, which the Greeks translated Mesopotamia. It is called “_the Island_,” by Arabian geographers.