Alexander might be adduced to bear witness to the wealth of the Arabians, for he intended, it is said, after his return from India, to make Arabia the seat of empire. All his enterprises terminated with his death, which happened suddenly; but certainly one of his projects was to try whether the Arabians would receive him voluntarily, or resist him by force of arms; for having found that they did not send ambassadors to him, either before or after his expedition to India, he was beginning to make preparations for war, as we have said in a former part of this work. BOOK XVII. SUMMARY. The Seventeenth Book contains the whole of Egypt and Africa. CHAPTER I. When we were describing Arabia, we included in the description the gulfs which compress and make it a peninsula, namely the Gulfs of Arabia and of Persis. We described at the same time some parts of Egypt, and those of Ethiopia, inhabited by the Troglodytæ, and by the people situated next to them, extending to the confines of the Cinnamon country.[791] We are now to describe the remaining parts contiguous to these nations, and situated about the Nile. We shall then give an account of Africa, which remains to complete this treatise on Geography. And here we must previously adduce the opinions of Eratosthenes. 2. He says, that the Nile is distant from the Arabian Gulf towards the west 1000 stadia, and that it resembles (in its course) the letter N reversed. For after flowing, he says, about 2700 stadia from Meroë towards the north, it turns again to the south, and to the winter sunset, continuing its course for about 3700 stadia, when it is almost in the latitude of the places about Meroë. Then entering far into Africa, and having made another bend, it flows towards the north, a distance of 5300 stadia, to the great cataract;[792] and inclining a little to the east, traverses a distance of 1200 stadia to the smaller cataract at Syene,[793] and 5300 stadia more to the sea.[794] [CAS. 786] Two rivers empty themselves into it, which issue out of some lakes towards the east, and encircle Meroë, a considerable island.[795] One of these rivers is called Astaboras,[796] flowing along the eastern side of the island. The other is the Astapus, or, as some call it, Astasobas. But the Astapus[797] is said to be another river, which issues out of some lakes on the south, and that this river forms nearly the body of the (stream of the) Nile which flows in a straight line, and that it is filled by the summer rains; that above the confluence of the Astaboras and the Nile, at the distance of 700 stadia, is Meroë, a city having the same name as the island; and that there is another island above Meroë, occupied by the fugitive Egyptians, who revolted in the time of Psammitichus,[798] and are called Sembritæ, or foreigners. Their sovereign is a queen, but they obey the king of Meroë.