[538] The passage of the Euphrates here in question was effected at the Zeugma of Commagene, called by Strabo the present passage. On passing the river you entered Anthemusia, a province which appears to have received, later on, the name of Osroene. It extended considerably towards the north, for in it the Aborrhas, according to Strabo, had its source; but it is doubtful whether it extended to the north of Mount Masius, where the latitudes, as given by Ptolemy, would place it. I do not exactly know whether Strabo intends to speak of a city or a province, for the position of the city is unknown; we only learn from a passage in Pliny, vi. c. xxvi., that it was not on the Euphrates. The word τόπος is not, I think, so applicable to a province as to a city, and in this last sense I have understood it, giving also to κατὰ the meaning of latitude, in which it is so often applied by Strabo; strictly speaking, the sense of “vis-à-vis,” “opposite to,” might be given to it.—_Letronne._ [539] This is an error of the author or of the copyist. Edessa (now Orfa) is not to be confounded with Bambyce (Kara-Bambuche, or Buguk Munbedj) of Cyrrhestica in Syria, which obtained its Hellenic name from Seleucus Nicator. [540] B. C. 54. [541] The Parthians became masters of Syria under Pacorus, and of Asia Minor under Labienus. B. C. 38. [542] Artavasdes, king of the Armenians. B. xi. c. xiii. § 4. [543] The text would lead us to suppose that Phraates succeeded Pacorus, whereas below, § 8, Pacorus, the eldest son of the Parthian king, died before his father, Orodes. Letronne, therefore, and Groskurd suppose that the words, “the son of Orodes,” are omitted after “Pacorus” above, and “his” in the translation would then refer to Orodes. [544] See b. vi. c. iv. § 2, in which the motives for getting rid of these members of his family are not mentioned. [545] Judging from Arrian (Anab. v. § 25; vii. § 9; iii. § 8), the historians of Alexander, as well as more ancient authors, gave the name of Syria to all the country comprehended between the Tigris and the Mediterranean. The part to the east of the Euphrates, afterwards named Mesopotamia, was called “Syria between the rivers;” that to the west was called by the general name Cœle-Syria, and although Phœnicia and Palestine were sometimes separated from it, yet it often comprehended the whole country as far as Egypt. Strabo below, c. ii. § 21, refers to this ancient division, when he says that the name Cœle-Syria extends to the whole country as far as Egypt and Arabia, although in its peculiar acceptation it applied only to the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus. [546] B. C. 70. [547] Antakieh. [548] Modern conjecture has identified it with Shogh and Divertigi. [549] Kulat-el-Mudik. [550] Ladikiyeh.