was south of the Gyndes embouchure, and it might be reckoned as lying
upon either river. The true name of the place--that which it bears in
the cuneiform inscriptions--was Hupiya; and its site is probably marked
by the ruins at Khafaji, near Baghdad, which place is thought to retain,
in a corrupted form, the original appellation. Psittace or Sitace,
the town which gave name to the province of Sittacene, was in the near
neighborhood of Opis, lying on the same side of the Tigris, but lower
down, at least as low as the modern fort of the Zobeid chief. Its exact
site has not been as yet discovered. Teredon, or Diriaotis, appears to
have been first founded by Nebuchadnezzar. It lay on the coast of the
Persian Gulf, a little west of the mouth of the Euphrates, and protected
by a quay, or a breakwater, from the high tides that rolled in from the
Indian Ocean. There is great difficulty in identifying its site, owing
to the extreme uncertainty as to the exact position of the coast-line,
and the course of the river, in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Probably it
should be sought about Zobair, or a little further inland.. The chief
provincial cities were Susa and Badaca in Susiana; Anat, Sirki, and
Carchemish, on the Middle Euphrates; Sidikan on the Khabour; Harran on
the Bilik; Hamath, Damascus, and Jerusalem, in Inner Syria; Tyre,
Sidon, Ashdod, Ascalon, and Gaza, upon the coast. Of these, Susa was
undoubtedly the most important; indeed, it deserves to be regarded
as the second city of the Empire. Here, between the two arms of the
Choaspes, on a noble and well-watered plain, backed at the distance
of twenty-five miles by a lofty mountain range, the fresh breezes from
which tempered the summer heats, was the ancient palace of the Kissian
kings, proudly placed upon a lofty platform or mound, and commanding
a wide prospect of the rich pastures at its base, which extended
northwards to the roots of the hills, and in every other direction as
far as the eye could reach. Clustered at the foot of the palace
mound, more especially on its eastern side, lay the ancient town, the