Kitap 23
6.22
In this Adiabena is the city of Ninus,Also called Nineve; cf. xxviii. 7, 1. which once possessed the rule over Persia, perpetuating the name of Ninus, once a most powerful king and the husband of Semiramis; also Ecbatana,Likewise a city of Media. Arbela, and Gaugamela,Gaugamela was a small village near Arbela; it was there that the battle was fought, although it is more commonly called the battle of Arbela. where Alexander, after various other battles, overthrew Darius in a hot contest.
6.23
But in all Assyria there are many cities, among which Apamia, formerly called Mesene,Pliny, N.H. vi. 132, separates Apamia from Mesene; cf. xxiv. 3, 12; on Teredon, cf. Pliny, vi. 145. and Teredon, Apollonia and Vologessia, and many similar ones are conspicuous. But these three are especially magnificent and widely known: Babylon,Diod. Sic. (ii. 9, 9) says that in his time Babylon had been almost wholly destroyed and Pausanias, viii. 33, 3, that only the walls and the temple of Belus were standing. whose walls Semiramis built with bitumenCf. Curtius, v. 1, 16 and 25. (for the ancient king Belus built the citadel), and Ctesiphon, which VardanesUnknown. founded long ago; and later king PacorusPacorus seems to have been the son of king Orodes, defeated by Ventidius. strengthened it with additional inhabitants and with walls, gave it a Greek name, and made it the crowning ornament of Persia. And finally there is Seleucia, the splendid work of Seleucus Nicator.
