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THAPSACUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 726 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THAPSACUS , the " large and prosperous See also:

city " on the Arabian See also:side of the See also:Euphrates where See also:Cyrus the Younger revealed to the Greeks the See also:object of his expedition (Xen. Anab. i. 4, 1i). No such See also:place has yet been found mentioned in See also:cuneiform texts. We may have a Semitic See also:form of the name in the See also:Hebrew Tiphsah; but it is impossible to determine whether- the one phrase 1 " from Tiphsah to See also:Gaza " (1 See also:Kings v. 4-IV. 24 in the See also:English version), where the name seems to occur, is as See also:early 12 Kings xv. 16 cannot possibly refer to any place on the Euphrates. as the See also:Persian See also:period: the See also:Greek See also:text is quite discrepant. Thapsacus was the See also:crossing-place of See also:Darius Codomannus, before and after his defeat (See also:Arrian ii. 13), and of See also:Alexander (iii. 7), and in See also:Strabo's See also:time it was the usual crossing-place (xvi.

1, 21) ; but Tiglath-pileser I. and See also:

Assur-nasir-See also:pal crossed considerably farther See also:north, and we have no See also:reason to suppose that they were not simply following the practice of those early times; and we do not know when the See also:custom of crossing at Thapsacus which the Hebrew text of the passage in 1 Kings may presuppose sprang up. See also:Xenophon's See also:army had to be content with fording the stream. Alexander, however, effected his crossing (Arrian, iii. 7) by two connected See also:bridges (of boats?), and it was from this place that later he had the material for his See also:fleet sent down (Arrian vii. 19; Strabo xvi. 741) .to Babylonia. His successors must also have valued the place, for according to See also:Pliny (v. 87) it See also:bore later the name of See also:Amphipolis, perhaps bestowed on it (Steph. Byz., See also:Appian Syr. 57) by Seleucus I., although the name, like so many others, probably failed to win See also:acceptance; and in the time of Eratosthenes the position of Thapsacus had be-come so central that he See also:chose it as the point from which to make his measurements for all See also:Asia (Strabo ii. 79, 8o), and in the time of Strabo himself it was there that goods were em-barked for transport down the Euphrates (Q. Curt. x.

1), and landed after having come by stream from See also:

lower districts (Strabo xvi. 1, 23). After Pliny the city is not again mentioned.' After various attempts at See also:identification (see See also:Ritter, Erdkunde) it has apparently been correctly identified by J. P. See also:Peters (Nation, May 23, 1889) and B. See also:Moritz (Sitz.-Ber. d. Berl. Akad., See also:July 25, 1889). The name may survive in Kal'at Dibse, " a small ruin 8 m. below Meskene, and 6 m. below the See also:ancient Barbalissus." See J. P. Peters, See also:Nippur, 196 if. (H.

W.

End of Article: THAPSACUS

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