Euphrates River - Clickable Map of the Roman Empire - First Century AD

Euphrates River
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Ancient Euphrates River Modern name is Shatt el-Furat. The longest and most important river of Southwest Asia, along with its twin the Tigris. The double rivers were what defined ancient Mesopotamia civilizations. The Euphrates is mentioned often in the Bible: Genesis 2:14; Genesis 31:21; Joshua 24:2; 1 Kings 4:24; 2 Chronicles 35:20; Jeremiah 13.

The Euphrates River Euphrātes (Εὐφράτης). One of the largest and best-known rivers of Asia. The Euphrates rises near Arz�, the modern Erzeroum. Its source is among mountains, which Strabo makes to be a part of the most northern branch of Taurus. At first it is a very inconsiderable stream, and flows to the west, until, encountering the mountains of Cappadocia, it turns to the south, and, after flowing a short distance, receives its southern arm, a large river coming from the east and rising in the southern declivity of the range of Mount Ararat. This southern arm of the Euphrates is the Arsanias, according to Mannert, and is the river which the 10,000 crossed in their retreat ( Anab. iv. 5), and of which mention is made by Pliny in reference to the campaigns of Corbulo. The Euphrates, by this accession of waters, becoming a very large stream, descends rapidly in a bending course, nearly west-southwest to the vicinity of Samosata. The range of Amanus here preventing its farther progress in this direction, it turns off to the southeast, a course which it next pursues, with some variation, until it reaches Circesium. To the south of this place it enters the immense plains of Sennar, but is forced to run again to the southeast and approach the Tigris. The union of these rivers finally takes place near Coma. The river formed by their junction is called Shat-alArab, or River of Arabia. It has three principal mouths, besides a small outlet. The whole length of the Euphrates, including the Shat-al-Arab, is 1700 miles. Its name is the Greek form of the original appellation Phrat, which signifies fruitful or fertilizing. The Oriental name is sometimes also written Perath, as in Gen. ii. 14, 15, 18, and Josh. i. 4. The Persian form is Ufratu; Syriac, Ephrat; Arabic, Furat. - Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers.

Euphrates River The Euphrates ( juːˈfreɪtiːz (help�info), Arabic: الفرات‎: al-Furāt, Turkish: Fırat) is the longest and historically one of the most important rivers of Southwest Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia. The river � originating in eastern Anatolia in Turkey � flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which flows into the Persian Gulf. - Wikipedia

Gen. 2:14 - And the name of the third river [is] Hiddekel: that [is] it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river [is] Euphrates.

Gen. 31:21 - So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face [toward] the mount Gilead.

Josh. 24:2 - And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, [even] Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

1 Kgs. 4:24 - For he had dominion over all [the region] on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him.

2 Chr. 35:20 - After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

Jer. 13 - Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put [it] on my loins. And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, Take the girdle that thou hast got, which [is] upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear. Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, [and] make [it] gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for [your] pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD'S flock is carried away captive. Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, [even] the crown of your glory. The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open [them]: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where [is] the flock [that] was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them [to be] captains, [and] as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail? And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, [and] thy heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? [then] may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness. This [is] thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear. I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, [and] thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when [shall it] once [be]?

Euphrates River
EUPHRATES (ὁ Εὐφράτης, Εὐφρήτης), the river of Western Asia, which, with its twin-stream the Tigris, forms the third among the systems of double rivers, which are so peculiarly characteristic of the Asiatic continent, and have had such an important influence on its civilisation and political organisation.

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1. The Name.
The Euphrates, as it was universally called by the Greek and Roman writers, obtained among the Hebrews the name of �The great river� which was to be the E. boundary of the land granted by Jehovah to the children of Abraham (Deut. 1.7), and did actually become the natural limit of the Hebrew monarchy under David. The Prophets when they use it to denote figuratively the Assyrian power, speak of it emphatically as �the river.� (Is. 8.5; Jer. 2.18.) The word which still survives in the modern Frat or Fŏr�t, bore the signification of �fertility� (J. AJ 1.1.3; comp. Winer, Realw�rterbuch, s. v.; Rosenm�ller, Handbuch, vol. i. pt. i. p. 189.) According to Pliny (5.20) it did not assume the epithet of Euphrates till it had broken through the defile formed by the E. extremity of Mons Amanus. In the earlier part of its course, as far as Elegia, it was called PYXIRATES, and, afterwards, while working its circuitous course through Taurus, OMIRAS Of its two great sources in the mountains of Armenia, the W. is now called Kar�--S�, the E. Mur�d-ch��, which rises on the S. slope of Ai� T�gh, a mountain about 9000 feet high, and from its size, ought, perhaps, to be considered as the principal stream. The confluence of these two streams, after forming with the Tigris one tidal channel, receives the appellation of Shatt-el-�Arab.

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2. Comparative Geography.
In comparing the statements of the ancients with modern researches and inquiry, it is important to bear in mind that none of the maps describing the course of the river, previous to the publication of the results obtained by Colonel Chesney's expedition, are to be trusted. We are indebted to his work (Exped. Eusphrat., London, 1850) for the first accurate and complete survey of the geography of this river-basin. Before entering upon the more precise details which have been supplied by Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and others, it may be serviceable to cast a glance at the history of the progress of discovery of the banks of this mighty stream, which is connected in the earliest and most venerable records with the origin and cradle of the human race,--is linked with the most important events in the history of mankind, as forming the dividing-line for great empires, races, and tongues,--and is, probably, destined in after ages to become again one among the chief of the thoroughfares of the world.
According to Herodotus (1.180) the Euphrates flowed from Armenia, being large, deep, and swift, discharging itself into the Erythraean sea. The river was navigable from Babylon upwards for those willow boats (1.194), the counterparts of which, the modern K�fah or basket boats, now float upon the Tigris and Lower Euphrates.

The expedition of the Ten Thousand, which brought the Greeks into contact with the Persian Empire, considerably enlarged the circle of their ideas respecting the Euphrates; and several modern travellers have borne testimony, from personal observation, to the accuracy of Xenophon's description, even at the present day. The army crossed the Euphrates at the ford of Thapsacus, which appears to have been the best known and most frequented passage down to B.C. 100. The breadth of the river here was 4 stadia. (Anab. 1.4.11.) After crossing the Euphrates, Cyrus proceeded for nine days' march along its left bank till he came to its affluent, the river Araxes or Chaboras, which divided Syria from Arabia. Still advancing along the banks of the river, he entered the Desert where there was no cultivation or even any tree, nothing but wormwood and various aromatic shrubs. (Anab. 1.5.1.) The country along the left bank of the river, as far as Pylae, being full of hills and narrow valleys, presented many difficulties to the movements of an army. Pylae, it would seem, marked the spot where the desert country N. of Babylonia, with its undulations of land and steep river banks, was exchanged for the fat and fertile alluvial soil of Babylonia Proper. After Cunaxa, the Greeks quitted the Euphrates, nor did they come within sight of it till they reached the E. branch (Mur�d-Cha�), at a point where the water was not higher than the navel, and as they were told, not far from its sources. (Anab. 4.5.2.) Koch (Zug der Zehn Tausend, pp. 88--93) is at issue with Colonel Chesney and Mr. Ainsworth as to the point where a ford could be found in mid-winter with snow on the ground. Colonel Chesney (vol. ii. p. 229) asserts that no passage could take place till they reached 39� 10′ N. lat. Koch, whose opinion is preferred by Mr. Grote (Hist. of Greece, vol. ix. p. 159), holds that the river would be fordable a little above its confluence with the Tscharbahur about lat. 39� 3′. [1.876]

The third period of history which throws light upon the Euphrates system is the Macedonian Expedition into Asia, B.C. 331. Alexander marched through Phoenicia and Syria to the Euphrates, and following the footsteps of Cyrus, crossed the river at the Zeugma of Thapsacus, which derived its name from the bridge originally constructed for the transport of Alexander's army. (Arrian, Arr. Anab. 3.8; Q. Curt. 4.9; comp. D. C. 11.17; Kinneir, Geog. Mem. p. 316). Local tradition has transmitted the fact of the passage of Iskender Acb�r, and there is the additional fact, that, tempted by the advantages of the situation, he ordered the city of Nicephorium (Rhakkah) to be built. In pursuance of his great plan of fusing the West with the East by the promotion, through Greek influence, of a union between different nations from the Nile to the Euphrates, the Jaxartes, and the Indus, the ancient city of Babylon in the East was intended by Alexander to be one of the metropolitan cities of the Macedonian universal empire. To carry out this design, as the course of the Lower Euphrates was hitherto unknown, Nearchus and other followers of Alexander, were despatched to collect materials: and the narrative preserved by Arrian, of the daring voyage of Nearchus to the estuary of the Euphrates, is the most valuable record of antiquity, by which an idea can be formed of the former condition of the Delta of that river and of Susiana. The fleet finished its course at Diridotes (Teredon), a port which was not unknown, as it was frequented by the Arabian merchants, who brought hither their frankincense and other spices for sale. Teredon or Diridotes, the foundation of which has been assigned to Nebuchadnezzar (comp. Abyd. ap. Scal. Emend. Temp. p. 13), was a village at the mouth of the Euphrates, at a distance, according to the reckoning of the Macedonian navigator, of 3300 stadia from Babylon (Arrian, Ind. xii.). The position of this place has been fixed at Jebel San�m. a gigantic mound near the Pallacopas branch of the Euphrates, considerably to the N. of the embouchure of the present Euphrates. The fleet, in following the windings of the channel, might be carried much beyond the Shatt el �Arab, which is easily missed, and thus might have reached the supposed mouth of the Pallacopas, opposite to the island of Boobian (comp. Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. ii. p. 355; Ainsworth, pp. 185--195).

At the dissolution of the Macedonian empire considerable inland intercourse and traffic was encouraged by the Seleucidae; nor can it be doubted but that the marks of population and industry which have been found on the banks of the Euphrates should be referred to the two centuries of their dominion, when the course of the river would be better protected than when it became the boundary-line between Rome and the Parthians. The great highway from Asia Minor to the cities of Persia, which crossed the Zeugma of the Euphrates, and which in later times bore the imposing name of the �road of peace� ( �Zeugma Latinae Pacis iter,� Stat. Silv. 3.2. 137), though improved and strengthened by the Romans when their power was established through the whole of Mesopotamia, was probably laid down on the lines which were in use at the time of the Seleucid princes. (Comp. Merivale, Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, vol. i. p. 517.) The Roman soldiers first crossed the Euphrates under Lucullus, when the passage, in consequence of an accidental drought, was rendered much easier (Plut, Lucull. 24); and in the fatal expedition of Crassus seven legions and 4000 horse took the passage of Thapsacus. (Plut. Crass. 20.) Augustus was contented to make the Euphrates the E. boundary of the Roman empire; nor was that frontier advanced, except during the short interval of the Eastern conquests of Trajan. Under Hadrian the Roman boundaries again receded within the Euphrates. The campaigns of Trajan, Severus, Julian, Belisarius, Chosroes, and Heraclius, illustrate in a very interesting manner many points in the geography of the banks of this river; but the consideration of them does not fall within the scope of the present article. It may, however, be observed, that Napoleon, when foiled before the walls of �Akk� of his projected march upon India, had conceived the plan of pursuing the steps of Trajan and Julian.


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3. Physical Geography.
Strabo (xi. p.527) and Pliny (5.20), among the ancients, have given a general view of the course of the Euphrates, while, as has been observed above, the narrative of the voyage of Nearchus gives the best account of the then state of the embouchure of the river. It must, however, be recollected that considerable changes have, even in the historic period, taken place in the configuration of the soil of the lower districts, in consequence of the great amount of alluvial matter brought down by the Euphrates to the Delta of the Persian Gulf. Nor is this the only circumstance which makes it difficult, in any satisfactory manner, to reconcile thee positions of the ancients with modern investigations,--as changes have also been effected by art. The great extent of the plain of Babylonia is everywhere altered by artificial works: mounds arise upon the otherwise uniform level; walls, and mud ramparts and dykes, intersect each other; elevated masses of friable soil and pottery are succeeded by low plains, inundated during the greater part of the year; and the old beds of canals are to be seen in every direction. Further researches may throw great light on the comparative geography of the course of the Lower Euphrates: till then, it may be better to hold our judgment in suspense. It is, however, probable, both from the statements of the ancients and the physical indications of the soil, that the united waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris at no very remote period emptied themselves into the gulf by several distinct mouths; one of which was at Teredon, according to Nearchus,--the mouth of the Euphrates; the other the Pasitigris of Pliny, probably the Shatt-el-�Arab.
The extent of the basin of the Euphrates, notwithstanding the great length of the river (1780 English miles), has been estimated at not more than 108,000 geographical miles. (Ainsworth, Researches, p. 109.) The ancients correctly placed the sources of this river in Taurus, on the W. slopes of the elevated plateau of I'r�n. At Kebban Ma'den the two branches unite, and the Euphrates assumes an imposing character, struggling to make good its original course towards the Mediterranean ( �Ni obstet Taurus in nostra maria venturus,� Pomp. Mela, 3.5), but still pressing against the Tauric chain at the elbow made by Malat�yah (Melitene), till it finally forces a passage through Taurus. After precipitating itself through this gap, the Euphrates winds through chalk hills of a moderate elevation; while its waters and those of the Tigris converge and surround Mesopotamia. It was in this district that the fords of the river were made, and the passages of Sume�s�t, R�m Kala'h, B�r, and Hamm�n, have [1.877] been identified with the ancient Zeugmas of Samosata, Commagene, Birtha, and Thapsacus, respectively. In the line of the river Euphrates the limits of the upper district terminate to the W. at the hills of Mesj�d Sandab�yah, and to the E. at the hilly district N. of Felujah, including the Pylae of Xenophon. Here the Euphrates ( �rapidus Euphrates,� Stat. Silv. ii. 3. 136) plunges into the lowlying level plains of Babylonia, with the force of its current much diminished; as in the alluvial depressions it is often not a mile an hour, while in its upper course it averages from three to four miles. The current of the Tigris, notwithstanding its traditionary fame for swiftness, does not average more than a mile and a half an hour. After passing the ruins of Babylon, the river appears to become smaller than in its upper course, and was eventually supposed to lose itself in the marshes of Laml�m (comp. Plb. 9.43), but, extricating itself from them, unites its waters with those of the Tigris at Kurn�h; and the two streams, forming one channel by the name of Shatt-el-�Arab, discharge themselves into the sea by the town of Basrah. Below the Shatt-el-�Arab, Pliny (6.29) notices 1. the point at which the mouth of the Euphrates had issued formerly into the gulf, �locus ubi Euphratis ostium fuit,� D'Anville's �ancien lit de l'Euphrate;� 2. FLUMEN SALSUM the narrow salt-water channel which separates the low-lying island of Boobian off the mouth of the old bed of the Euphrates from the mainland; 3. PROMONTORIUM CHALDONE, the great headland at the entrance of the bay of Dooat-el-Knzma, from the S. opposite Pheleche island; and 4. a tract along a sea broken into gulfs, �voragini similius quam mari,� extending for 50 M. P. as far as the river ACHANA (comp. Forster, Hist. Geog. of Arabia, vol. ii. p. 212).

The permanent flooding of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the snow on the mountains along the-upper part of its course. This takes place about March, and increases till the end of May, when it is usually at its greatest height. (Colonel Chesney, Exped. Euphrat.; Ainsworth, Researches; Bitter, Erdkunde, vols. x. xi.; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon.) [E.B.J] - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith, LLD, Ed.