THAPSACUS  , the " large and prosperous

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

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

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

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

W .