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ἀγκῶνας. Literally ‘is carried down as to its angles’, i. e. ‘is carried down at an angle’. The river rampart (αἱμασιή, i. e. a rougher kind of wall) and the city wall made a salient angle, excellent for purposes of defence.

ἐπικαμπαί. ‘From this point the return-walls stretch in the form of a rampart along each quay’ (χεῖλος): παρατείνει is attracted into the singular to agree with αἱμασιή. The quays (Diod. ii. 8) were 160 stades long; parts of them were discovered by the French explorers in 1853; the bricks bear the name of Nabonidus. H. (186. 2) attributes them to Nitocris, the mother of the last king, Labynetus (188. 1 n.), who in part corresponds to the historic Nabonidus.

The Euphrates was navigable by sea-going ships up to Babylon (Strabo, 739).

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