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Thapsacus and Zeugma the crossing of the Euphrates in antiquity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
Extract
One of the most uncertain points of historical geography of ancient Syria concerns the site of Thapsacus, even if the uncertainty has sometimes been disguised by assertive pronouncements. This city had enjoyed considerable importance during the Persian period, and possibly earlier, as a major crossing of the Euphrates and the main link between Syria and Mesopotamia. It appears for the first time in our record in the Bible, as the place on the Euphrates where the country “beyond the river” begins. Even if referring to the purported extent of the realm of Solomon “from Thapsacus to Gaza”, this mention clearly applies to the Persian satrapy of Abar-Nahara, meaning the whole of Syria and Palestine, and provides evidence for the conditions in the Achaemenid period. The crossing at Thapsacus itself might of course have been used much earlier, whatever the name.
To the Massoretic vocalisation Tiphsah, generally accepted in modern translations, the form of Tapsah should be preferred, as found in the Syriac Bible provided with vowel signs centuries before the Hebrew original. This reading is moreover paralleled by the still earlier Septuagint version Θαψά. The Greek rendering confirms not only the vowels but also, if indirectly and by omission, the final pharyngeal of the name, in contrast to the usual ΘάΨακος found in Classical authors. This form is indeed unexpected, but transcriptions of foreign names do not always obey strict rules.
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References
1 Reg. 5:4 (4:24 in the English Bible). The name is formed from the root psḥ, to pass over, and means simply “crossing, ford”. It occurs again in 2 Reg. 15:16 as a place name in Samaria (Josephus: εἰς Θαψαν), probably to be corrected to Tappuaḥ, after Luc. LXX Ταϕωε.
2 Cf. sra5.6 and 6.6.
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23
Arr., Anab. III. 7. 3:
.
24 Aristobulos, Frg. 40 Müller (= 139 F 55 Jacoby, II B, p.792,21): τὸ ναυτικόν … ἐπὶ τὸν Εὐϕράτην ποταμὸν ἐκ Φοινίκης ἐις Θάψακον πόλιν …; cf. Plutarch, Alex. LXVIII.2: Καὶ πλοῖα παντοδαπὰ περὶ Θάψακον ἐπήγνυτο Curt. X. 1.19: Igitur Mesopotamiae praetoribus imperavit ut materia in Libano monte caesa devectaque ad urbem Syriae Thapsacum septingentarum carinas navium ponere, septemremis omnes esse deducique Babylona. The recurrence of the name of Thapsacus in all three authors is compelling.
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32
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33
Dio XL. 17:
… Cf.
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36
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78 De aedif., II. 6:12.
79 J. Lauffray, op. cit. (note 13).
80 Cf. A. K. Grayson, op cit., 140; A. Musil, 208, 211.
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