in Ancient Geography, a city both very ancient, very noble, and of very considerable strength, situated in a district called Mygdonia, in the north of Mesopotamia, towards the Tigris, from which it is distant two days journey. Some ascribe its origin to Nimrod, and suppose it to be the Achad of Moses. The Macedonians call it Antiochia of Mygdonia (Plutarch); situated at the foot of Mount Maisius (Strabo). It was the Roman bulwark against the Parthians and Persians. It sustained three memorable sieges against the power of Sapor, A. D. 338, 346, and 350; but the emperor Jovianus, by an ignominious peace, delivered it up to the Persians, A. D. 363.—A colony called Septimia Nishibona.—Another Nifibis, of Arià, (Ptolemy) near the lake Arias.

Mr Ives, who passed through this place in 1758, tells us, that "it looked pretty at a distance, being seated on a considerable eminence, at the foot of which runs a river, formerly called the Mygdonium, with a stone bridge of eleven arches built over it. Just by the river, at the foot of the hill, or hills (for the town is seated on two), begin the ruins of a once more flourishing place, which reach quite up to the present town. From every part of this place the most delightful prospects would appear, were the soil but properly cultivated and planted; but instead of those extensive woods of fruit trees, which Rawolf speaks of as growing near the town, not above thirty or forty straggling trees of any kind can be perceived; and instead of that great extent of arable land on which he dwells so much, a very inconsiderable number of acres are now remaining. The town itself is despicable, and streets extremely narrow, and the houses, even those which are of stone, are mean. It suffered grievously by the famine of 1757, loosing almost all its inhabitants either by death or desertion. The streets presented many miserable objects, who greedily devoured rinds of cucumbers, and every other refuse article of food thrown out into the highway. Here the price of bread had risen near 4000 per cent. within the last 14 years.