Niphates

NIPHA´TES(ὁ Νιφάτης, Strab. xi. pp. 522, 523, 527, 529; Ptol. 5.13.4, 6.1.1; Mela, 1.15.2; Plin. Nat. 5.27; Ammian. 23.6.13; Virg. Geog. 3.30; Horat. Carm. 2.9. 20: the later Roman poets, by a curious mistake, made Niphates a river; comp. Lucan (Luc. 3.245; Sil. Ital.; Juven. 6.409), the snowy rangeof Armenia, called by the native writers Nebador Nbadagan(St. Martin, Mém. sur l'Armenie, vol. 1. p. 49). Taurus, stretching E. of Commagene ( Aïn Táb) separates Sophene ( Kharput Dawassi), which is contained between Taurus and Anti-Taurus (Strab. 11. p. 521), from Osroene ( Urfah), and then divides itself into three portions. The most northerly, and highest, are the Niphates ( Así Kúr) in Acilisene.
the bleachers and glassmakers of Aegypt. Parallel with the Natron Lakes, and separated from them by a narrow ridge, is the Bahr-be-la-Ma, or Waterless River, a name given by the Arabs to this and other hollows which have the appearance of having once been channels for water. It has been surmised that the lake Moeris ( Birket-el-Keroum) may have been connected with the Mediterranean at some remote period by this outlet. The Bahr-be-la-Macontains agatised wood. (Wilkinson, Mod. Egypt and Thebes, vol. 1. p. 300.)
The valley in which the Natron Lakes are contained, was denominated the Nitriote nome (νόμος Νιτριῶτιςor Νιτριώτης, Strab. 17. p. 803; Steph. B. s. v. Νιτρίαι). It was, according to Strabo, a principal seat of the worship of Serapis, and the only nome of Aegypt in which sheep were sacrificed. (Comp. Macrob. Saturn. 1.7.) The Serapeian worship, indeed, seems to have prevailed on the western side of the Nile long before the Sinopic deity of that name (Zeus Sinopites) was introduced from Pontus by Ptolemy Soter, since there was a very ancient temple dedicated to him at Rhacotis, the site of Alexandreia (Tac. Hist. 4.83), and another still more celebrated outside the walls of Memphis. The monasteries of the Nitriote nome were notorious for their rigorous asceticism. They were many of them strong-built and well-guarded fortresses, and offered a successful resistance to the recruiting sergeants of Valens, when they attempted to enforce the imperial rescript ( Cod. Theodos. xii. tit. 1. lex. 63), which decreed that monastic vows should not exempt men from serving as soldiers. (Photius, p. 81, ed. Bekker; Dionys. Perieg. 5.255; Eustath. ad loc;Paus. 1.18; Strab. 17. p. 807; Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. p. 43.)
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