[Footnote 10: Ragae, or Rei, is mentioned in the Apocryphal
book of Tobit as already flourishing, 700 years before
Christ, under the Assyrian empire. Under the foreign names
of Europus and Arsacia, this city, 500 stadia to the south
of the Caspian gates, was successively embellished by the
Macedonians and Parthians, (Strabo, l. xi. p. 796.) Its
grandeur and populousness in the ixth century are
exaggerated beyond the bounds of credibility; but Rei has
been since ruined by wars and the unwholesomeness of the
air. Chardin, Voyage en Perse, tom. i. p. 279, 280.
D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental. p. 714.]