17, 19, l.ii.c.

10,) and, in the most lively colors, by Ammianus Marcellinus, (l.xiv.c.

4,) who had spoken of them as early as the reign of Marcus.] [Footnote 30: The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a more confined, by Ammianus and Procopius in a larger, sense, has been derived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely from the village of Saraka, (Stephan.

de Urbibus,) more plausibly from the Arabic words, which signify a thievish character, or Oriental situation, (Hottinger, Hist.Oriental.l.i.c.

i.p.7, 8.