Said of Babylon, Jer 51:13; the wealth of Babylon being caused both by the Euphrates and by a vast system of canals. The symbol is interpreted by some commentators as signifying Babylon, by others pagan Rome, Papal Rome, Jerusalem. Dante alludes to this passage in his address to the shade of Pope Nicholas III., in the Bolgia of the Simonists.
“The Evangelist you pastors had in mind,
When she who sitteth upon many waters
To fornicate with kings by him was seen.
The same who with the seven heads was born,
And power and strength from the ten horns received,