Cliap. 13.] ACCOUNT OP COUNTRIES, ETC. 423 



Egypt, are called tlie Heroopolitic' and the JElanitic-. Be- 

 tween the two towns of ^Elaua^ and Gaza"* upon our sea% 

 there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsiuoe^, 

 a town on the Eed Sea, is, by way of the desert, 125 miles 

 from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed 

 by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance ! 



CHAP. 13. (12.) — STRIA. 



Next to these countries Sj-ria occupies the coast, once the 

 greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names ; for the 

 part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palaestina, 

 Judaea, Coele^, and Phoenice. The country in the interior 

 was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the 

 south, Babylonia. The part that Lies between the Euphrates 



Idumtean mountains, where they had their capital, Petra, hewTi out of 

 the rock. ^ Now the Bahi'-el-Soueys, or Gulf of Suez. 



2 The Bahr-el-Akabah, or Gulf of Akabah. 



3 Now Akabah, an Idmnsean town of Arabia Petrsea, situate at the head 

 of the eastern gidf of the Red Sea, which was called after this town "^Ela- 

 niticus Sinus." It was annexed to tlie kingdom of Judah, with the other 

 cities of Idiunsea, by David, 2 S.am. vui. 14, and was one of tlie harbours 

 on the Red Sea from which the ships of Solomon sailed for Ophir. See 

 1 Kings Ls. 26 and 2 Chron, viii. 17. It was a place of commercial im- 

 portance under the Romans and the head-quarters of the Tenth Legion. 

 A fortress now occupies its site. 



* Its site is now kno\vn as Guzzah. It was the last city on the south- 

 west frontier of Palestine, and from the earhest tunes was a strongly forti- 

 fied place. It was taken from the Philistines by the Jews more than once, 

 but as often retaken. It was also taken by Cyrus the Groat and Alex- 

 ander, and afterwards by Ptolemy Lagus, who destroyed it. It after- 

 wards recovered, and vas again destroyed by Alexander Janna^us, B.C. 

 96, after which, it was rebuilt by Gabinius and uUimately united to the 

 Roman province of Syria. In a.d. 65 it was again destroyed, but was 

 rebuilt, and finally fell into the hands of the Arabs, in a.d. (53 1. 



5 Meaning the Mediterranean. ^ The present Suez. See B. vi. c. 33. 



' Or the " Hollow" Syria. This was properly the name given, after 

 the Macedonian conquest, to the great valley between the two great 

 ranges of Mount Lebanon, in the south of Syria, bordering ujion Phoe- 

 nicia on the west, and Palestine on the south. In the wars between the 

 Ptolemies and the Seleucida', the name was ajtplied to the whole of the 

 southern portion of Syria, which became subject for some time to tlxe 

 kings of Egypt ; but under the Romans, it was confined to Ccrlesyria 

 proper with the district east of Anti-Libanus, about Damascus, uud A 

 portion of Palestine east of Jordan. 



