428 Pliny's natueal histort. [Book V. 



palm-trees, and watered by numerous springs, and thoee of 

 Emmaiis^ Lydda-, Joppe, Acrabatena^ Gophna^ Thamna^ 

 Bethleptephene*', Oriua^ in which formerly stood Hiero- 

 solyma^ by far the most famous city, not of Judaea only, 

 but of the East, and Herodium^, with a celebrated town 

 of the same name. 



(15.) The river Jordanes^*^ rises from the spring of Panias", 

 which has given its surname to Csesarea, of which we shall 



pakn-grove, which was presented by Antony to Cleopatra. A Bedomn 

 encampment called Eiha is all that now occupies its site. 



1 A city eight or ten miles from the village Emmaiis of the New Tes- 

 tament. It was called NicopoHs, in commemoration, it has been sug- 

 gested, of the destruction of Jerusalem. Its site is still marked by a 

 village called Ammious, on the road from Jerusalem to Jaffa. 



2 So often mentioned in the New Testament. Tliis town lay to the 

 S.E. of Joppa, and N.W. of Jerusalem, at the junction of several roads 

 which lead Irom the sea-coast. It was destroyed by the Komans in the 

 Je^vlsh war, but was soon after rebuilt, and caUed Diospohs. A village 

 called Lud occupies its site. 



3 So caUed from Acrabbim, its chief town, situate nine mHes from 

 JNicopohs. The toparchy of Acrabbim, which formerly formed part of 

 Samaria, was the most northerly of those of Juda?a. 



_ * Situate in the country of Benjamui. Josephus reckons it second in 

 miportance only to Jerusalem, from which, according to Eusebius, it was 

 distant fifteen miles, on the road to the modern Nablous. That author 

 also identifies it with the Eshcol of Scriptm-e. Its site is marked by a 

 small Christian village, called by the natives Jufna. 



5 Like the two precetling ones, this toparchy for a long time belono-ed 

 to Samaria. Thamna, or Thamnis, was the Thnnath-Serah in Momit 

 Ephraim, mentioned in Joshua xix. 50, and xxiv. 30, as the place where 

 Joshua was buried. 



6 The toparchy of Bethleptepha of other authors. It appears to 

 have been situate m the south of Judaea, and in that part wliich is br 

 Josephus commonly caUed Idumcea. Eeland has remarked, that the 

 name resembles Beth-lebaoth, a city of the tribe of Shneon, mentioned 

 m Joshua xix. 6. 



From the Greek, meaning the "mountain district," or the "hill 

 country," as mentioned in Luke i. 39. 



8 Or " Sacred Solyma." 



9 A fortress of Palsestina, erected by Herod the Great, at a distance of 

 about sixty stadia from Jerusalem, and not far from Tekoa. Its site has 

 been identified by modern traveUers ^^-ith El-Furedis, or the Paradise • 

 probably the same as the spot caUed the "Frank Mountain," on the 

 top oi which the ruined waUs of the fortress are still to be seen. 



^" Called by the Arabs Bahr-el-Arden. 



" Situate on Mount Panias, or Paneas, on the range of Anti-Libanus. 



