Chap. 19.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 439 



has the town of Apamea\ divided by the river Marsyas from 

 the Tetrarehy of the Nazerini^ ; Bambyx, the other name of 

 whieli is Hierapolis^, but by the Syrians called Mabog\ 

 (here the monster Atargatis% called Derceto by the Greeks, 

 is worshipped) ; and the place called Chalcis® on the Belus'', 

 from which tlie region of Chalcidene, the most fertile part of 

 Syria, takes its name. We here find also CjTrhestice, with 

 Cyrrhum^, the Gazatse, the Gindareni, the Gabeni, the two 

 Tetrarchies called Granucomatse^, the Emeseni^", the Hyla- 



1 Now Kulat-el-!Mudik, situate in the valley of the Orontes, and capital 

 of the province of Apamene. It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus 

 Nicator, who gave it its name, after his wife Apama. It also bore the 

 Macedonian name of PeUa. It was situate on a hill, and was so far sur- 

 rounded by the windings of the Orontes, as to become a peninsida, whence 

 its name of Chersonesus. A^ery extensive nuns of this place still exist. 



^ It is suggested, that these are tlie Phylarchi Arabes of Strabo, now 

 called the Nosairis, who were situate to the east of Apamea. The river 

 Marsyas here mentioned was a small tributary of the Orontes, into 

 wliich it falls on the east side, near Apamea. 



^ This was situate in Cyrrhestica, in Syria, on the high road from 

 Antioch to Mesopotamia, twenty-four miles to the west of the Euphrates, 

 and thirty-six to the south-west of Zeugma ; two and a half days' jour- 

 ney from Beroea, and five from Antioch. It obtained its Greek name 

 of the " Sacred City" from Seleucus Nicator, owing to its being the chief 

 Beat of the worship of the Syrian goddess Astarte. Its ruins were first 

 discovered by Maundrell. 



* In the former editions it is "Magog;" but Sillig's reading of 

 **Mabog" is correct, and corresponds with the Oriental forms of Mun- 

 bedj, Manbesja, Manbesjun, Menba, Manba, Manbegj, and the modem 

 name, Kara Bambuche, or Buguk Munbedj. 



° Astarte, the semi-fish goddess, 



^ This Chalcis is supposed to have been situate somewhere in the 

 district of the Buckaa, probably south of Ileliopolis, or Baalbec. It has 

 been suggested, that its site may have been at, or near Zahle ; in the 

 vicinity ol" whicli, at the village of Ileusn Nieba, are to be seen some 

 remarkable remains. Or else, possibly, at Majdel Anjar, whore Abul- 

 feda speaks of great ruins of hewn stone. 



7 Ansart suggests, that Belus is here the name of a mountain, and 

 that it may be the same that is now called Djebel-il-Semmaq. 



^ To tlie north of Chalcidene, a town of Syria, on the slopes of the 

 Taurus, eiglity miles to the north-cast of Antioch. In the Roman times, 

 it was the head-quarters of the Tenth Legion. The ruins near the modem 

 village of Corns represent the ancit-iit Cyrrhus. Of tlie Gazata^ and 

 Gindareni, nothing is known. * Possibly meaning the " Biu^ghcrs 



of Granum." Nothing is known of these peo])le. 



^^ The people of Emesa, a city in the district of Apamcnc, on tlu) right, 



