RUINED CITIES OF PALESTINE SUTTON 515 



There are the ruins of a theater in good preservation, with 48 

 tiers of seats calculated to hold 6,000 people, and so admirably 

 arranged that, as may be tested to this day, ordinary conversation 

 on the stage could be distinctly heard on the topmost semicircle. 



Joab first took " the city of the waters " — that is, evidently, the 

 lower town, along the banks of the river. But the citadel still 

 held out, therefore messengers were sent to David asking for a 

 reinforcement and the presence of the King himself, in consequence 

 of which David went in person and captured the citadel, with an 

 immense quantity of spoil. In the third century B. C. the city was 

 rebuilt by Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, and called Phil- 

 adelphia, under which name it is frequently mentioned by Greek 

 and Roman writers. There are the remains of a large Christian 

 church in the lower city. 



The exterior walls of the citadel are constructed of large stones 

 closely jointed, without cement, bearing in places the marks of 

 high antiquity. The most interesting building on the citadel hill 

 appears to be a specimen of the Sassanian architecture of Persia, 

 probably dating from the same period as the Dome of the Rock at 

 Jerusalem. The paneling and scrollwork on the walls is very beau- 

 tiful and perfect, closely allied to Assyrian work. These buildings 

 form a link between the Byzantine architecture and that of Persia. 



We next reach what is evidently the site of Medaba, a city of the 

 Moabites, taken by Joshua and given, with its plain, to the tribe of 

 Reuben (Numbers, xxi, 30; Joshua, xiii, 9, 16). It was on the plain 

 east of the city that Joab defeated the combined forces of Amnion 

 and Syria, avenging the insult offered to the ambassadors of King 

 David (I Chronicles, xix). 



Madeba was recaptured by the Moabites at the Captivity and is 

 therefore included in the prophetic curse pronounced upon Moab in 

 Isaiah, xv, 2. It was an important fortress during the rule of the 

 Maccabees and it became an episcopal city in the early centuries of 

 our era. Here was discovered a large tesselated map of Palestine. 



Not far from Madeba is Dibon, which is now nothing more than 

 a shapeless mass of ruins, but obtained a new celebrity in 1868 by 

 the discovery of the Moabite Stone, containing a long inscription 

 in which is recorded some of the acts of that King Mesha who is 

 mentioned in II Kings, iii. The inscription is in the old Phoenician 

 character and appears to be of the age of Mesha. The stone was 

 unfortunately broken by the Arabs, but most of the fragments are 

 now in the Louvre. 



Mount Nebo runs out westward from the plateau with a narrow 

 ridge, at trend of which is the summit, Pisgah, and the ascent to 

 this ridge is Sufa or Zophim. Here we stand on a site rendered 

 memorable by two important events connected with the history of 



