i6o MEMOIRS of the 
helped any one according to his defire. After the king had cat 
what he thought tir, he rofe up and waihed, and retired back to 
his former ieat. 
OElober 1 5, in the morning the merchants proceeded on their 
journey homewards, and in about 3 \ hours arrived at Seray^ and 
from thence they came to Sherhy Fountain^ and from this place 
they had not above 7 or 8 hours to Akppo* 
'The ancient State of the City o/Palmyraj ^^ Mr. Edm.Halley. 
Phil. Tranf. N° 2 18. p. 160, 
THE city of 'Tadmor^ whofe remains in ruins do fo evi- 
dently demonftrate the once happy condition thereof, 
feems very plainly to be the fame city, which Solomon the 
great king o{ Jfracl is faid to have founded under that name 
in the defart, both in i Kin^s IX. t^ and 2 Chron. VIII. "i^^ 
in the tranflation of which, the vulgar T^atin verfion, faid to fee 
that of St. Jerome^ has it, Condidit 'Palmy ram in Deferto-^ 
and Jofe-phus tells us, that he built a city in the defart, and 
called It Thadamora, and the Syrians, at this day, fays he, call it 
by the fame name, but the Greeks call it Palmyra ^ the name 
is therefore Greek, and confequently has no relation to the 
JLatin Palma, and feems rather derived from n«A//i/^, or 
Tlct\ij.v^, which Hefychius interprets BttciXiv^ ttatdp, or perhaps 
from TlA^fj.vTiH, which, according to the fame' author, was an 
JEgyptian god 5 nor is the word IDTil butlOD which in He- 
hreiv fignifies a palm-tree. 
Hiftory is filent as to the fate and circumftances of this city, 
during the great revolutions in the feveral empires of the eaft^ 
but it may well be fuppofed, that fo advanced a garrifon as this 
was, being above 300 miles from Jerufakm, contmued nor long 
in the poffeflion of the Je-i^s, who immediately after Solomon 
fell into civil diflention, and divided their force; {0 that it is 
rot to be doubted, but that it fubmitted to the 'Babylonian and 
^erfiun monarchies, and afterwards to the Alacedonians under 
Alexander and the Seleucidce. But when the Rorihws got foot- 
ing in thofe parts, and the Parthiaiis feemed to put a flop to. 
their farther conquers in the eaft, then was thij city of Pal- 
myra, by reafon of its fituation, being a frontier town, and in 
the middle of a vaftfandy defart, where armies could not well 
fubfifr to reduce it by force, courted and carcfied by the con- 
tending princes 5 and permitted to continue a free flatc, a mart, 
or flaplc for trade, for the conveniency of both empires, as 
plainly appears from ylppian and Pliny, 
Jppian 
