i64 M E M O I K S of the 
A0HNOT, as 'Tri[lan fays he found on feveral medals, but 
^Patin hi^s the \xi\ word only A0H • Mr. Halley is of opinion, 
that his true name was JEranes IVaballat^huSy tho' perhaps the 
remoter cities of jifia and Ionia mi^ht, by miftake, write it 
Hsrmias-j and it is probable, that A0HN might ftand for the 
firfl letters of OAHNA0O(^, which in Syriac began with an 
Aleph^ and the A they uled inftead of 0, as the month Xan- 
thictts is in many of the infcriptions written ^clvJ'ik^^ which 
doubtlefs was pronounced like D "Blccfum^ or the Sa^zon ^. 
Tho' this city was then fo roughly handled by Aiirelian^ yet 
it is certain, that he did not burn it, or deflroy the buildings 
thereof^ and tho* Zofimus, on this occafion, ufes the words 
-rm TTohiv KeLTaay^cL-i-ct.^, yet that feems only to relate to his de- 
molifhing the walls and fortifications of the place 5 and that 
emperor's own letter, extant in Vopifcus-) fufficiently fhews 
that he fpared the city itfelf, and that he took care to re-inftate 
the beautiful temple of the fun, which had been plundered by 
his foldiers. However, the damage then fuftained was never 
retrieved by the inhabitants, and this city made no figure in 
hiftory ever after. About the year of Chrift 400, it was the 
head quarters of the Legio prima Illyricormn, and tho' Scepha- 
1IUS gives it no better title than that o{^^^exovy yet it appears to 
have been an archbifliop's lee, under the metropolitan of Tia- 
tiiafcus. To fay in what age, or from what hand it received its 
final overthrow, which reduced it to the miferable condition it 
now appears in, we have no light from hiftory • but it is pro- 
bable, it perifhed long fince in the obfcure ages of the world, 
during the wars of the Saracens, and being burnt and defolated, 
it was never re-built, which is the reafon the ruins lie fo entire, 
in a manner as they were left. As to the geographical fite of 
Palmyra, ^Ptolemy places it in the latitude of \tripoly on the 
coaft of Syria, and four degrees more eallerly, "y/^,. TIaX[j.v^.. 
BO. r. aJ^. and he makes it the capital of 16 cities in Syria 'Pal- 
myrena, 'w\\q.^qo{ AlaVn, Tianaba, and Evaria were afterwards 
bifhop's fees 5 Pliny places it c c iii miles from the neareft coaft 
o^ Syria, andcccxxxvii from Selcucia on the 'Tigris near 
'Bagdat ; Jofephus places it one day's journey from Euphrates^ 
and fix from 'Baby Ion, 'x\\\c\\ muft be underftood of ahorleman's 
journey, of about 60 miles a-day, it being more than fo much 
from the Euphrates : Ptolemy mentions alfo a river running by 
Palmyra, which did not appear to our travellers, unlefs that 
gut or channel, wherein they were overflowed by the rain- 
waters, were the bed thereof^ which may poffibly run in a 
conftant 
