and the River Eleutherus. S 



Xemarite, {Trav. p. gx7) will have a dubious Situation : fuch 

 an one, at leaft, as may be equally claimed and challenged 

 both by Sjria and Thcenke. For as it lyeth a httle to 

 the Northward of Mount Libanus, where Thcenice ended ; 

 Areas fliould belong to Syria : and then again, as it lyeth to 

 the Southward of Simyra, where Syria ended ; Areas fliould 

 belong to Thoenice. However there can be no Difficulty or 

 Difpute at all, with Regard to the Situation of the Place itfelf. 

 For as we find it, both in the Antonine Itinerary, and in that 

 later one of Jerufalem^ xxxii M. ivom Ant aradus or Tortofa, 

 and XVIII (or xvi only, as it is in the latter) fwrn Tripo/y -^ 

 Areas is hereby laid down, in as near a Situation, as can be 

 required, to that wherein I found it. 



P/i;^;' tells us ' that Mount Liham^s ended at Simyra \ ^;?<^^TheSame 



■' ' _ ' ' boundary lay 



that here it was where Cxlefyria began. Simyra therefore, "^^'^'^-'"^'■''' 

 no lels than Areas y was a Frontier City, and adjacent to the 

 Boundary ; and, as I conjedlure, on the fame i.e. the Northern 

 Side. Strabo again very plainly inftru6ts us, in the Quotation 

 above cited, that the River ^/^^///j^er^/^ lay beyond Simyra, to and at the 



River EIsu^ 



the Southward ; and confequently was ftill nearer Thoenicetherus. 

 than Simyra. He tells us further, that after Orthofia and 

 Eleutherus was Tripolis ; no other City or River intervening ; 

 as in Fa£t there is not. Orthofia therefore and the Eleutherus 

 mult lye upon the utmofl: Skirts of Syria ; and confequently, 

 they will both of them either adlually fall in with, or be very 

 near at leaft to, the Boundary that we are difputing. 



There is a remarkable Circumftance in the Natural Hiftory The euu- 

 of the Eleutherus, which may be a further Proof of what Iquenced'^by 

 am contending for, that the Cold Stream and the Eleutherus'^"'^'''^^^' 

 are the fame River. For Tliny tells us % that at a certain 

 Seafon of the Tear, the Eleutherus is fo full ofTortoifes, that 

 they may be eafily taken. It is therefore probable, that, at this 

 Seafon, there muft be fome particular Quality in the Water of 

 thQ Eleutherus, which engages them to frequent It, more than 

 any other of the Neighbouring Rivers. If the Spring then 

 fliould be the Seafon here recorded, (and in the middle of 



1 Vid. Trav. Not. i. p. -z6. 8c Not. i. p. 327. 



2 In Pbamio mari hand ulla dilKcuItate capiuntur Tcftiidines, ultroque veniusit ftato 

 tempore anni in amnem Elcntherum cS^ih pukitudine. Pl'in. Nat. Hilh 1. 9. c. 10. 



B April, 



