BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 31 



scientific names, which those alone could be 

 acquainted with who were accustomed to 

 handle those polyglot "Dioscorides" of which 

 we possess copies. The Greek names of 

 plants given by Ibn Wahshiya are found 

 in the Syriac glossaries of Bar-Ali and of 

 Bar-Bahlul, who probably had taken them 

 from books analogous to the one translated 

 by Ibn Wahshiya. 



In all that treats of the names of towns 

 and cities, M. Quatremere affirms that he 

 has not found in " The Book of Nabatkaean 

 Agriculture" the name of any of the Greek 

 cities of the East. Dr. Chwolson 1 confesses 

 that he has discovered one, — that of Antioch 

 (AnthaHa) ; but he thinks, according to his 

 usual method, that it is only a modern name 

 which Ibn Wahshiya has substituted for one 

 more ancient : nothing can be more gratuit- 

 ous. The Orientals have never made the 

 name of AnthaJcia respond to any city but 

 that founded by Seleucus Mcator; and we 

 know, in the most precise manner, that 



1 Page 36. 



