BOOK y. xii. 65-xiv. 68 



space of 150 miles. Agrippa says that the distance 

 from Pelusium across the desert to the town of 

 Ardscherud on the Red Sea is 125 miles : so small a 

 distance in that region separates two such different 

 regions of the world ! 



XIII. The next country on the coast is Syria, ^yna- 

 formcrly the greatest of lands. It had a great many 

 divisions with different names, the part adjacent to 

 Arabia being formerly called Palestine, and Judaea, 

 and HoUow Syria,then Phoenicia and the more inland 

 part Damascena, and that still further south Baby- 

 lonia as well as Mesopotamia between the Euphrates 

 and the Tigris, the district beyond Mount Taurus 

 Sophene, that on this side of Sophene Commagene, 

 that beyond Armenia Adiabene, which was previously 

 called Ass)Tia, and the part touching Cihcia Antio- 

 chia. Its length between Cihcia and Arabia 



is 470 miles and its breadth from Seleukeh 

 Pieria to BridgetOAvn on the Euphrates 175 miles. 

 Those who divide the country into smaller parts hold 

 the \iew that Phoenicia is surrounded by Syria, and 

 that the order is — the seacoast of Syria of which 

 Idumaea and Judaea are a part, then Phoenicia, 

 then Syria. The whole of the sea lying off the coast 

 is called the Phoenician Sea. The Phoenician race 

 itself has the great distinction of having invented the 

 alphabet and the sciences of astronomy, navigation 

 and strategy. 



XIV. After Pelusiimi come the Camp of Chabrias, idumaea, 

 Mount El Kas the temple of Jupiter Casius, and the samaHa! 

 tomb of Pompey the Great. At Ras Straki, 65 

 miles from Pelusium, is the frontier of Arabia. 

 Then begins Idumaea, and Palestine at the point 

 wliere the Scrbonian Lake comes into vicw. This 



271 



