BOOK V. XVI. 74 wii. 77 



with the spring mentioned above), Ahila, Arca, 

 Ampeloessa and Gabe. 



X\'II. From this point we must go back to the Phoenida, 

 coast and to Phoenicia. There was fbvmerly a town 

 called Crocodilon, and there is still a river of that 

 name ; and the cities of Dora and Sycamini," of which 

 only the memory exists. Then comes Cape Carmel, 

 and on a mountain the town of the same namc, 

 formerly called Acbatana. Next are Getta, Geba, 

 and the river Pacida or Belus, which covers its 

 narrow bank with sand of a lcind used for making 

 glass ; the river itself flows out of the marsh of 

 Cendebia at the foot of Mount Carmel. Close to 

 this river is Ptolemais,* a colony of the Emperor 

 Claudius, formerly called Acce ; '^ and then the town 

 of Ach-Zib, and the White Cape.'^ Next Tyre, Tyrcand 

 once an island separated from the mainland by ' ' °^' 

 a very deep sea-channel 700 yards wide, but now 

 joined to it by the works constructed by Alexander 

 when besieging the place, and formerly famous as 

 the mother-city from which sprang the cities of 

 Leptis, Utica and the great rival of Rome's empire 

 in coveting world-sovereignty, Carthage, and also 

 Cadiz, which slie founded outside the confines of thc 

 world ; but the entire renown of Tyre now consists 

 in a shell-fish and a purple dye ! Tlie circumference 

 of tlie city, inchiding Old Tyre on the coast, measures 

 19 miles, tlie actual town covering 2| miles. Next 

 are Zarephath and Bird-town, and the mother-city 

 of Thebes* in Boeotia, Sidon, Avhere glass is made. 



Behind Sidon begins Mount Lebanon, a chain ex- Mount 

 tending as far as Zimyra in the district called Hollow 

 Syria, a distance of nearly 190 miles. Facing 

 Lebanon, with a valley between, stretches the 



279 



