Cliap. 13.] ACCOTTNT OF COXTNTEIES, ETC. 423 



Egypt, are called the Heroopolitic' and the ^lanitic^. Be- 

 tween the two towns of ^lana' and Gaza'' upon our sea*, 

 there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsinoe*, 

 a town on the Eed Sea, is, by way oi the desert, 125 miles 

 from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed 

 by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance ! 



CHAP. 13. (12.) — STEIA. 



Next to these countries Syria occupies the coast, once the 

 greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names ; for the 

 part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palaestina, 

 Judaea, Coele', and Phoenice. The country in the interior 

 was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the 

 south, Babylonia. The part that lies between the Euphrates 



Idumeean mountains, where they had their capital, Petra, hewn out of 

 the rock. * Now the Bahr-el-Soueys, or Gulf of Suez. 



2 The Bahr-el-Akabali, or Gulf of Akabali. 



* Now Akabah, an Idumsean town of Arabia Petrsea, situate at the head 

 of the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, which was called after this town "iEla- 

 niticus Sinus." It was annexed to the kingdom of Judah, with the other 

 cities of Idumaea, by David, 2 S,am. viii. 14, and was one of the harbours 

 on the Red Sea from which the ships of Solomon sailed for Ophir. See 

 1 Kings ix. 26 and 2 Chron. viii, 17. It was a place of commercial im- 

 portance under the Romans and the head-quarters of the Tenth Legion. 

 A fortress now occupies its site. 



* Its site is now known as Guzzah. It was the last city on the south- 

 west frontier of Palestine, and from the earUest times was a strongly forti- 

 fied place. It was taken from the Philistines by the Jews more than once, 

 but as often retaken. It was also taken by Cyrus the Great and Alex- 

 ander, and afterwards by Ptolemy Lagus, who destroyed it. It after- 

 wards recovered, and was again destroyed by Alexander Jannseus, B.C. 

 96, after which, it was rebuilt by Gabinius and ultimately united to the 

 Roman province of Syria. In a.d. 65 it was again destroyed, but was 

 rebuilt, and finally fell into the hands of the Arabs, in a.d. 634. 



^ Meaning the Mediterranean. ^ The present Suez. See B. vi. c. 33. 



^ Or the " Hollow" Syria. This was properly the name given, after 

 the Macedonian conquest, to the great valley between the two great 

 ranges of Mount Lebanon, in the south of Syria, bordering upon Phoe- 

 nicia on the west, and Palestine on the south. In the wars between the 

 Ptolemies and the Seleucidse, the name was applied to the whole of the 

 southern portion of Syria, which became subject for some time to the 

 kings of Egypt ; but under the Romans, it was confined to Ccelesyria 

 proper with the district east of Anti-Libanus, about Damascus, and a 

 portion of Palestine east of Jordan. 



