428 Flint's nattjeal histoet. [Book V. 



palm-trees, and watered by numerous springs, and tlioee of 

 Emmaiis^ Lydda^, Joppe, Acrabatena^, Groplma'', Thamna*, 

 Bethleptephene^, Orina^, in which formerly stood Hiero- 

 Bolyma®, by far the most famous city, not of Judaea only, 

 but of the East, and Herodium^, with a celebrated town 

 of the same name. 



(15.) The river Jordanes" rises from the spring of Panias", 

 which has given its surname to Caesarea, of which we shall 



palm-grove, which was presented by Antony to Cleopatra. A Bedouin 

 encampment called Riha is all that now occupies its site. 



^ A city eight or ten nules from the village Emmaiis of the New Tes- 

 tament. It was called NicopoHs, in commemoration, it has been sug- 

 gested, of the destruction of Jerusalem. Its site is still marked by a 

 village called Ammious, on the road from Jerusalem to Jaffa. 



2 So often mentioned in the New Testament. This town lay to the 

 S.E. of Joppa, and N.W. of Jerusalem, at the junction of several roads 

 which lead from the sea-coast. It was destroyed by the Romans in the 

 Jewish war, but was soon after rebuilt, and Cidled DiospoHs. A village 

 called Lud occupies its site. 



' So called from Acrabbim, its chief town, situate nine miles from 

 Nicopohs. The toparchy of Acrabbim, which formerly formed part of 

 Samaria, was the most northerly of those of Judaea. 



* Situate in the coimtry of Benjamin. Josephus reckons it second in 

 importance only to Jerusalem, from which, according to Eusebius, it was 

 distant fifteen miles, on the road to the modem Nablous. That author 

 also identifies it with the Eshcol of Scripture. Its site is marked by a 

 small Cliristian village, called by the natives Jufna. 



5 Like the two preceding ones, tliis toparchy for a long time belonged 

 to Samaria. Thamna, or Thamnis, was the Timnath-Serah in Mount 

 Epliraim, mentioned in Joshua xix. 50, and xxiv. 30, as the place where 

 Joshua was buried. 



6 The toparchy of Bethleptepha of other authors. It appears to 

 have been situate in the south of Judsea, and in that part which is by 

 Josephus commonly called Idumsea. Reland has remarked, that the 

 name resembles Beth-lebaoth, a city of the tribe of Simeon, mentioned 

 in Joshua xix. 6. 



From the Grreek, meaning the "mountain district," or the "hill 

 country," as mentioned in Luke i. 39. 

 8 Or " Sacred Solyma." 



* A fortress of Palsestina, erected by Herod the Great, at a distance of 

 about sixty stadia from Jerusalem, and not far from Tekoa. Its site has 

 been identified by modem travellers with El-Furedis, or the Paradise ; 

 probably the same as the spot called the " Frank Moimtain," on the 

 top of which the ruined walls of the fortress are still to be seen. 



1" Called by the Arabs Bahr-el-Arden. 



11 Situate on Mount Panias, or Paneas, on the range of Anti-Libanus. 



