this City made any figure in Hlftory after it : yet the 
Latin Infcription^ (/)tfg. loi.) feems to intimate, as if 
Dioclefian had reftored their Walls within thirty years 
after. About the Year of Chrift 400, it was the 
Head Quarters of the Legio Prima lllyricorum ; and 
though Stephanus gives it no better Title than (pp^^op, 
yet it appears to have been an Archbilhop's See, under 
the Metropolitan of Damafcus. To fay in what Age 
or from what Hand it received its final Overthrow, 
which reduced it to the miferable Condition it now ap- 
pears in, there is no light in any of our Hiftorians ; but 
it is probable it periftit long fince, in the obfcure Ages 
of the World, during the Wars of the Saracen Empire ; 
and being burnt and defolated, it was never rebuilt | 
which occafions the Ruins to lie fo entire, in a manner 
as they were left, neither being uftd to other Strudures 
on the place, nor worth carrying away, becaufe of the 
great diftance thereof from any other City. 
I As to the Geographical Site of Palmyra^ vtolemy 
places it in the Latitude of tripoty on iheCoaft of Sjrta^ 
and four Degrees more Eafterly, viz. 
and he makes it the Capital of fixteen Cities in Syria 
Paltnyrena, whereof Alalur Danaha and Evaria were 
afterwards Bifhops Sees. Pliny places it CCIII Miles 
from the neareft Coaft o( Syria, and CCCXXX Vll from 
Seleucia adtygrim near Bagdat, (which Numbers are 
erroneoufly printed xjx and 537 in moft Editions, 
contrary to the Authority of the MSS.) Jofephus places 
|tt one day's Journey from Euphrates^ and fix from fi^ 
%lon 5 which muft be undcrftood of Horfe-man's Jour- 
neys of about fixty Miles per diem^ it being more ihm 
To much from this City to Euphrates, Ftoiemy alCa 
tnentions a River running by Palmyra^ which did not 
ippear to our Travellers^ unlefs tmt Gate or Chanel 
wherein 
