Cliap. 13.] ACCOTJKT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 
423 
Egypt, are called tlie Heroopolitic^ and the ^lanitic^. Be- 
tween the two towns of ^lana^ and Graza'* upon our sea^, 
there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsinoe^, 
a town on the Eed Sea, is, by way of the desert, 125 miles 
from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed 
by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance ! 
€HAP. 13. (12.) — SYEIA. 
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 Palsestina, 
Judsea, 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 
Idumsean mountains, where they had their capital, Petra, hewn out of 
the rock. ^ Now the Bahr-el-Soueys, or Grulf of Suez. 
2 The Bahr-el-Akabah, or Grulf of Akabah. 
3 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 " JEla- 
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. 
4 Its site is now known as Gruzzah. It was the last city on the south-, 
west frontier of Palestine, and from the earliest tunes was a strongly forti- 
fied place. It was taken from the PhiUstines by the J ews more than once, 
but as often retaken. It was also taken by Cyrus the Grreat 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 Grabinius 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. 
7 Or the " Hollow" Syria. This was properly the name given, afi-er 
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 appHed 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. 
