430 
PLIKT's irATirBA.L HISTOET. 
[Book Y. 
men, to wliicli indeed it owes its name. Tlie bodies of 
animals will not sink^ in its waters, and even those of bulls 
and camels float there. In length it exceeds 100 miles, 
being at its greatest breadth twentj-five, and at its smallest 
six. Arabia of the Nomades^ faces it on the east, and 
Machserus on the south^, at one time, next to Hierosolyma, 
the most strongly fortified place in Jndsea. On the same 
side lies Callirrhoe^, a warm spring, remarkable for its me- 
dicinal qualities, and which, by its name, indicates the cele- 
brity its waters have gained. 
(17.) Lying on the west of Asphaltites, and sufficiently 
distant to escape its noxious exhalations, are the Esseni^, a 
^ This is an exaggeration, though it is the fact that many heavy sub- 
stances, which in ordinary water would sink immediately, will float on 
the surface of this lake. It has been suggested, that the story here 
mentioned arose from the circumstance of the name of * bulls,* or * cows,' 
having been applied by the ancient Nabatsei to the large masses of 
asphaltum which floated on its surface. 
2 The country of the Arabian Scenitse, or " tent people." 
3 It lay on the east of the Dead Sea, and not the south, as here men- 
ioned by PHny, being a border fortress in the south of Persea, and on 
•lie confines of the Nabatsei. There was a tradition that it was at this 
place that John the Baptist was beheaded. The city now bears the 
name of Mas era. 
4 A Gl-reek name, signifying the " Fine Stream." These were warm 
springs, situate on the eastern side of Jordan, to which Herod the Grreat 
resorted during his last illness, bj the advice of his physicians. The 
Valley of CaUirhoe was visited by Captains Irby and Mangles in 1818, 
and an interesting account of it is to befound in their * Travels,' pp. 467-469. 
The waters are sulphureous to the taste. 
^ The Essenes, or Hessenes. These properly formed one of the great 
sects into which the J ews were divided in the time of Christ. They are 
not mentioned by name in the New Testament, but it has been con- 
jectured that they are alluded to in Matt. xix. 12, and Col. ii. 18, 23. 
As stated here by Pliny, they generally Hved at a distance from large 
towns, in communities which bore a great resemblance to the monkish 
societies of later times. They sent gifts to the Temple at Jerusalem, 
but never offered sacrifices there. They were divided into four classes, 
according to the time of their initiation. Their origin is uncer- 
tain. Some writers look upon them as the same as the Assidians, or 
Chasidim, mentioned in 1 Maccabees, ii. 42, vii. 13. Their principal 
society was probably the one mentioned by Phny, and from this other 
smaller ones proceeded, and spread over Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. 
The Essenes of Egypt were divided into two sects ; the practical 
Essenes, whose mode of Hfe was the same as those of Palestine ; and the 
contemplative Essenes, who were called TherapeutcB. Both sects main- 
