Chap. 21.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC 
445 
!cus\ now Ampliipolis. We then come to the Arabian 
Scenitse^. The Euphrates then proceeds in its course till 
it reaches the place called ITra^, at which, taking a turn 
to the east, it leaves the Syrian Deserts of Palmyra'*, 
which extend as far as the city of Petra^ and the regions 
of Arabia Felix. 
(25.) Palmyra is a city famous for the beauty of its site, 
the riches of its soil, and the delicious quality and abundance 
of its water. Its fields are surrounded by sands on every 
side, and are thus separated, as it were, by nature from the rest 
of the world. Though placed between the two great empires 
of Bome and Parthia, it still maintains^ its independence ; 
never failing, at the very first moment that a rupture 
between them is threatened, to attract the careful attention 
of both. It is distant 337 miles from Seleucia^ of the 
Parthians, generally known as Seleucia on the Tigris, 203 
from the nearest part of the Syrian coast, and twenty-seven 
less from Damascus. 
pus. Colonel Rawlinson has identified it with the present Yeramin, at 
no great distance from the ancient Khages. 
^ Its ruins are to be seen at the ford of El Hamman, near the modem 
Rakkah. It stood on the banks of the Euphrates ; and here was the 
usual, and, for a long time, the only ford of the Euphrates. It is sup- 
posed to have derived its name from the Aramean word " Thiphsach," 
signifying " a ford." ^ Qr " Dwellers in Tents." See p. 422. 
3 According to Ortelius and Hardouin, this is the place called Sura 
by Pliny, in C. 26 of the present Book ; but Parisot differs from that 
opinion. Bochart suggests, that " Ur, of the Chaldees," is the place 
referred to under this name ; but, as Hardouin observes, that place lay 
at a considerable distance to the south. 
^ So called from the circumstance that Palmyra stood in the midst 
of them. It was built by King Solomon, in an oasis of the Desert, in 
the midst of palm groves, from which it received its Grreek name, which 
was a translation also of the Hebrew " Tadmor," *' the city of palm-trees." 
It lay at a considerable distance from the Euphrates. Its site presents 
considerable ruins ; but they are all of the Roman period, and greatly 
inferior to those of Baalbec or HeliopoHs. 
^ The rock fortress of the Idumeeans in Arabia Petrsea, now called 
Wady-Musa, half-way between the head of the Gulf of Akabah and the 
Dead Sea. 
^ Which it continued to do until it was conquered under its queen, 
Zenobia, by the Emperor Aurehan, in a.d. 270. It was partially de- 
stroyed by him, but was afterwards fortified by Justinian ; though it 
never recovered its former greatness. ^ See B. vi. c. 30, 
