CHAP. 
II. 
Antient 
36 CYPRUS. 
Stones of Cyprus — Antient Gems found in Nicotia — 
Camels — Pavers of the Island — Ant'mit Phoenician 
Medal — Tetrad rachm of Tyre — Return to the Fleet — 
Loss of the Iphigenia. 
JLt will now perhaps be interesting to ascertain 
from what Phoenicia?! city the antiquities disco- 
Geogiaphy yercd at Lameca derived their orio^in; and if 
i.ianti. the Reader will give an author credit for the 
difficulties he has encountered, in order to 
ascertain this point, he may perhaps spare 
himself some trouble, and render unnecessary 
any ostentatious detail of the volumes it v^^as 
necessary to consult. The antient geography of 
Cyprus is involved in greater uncertainty than 
seems consistent with its former celebrity among 
enlightened nations. Neither Greeks nor Romans 
have afforded any clue by which we can fix the 
locality of its Eastern cities. Some of them, it 
is true, had disappeared in a very early period. 
Long prior to the time of Pliny, the towns of 
Cinyria, Malium, and Idalium, so necessary in 
ascertaining the relative position of other places, 
no longer existed ' . Both the nature and situation 
(l) After enumeratitig- fifteen cities belonging- to Cyprus, Plbiy 
adds: "' fuere et ihi Cini/ria, Mutium, Idalhnn." (Plm. Hb.\. c. 31. 
L. Bat. Xdio.) Idalium signifies, literally, the " place of the God- 
dess ;" whence Idalia f^enus. In Ilehrew it was called /daln, and 
under this appellation it is mentioned in the Scriptures, (Jos. xix. 15.) 
as the name of a town belonging to the tribe of Zahulon. See Gale's 
'^ Court of the Genliks," also Jiochnrt, Can. lib. i. cop. 3. 
